If you can’t be a good example – be a warning

No one put things more starkly and more bleakly that the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, often referred to as the “philosopher of pessimism”.

In early youth, as we contemplate our coming life, we are like children in a theater before the curtain is raised, sitting there in high spirits and eagerly waiting for the play to begin. It is a blessing that we do not know what is really going to happen. Could we foresee it, there are times when children might seem like innocent prisoners, condemned not to death, but to life, and as yet all unconscious of what their sentence means. Nevertheless every man desires to reach old age; in other words, a state of life of which it may be said, “It is bad today, and it will be worse tomorrow— and so on till the worst of all.”

If you try to imagine as nearly as you can what an amount of misery, pain, and suffering of every kind the sun shines upon in its course, you will admit that it would be much better if on the earth as little as on the moon the sun were able to call forth the phenomena of life; and if, here as there, the surface were still in a crystalline state.

Again, you may look upon life as an unprofitable episode, disturbing the blessed calm of nonexistence. And in any case, even though things have gone with you tolerably well, the longer you live the more clearly you will feel that, on the whole, life is a disappointment, nay, a cheat.

If two men who were friends in their youth meet again when they are old, after being separated for a lifetime, the chief feeling they will have at the sight of each other will be one of complete disappointment at life as a whole; because their thoughts will be carried back to that earlier time when life seemed so fair as it lay spread out before them in the rosy light of dawn, promised so much — and then performed so little. This feeling will so completely predominate over every other that they will not even consider it necessary to give it words; but on either side it will be silently assumed, and form the groundwork of all they have to talk about.

He who lives to see two or three generations is like a man who sits some time in the conjurer’s booth at a fair and witnesses the performance twice or thrice in succession. The tricks were meant to be seen only once, and when they are no longer a novelty and cease to deceive, their effect is gone.

If children were brought into the world by an act of pure reason alone, would the human race continue to exist? Would not a man rather have so much sympathy with the coming generation as to spare it the burden of existence? Or at any rate not take it upon himself to impose that burden upon it in cold blood.

- From Studies in Pessimism (1913)

Finality...?

“The past is a place of reference,
not a place of residence;
the past is a place of learning,
not a place of living.”

― Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart

Try not to Grease your 'Emotional Slope'

When going through a hard time,
try to imagine your future, happier self,
sending you back a message saying
“please keep going,
I promise you you’ll get through this
and life will be better again”.

January 1st can be the first data point towards a new Goal.

Last year had its ups and downs, but has personally ended so badly and I've noticed I'm honestly losing interest in even the smallest things in life that used to carry such meaning up to now.

So I'm reminding myself how there are opportunities in just about every experience. Things I can learn from. Things that will help me grow.

A good friend recently said to me, what's meant for you won't pass you by. So whenever you have a negative experience, ask yourself, where is the opportunity in this? What is good about this situation? Opportunity won’t knock until you build that door.

Wishing everyone the best in the years ahead.

G

2018

Happy New Year to everyone who has ever read this blog. If any post or part of it has ever helped you in any way then I'm happy. Wishing you health, happiness and prosperity in 2018. I'll continue to try to create some posts moving forward, but I feel this year is going to be my most industrious one so far. New year, new me and all that jazz.






"A dream written down with a date becomes a goal. A goal broken down into steps becomes a plan. A plan backed by action makes your dreams come true" ~ Greg Reid

Never Give Up

Any effort to help is an effort worth making.

 

One day a terrible fire broke out in a forest - a huge woodlands was suddenly engulfed by a raging

wild fire. Frightened, all the animals fled their homes and ran out of the forest. As they came to the

edge of a stream they stopped to watch the fire and they were feeling very discouraged and

powerless. They were all bemoaning the destruction of their homes. Every one of them thought

there was nothing they could do about the fire, except for one little hummingbird.

 

This particular hummingbird decided it would do something. It swooped into the stream and picked

up a few drops of water and went into the forest and put them on the fire. Then it went back to the

stream and did it again, and it kept going back, again and again and again. All the other animals

watched in disbelief; some tried to discourage the hummingbird with comments like, "Don't bother,

it is too much, you are too little, your wings will burn, your beak is too tiny, it's only a drop, you

can't put out this fire."

 

And as the animals stood around disparaging the little bird's efforts, the bird noticed how hopeless

and forlorn they looked. Then one of the animals shouted out and challenged the hummingbird in a

mocking voice, "What do you think you are doing?" And the hummingbird, without wasting time or

losing a beat, looked back and said, "I am doing what I can."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

~ The Hummingbird Story, told by Nobel Peace Laureate

Wangari Maathai in May 2006 at a conference on poverty

elimination in Montreal.

The Cracked Jar

An Indian legend tells of a man who carried water to his village every day, in two large jars tied to the ends of a wooden pole, which he balanced on his back. One of the jars was older than the other, and had some small cracks; every time the man covered the distance to his house, half of the water was lost.

For two years, the man made the same journey. The younger jar was always very proud of its performance, safe in the knowledge that it was up to the mission it had been made for, while the other jar was mortified with shame at only fulfilling half of its allotted task, even though it knew that those cracks were the result of many years hard work.

It was so ashamed that one day, while the man got ready to fetch water from the well, it decided to speak to him: ''I want to apologize, but because of the many years of service, you are only able to deliver half of my load, and quench half of the thirst which awaits you at your home''.

The man smiled, and said: ''When we return, observe carefully the path''. And so it did. And the jar noticed that, on its side, many flowers and plants grew. ''See how nature is more lovely on your side? commented the man, I always knew you were cracked, and decided to make use of this fact. I planted flowers and vegetables, and you have always watered them. I have picked many roses to decorate my house with, I have fed my children with lettuce, cabbage and onions. If you were not as you are, how could I have done that?''

''All of us, at some point, grow old and start to acquire other qualities. We can always make the most of each one of these new qualities and obtain a good result.''

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