Tag Archives: People

22

The Power of Your Choice

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What do we all have in common that makes us human?

diffent the same

No matter where you live or what you do to survive, life always boils down to our choices. From who you choose as friends to how responsible you are, it is all decided consciously. We all can choose what we experience.

 Many people have a hard time accepting responsibility for these choices in their lives, but if you look at yourself honestly and in an unbiased fashion, you will see the power your preferences have had on your life’s success or failure.

 Yet often, we fail to look closer and see the common threads that run through us all. Our choices in what we see, who we love, where we go, and what we do are all made by us alone. Think along with me and recognize the power of your choices as you do.

One Connection Through us All

I think that we are all connected.  You are reading this, and my miles away from you, a person you have never met, are connected.  I believe in the energy we produce each all connectedday through the tenor and intention of the thoughts we create.

 Some see God as a being that exists somewhere, guiding us from afar or judging us either good or bad in our actions. Based on some outward notions of right and wrong.

Yet, it seems that God is much closer and more involved than that. He is inside each of us, and when you can quiet your mind, you can hear that power in all things. God doesn’t judge. God guides. How well we listen will provide joy or disappointment in our experience.

I am not looking for a fight to convince you of anything or change what you believe because that is your Connection and, of course, your choice. I know that I have never felt more connected and sure than I do now.  We all have this Connection inside of us and need to look for it and listen to it to know what we should do.  We are all connected, and that makes us human. It is your choice to determine how that Connection affects your life. I feel that anything that provides separation of people is not from God, and anything that connects people is.

The Choice of Kindness

tumblr_lejihkylQ41qcre5zo1_500When I look at all people, I think we all have the choice of kindness every day in all situations we encounter.

Someone yells at you unfairly, and you have a choice, hug them or punch them in the face.  Someone gives you a gift, and you have the same choice. The choice of your action is always with you, not someone else.

 I have never encountered a situation where kindness was not the right thing to do or didn’t make a bad situation better.

 It eases the pain, boosts morale, and makes people feel generally good and hopeful about the future.  All of these happy ships of thought are sent through acts of kindness.  We all choose to be kind or cruel; you decide what the people in your life will be experiencing. The ability to choose to share hearts makes us all human.

Greatness Lies In Us

All people are born with a great talent of some kind. Unfortunately, life seems to present us with a relentless avalanche of experiences tgreatnesshat cause us to forget what this talent is. To the point that we forget we possessed it in the first place.

 There is a passion inside of you and me that is our own. Each of us has this; once you investigate it, you will find your path. The one that makes you truly happy and allows you to connect to life in the best way possible.

Dreams are the vehicles that these passions follow.  You dream of what you would love to do with your life, and your passion and talent make this happen.  Sometimes we create our roadblocks by overthinking things and believing the negativity that others provide.

What if this happens? Or if only that should happen? Or any other million possible limiting questions that can impede you from simply reaching for your dream.  It may seem daunting and too much of a chance, but the only way you will ever know is to create the journey toward your goals. The journey is a powerful thing because that is where life lessons exist.

How much will I cherish the lessons I learn on the way?  Mistakes are great teachers and often bring tasks you need to know to reach the dream eventually.   We are all searching for our true selves and the ability in us that will make us great. Your choice is to seek this talent or let it lie dormant forever. You can’t blame anybody else.

The Dark Side

One of the scary parts of having the freedom to choose is that from time to time, we are going to

We all have a darkness, without it we couldn't recognize the light.
We all have darkness; without it, we couldn’t recognize the light.

Choose wrong.  There is a dark side in everyone, and all people are capable of great goodness and great evil, and it is one of the mysteries that make life delicious to taste. It is a choice.

 Everyone has been on the dark side at some point, and it may have seemed like it was for a good cause, but when you choose anger, fear, intolerance, or hate, you choose the dark side of humankind.

 I am not wise enough to know why, and I only observe and know that from what I have seen, both darkness and light do exist inside every person I have ever met, including myself.

 Accepting this fact is not difficult because nobody is perfect. I recall all the times I chose for selfish, fear-driven reasons, and I know I could have done better.  It is not a criticism of people, only an observation of fact.

