Truth About You

When you contact the truth about you, you recognize that a great deal that you have come to accept about you is false. You are not better or worse than others. You are not stupid or brilliant, or handsome, or ugly. Those are just judgments someone made that you accepted. None of them are true.
~ Paul Ferrini, I am the Door

Many times other peoples’ behavior toward us can give us the wrong impression of who we are. It begins from birth. Parents start to see certain signs of a personality in a baby and assign the child an attribute. Some parents may even tell a child what that attribute is (and other quirks they notice) as s/he grows. For example, stubborn, smart, sensitive, shy, outgoing, etc.

Is Thirty-Seven the Magic Number?

At my wedding reception in the (ahem) 80s, I remember telling someone, “When we are on our fifteen-year anniversary it’ll be the year 2000!” Since it was my wedding day, and we were only married for a couple of hours, fifteen years seemed like an eternity. And we’d be old!

The turn of the century seemed like science fiction to me. A time and space that was beyond my capacity to comprehend. My future seemed bright, but also scary. Would our marriage make it? Would we have children? Would we both even live to the year 2000 and beyond to grow old together?

Here we are, June 1st, 2022 and both of us completely forgot our anniversary until it was upon us. Is thirty-seven years the magic number when it’s no longer a big deal?

Risk or Rules

In the “real” world, it’s better to have loved and lost, tried and failed, dreamed and missed, than to sit out your turn in fear. Because the loss, the failure, and the miss, however painful, are like temporary market adjustments . . . Whereas the love, the adventure, and the dream are like investments that, for the rest of your life and beyond, never stop paying dividends. – Mike Dooley, The Complete Notes from the Universe.

My heart feels for people who want rules or laws to stop others from using words that hurt feelings.

Guess Who Said It

Walk the path and check out what’s behind those trees.

“People get confused when they hear something they agree with from someone they dislike. Likewise, people are often blind to bad ideas when they come from someone they admire.“

Can you guess who said the above quote? Do you like the quote? Do you agree with the quote? As the words in the quote reference, do you need to know who said it before you decide to like it or not? Would it matter?

Blessing or Punishment

Perception

Here is an excerpt from an unpublished short story I wrote about my experiences with faith. This happened when I was nine years old.

The Social Media Dare

I’m really struggling with writing posts these days and contemplating what to do about it.

You see, I’m having difficulty not bringing up what’s happening in society. I feel as if it’s crumbling around us. I’m not supposed to have an opinion about it either, otherwise I could be ousted from society.

Lens

Shift

At times we may feel restrained by circumstances. We have commitments to keep, bills to pay and an inner critic to calm. We may wonder how to get out from a stagnant state.

Victim

by Lori (L. Virelli)

Courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net

Because I don’t see you as a victim,
you’ve made me your perpetrator.
Because I see you as empowered,
you’ve made me ignorant.
Because I don’t blame your mistakes
on anyone else,
you’ve made me to blame.
Because I see failure as an opportunity,
you’ve made me insensitive
for having faith in you,
instead of pitying you.

Random Observations

(for use of photo, please attribute to Lori and this website)

~ Sometimes when someone accuses and/or judges someone else of having a particular character flaw, that same flaw is in the accuser.

~ Sometimes what bothers or annoys us in someone else, means they are mirroring something back that needs to be addressed in our own lives.