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Posts Tagged ‘Light’

A Gift To The World

Nov 11th, 2009
by ianpeatey.
17 comments

On this day in 1963, something happened that fundamentally changed the course of my life. It wasn’t something that hit the headlines, but it was something that still has repercussions to this day. In fact, this event is having an effect on you right this moment as you wouldn’t be reading these words if it hadn’t taken place.

1960-2002-0004

11 November 1963 was the day on which I was born.

How To Celebrate

Last night Mona asked me how I want to celebrate my birthday.

My immediate reaction was the same I usually get in relation to my birthday; ‘uuuugggghhhh,’ together with a strong desire to hide in a corner for the whole day and hope everyone else has forgotten it. It’s not my age that’s the problem as I enjoy whatever age I am and 46 is a nice round number.

My problem is partly about celebrating. I don’t really know how to do it.

I watch others celebrate at parties and in bars. Singing, dancing and obviously having a good time. I sit there and just can’t understand it. Externalising my celebration of life is just not my way. I can speak about it, I can feel it deep inside – but expressing it in a ‘traditional’ way is not my style.

1147773_club_1There have been times when I faked it, but that’s pretty tiring and I’d prefer to be more authentic. Christmas, weddings, other people’s birthdays, holidays, parties I can just about cope with if I’m in the right frame of mind. I can celebrate with others, though I do generally avoid random parties. I got fed up with drunken revellers demanding I enjoy myself – then dragging me onto the dance floor, trying to get me drunk or, in one horrible incident, trying to persuade me to take cocaine. NO WAY!

I prefer to celebrate quietly. Peacefully. On my own, or with those closest to me.

Still, I’ve struggled over the years to celebrate in any way on my birthday and have tried to hide it where possible.

But not this year.

My Birthday Is About – Me

1076955_vibrant_giftI’ve long claimed my reluctance to celebrate my birthday was in respect for my grandfather who died on my 21st birthday or that it’s because it’s ‘Remembrance Day‘ or ‘Veterans’ Day’.

Frankly both are weak excuses.

Mona pointed out to me last night:

‘If you can’t appreciate the ways in which you are a gift to the world, then it’s hard to fulfil your potential. And birthdays are the one day in the year when I think you could be doing just that.’

This hit the proverbial nail on the head.

I was brought up to be modest and keep my light hidden. At times I’ve kept it so hidden I’ve actually lost sight of the fact that it’s there.

Each and every one of us is a gift to the World.

Each of us has a light inside that can shine out for the benefit of all – if we choose to let it.

10 Ways I’m A Gift To The World

This is probably the hardest list I’ve ever written. Every cell of my body is crying out,

“Don’t do it! Who are you to blow your own trumpet? You’re going to lose all your readers if you do this. It’s just not DONE!’

So I say ‘thank you’ to the helpful voices in my head … and I’m going to do this anyway.

  1. Three people wouldn’t exist without me … my beautiful daughters Laura (17 years), Elena (6 years) and Nameless One (- 3 months).
  2. My humour which has made many people laugh
  3. My smile which has infected many people with smiles of their own
  4. The simplicity of my material world which inspires several people
  5. My writing which has stimulated change in people
  6. My capacity to listen deeply which gives others the space and love they need to find themselves
  7. My dedication to bring peace into my own life and to share that with others
  8. Through my presence I’ve brought joy to the lives of many people – and Mona is one of them
  9. I make Athos and Balki (our 2 dogs!) wag their tail whenever I give them attention
  10. I tend to inspire quite intense feelings in other people (not all of them enjoyable!).

And Finally …

I had a wonderful early birthday present – my last article had an avalanche of readers (around 30,000 over two days). It came just at a moment I was again asking myself if this blog is really worth the effort I put into it. So a big thank you to all who contributed to the overwhelming success of that post. It made my day!

As it’s my birthday I’m allowed one birthday wish.

I would like to hear, in the comments or by Email the answer to the following question:

In What Ways are YOU a gift to the world?

Light

Apr 25th, 2009
by ianpeatey.
11 comments

Are you feeling light today? Do your eyes shine and sparkle? Is the sun shining on you?

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.

We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone.

And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we’re liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.“

‘A Return To Love’ -- Marianne Williamson

The light of the sun fuels life on our planet and without light we wouldn’t exist.

We are light, not darkness.

We are all made of stars.

That’s also a little plug for iPeace where I hang out from time to time for a little light relief.

Carefully selected articles from my favourite blogs

All loosely connected in some way to the theme of ligh:

Festival of light by my good friend Michael at Love To Spare, who I consider to be one of the truly light people writing in the blogosphere.

Sunday Thought For The Day by Lance at Jungle Of  Life. I know I included one from Lance last week, but I just love his writing. His was one of the first sites I followed and he’s long been an inspiration to me.

and finally

The Resolution at Positively Present.

I hope this post brought a little light into your weekend.

Balancing on top of the world

Apr 2nd, 2009
by ianpeatey.
17 comments

Often I catch myself saying that I’d like more balance in my life.

A bit more of this, a bit less of that.

Sometimes I want to be more rooted and not so much moving from place to place. At other times I look for more time for writing and not so much wasted time. Or I could do with more fee earning work and less time invested in developing a peaceful future.

Of course, in other periods all these are turned exactly in the opposite direction.

