AUTOBIOGRAPY IN 5 CHAPTERS

 

 

 

Chapter I

 

I walk down the street.

There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.

I fall in.

I am lost...I am helpless.

It isn't my fault.

It takes forever to find a way out.

 

 

Chapter II

 

I walk down the same street.

There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.

I pretend I don't see it.

I fall in again.

I can't believe I am in the same place.

But, it isn't my fault.

It still takes a long time to get out.

 

 

Chapter III

 

I walk down the same street.

There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.

I see it is there.

I still fall in...it's a habit...but,

my eyes are open.

I know where I am.

It is my fault.

I get out immediately.

 

 

Chapter IV

 

I walk down the same street.

There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.

I walk around it.

 

 

Chapter V

 

I walk down another street.

 

 

 

 

This poem is taken from Portia Nelson's "There's A Hole In My Sidewalk".

 

 

 

Where are you in your life??

 

 

Peace



GAME PLAN

If you don't have a plan, someone has a plan for you.

This is a profound statement and something to think about.  If you, don't have your own plan, rest assured that someone has a plan for you.  If you are OK with the plan(s) someone else has for you, then fine.  But, what if you aren't?  More than likely, the plan(s) that others make which involve you really aren't for your benefit.  More than likely, the plan(s) others make, affecting you, are for their benefit.

If you haven't made plans to move your own career forward, believe that your employer is constantly making plans.  But, those plans would be to enrich and move her business forward.  And, however she can use you to meet her goals may or may not benefit you, but they are certainly made to benefit her.

What if you are in a relationship you know you should get out of.  And what if you don't leave when you should and the other person beats you to it and leaves before you do?  You are out of the relationship...but, not on your terms.

Maybe you feel you need more financial stability before you can leave the relationship or retire from working.  Maybe you can take on an additional job to bring in supplemental income.  Perhaps you need more training or additional classes to lead to a degree or certification which will improve your marketability.

Football teams play by a play book carrying out plays they devised for themselves.  Football teams don't go out on the playing field with no game plan in place, simply hoping that plays will fall their way and with luck on their side hope to end up winning.

What's your game plan?  Why not be proactive instead of reacting?  Make your own plans for your own life.  Determine where you want to be at a given time and then research what steps you need to take to get there.  Don't just let life happen to you.  Make life happen they way you want.  Dream panoramically.

What about putting your own plan in place?

Successful people make their own plans and do not rely on the benevolence of others towards them.

Queens are the pieces which control the chess board, not pawns.  The definition of a pawn is a person manipulated and used by others.  I know you don't want to play the part of a pawn.  Pawns are known as the weakest piece on the board.

What are your plans for you??


Peace

AMAZING GRACE

I just watched a bio of Ethel Kennedy filmed by her youngest child, Rory.  Rory was born six months after her father, Bobby was assassinated.  In addition to losing her husband at a relatively young age, Ethel lost two sons, one at age 28 and another died at the age of 39.  Her parents were both killed in an airplane crash when Ethel was 27 years old.

Near the end of the documentary, Rory asked her mom what was her take on the different tragedies she had suffered during her life.  Paraphrasing, Ethel responded that no one gets a free ride in life; that once dealt a hand, you have to dig in and do the best you can.

Nobody gets a free ride in life.  It's a great way to sum up some things.  I have come to acknowledge that we are going to have to deal with stuff in this life.  As Frankie Beverly of Maze said in one of his songs, if it's not one thing, it's two.  And, a lot of times, I am sure we feel as if it is also three and four things at one time.

Nobody gets  a free ride.  I think it is only human nature to look around and wonder why someone else has it better than we do.  Why is someone better looking, better off, healthier, fitter?  But, we never really know what goes on behind closed doors.  And, we really don't know the price of others' blessings.  We can only play the hand we were dealt and try to pull enough cards to come up with a royal flush or as close as possible to one.

While everything is relevant, relevancy really means nothing when you are dealing with something.  There are locales in the world where scarcity of food and water is a daily life and death reality.  I get that.  But, that is not my reality and when I am going through, my reality is that my problem may as well be as severe to me as life or death as someone foraging for water and/or food. 

One of my biggest challenges is learning how to gracefully work through life's challenges; and, to do so with a cheerful and uplifted countenance.  I stand in awe of people who can keep it together, appearance wise, while their world is in a whirlwind.

I watched Coretta King and Jacqueline Kennedy at the memorials for their husbands.  They were the embodiment of grace under pressure.  Usually when I am going through something, I can't eat or eat too much.  Can't sleep or can't get out of bed.  No make-up and my hair looks like a bird's nest.  Crying, no...wailing, until I can barely see.

I believe their countenance is a gift, as is faith.  I do understand that practice makes perfect and as I grow older I should grow better.  I certainly have been through a lot.  (I can't say I've been through enough in life, because my life isn't over.)  I just don't want to keep falling apart, inwardly and outwardly, whenever things take a turn for the worse.  But, I'm also a wimp and really don't want the situations which will allow me to hone that skill.


Peace

OUR GREATEST FEAR

 

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.

Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

 

It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.

We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous,

 talented, fabulous?

 

Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of God.

 

Your playing small does not serve the world.

There is nothing enlightened about shrinking

 so that other people won't feel insecure around you.

 

We are all meant to shine, as children do.

We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.

It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone.

 

And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people

permission to do the same.

As we are liberated from our own fear,

our presence automatically liberates others.

Author - Marianne Williamson

(Thank you to Jobinista for drawing my attention to this poem.)


Peace