4/18/2011

Who has the power?

I'm the type of person who finds logic very comforting. I need to know all the 'why's before I can truly understand the whole picture. For example, back in the dark ages when I went to college, my biology teacher couldn't tell me 'why' a cell decides to divide--I was just suppose to accept that it does. Well, that wasn't happening and I didn't do well in the class. [Of course, later on, when they invented microscopes that could look inside a cell, they found that there was, indeed, rhyme and reason for what a cell does. *insert 'I was right' dance here*]

Of course, sometimes, the logic thing can take my brain on tangents that are better left untaken. One example is our juvenile next-door-neighbor. I wondered how my calling the noise control people on him affects his wife. Does he take it out on her by yelling at her? Does he make the house walk on eggshells because nobody knows what to say? But then, I realized that I shouldn't have that much power over his life and he's a fool if he gave it to me!


And I think about the silly person with the 30-year grudge I posted about earlier. Why is she letting me affect her after all this time? I k now I'm good, but didn't know I was THAT good!!


I think about someone I know that wants me to tip-toe around and never get loud because, in their far, far away past, somebody yelled at them and made them feel bad. Sorry, kiddo, being loud sometimes is who I am. Our family gets loud. That's who we are. You need to deal with it. Why are you letting someone who is probably dead (or, at the very least, not even aware of their impact) have power over you a half a world away and several decades later? I don't want to be able to make you feel bad by reminding you of someone in your past. Nobody should have that much power.

So for all those people whose lives are governed by the words and deed of others, I say, Life is about choices. 

Choose to believe that God loves you exactly the way He made you.
Accept that you are worthy of respect and love simply because you're breathing.
Choose to overlook other folk's imperfections if you want them to overlook yours.
Quit letting other people decide if you are going to be happy. No one should be able to make that decision but you.
Decide to be happy every morning!

2 comments:

Scrappy Grams said...

Strange how that does go on and on and...
Sad to say, advice is easier to give than to receive.

Connie said...

Very good wisdom here. Rather than biology, my need for logic, plus people trying to make me follow THEIR way blindly without question, nearly cost my all contact with spirituality.
I have always refused to accept stories out of the bible or other such texts as literal fact, especially when they contradict logic and science. I got in trouble in Sunday school all the time and eventually quit church altogether by age 11. This doesn't mean I do not find knowledge, wisdom and meaning in holy books, but I do so by taking the intent and 'moral of the story' not the man-made words and interpretations as absolute and literal truth! I especially hate it when I'm told the there is only 'one true way'. Sorry. The god I believe in is bigger than that. Some human brains may too small and narrow to contain more than one truth at a time, but I've come to believe that god is more capable than we are. I could never believe in a god that is as limited and prejudiced as us un-evolved humans. Individuals who tried to control my faith by limiting it to what they thought I should believe, made me turn my back and walk away... doing my best to shut out all of the ignorant and biased BS they were spouting. Fortunately, I've since learned that it's not the word of man that matters, but the presence of god in our daily lives, no matter how one chooses to interpret and live it.
People have tried to tell me that to doubt and to question is evil, the work of the devil. I disagree. I think asking WHY? is extraordinarily important. I'm not suggesting that we will find all answers when we question, but the ones that we do find will matter more because they are OUR truths…which will likely match up with those of others ... but, they will not be mere empty copies of what someone else told us to believe. I will not willingly give control of myself to others, and that includes my spirit and faith too. (they might not be respectful and careful with it, and try to break it :P !)