I think this project is a great positive step forward. Take the Civility Pledge:
I will be civil in my public discourse and behavior.
I will be respectful of others whether or not I agree with them.
I will stand against incivility when I see it.
Sirius A & B, a double-star system that makes me think of power
I’ve been thinking about this for some time. The giving away of personal power and how it has manifested itself in my life. I read a post today on another blog that really made me think on this, the writer basically said being around certain people was psychologically destructive to her. Believe me, I understand that; it’s a big reason I limit my interaction with many of my family members, a big reason, why I ditched certain friends, and a big reason I choose not to talk to certain people. But I also understand that in a very real way, in doing these things, I am giving other people power over me and this severely limits the possibility of any change or growth in either party.
From experiences I’ve had, I know that sometimes just starting a discussion can open up avenues of thought just for myself that helps me whether I change the mind of anyone else. It goes a long way toward building my own emotional strength, so I am not so easily psychologically destroyed by people with a fundamentally different world view. That is an essential giving away of power that undermines the ability to grow as a person, I feel.
Staying stagnant is probably my biggest fear. I’m light years away from being a tight-fisted ball of misery, filled with pain and angst. In part because I chose to reclaim my personal power, bit by bit. When will I decide to claim it all?
I believe this because my understanding of the universe, which is strongly based on math/science, is that everything has to balance out. I feel that one of the effects of going within, to see, to understand yourself and be rooted in your soul and work on your mind, your identity, etc, is that you will not seek to cause harm to others because you no longer will be rooted in causing harm or damage to yourself. This will spread to those closest to you, family, friends, etc, and then to other people and even other life.
I think if someone claims to be of this type and they would still kill other people or rape or abuse or in other ways intentionally inflict physical or emotional harm on other people, then they are not really at that place of mental or emotional development. I am not speaking of accidents because accidents happen, nor unintentional emotional wounding because you cannot always determine if what you say will wound someone.
I believe everything in our universe including the universe operates under it’s own code or natural law. For example the law of gravity is in effect on this planet. The way our bodies process gases for respiration is one of the biological laws of humanity. How to make, I dunno, hydrogen peroxide involves a chemical law. I believe the same is true of our emotional and social evolution as a species. Maybe this is a better analogy: You can’t mix boron and aluminum and get water. You have to have hydrogen and oxygen. You can’t mix a human being and a turning within the mind and soul and get hatred, genocide, pollution, etc.
pic: Swallow Falls II, Fairy Glen, Bettws-y-Coed in Wales.
The great, dominant, all controlling fact of this life is the innate bias of the human spirit, not towards evil, as theologists tell us, but towards good. But for that bias, man would never have been man; he would only have been one more species of wild man ranging a savage, uncultivated globe, the reeking battleground of sheer instinct and appetite.
~William Archer
This is something I’ve felt for a long time, since I was a little girl. Human beings are inherently good creatures. I have chosen to focus on the good in me and let that let shine. I have bad qualities like everyone else but I just don’t believe I was born a bad person doomed to evil and wrong-doing. I really resent this was ever put into my head, but I am trying to get past that resentment. Let it go, because it will only hold me back from living a good life.
Real power is usually unspectacular, a simple setting aside of fear that allows the free flow of love. But is changes everything.
~Martha Beck
I read this quote recently in O magazine in an article about power. It struck me, the truth and simplicity in it. One of my biggest stumbling blocks in life is fear, while one of my greatest gifts is the ability to love. I had not realized how much I allowed fear to block my free flow of love, with myself primarily, and how that in turn blocked me from being and doing all that I can do and be. This is why I feel so powerless and so easily manipulated by other people and situations. I am a powerful person. I just have to set aside my fear and live in my own power.
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