Self-Awareness | Tracks In The Dust

Archive for the tag “Self-Awareness”

26 Apr 2012

Relief and Recovery: Faith in Something Bigger

Just the other day someone asked me what I felt was my greatest accomplishment in life. I can tell you that I paused for a while and told them “it depends”. But in reality after some contemplation I believe the greatest accomplishment is that I have lived every day with something to live for. It takes little inspection to see so much pain and heartache around me. Of course there are always ways to make things better in our lives, and a lot of my past posts here were about ways i might be able to work on that, but there are too many ways that in the end it doesn’t happen.

It made me think of how things are all over the world, in places that most people in the USA wouldn’t be able to point to on a map- where there are people who struggle to survive to get clean drinking water or food that would just help them to get through another day. It is easy to see pictures or hear stories and feel inspired to make donations to help with relief. It makes us feel better about who we are, and being more fortunate we can help support others less fortunate. And they need it so badly there is never unwelcomed help.

But it seems that in fact most needs likely go beyond relief, it is about recovery that can build on that relief to help people recover physically and then even more important: spiritually. People may not realize the potential of lifelong spiritually if they are not able to fulfill their simple physical needs. But at that point we all need to have the sensibility to invest the time, to clear the way for others to make that to happen.

So not only for those in distant parts of the world, but for people who are around the corner or down the street from our homes. It is for many of us more fortunate souls that are able to accomplish the simplest things in life with confidence… we need to share it, to be partisans of faith and hope. Share the richness from the fundamental things we enjoy that need to be appreciated and shared. We need to be thankful and generous in sharing our relief and go on by providing recovery by being the messengers of the good news. It requires very little effort …just faith.

Posted in Doing Things That Will Change Your Life and tagged Faith, Grace, life is precious, Relief, Self-Awareness, Sprituality

17 Apr 2012

1 Comment

Negotiating With Yourself

Unbelievable as it seems I am my best negotiator. But even more incredible is that most of the time I am negotiating with myself. I find that I often work hard to win, but as ironic as it may be- sometimes I lose. How can I lose when I am negotiating with myself? Easy.

Wrestling with the things that I know I should work to do better in my life can sometimes take a long time. I can even declare a “win” on one day and find it was actually anything but a win. Yet there I am – the master negotiator in what direction I could take, what would make the best sense, how it would compare with other things I have done in the past. Sometimes it seems like new horizons are almost easier to decide because there are many unknowns… can’t talk myself out of things if I really don’t have a confident argument to the contrary. Yet many of the easiest things to decide still have their struggles: diets, paying attention to your health, saving for the future, learning more about the things that puzzle you in life. They are all about focus on devoting the effort, but still they involve constant debate with your life’s daily course.

So each day I grab onto reasons why I can or can’t do something. Sometimes it results in stalling out on doing anything. ( Okay Freudian fans, I know the view). Being human means that making mistakes are just part of the natural progression of things, but yet the tendency is to not be public about it, or put others in harm’s way, or do something so wrong that it is against the very grain of your soul and spirit. “Analysis paralysis” others will call it. Better to not do anything, not change anything because of the consequences. Don’t want to upset the rhythm of things.

For me, when I finally negotiate the time, and make the argument with myself that will stick ( maybe even share it with my loved ones to see what they say)- then I proudly go forward. I make the “move”. It’s then I realize that some of the most impulsive things I have done in my life were equally as successful steps along the path. Trusting in yourself has rewards- centered on the positive, on your heart, on the spirit of the Word, on the course that will be forever history in your lifetime once you’ve charted it.

There are often many steps that will require negotiation and course correction. It’s just taking them in the first place. How well do you negotiate your course in life? Do you trust your inner negotiator to win? Do you use your inner compass along the way to make the corrections as you travel this time on Earth?

Posted in Doing Things That Will Change Your Life, Learning Lessons Along the Journey Of Life and tagged Analysis paralysis, Decision making, Doubt, Inner Compass, Reality Check, Self-Awareness, Sprituality

12 Apr 2012

5 Comments

No Day But Today

There are times when I ask myself “How did I get here?” I don’t mean I have been unconscious and I woke up out of a daze or something. I know I have been moving along day to day, living the life I have lived and counting the days on the calendar.

But when I stop to think about it I realize that there were many, many days that I had wished would come to an end as quickly as it could… You know, those days when it all comes down on you and you think it can’t get worse? At the end, you sigh the sigh of relief, hopefully lying in bed and wondering if you close your eyes will it go away (there are some I remember did not finish in my bed, but were in some very odd places I shudder to remember).

Still when the day is finished, look for the next day to improve. Of course there are always those days that start out looking like they are going to be “one of those days”. You know them…Issues at work, family conflicts, tests of patience or memory or physical stamina. Even in my younger days I knew that they would be around from time to time. But I hoped that they would be far between, and would be interspersed with some really brilliant and wonderful days. And of course they would be.

They stand out in life, those days that are the “best days of your life”. Things that happen in it seem to feel like miracles. Birth of children or like reaching a milestone: finishing school or achieving and being recognized for the challenge. These can be those times when you reflect back on your “firsts” and realize that it there will only be seconds and thereafter and capture those precious days forever in your memories. You find that you relive them again with your friends and family in remembrance. Many times you may not even have a physical picture of it, but the pictures remain clear in your head.

