Not only is your story worth telling, but it can be told in words so painstakingly eloquent that it becomes a song. -Gloria Naylor, (1950-), a novelist whose book The Women of Brewster Place was adapted into a film by Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Productions.
Over the past several months I have had some amazing conversations with several people, in of all places, a taxi! There’s really nothing uncanny about the location of these opportunities other than the fact that I made a conscious effort to engage these people in a discussion about their lives. You see everybody’s favorite subject is usually themselves…not necessarily because they want to feed some narcissistic cravings, rather that’s the subject they know best and feel most comfortable discussing. Most people have a great fear of talking about topics outside their comfort zone perhaps because they fear the embarrassment of being wrong or sounding less than knowledgeable…but probe a bit about their life and off they go! Perhaps I’ve been guilty of talking my story at other people for too long and have recently been more lasered in on listening to what other people have to say…and wow what great catches I’ve had fishing like this! I’ve been taken inside the world of a KGB manipulated Russia that concluded with a heartfelt escape of a young family that was forced to leave a father behind as he unselfishly pushed his children in the direction of a better life; I’ve heard the story of an amazing odyssey of a young Iraq native who in the face of his family’s mocking passed through the mujahedin and many desert gun fights as he smuggled himself through Pakistan, to Iran, to Turkey, then Germany to ultimately land upon his dream in America; and most recently I met a great family man who was just struggling to make a better way for himself and his family while trying to hold onto a fragile marriage! Amazing stories that bested any Hollywood production I have seen recently because these people were the real deal!
Faith is the sense of life. That sense by virtue of which man does not destroy himself, but continues to live on. It is the force whereby we live. – Leo Tolstoy, 1828-1910, famed Russian writer, author of War and Peace.
I can remember when I was growing up and my father found a passion for running and became a marathoner. So in an attempt for some father-son bonding he decided to take me down to a local pond fitted with a scenic running path and turn me into a speedy deer! About halfway around the pond, I had decided that this was definitely not the gig for me, so in protest I fell to the ground and started whining about wanting to quit…actually more like crying. In his frustration he yanked me up off the ground and gave me a life lesson that I have never forgotten: “don’t you ever, ever quit!” Subsequently, beyond the life lesson, I went on to become an all league cross country runner…but little did I know how important this simple line would become for me. I will make the distinction that I’m certainly not promoting that you go headlong into doing things you don’t want to do or are forced to do; however, once you decide upon or discover your passion then you MUST go forward like a wild animal to get after it! Now you know the road is difficult and filled with challenges but SO WHAT! You’re alive and have the opportunity to make things happen! You have to cultivate the adrenaline rush that comes with realizing that you’re real and can’t be stopped if you only recognize it!
Our subconscious minds have no sense of humor, play no jokes and cannot tell the difference between reality and an imagined thought or image. What we continually think about eventually will manifest in our lives. – Robert Collier, (1885-1950) prolific writer and progressive publisher who believed that happiness and abundance were within easy reach.
An amazing story out of the famed healing shrine of Lourdes in southwestern France is the story of Madame Bire. Upon entering the shrine, Madame Bire is said to have been completely blind with severe and seemingly irreversible optic nerve damage yet during her stay at Lourdes she miraculously regained her site. Doctors who examined her found that she still in fact suffered from optic nerve damage even though she was now able to see! Several months later she was studied and it was found that her optic nerve had in fact regenerated! So was it the “water” at Lourdes? The Kool Aide? Of course not…it was Madame Bire’s belief that she was in fact going to be healed! It was very clear that even prior to her arrival she had instructed her subconscious that a healing was forthcoming…you see deep within her “soul” or subconscious she had planted the seed for healing and the auto success mechanism was turned on!
If the doors of perception where cleansed then everything would appear to man as it is, infinite. -William Blake, 1757-1827, an English poet and painter whose work is considered seminal in the history of both poetry and the visual arts.
Have you ever gone skiing before and had your goggles fog up on you? Got lost on a snowy mountain in the flat light of the afternoon? Been sailing and had the fog pour in like pea soup? Been flying in a plane and had the clouds swallow you up? Look at the ocean on a gray day and had the separation between the sky and water erased? I could go on and on but the point is that during moments like this we have many misperceptions and faulty beliefs that could lead to disaster…so why do some people crash while others seem to navigate the hurdles with ease and grace. Is it preparation? Is it ability? Is it luck? I suppose we could really credit many things, but I would still argue that at the root is a simple difference in perception. Is that glass half full or half empty…seems like a sophomoric analogy but why do we always feel like we are owed a more complicated explanation? We have talked in the past about keeping it simple and how the best wisdom in life is straightforward and accessible so why not when it comes to considering a simple question?
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, media mogul and self made multi-billionaire.
This past week’s post stirred up some emotions and merits a deeper discussion. You see the truth is that nobody really likes to be pushed around but will only really admit it when they really feel challenged. I want to reiterate that my goal has always been to play the role of a seeing eye dog and help you all find the light switch that exists inside each of your minds. You are all so talented but often refuse to admit it because you allow the lights to be turned out…you simply stop thinking and roll off into a Nantucket style fog! But that indeed makes you guilty! You can’t hide and take yourself out of the game because that is simply the same as denying your own existence! You can’t sit around hoping that something or someone else will make everything all right for you! It does not work like that…you MUST participate or you become nothing more than a looter, a user and non contributor. Now I recognize that many of you reach the point of despair and hopelessness where it seems that all your effort is for naught, but that’s not true. Just when you think that you have reached an impasse is exactly when you are about to break through and if the only benefactor is you, then great so be it. You have to worry about what you can do for you with the talents you were born with…if that benefits everybody else then fine, but at the very least you give meaning to your own existence and that makes you feel really good. Before I digress too far I want to make my point about the successes of the past serving as our springboards to the future and why we should be grateful for those who went before us.
