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THIS WEEK'S ISSUE From the Inside Out...
It's Time to BE — the World There's a powerful State of Mind that I believe we can all reach ... eventually. I learned to move out of a survival-no-matter-what upbringing into positive thinking and action. However, it was only when I finally embraced my serene, inner KNOWINGNESS that miracles began to happen everywhere in my life. (Next week look for a very special slideshow called "A State of Mind" — for you to enjoy and share.)
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From the Inside Out |
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A
LIFE OF EASE |
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I was very young, but I remember it clearly. I was struggling. I simply could not reconcile how to be the person I wanted to be. I did not understand why I was such a failure — when all I wanted was to be a good person. To sort things out, I wrote. Almost constantly. I would pour out all my hopes and worries on paper. I felt so stricken with failures that I had come to believe that everyone would soon give up on me. Even harmless ventures to explore the world of my peers brought catastrophes upon my head.
I had questions and worries. What prevented my complete destruction was the fact that — even at that early stage of my life — I was a “seeker”. I sought when writing. I sought with my longings. I sought with every relationship I encountered. I sought with my desire to help. I sought with my commitment to learn. I read, I cried, I felt guilt, I was sorry. I tried to be different — but, I didn’t know how…I didn’t know where to begin!
Strangely enough, it was during this horribly mixed-up time that I had an experience like none other. I was sitting alone at a table in an eating establishment. It was probably my lunch hour, though strangely, I do not remember those details. What I do remember is that my mind was in yet another state of pondering. I recall having brought several selections of materials to read from…those were the first of the days when calendars, posters and cards were being printed with inspirational sayings. Some were humorous. Some were thought-provoking. Some were calming. All held special significance to me because they touched upon things I was trying to embrace...
But on this day, the inviting catalogue and other reading materials lay quietly on the seat beside me. I felt calm and peaceful and allowed myself to relax. Momentarily, I felt a familiarity near me. I turned to the chair across from me expecting a friend to be present. No one was there, but I felt a voice say, as if in conversation, “You are strong!”
There was such emphasis on the phrase that, taken aback, I shook my head in disagreement. In fact, I shook my head vehemently (though perhaps not physically), as I painfully tabulated all the times that I had made wrong choices, or failed to do right. No. I was NOT strong! “YES you are!” The words were emphasized with compassionate humor, but also with conviction! All I could do was stare at the empty chair, bewildered! Then, I heard these words, and felt their respectfulness: “SO strong!”
Suddenly, I knew better than to argue. This was my friend — a friend whom I instinctively understood, knew me well! I sat quietly and felt the sureness and conviction within the voice. As my mind allowed me to leave that place of friendship and reassurance, I came out of my transfixion not knowing fully what had transpired. Soon, I found the wherewithal to glance at my watch and, whether I had to return to work or had an appointment I don’t recall, but I remember gathering my things and leaving.
Of course, the impact of that moment was to stay with me for days. Every time it would re-occur in my mind I could feel the calm peace of a friend who believed in me. That interaction has had a permanent affect on my life — though not an omnipresent one, as one may assume. No, I was still the self-driven seeker. I was still the prone-to-fall doer. I was still the put-your-foot-in-your-mouth speaker.
For the first week, even months, I would look at my choices, my blunders and my actions and argue the validity of any such statement. My life’s actions and choices certainly didn’t denote “strength“. At times throughout the rest of the year, I would try to compartmentalize my actions in order to determine whether or not any of them showed strength. In my analysis, I always felt I fell short of the moniker “strong“, and before long I began to dismiss the idea as absurd.
But, my friend was not done with me. Just as a good parent knows that character-building cognitions come after tried-and-failed OR tried-and-successful attempts at many different things, life itself was to ask more of me than I would ever have believed possible. Through the necessity of having to “Keep Going” and the internal desire to “Keep Learning” I ultimately participated in a full life of varied experiences. I discovered that it was the little, but consistent successes that helped me understand the concept of strength — even if my main strength was just tenacity.
It was a lack of financial security that became the catalyst for me to learn to do repairs and to build. I learned financial management for my own sanity! In fact, because I was so bad at managing money, it was the need to improvise — wherein I learned to substitute unusual but functional items in place of expensive ones, — that instilled in me a great appreciation for the creative side of living ! Over the years, I came to respect these new-found abilities and to acknowledge them as unexpected gifts.
Ultimately, it was the need to accept these skills as assets that caused me to shun those who would reject my approach. At first I would walk away from the ogre who would mock my way of living. However, because I truly did NOT want to reject the person who so uncannily demeaned my progress, but wanted to befriend them for “where they were” and for “who they were”, I finally discovered that I WAS strong!
I began to understand that we were simply different people looking at the world from differing places. Here was a person who had not been as blessed as myself in discovering for themselves the beauty and creativity learned by “making do with what you have!” After making that recognition, I found I could be forgiving, tolerant and understanding of their current perspective. I could be engaging and excited about their ideas! I could relate to the plans and hopes and dreams they aspired toward, because those dreams were once MINE, too! Those dreams — that I left behind so long ago and replaced with new ones — were still a viable and active part of their lives! I found ways to support them. Encourage them. Help them — in the moment!
