Yesterday there was an article at philly.com about a psychologist who posts meaning-based signs next to the road outside her house. Because the area where she lives is fairly privileged, the columnist seems to suggest that there's something deeply transgressive about this practice.
Color me yawning. Not quite nailing 95 Theses to the church door.
Still, simple acts of mindfulness matter. They're a small part of a larger conspiracy of kindness that puts the world back together one compassionate act at a time. The columnist's fishing for controversy aside, I really like the spiritual graffiti the psychologist posts.
Some samples:
What Are You Grateful For?
Fully Inhabit Your Life
We Are Not What We Own
Be a Curious and Honest Observer of Yourself
What Masks Do You Wear?
Keeping it green/beginner's mind practices, like we've been talking about the last few days, are intended to wake us up by breaking things down. "To front only the essential facts of life," like Thoreau famously wrote, "and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived."
If you were going to post some signs about the essential facts of life by the roadside, what would they be? And what would you hope your readers would do?
Here are my life mantras that I would post in my future gated community:
ReplyDelete-If you wouldn't say it to someone's face, you shouldn't say it at all.
-Find happiness within yourself and then share yourself with others
-You do you.
and
-Where there is ambition, there is success.
"You do you" is said in my house on a daily basis- very often to my children. I think it is very important to live your life for yourself and do not focus on what other people are doing, thinking, having, or believing. You do you. You figure out what YOU want, how YOU want to live, and what YOU think.
Balancing this mentality within a family life can be difficult at times, but I think it is so important to be respectful of each other as individual, unique people with totally different life needs, life views, and life experiences.
Sorry to be a little tangential today, but I hope you enjoy my signs.
I like Forrest Church's formulation: Want what you have; do what you can; be who you are. Guess my hope would be that those words would connect with those who read them. That would be something good.
ReplyDeleteOk...one of my favorite quotes is by Anai Nin - We do not see things as they are, we see things as we are. I think it is so important for us to remember that many of our interactions and experiences are colored by who we are in that moment. And to also remember that the same holds true for everyone we come into contact with.
ReplyDeleteDitto Janie janie Bo Banie! Not everything one thinks has to be said outloud, and if You do You that's enough to handle - at least for me.
ReplyDeleteA few weeks ago I cam across this site and gave this "Poetry Post" (see link below)some serious thought for our garden. This would be an excellent way to share our thoughts with friends or reminders to ourselves. The first think I would put in my poetry post would be the words shared by kevdonahue Forrest Church's formulation: Want what you have; do what you can; be who you are. I simply love that thought.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.poetrypostspdx.com/