lesson learned

Did I learn how to be human just to find out it's too late? 
or does it seem too late because of this life phase? 
Will there be freedom 
-in time- 
to live the things I've learned?
I guess we just don't know...

where living
(and what learning)
will bring us.

compassion

None of us wants to be the one that things don't work out for, but there are a Lot of people that life just sits on. It could be any of us in the blink of an eye.

 
Absolutely, we should all do what we can to strive for the best we can in life, but that should never include blaming people who have been dealt a crappy hand (including, possibly, ourselves).

give yourself some credit

*women!*

 stop downplaying your abilities and focusing on your weaknesses. you are capable of many things and intelligent in many ways. focus on those. being honest about your humanity does not mean you have to be down on yourself. 
most men never talk or think so negatively about themselves, and they have just as many flaws as we do.

<3 give yourself some credit <3

purpose in suffering?

Someone said today that, on their hardest days of an ongoing health problem, they "have trouble seeing the purpose of it". I found that terribly sad, and not just because it is an honest expression of deep difficulty.

I remember the days of believing I had to "see the purpose" in my and others' suffering, as if that was a way of keeping faith. To "keep faith" is to pursue love and goodness in the face of an ugly and loveless reality.

Our faithfulness is not defined by our ability to explain the complexities of reality or the motives of God, especially through the lens of a particular religion.
We can add heavily to our own suffering by believing we must hold always to a tightly defined worldview that made sense to us when we were happy.

Faith that helps and heals is of the heart, not of the head.

talent don't matter

talent is no determiner of success. 
support, location, education, personality, health...
just chance...chance...

but go ahead, try. 
throw yourself at whatever comes. you never know...i guess...

depends if you live somewhere you belong,
you love,
you get...understand...
and if it understands you.

otherwise, maybe just sit back, relax, ride what comes.

you probably won't matter.
and that's probably just as well.

it's just a shame that so many people 
who don't matter
have a lot to give.

knowing what we don't know

I was looking up information about a current event with my two oldest kids (12 and 14). We found some data and spent time looking at what each aspect of the information meant. After a lot of digging and dissecting, they realized how much more we would have to research to actually get to the bottom of the issues.

It was wonderful to see them understanding that we still didn't have enough information to form any kind of educated opinion on the situation. It's something that I haven't seen them grasp very well in the past. I think we all, especially when we're young, can have a tendency to take partial data and form an opinion too quickly without spending the effort it takes to make sure we really understand.

I found it rewarding to see them learning the value of being able to know when we don't yet know.

musical reminder of awe

"we are all connected"                        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGK84Poeynk&feature=related
by symphony of science

thought on self

people of any age need nurture when life's demands are heavy, in order to keep in touch with our selves.
in some jobs, in many challenging circumstances, it's easy to feel your self disappear. i have found that there isn't much as wonderful in being a human as having a self.
more than anything, as a parent, i want for my children a sense of self-completion that extends to care for others' selves.

just think if we all had that...what a difference it would make in the world.

individuality is not acceptable

if you want to be a free-thinking individual and live in a small town in a conservative culture, you had best be an extreme introvert as well.

i love the author meindert dejong. he wrote a book called "along came a dog", much of which is about chickens.
the chickens are sadly reminiscent of many groups i have been a part of.

there is a pecking order. individuality, curiosity, intelligence, having a different background
-and especially having a different opinion-
will be pecked.
some things there is simply no changing.
some people there is simply no teaching.