Are We Human?

These days, I feel tired and worn out with what goes on in the world around me. I see a bunch of greedy people all out for themselves hoping to either score "goodies", "lawsuit wins", "rewards" or "more control". It feels like no one is really even thinking about what lies ahead or what our actions will bring about tomorrow. In case you misunderstand me, this post is not about politics. It is much greater than that.

Most people don't even bother to ponder what life is about or why they are here. Some go to church once a Sunday and then exclaim they have the answer. Others, feel like they should deviate from the church and religion, only to bundle spirituality up into something that resembles that which they long to flee. You've got others that chase every ounce of snake oil offered up in philosophies, facebook forwarded messages and tabloid magazines. Yet, there are people who chase the corporate dream, hoping to save enough money for later years that they can enjoy if a heart attack or some other disease doesn't take them out first.

At the end of the day, we as humans spend very little time on what truly matters in life. We walk around with our heads in the clouds, acting as if we have the answers. We forget that life is more than just having the answers. Life is about searching, evolving and discovering all there is to know.

We can listen all day long to the speakers of our time and our location but if we fail to listen to what is within, what have we profited. We end up with a head full of regurgitated facts and a body so out of touch, that life is forever altered. The messages we seek are there within us, but yet we look to so many others, so many systems and so many ways of thought to find them.

I hope that we will begin to wake up as a human species and really and truly begin to understand that there is so much more out there. We are not the sum total of all that we can be. In fact, in many ways, we have only begun on our journey of discovery. My hope is that we as a human species will learn to harness the power of fear so that it will transform us into a more evolved human.

We should never settle for what we know today or what we think today is all about. For tomorrow may not come as we think it will. Life can change in the blink of an eye and the more we understand our purpose, our role and the process, the more we truly will become human.


Blog Post & Images (c) 4/9/11 Don Shetterly - use by permission only
http://www.donshetterly.com

A Different Walk Through Our Life Today

What if today, we took a different walk through our life? By that I mean, everything that we hold to be the gospel truth and the only way we view things, could be dropped for one day. What if we just took all of those things and put it in a very special lock box where we could pick them up at the end of the day.

In replacement of those views and truths we hold dear in our life, we would allow ourselves to ponder everything that we have held at an arms length from our life. We would be curious about alternatives and other ways of viewing that which we are usually against. We would take a moment and listen to view areas that seem completely opposed to every fiber and cell of our life.

Of course, I'm not advocating that you give up all your long held beliefs and truths and wisdom for your life. I am just offering the possibility that for a day, you allow yourself to see things from a different perspective. You give yourself the option of understanding another view point or thought or belief system.

Just think of all that this may do for you and others around you. All to often, we get so caught up in what we have been taught to believe or what news pundits and politicians on TV tell us to believe that we miss the greater point of being a human in this world. We spend way too much time opposing viewpoints that others in this world have rather than opening ourselves up with a listening heart.

No matter who we are, we have these parts of us that are locked in the beliefs system of our lives. Our belief system is essential for us to define who we are but if it becomes who we are, than we have failed to define ourselves. A belief system is something that is constantly evolving because as you discover new worlds, the shoreline of where you traveled from looks amazingly different.

Give yourself the opportunity to travel from your current shoreline to a place you have never seen and be curious about it in a way that allows you to see a new perspective. At the end of the day, you will of course be free to open your lock box and pull out all your treasured beliefs, thoughts and views. However, there is a chance that some of these things will look different than they did when you put them in there.



Blog Post & Images (c) 1/25/11 Don Shetterly - use by permission only
http://www.donshetterly.com

A Thought To Ponder

Why is it that we can more readily see the good and the potential in someone else than we can see in our own selves? It is something to ponder.