Value 101 - June 16th 2022

"Your ordinary acts of love and hope point to the extraordinary promise that every human life is of inestimable value."
Desmond Tutu

“The place to improve the world is first in one's own heart and head and hands, and then work outward from there.”
Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values

Thoughts today:

I'm now reading 'The Elephant Whisperer' by Lawrence Anthony with Graham Spence

There is a lot to learn from the elephants and the wild, if only we can quiet our self important ego and humble ourselves to listen. All of nature is talking to us, if only we can listen and trust our place in the intricate network of this universe is not to subjugate it but to accept our role in it. We humans may have the gift of a bigger mass of brains, but without wisdom and respect for others these brains fear and react more selfishly than any animal.

Cheers

Jeanne 

Thoughts today:

You tell me you hate what they are doing; the government, the scientists, the corporations, the rich, the rebels, the violent, the police, the this the that,

The others, the others, its always their fault

They want to subjugate us, for their gain, their power, their control of resources 

Then what do you do?

You fear, you fight, you close ranks with people who believe what you do and lash out at everything that is preventing your freedom

You become a group like those 'theys', a group putting your own interests above all else. Because you are right of course, that is what makes it okay... 

But... but but but

Has this ever changed anything except create struggle and war, fear and hate, ultimately we might shift power from one group to another after a lot of bribing or killing. 

So what do we do? We rant and we rave and we fight ourselves. Has this ever changed anything?

Sometimes we make everything so complicated. The simple, but herculean, task is to recognize we are the problem and we hold the key. 

The only change we can make is to ourselves, and when we sincerely, heart and soul deep take in that joy in living is not about competition. take in that what we do can either effect change in the world 

or perpetuate the hate and fear that has permeated and saturated our societies. 

The simplest and hardest thing is to look deep into ourselves for our values then live them, ignoring the rest, not becoming addicted to fear, blame and accusation rather than showing the alternative is to live strong, live true, live humble and trust that being who we really are is enough.

I'm now reading 'The Elephant Whisperer' by Lawrence Anthony with Graham Spence

There is a lot to learn from the elephants here, if only we can quiet our self important ego and humble ourselves to listen. All of nature is talking to us, if only we could listen and trust that our power is to know our place in the intricate network of this universe. We may have the gift of brains, but without wisdom and respect, without shutting up and listening, we are like a virus spreading plague on the earth, and the perpetrators of our own destruction.