Understanding Your Power
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Hi Reader, A very good friend of mine works in the education sector. She is perfectly suited to the work as she is extremely wise and patient. They are both traits I have associated with her since I first met her, and she embodied them even then, during our misspent youth! One of the wisdoms she shares with her students is that you can’t control what happens to you, but you can control how you react to it. I have always loved that counsel. It is attributed to the renowned Stoic, Epictetus. It's not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.
― Epictetus
At first, it offers comfort through an acknowledgement of damage inflicted or bad luck. But on deeper analysis, the wisdom of those words frees you from hurt from any event that occurs, no matter how severe. You alone are responsible for your thoughts, words and deeds. So you may choose the person you want to be. Choose how you respond and how the event impacts you. No matter what has happened to you. In his book, How to Practice, The Way to a Meaningful Life, His Holiness the Dalai Lama gives an example of just this. He recalls a conversation with a monk who had spent 18 years in a Chinese Communist gulag. The monk said he had faced danger on a few occasions. But the danger he referred to was not any ill treatment he had endured, it was the danger of losing compassion towards the Chinese people, as a result of his incarceration. Losing his compassion towards others was his greatest concern. Don’t mirror your hurt and inflict harm on yourself or others. You alone are responsible for your thoughts, words and deeds. While others may have power over your circumstance, you alone have power over you. Focus on the light, always, Natalie Attenborough |
Focus on the Light
Hi Reader, For my main occupation I am an arborist. It’s my job to arrange for the inspection of trees in order to manage them appropriately. Trees are remarkable, self optimising structures. A direct product of their genetics and environmental stimulus. And when left to their own devices, can live for tens, hundreds and thousands of years without issue, supporting literally thousands of other life forms on one individual tree. When we plant or encompass trees in urban settings, conflicts...
Hi Reader, As of today, the Focus on the Light Newsletter is going out weekly. I would like to thank everyone who has taken the time to send me positive feedback. It’s heartwarming to know that the newsletter is well received. My intent to help others by sharing wisdoms. They are not my wisdoms. As Mark Twain once said: "There is no such thing as a new idea. It is impossible. We simply take a lot of old ideas and put them into a sort of mental kaleidoscope." I am not sure I agree with that...
Hi Reader, I was recently given this to share. Work hard at forgiveness. I have been giving it a lot of thought. We have all been hurt or wronged, and we have all inflicted suffering on others, to a lesser or greater degree. Acting in ways that do not best represent ourselves. Who among us can say we have never hurt another through thought, word or deed? In such instances, we naturally wish for forgiveness. Just as we should forgive those who harm us. And although the act of forgiving can be...