“Facing it, always facing it, that’s the way to get through. Face it.”
― Joseph Conrad
Facing my own ignorance rather than arguing for it.
Facing my own lack of discipline rather than justifying it.
Facing my odd turns of thoughts and accepting them
Facing the things I don’t want to face.
Facing the injustices in front of me rather than decrying those in the world.
Facing my own inaction.
Facing my own joy in hopeless situations
Facing my partner with honesty and an open heart.
Facing my son through good and bad
Facing the sunset.
Facing the young children at play.
Facing the random acts of kindness performed by strangers.
Facing the joy in an old woman’s face watching her grandchildren
Facing lovers walking arm in arm
Facing the animals at play
Facing that their are good things in this world.
Sometimes it is as difficult to face the good as it is the bad. The difference between the two is not a constant but a variable and where the line falls can vary according to both the perceiver and the context in which they are perceived.
Blessings, G
“There is a balance between seeing the beauty of the world and appreciating it and despairing of its ugliness and demanding change. People who remain ensconced at either end of the spectrum seem a bit psychotic to me”
— Randall Wolfe
I know many people who have made the art of positive thinking into an art form. They insist on putting a positive spin on everything. If you tell them people are starving or about human atrocities they will look mourn fall and talk about how sad those people have attracted that kind of energy and how happy it makes them that they are able to do so.
I also know many people who insist the world is vile and that people are awful. They have all kinds of proof that the world sucks and that the only people who get ahead do so on the backs of others.
Yes both of those views are extreme tho it amazes me how often I see both extremes. I believe that life is an amazing adventure and that we have come here to experience it. Based on what we as spirits need to learn. Some lessons come easy and some we have to repeat over and over and some are just rough. One of the biggest lessons for most of us involve compassion. Sometimes in order to be able to understand another’s pain we have to get inside and feel it for ourselves.
I tend to believe in reincarnation and believe that over the course of all the lives we live we get to experience everything good and bad. If this physical life is but a stage then at one point or another we will experience everything we need to with a huge range of good, bad and in-between. Indeed our very definitions of good and bad change from one period of our lives to another. I would imagine that over the course of many lifetimes, the terms lose meaning all together.
Perhaps that is the point of it. If we look at each experience as just that an experience and a lesson without ascribing value to it, then only the experience and what we can learn from it remains. This is not an easy thing to do yet it is when I have been closest to this viewpoint that I have known the most peace.
Blessings, G
“Dedicate yourself to the good you deserve and desire for yourself. Give yourself peace of mind. You deserve to be happy. You deserve delight.”
—Hannah Arendt
But can you get there without helping others work on happiness and delight as well?
Compassion is key…. I can’t imagine the disconnect that could come at being happy when others suffer. Well I could in that I believe many of the so called 1% (and some who believe that they ‘matter’ more than others) seem to have exactly that disconnect.
Is it human nature? I’d like to believe that even if it is where we started at that we are moving towards something more, a realization that we are part of a greater whole. I would love to hear your take on this.
Within the Pattern by G A Rosenberg 
