CHANGE AND UNEXPECTED TEACHERS

 

 

 

----------
I was going through my old files, sorting through it with the intent of ridding it of non-essentials. This made me think. Non-essentials --– if you think about it you will understand that there are indeed plenty in your store of life and living… the accumulated bits and pieces that you might be better off without. But of course you wouldn’t want to deal with that when you are young for the simple fact that you are so attached to it. Even if conscience tells you to be done with it.

The thing is when you get older or have grown older you get this feeling that something inside of you has changed. What was isn't anymore. What may have been important to you back then may not be anymore many years after. It’s sad but its importance or relevance has waned or diminished, its attraction fizzled out or maybe gone in some. It seemed to have lost its life. Holding on to it, you get to realize, has now become dead weight.

So I am now on a fresh and determined journey of ridding my store of dead weight. Some people may have a name for it but I am calling it change.

Change is something you cannot fight. Maybe you can delay it, dilute it, mask it, or give it another name perhaps but change it still is. And I’m starting with my files.

This morning’s activity though came to a brief halt when…….

I stumbled on this piece of writing paper and on it were printed these words. Now it made no mention of its source or of who wrote it so I guessed that it was quoted from something. Here it is by an anonymous writer. A wonderful piece that made sense back then, still does in the present and I guess will continue to do its job of imparting its precious wisdom to anyone who stops awhile, pay attention, and learn.

Quoting…….

UNEXPECTED TEACHERS
.
Some of us have our prejudices, some of us have our biases. Some of us, no matter how old we become, remain childish. We continue to select only those things we want to listen to.

But in doing this, we also lose.

Everybody is in the same boat. All of us do not know everything but, we can listen.

Because we have a lot to learn from people for whom we think we have no respect.

Who are the people for whom we have no respect? For whom we have incorrigible biases? People for who we think we have nothing to learn from?

Think well and hard.

We will have a lot to learn from these unexpected teachers.

(Author Unknown)

Unquote.

Have a great and blessed day, folks. Siksik, liglig, at umaapaw pa!

CHANGE OF SELF MORE THAN A CHANGE OF SCENE

-------------------
Was at the patio sweeping up leaves fallen from my solitary tree when I overheard this conversation between two women out on the street walking by.....
.
'Ayoko na. Kahit ano pang sabihin ko, gagawin pa rin niya ang gusto niya. Di niya makita na mapapasama lang siya sa ganun.' says woman #1 ---- (I give up. Nothing that I ever say would make her change her mind. She can't see that nothing good would come out of it.'
.
'Bayaan mo na. Nang matuto siya!' replied woman #2 ---- 'Let it. That she learn her lesson!'
.
Does that sound familiar? Happens everyday to people around us... family, friends, and strangers alike. Not just without but also within ourselves. Sometimes or rather most times when we make up our minds nothing or no one can make us want to change it. We just don't or won't listen. For good or for bad. Period.
.
It got me to thinking.....
.
An objective view, I think, most times is the better view. Being free of attachments, emotions, sentimentality, expectations enables a person to see a situation for what it truly is. Decisions are best made in such an environment. Thus an objective view is better rendered by a person who is standing on the outside looking in. A role best played by psychologists and psychiatrists and middle men.
.
I have learned, too, that if change were desired or where it needs to happen, this will not without the consent of the person or leading player in the issue being played. In short, change won't come to that person who does not want to change.
.
No amount of sweet talk, bribery, coaxing, threat, grand promises, or drama can push the correct button to get a person off his ill-decision once made, especially when he or she believes it to be the right one.
.
So what to do? As what woman #2 said -- 'Let it!'
.
Sometimes for our own good it is best to make our own mistakes. We must learn it by our own lonely self. Nobody can or will do it for us. We on this lonely planet are each given our individual lessons for learning and corresponding homework to do. We are expected to make mistakes but we are also expected to learn from them too.
.
So when somebody bullheadedly and stubbornly is holding on to not-so-smart decisions, let it be. Just be there when she (or he) falls to help pick her (or him) up.
.
Have a great day, people. Be there for someone.
Be blessed and stay blessed.

BILLY IS A PLANT

Today I have a little story for you............

Billy is a plant. A tiny one built close to the ground. It has no stalk, no branches but just a tuft of spike-like leaves of green and white. It looks like a dwarf sitting there in its tiny corner of the garden kingdom which other residents are tall leafy branch-y plants, one hedge, a bush, and a towering tree.

Sometimes I wonder just what goes on in the mind of Billy. 

What’s it like being small and growing in a place of giants and not getting equal chance or opportunity to shine or be noticed. Always there will be some other plant bigger and stronger. They get more of the water, more of the sun, more of the touch, more of the beautifying. They get to see more of what’s outside the garden kingdom. It makes me think that even in the plant kingdom there also is competition, struggle, and survival.

There was a time when I thought Billy gave up. It withered, shriveled, and almost was reduced to nothing. Almost gone, I thought to myself. So I mentally took note to find a replacement soonest I could get to the plant market. But I became busy. Well, the days turned into weeks and then a month went by when I remembered about Billy.

I rushed to the garden expecting to see empty soil and perhaps ghostlike traces of something which had inhabited it before.

But lo and behold --- Billy!

Still small, still short.. but now a rich thick tuft of spike-like green and white leaves pointing up to the skies. And happily, it seemed. I don’t know how Billy did it but I don’t need to go to the market plant anymore and nevermore. 