 All people have a dark side. Putting it aside and maintaining the light is a show of strength, which is the most difficult choice.

 We are all the same

All people have so much in common that I often find it inconceivable that hate exists merely for arbitrary reasons, race, religion, culture, region, or even sexual orientation.

If people focused on what we have in common rather than their differences, the world would be friendlier and more productive.  I know that people attacking differences in others is a defense mechanism to make them feel safe, but I can always hope that it will change and our commonalities will be more important than how we are different.

What were the most powerful choices in your life?

 

21

Excitement

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What gets you excited about life?

We should all be this excited by the prospect each day brings!
We should all be this excited by the prospect each day brings!

No matter what they do, every person has to find things that get him excited about life. They do not have to be complicated or expensive things. They get you going and allow you to feel happy about just living on the face of the Earth every day. 

I would never presume to speak for anyone but myself, but here are the things that I enjoy and make my existence a much more enjoyable experience.

1. Learning and Reading

learningWhen I was a young person, I did not care all that much for learning. It was something that you had to do to get to the next step in life.  This is the wrong way to present education in my mind.  All of us can learn and expand our minds into whichever areas interest us and strike our fancy.

In the past few years, I have learned more than at any time of my life, and it was all done by my desire to expand my mind.

It was not because of what anyone else thought or because I took a class to get a degree.  Learning was taking place because I wanted to be a better person and live a more meaningful life.   Learning gets me excited about living life today and looking forward to the future.

2. People Are Just Awesome

Few things get me more excited about life than the people I have met.  Each person is a unique mixture of personality and intelligence that allows them to contribute to the world in their own unique and powerful way.

Knowing these kinds of people are out there in the world, looking for the best way to live or just making the best of what life has given them, gets me excited about life.  I know that if the good people I have come in contact with are in charge of the world, the future is in good hands.   The people I know get me excited about life.

3. Change Is Always Happening

changeThere is one thing that I am sure of about life, and change will occur no matter what you do. 

Some of the changes you experience are going to flow smoothly, and some are going to rattle your cage a little bit more.

There is only one choice to make though, either you can fight against the inevitable change, which will lead to pain, grief, and sorrow. Or you can choose to roll with the changes that come your way.

I am choosing to ride with the winds of change because they are blowing whether I like it or not.  That is why I have decided to let the life changes excite me about living rather than force me into a depression about what I used to be.  Sometimes the things that change are precious to me, but some seasons come and go, and there are unique and beautiful experiences in those seasons.

Enjoy them while they last because they will change as surely as winter will follow autumn and summer will follow spring.  These changes get me excited about life.  It would be boring if nothing ever changed, ever!

4. The Boston Red Sox and Baseball

awesome red soxBaseball is not for everyone. It is a sport that seems to be moving at a leisurely pace but is not.

A mental aspect to the game should keep you interested and engaged throughout a game or a season.  The Red Sox are a passion for me because they are the team of my family.

The love of this team had tied generations together, and even when there was a hard time finding common ground, we could all state an opinion about the Red Sox.

This love of the Red Sox gets me excited about life because it connects me with the people in my life who I have cared about who is gone. I remember when my grandfather took us to Fenway for the first time.  It was the quintessential ballpark experience.

I walked up the stairs leading to the field, and the area was so green, the uniforms looked so white, and they’re a few feet from me was Dwight Evans, Jim Rice, and Carl Yastremski.   Then I glanced over at the green monster. I was around 9 or 10 years old that day, and any question I had about loving that team was answered on that day.

It is interesting to note about my grandfather. He was born in 1920 and died in 1993, so he never saw them win a world series. I like to think he was feeling the vibe I sent to him in 2004.  He would never have believed it.  I sent a special prayer to him that night because the Red Sox got us both excited about life.

5. Writing from my Inner Thoughts

quotes-about-writing-4Finally, there is the practice that has come to take up so much of my time.  For many years I fought against the urge to express myself in words and to arrange them in only the shortest and simplest patterns.

My prose expressed very little about myself or what I thought or felt.  It is only recently, like the melting ice at the end of winter, that the words have started to flow.

