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.
Via a tweet from Julie Roads of ‘writingroads‘ that mentioned a blog named ‘Cleavage‘ by Kelly Diels that mentioned a quote within a conversation with Lianne Raymond that was rolling around in her head for 10 days I got part of this quote. I added the ‘every day’.
What is dying to be born in you? When is your due date? Is it perhaps overdue? Should you perhaps induce labor?
The pain of giving birth to this thing will be far outweighed by the love that will come from fulfilling your dreams.
Pretty simple really, the more you feel for others the less it takes to be moved.
Some are always wary of people caring about them, especially if the person doing the caring is in a stereotyped group.
Some don’t let themselves be cared for out of worry about being exploited or taken advantage of.
Some don’t care for others because they don’t feel anyone cares the same for them, and that is unfair.
Some think they aren’t worthy of being paid attention to in their pain and so never let it be known.
Some love to care but don’t have proper boundaries or discipline.
But no matter what the mutation of care is, we can all strive towards having that pure heart of love; the heart that cares, that pays attention, that is helpful.
The first half of this quote is ‘The Measure of an enthusiasm must be taken between interesting events”.
In other words, keep your faith and your drive going when there is nothing outside yourself to bring it out or else you will likely falter and give up.
“When the heart grieves over what it has lost, the spirit can still rejoice over what it has left.” – Sufi Aphorism
The pain of a break up or loss is about so much. If you are the breakee, then it is about wondering why you aren’t lovable, why you can’t keep a man or woman. If you are the breaker, then it is about not wanting to hurt someone but needing to get out. Those are just two things. But in either case, you will feel loss, you will feel something missing, a hole in your whole.
The suggestion that you might get from well meaning friends, ‘Hey, look at all you still have.’ might seem like just so much torture, since at the time you don’t feel you have anything at all. But in truth, in time, your spirit, in spite your heart’s desire to continue grieving, will look towards what remains and will find in them your strength and happiness for the days ahead. Cliche as it might be, it is how it really does go.
“There is no exercise better for the heart than reaching down and lifting people up.” – John Andrew Holmes
As long as you don’t have an attitude while you do it. If you do it to prove how great or noble you are, then your motives are like a bitter addition to a great tasting dish.
I don’t mean you can’t be satisfied and proud of yourself for taking care of others. I mean it is best to think those things after the fact, glow in it a while if you want, then forget it and go be the good person with a guileless heart.