But between the days of “need to be over” and “wish it would never end” are mainly the abundance of days we live. And even then, they may be focused on the coming weekend or looking forward to special events or anniversaries with special people.

My advice to my children. Don’t wish them over, don’t take the day for granted or keep hoping for a better day some other day. Cherish the day you have. Thank God for it. Stop and take it in. Put the ingredients in it to make it be a day you can appreciate. Apply kindness, patience, grace, compassion, love. You won’t get another day that is identical; each day will be unique an non-repeatable. And you don’t have any guarantees that the next day will come with you in it at all. So please don’t wish them away.

Posted in Doing Things That Will Change Your Life and tagged Acceptance, Bad Days, Compassion, Grace, Joy, Kindness, life is precious, Love, moments, Self-Awareness, Special Days

10 Apr 2012

6 Comments

The Condition of Love

At this time of the year, being spring ( in the US anyway) and also Easter, the subject of love comes up often it seems in blogs, and around my home. More often than not the discussion of love lands on the idea of what true love means. It is interesting the amount of opinions this topic will surface, especially when it seems almost all of us are striving to find it in their lives. Maybe we are wanting to embrace it because we recognise it and value it so much, or we want to work hard to define it because we are unsure that what we have is truly love.

One of my fellow bloggers recently blogged:

Greek has three words to describe love. There is Eros, meaning a love founded on craving and desire. Such is love for specific food, activities, and other things. Second is Filia, meaning love in the context of interdependence (in a family or a community), where it is highly focused on “give and take”. Examples are: I love my family, I love my boyfriend, I love my best friend. Third is Agape, meaning the total self giving kind of love, the highest form of loving, where nothing is asked of return and self-sacrifice is of prime importance. Thank you Aix for your post! http://aixwrites.wordpress.com/2012/04/05/do-you-love-me/

We all seem to be searching for the Agape-type of love in our lives, unconditional and pure. But because we are human we most always will fall short. Statements that start with “I love you…” and add the words “until” or “except when you…” or worse, the next words are “but”… or… “however” – always seem to be tied to a list of conditions. In the end it appear it’s the most “human” kind of love. Sure, erotic love like lust/desire can create a spark- it can even be interpreted as the kind of love that is give/take. In fact it seems like in today’s world Eros-type of love often gets identified as a more sincere type of love.

But how many of us can say we have experienced that Agape love in our lives? The totally unconditional love that has no ties or conditions. How do we ever attain that love in our lives? As soon as we “expect” it we have already provided a condition. When we attempt to provide it, there always seem to be boundaries to contain it. Love of and for my children and my wife comes closer than I know toward that unconditional love. Close family, relatives and dearest of friends can come close.

So as we search for the verb “to love” as unconditional one, we may fall short. In fact there is only One in the history of the world that I know of that provided the level of love that we all strive for. And for that, I am grateful. So I ask my children, as they are looking for perfection in love, as they attempt perfection with their love – do it as purely as they can. Make each day count and each condition be one that reflects the goodness of love in its purest form.

Posted in Doing Things That Will Change Your Life and tagged Agape, Definition of Love, God, Grace, Love, relationships, religion, Self-Awareness, spirituality, Sprituality, Unconditional Love

03 Apr 2012

7 Comments

…You Might Find You Get What You Need

With the demands that life brings, sometimes it seems we are all making demands back on it. Our needs are simple right? But somehow even in simplicity – there are so many find ways for us to complicate things. Statements like “if only I had just this one thing happen then everything would be better” or ” there are so many things going wrong- just this one time let it be right”.

On occasion we may seem to lend our hope to everyone else, we create circumstances that optimistically will create the outcomes we believe we want. And when it doesn’t work that way, we wonder “what went wrong”? The answer we are sometimes told is to “not ask for much from life, but the simple things”. We can be assured if we make demands on what we want…perhaps many of our friends or family may not accept our plans. We don’t want to appear to be labeled “selfish” to the very people we cherish most, after all. That would seem like we don’t care. But we know we do care.

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So off to the day you go… forward into the day life has dealt, with hope in one pocket and your planned expectations in another pocket. Some days it seems- things go well. Life is going just the way you planned it. Thankfully you appreciate the way the world treated you. You admire the work of fate or heaven or some guardian angel or personal wisdom you posess….. Other days everything falls short, everything you want is missing. You find yourself struggling with how fate dealt a blow, or God did not provide the answer to your prayers, or certainly someone else is to blame for the path it took.

In the end, it will only seem (in retrospect) that although your plans may contain the path you want to take- that you can count on the path turning in other directions- perhaps pointing the opposite way. In the end, you start to see the irony of it all- after all…the next second after this is truly one that hasn’t happened yet. So embrace the unknown. Know that there is something ahead and your life is already written in time, but not by you. Forge ahead with your plans- but know the path is winding. Look for what you need…

” You can’t always get what you want. You can’t always get what you want. You can’t always get what you want. But if you try sometimes, you just might find you get what you need” – M. Jagger/ K. Richards

What is it you need? Happiness. Strength to carry-on. Love. Kindness. Compassion. Understanding. So many ways to get there, to get what you need…