Life 101 For the Young and Young at Heart! Book ExcerptWritten by Caren A. Adams
Lesson 1. Category Well Being Plan to do this. Stop blaming others for your shortcomings and failings in life. Why should you do this? What ever happened in past is not a prediction of what will happen in future. Take control of you, your thoughts, and your actions, so you may do something positive about your future life circumstances. What happened? There have been situations where people stepped, and even stomped me to ground, both mentally and physically. It was not until evaluating why this was happening when an epiphany happened, a clarity I never had before; I was allowing these negative people and things to occur in my life. All time, blaming others for their words and actions, and then truth hit me like a ton of bricks. If I did not want others to take advantage of me, then I should remove myself from their presence, either mentally or physically. It is hard to say this to someone, more so to children who have no control over their circumstances, but then again, maybe they actually do have control to some extent. Talking to their teachers, extended family, or neighbors, calling police or child services for help is a start. How do you convey to anyone that he has power to do anything if he does not have a strong mind and willing heart? Control your life from within yourself—it is that simple. If you do not believe you have control, then remove yourself physically from situation. If you must remain in a situation, then cut off negative people and their actions in your mind; find a way to drown them out, as if you were tuning out commercials when watching television. When bonus time had arrived, I overheard our supervisor telling our manager to exclude my job function from bonus pool by transferring it to another department. Some people are mean spirited, and you cannot help them, just pray for them. I did not receive a bonus that year, allowing our supervisor to receive an even larger bonus. Everyday, as I passed our supervisor in halls I would repeat this to myself, “You mean absolutely nothing to me, and this is only a stepping stone on way to a greater life that God has promised me.” I could not change what happened but I could change my response. Convincing myself that it was a learning opportunity, one that would make me more humble, to learn not to react negatively to others, to learn how to ignore some people and things, and to look forward to a better future. Take this truth to next step, and you release blame and not allow it to consume your life by dwelling on its negativity but go on to take control of your life and actions to make you a better person. How do you do this? Changing blame from them to me by questioning myself as to what I was doing to deserve this. Thinking it must be something I did. When I answered question, I realized I was not doing anything. Therein laid problem of who was responsible. Questioning, allowed me to evaluate other options I could use to change my circumstances. The options were to remove myself from situation or stick to it but change my perspective. Instead of hoping for people or circumstances to change, which were unreliable anyway, take steps necessary to circumvent problem. Never try to change a person. Offering suggestions may help, but ultimately I have control over my destiny, rather than molds others have set for me.
| | Broken Dishes and BarackWritten by Roger Wright
Broken Dishes and Voice of GodBarack Obama, alone, leaned against wall in kitchen corridor underneath Hotel Allegro in Chicago and looked at his watch. Next to him, a bus cart jammed with dirty breakfast dishes waiting to be washed. In dining room above, his introduction was winding down, and in 90 seconds, he'd get a running start for stairs and go bounding up two at a time to spring into good sized room for one last stop on this campaign. As Barack Obama stood alone; smoke filled, back room, cigar chomping, nod and a wink echoes of generations of Chicago politicians, their chuckling, knowing spirits too rooted in downtown loop to ever leave, despite candidates that came and went, paused for one eternal moment and all took a look. Later that night, all these generations of dark and shaded political men knew, Barack Obama would be up in front of a room 10 times size of one in Allegro. He would be thanking everyone. And owing no one. So they paused for one quick glance. Santiago Cruz, 52 years old and smiling like Columbian sunshine even when he thought himself alone, carrying a grey, plastic tub of dirty coffee cups and saucers, didn't notice Barack Obama on other side of bus cart of dishes. Swinging his grey tub up over his head to plunk it down on top of cart, Santiago looked to his right and saw quiet Obama smiling. In space of a second, Santiago wiped his hands on his pants and took Obama's outstretched hand. And as Barack leaned in towards man to shake, he bumped his shoulder hard into cart, spilling all he dishes stacked on top on to floor, shattering in a million pieces and at same time sending a jarring shooting pain all through Obama's shoulder, a pain so sharp he winced and bowed his head. And as he winced in pain without one real clear thought at all, Obama instinctively got to his knees to begin picking up shattered dishes. Santiago Cruz, still stunned by crash, stood for a moment and looked down at man on his knees picking up dishes. Joining him then on floor to do same, Santiago heard applause from dining room upstairs and beep of other man's cell phone going off at very same time. Santiago Cruz and Barack Obama, both kneeling on floor, their faces a foot apart, looked straight at each other and another kind of recognition registered on Santiago's face. Where he had been smiling before, where Santiago ALWAYS smiled, smile took on a deeper tone. Something changed in that smile---and there was a tone of sadness in that smile, then hope flickered for just a moment and his eyes lit up to a new brightness and he said "OBAMA! OBAMA OBAMA!"
|