6. Creativity, I believe, is the key to unlocking your unique talents and thoughts.  If you are stuck at anything then, do something creative.  Draw, write, paint, sculpt, knit, spin, whatever you can do to be creative will lead you to the answer you are looking for.  Writing for me is the way I answer the questions that life has thrown at me.

I once worried about the quality of my words and the judgment they might render from others, but I have learned to let that go.  My words are mine. They express what I think, and anyone reading them can like them, hate them or ignore them completely.  That is their prerogative.  I can’t write anything for the sake of pleasing someone else, and it would be a waste of time.

Writing allows my inner thought to have an outer expression, the voice that can’t speak, speaks through the written word, and that is why writing gets me excited about life!

What gets you excited about life?

21

Anger

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For those who like spelling!
For those who like spelling!

I was faced with today’s question of whether or not anger is a bad thing or a good thing. I believe that anger is one of the emotions that you should avoid because it is one of the emotions that stem from fear.  However, being the open-minded person that I am, I am willing to look at the emotion of anger from a neutral standpoint and decide once and for all if it is desirable to be angry or not.

Anger is just Anger

I am the first to admit that anger in and of itself is not a bad thing or a good thing. It is just a thing.  We all experience the emotion of anger because we are human. But, it is how we deal with that emotion that I think is important.  So, where your anger takes you in your thoughts, words and actions will determine whether that experience is productive or not.  This determines if it is good or bad for you.

Is anger Good?

Happiness is better than anger.
Happiness is better than anger.

There are some good things to anger.  The emotion itself exists to let us know when someone or something is hurting us or our needs are just not being met. It acts much like a smoke detector, warning of potential danger.   The positive possibilities exist when you look at the anger and understand why you feel this way.  Dealing with these emotions positively and discussing them with the people close to you allows you to work on that warning sign, and the next time it will bother you less.

Anger Problems

It’s not the anger that is the problem. Poor management of anger is the problem. If you are prone to angry outbursts, then you know that anger is more often than not going to entice you to say or do something that you will be apologizing later for.

Anger causes you to react from emotion and act quickly, without really thinking, and those results are usually bad.  But more importantly, I believe it is important to recognize where that anger is taking you.  If, for example, anger makes you physically violent, then that is wrong, and it is always wrong.  That is the most dramatic case, and most people would agree that it is never OK to commit physical violence no matter what someone does to make you mad.

tumblr_mdfkwiHmPt1rzcaajo1_500Everyone knows someone who has an anger management problem, and they are not pleasant people to be around.  You live your life walking on the edge of a volcano, with no idea when it might explode, spewing hot lava all over you.  I have also been fortunate enough to interact with people who use their anger as a push to understand themselves.

We should apply the same filter to other reactions which result from anger.  Much like the action to hit, push or slap a problem away from you because it hurt you, a person can react just as thoughtlessly by adding hate, revenge, or jealousy to the problem.  This would be a great example of how to turn the emotion of anger into something terrible.

Anger leads to Revenge, hatred, and jealousy, to name a few.

Negative thoughts that we entertain are going to affect our lives negatively.  Whether you believe in karma, quantum physics, or Christianity, hate is not an acceptable thought or behavior, and nothing good ever came from revenge, hatred, or jealousy.  They are nothing more than a person’s effort to “payback” someone or something that hurt them or didn’t fulfill a need.  So allowing this anger to churn inside you and spin out these other negative thoughts and actions will harm your existence.

Hating someone because of something they did to you or someone else is the same thing as hating yourself. We all have the ability to commit great evil and to show tremendous love.  How can you hate someone else for acting exactly like you are capable of?  You never have to like what they do or accept it.  Deplore the act, but forgive the person responsible because it is only through forgiveness that you can find peace.

Revenge will Get You Nowhere.

The same can be said for revenge. When someone hurts you, the most natural response is to want to hurt them back in any way you can.  Through name-calling, disparaging comments, or actions that you know will cause pain.  You can find revenge, but it will not make you a better person.  Anger is the hot rock that burns the one that holds it.  To hold a grudge, or obsess about paying someone back, is only going to stop you from moving forward.  The past

All emotions are ok, it is our reaction to them that causes problems.
All emotions are ok; it is our reaction to them that causes problems.