I have come to realize that their perspective is what keeps them in their moment…and thus, I learned not to dismiss them by judging them. It is not for ME to decide whether or not things are relevant to their lives. It is THEIR history, and thus, the only point of reference they have to move forward from. It is their standard — and they have to become comfortable within it, or change it. I am ever-more confident that they, too, will have their own experience with a friend who believes in them and knows them well — perhaps when sitting transfixed at a table-for-one. They will feel the familiarity of that voice and, although it might not say “you are strong“ to them, it WILL say something truthful: “You are KIND”, “You are WISE”, “You are GIVING”.
The
memory of that day has taught me many things. It has taught me that one of the
components of love is understanding that all our youthful searchings and blunders,
our disillusionments and disappointments, our worries and our angers, are of little
account compared to the beauty of being consistently drawn toward our own personal
strengths. I try to remember that lesson each and every day with my own children.
I can forget mistakes. I can ignore inattentiveness. But I know that what I must
do is to help them find glimpses of their own strengths — so that someday
they will understand how those qualities influence and enrich their entire lives!
Someday they too will know the truth in the statements, “You are STRONG!”
... “You are COMPASSIONATE!” ... “You are GIVING!” |
Far Horizons HOT SPRINGS
SAND SCULPTURES
Harrison Hot Springs is located at the south end of Harrison Lake, which at 60 kilometers long, is the largest body of fresh water in southwestern British Columbia. This is an area with a rich history, as well as an abundance of natural beauty. Sure there are the renowned and soothing mineral hot springs, but probably the most memorable of these attractions is The Enchanted World of Sand — where each year 3,000 tons (2,720 tonnes) of sand on Harrison's beach is transformed into North America's largest, public, sand-sculpture attraction. The For those with a passion for sand castles, the exhibit depicts legendary characters from fairytales, myths and legends, including this region's very own Sasquatch. Enchanted World culminates each September in the World Championship of Sand Sculpture. Despite its international reputation, Harrison is still very much a small village. The pace is leisurely and the atmosphere is friendly. In 1895, Charles Inkman started a business that was to become the Harrison Lake Supply Company. The business supplied many logging camps up the lake and delivered tourists to the hotel. The Inkman family still owns and manages Harrison Village Mall on the same site as the original store. Today, visitors can enjoy a wide variety of activities. The beaches are ideal for sunbathing, and the lagoon provides a protected warm-water spot for swimming. The lake is also a popular destination for boaters and windsurfers.
THEN
GO HERE for Bargains at Last MinuteTravel.com
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| Laughing
It Off "The Chaos" (see full version here) is a poem written in 1922 that features about 800 of the worst spelling and pronunciation irregularities in the English language. The author was Dutch writer and traveler Dr. Gerard Nolst Trenité, who was born in 1870. He was a private teacher in California in 1894, for a while, where he taught the sons of the Netherlands Consul-General. From 1901 to 1918 he worked as a school teacher in Haarlem, Holland, and published several school books in English and French. From 1909 until his death in 1946 he wrote frequently for an Amsterdam weekly paper, with a linguistic column under the pseudonym 'Charivarius.' It is said that once you've learned to correctly pronounce every word in the unabridged poem, you will be speaking English better than 90% of the native English speakers in the world. If you find it tough going, do not despair, you are not alone ... "Dearest creature in creation, Study English pronunciation. I will teach you in my verse Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse. I will keep you, Suzy, busy, Make your head with heat grow dizzy. Tear in eye, your dress will tear. So shall I! Oh hear my prayer. Just compare heart, beard, and heard, Dies and diet, lord and word, Sword and sward, retain and Britain. (Mind the latter, how it's written.) Now I surely will not plague you With such words as plaque and ague. But be careful how you speak: Say break and steak, but bleak and streak; Cloven, oven, how and low, Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe.... Ivy, privy, famous; clamour And enamour rhyme with hammer. River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb, Doll and roll and some and home. Stranger does not rhyme with anger, Neither does devour with clangour. Souls but fouls, haunt but aunt, Font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant, Shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger, And then singer, ginger, linger, Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge, Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age. Query does not rhyme with very, Nor does fury sound like bury. Dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loth. Job, nob, bosom, transom, oath. Though the differences seem little, We say actual but victual. Refer does not rhyme with deafer. Foeffer does, and zephyr, heifer. Mint, pint, senate and sedate; Dull, bull, and George ate late. Scenic, Arabic, Pacific, Science, conscience, scientific. Liberty, library, heave and heaven, Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven. We say hallowed, but allowed, People, leopard, towed, but vowed. Mark the differences, moreover, Between mover, cover, clover; Leeches, breeches, wise, precise, Chalice, but police and lice; Camel, constable, unstable, Principle, disciple, label. Petal, panel, and canal, Wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal. Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair, Senator, spectator, mayor. Tour, but our and succour, four. Gas, alas, and Arkansas. Sea, idea, Korea, area, Psalm, Maria, but malaria. Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean. Doctrine, turpentine, marine. Compare alien with Italian, Dandelion and battalion. Sally with ally, yea, ye, Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, and key. Say aver, but ever, fever, Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver. Heron, granary, canary. Crevice and device and aerie. Face, but preface, not efface. Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass. Large, but target, gin, give, verging, Ought, out, joust and scour, scourging. Ear, but earn and wear and tear Do not rhyme with here but ere. Seven is right, but so is even, Hyphen, roughen, nephew Stephen, Monkey, donkey, Turk and jerk, Ask, grasp, wasp, and cork and work... Finally, which rhymes with enough — Though, through, plough, or dough, or cough? Hiccough has the sound of cup. My advice is to give up!!!" ~From About.com ~Contributed
by Bob who lives in St. Cloud, Florida |
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