Hate it or Love it? Aaargh!

[CecilW]

Wanted to share the following stories with y'all, after which I'll play Captain Obvious. :lol: Both are from "The Way of the Peaceful Warrior", by Dan Millman.

We took the bus up to the park and walked across country over crackling leaves scattered in thick piles among the pine, larch, and elm trees surrounding us. We unpacked the food on a grassy knoll in full view of the warm sun. I flopped down on the blanket, anxious to roast in the sun, and hoped Joy would join me.

Without warning, the wind picked up and clouds gathered. I couldn't believe it. It had begun to rain -- first a drizzle, then a sudden downpour. I grabbed my shirt and put it on, cursing. Socrates only laughed.

"How can you think this is funny!" I chided him. We're getting soaked, there's no bus for an hour, and the food's ruined. Joy made the food; I'm sure she doesn't think it's so ..." Joy was laughing, too.

"I'm not laughing at the rain," Soc said. "I'm laughing at you." He roared and rolled in the wet leaves. Joy started doing a dance routine to "Singin' in the Rain." Debbie Reynolds and the Buddha -- it was too much.

The rain ended as suddenly as it had begun. The sun broke through and soon our food and clothes were dry.

"I guess my rain dance worked," Joy took a bow.

As Joy sat behind my slumped form and gave my shoulders a rub, Socrates spoke. "It's time you began learning from your life experiences instead of complaining about them or basking in them, Dan. Two very important lessons just offered themselves to you; they fell out of the sky, so to speak." I dug into the food, trying not to listen.

"First," he said, munching on some lettuce, "neither your disappointment nor your anger was caused by the rain."

My mouth was too full of potato salad to protest; Socrates continued, regally waving a carrot at me.

"The rain was a perfectly lawful display of nature. Your 'upset' at the ruined picnic and your 'happiness' when the sun reappeared were the product of your thoughts. They had nothing to do with the actual events. Haven't you been 'unhappy' at celebrations, for example? It is obvious then that your mind, not other people or your surroundings, is the source of your moods. This is the first lesson."

Swallowing his potato salad, Soc said, "The second lesson comes from observing how you became even more angry when you noticed that I wasn't upset in the least. You began to see yourself compared to a warrior -- two warriors if you please." He grinned at Joy. "You didn't like that, did you, Dan? It might have implied a change was necessary."

An old man and his son worked a small farm, with only one horse to pull the plow. One day, the horse ran away.

"How terrible," sympathized the neighbors. "What bad luck."

"Who know whether it is bad luck or good luck," the farmer replied.

A week later, the horse returned from the mountains, leading five wild mares into the barn.

"What wonderful luck!" said the neighbors.

"Good luck? Bad luck? Who knows?" answered the old man.

The next day, the son, trying to tame one of the horses, fell and broke his leg.

"How terrible. What bad luck!"

"Bad luck? Good luck?"

The army came to all the farms to take the young men for war, but the farmer's son was no use to them, so he was spared.

"Good? Bad?"

And finally, another quote from the same source on what to do as we try to deal with unhelpful patterns of thought:

To rid yourself of old patterns, focus all your energy not on struggling with the old, but on building the new

... which sounds suspiciously like the Bible's instruction to overcome evil with good.

So what's the point of all this? Ummm. Well, hmmm. For me it is that I get to choose how to react to things like being without an income for the last 4+ months (though that appears to be about to change, PTL!), or to having this bum foot for over a year (Though that's finally healing, too, PTL again!).

For someone else it might be about reactions to a sister wife, or rejection by a pastor, or ... I'm done playing Captain Obvious. It's time for some of Cindy's OUTSTANDING macaroni salad, and even better fruitcake!

 

[Scarecrow]

When my oldest daughter was in first grade she had one of those days that started out wrong from the very moment she woke up. From not having the right clothes she wanted to wear clean to being out of what she wanted for breakfast it seemed that everything was going to be a struggle that day, she even bumped her head. I felt bad for her because it was the circumstances she was facing, not that she was putting herself into these circumstances. Finally I asked her if she was ready for school and she said "Daddy, I don't think I want to go to school today, everything is going wrong and I love school and don't want to mess it up." I said "Let's talk about it on the way, if you still feel that way when we get there I'll take you back home". On the way I told her that we cannot change the past, but we can take what we have and make the best of it. I told her that she could tell herself "Even though I had a bad morning, I'm going to have a good day at school. I'm going to have fun with my friends, enjoy my time on the playground, and I have lots of activities I want to do too!" We didn't live far from the school and when I pulled up I asked "Can you tell yourself that?" She looked a little concerned but said she would try. I felt like I kind of forced her to go to school because she has always been a very obedient child and she could tell that I wanted her to go.

When I picked her up early that afternoon she came running to the car with a big smile - eyes wide open and exclaimed "Daddy it worked! I did exactly what you said and I had a great day!" She went on about all the good things that happened that day and we even had to sit in the car for a while as she finished her story before going in the house. I almost couldn't believe it, but it lifted my spirit so much to hear her tell me about how her day had been transformed.

It was that day I learned from a 7 year old that you truly can decide to make the best of your circumstances, and that the Lord respects it as it displays your character; the work He has done in you. I also gained a deeper understanding of my favorite prayer that day. The serenity prayer says "courage to change the things I can". The only thing in this world that we actually can control and change is ourselves. When the Lord gives us a test it is an opportunity for us to build our character by going through that test gracefully. After all, the only thing we get to take to heaven with us is our character so why not take a good one?

 

[steve]

lets call it

Create Your Own Reality

i have been trying to live it for years, and it makes good business sense also. yesterday i only screamed swear words at a certain driver before i got out of my truck, he never heard them or saw me screaming them. after that i was the nicest guy while he failed to apologize for wrecking my truck
hey, we have to be able to count our victories, no matter how small they are :lol: