Bull's Eye

I am taking a course through EdX.org from The University of Washington on 'Resilience'. I am pretty resilient one way or another and bouncing back from a knock has always proceeded at a steady pace.  I thought I'd take the course in order to use it to help other people. That'll come as no surprise. 

Well! I am bowled-over. Week Two was all about  clarification of values. This seemed easy to start with, but proved to be quite an existential challenge, because I had to ask myself, "Who am I and how do I define myself?" 

First off, I realised that I habitually spend far too much time asking the question: "Who do other people think I am, and what is their opinion of me?"

Just seeing THAT was worth the effort of working through the course. 

"Who I think I am?" might be quite an interesting discussion, but I'm not going to have it here, because  it's a fairly fluid concept and may change at any moment. It's what I DO about who I think I am that  was the focus of the Bull's Eye exercise. Which you might Google for yourself if you're interested. 

Given a while to think about it, I find that one of the least satisfying parts of my life, is my habit of attempting  to please other people. In the process of which, I don't always say what I really think, and I don't always do what I really want to do. 

I have no radical agenda here. I'm not going to do anything very life-changing. I'm just going to quietly, softly, say what I really think, and tip-toe around doing what seems right to me. 

It's an exciting prospect. 

Quietly and softly -  making a difference by being true to myself:

A New Kind of Doing -Fr Richard Rohr Thursday, May 22, 2014

"In the second half of life, we do not have strong and final opinions about everything, every event, or most people, as much as we allow things and people to delight us, sadden us, and truly influence us. We no longer need to change or adjust other people to be happy ourselves. Ironically we are more than ever before in a position to change people—but we do not need to—and that makes all the difference. We have moved from doing to being to an utterly new kind of doing that flows almost organically, quietly, and by osmosis. Our actions are less compulsive. We do what we are called to do, and then try to let go of the consequences. We usually cannot do that very well when we are young. Now we aid and influence people simply by being who we are. Human integrity probably influences and moves people from potency to action more than anything else. An elder’s deep and studied passion carries so much more power than superficial and loudly stated principles. Our peace is needed more than our anger. "