Tag: postaweek2011

daughter · Mum

Being Authentically “You”

Joanne4 Comments

“Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive”. ~  Sir Walter Scott (1808)

When my eldest daughter told me that she had realised she was copying me, when making choices for her own life and had stopped doing so as she wanted be authentically herself, I couldn’t have been happier.

I asked her whatever had possessed her to want to copy me in the first place, and she told me simply, “Because I love you, I guess”.

There is an old saying that ‘imitation is the highest form of flattery’, but how much imitation is too much?

Think about it carefully. Do you really want the responsibility of knowing that there is someone out there, who is not truly being themselves, because they are imitating you?

Or would you be content to spend your own life living as another person would have you live it?

An innocent act of admiration for someone in your life can lead to a web of deception, a web that you may not even realise that you have got yourself caught up in, until one day you wake up to the fact that the person who is living your life, isn’t really you.

I know this to be true, as I’ve lived the “lie”, albeit an innocent lie, but none the less destructive.

Throughout the month of March, the theme at the Calm Space was “change” and I submitted my article to Karen rather timidly, with the content being so personal.

There were two deciding factors on why I finally decided to allow Karen to publish what I had written. One – Karen told me she loved the article (and it always helps to know the Editor is happy!)

My second deciding factor was that I realised that someone who reads my story may actually learn something, and benefit from the mistakes I have made.

My message is an important one. I do hope you will read my article at the Calm Space, “Living the Richest of Lives”.

“Your experiences are not limited to what you have created in the past”. ~ Gary Zukav

A Sense of Spirit · remembering · respect

Intuition ~ Taking Our Own Advice

Joanne4 Comments
Children - Innocent and Intuitive

We all have that little voice inside our heads, urging us to take the path in our lives which “feels right”.

But do we always listen? And if we do listen to our inner voice, do we always, if ever, follow that voice’s advice?

During the years of my childhood I always took my own advice. But as the years progressed I learned to listen to the advice of “others”. You know who the “others” are, they are the adults of the world, people with experience, those who have been around longer than you have, so know what’s “best” for you.

Do they really know what’s best? Or are they simply passing on to the children of the world the advice which they were given as youngsters and they were expected to follow, so they expect you to follow also?

Do they feel it is it their time to receive the respect that they were expected to show to their elders?

Perhaps so, and I’m all for showing respect.

But don’t you think that children are just as entitled to respect as the adults are?

I believe they are.

And just because a child is “young” does not mean that they don’t know what’s going on, or what is right for them. Children have intuition too. In fact, I would go so far as to say that in most cases, a child’s intuition is far superior to an adult’s intuition!

As a child myself, I spent a lot of time “remembering”. I remembered my grandmother, who had died some twenty-five years before my birth, and I remember missing her and longing to see her again.

I remember believing that anything was possible. I could do anything I wanted to do, have anything I wanted to have. All I had to do was go after it!

Those were the days before adult logic told me everything that I couldn’t do. The days when I was asked how I could miss my grandmother, when we had never even met.

The days when my young mind began to be clouded over by “worldly logic”.

But back then, I knew otherwise.

Over time, the adults achieved their goal of making me “sensible”. Teachers in particular and other kids at school would be the first to ridicule anyone with an alternative opinion, back in those days.

As time advanced further, however, my old, familiar friend, “Intuition”, again took a hold of me, guiding me through the greatest moments of my life!

Are you following your own intuition? Or does harsh, cold reality guide your life?

Everyone should do the right thing for their own lives. Just make sure it really is the right thing for you, whatever the situation.