STRANGE lights flicker down the road
Past the window of dreams,
Each guiding a mystic load
With its flickering beams,
And having passed, sheds its rays
Down other stranger, lonelier ways ;
They leave me gloriously alone.
Drunk with nothingness, breathing the unknown
Soft sweet absence of those beams.
Moulding a vision lately flown
Past the window of dreams.
“If you believe that feeling bad or worrying long enough will change a past or future event, then you are residing on another planet with a different reality system.” ~ William James
Learning to Appreciate. A look at appreciative inquiry. Excerpts are taken from, Appreciative Inquiry Handbook (2003) by David Cooperrider, Diana Whitney, and Jacqueline Stravros.
A fundamental assumption underlying appreciative inquiry is that the language one uses creates one’s reality. Therefore, the emotional meaning of words such as dysfunctional, codependent, and stressed out effect once thinking and acting. This deficit based vocabulary can inhibit the vision for a better and brighter future and limit growth. 17.
Note: I received an email from a friend this morning. My friend used words such as “no escape, no victory, and doomed.” He was using dificit thinking. These words can only exacerbate the stress my friend feels from his work situation. I know his situation and don’t see it the way he sees it. A change in his language would change his attitude toward the challenges he faces. We can easily become stuck with this pattern of thinking. It is counterproductive and puts us in a fight or flight position. If we ask ourselves, “What is happening here? What are the positive alternatives to what is happening here? What opportunities exists in this context? We begin to generate positive alternatives. The more positive questions we ask, the more constructive our language becomes. Instead of building barriers to protect ourselves, we discover ways to work with others to construct a new reality. We’re never condemned to what is. We have the power within ourselves to create a new and more positive reality. What are you waiting for?
“It’s time to start living the life you’ve imagined (Henry James).” Unleash your imagination, place no limitations on it. Let your imagination take you to places you’d dared not previously imagine. You’ll know when you’ve arrived at the right place. When you arrive at the right place throw your heart over the fence and the rest of you will follow. What you were imagining will soon become your reality.
Consequences happen. We can deny the existence of reality and use language to support our erroneous claims. Yet, there are consequences for all of our actions they are coming like the rising of the sun. Consequences are like my credit card, they come due. If I don’t pay my credit card on time, there’s interest to pay. There’s no way out. It’s true with credit cards and it’s true in our lives.
Living is a frightening experience at times. When things don’t our way, we may enter into a period of self denial and create a fictitious account of reality. People addicted to alcohol will deny they don’t have a drinking problem and adamantly claim they can handle their drinking. Nothing can shake them from this illusion until they hit rock bottom or worse. It takes courage to face the truth about a situation. We create illusions when we can’t accept reality. One has to admit he/she is wrong and desires to let go of their false illusions.
There is so much good going on. I witness a neighbor helping out another neighbor as she prepares to move. I read a news piece where school children cleaned a park. I know of a young musician and his dad who play music at nursing homes on weekends. I meet good people every day. I witness kind acts every day. I’m sure your experience is similar to mine. There’s good going on and it’s the glue holding everything together.
Thoughts become perception, perception becomes reality. Alter your thoughts, alter your reality. ~ William James
Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow–
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.
I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand–
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep–while I weep!
O God! can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?
Seize the moments of happiness, love and be loved! That is the only reality in the world, all else is folly. ~ Leo Tolstoy
