From: http://www.joelwlamoure.com/id43.html
Greetings my gentle readers to this week’s instalment of the “Be Yourself, Often” blog. Thank you all for being here and reading and sharing! Perhaps, just maybe we can all dialogue and learn and reflect with each other. Would that not be wonderful?
Those of you who have met met personally know that when people ask how I am doing, I almost invariably reply “Living the Dream”. I say it over and over and with the occasionally interspersed “Making history” for fun and chuckles. I am sure that my poor friends and acquaintances are absolutely sure that either I have suffered a major traumatic brain injury and suffering from residual cranial and brain swelling or I’m purely delusional. I mean seriously… how could someone be possibly living the dream day in and day out? Are we not expected, may ENCOURAGED to have crappy days and be prepared at a whim in true Jerry Springer-esque fashion to divulge all the horrors of the moment? Isnt it like a moment of enjoyment to lather on the lacquer of the trials of the day? Maybe Im just immune. Anyways… I must admit I get interesting responses when I offer either of those answers.
But what my gentle readers if you could live the dream every day? A dream may be good and bad in nature with the horrific ones headed towards nightmare land. However, a healthy fortitude and strong belief structure should allow us to weather the buffeting and challenges of the storms and bumps of the day and night. It is so easy to get so bent, so fast by something SO trivial in the grand schema of things. Sometimes it is better to take the road less travelled and as opposed of engaging and going to launch the nukes that we stop and reflect. Root cause analysis per wit as you know is my favourite teaching and reflective tool. While I am squandering my time away assessing what engaging or complaining about the situation and what it might mean to all parties (not just the all-critical “I”)… the crisis passes. Didnt engage, didnt have a knee-jerk reaction, had time to think it through and in the meantime… the issue passes, as it was not a real issue anyways in perspective. It was only anothers perspective that made it huge. It was just their goal to suck me into their story. Sadly… they often find other victims.
Intriguingly.. there are 2 points from above. That being the “All Critical I”. Meaning I am the root here and my goals and my needs and my integrity and my life and my limbs and my health and my reputation and my ego are at risk here! Oh my salts and grits… thats a load of hooey my friends. Remember… to talk to yourself is to be labelled a lunatic. And if everyone in the world was all about themself? No room for anyone else. Sad state of affairs my friend. Freaking dismal. Its like pulling out a boardgame made for 2-8 players and having 1. Ever played Monopoly with one person? How long does it take before you get bored out of your skin and decide to rob the bank, occupy Boardwalk and Park Place and pillage the Utilites? Sigh.
The second is the work knee-jerk. Second word after the hyphen says it all if you just react. Often you will equal jerk. No information and hasty decision= Jerk.
So it is possible to live the dream and all the time we ARE making history my friends. It is about how you act and react with your friends and colleagues and interact. Love at its root is an intelligent concern for others. Its ok to feel love for others and embrace the moments as they come up. And embracing the moments means mindfulness, meditation, being a kid at times and not taking oneself so darn serious. As you do have a choice my friends and gentle readers… live the dream or dream that you lived. For me the choice is so obvious. To live the dream means you can be yourself, often.
— Rev. Dr. Joel Lamoure January 2012
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