Tag: personal responsibility

One Way to A Better World

 

“Our minds are information vacuums. Either we fill them with thoughts of our choosing or someone else will.”
― Ray Davis

 

I have been paying way too much attention to various sources of news and world events in the last month or two. Not that I think it a bad idea to be informed about what’s going on but wow there’s a lot of Fear Uncertainty and Doubt (FUD) being thrown around out there. At any given time we are supposed to be fearful of various terrorist groups, various other governments, our own governments, the illuminati (most of the variations of it that you hear about because no two people who talk about the illuminati seem to have the same idea what it is), radiation leaking out of Japan into the ocean, fluoride, science, various practitioners of various religions, various members of various political parties, the police and a disease or two. Wow there just does not seem to be enough time in the day to be worried about it all so it seems we have to pick and choose. Hmmmm I choose none of the above.
What? Not be scared or upset or traumatized by any of it? How can I be so apathetic? Well the simple answer is I’m not. Of all of those things I’ve listed, there is a percentage that I can personally affect. Some of them I do either directly or through donations to support others that do. Other things I can’t affect personally. What is the number of concerns I can change through fear and worry?. Let’s see zero divided by zero, carry the zero and add zero. That would be zero things I can affect in the world by either being worried myself or spreading FUD. Minds cluttered by fear aren’t good for much else. I would rather focus on creative and practical solutions. Well that and working on my own self-development. If enough people did that, it may catch on. A world in which the majority of people focused on becoming better people and taking responsibility for their own messes would be a damned sight better than the one we live in now. It also would be a world with far fewer things to be concerned about.
Blessings, G

 

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In Silent OrchestrationIn Silent Orchestration by G A Rosenberg

 

Ripling Opelesque ExpansionRippling Opalesque Expansion by G A Rosenberg

 

Letting Go – A Punching Walls Story

 

“Some of us think holding on makes us strong but sometimes it is letting go”
― Hermann Hesse

 

“You people always hold onto old identities, old faces and masks, long after they’ve served their purpose. But you’ve got to learn to throw things away eventually.”
–Neil Gaiman

 

When I was 19 and had a mishap with the law my father came down on me like a ton of bricks. He told me that he didn’t know what it was but it almost felt like I had something missing in me and he did not feel I was a good person. Insecure at the best of times and somewhat floundering at that point in my life it hit me like a ton of bricks. I was devastated.
For years after that, I found myself either trying to live up to whatever image I had of what my father thought a good person should be or playing against that image in rebellion. With each victory or setback I experienced I asked myself, “So am I a good person now?” I did not have the courage to ask my father.
At some point when I had come close to hitting bottom, it finally occurred to me that I had to let it go. For one thing it had way too many layers
1) what a good person is qualitatively
2) what my father saw as being a good person
3) what I perceived my father saw as being a good person
4)who I was in relationship to 1, 2 or 3
The absurdity of it had me laughing and crying at the same time. I realized that the most important thing was to be myself in the world for good or bad, doing what best reflected the person I am. If I tried to live up to a yardstick especially someone else’s it would not be as meaningful as living up to myself. From that point on, I decided that I would no longer be as concerned with being good as doing right and expressing my being. But I could only do that when I was able to let go of that conversation with my dad and take responsibility for my own actions.
At some point after that, my father had cause to tell me what a good person he thought I was. It felt a touch anti-climatic.
Blessings, G

 

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Guardian and GuideGuardian and Guide by G A Rosenberg

 
The Spiral Moves FasterThe Spiral Increases by G A Rosenberg

Call Waiting

“The hero’s journey always begins with the call. One way or another, a guide must come to say, ‘Look, you’re in Sleepy Land. Wake. Come on a trip. There is a whole aspect of your consciousness, your being, that’s not been touched. So you’re at home here? Well, there’s not enough of you there.’ And so it starts.”
― Joseph Campbell

 

At times it feels like the journey is all I’ve known. A call comes to shake me out of complacency into something new and I follow. Sometimes the call has yanked me from path to path and sometimes because I grew attached to certain aspects of the life I was living, I refused the call only to hear it come louder. Some of my roughest times is when I thought I was ready to leave and eagerly awaited the chance to start life anew only to feel the new adventure hovering above me and feeling a state of stasis, stuck in a time that had grown stale but with no impetus to start something new. Too bad I didn’t know during those times what I now know about responsibility. I would have jumped into a new adventure on my own.
We can be our own guides, our own wake up call. Just grab our bags and head on out the road or perhaps jump down the nearest rabbit hole. Noone has to stay in any place at any time. If you are where you are, you have your reasons for being there. As I have mine.
Blessings, G

 

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Golden EmblemGolden Emblem Mandala by G A Rosenberg

 

Container and Contents MandalaMandala Within the Soap Bubble by G A Rosenberg

Mindfulness Makes the Difference

“For me the world is weird because it is stupendous, awesome, mysterious, unfathomable; my interest has been to convince you that you must assume responsibility for being here, in this marvelous world, in this marvelous desert, in this marvelous time. I want to convince you that you must learn to make every act count, since you are going to be here for only a short while, in fact, too short for witnessing all the marvels of it.”
― Carlos Castaneda

 

How do we make every act count? So much of what we do seems to be either of distraction or necessity. Both of these have their uses for sure but do they count? Well distraction can often feed our spirit and give us a chance to recharge. When we do things out of necessity (as long as they are things that we feel are necessary as opposed to what we are told by others) then we have some investment in them. Perhaps that makes the difference between an act that counts and one that doesn’t. When we do something that we are present and invested in, that we are mindful of than what we are doing counts, whether it is saving a child or reading a comic book. Mindfulness makes the difference.
Blessings, G

 

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DeterminedDetermined by G A Rosenberg

 

Shooting StarShooting Star by G A Rosenberg

Truthful Consequences.

 

If you can joyfully accept the consequence, do what you want; if it is that you will cry when the consequence comes, better be conscious about what you do.”
— Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev

 

Do only what you can handle the consequence for joyfully. That is one of the strongest statements of personal responsibility that I can think of. All too often, we do things that we know will hurt us in the long run and then either act surprised when we get hurt or try to find someone to take the pain away. It reminds me of the man who went to the doctor, lifted up his arm and said “Doctor, it hurts when I do this.” The doctor of course replied, “Don’t do that. ” Well not unless you enjoy pain or the results of the pain will bring you happiness in another way. If that is the case, own it. I did what I wanted to do. I may have to bear hardship because I did it, but it is worth the hardship. I chose to do it, no one made me. WIth freedom to act comes the responsibility of dealing with the results of our actions. Do we really wish to give up that freedom to avoid the responsibility? I know I don’t.
Blessings, G
 

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Gothic RustGothic Rust by G A Rosenberg

 

Eye of ProtectionEye of Protection by G A Rosenberg