Riddle:
When shards of emotional shrapnel fly around
What steers my parachute to land my self-esteem
In a safe, secure and self-respecting place so far from
The crash as not to burn with humiliation upon reflection?
If you answered: Your Line of Self Control
I'd say, great place to start, and now let's expand upon
That insight by landing on this one ...
My parachute’s steering wheel goes by the name of
Intuitive Discretion, which emerges from deep within
My soul once I've taken an immediate time-out on
The spot, where my Line of Self Control secures
A degree of mental calmness during
The head on collision so that my intelligence does not
Lose its wrestling match to mental turmoil suggesting
Why, having maintained an element of calmness of mind
I can consciously assess the situation at hand with
Eyes wide open so as to absorb each flash of insight, which
(Upon reflection, sometime later) serves to spotlight
That landing field where a balanced view of
My inner strengths and shortcomings steered clear of
My defense system’s wall of denial so as to
Guide the conscious portion of my mind to glide toward
Embracing and soaking in the humility necessary to
See myself as I am so as to know when to request
Help in hopes of becoming ever more open minded in hopes of
Continuing to grow toward absorbing greater degrees of
Wisdom rather than remaining eyes stuck shut in
A wizened, self absorbed, defensively stifled mindset as I age
Perhaps, you’ve already come to realize that
Each story I pen ends with a love lesson that
I'd had need to absorb, which proved so classic in nature as to
Have improved some aspect of life for everyone whose
Mind expansion has freely absorbed this deeper truth:
We who muster the courage to freely embrace
The Line of Control so as to choose to
View humility as a personal strength rarely experience
The indignity associated with humiliation which invariably
Accompanies the egocentric shortcoming of choking back
The inclination to openly admit to one’s own mistakes—which
Takes courage, self discipline and humility—which, together, prove
To be the premier trilogy of inner strengths for this reason:
The development of every other inner strength depends upon
A courageous sense of self discipline to call forth
The humility necessary to discern (in the heat of conflict) which
Personal perceptions to air and which to
Withhold in time to save your self respect from
Burning with humiliation upon reflection ...
In short, who wants to eat their own angry words, later, if
Those words had proved sour in the first place?
“Cowardice, as distinguished from panic, is almost always
Simply a lack of ability to suspend the functioning of the imagination.”
—Earnest Hemingway
Hemingway's quote suggests panic does not indicate
That courage is lacking, and in order to back up
My take of his statement, a true story will be penned describing
Two panic attacks that my self confident sense of courage felt
Need to stop in their tracks—circa 1993
The first was curtailed by summoning the courage and humility to request help
The second by summoning the courageous sense of
Self discipline necessary to slay that dragon on my own
“It’s impossible to live without failing at something, unless
You live so cautiously that you might as well not have
Lived at all—in which case you fail by default.”
—J. K. Rowling
PS
Within the post before this one
I chose to describe the inner workings of my mind while
My brain had hunkered down as a whole in hopes of
Identifying and resolving a power struggle that
I'd had with myself when subconscious turmoil had disturbed
My connection to inner peace, and though
I chose to describe how that inner conflict was
Tamed, I'd decided not to shine the spotlight of
Insight upon its name once I'd identified
It's main source for this reason:
Having mustered the courage to call upon
My Line of Control to calm inner turmoil down
My buddy, Intuitive Discretion, emerged so as to steer
My present level of knowledge-based wisdom toward
Determining which insights to air for
Public consumption and which to divulge 'soully' to
Me, Myself and I, knowing that that trio has learned to
Discern which secrets to tell only to each other just as
They've been known to keep secrets from one another ...
Suggesting why relationships (with others and with
Oneself) tend to grow ever more complex to say nothing of
Intriguing, and each time Me, Myself and I land upon
An agreement concerning adopting a cooperative attitude focused upon
Win-win, my Pied Piper tunes up her instrument in
Hopes of voicing insights that prove so on target as to
Inspire my loved ones to consciously choose to
Cooperate with that which proves to be
Our most effective course of action as
The future unfolds—harmonically for one and all
Though I've decided not to name the power struggle that
Had need to be resolved, I hope to have clearly conveyed this fact:
The home-made steering wheel built into my parachute directed
My intelligence to land so far from the head on collision as to have
Crashed, afterward, with a sense of self respecting relief rather than
Seeing myself crash and burn with humiliation as would have been
True had I responded hotly rather than factually, and
The fact that I'd reined in my defensive attitude before
It became explosively offensive to my listeners' ears spotlights
The main goal of penning today’s post, concerning
My having mustered—no—mastered the self controlled courage
Necessary to recite my piece briefly, respectfully and to the point
Followed by taking a cooling off time out before losing control of
My tongue thus insuring that—though a bat had been swung at
My head—my intelligence (rather than my bat) swung back before
I exited the stage with my dignity and self respect intact
(All the world be a stage and we be the actors on it ...)
And, thus, have these last two posts served to illustrate the fact that
With mental health and well balanced wholeness intact, we
Can learn to release bands of tightly coiled inner tension in
A well mannered fashion after our best character traits have been
Undeservedly insulted without retaliating bat in hand, which
Would have caused further injury to my relationship with
A person with whom I choose to maintain the peace without
Silencing my voice, and having offered that change for the better
Concerning my having clearly made sound use of my voice before
Consciously choosing to open my parachute in order to
Exit the scene and land in a peaceful place in which to
Calm myself down, even more, no more need be
Said of last week’s mental turmoil other than this:
The most important relationship, which has need to
Change for better, over time, is the one that
We each continue to develop for better or worse with oneself
Why?
Because the lasting nature of every other relationship depends
Upon the degree of clarity that we enjoy with Me, Myself and I
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