441 NO! NO! NOT AGAIN!!! Part 36 (Most important post, so far ...)

36A
2002
"Mom, if I white wash our family's character traits there’s no purpose in my writing, at all…  I’m penning this family saga to inspire individuals, couples, siblings and friends to set false pride aside in favor of mustering the humility to acknowledge personal vulnerabilities in need of strengthening.  *I wonder how many people realize that courage and humility are the first two strengths we need to garner before our minds open to soaking in wisdom.

*I hope to show how counselors, who listen so astutely as to respond with accuracy, compassionately, encourage us to connect ever more courageously with insight into  acknowledging insecurities, which darken our perceptions, thus creating distorted mis/perceptions.


*Each time insight into subconscious insecurities emerge, I can work at developing strengths necessary to confront negative attitudes with a greater sense of clarity than ever before.

*By illustrating the frequency with which insight into change for the better continues to provide me with inner peace, my stories may inspire others to choose to dive into the deep end of their minds, where confusing mind mazes cause specific aspects of your life and mine to spiral downhill. Each time clarity replaces confusion, resulting in a downhill spiral straightening out, the most confounding aspects of my life begin to make sense.


Each time insight into common sense flashes like a bolt of lightening through my mind, I'm amazed to see another hot spot of defensive insecurity emerge.  And once this insecurity shows itself, I understand why my perception had darkened yet another slice of reality.


Each time a self-conceived distortion clarifies, I soothe my natural reaction of humiliation by consciously tuning into humility.  Once humility is mine defensive reactions can't grab control over my think tank.  And thus does humility offer me countless opportunities to strengthen vulnerabilities to which my ego had been blind.  And what, I ask, results in a more heartening attitude than watching myself carving a step-by-step approach toward self empowerment, like that!" 

"Annie, Trying to picture what goes on in your mind makes me dizzy!"

"I'm sure that's true, Mom.  But, I'd rather see my mind as a beehive, producing honey than a hornets's nest of discontent."

"How in the world can you convey all of this in your stories?"

As questions like these make me dig deep, I hunker down for a while before this response pops out of my mouth, as though all on it's own …

*Well, some stories will show my ego puffing up my persona, like a hollow balloon filled with hot air, while others may inspire readers to work consciously at embracing humility in hopes of influencing their children, who unconsciously emulate their role models, to place a high value on developing a step-by-step approach toward heightening levels of self awareness through each stage of life—as in:  Little-monkey-see-what-big-monkey-do-and-then-little-monkey-tends-to-do-it-too …

As one story rolls into another, I can demonstrate our nation's need to conserve energy in more ways than one.  As a nation of men women, addicted to work, we need to slow down the pace of our lives and think smart about how we speak to, spend time with, educate and influence the attitudes of children, who are developing into tomorrow's world leaders.  If attitude is everything then, one day, our children's attitudes (absorbed at home) will be in charge of leading us. I hope to inspire that insight to soak into so many minds that more of us will ask questions such as these:  Where will our children take US (individually and as a nation) as we age?  Will our nation remain at the peak of our development or will Jack and Jill keep tumbling farther downhill?  *If we yell at kids, today, should we be surprised if they yell at us, when we're old, vulnerable and in need of compassionate help?  Just as impatience swings both ways, compassion does the same …

Since each child develops into a unique individual, I hope to inspire minds to seek insight into understanding where one child's vulnerability differs from the next. If the apple doth not fall far from the tree and if siblings seem to grow into each other's opposites then it makes sense to consider this next question, seriously: *What might cause one child to absorb certain traits from one role model while another child tends to absorb more traits from the other?

"So, you plan to answer these questions in your stories?"


"Well, I'll answer what I can and attempt to address delemmas, which continue to confound me, while asking readers to add their two cents in the comment box provided at the end of each post. As most of what I learn combines research with personal experience, I'm eager to enrich my mind with insights, which others have researched and experienced, as well.

Children are not in need of role models who value flying-as-high-as-the-Jones’s. *Children need calm, dependable role models, whose lives are grounded in well-balanced values, which offered thirteen colonies countless opportunities to develop into a world power second to none.

If we don't gain insight into the fact that our nation's out-of-control, because our high-flying life style sets such an unrealistic expectation on immediate gratification then we’re bound to smash, blindly, into a brick wall of our own making—again and again.  And if there's a first time for everything then our next crash may prove too severe from which to bounce back …

36B

2002

As low as our economy has sunk, thus far, most families have not hit bottom, yet. So, just as we need congressmen, who can work together to make significant changes for the betterment of the nation as a whole—children need parents to open their eyes to what has catalyzed our divorce rate to sky rocket over these past fifty years. Once the key to that power struggle is firmly snapped into the pocket of our minds, we may be able to instill stability, based in trust, into home after home.  In short, it's trust, based in solid values, which will turn the downhill spiral of family life around.  And—if attitude, timing and readiness are everything, then insight into self-destructive attitudes is imperative if we hope to turn surviving toward thriving, again. 

