TOSSED INTO THE SAME BOX

"Never be too proud of who you are and what position you hold

because after a game of chess

the king and the pawns are tossed into the same box."

(Author Unknown)

Well, that sure clipped the air-bag wings of my young friend... Yup, an air-bag! Mahangin; ka-irita. But casting irritation aside, I think I can understand the little fella.

You see, a lot of history, perhaps in great measure negatively, went into that person which now created who he is. Everybody has a story, everybody is a story. Your history is you. What happens to you... how people affected or influenced you.. your reactions to situations, things, places, people.. your successes and failures.. your impressions, preferences, choices and decisions, perceptions, beliefs, fears, expectations, frustrations, bias and prejudices, pet peeves, etc. All these make up or contribute to the person that you are. You are a little bit of this and a little bit of that.

To this my other friend quipped  'Well then, I'll say that there are no bad people - just bad personal stories or histories..'  That certainly is one to think about.

I remember it said -- God created us good; He doesn't make junk. So if we turn out jerks in life --- that is something we do to ourselves.

Hope you're all having a pleasant week. Blessings!

HUMILITY - MOTHER OF ALL VIRTUES

---That humble, gentle Saint of the Catholic Church, Cure of Ars, rightly said:

" Humility is to the virtues what the chain is to the rosary. Remove the chain, and all the beads escape. Take away humility, and all the virtues disappear." ---

Man is made to think that he is invincible. Truth is, it's not all about you. If you know who you are in the eyes of God --- that's what truly matters. And that's all you need to know.

WHAT'S A SUNDIAL IN THE SHADE

Never think that you can't. Just because you see somebody shining brilliantly in what he does, it does not mean that you can't do just as well if not better with your own. Maybe the problem is - you haven't given it a big try. I say Big because there are admittedly small tries, feeble tries, fearful tries, and indifferent tries. What you get depends on how much you put in. Make that your first and only rule.

Humility is good. But again there is false humility, misplaced humility, fake humility, and proud humility. The genuine kind is one that honestly knows his own capacity for greatness alongside his limitations. But the latter does not worry him at all because he understands that it is not his inadequacies which define him as a person but his strength to be the best of what he can be and with this do the good he wants to see in the world.

Ordinary maybe but sometimes there lies within a miracle waiting to be born. A miracle when someone does an ordinary thing extraordinarily. And the world applauds. Never underestimate ordinary -- within its cover is potential.

So then.....

"Hide not your talents, they for use were made.
What's a sun dial in the shade?"
-- Benjamin Franklin

OUR MISTAKES DO NOT DEFINE US

Scared of fouling up, making a mistake, bungling up, and committing bloopers and blunders? Are you? But hey who isn’t. Any normal regular average guy and gal hate to make mistakes. “It’s embarrassing” – “OMG What a shame” – “I could go invisible right now” – “Oh brother, did I do that?” – “I feel like disappearing into the wall”…. Does that sound all too familiar to you?

Well, mistakes take all forms shapes and kinds -- there are small mistakes and big mistakes - And petty slip-ups and life changing oversights. What does it do really? Well, it can ruin a person’s life or make him an overnight celebrity (which isn’t a good reason to be famous for). Some may try to repair, redo, alter, camouflage, ignore, rationalize, overlook, or even find somebody who would (with a little persuasion) take the fall (politicians do that). And so all the frantic effort to save face, space, and grace going to all extent to achieve just that.

But really what else can one do?

Oh there is one and it’s not a popular thing to do. I don’t see many people do it. In fact, in consensus it seems to make them feel far worse than the boo-boo itself. Because it exposes their mortality, frailty, ignorance, imperfection – something nobody is comfortable with nor ready to admit.

I remember as a teenager (and that’s centuries ago) I would always be at loggerheads with my kid brother. So much that when a boo-boo occurs, his or mine (it didn’t matter), I would easily point the finger at him with “He did it!” He did that to me too, much to the consternation of our mom. So one day when we fouled up something in the kitchen, and as two separate fingers pointed at one another, Mom with eyes blazing said …. “Now see here, you two, own up to your mistake or you’ll be washing dishes for a month!”

‘Own up to your mistake’ – have always remembered that.

So that’s the first step and easily the rest will follow. It’s no crime to admit you’ve been wrong. There are zillions of people out there who have been wrong too. But you can make the big difference by owning up to your mistake and from there move on to better things, to healing wounded hearts and souls, to get your self-esteem back, to pick yourself up and say ‘Okay, I’ve learned my lesson’ and become a wiser and smarter person than you were before.

Our mistakes do not define us; it’s what we do afterwards that does.