It is gone, it is over, and no matter how much punishment your hurt feelings get you to implement, you can’t change the act that hurt you.  This thought pattern will stop you from letting it go and move forward.

Jealousy is a Monster

Anger often is turned into jealousy about careers, love, or even possessions.  There is nothing positive about this emotion.  Jealousy is selfish and can turn one of the best experiences in life, love and turn it into a controlling, manipulative relationship.  Most of this comes from anger that you either ignore and are a slave to in your reaction to it.

These are just three negative emotions that stem from not positively handling your anger.  My experience with each of these has been inclusively negative in every way imaginable.  Jealousy stems from anger fed by insecurity. Revenge is a reaction to make someone else recognize and understand the hurt you are feeling, and hate is an emotion that has no positive aspect to it at all.

Forgiveness is Final

There is no reason to beat yourself up or think you are a bad person if you experience anger because we are all humans, and we all experience anger.  Gandhi experienced anger, but he didn’t let it consume him. He believed you had to forgive those who wronged you or the things that happened to you.  Once you let them go, they no longer have any power over you, and you can freely move on with your life.  Much like a giant burden is taken off of your back.

In conclusion, Anger is an emotion that is neither good nor bad; it is an inevitable piece of being a human being, stemming from being hurt or not having your needs met.  How you deal with anger and what you let it manifest into in your thoughts, words and deeds are where we can recognize anger as either positive or negative.

 

21

Duplicitous

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It has been an observation that all people are duplicitous, always have been, and always will be.  Some have more separation between their two sides, but we all have them.  This image of the apple makes me think of this.  Billy Joel expressed it very well,

“Well, we all have a face
That we hide away forever
And we take them out and
Show ourselves
When everyone has gone
Some are satin, and some are steel
Some are silk, and some are leather
They’re the faces of the stranger
But we love to try them on.”

What you show the world

I don’t think that anyone can argue with the premise because we don’t go around showing the world everything about ourselves. We show them what we want them to see or are comfortable with them seeing.  This apple is like that because you will see something undesirable if you look at the bottom, and it looks like it is no good.  However, if you look at the top, the apple still looks healthy and normal.  If the apple

hiding feelings
Be Careful What the World Sees

could choose to show you only its healthy-looking side; you would assume it was a normal and healthy apple without knowing the hidden damage underneath.  All people are this way to some degree.

Hide Your Damage

People hide their damage from the world for a couple of reasons.  First of all, nobody wants to be judged on the things that have happened and hurt them.  Nobody knows how much someone has been hurt or why. It seems a narrow thought process to label someone for one small part of their life.  Most often, judgments come from selfishness to point out someone else’s pain to hide our own. Or deflect attention from the very same issues in one’s own life.

masks
Are all outward appearances just carefully conceived masks?

Another reason people practice this separation is that if people knew their true feelings on things and issues, they would reject them, and they would lose acceptance in society.  This fear keeps many wearing their masks for their entire life, showing what they know will be accepted and hiding their different faces, regardless of the honesty behind them.

Why Be Shady?

It seems that people would be a lot happier if they could be who they are, think what they want, and be allowed to heal their damage. This is the way of the human condition, and we will continue to exist like the apple showing what we believe to be our shiny side to the world while we hurt underneath.

It makes you wonder if everything you see from people is just a mask or if they are trusting you enough to show you what they really think.  That is why people like dogs because you always know exactly where you stand with them. I have met people I thought I knew well, who proved over time to be hiding their true self behind a veil of lies and misinformation.  I can’t judge too harshly.

Keep To Yourself

How much of myself do I keep to myself? Just because I don’t want to put myself in front of the speeding train of judgment.  Much like all of our superheroes, Superman, Spiderman, Batman, and the like, they maintain a “secret” identity to protect a part of themselves.  I think it is to give them a safe space to live, outside of the public pressure of being Superman.  I think there is a bit of that in all of us.

