Throughout life, we silently request answers to questions emerging from within. Do guardian angels respond so we may hear? Which events unfold in your life that you desire to see or choose to selectively tune out? Do you attribute significance to experiences where none exists? You may be apt to make a fuss over things without having good reason. Would your choices differ if you sensed certain answers enabled you to influence the greater good? Who in your life is like an angel?
My sister and one of her female friends visited me for a week. They reminded me how people we love, as if by chance, have the potential to renew our compassion and faith in ourselves. As I took time to show them scenic places, I learned we may instinctively expand on our knowledge, stretch our abilities and resources, and realize we know how to do that. We may take our minds off discouraging situations and simultaneously remind ourselves we actually create these illusions. No person is forced to follow impulse. No person is forced to believe strangers or people they know interact as they do with a higher purpose. Yet, it can be our choice to believe this is so.
An accountant I met during Moombah Festival fireworks was quite a philosopher. He reminded me we all use numbers and discuss ideas that are really on loan and have already been used by other people before us. His experience further drew my attention to how people who think they experience financial difficulties always have access to faith and avenues to increase their ability to help themselves. Whether or not his clients or anyone else takes advantage of options is a choice. Our discussions reinforced the idea that no challenge is unresolvable.
A rural winemaker and inventor I visited reminded me of the many ways people can help each other by example. His approaches to redefining retirement living demonstrate how lifestyle and purpose are directly affected by our choices. His family has become virtually self-sufficient with its own water sources and he encourages a great sense of self-reliance. I'm reminded of the value of taking responsibility for all aspects of my life, my food and energy choices, my relationships, my intermittent, self-imposed isolation, my sense of motivation and vision of inter-connectedness. I have learned there are no correct or incorrect choices, only what I aim to do.
A country school teacher I met for work reminded me real-life issues relate little to traditional subjects taught in school. How a community would benefit from coming together to form committees and rebuild structures after a devestating bushfire has little to do with math, reading, spelling and health classes. Truly meaningful interactions are grounded instead on issues of patience, tolerance, understanding, equality and listening skills. To discover the fires stem from selfish violence and arson reveals a need to raise new kinds of awareness. Community members of all ages could benefit from different approaches to inter-cultural education.