“Where there is no critical perspective, no detached observation, no time to ask the pertinent questions, how can one avoid being deluded and confused?” Thomas Merton
Philosophers are known to dabble in “thought experiments,” or testing out ideas via the vast mechanisms of the mind. One usually begins a thought experiment with some sort of logic, which eventually evolves into a mysterious kind of intuition and creativity.
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“Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.” Oprah Winfrey
If a little of something is really good, then a lot must be much better.
So, already you may be thinking that I plan to write about addictions. After all, is that not the most common of all of reasons offered by substance abusers/addicts? Those of us who wrestle with addition are in the habit of numbing; of doing whatever it takes it takes to mask the ordinary psychic pain of being human. More is always better than a little.
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“It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.” Marcus Aurelius
A revised cliché has come to mind in the last couple of weeks: What if today was not “the first day of the rest of of your life,” but what if it was “the last day of the rest of your life?”
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“Goodness isn’t good until it is given away.” Ilia Delio
A little theology…
In the creation narrative of Genesis, God creates the Divine vision of earth in six days. And five times the author says essentially “God observed what he had created and God saw that it was good. God didn’t “say” it was good. No he “saw” that what had been created was good. And then on the sixth day, “God observed all that he had created and he saw that all was very good.” In this post we will explore the thought that God saw, in creation, a perfect reflection of the nature of the Godhead.
I think it is important to note that what God “saw” was simply good. God did not see “Greatness,” or “Awesomeness,” or something “Spectacular.” ” Superlatives were unnecessary when there is a very modest, yet precise, word to convey, “divine mystery transformed into matter.” And God saw that “It was good.” The wonder of this unpretentious word “good” seems to have been lost in translation.
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“We realize the importance of light when we see darkness.” Malala Yousafzai
“… out of darkness into light.” I Peter 2.9 NCV
Remember the old TV show “The A-Team?” George Peppard headed a team of ultra-talented, albeit misguided, group of “heroes” that went around saving everyday people from powerful and malevolent villains. Many of us still recall the words of the charming leader of the group who was fond of saying—always in the midst of utter chaos—“I love it when a plan comes together.”
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“Every time you find yourself irritated with someone, the one you need to look at is yourself. The question is not, ‘What’s wrong with this person?’ but ‘What does this irritation tell me about myself?’” Anthony de Mello
Talk about an irritating quote. Just the thought that the problem is me is irritating!
I find it alarming that way too frequently my frustration or irritation with another personal is actually more about me than it is the other person. Why do I get so upset? Well, perhaps because things didn’t turn out the way I wanted. And of course, who knows better than I do when it comes to the best decisions and actions regarding my life and the lives of others? After all, my world is the only one that really matters. Right?
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“Among my most prized possessions are words that I have never spoken.”
Orson Scott Card
I once read “sometimes you need to be quiet to make real noise.” Such a sentiment appears to have lost popularity today. But, in research for this post I discovered that some of our favorite celebrities refer to themselves as quiet, shy and introverted, such as Johnny Depp, Lady Gaga, Johnny Carson, and the inimitable Audrey Hepburn.
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“Our lives are a sum total of the choices we have made.” Wayne Dyer
I wrote recently, “we constantly face an infinite possibility of thought” and it is our responsibility to choose one of those thoughts in order to actualize it.
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“It is wonderful to know that [my] future is somehow dependent on my decision in every moment.”
NOTE: This post is based on thoughts from Viktor Frankl, Yes To Life.
Frankl says, “… every single moment contains possibilities—and I can only choose one of them to actualize it.”
As my son and I discussed the “infinite possibility of thought” and the role of “belief” in that equation, my mind was set off to endless pondering. Although Frankl doesn’t use the word “belief” it was our conclusion that truth is simply a matter of whatever one chooses to believe.
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“I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.” Jimmy Dean
It is quite difficult, nearly impossible, to predetermine an exact destination in your life. But, you can most certainly “feel” a direction, a course that leads to places unknown, places well suited for you.
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