Trust a sly fox

Enduring relationships don't only happen in your dreams.  Have you ever been known to trust a person who turned out to be a sly fox? What would cause you to trust a person implicitly? What would cause you to stop trusting someone you did?

Consider what sorts of things define friends or colleagues you've known for a long time.  Reasons exist why you choose to build, maintain or sever relationships. As you think of people you don't trust, or people who have given you reasons not to trust them, you have developed reasons, be they conscious or unconscious reasons. Are you aware of how relationships affect each other?

For a lot of people, trust isn't something that appears miraculously. Trust earned over time through a close personal relationship tends to be resilient. Yet, once trust is broken, its much harder to get people to trust you again. Reflect on why you forge relationships and how. Are you the sort of person who commits part of yourself, all of yourself or, only a little of yourself? You may be the sort of person who only shares as much information as equals what other people share with you. Trust can evolve in terms of reciprocity.

Some people you meet will naturally be generous or selfish with their time and focus. By learning to think and feel as though you live in someone else's shoes, you can also strengthen your relationships. Learning skills, such as how to build understanding, can help build trust in others. As you understand how much it means for a colleague or loved one to undertake a personal challenge, you may come to trust that they'll do what they say they'll do. You may come to believe what a person tells you to be the truth, unless they give reason to believe otherwise. How have your views changed?

Your own incredible journey

Part of you searches for something deeper than what the mind thinks it knows. You already face certain challenges and are transformed by those experiences or feel somehow indifferent. Maybe you consider how you could share what you've learned to benefit others? Sharing your wisdom can make you feel successful but what if simply being is itself enough? Savour your own incredible journey every step of the way.

Success can be interpreted by the mind or felt in the heart as new ways of creating joy and experiencing life.  The mind tells you strategies generate satisfaction. You may see yourself as part of a collective generation that is defining group success with shared vision or specific goals. Notice your vision of success shifts at different stages of your life.  Is it aligned with your priorities? Ask what is the aim of each of your efforts. 

As you reflect back on 'rite-of-passage' events, your dreams and life experiences, you gain insight into other kinds of success. You realize that each time you separate from what you think you know in your conditions, self-image or any other aspect of your life, you will face challenges to get-to-know you can see yourself and life differently.  Notice different kinds of milestones.  Everything draws you back to what matters now.

In essence, you're supposed to get knocked down so you can learn to get up again. You're meant to expand on all those limits or ideas you thought were unchanging. They're not. Neither are you.  Perception is impermanent. True success is not.  It is symbolized by your willingness to set out on the journey to let go of the unreal and be who you are.

“Not all those who wander are lost.” J.R.R. Tolkein, The Fellowship of the Ring

Ageless wisdom

To know what it means to experience a meaningful life implies a kind of personal growth. You will recall life phases where certain activities and friends seem important, and later, these things will no longer seem important at all. You may even ask what possessed you to devote time to causes and relationships you would no longer favor. What is the impact of time on you? How do you evolve?

I recently assisted friends begin to sort through the house of their deceased great aunt. During her 101 years, her habits changed considerably. Imagine how the world evolved in her lifetime. She lived at home until the last four months of her life. Only then, she dealt with the politics of aged care homes. From age 94, she had daily home care visits yet, she also helped herself.

During her youth, she was apparently a social butterfly. However, as she outlived her friends, she became far less social. Her life evolved into simple routines from eating, sleeping and bathing to reading as long as she could strain her eyes. She became quite solitary, except for a few regular visitors. She also outlived her husband by 30 years. He was 6years older than she. What did she do to refine making the most of her time? Health and faculties determined what was possible.

It was quite startling to discover piles of clothing and shoes stashed away that this lady had bought many years ago and never worn. She had a wardrobe full of mould and dead bugs along with newspaper cut-outs, shot gun shells and basic sewing accessories, among paper bags and buttons supposedly worth saving. Handbags, gloves, hats and scarves had been collected during an era when shopping was her favorite thing. That part of her life was over, but she wanted to hang onto these things.

Her kitchen drawers were stuffed to the brim with coupons, knick knacks and paraphrenalia. She was portrayed as a pack-rat, a sorter of gadgets and a very organized woman who knew exactly how much her bills were and whether or not they had been paid. The stories she retained and shared were perhaps the best example of her humour and ageless wisdom.

We can learn a lot form our elders; how they lived, what they did or didn't do, and their general perspectives on situations which may be part of our history.

The utmost reassurance

If a goal or dream matters to you, it will matter to your guardian angel.  As you become aware of their constant presence, and exert effort to work with them, you'll discover new kinds of power.  Rather than asking, "where is my guardian angel when I need him?" remind yourself that you may actually have been saved a worse fate than you experience right now.

In life, if you desire to uncover things, you simply set your mind to it.  The same can be said for seeking more about your guardian angel.  If you don't sincerely believe in such things, then your efforts will be undermined before you start.  Imagine that nothing would give your guardian angel greater pleasure than connecting with you to empower you to enrich your own life.

You can determine many ways to collaborate with your guardian angels.  If you desire to be an agent of personal change, consider this your wake up call.  Along with other life phases, you can forge a spiritual destiny that is separate from other pursuits and beliefs.  You have free will.  Rethink those recent incidents you assumed were coincidences. Is there more to them? They may be the utmost reassurance.

M. Scott Peck & 5 Tips to smell more than coffee

Dr. M. Scott Peck is a recognized authority on the relationship between religion and science, and became especially known for his views on the science of psychology in inspirational writing.  He may be best known for his first book, The Road Less Travelled (1978) which sold over 6 million copies in America alone.  During his life, he helped select and train leaders to conduct workshops for the general public, and for organizations as diverse as churches, schools, government agencies, prisons, universities and businesses worldwide.  His timeless legacy leaves many lessons;

1)  Discipline brings wisdom.  Whether or not you realize exactly what is happening to you right now, you are hiding from something.  It could be some part of yourself that scares you or, some situation in life you struggle to face.  Focusing on the matter will help you to work through it.  Have faith in yourself. You can do it.

2) Love is a perpetual self-enlarging experience.  In coming to any point in life where you don't know what to do, grasp a sense of unconditional love.  This is available from people who cherish you and/or Forces beyond you.  Stepping back from regular routines will also enable you to remember who you are and build on it.  Allowing life to unfold through love is profound.  You can learn from everything.

3) You can't solve life's problems except by solving them.  Short-cuts aren't why we're here.  Awakening our inner talents and discovering our potential will only happen as you identify your values and those things that contribute to your identity.  Personal growth, like any success, is a subjective experience which can only be initiated and experienced by you and nobody else.  You define your own answers.

4) We must be willing to fail to appreciate the truth.  As you admit you have failed in an effort to reach a particular goal, in a short time, you'll feel as though you end up back at square one.   Slowing down won't necessarily prevent you from a sense of failure.  Convince yourself that the ultimate goal of stopping what you're doing is to launch yourself in more fulfilling directions.

5) Vulnerability doesn't exist without risk.  Life is full of opportunities for our own adjustments.  Change in any small direction has the potential to affect many areas of your life.  As an adult, nobody has a responsibility to tell you what you need to know.  You are required to figure things out alone.  Opening yourself up to recognize possibilities also means you're open to other risks. That's life.  

Until you value yourself, you won't value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it. ~~M. Scott Peck