A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.* Joseph Campbell
The great law of life is: be yourself. Though the axiom sounds simple, it is often the most difficult task. To be yourself, you have to learn how to become who you were dreamed to be. Each person has a unique destiny.** John O’Donohue
We don’t make the hero. It is the greater cause that makes the hero of people who are willing to find themselves by losing themselves.
[C]aring is right at the heart of human existence. Sadness is about caring. And the mother of sadness is compassion.* Dacher Keltner
I love that word treasure. What if we saw ourselves that way. As worthy of treasuring.** Sam Radford
There’s a four minute video Made by the Cleveland Clinic that invites us to step behind the faces we may pass in hospital corridors without a second thought. With text appearing to tell us what they are going through, Concluding with the question: If you could stand in someone else’s shoes. Hear what they hear. Feel what they feel. Would you treat them differently? I thought you might like to take a look.
*Susan Cain’s Bittersweet; **Sam Radford‘s blog: Guard the good treasure trusted to you.
There’s a word in Spanish. … Instead of saying ‘to wake up,’ you say recordarse, that is, to record yourself, to remember yourself. … Every morning I get that feeling because I am more or less nonexistent. Then when I wake up, I always feel I’m being let down. Because, well, here I am. Here’s the same old stupid game going on. I have to be somebody. I have to be exactly that somebody.* Jorge Luis Borges
Sanctuary is a word derived from the Latin sanctuarium, which is, like most words ending in -arium, a container for keeping something in – in this case holy things or perhaps cherished people (sanctae/sancti).*
Given the uniqueness of each of us, it should not be surprising that one of the greatest challenges is to inhabit your own individuality and to discover which life-form best expresses it.* John O’Donohue
You cannot be a hero unless you are prepare everything; there is no ascent to the heights without a prior descent into darkness, no new life without some form of death.** Karen Armstrong
I have mentioned the five elemental truths^ on a few occasions recently, And this morning found myself contemplating their opposites, Perhaps, Life should be fun; You’re special; Live your life your way; Don’t give up control; Don’t think about death. The hero, though, is born by completing the truths^ in gritty yet elegant ways, until they have the power to let go and let come. This won’t read like a hero to many, And that’s the thing – Heroes don’t look like we expect them to, They’re just ordinary people trying to live their lives for others.
The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; I have a goodly heritage.^^
*John O’Donohue’s Benedictus; **Karen Armstrong’s A Short History of Myth; ^Life is hard; You’re not as special as you think; Your life is not about you; You’re to in control; You’re going to die; ^^Psalm 16:6)
A well lived life without calibration is unlikely.* Seth Godin
You choose your purpose and then you give your whole should to that purpose. In due time, you’ll transform.** Ben Hardy
We know only too well that the game of life isn’t one long, smooth path. If we’re prepared to be honest, then there’s a neat skill available to us: Recalibrating allows us to keep on the path that matters deeply to us. And the five elemental truths are one way we can recalibrate : Life is hard – what’s been going wrong; how have I been making things worse? You’re not as special as you think – am I prepared to leave the false self behind for a more True Self? Your life is not about you – how could recalibrating help those around you? You’re not in control: will I accept what I can and cannot do? You are going to die: will I allow my limitations to help me fulfil my purpose?
As one Buddhist author put it, the “craving to be otherwise, to be elsewhere” permeated my whole life.* Dan Harris
Personhoods are staked on the cards dealt and not the hands played, as if we evolved opposable thumbs of our agency for nothing.** Maria Popova
Trying to stay present to and in our own lives is a difficult thing to do – Perhaps more difficult than ever before. We can become fixated on a version of ourselves, or someone else, that we can never become, But to trust and fully live the life we have not only makes a difference to us but also to others. This is how our “opposable thumbs of our agency” alchemise flexibility from rigidity.
It is true that once a landscape goes undescribed and therefore unregarded, it becomes more vulnerable to unwise use or improper action.* Robert Macfarlane
They don’t know what they don’t know until they find out they don’t know it.** Dave Trott
I enjoy borrowing thoughts from all sorts of places to use in my dreamwhispering work. At the same time, I am reading Dan Harris’ 10% Happier following a student mentioning it to me; At the moment, as I read, Harris is writing about meditation. Meditation can take many forms, including, It strikes me, in dreamwhispering. We find the words to describe our talents and our practices, and then can use use three meditative, reflective exercises to connect with them more deeply: Humility to meditate upon the talents of both ourselves and others; Gratitude to reflect upon the contents of our “loved it” list;^ Faithfulness to ponder the ways we make these live.^^ I’ll probably play with these some more, but they provide a useful enough place to begin, Whether we’re walking, sitting, or journaling.
*Robert Macfarlane’s Landmarks; **Dave Trott’s One + One = Three; ^A “loved it” list contains all the things you have noticed bringing lots of energy; ^^I call these enriching environments, and we are able to make more of these happen.
THIN|SILENCE 
You must be logged in to post a comment.