Quoting another post

I've quoted Ken Granlund of Common Sense before. He typically has such thoughtful and insightful posts. He's Friday's guest author at Bring It On and he has a wonderful post about Quid Pro Quo.

I'm quoting him here and mentioning it because the theme is that we get what we give. He's speaking from a political stance. I think we can always generalize what he is saying to other parts of our life--we do get what we put into it--however Ken writes a political blog so that's his focus. Enjoy and I hope he provokes as much thought from everyone reading this as he does for me.

A Perfect First?

I am watching my soon to be former office mate in her search for the perfect person to fill my space when I move to another city. At first she thought she had found the perfect person. That didn't work out. Since then, though, there have been several other promising leads on people that might work out better for her in the long run than the first person.

I wonder how often we jump at what seems to be a perfect first chance and then hold onto that idea even after we know that it can't possibly work. We keep trying to make it work and become increasingly frustrated and unhappy. It's hard to break out and say no this doesn't feel as right for me as it did in the beginning and I have to change my mind. Still, I think sometimes we need to listen to that voice.

How often have we held on to a job because we didn't know what else to do? How often have we stayed in a relationship long after it should have ended because it was still serving one person in the relationship? I think we all do this from time to time and I have to admire my office mate in her ability to listen to her internal self and go with what seems right for her at the moment.

I know that it's a bit scary to not have someone renting those rooms, but at the same time I have no doubt that she will find the perfect person to rent from her.

Quiet Time

I love to read. I love to read garbage, mindless stuff that doesn't mean anything. I love the delights of an otherwise boring woman solving murder mysteries because she's nosey--isn't that sort of an interesting juxtaposition of images?

At any rate things like this relax me. So I read one of these delightful little books this evening. I had the television on and the people were annoying me. I finished the book and put it down and watched and found myself getting annoyed with what was happening.

I have cats. The cats were all sitting on me, washing, napping, looking. Watching them, they relaxed me. The people on the television being annoying didn't matter. The cats were there. I remember reading that having pets lowers blood pressure. There is something meditative about watching a cat wash. They are so methodical and to them, at that moment, nothing else seems to matter.

So I become cat like in my watching, and sometimes pointing out the missed spots because in that moment, nothing else seems to matter either.

Truth and Confustion

I went to the WAOMA meeting this weekend. WAOMA is the Washington Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine Association. We got to hear a talk by Five Element Acupunturist Thea Elija.

Her theme was seeing the world through different paradigms. So often we have one paradigm that we view the world through. In the case of medicine, it is often through the traditional western medical model. Pain in the joints, then is arthritis and there is a certain progression and a certain way of treating. In Oriental Medicine, in one paradigm, there is pain in the joints and we don't care what the west says, we make our diagnosis that might be called bi syndrome and we treat how we treat.

Each paradigm has it's strengths and weaknesses. Ms. Elija points out that sometimes these paradigms can seem to be contradictory. In many cases, this causes us to decide that one paradigm is correct and the other wrong. In other cases, we sort of go with one paradigm and make that the stronger paradigm and then sort of fit the secondary paradigm into the cracks to give it a slight voice.

There could be a third path, says Ms. Elija. Perhaps, she suggests we don't go with either paradigm but let ourselves be with our confusion and with the contradiction and listen to the self inside and decide which is right in each instance. Perhaps, she says, we can't always know everything and perhaps we shouldn't even want to.

Embracing this mystery could be a way to peace. We are not surprised, for we know that each moment could bring surprise, or not. We understand the mystery of the world and know that we can never know (or control) our own role or part in it. How much more open we can become if we can sit with the confusion and just let it be.