My Stroke of Insight

One of the MOST fascinating and uplifting TEDTalks I've ever watched. I hope you will take the time too. It's a mere 18 minutes (and a few seconds) but it may just be the best 18 minutes you'll ever spend. Or...if nothing else, it may change your idea of what and how and who you are. But PLEASE, don't take my word for it. Just WATCH.

"My Stroke Of Insight"

by Jill Bolte Taylor

{PHEW!}

Here, on this the twenty-seventh day of the year, as we wind down to yet another year ending, I can't help but feel...relieved. Oh, how happy I shall be when this horrid year is over. Me thinks it has been tough for many on our Planet. Not just here in the United States, but all 'round the world. There have been so many dreadful happenings. AND rather than go through that "list", let us simply say,

"THANK THE GODS IT'S OVER!" and move on to the business of BETTER.

Many of you make your lists of New Year's Resolutions, with, I am sure, great hope of accomplishing those things. For those of you who've been here for any length of time, you know I am not one who does ("resolutions"). I've never found them to be anything more than lies I told myself. For every one I didn't accomplish, I always felt badly for my lack of willpower or consistency or determination.

UNTIL...

I realized that I'm just not a person who fares well under such rigid rules. I am, instead, the kind who envisions whatever it is I would like to modify/add/remove from my world. One step at a time. One day at a time. Works for me. Without all the guilt!

To that end, I thought it might be a good time to pose a few seeds for your new year too.

WHAT IF...

You were to focus on what makes you happy and leave misery for those who seem to enjoy it.

You were to begin each and every day with a simple prayer of gratitude for all the many JOYS that are your world.

You were just not so damned hard on yourself. YOU are a GIFT. Treat yourSELF as one.

WHAT IF...

You simply apply LOVE to all your days.

How grand a year it will be then, yes?

Wishing each of you a splendid, joyful, merry, loving, satisfying, creative, MARVELOUS

NEW YEAR!

Chuck Lorre Productions

Thank you, Mr. Lorre.

{I'm still waiting for your answer to my marriage proposal.}

CHUCK LORRE PRODUCTIONS, #575

Back in the sixties when Star Trek debuted, you couldn't help but notice that the bridge of the Starship Enterprise was a multi-cultural, multi-national, multi-intelligent species sort of arrangement. It portrayed, to my impressionable young mind, an inevitable kumbaya, pluralistic future. It's only lately that I've come to understand how naive that world view was. I now see that human nature, particularly during times of stress, becomes tribalistic, not pluralistic. Which is neither good nor bad. It's probably just how we're wired, a survival mechanism baked into our DNA. Under pressure, the prime directive is to protect the tribe. Genetically, that makes perfect sense. Human beings without a tribe tend to starve or get eaten. Now I don't want to cast aspersions, or "throw shade" as the kids like to say, but I would like to point out one thing I find painfully obvious: He's not in your tribe. He's not in my tribe. In fact, if you look closely, you'll see he belongs to no tribe. And he never really has. Make of that what you will.

The Howl

In the Howl
there is a Whisper.
The Whisper is your Truth.
Listen.

~C.O. Strate
  12.7.17