Monday, August 11, 2008

Openness

A couple weeks ago, Erica made a comment that caused me to rethink my position on authenticity – thus the blog post. After seeing my post, she e-mailed me to make sure she hadn’t offended me with her comment.

Twenty or thirty years ago, my reaction might have been, “What a bitch! How dare she question my authenticity?” Today I welcome the input and the opportunity for growth. I wasn’t offended at all and told her I love being challenged to look deeper inside and examine my actions. Then, the other day my horoscope said, “Sometimes new people enter out lives to make us question ourselves, not just to enjoy ourselves.”

Everyone has the potential to affect our lives if we are open to it. Whether the encounter is brief or lengthy, the impact can be profound – IF WE ARE OPEN TO IT!

People often take offense when none was meant. We become so guarded and engrossed in our own dramas, so sure we are right and others can’t possibly know or understand our situations, we miss opportunities for wisdom and growth. There are messages everywhere – from people, billboards, newspapers, advertisements, nature. Answers jump up and down and wave red flags at us, but we don’t see them.

Life is hectic, people come and go, we are bombarded with noise and information and we become resistant to outside influences.

The simplest encounters can provide great insight if we are open to it.

Are you open to it?

6 comments:

Stephen Parrish said...

The more you blog, the more enlightened you appear. I suggest you reconsider deep-sixing your memoir.

The Anti-Wife said...

Stephen,
I don't always feel so enlightened. For now, I prefer to put my relatives and demons of the past into fictional form, although Robin and Mary offered me some tantalizing options earlier.

Robin said...

I hope enlightenment doesn't come from billboards. My husband just put up a giant billboard in town with his huge face on it, to advertise him doing lasic surgery. Every time I drive by it, I'm struck by how fucking huge his head is, and how much I hate his goatee. Not to mention how weird it is to have a billboard of your head. Maybe the enlightenment is: "I hate him. I want a divorce."

Anonymous said...

Hmmmm.... I do my best to ignore the messages from:
*drivers in other cars,
*Republicans (I live in a town that is 87%+ Republican),
*anyone who is trying to sell me something based on their perception of some inadequacy on my part,
*gossips,
*all bigots and jerks, and there are a lot of them where I live.

I have definite boundaries.

-Anonymous Sister of AntiWife.

Trée said...

I'd like to think I am, but all my past experience says otherwise. So, I live by the Japanese proverb: fall down seven times, get up eight. :-D

Polly Kahl said...

I totally agree with your blog, Leah. We don't have to necessarily take everything to heart, but it's always a good idea to be open to finding even maybe just a tiny kernel of truth inside the total message that might fit and help us grow, improve, expand.