Doing the right thing

"How do you know if you're doing the right thing? I come to you for answers."

"Why do you ask that?"

The anxious woman waited in earnest for an answer.

Initially, the calm woman was silent.

"Okay, my instinct tells me I acted with good intentions. I didn’t think I knew what I was doing and then the answers came. I gained confidence as I made choices and proved I could do things."  Her heart was pulsating. 

"If this is so, why do you doubt yourself and why come to me?"

"I didn’t get results I wanted. People didn’t react as I imagined. They didn’t praise and openly admire my efforts."

"So, your view of success is based not on cause or motivation, but on the nature of your effect? Consider the hidden reasons for your discontent. Seek to understand yourself."

"I'd say I’m completely unsatisfied with what I’ve done, with what I’ve received, with what I know, and with what I have."

"Precisely. What do you sense beyond this superficial dissatisfaction?"

"It's as if there’s part of me I ignore, though I have no idea why.  This part of me craves attention, and deserves respect, but just doesn’t get it."

"Curious. Doesn’t get respect from whom?"

"Why, I suppose, from myself as well as from anyone who knew about it, if anyone did." 

"See my point. Don’t let yourself be too influenced by what other people think as a measurement or evaluation of your efforts. Seek instead the recognize what the behavior of others mirrors about your hidden self."

"What do I want then?"

"You tell me.  It appears you have all the answers.  To be happy itself may be too simple. I sense you desire to live life as intensely as possible, to be aware of danger, to live life on the edge, to recognize the woman on the other side of the mirror, without needing other people to help."

"Is all that possible? "

"Anything is possible if you choose to take the risk. You’ve already chosen to go further than most people. Look how far you've come."

"But I’m not most people!"

"No, that's true.  But the fact that you make your life more difficult than it has to be makes the experiences more thrilling somehow.  Doing the right thing for you requires unconditional love, self-acceptance and self-respect."

"Is that all?  Well, I've been known to fit in 6 impossible things before breakfast." 

"If its a challenge, then believe its an invisible fire in your soul.  Defend those inner passions."