Whenever I think about downward spirals, the fall of Rome comes to mind. And I’ve heard others say the same—again and again, because world powers (and families) don’t crash, over night.  *World powers crash the same way families tear apart, one blind step at a time.  As blind denial eats away at all we value, everyone points fingers of blame, and all too few hold themselves accountable when howling winds of negative change pick up the pace and ears deafen when insight into common sense and clarity, concerning reality, knock at the door of our brains. Think of what happened in France when The 99% got hungry enough to grab hold of the rope that lowered the guillotine ... "


"Wait a minute, Annie.  You can't think to change the world by yourself."


"Mom, I've heard that before. I'm not the only one standing on a soapbox, writing about these issues.  I'm writing in hopes of awakening each person's awareness of personal accountability.  Our law makers didn't cause our nation's economy to fail any more than young people teach themselves to be lax.  We all participate in downhill spirals in one way or another.


Our nation is a family made of up unique individuals.  And every member of a family must come to understand how each one's self destructive traits breed disillusionment, discontent and distrust before the family can begin to heal as a whole.  Same thing is true of society as a whole.  Family.  Nation.  Global community—at the same time that one hand feeds the other, we need to confront reasons why one hand cheats on the other.  We need to confront the nature of our own forked tongues.  In every aspect of life, walls of denial blind us to deeper truths ...

*By choosing to share insight into the classic nature of my mistakes, I hope to inspire others to acknowledge both sides of human nature within themselves ... Because:  (RR&R)


We can't grow toward whole-someness while denying the sum of our parts.


*We each need to connect with humility if we're ever to recognize how our egos puff up our personas, which try to pull at the heart strings of others.  We need to see how our egos manipulate others by turning loved ones into puppets, who see us as saints and do our bidding.  *If we don't stop being blind to the subtle nature of passive aggressive power struggles, we'll never connect honestly and thus intimately with anyone ... most especially, ourselves.


As more of us acknowledge personal insecurities and identify insecurities in others, we'll each shore up the strengths necessary to stop spiraling downhill,  one home at a time.  And as knowledge continues to spread throughout our nation by way of reading, attending classes, and grabbing the attention of the media, one day, in the distant future, educated insight will encircle the globe. Thank goodness for the internet. Each time I click on stats and spy a new nation, my spirit jumps for joy."


The reality of our having grown into a global community suggests that we can't maintain our nation's 'good health' by ignoring 'poor health' around the world, anymore.  We are our brother's keepers, literally ...


"So, now you're saying everything is connected, right?"


"Exactly!  And the ways in which we interconnect will come clear, story by story.  *As each story unfolds, I can show how 'the story of life' unfolds like a three act play in which all go up and all fall down—as if we're riding a teeter-totter or existing within a nursery rhyme. It's my hope that as one mind inspires the next to open to wisdom, we'll each climb up the hill and drink from wells of wisdom, which tend to replenish themselves from one generation to the next."  


Act one
Jack and Jill climbed up the hill
To fetch a pail of life sustaining water


Act two
In haste, Jack ran too fast, fell down and broke his crown
Then, while declaring her independence, Jill hit the glass ceiling and came tumbling after


Act three ...
... Remains to be seen, but if you ask me
Tis high time for Jack and Jill to hold hands and climb up that hill with greater care than before


If I wrote act three, here is what you'd see ...
Both Jack and Jill will dip into and drink from the well of knowledge, which is available to all
Otherwise, what ever is left of our powers (at home, nationally, globally) will continue to dry up


PS
*This post may best clarify my purpose for popping up on your screen, day after day, in hopes of empowering individuals, families and our family of nations with trains of thought, such as these:


Once we hold no one accountable for our mistakes other than oneself, that's when our downhill spirals will begin to make sense.


*Once we connect the details of our lives with insight into common sense, perceptions change, turmoil is understood, clarity opens eyes to reality and we feel empowered to leave the mind maze behind and walk the path of insight, which brightens spirits, strengthen hearts, and turns lives around.


Having found the key to exiting the classic nature of my mind-maze, it's my aim to show you what I had to do to pick my spirit up, dust my mind off and gain control over the disheartening aspects of my life.


As my mistaken perceptions pop up in story after story, it's my belief that you, too, may come to see that the proof is in the pudding ... Whatever the heck that means ...