Submitted by: Susan Thom(8,103) Susan Thom Log in to become a member of Susan Thom's Fan Club!
Way back when we were little kids, we were beginning to store up equity in our little memory banks. We listened to what adults conversed about, other kids, pastors, nuns, priests, books, teachers, movies and TV. We had been born with our own individual minds, and our ideas about what we were hearing either matched up, or strayed way to the other side of what we believed to be right. Sometimes we tried to fit our feeble little thoughts into a room full of our elders, but quite often, we remained silent, left to wonder what concepts were correct. One uncle said one football team was the best in the league, while another uncle wanted to beat him over the head because of his loyalty to another squad. Anyone listening to this, especially a small child, would have to wonder, "Who's right, or is there a right?" How does one make that decision? An aunt is trying to convince a cousin that the Catholic Religion is the only religion, and the cousin is trying to defend her right to go to the Presbyterian church.
As we get in our teens and twenties, I think we start questioning things in a way that we can get some answers. We research through books, TV, documentaries, religious services, and conversations with those we respect. We begin to start forming our own opinions based on what we've read and heard and experienced. If we experienced being taught manners as a child, and dealt with people who made their manners known, then chances are, we will put that equity, that knowledge, into our brains, and use it when called upon. If we have read about non violence, and non judgmentalism, and we've experience situations in which we either helped or hurt someone else because of their hair color, skin color, shape of their body, or the accent they had, these experiences become who we are, how we feel, what we think, and how we react.
Do we act kindly to others, do we have a good attitude, are we honest, can people trust us, can we trust ourselves? Have we set up boundaries for ourselves? Do we know where the line is, and where and why not to cross it? Have we gathered a conscience that lets us know what's right or wrong? If we have, that's a lot of equity to have built up in ourselves. Positive, strong, intelligent, spiritual, caring, loving, altruistic equity. And no one can take it from you. You went through the experiences and the work to get wherever you are on the footpath of life, and you deserve whatever you get!
Some people never change. They don't "need" to, there's nothing wrong with their thinking or actions or reactions or their ideals and inappropriateness. So, they stay the same and live their lives as such. However, they've built no equity. Negative equity, but not the positive energy equity that will sustain them in a spiritual and loving, wholesome way. People need to understand why they need to adjust their lifestyle, before they can even begin to make significant changes. Are they aware of their character traits, especially their defective ones? Do they know, for example, that lying is wrong, and that manipulation is just as bad? Do they realize that people don't trust them? Don't like them? Are turned off by the mere sight of them?
None of these traits enhances positive equity within our minds, souls, and bodies. However, even though we may have to deal with different types of people, our true actions need to be focused on ourselves. If we want to build positive equity, we need to help others, not walk away when some woman has dropped her groceries in the Wal-Mart's parking lot. Why are you not able to stop and help her for all of maybe three minutes? Just as you took a shirt off the rack, another fell. Are you going to leave it on the floor, or put it where it belongs? Every thought and positive action counts. The equity that we build up is going to follow us when we die and get to those pearly gates. In the meantime, it adjusts our lives to a more compassionate way of being.
We aren't as self centered as we may like to be. We help other people. We have pride in ourselves because we are positively producing, and leaving the negativity to someone else. We go to the hospital and sit with a friend. We may not have money at Christmas, so we go to the dollar store, and buy things that others love, simply because they know they are cared about. We don't park in the handicapped zone. We let someone go in front of us when they have ten items, and we have two carts full. We make decisions based on focused, honest, clear thought. So many seemingly insignificant things can add positive equity to our souls, and allow our lives to be richer in happiness and respect towards ourselves and others.
And the work never stops, much the same way our homes keep building equity the more we fix them up and make them stronger and better. We, the people, need to fix our souls up and realize that fear and anger are characteristics that need to be worked on, both for our own happiness, and the happiness of those we share our lives with. For the minimal cost of a book on fear or anger or honesty or what's hiding in your closet that makes you think, act and react the way you do, you could also begin to change your negative energy to positive, and build equity in yourself.
Susan Thom is the mother of three children, two sons, 17 and 21, and a daughter 22. Writing calms her, and gives her a place to go. By herself! Clears the head and gets it out. She lives in a rural area, with a lake and mountains, her son and her partner, and has loved writing since she was a child.
She certainly hopes you enjoy her take on life, and her style of communicating that in stories.
She has been on a journey of self discovery for twenty years, and has learned many things about the human mind, and how to maintain some semblance of calm and peace within.
If someone reads one of her stories, and relates to her feelings, and maybe gets a suggestion on how she dealt with them in a positive way, that would be the ultimate gift of her writing.
» left by Teresa Ortiz(5,740) Teresa Ortiz (72 days 10 hours ago.)
Hi sue, to stop growing as a person and to think that we have "arrived" would be a tragedy. Yet many people have and that is why our world is in such a mess. But when we are honest with ourselves and admit that there is room to grow and the need to grow, we help to make the world a little better, just one heartbeat at a time. Thanks for sharing these great insights. Love, t.
» left by sue thom (72 days 10 hours ago.)
hi t,
thanks for reading and responding.
i think we, the people, need to start putting more equity into our positive characteristics, than into our material things,
my best to you,
sue
» left by Teresa Ortiz(5,740) Teresa Ortiz (72 days 10 hours ago.)
That is the truth. Relationships are the greatest treasures, not the house on the hill. It can get mightly lonely in that great big beautiful house if it was attained at the expense of relationships... have a great night.
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