IT’S YOUR CHOICE!Written by Rhoberta Shaler
Do you really realize just how much choice you have in your life? Every moment you are choosing. The trick is to make those choices conscious, to be aware that you are actually making a choice at each moment.I was talking to one of my book editors other day and he asked me why I wrote that you choose your perceptions in life. He wanted to know how I thought that was true. Well, more accurately, he did not want to believe it was true and was hoping to convince me otherwise!! It takes maturity to take responsibility for your choices in life—all of them. It’s much easier to find someone to blame for what you do, what you think and how you feel. It’s quicker, too. The dictionary says that perception is ‘physical sensation interpreted in light of experience’. Wow! Your past experience actually plays a part in how you see your world. What a surprise! So, anything you hear, see, taste, touch or smell can trigger a past memory or a past response. Whether or not you allow it, though, is your choice. You can change way you see life at any minute. You do choose what you pay attention to at every moment. Do not let your pre-programming from past experiences determine how you see your life now. That’s where real choice in life is! Have you ever been in a new relationship that has great potential for becoming a significant relationship? As you get to know one another more deeply and ‘first date’, ‘honeymoon’ phase dissipates, it sometimes happens that that special person seems to react to some small thing in a way that completely surprises you. For example, he or she might display signs of jealousy when you have done nothing to warrant it. There is an example of a ‘physical sensation interpreted in light of experience’. Your new partner may very well be reacting to a way you looked at someone or moved your body that they knew to mean flirting in their past relationship. Now, they want to interpret it in same way in your new relationship. No! That’s not fair!
| | RememberingWritten by Joanna M. Carman
As anniversary of September 11 approaches, we find ourselves once again drudging up compassion and patriotism, ready to light candles and join hands with strangers for sake of peace and unity. Countless memorials across our nation will host thousands of tears praying, begging for a better world where planes are not flown into our mothers, brothers, and friends. Just as weeks that followed September 11, 2001, Americans will stand together, united in our hope for love and kindness for all mankind. Everyone I know wants to do something grand, wants to hold hands and give hugs, maybe take dinner to an elderly woman. We'll turn our headlights on that day and hang our flags at half-mast. We will honk at painted man holding his flag high on highway overpass. However, as great as it is to have this unity back in our hearts, I can't help but feel disgusted that in last half of year, everyone forgot that little feeling of togetherness that carried our nation through those first few months of recovery. After debris was cleared away from Ground Zero, after all survivors' wounds were dressed, and all television programming was back to normal, it seems as if Americans also returned to our old ways. It didn't take long for some of us to attempt to fraud various charities setup for families and victims of 9-11. In fact, some news reports tell of husbands killing their wives, passing off teary- eyed stories about how their soul mates were killed at World Trade Center - lies that are true for many of our neighbors. This less than a year after we all held hands and cried together. Television news brings you reports of parents having sex with their 3- year-old child over a webcam, all for pleasure of their fellow abusive parents. There's fighting everywhere.
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