Shifting Attitude

Matthew 6:34

 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, 
for tomorrow will worry about itself. 
Each day has enough trouble of its own.

This morning I woke up with a hangover without having had a party.  Nor alcohol either. Well. to be honest... I did have a party...  sort of. Indulging in doing things that I like ignoring the pile of  things that Should be done. Should with a capital s.This morning the Pile grinned at me, towering over me, showing its ugly overgrown brown teeth. I think it had a bad breath too.

I responded in my usual way, filling my empty head with lines like "I hate my life"  "I'm a failure"  "You fool, you make the same mistakes over and over. You'll never grow up" and "Why don't you have more discipline, you spineless slob".
Then someone tapped me on the shoulder. Lightly as a feather. I couldn't see him but I heard him speak to me. "You advocate unconditional love. Not judging, not demanding things from others. Not trying to shape them according to your taste.  Why don't you look at me that way. As if I'm your child or partner. Let me be the way I want to be. Trust me and I'll surprise you."

What did this spirit suggest? That Life is outside of me?. That there is a Me, but not such a thing as <<My Life>> ? So Life will always be there, even without Me... now that is true. A morbid truth, but a fact of life.  It also implies that there will always be Me, even when Life stops. Or to put it more lightly: when Life and I have separated. 

I felt the spirit patiently waiting for my answer. "Well?"  
"I like it". I replied, warming to the idea. "We're partners, I will not judge you nor manipulate or force you, so you can show me what you're like. But you will not judge me either! I'm good and you'll love me even though I falter at times."  What a relief to look at myself that way. And oh boy, will we make a creative team!
The spirit moved back to its own realm, taking my burden with him. The Pile no longer towered over me.
Being left alone I picked up my life again  
no, :-)    just my clothes for today.    [Please note the metaphor]

Jo

Back to two types of knowledge

UNDER CONSTRUCTION


I'd like to continue with my dichotmy: wordly knowledge versus
True Knowledge.


Quote from: 

<<  The Nag Hammadi Library;

An Introduction to Gnosticism and The Nag Hammadi Library  >>

 editor James M Robinson


" ...These Christians are now called gnostics, from the
Greek word gnosis, usually translated as "knowledge." For as those who claim to know nothing
about ultimate reality are called agnostic (literally, "not knowing"), the person who does claim to
know such things is called gnostic ("knowing"). But gnosis is not primarily rational knowledge.
The Greek language distinguishes between scientific or reflective knowledge ("He knows
mathematics") and knowing through observation or experience ("He knows me"), which is gnosis.
As the gnostics use the term, we could translate it as "insight," for gnosis involves an intuitive
process of knowing oneself. And to know oneself, they claimed, is to know human nature and
human destiny. According to the gnostic teacher Theodotus, writing in Asia Minor (c. 140-160),
the gnostic is one has come to understand who we were, and what we have become; where we
were... whither we are hastening; from what we are being released; what birth is, and what is
rebirth.
Yet to know oneself, at the deepest level, is simultaneously to know God; this is the secret of
gnosis. Another gnostic teacher, Monoimus, says:
Abandon the search for God and the creation and other matters of a similar sort. Look for him by
taking yourself as the starting point. Learn who it is within you who makes everything his own
and says, "My God, my mind, my thought, my soul, my body." Learn the sources of sorrow:, joy,
love, hate . . . If you carefully investigate these matters you will find him in yourself."

Eyes of Love

Wow, I've been away for such a long time. Not a geographical journey, not even a pleasant trip while staying home...  I just took the wrong turn and traveled down the wrong road: earning money, selling my soul, no longer being able to dream and write...  
It took me a while to see it and then I had to get back on the right track. I hope I'll stay on it now... but I'm afraid I'm very good at getting lost. 

Here's just a small line, to get used to blogging again...

Loving someone 

simply means

you see this person 

just as God had intended 

her or him to be.

Power Circles continued

A picture that somehow stays on my retina: an elderly woman with a young girl, five or so. Probably the granddaughter. It was in a shopping area with hardly any traffic and many benches placed along the sidewalk.  The little girl was 'hopping' around happily and ready to step onto a bench, not only to avoid a detour... but for the sheer joy of running up high and jumping off...
Her grandmother whisked her away by her arm. Bending over and 'whispering' audibly:  "Don't do that. Suppose everybody would start walking over these benches..."

? ?

Would you? I might enjoy walking over those benches a couple of times, but I can imagine that there are hordes of people who aren't interested in it at all. So why would this little girl have to imagine everybody doing that? And feel responsible for it as well?   -I hope she imagined it. And saw the fun of it :)  -
What I like is sitting snug on my bed, with three propped up pillows, reading a book. When I was twelve, that's how I read Jean Webster's "Daddy Long Legs" in a day. I enjoyed it so much, it stands out in my memory.
Now if I would run into my son reading a novel... my eyes would pop out of their sockets. Reading is absolutely joyless for him. He likes to swing in his hammock  -transversely- his head nearly hitting the ceiling. I see no fun in that, I feel sick even watching it.
We're just not all the same, we don't always like to do things the way others do them.
Gotcha, we're back at Mary, Jack and Davy.

Or rather.. at you and me. Because the junction where these children went separate ways, pops up very often in our own lives. And what do you do. Do you turn left or right? Do you stick to your talents or do you try to adapt to the wishes of the world around you?


An example....  how does your manager manage the people under his 'care'?  Or maybe you are a manager?
   A manager's jigsaw pieces are the people who work for him, the function descriptions and the actual job that needs to be done.  The functions are chosen to 'match' the job that needs to be done. Not to match the employees that are hired. People are hired if they seem to fit the description.
   Now how does the manager come up with a productive department?  Is he
A) analysing the shortcomings of each employee, to give them the proper training and tools to make them match the function description
    or is he
B) analysing the talents  of each employee, so he can divide the tasks over his team making use of the different qualities of its members. Getting the job done ...and probably more.




And how do you apply for a job? Do you try to prove you fit the function description? You know, the one that was put up to get the job done.  Or do you try to prove that you can get the job done. Without fitting the function description.
   It's risky. Can you sway your possibly, maybe, future employer and make him hire you, because he is confident you can get the job done? That you are worth risking his reputation as manager. Or are you going to invest in fitting the description, creating an image of yourself that you will have to keep up? So that you'll be walking on your toes for as long as you are hired? Working way out of your power circle instead of from within?

   The choice is up to you. Of course you can try to fit in and leave your power circle, but do it consciously, not subconsciously. So you can focus on your shortcoming(s) and make a success of trying to fit in.
I'm trying to learn to stay in my power circle. A tough battle, but deep inside... it's satisfying to be able to say that I made a stand for who I am. Even though I'm not always rewarded by getting the job, the assignment, the contract.

Jo