Regardless of where you stand personally on the subject of duplicity, I will know that you, as well as everyone else, have a duplicitous identity. I guess the trick is to see which side of themselves any person is choosing to show you at any one time.

21

No Regrets

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Today Is The Thing

4559365435_16203_gallery_xlargeLife is full of moments, each with its own individual fanfare and trumpets calls.  It is up to us to find the joy to embrace in each of these moments or notice the potential each day brings. Some live their life missing today because there is a constant focus completely on the past. Creating their identity out of the regrets about what happened yesterday, last year, or twenty years ago. Regret gives us a poor present to live today.  Most of what happened is a fantasy anyway. It is proven we don’t remember much of what happened accurately, only through our own perception of events.  Even if you are accurate in your recollections, can you change it? Even a little bit?

Today, this moment is all there is for you, and the more you branch out your attention from that, the less opportunity there is for enjoying the here and now. Keeping your focus on the task that you are working on will allow you to enjoy life.

All That You Do

In everything that you are doing, if it is worthwhile, you should be doing it well.  We should strive to complete everything that we undertake to the absolute best of our abilities.  There are times when our best may not be enough, but more often than not, it will regretbe.  I would only regret something today if I didn’t give it an honest effort and try. If something doesn’t work out how I think it should, then I have an opportunity to learn. It is in those lessons lives are defined, and new efforts can spring.

Regrets come from thinking about what might have been, so the only way I can regret what I am doing is if I could have done it any better.  If I spent time looking backward, I would miss the opportunities for success, enjoyment, and fun existing in this very moment I should be paying attention to.  But instead, I am regretting what I said to someone thirty years ago or how I shouldn’t have done something way back then.  This is a waste of time because you can’t change the past, and if you could have done better at that moment, you certainly would have.  Today I am trying to pay attention to what I am doing so that I won’t regret them later.

 I strive to be focused in all that I do and give my best effort to do it in the best manner I am capable of. Using the lessons I learned from the past and leaving the past where it belongs, far behind me.

To Be or Not to Be

fcd97ac86af9a9d2a31d9bcdc0971a3cThe question of whether our being or existence was worthwhile has been asked throughout time.  Some people have one bad experience taint everything else that comes in their life. It can happen when you are young and becomes the excuse for everything going wrong throughout life.  There is no need to have a childhood or an adult trauma define everything about your current life.  We all have obstacles or insecurities to deal with to see ourselves and our lives clearly.

 Once that trauma drama is overcome, and you see yourself for what you are, a creative, one of a kind, giant capable of doing just about anything, then you will not regret a moment. Each second is driving you toward your best self and what you are capable of.  Who is to say that the bad experience in your life wouldn’t end up being the catalyst for you to spring to greatness.  It is only an anchor if you keep yourself tied to it.  Never regret your being. I know I don’t, and neither should you!

Time to Have it All

What you have is really depending on how you look at life.  Do you regret that you don’t have regretown more possessions to stack up?  I don’t think the number of “things” you possess matters at all.  Although things may provide momentary pleasure, it is just a fleeting moment that passes as quickly as dusk slips into darkness.  Then to feel good, you need to have more stuff.  Stuff is not going to satisfy your soul or lead you to happiness. Only appreciating the moments of life and what they bring right now can do that.

The love of the people in your life will lead you to happiness in the giving and receiving that relationship. Of this substance, I am not sure that you can have too much.  Love is the kindness one shows to another when they are feeling down. Love is the acceptance of a person’s idiosyncrasies and to still claim them as your other half.  Love, caring, and kindness is attributes that make life enjoyable, and these feelings will last inside of you as long as you focus on them.  When the smell of a new car or the shine of the latest technological gadget has long faded, those you love and the feelings of joy will remain with you.

You may be able to trick yourself for a season or two into thinking that stuff will make you happy, but in the end, the emptiness that is inside you can only be filled by the love of people, and it starts by loving yourself. NoRegrets happen when you combine your thoughts of the past with your perceptions of their outcomes.  It would help if you tried something else.  If you only would have gone sooner.  I should have known what would happen.  All of these regretful thoughts do nothing to change the past. They only muddy up the waters of today, making tomorrow more difficult to get to.  Leave regrets in the past, enjoy today, and hope for the best tomorrow possible.

