Archive for July, 2017
Unconditional
Is your love unconditional? Do you give others unconditional support? Are you capable of unconditional surrender? Not necessarily easy questions to answer.
Think about the adult child that you may be financially supporting for whatever reason. What, if anything, do you expect in return?
A spouse or love partner whose behavior and attitude often grates on your nerves. Do you love them unconditionally regardless?
In your spiritual belief system, is the love in your heart and mind unconditional?
Unconditional love is not co-dependent, needy or lacking in self-respect. Healthy, loving relationships require boundaries, respect, tolerance for ambiguity and forgiveness.
“Unconditional love really exists in each of us. It is part of our deep inner being. It is not so much an active emotion as a state of being. It’s not ‘I love you’ for this or that reason, not ‘I love you if you love me.’ It’s love for no reason, love without object.” ~Ram Dass
“Never give up, which is the lesson I learned from boxing. As soon as you learn to never give up, you have to learn the power and wisdom of unconditional surrender, and that one does not cancel the other; they just exist as contradictions. The wisdom of it comes as you get older.” ~Kris Kristofferson
“I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality… I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the last word.” ~Martin Luther King Jr.
Endurance
To endure is to last, to persist; endurance is the ability to withstand hardship and/or stress, it is fortitude.
Marathon anything demands endurance to be successful. We get to the other side of personal and collective hardships by enduring.
Assaults on our health and ensuing treatment, for example chemo-therapy, require endurance. Surviving the grind of daily living is an act of persistence.
“Not in achievement, but in endurance, of the human soul, does it show its divine grandeur and its alliance with the divine.” ~ Edwin Hubbel Chapin
“The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.” ~ Frederick Douglas
“Small change, small wonders – these are the currency of my endurance and ultimately my life.” ~ Barbara Kingsolver
This week I invite you to acknowledge and celebrate your ability to endure.
Puzzle
Life is full of puzzles, big and little. Some are in our environment and others in our spirit and psyche.
All of us are multiple puzzle solvers. Watching an electrician solve a partial power outage at my home was such a welcome example of the process…and it is a process, not an event.
What is my work? What is my purpose? What is my destiny? What is the purpose of life? We each work to find answers to these stirring questions.
“People who work crossword puzzles know that if they stop making progress, they should put the puzzle down for a while.”
~Marilyn vos Savant
“There are no extra pieces in the universe. Everyone is here because he or she has a place to fill, and every piece must fit itself into the big jigsaw puzzle.”
~Deepak Chopra
Betting you are a great puzzle solver.
Values
We all have them. Our core values are fundamental beliefs which govern our attitudes, behaviors and actions.
Values have broad cultural variations. For example – attitudes about life and death, desirable versus undesirable behaviors, honesty versus dishonesty, youth versus elderly, gender differences and biases. Values arise from both cognitive and emotional functions of the human psyche.
Philosophical ethics and an active spiritual belief system help us define who we are and achieve our life’s goals.
“All life demands struggle. Those who have everything given to them become lazy, selfish, and insensitive to the real values of life. The very striving and hard work that we so constantly try to avoid is the major building block in the person we are today.”
~Pope Paul VI
“If you look at great human civilizations, from the Roman Empire to the Soviet Union, you will see that most do not fail simply due to external threats but because of internal weakness, corruption, or a failure to manifest the values and ideals they espouse.”
~Cory Booker
Have an awesome week!!
