Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Judgement Day


I always think about what I want to instill in my children as they grow..what type of people I would like to see them grow up to be.  Mainly, we're striving to ensure they don't grow up to be total materialistic, douche-y jerks, but hey--it can happen and all we can do is try.  Our own lives have been filled with a lot of struggle and hardships since ours were born, and yet, they have also been the most fulfilling, maturing set of years experienced thus far.  I am thankful we have experienced the struggle (even though during I thought I would break) because it makes me so much more appreciative of the little things.  Little things I may have missed if we were clipping along with no challenges.  Each day, I feel really lucky that I have been given the life I have.  I feel inspired, happy and eager to share things with others.  To lend an ear when someone is going through their own strife.  To listen and help without judgement, because if there is anything I've learned, it is not to ever look at anyone else and think you know better than them.  As a 20-something, I used to look at the homeless and think, "Geez, get off the booze and drugs & perhaps your life would improve a bit, eh?"  Yet I've never experienced addiction or perhaps the hardships those folks went through.  (& even if I had, who is to say how much strength I would've been given in the same circumstances)  I'm sure anyone can look at things I've done in my own life and make judgement-calls about what they would've done differently, but really--and it's taken me so long to learn this lesson---who cares?

We all have a path & co-create it with God.  We will always get what we ask for, but we should be prudent in our wishes.  To look at another and wish for their life is asking for trouble because you never do know what really lies within that person's experience.  I find my happiness when I am doing things to create and breathe life into things.  I feel appreciated and as though God puts me in the path of people whom I can assist and, in turn, who help me to feel whole.  I have found that the times in my life when I am "not doing it for the money" but instead, some sort of greater good, I am fulfilled and alive.  Of course, money resulting from creative endeavors is no evil, but eventually the wind will come out of your sails if that is the only end goal.

If there is anything I would like my children to know and understand as they get older, it is that it's okay to like what you like and be who you are.  Sometimes you will be ridiculed, sometimes you will be in disagreement with others (even me, your mom ;) about your choices.  In the end, your choices dictate your path and whatever path that is, there is a plan behind it.  As long as each day you wake up with your spirit intact and live your life respectful of the others in it, your choices will always be "right".  So no, Guy-In-The-Parking-Lot-Who-Steals-A-Space-From-A-Teenager-Because-He's-In-A-Rush, you do not get a free pass to be an a-hole to everyone, but if you don't feel like giving up the spot you rightfully found to an old lady who can't find a handicapped spot...so be it your own business.
Everyone deserves the chance to live a life of their own choosing.  



“Criticism of others is thus an oblique form of self-commendation. We think we make the picture hang straight on our wall by telling our neighbors that all his pictures are crooked.” 
 Fulton J. Sheen, Seven Words of Jesus and Mary: Lessons from Cana and Calvary


“Children must be taught how to think, not what to think.” 
 Margaret Mead

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