Earlier this week, I thought a cold was coming on
Though the cold didn't get worse, I didn't feel better
In fact, instead of feeling better I felt worse
As nausea, headache, weakness, and chills developed
My thoughts had reason to change
I began to wonder if my first thought was off track and this was the flu
So, let's review:
My first thought perceived this as a cold
Then new developments made me question my original perception
Questioning myself offers me the chance to reflect with objectivity
Objective reflection allows me to reconsider the validity of my original perception
Objective reflection sees trains of thought, which may need to switch tracks
If you ask what I may think, tomorrow, I'd reply:
Whatever I think will depend upon the bent of my ATTITUDE
As attitude is everything, I work to develop open mindedness about life and love.
In order for open minded attitudes to develop
I take time to consider new ideas
Which may expand the narrow confines of yesterday's perceptions
As expanded perceptions change my thought patterns
My defensive layers tend soften, over time, and my comfort zones relax
As comfort zones relax, walls, blinding me to my mistakes, begin to fade away
As defensive walls fade away
Hindsight expands my vision of yesterday
As my horizons expand, objectivity develops
Once horizons expand and objectivity develops, humility deepens
Guess what humility
Allows me to see?
My first thought is not always my best thought
In fact, my first thoughts may be likened to tunnel vision
In this way:
Tunnel vision produces judgments, based in too little information
So before I can astutely re-evaluate perceptions in need of adjustment
My first thoughts may be in serious need of review
If my perceptions remain too narrow to clarify mistakes in judgement
Then common sense suggests my mind may remain stuck in a tunnel too dark
To grow aware of how often I repeat the same mistakes, again and again
As long as tunnel vision blinds me from seeing
Where MY darkened views are in need of lightening up
My mind will remain stuck in an unhealthy place
And a mind that can't find its way out of a tunnel
Tends to heap all the blame for pain onto others ... because
Expanded views of reality are blocked by a person's defensive walls
All too often, relationships change for the worse
Because closed-minded attitudes narrow our views
In short, tunnel vision can't see REALITY as it actually exists
When I can't figure out why a relationship remains stuck in a dark place
I remind myself to reconsider which of my thoughts
May have gotten off track, a long way back
Upon opening my mind in hopes of expanding my view of the past
Hindsight offers me a second chance
To develop new thinking patterns
New thinking patterns
Allow me to embrace reality, more graciously
And thus, less defensively, than before
As my views expand
My mind reconsiders puzzling situations until—
Guess what tends to happen, next?
Forgotten pieces of puzzling situations
Tend to pop out
Of my memory bank
And as forgotten details are popped into place
Bigger pictures, which tunnel vision had missed
Come clearly into view
As my views and comfort zones expand
My mind absorbs certain trains of thought
More deeply than before
As each lucid train of thought couples up with the next
The pathways of my mind grow less tense
And low and behold, insight shines its light on this fact:
CLASSIC situations cause lovers, family, and friends to part ways
Each time my mind embraces another classic truth as my own
I fear the unknown less and thus does my new approach to life and love
Open brain space to absorb a greater sense of adventure than before
For example, upon embracing this fact:
The only constant in life is change
I felt free to reconsider patterns of thought, adopted during childhood
Once I consciously embraced 'change' as a constant
I grew to see where tunnel vision had limited my views
Recently, I've stopped sending myself on guilt trips that stunted my growth
Tunnel vision steers our minds toward one of two paths:
One path denies reality by star gazing and circling round and round in La La Land
The other path spirals down into darkness, where bitterness and skepticism block the sun
By developing positive attitudes toward change, my sense of tunnel vision expands
As tunnel vision expands, I free my mind to stride toward personal growth
As positive attitudes and personal growth develop, my mind is steered toward hope
Heartened by hope, my mind fills with the courage and self trust to express these beliefs:
EVERY mind is vulnerable to tunnel vision
Tunnel vision blinds our minds to our OWN mistakes
Generosity of spirit may entice a closed mind to melt down layers of a defensive wall
As warmth melts defensive walls, forgiveness and love are perceived as one and the same
Each time I choose to permeate my mind with trains of thought
As healthy as these
My spirit feels hopeful that painful relationships may heal—little by little
And now that today's train of thought
Is ready to pull into a station
Where my heart will enjoy a tender state of repose
My mind strongly suggests tis time for my flu-weary body
To swallow Excedrine, down some juice and grab a nap—
Oh wait!
Me thinks to hear a Greek chorus taking its place on the stage ...
So let's spare a moment to listen up and consider thoughts
Which may differ from my own:
Bah humbug!
Nothing that you've said in this post is new!
We've heard all of that claptrap, time and again!
Ah!
So glad I've taught myself to pause and listen, reflectively to perceptions
Which feel the need to express a view different from my own
Listening reflectively offers me
Another opportunity to clarify the reason why
Producing lasting change can take so much time ...
Though tis true that I've posted today's train of thought, time again
It's my experience that classic truths
Fail to absorb deeply into our minds for this reason:
Every ear is in need of shoring up listening skills
You see, listening skills encourage us to differentiate between
Claptrap that fills silence with noise
And thoughts which challenge our minds
To muster the courage and self trust
To carve out new channels
Where insecurity, defensiveness and denial
May be left behind
Thus allowing classic truths and new ideas to penetrate our minds
So if you agree that lasting change occurs, step by step
Then perhaps you'll come to see why
I believe
That today's train of thought is worth repeating
Most especially as the end of another year
Draws near
You see, next year
And the year after that
There'll be nothing new under the sun—unless
Something entirely unexpected happens to you or to me
And then, all of a sudden ...
Same old-same old will feel ...
Un-be-lib-able
Unforgettable
Unforgivable— until
We choose
To muster the courage
And develop the self trust
To figure out
Where we may be partially accountable
For making mistakes that push loved ones (and goals) away
As each person comes to hold oneself accountable
For making classic and thus human mistakes
That's when we'll exchange blind denial for seeing reality as it actually exists
And as every word in this post
Concerning our need to expand tunnel vision
Rings as true as true can be
Common sense suggests that each of us reflects over
Possible misperceptions
That perpetuate yesterday's mistakes
And what better time ...
To rethink perceptions, which have long been in need of review ...
Then right now, as we ring out the old and ring in the new?
J
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