Be the Change

Posted to FaceBook Mar. 22
Lady Gaga has launched the "Born this Way" Foundation, which is about supporting children/youth in being who they really are.  A main focus with this topic is bullying, and it is important to Lady Gaga because she was bullied as a child.  She has some unique thoughts about bullying, like it's not something you can legislate, and both 'victim' and bully need to be considered when resolving the issue.

This got me to thinking about bullying and what it is helping us to understand.  Gandhi taught us that we want to "be the change we want to see" and maybe bullying could actually be helping us become the change we want to see. 
Maybe kids bullying each other is just a mirror being held up for us adults to see ourselves more clearly.
Maybe if we really want to get kids to be more accepting and nicer to each other, we as adults need to be that change. 
Maybe, if we want bullying to stop, we want to stop bullying in all its forms. 
Maybe if we really want to stop bullying we need to stop warring with other people.
Maybe if we really want to stop bullying the Democrats and Republicans need to stop defiling each other.
Maybe if we really want to stop bullying we want to stop threatening people with incarceration.
Maybe if we really want to stop bullying we want to stop making kids learn what we want them to learn.
Maybe if we really want to stop bullying we want less laws and rules, not more.
Maybe if we really want to stop bullying we want to stop criticizing each other.
Maybe if we really want to stop bullying we want to quit forcing each other to be who we are not.
Maybe if we really want to stop bullying we want to stop judging ourselves as less than others.
Maybe if we really want to stop bullying we want to start seeing the value each one of us has.
Maybe if we really want to stop bullying we want to start believing in ourselves.
Maybe if we really want to stop bullying we want to become so clear about who we really are it won't matter what others think or say about us.
Maybe if we really want to stop bullying we want to share who we really are with the rest of the world, so they too can feel free to be who they really are.

Oh wait . . . maybe that's what Lady Gaga is doing?

Putting It Off

Posted to FaceBook Mar. 19th.
My depression taught me that we all want to feel good.  Most of us know this, whether it is conscious or unconscious, and move forward in our life trying to figure out what those things are that are going to make us feel good.  But trying to figure out the 'what' of feeling good is actually a form of procrastination, is the long way around, is putting off what I really want -- which is just to feel good.

There are stories of fact (Victor Frankl, a prisoner of the Nazi concentration camps), and fiction (Pollyanna, a girl who overcame the death of her parents and the abuse of her new guardian) that share with us that we no longer need to wait for things to be a certain way for us to feel good. 

LOP is not about enduring one's terrible circumstances and just trying to be happy with being miserable.  LOP is about knowing that we no longer need to deny our joy or peace or freedom or love until our experience dictates it.  We no longer need to hold ourselves captive to whatever misery we think our current circumstances require.  We no longer need to justify our happiness through our results, or our in this moment reality.  We no longer need to put off what we are really looking for, which is to feel good, because we think it comes from outside of us. 

LOP is knowing that I create my good feeling in life, and I don't need to put if off any longer.