Billy tough Billy! Life may be tough in the garden kingdom – but Billy showed them who is tougher. Billy gave me a lesson I will remember for the rest of my life.

I hope to grow like Billy.


(In the absence of a picture taken of Billy, I surfed the internet for something and found this.... it sure looks like Billy; must be a close cousin; I can see the resemblance.) 
 
P.S. Billy is a real plant in my tiny garden.

YOU'LL ALWAYS GET A CHANCE WITH YOUR TOMORROW

-----------------
Big thanks to friend Mr. Quote Man for this wonderful quote......

'Tomorrow is the most important thing in life.
Comes into us at midnight very clean.
It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands.
It hopes we've learned something from yesterday.'
 (John Wayne)

Tomorrow gives us a chance for a clean slate to start our life with. Yet some say that we never get a chance in life. Well, this poem says otherwise. On the contrary it says that we get a chance every day..... everyday to create, to build, to shape, to forgive, to try it one more time, to improve on something, to live anew.

That's great, isn't it?

But did you see the catch there?  '.....It hopes we've learned something from yesterday.'  You see, the chance it offers us is connected with yesterday's lessons. Meaning, we will and can create a new day and life armed with yesterday's lessons and learning. We cannot build something with nothing at all. A carpenter cannot hope to build a structure without the proper tools of his trade and the necessary materials for the project. There always has to be something of value, no matter if it be minute or colossal-tangible or intangible, which will give us that mighty push forward to do something.

So what could those be?  Those could be many different things to many different people, I now understand. I asked a few friends and they looked back to their yesterdays or yesteryears in serious retrospect. To quote.........

'...  a firm resolve not to be poor for I have known the misery of poverty'
'...  a strong spirit to fight injustice for I have learned the bitter lesson that justice delayed is justice denied'
'...  to build on good character for I have learned that money and fame does not make the man'
'... to value good relationships for I have lost good people with carelessness and neglect'

To name just a few.

They were ready for it armed with the lessons of their yesterdays. Nope, they didn't wait for that  'one big chance in life'. Because they knew that they would get it everyday.  My friend summed it up with this.......  'You'll  always get a chance with your tomorrow.'

Indeed.....

"It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands.
It hopes we've learned something from yesterday."

Blessings, everyone. Tomorrow's waiting.
(Thanks to the internet for these lovely pictures.)

TAKE A CHANCE

"Our lives improve only when we take chances -- and the first and most difficult risk we can take is to be honest with ourselves." (Walter Anderson) --------

That's a good one. Yet we tend to shy away from it fearing that we might hurt ourselves in that journey. C'mon, the road less traveled is just what it is -- a challenge, an adventure. Take a chance. Because those armed with a dream and have the courage to go that way will come to know its rewards. Will be rewarded! ----- You'll never know it until you try. :-)

TAKE CHANCES, MAKE MISTAKES, GROW

Why is it that whenever the words chances or mistakes are spoken of most people would cringe hearing it? Now give some reason why that is so. No? You can’t? Okay then, I’ll tell you why – it’s because we’ve been made to believe that ‘sticking your head out isn’t good for your sanity’. Haven’t heard that before? I wonder why because that’s what we’ve been doing all along - all of this time - all of our life. Have you noticed that anything which might or tend to crumple our perceived notions of tranquility or.. those which we think would work to extricate us from our comfort zones we vehemently disallow to encroach on our personal space and time. Yes, we don't. It’s avoided with extreme fear and anathema albeit not understanding the reasons at all or not wanting to. ‘Play it safe’ ‘don’t rock the boat’ ‘Make mistakes and you’re a goner’ ‘Err and you’ll suffer’ are but a few odd things we tell ourselves or we hear from people who say they ‘know’. But do they really?

What I know is this – the only genuine way to true learning is by making or experiencing mistakes and sticking our heads out letting something hit it hard so that we can come to our senses at last. Oh I don’t mean that literally of course, don’t get hurt that way, but of course you know what I mean, right? The best lessons are learned from the strife or struggle wherein we get our hands really dirty and our brains spilled out all over the place and our hearts ricocheting here there and everywhere. Only through heartaches and pain from battles fought tenaciously do we get that which we should be learning from life and own it and finally use it.

"Take chances, make mistakes. That's how you grow. Pain nourishes your courage. You have to fail in order to practice being Brave." -- Mary Tyler Moore

I HAVE LEARNED THAT.... Part 7

Two very real things happen in life – those things which we can influence or dictate upon --- and those things which we have no direct control over, truly just totally beyond our control.

When you tell yourself that you’ve lost one good opportunity because you failed to do quite enough, that’s only being too hard on yourself. If one thing doesn’t work, there will be lots more, definitely. Your opportunity or chance does not disappear when one excellent prospect flies out the window. Opportunities are still there, it’s only the choices which have been reduced. And it’s no fault of yours either. Remember that it takes two to tango – you and the company you’ve targeted. So you may think that you have what it takes for the job you seek, but think again, that company has its own criteria (they always do) on the people they’d like or want working for them. You may be a multi-faceted and very talented applicant but unfortunately you are not what they need. So say goodbye and walk out the door smiling and move on to the next one on your list. By the way, truth is that opportunity isn’t lost at all because some other guy or girl will be sure to take it. Think good thoughts and wish that person well.

And so I’ve learned that opportunities are never lost; someone will take the ones you miss.