I Regret nothing. I learn, and I live.

“We all do things we desperately wish we could undo. Those regrets just become part of who we are, along with everything else. To spend time trying to change that, well, it’s like chasing clouds.” – Libba Bray.

“We don’t have to be defined by the things we did or didn’t do in our past. Some people allow themselves to be controlled by regret. Maybe it’s a regret, and maybe it’s not. It’s merely something that happened. Get over it.” – Pittacus Lore.

“If only. Those must be the two saddest words in the world.” – Mercedes Lackey.

 “Make it a rule of life never to regret and never to look back. Regret is an appalling waste of energy; you can’t build on it; it’s only good for wallowing in.” – Katherine Mansfield.

“The only things I regret, and the only things I’ll ever regret, are things I didn’t do. In the end, that’s what we mourn. The paths we didn’t take. The people we didn’t touch.” – Scott Spencer

 “Don’t live your life regretting yesterday. Live your life so tomorrow you won’t regret today.” – Catherine Pulsifer.

I made mistakes but held on to my faith……….No Regrets, No Regrets!!

 

Articles

Letting Go and Moving On

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by Jonathan Hilton

ten quotes changeSometimes a change will come as quick as an Earthquake totally changing the landscape of your life.  Other times changes happen so slowly as to be almost imperceptible to the observer.  Yet no matter the time they take, change is constant, and powerful, like a river carves a great canyon where none existed before, change affects your life each and every day.

I say this because there have been many changes over the past year for me to absorb.  Experiencing the events happening in my life right not is the easy part, but for me to actually let all of the past go, that has been the hard part.  Yet all things do change and all things do eventually end.

Even though I know that there was an ending many years ago, I still kept a hope alive that in time there would be a reconciliation in some way.   I always wanted to make sure that I was available, should this moment arise.  This thought has been stopping me from living let-go1life to its fullest, and the change that is taking place is that it ends today.

This is no monumental feat or grand accomplishment, in fact to all other people it will mean nothing at all.  Yet to me it is the ultimate in letting go.  I have forgiven, I have understood, but I have never let go, and it is time that I did.

So when you look at the world today, looking up at the clear blue sky, or later tonight seeing the moon hanging in front of its pitch black canvas, understand that in a small way, the world is different today than it was yesterday and a very small part of that is because it was finally time to let go and say goodbye to yesterday and accept the promise of the future.

Questions

Tranquil Dreams Visits Life of Jonathan

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by Jonathan Hilton

A Great Visit

This world of blogging is a strange world indeed. You read blogs, leave comments and begin to feel like you actually know the people you are talking with.  Yesterday I had the great

Kim (left) of Tranquil Dreams visited the Life of Jonathan the other day. It was awesome.
Kim (left) of Tranquil Dreams visited the Life of Jonathan the other day. It was awesome.

fortune of actually meeting one of my blog friends in person and to make them an actual friend.

If you have never read Tranquil Dreams then you don’t know Kim.  She writes eloquently about food, books and especially movie reviews.  I enjoy reading her work and what I like best is that she always has a friendly and encouraging comment to share with you when you visit her blog.

Kim told me she was coming to Maine awhile ago, and I was hoping that we could meet in person when she was here.  We were able to work out the details and I was able to spend some time with Kim and her awesome boyfriend Eric.  They were kind enough to humor me and listen to my stories about camp and life.

For me it was a thrill, and if Montreal is full of people like Eric and Kim, I definitely have to visit there.

I hope anybody who is coming to the area, gets in touch with me to arrange a meeting, it was amazing to meet your blog friends in person.    Also in the picture, Kim makes me look really tall.

Questions

The Influx

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By Jonathan Hilton

Day 68

In life there aren’t many experiences which bring large numbers of positive people into your life at once.  Each person making a lasting impact on you, whether it is big or small.  If you are a reader of this blog, then you have noticed my absence recently.

The great crew from camp after an unexpected dip in the lake. It cost me a phone but it was well worth it.
The great crew from camp after an unexpected dip in the lake. It cost me a phone but it was well worth it.

