Simple Blessings – Page 6 – ramblrWrites.com

Not Work, Care.

Many famous or successful people will tell you that you have to work hard to achieve your goals, you have to keep burning that mid-night oil; and as one of our past Prime Ministers here in Jamaica once said, she was always, ” working, working, working.” But when I think about it, is working yourself out of relationships, your health and your peace of mind so important and worthwhile?

Many persons have compromised who they are to reach where they want to go and I have to ask, is this real success?

Image result for working hard to succeed gif

Some may say I’m asking because I have not achieved their level of success, but,that’s not where I’m coming from. I have seen or heard, in my space and other spaces, of people who re really talented who are not super wealthy or super successful, in term determined by a few, who seem to be happy with their lot in life; who just seem normal. In a world where being normal is seen as basic, their normalcy becomes refreshing. It is those who are always striving, reaching for the star just ahead who seem to now be doing too much, going too far and in the process losing the light that they where born with.

At any cost. That is what some people accept as the way to be successful, which can cause someone to lose sight of what it really means to care about the things that should matter. One of the things that require our attention more than gathering wealth, is to confront the traumas that have given us the urge to seek the applause of the crowd by working long and hard.

Image result for selfcare and success quote

Success is as success does. Before going on this grand adventure, many people do not ask what success will mean in their own lives. So, you get the things you set out to get and then you wonder why you wanted them in the first place. Could it mean that there is something internal that is damaged, that having those things can never fix? If so how much is this need for success driven by destiny or some childhood trauma? I think it’s important and necessary to question why you want to achieve certain things, because if we don’t, we run the risk of having someone else’s mountaintop experience.

Bird in a gilded cage. Whether or not we want to admit it the result of success may not be triumph but a gilded cage – much nicer than the one we were in before – but a cage none-the-less. Thinking that we are working to better our lives and the lives of those we love, can blind us to the true state of our situation and not see that instead of approaching he finish line, we are about to fall over a precipice. Sounds scary, but true. Instead of addressing one problem, the need to get that “bread” can create many more that is harder to fix with the success we may get.

Awareness and care are one and the same. If we really want to get to where we should be, and not where we were never meant to be, then it may be time to question whether we strive from a place of brokenness or if our journey is fueled by the will of the Almighty.

Image result for success comes from the almighty quote

Stick With It.

When something seems hard to achieve, stick with it because it always brings something good.

We are really good nowadays at giving up too quickly. We sit and think about everything that could go wrong, that has gone wrong and we decide what we want will never happen. We turn our backs, abandoning what might have been for what will never be. Today I felt so tired I thought I would have a panic attack. In the past the thought of having one, would lead to one. However, today I stayed calm and smiled through the anxious moments to survive the day. So, I ended the day feeling happy, energized and contented, even though I had eaten very little and done a lot. I was even surprised how quickly the day seem to have gone by. If I had given in to that feeling and let it win, I would have never known the sense of accomplishment I felt at finishing out the day.

Let us walk with God so that our walk will be filled with only good days. This morning I left out for work in the dark, but I never felt afraid walking through Spanish Town before 6 a.m. in the morning. It never entered my mind to feel fear. To question what was just around the corner. At every turn I did not question what I would find because I had already invited God to walk with me. So, when I was just about to cross the road to continue my walk, I was blown by a car! It was Mr Martin, he picked me up and I reached work the earliest I had ever reached! But I know that with every experience, what we consider good or bad, if we don’t want to, and invite God to walk with us, we will never walk alone.

We are stronger than we think we are. I don’t think we give ourselves enough credit concerning what we can endure. It could be that there are things we think we could never do. It has nothing to do with the fact that we can’t do it, but more so because we don’t want to try, out of fear or indifference.

When we crash, it may seem easier to give up than try to find our way back to the land of the living. However, since we don’t know what we are capable of until we find we have no other choice, let us stick with it till whenever.

Not A Pity Party.

I learned from my own experiences that we can so easily be manipulative by appearing pitiful.

Image result for no more self pity quotes

It’s easy to become this way, but it’s a difficult habit to break, especially if your behavior is being encouraged. Being pitiful means that when you make a mistake, you can use those “pitiful eyes” and say “sorry”, and everything is forgiven. However, every action has a reaction and therefore we need to be accountable for all that we do.

Feeling sorry for yourself serves the purpose of allowing you to continue to make excuses for why you seem to be stuck in the same place. Also, why you find it so difficult to make the necessary changes that you need to make. It may seem to be a good thing to be cuddled and pampered all the time, but there comes a time when being cuddled becomes a stifling of all the potential that you have.

It reminds me of how a friend told me he learned to swim. One day his brother grabbed him and threw him in the water and he literally had to sink or swim; and since he is still here I guess he eventually learned how to swim. The point is, if we rely on people to feel sorry for our plight we will forever be victims of circumstances, forever pitied as the little engine that could not.

For some more than others, it’s easy to fall into the “woe -me”- trap and to milk it for all it’s worth. But ultimately we do ourselves a disservice when we accept this narrative, in any form.

Let us all stop making excuses and allowing others to make them for us. Let us be bold enough to be honest with ourselves if no one else will. Bravery is not showing that we are vulnerable, we all are in some way or another. Bravery, is pressing forward and doing what needs to be done, in spite of all our vulnerabilities.

Between Two Shores.

