Archive for August, 2018
Steadfast
To be steadfast is to be unwavering, solid, loyal, dependable, strong, faithful, and resolute. These attributes apply across a broad spectrum of life; including the collective and communal activities of day to day living, as well as it’s personal and interpersonal processes.
“Remember that in every single case in history the process of adaptation has been one of exceeding slowness. Do not look for the impossible, but do not let your path deviate from the quiet and steadfast insistence on full opportunities for your powers.” ~Franz Boas
Without the capacity for steadfastness we stand on unstable ground. Making decisions, making commitments, living an authentic life drifts into a fog of unattainability.
“When I had no place to live and I had no place go to sleep-and I did sleep in the Metro-I held steadfast to the fact that I had a dream, a reason why I’m doing this…that it was bigger than this moment.” ~Jeremy Scott
Self-actualization demands us to be steadfast. Achieving a harmonious and balanced life requires commitment, faith and resolute determination.
“I have a very steadfast tendency to parent myself, to monitor my development into the person I want to be. I’ve tried to keep the corruption minimal.” ~Fiona Apple
“Wealth stays with us a little moment if at all: only our characters are steadfast, not our gold.” ~Euripides
This week I invite you to to continue walking the steadfast path in the pursuit of golden character.
Blessings!
Tapestry
Tapestry is hand woven practical art created for centuries on every continent. Placed on castle walls in winter for insulation and decoration. In the Middle Ages tapestry emerged as coats of arms and symbolic weavings. Persian and Navajo rugs are a form of utilitarian tapestry which are greatly prized.
Every day, every year, every decade we are weaving the tapestry of our lives. Richly resplendent, deeply muted threads interwoven throughout depth and breadth of the human experience create unique individual and collective patterns.
“The mind is like a richly woven tapestry in which the colors are distilled from the experiences of the senses, and the design drawn from the convolutions of the intellect.” ~Carson McCullers
“Nature uses only the longest threads to weave her patterns, so that each small piece of her fabric reveals the organization of the entire tapestry.” Richard P. Feynman
The tapestry of life is like a personal metaphor. It is both a conscious and unconscious weaving.
“My life has been a tapestry of rich and royal hue, an everlasting vision of the ever changing view.” ~Carole King
“We don’t accomplish anything in this world alone…and whatever happens is the of the result of the whole tapestry of one’s life and all the weaving of individual form one to another that creates something.” ~Sandra Day O’Conner
What kind of life tapestry are you weaving?
Blessings!
Dreams
Everyone dreams; and we all have dreams. There is a difference.
Freud called dreams, “….the royal road to the unconscious.” Jung’s work on dreams and dream interpretation greatly expanded the realm of exploring and understanding the dream world.
“The biggest adventure you can take is to live the life of your dreams.” ~Oprah Winfrey
Herein lies the difference. Living your dreams, pursuing your dreams requires faith, courage, tenacity, self-confidence, and the strength to move beyond repeated failures and discouragements.
“Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.” ~Harriet Tubman
“I couldn’t find the sports car of my dreams, so I built it myself.” ~Ferdinand Porsche
The dreams of childhood are so often swallowed by the demands of adulthood. So often the regimentation and rigors of singular and societal survival drown the aspirations and fulfillment of dreams.
“Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears.” ~Les Brown
“Consult not your fears but your hopes and your dreams. Think not about your frustrations, but about your unfulfilled potential. Concern yourself not with what you tried and failed in, but with what it is still possible to do.” ~Pope John XXIII
The Declaration of Independence enacted as law that all people have an equal and unalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of their own happiness. It does NOT define lifestyle or happiness.
The American Dream arose from these principles. By working hard, one can become successful, have a nice home, two kids, and plenty of money. Obviously much has changed. Yet, the realization of dreams is still possible.
“All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.” ~Walt Disney
“Trust in dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.” ~Khalil Gibran
What dreams are you pursuing?
Blessings.
Calamity
…is distress, ‘an event causing great harm or loss and affliction’, misfortune, disaster.
“Man is subject to innumerable pains and sorrows by the very condition of humanity, and yet, as if nature had not sown evils enough in life, we are continually adding grief to grief and aggravating the common calamity by our cruel treatment of one another.” ~Joseph Addison
Calamity is on my mind, embedding itself in my experience as devastating wildfires voraciously rage throughout the west, flash flooding is driving people from their homes in the east. Hundreds of innocent children remain separated from their parents and held in the equivalent of internment camps.
It is an odd juxtaposition for me. Returning home Saturday from a beautiful wedding, sharing and celebrating it’s joyous promise and then seeing the ghastly specter of billowing smoke from the Lake County fires to the north, and the vastness of the burnt ridge tops and hillsides of last October’s calamitous Tubbs fire directly before me, was difficult.
“Calamity is the perfect glass wherein we truly see and know ourselves.” ~William Davenaut
As so many of you know, my ‘go to’ is faith. To reduce my cognitive dissonance, I pray.
“Necessity may well be called the mother of invention but calamity is the test of integrity.” ~Samuel Richardson
I am clearly an optimist. But my optimism rises and is supported by faith. As Winston Churchill is widely quoted, a “great purpose and design is being worked out here below of which we have the honor to be the faithful servants.”
“He who knows no hardships will know no hardihood. He who faces no calamity will need no courage. Mysterious though it is, the characteristics in human nature which we love best grow in a soil with a strong mixture of troubles.” ~Harry Emerson Fosdick
These are surely trying times. The world is experiencing great upheavals; the earth itself is crying calamity. Yet, there are those brilliant moments of hope, joy, love, compassion, understanding and faith. Hold fast to them!
Blessings!