I had great intentions of being able to keep writing while working the hours that this great experience requires for the short-term.  Unfortunately life has gotten in the way, and my intermittent contributions will have to do until the middle of August.

Inspiration comes from life, and I think that to live your life to the fullest and gather the lessons that each day has to teach, you need other people in it.  There is a sign in my current office which I did not put there, but it serves to remind me about the impact that people have.  It states. “Everyone brings joy to this office.  Some when they enter. Some when they leave. ”  I have found these words to be true.

My current occupation is as an administrator at a small summer camp in Maine.  It is a fantastic place, and the staff that works here consists of tremendous young people.  I often hear people complain about the younger generation and the fact that they lack work ethic or morals.  I would challenge them to spend a day with the counselors at our camp.  You would be bowled over by character, determination, hard work and just plain decency.  They are all good kids who contribute greatly to the successful running of the camp.

Selfishly, the influx of all of these great people has made me a better person.  All people get down, and need an encouraging word from time to time.  Without even knowing that they are doing it, almost without exception this group of young people has encouraged me daily, and inspired me not only to advocate for them, but to remember my younger self and the dreams and inspiration that come along with it.

Often times as life moves along we tend to minimize the number of people in our lives as we become set in our ways and interests.  I know that I have been less likely to venture out of that comfort zone to stretch to try new things.  This entire experience has been a stretch and a growing experience.  I know that it is only for a short season, which gives me the strength to carry on through all difficult circumstances and also reminds me to cherish the moments that do come along.

Each and every person in this adventure, those that are here and those that have moved on have made an incredible impact on my life in a very short time.   From the owners to the girl who washes the clothes.  I am truly lucky to have been able to be impacted by these great people.  I am sure that just as quickly as we all came together, we will all separate at the end of the summer, but  the memories of this experience will last with me for the rest of my life.

 

Questions

Worst Question Yet

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 Would you rather be a worried genius or a joyful simpleton?

by Jonathan Hilton  Day 40

37When I read this question I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. My answer is neither  but not because I have anything against genius or even anything against a simpleton, (whatever that means).

 I assume the question is designed to make you feel like genius comes with worry and if you are a simpler person you will experience joy. I reject the question as biased and borderline offensive.  Here are my thoughts.

Worry is a Choice

First lets look at the word worried. This is always a choice, you don’t have to do this.  This question seems to assume that only intelligent people worry and only people with no 923246_642439195781583_1059462715_nintellect are happy. This if offensive to me as a human being who strives to find a way to be happy, am I merely a simpleton looking for my natural state or am I a genius doomed to failure?

Worry has never made anyone more successful in anything.  No matter how much you work something over in your mind, dread it or want to avoid it, you still can’t stop it from occurring.

Any random, run of the mill genius should realize this, so if you are spending your life as a worried genius then you are, in my opinion only half right.  There are choices every day that people of all intellectual levels have to make which directly reflect on the experience they will have.  Just like kindness is a choice and what thoughts about life you pay attention to are choices as well.  I do not know much but I do know that  an intelligent person would be able to choose a better recourse than to waste their time worrying.

Why Judge?

There is a judgment in this question that should be ignored and pointed out. Who am I to differentiate between a genius and a simpleton. Suppose I am a member of the latter

I like these guys. Am I a simpleton? Or just a fan of comedic genius?
I like these guys. Am I a simpleton? Or just a fan of comedic genius?

group, I assume I would lack the skills to understand the question.

If I were in the former I suppose I would be too worried to function and display my genius appropriately.  I guess I don’t know why anyone would ask such a question.  These distinctions are all relative anyway to the intellect of others.

 I may be a genius to some and a simpleton to others, that distinction has absolutely nothing to do with what type of person I am, or how much I worry or am happy.  Not one bit.  We spend too much time in life labeling others and placing them in categories to feign some sort of understanding.

 I may be a simpleton which means I would be a little slow on the uptake but I know that we are all connected and the more time we spend dividing us the unhappier we are going to be in the end, no matter if we think mighty thoughts or nothing more significant than the batting average of a baseball player.

