Reflections on Meaning

 

Our Meaning is Our Choice!

 

All the meaning associated with an event has become associated with that circumstance by us - by our choice.  What a lesson!  There are thousands of meanings that we could associate with any given event.  What we choose is up to us.

 

Your default "Meaning Maker" may be wrong.

 

Often our ego is first in line to offer a meaning that we could assign to a set of facts in our life.

 

The following is what I call an “inner dialog.”  It is meant to be a meditation that opens up the blocked places in your creative self.

 

Do not be persuaded by perfectionism.  Sometimes, our emotions become an ally to our ego, suggesting to us that it is prudent, expedient, perhaps even essential that we believe what the ego is saying about our mistakes, express it, or take action accordingly.  Sometimes, as was the case for me yesterday, physical pain presses in to lend its own strange kind of urgency to our meaning selection.  We stand back and watch all of this!  What is going on?

 

At this point we have a choice to say, I am worthy of making myself happy again!  My human deficiencies and all that is wrong with me do not make me evil or bad—just kind of shattered.  I may be broken, yet I am still whole.  I am like a cracked veneer.  I have character like a vintage piece of furniture.  I am like a valuable heirloom, precious, timeless and beautiful.  I have unique attributes that only time and seasonal weathering can produce.

 

Look for your inner beauty.

 

A person who appears to be broken can be beautiful too!  For, a lackluster shine can glow again if put in the right light.  “Perfection” is overrated, and ultimately a matter of subjective judgment, after all. If I start with “I am here,” “I showed up,” “It is I,” then the “I” can go forward!  Remember, It is the inner “I” that truly needs to be satisfied, rather than the evaluative “me.”

 

I ask myself, “What kind of nourishment will I give myself today?”  Like a robber who sneaks around at night taking whatever he pleases only to wake up in the morning to find out he has stolen from himself, the evaluative “me” shames what it  believes it cannot maintain.  But the “I” can create!  It can create something beautiful within the present moment!

 

Your interpretations are your reality.

 

I've come to realize that my circumstances are a mere set of facts.  They have no inherent meaning, in and of themselves but that which I choose to give them.  I will choose what is most beautiful!