It's That Time Of Year

Written by Helaine Iris


It's That Time Of Year Helaine Iris (c) 2004 "The man who removes a mountain begins by carrying away small stones." William Faulkner

It's that time again, almost February. Deep winter in New England. Not only is it bitter cold and everything's covered in ice and snow, we're still months away from spring. Althoughrepparttar calendar says it's spring atrepparttar 130416 end of March, if you live in New England you know spring doesn't reliably show up until May. Ok, late April if we're lucky. Anyway, in addition to my obvious struggle withrepparttar 130417 climactic reality there's another factor that make this time of year particularly significant for me. My husband leaves for a three-week vacation/vision quest (alone) torepparttar 130418 southwest. Every year forrepparttar 130419 past 16 years he packs up his truck, decked out for camping and drives off on what he calls a pilgrimage.

It's a time to reconnect with himself,repparttar 130420 earth and his reason for being. He finds his way intorepparttar 130421 Utah desert, forty miles from civilization, with just enough food to keep him alive. There he sits, hikes and finds himself amongstrepparttar 130422 staggeringly gorgeous landscape of vivid color and isolation. Although I truly admire and support him in his desire to make this annual trip, it's a challenging dance for me. In addition to missing him, I'm left to shovel snow, keeprepparttar 130423 wood box filled, stokerepparttar 130424 woodstove, and single parent in addition to my existing routine and full life. It throws me into a vision quest of my own. A quest that although begrudgingly atrepparttar 130425 start winds up reminding me of who I am and what my purpose for being is. What still amazes me isrepparttar 130426 amount of resistance I have to this period of time. Even though my experience tells me I will end up enjoyingrepparttar 130427 solo time; I still dreadrepparttar 130428 day he leaves. So, what's really operating here?

Laughing Toward Truth: Six Tips for Lighthearted Thinkers

Written by Maya Talisman Frost


Do you believe inrepparttar power of your convictions?

It's time to lighten up.

People love attaching themselves to ideas. We can get pretty feisty when one of our beloved beliefs is challenged. We're too busy defending to spend our time analyzing.

Truth has a tendency to get inrepparttar 130414 way of our beliefs. We like having our rules to live by, our reasons for feeling righteous, and our excuses for ending intellectual exploration. Just as we climb up a ladder, we like counting on certain rungs to hold steady. Thinking about cracks just makes us uneasy.

That approach works if your goal is to reachrepparttar 130415 top, but it doesn't allow for much examination or lateral growth. Plus, there's alwaysrepparttar 130416 risk that you'll come crashing down.

Quick quiz: What fills you with more satisfaction-- being right or discoveringrepparttar 130417 truth? Of course,repparttar 130418 best scenario is discovering that you knewrepparttar 130419 truth all along. Validation is a huge motivator. That's why we find it more exhilarating to win an argument than to learn more aboutrepparttar 130420 other side.

It's kind of like that whole "life is aboutrepparttar 130421 journey" concept. The thrill is inrepparttar 130422 seeking. We've forgotten that. It's as though we went on a treasure hunt, stumbled upon what we thought wasrepparttar 130423 hidden booty, and now we've become complacent.

What if what you found wasn'trepparttar 130424 real treasure? What ifrepparttar 130425 whole point was to keep looking?

Thinkers have been wrestling withrepparttar 130426 concept of truth for ages. Socrates was fond of saying that there are only two kinds of beings who do not need philosophy:repparttar 130427 gods, who are already wise, andrepparttar 130428 fools, who think they are wise. We want to be in that large middle group of people who recognize their lack of wisdom and continue their quest for truth and knowledge.

It's helpful to be reminded that our role as humans isn't to figure things out--it's to KEEP ON figuring things out. Don't take my word for it. Here are some truisms about truth from some formidable thinkers.

#1 "The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd; indeed in view ofrepparttar 130429 silliness ofrepparttar 130430 majority of mankind, a widespread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible." Bertrand Russell, British mathematician

Can't think of any widely held absurd beliefs? You're not trying hard enough! Fashion, pop culture, politics(gasp!) religion, and virtually every other arena of modern life is full of examples of ideas that have somehow taken hold but defy logic. Good Thinker rule number one is simply this: Never accept an idea just because everyone else does.

#2 "Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked byrepparttar 130431 laughter ofrepparttar 130432 gods." Albert Einstein, American physicist

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