I have been fortunate to know many great people in my time, and intellectual ability has never been a factor in how I felt about them.  It was the kindness, the giving,  and the value they provided.  I have enjoyed conversations with people all of my life there is no intellectual entrance level of intellect.

The Worst Question in The World

Just reading this question I think makes the world just a little more of a difficult place.  I

I can't bear to listen.
I can’t bear to listen.

apologize to anyone reading it, because I feel like just considering the labels of genius or simpleton makes us all a bit more narrow-minded.

 I hope to embrace all of my fellow human beings, not just some endowed with high levels of intellectual capacity, but all of them.  The phrase joyful simpleton is along the lines of ignorance is bliss.

 They are designed to demean portions of the population. Who are these simpletons? Where do they live? All of us have parts that are intellectual and others that enjoy the simpler things in life.  There is no reason to intellectually slander anyone for this.

Accept all people regardless of their intellectual capabilities,  if you think yourself a genius then start hanging around with smarter people.

Would you rather be a worried genius or a joyful simpleton?

We Are All Awesome!

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Would you break the law to save a loved one?

by Jonathan Hilton   Day 27

3417346270_thumbs_would_you_break_the_law_to_save_a_loved_one_xlargeAre there any depths that most people wouldn’t go to save a loved one in most cases?  Yet this may not be the best philosophy  to follow in many cases, but we do.

 That is the answer that I am going to give, that I would, but  I am not sure that in all cases it is the best thing to do, because the repercussions may ultimately be a negative for the person you love.  Sometimes loving someone is allowing them to learn the hard way.

Health and Physical Harm

I think in the most basic forms, most people wouldn’t hesitate to break the law to protect

I would even watch these guys to save you! These guys are really annoying!
I would even watch these guys to save you! These guys are really annoying!

the physical well being of someone we love, from a spouse, a relative or a child.  That is the easiest one to quantify.

I would break the law to do this, because as important as the law is, it does not mean a thing when you compare it to the value a loved one has in my life.  There is no limit to the length that I would go to do this.  I think of the loved ones that I have lost, due to old age and illness.

 If there was something I could do to save them and keep them in my life longer, it would have been worth it, no question about it.  Unfortunately we are not given this choice very often. Most often we are resigned to accept what fate deals us.

 

Learning the Hard Way

Saving a loved one can come with a heavy price sometimes when it becomes a blurry line of what people need to actually be saved from.

 hard wayIn life we all have to make decisions each and every day all of which come with a corresponding result. Since we made the decisions we are responsible for the result.  Sometimes I think people want to save their loved ones from any kind of “bad experience” at all.

 Even when the decision that led to any trouble was there.  building a line between where a person needs to be saved and where they need to learn is very difficult to do.  Many parents today seem to struggle with this, and that is not a criticism, just an observation.

I am not sure that I would be a good judge of this line or not.   Sometimes a lesson will only sink in when you have to experience the full weight of the choice that you made.

It Hurt But It was Good For Me

In my life I have been fortunate to have people in it who cared about me and in many ways looked out for me to keep me from harm. Yet I was also allowed to learn lessons, on my own.

000000Throughout my development as a human being, I have found that the hardest lesson to learn is that the only person responsible for your actions and the resulting mayhem is you.  Not anybody else, you and you alone.

 You can blame others all that you want, they did this or that was unfair, but in the end the good, bad, the joy or the pain are all laid directly at your own feet.  That lesson needs to be learned by everyone at some point, in order to continue to evolve.

 There is only one way to learn this and you have to let all of your loved ones learn it for themselves. You can be there to support them and help them put the pieces back together but I think you have got to let the lessons be learned.

It could be the Best Thing

Life has a way of giving us experiences that we need to have in order to grow and that is the case for everyone.  Sometimes the choice that we make, seemingly moves us backward.

Yet with the wisdom of time we see that the event or experience we first identified as bad, in the long run it provided us with the motivation or the skills to move to a height we never dreamed was possible before.

 There is a motivation is failure that has been spring boarding people to great heights since the beginning of time. I always hope that I have the wisdom to know the difference between saving and enabling. That is one of the lessons we must all learn in life.

 

Would you break the law to save a loved one?

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