Great Tranquility – updated 2017

by | Feb 1, 2010 | Heart - 2010, Thomas a Kempis | 0 comments

On and off over the next few weeks I will be posting ‘heart‘ napkins. Look for them, be the first on your block to collect them all and show your friends!

It’s funny how some people hate getting praise or compliments. They don’t know what to do with them, or they don’t believe them, or they see too many flaws in themselves to be a peace with a compliment.

It’s not so funny how some people are unable to take the blame. You can see the desperation as they find excuse after excuse to avoid what everyone else sees. It’s their fault and the solution won’t come until they admit that.
 
So, how do you have a tranquil heart when one’s world is peppered with one or the other of these things throughout a day or week or life? Isn’t it ok to enjoy some praise, to like it, to want it, to feel gratified getting it? And isn’t it even more important to take blame (responsibility) for those things that are properly yours to take? Are you avoiding these things, purposely detaching from them, so you can be at peace?
 
I don’t think so. While the quote seems adamant, my take on it is that it isn’t that these things aren’t enjoyable or critical to acknowledge. It’s that if one invests their heart in those things, if they are at the center of why you do what you do in life, then you will not have a tranquil heart.
 
What do you think?
 
Drawing and commentary © Marty Coleman
 
“Great tranquility of heart is his who cares for neither praise nor blame.” – Thomas A Kempis, 1380-1471, German priest and scribe

Be Not Angry – updated 2017

by | Dec 21, 2009 | Self, Thomas a Kempis | 0 comments

As Professor Higgins says in ‘My Fair Lady, ‘Why can’t a woman be more like a man?’ That is a sexist version of what so many wish, that the people they deal with would be different than they are; less annoying, less hard to understand, less odd in the way they do things.

How often is that our first reaction because it is so much easier to desire that than to actually figure out, and implement, how we can change instead.

Not just because we have areas we would like to change, but also so we have a better reaction to those around us. So everyone else isn’t an annoyance, but is just another person to try to understand, like we hope they would try to understand us.

Drawing and commentary © Marty Coleman

“Be not angry that you cannot make others as you wish them to be, since you cannot make yourself as you wish to be.” –  Thomas A’Kempis, 1380-1471, German Priest and Theologian

First Keep Peace Within – updated 2017

by | Jul 2, 2009 | Thomas a Kempis | 0 comments

Day 6 of Vacation – I figure I am in a kayak or hammock now!

Oh, this one is so hard! I succeed at this at a ratio of 1 per 20. that is one
day out of 20 maybe i am at peace with myself. How often are you at peace
with yourself, and how do you go about achieving it?

“First keep peace within yourself, then you can also bring peace to others.” – Thomas a Kempis