November 2013 Blog - Weary of Washington's mind set? Join me in this affirmation.

November 2013 Blog - Weary of Washington's mind set?  Join me in this affirmation.

Once upon a time a man whose ax was missing suspected his neighbor's son. The boy walked like a thief, looked like a thief, and spoke like a thief. Later the man found his ax while digging in the valley, and the next time he saw his neighbor's son, the boy walked, looked and spoke like any other child.

I have had trouble writing my monthly blog because the wearier I got of hearing about recent events in Washington DC, the harder it was for me to see what lesson the universe was providing me.

Finally, I was reminded of this story attributed to ancient Chinese philosopher, Lao Tzu, and the quotation by American author, Anais Nin, said, "We do not see things as they are . . . We see things as we are."

Each person has a perspective.  Every person's perspective influences the way they view the world.  The child was viewed as a thief until the missing ax was found, and then he was viewed as any other child.

In the same way that it is only when I clean my glasses that I realize how dirty they were, unless I understand and acknowledge my perspective as being uniquely mine, ego tells me that my perspective is right. I need to remind myself that while we all live under the same sky, we don't all see the same horizon.

The Buddha said, "All that we are is the result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we think we become."

Knowing this and that each of us can strongly impact how we view the world and thereby the world itself, I commit to saying the following affirmation: I examine my perceptions of the world and allow other's their perceptions as we work together to build a better world for everyone.

Will you join me and encourage others to do the same?