I guess I'm not much of one to communincate in this blog since I've struggled to get back to his one since July. But I have learned a lot from these last few months. Maybe that's it - I didn't have a strong enough message to blog. By I continue to learn and grow as situations get more complicated.
I think I've been noticing lately is a pattern emerge, or perhaps my awareness of it, in conversation which seems to to start as a subliminal message. There are certain people which start the with a complaint. This may not sound vey subliminal, but I've concluded it's not just random. I find it somewhat predictable. Perhaps it's a subtle was to state general discontent, and that they are not going to do anything about the situation but complain - their intend, whether intentional or not, it to pass it on in the hope someone else will do something. This tends to start the cycle of Complain -> Criticism -> Blame -> Contempt. It's like feeding the elements of hate and it starts so simply. It's hard to treat comments in a positive way but I do think it's important to respond. That's the tricky part.
What's so obvious to me is that many of these people call themselves friends. And then there are those friends that always postive it seems and tend to start out a conversation with something positive to say. They are energizing and seem to set the stage for growth by come up with the things you actually need to hear, and it's the attitude that makes it not only acceptable but desirable communication. What a contrast in style.
What I get out of this is that we are all magnets. The magnetism can attract either good or bad people and/or situations. There will be situtations that will sway us one way or the other. They are all tests provided to us to strenghten who we are and what we believe. We become like trees, or not, flexing in the wind.
I recited a peom recently in two club meetings, stating that we can create a negative-free zone if we can be aware of our communications as we speak. It's called
Builders and Wreckers - by an unknown poet:
I watched them tearing a building down,
A gang of men in a busy town.
With a ho, heave, ho and a lusty yell
They swung a beam and a wall feel.
I asked the foreman, "Are these men skilled?
Like the men you'd hire if you had to build?"
He laughed as he replied, "No, indeed
Just common labor is all I need.
I can easily wreck in a day or two
What builders have taken years to do."
I asked myself as I went away
Which of these roles have I tried to play?
Am I a builder who works with care,
Measuring life by rule and square?
Or am I a wrecker who walks the town
Content with the labor of tearing down?
A rather sobering perspective on the roles we play in life.
I think I've been noticing lately is a pattern emerge, or perhaps my awareness of it, in conversation which seems to to start as a subliminal message. There are certain people which start the with a complaint. This may not sound vey subliminal, but I've concluded it's not just random. I find it somewhat predictable. Perhaps it's a subtle was to state general discontent, and that they are not going to do anything about the situation but complain - their intend, whether intentional or not, it to pass it on in the hope someone else will do something. This tends to start the cycle of Complain -> Criticism -> Blame -> Contempt. It's like feeding the elements of hate and it starts so simply. It's hard to treat comments in a positive way but I do think it's important to respond. That's the tricky part.
What's so obvious to me is that many of these people call themselves friends. And then there are those friends that always postive it seems and tend to start out a conversation with something positive to say. They are energizing and seem to set the stage for growth by come up with the things you actually need to hear, and it's the attitude that makes it not only acceptable but desirable communication. What a contrast in style.
What I get out of this is that we are all magnets. The magnetism can attract either good or bad people and/or situations. There will be situtations that will sway us one way or the other. They are all tests provided to us to strenghten who we are and what we believe. We become like trees, or not, flexing in the wind.
I recited a peom recently in two club meetings, stating that we can create a negative-free zone if we can be aware of our communications as we speak. It's called
Builders and Wreckers - by an unknown poet:
I watched them tearing a building down,
A gang of men in a busy town.
With a ho, heave, ho and a lusty yell
They swung a beam and a wall feel.
I asked the foreman, "Are these men skilled?
Like the men you'd hire if you had to build?"
He laughed as he replied, "No, indeed
Just common labor is all I need.
I can easily wreck in a day or two
What builders have taken years to do."
I asked myself as I went away
Which of these roles have I tried to play?
Am I a builder who works with care,
Measuring life by rule and square?
Or am I a wrecker who walks the town
Content with the labor of tearing down?
A rather sobering perspective on the roles we play in life.
