My favorite book is a book by don Miguel Ruiz, titled The Four Agreements. I read this book over ten years ago, yet I think about it every day. I have found this book to be one of the most powerful tools to live by. Over the years I have likely made my own loose interpretations of all the agreements. Today I want to loosely interpret the first of the four agreements which is to be impeccable with your words. This agreement is probably one of the easier agreements for me to adopt into my daily life. I believe the first agreement is telling me to realize I am a magician, I can perform magic for good or for worse. I need to be aware of the power of my words to bring peace or turmoil into a conversation. The power of my words to build someone up or bring them down. I always try to perform good magic with my words, but there are times my filters slip and out come some pretty stupid stuff, just ask my co-workers. I usually come to regret those words pretty quickly and I find myself clarifying and apologizing to people. Each day, I start over trying to choose my words carefully. I am an opinionated person, I have my own ideas and beliefs and I often find myself in a position to share those thoughts with people, both like minded and not so like minded. This gives me plenty of opportunity to practice this agreement. Another important part of this agreement, as it is with all the agreements, is to not only speak truthfully and kindly of others, but to remember to speak truthfully and kindly of yourself. So there's your challenge for the day...
Be Impeccable With Your Word Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.
Dreams are fascinating; I've always loved the dreamworld. I think dreaming is one of my favorite things to do. Dreams have meaning, I think when we dream we are in our sub conscience mind where things are honest and unreserved. I think our dreams are either processing our day or bringing up issues from our lives, or helping us understand important things for ourselves and our families. There are the more common dream themes, like flying, running, being chased, driving, etc... or symbols like numbers, colors, animals or rooms in a house. I particularly like to hear people's re-occurring dreams from childhood. Tell me your re-occurring dream in a comment and I'll tell you what I think it means. Check out this website for an online dream guide.
HopeHopeHopeHopeHope...
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Where's the hope for healthcare reform? What the f*** is Obama thinking. Do you really think public option is coming out of the bill? All the media, both liberal and conservative, are saying it. The Senate is giving up on public option way too soon. Obama looks weak, like he has no spine. Either that or he has some evil plot to destroy liberal politics. Which is it...
Talk me down.
I don't have as much time for coffee or inspired thoughts during the work week. But here's something I was thinking about...
Being a mom of college students and working at a college surrounded by young people is exciting. Everyone is all fired up, on the verge of changing the world and creating their own lives. I often think, if I had it to do all over again, college I mean, what would I major in or what path would I head down. I think I would major in anthropology. I'm really interested in trends in society. Group dynamics in small groups and larger communities. I'm particularly interested in religion and society... why do religions form, why is religion important to communities? Thoughts anyone?
In a staff retreat last week we were asked what recent event, book or movie had inspired us. I thought of Eunice Kennedy Shriver's recent passing. She spent her life, from a very early age, helping people with special needs, and started the Special Olympics. She had a passion, when you have a name like Kennedy and the money that goes along with that name you can do something huge in this life. Money and name aside, I believe she was committed to this cause because of her own compassion for people with special needs. Anyway, what it caused me to think about was my own life and what would people say about me when I die. I don't think it's likely they'll be covering it on national TV, but what will people in my life remember me for. I go about my days trying to be a good person, a good mom, a good partner, a good daughter, a good friend, a good employee and I think for the most part I do a good job at this. But one of my frustrations, all my life, is that I've never had a passion, a cause or a hobby that I care deeply about. So the inspiration came to me that day, I am going to figure out something bigger than me, bigger than my family, bigger than my immediate world that I can be passionate about.
So, I thought about it and I came to the conclusion that I have no idea what that passion is. Do some people have passions and others don't? Is it a personality thing? Is it because I've been busy figuring out life and striving for my own peace and contentment? Is it wrong to not have a passion for anything? This has been a question for me all my life. So here I am, again passionless, hobby less and boring. I guess I'll just think about it some more.
Just thoughts with my coffee this morning.