There always seems to be some aspect of my life where I’m striving for balance.

I saw ‘Man On Wire’ the other evening.

For those who don’t know, it’s a wonderful documentary about a Frenchman, Philippe Petit. He’s the guy in the picture above, who, in 1974 walked across a high-wire strung between the twin towers of the World Trade Center. If you doubt the picture to be authentic, just check out those awesome flares!  Only an insanely passionate person would even consider tightrope walking between the towers in those trousers!

Watching this film I realised I’ve been missing the point about balance!

To balance

Balance is not something I achieve but something I do.

Life is dynamic, it moves, it flows and when I balance (verb) I apply some control over that movement through life.

I can never reach a ‘balance’ as that implies no movement, no dynamism – no life.

The high-wire walker is always ‘off balance’.

His art and his skill is constantly to sense when he’s moved away from his centre of gravity and with small flexes of his muscles adjust his position. With those fine adjustments he’s always moving slightly from one side to the other. Over and over he repeats these sideways adjustments as he slowly, but surely moves forward.

He’s never stable but always ‘off-balance’. He knows that if he moves too far away from the centre he risks being unable to bring himself back. And that means certain death.

The high wire of life

Isn’t life similar to walking a high-wire?

We choose the rope we walk and how risky we want to live by the height of the rope and the conditions.

After our initial first steps on the wire we move inexorably forward from birth to death.

We may change speed, we may rest a while, but we will always get to the other side.

As we move forward, we notice when we’ve moved away from our path and we adjust and realign ourselves.

We live with the risk that we fail to sense when we’re off track. Maybe that happens when we’re so focussed on controlling the forward movement we forget  the sideways move. Or maybe it happens when we look down and take attention away from our own path. Or perhaps we lose our footing because we lose concentration, get tired or bored.

Fortunately, falling off the high-wire of life is rarely fatal, but a chance to check if we’re on the right path before we get back on again.

* Before anyone accuses me of ‘sexism’ … I fully appreciate that it’s equally possible that the high-wire walker might be female. Really I do! Philippe is a guy, though, and for purposes of writing style I chose to stay with that. The next time I use a high-wire walker as an example I’ll be sure to refer to her as female. I promise! Ok?

Dwelling on the lighter side

Nov 15th, 2008
by ianpeatey.
13 comments

Looking back at some of my recent posts it struck me that they’re tending towards the darker side of life. It’s an old habit I’m trying to break!! Not wanting to give a false impression and unduly spread gloom, I’m going off in seach of the lighter side. There is one! Trust me! I guess you know it already.

Taking responsibility for my life firmly in my own hands my mood is my choice. Here’s some things that help me turn on the light switch.

None resolve whatever underlies the dark, but getting in a positive frame gives me inner resources to identify what’s missing and do something about it.

1   Remind myself it’s a choice

On the dark side there often seems to be little choice. There is! It takes some practice but I remind myself how I react to what’s going on around me is largely, if not entirely, my choice. I can react pretty much any way I want. I can sink into a dark pit or I can press the button and illuminate. I’m fortunately living in a stable, peaceful place with little to get gloomy about – which certainly helps. I’m inspired by others who manage to keep their humanity in the most extreme situations. Read Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning if you have any doubts!

2   Music

I collect and listen to a lot of music and there’s definitely some mood changing qualities in it. I choose music to match my mood or to help change it. My current uplifting beats of choice are, for a reason that I’ve yet to fathom, My Chemical Romance and Muse.

3   Talk to someone

I don’t mean visit a therapist or seek a shoulder to cry on – just a good old fashioned conversation does it for me. I spend much time on my own and I like it that way! However, when I’m not in contact with others I have a tendency to slowly drift into the dark side. I have several shining people I can call on and I know we’ll talk about nothing in particular and with the lightest of touches.

4   Walk in the park

Works for me mainly in the Spring and Summer where there’s more life, colour and sunshine. Even in the Autumn and Winter the parks are so beautiful … and just touching the life there helps wake me up. Crunching through the snow on the ground or feeling the sun on my face always lifts my mood.

5   Read

I’m currently reading Naomi Klein’s The Shock Doctrine .. now there’s a depressing read (important, but not exactly uplifting!). To get some balance I dip into something short and light (Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet works especially well)

6   Clean up

There’s nothing like cleaning the apartment and throwing out stuff to brighten the day. I recently deleted my entire Email inbox (sorry if any of you are waiting for a reply!). One press on the delete button was a real flash and throwing out everything I’ve not used recently is a real brightener. There’s nothing like a clean start!

7   Do something for someone else

I’m not so attracted to buying stuff so retail therapy (for myself or someone else) just doesn’t do it for me. Giving some time and attention does. It could be a simple phone call or mail to say ‘thanks’, sending an article I think might be interesting or offering to do something with no expectation of return. It’s a reminder that my presence in the World might mean something.

8   Escape for a while

This is a last resort and usually involves switching off for a couple of hours and any film or TV show will do. I’m currently working my way through the X-files at the moment. 45 minutes of mindlessness works wonders. Writing this blog has a similar effect!

9   Go to sleep

When I wake up to the sunrise things always look a whole lot better.

“It’s always darkest just before the dawn”

10   …..

I don’t have a tenth and I’m really curious to hear suggestions … what do you do to flip the switch?