I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
John 15:5

It’s a wonder that many people can get anything done nowadays. Imagine constantly having to review and alter all you believe. Imagine having to decide that you believe everything and nothing. Imagine caught between two or more ideas about who you are and not knowing which one should be the real you.

The world has become a very strange place to be. In this world where many seek and find good opportunities , until they are not. At the point where the wool has been lifted from their eyes they start complaining about all that had to change now that they got what they wanted all along. So, they hate the job they had and so get a new one, only to start thinking of moving on a week later. Or has it always been that way? Is this what they meant about the grass not always being greener on the other side?

It is interesting to observe people, because you can learn a lot from observing them. Many people want change and grab the opportunity to realize it, but never fully comprehend what it means, for the life they led before that change. Somehow they do not realize that the change means they can never have things the way they were. Then they realize that the things they took for granted did matter, but it does not matter any more, because they have left them behind, willingly.

When we chase what we desire, and get it, it doesn’t mean the story ends. Sometimes even in the midst of worldly success, we have to find the answer to who we are with each rung we climb on that slippery ladder:

We have to become accustomed to a new way of being when we enter a new season. It is never easy to be between two shores…

In spite of it all, I believe that this too is good. Our moments of discontent with what we gain lead us to remember the source of everything right and good… I AM, who is The Creator.

Lighten Your Load.

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
Matthew 11: 28

To go to work I carry a backpack because it seems easier and less strenuous. However, there are times when the bag gets so heavy that I feel as if I am bent double. Then again, there are times when I do not carry much and I feel a little taller and step a little lighter.

When we carry load that weighs us down we feel compelled to stop and rest too often. We get tired quickly and we feel as if it may be too much. That may be when we regret carrying what we are carrying and begin to dream of the day when we can carry much less.

Our situations may be similar. We may feel as if the load we carry in life is too much and so we rest and end up resting for too long. Even though I know the load I carry today won’t be there tomorrow, I may still be consumed by this burden.

However, we need to remember that the load we carry is for a time and will eventually lessen; so, even if we are not at first convinced about this, we need to say it until it is true; the burden I carry will become less with time.

He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak
Isaiah 40:29

To Know Peace…

The way of peace they do not know;
there is no justice in their paths.
They have turned them into crooked roads;
no one who walks along them will know peace.
Isaiah 59:8

There are many paths you can take in life and many can lead to peace and others lead to war, whether it is internal or external.

There are times that we seek peace in the wrong places. Also, we seek it from people we surround ourselves with. Peace is not a commodity that can be traded and therefore, though free, it requires a great deal of spiritual connectedness to tap into much needed contentedness.

The absence of peace begins inside a person and overflows to impact those he or she becomes connected to, whether directly or indirectly. Sometimes it’s necessary to tune everyone out and walk in peace. I recently went walking through my home town of Spanish Town. It is a town notorious, in the past and maybe the present, for sudden violent outbreaks, usually based on gang related activities. But today I walked through narrow streets and lanes that I had never walked with anyone. And on my walk I felt a sense of being at peace in the world. There was no one with me on that walk and it felt good to have a clear solitude, that was only concerned with putting one foot in front of the other.

Peace is not something that can be bought nor traded, it is available for all to experience.

ruin and misery mark their ways,
and the way of peace they do not know
Romans 3:16-17

While I walked, I had to decide whether I would travel in the areas that seemed uncertain, less traveled and so I took a chance, veering on to an empty road. Walking on that road I saw no one, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that the path I had chosen further extended the sense of peace and quiet I was enjoying. The area far from what I thought it would be, was aesthetically pleasing to the sight. The road was so clean, that it seemed not to match the rest of the town. The old fashioned Georgian styled homes that echoed a colonial past, had been brought back to live with vibrant colors and love. On passing through that seeming oasis, I realized that peace is available anywhere if that is what we seek. After I had left that little wonder, I came out feeling revitalized, as I too had been brought back to life on my solitary walk.

Therefore, when I reemerged into the hustle and bustle of the terminus to take the taxi home, I felt I would be alright.

That all that had troubled my mind before, had been beaten into submission and taken away.

He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”
Mark 5:34

Mouth Full Not Full Belly.

I thought about this and if you view this in passing, you would probably say it makes no sense. Yet it does.

There are many times when we feel we do not have enough, that we should have or even deserve more. We take for granted what we do have and say that we are not blessed because our lives are not overflowing.

Have you ever eaten too much? I have, and have regretted it until I am no longer full to bursting. In the hours that it takes to get comfortable, I have regretted being so mindlessly greedy. I obviously had bitten off more than I could chew.

It’s not the case in the song by Bob Marley and the Wailers: Them Belly Full (But we Hungry):

Them belly full but we hungry
A hungry mob is an angry mob
A rain a-fall but the dirt, it tough
A pot a-cook but the food no ‘nough

It’s not that we have nothing, but that we may feel that more would be better than just enough.

So, we buy more things than we need, and try to be a part of everything that is happening around us. We can’t be still, worse silent, because we may miss out on something. What is that something? We may not be sure but we just might.

Full mouth, but around it we complain. Perhaps maybe we need to stop complaining about having just enough, we may choke ourselves and never truly appreciate and benefit from what that full mouth can do for the body and soul.

	Simone on Freedom from maladaptive …
	Farrah on Freedom from maladaptive …
	Simone on Maladaptive Daydreaming
	Priscilla on Maladaptive Daydreaming
	Simone on Maladaptive Daydreaming