Review

I'm really digging this online blog thing right now. First off because writing is a good way for me to organize my thoughts without being confessional. (I don't post all the things that I write and often just use this as the space for saving my thoughts). I also write far longer posts than I would if I were handwriting and I think the ease of editing on a computer together with the idea that it will be public makes me organize those thoughts more precisely. Occasionally when I go to write a post I look back at my unpublished entries for inspiration or look through previously published posts for similarity.

Today I started to write a post I had no intention of publishing publicly and got interrupted. When I came back to blogger I started looking through old posts and I had an experience that I realize I've had several times before--upon finding an old post that was strikingly similar to what I was writing/wanting to write I realized that it was written almost a year ago today and that my current post is an extension and additional revelation on that previous thought.

Just one year and one day ago I wrote a post entitled "Truth and Justice" It dealt with the natural human desire for fairness and a question as to how we perceive/accept situations that we feel are fair or unfair. It questioned why we desire a truth that will make us unhappy over a lie that we will be content with. This post came about because I was having issues with wanting to tell the truth without either hurting someone or upsetting someone. Both in my personal life and especially in my professional life this is something I come across often.

Looking back now, looking at that poster with a distance and hopefully a little growth, I feel I can give her/myself a little advice: do it with love. See with loving eyes and "the truth" as it is will not tainted by false values and judgmental perception.

Now this might not work quite as directly in my work-life (which is filled with 5-10 minute interactions with strangers), but in my personal-life I'd like to take this as a directive. I'm thinking of the quote that says that if a person has 9 good qualities and 1 bad you should focus on the 9 good qualities... and if in fact they have 9 bad qualities and only 1 good, you should still focus only on the 1 good quality. At it's heart this seems to me to say that you should only see the good in people and that, while you may recognize those bad qualities, you are primarily focused on the good. And if we are focusing only on the good qualities of a person how could we help but to treat them and show them love and respect? How can we help but to say things in the kindest and gentlest way?

Although not the perfect example, think about the age-old dilemma-causing question: "Do I look fat in this?" --if we are focusing our sights only on the good in people we are SEEING differently, not just answering differently. Now I'm not saying I can give you a perfect, loving, kind, gentle, respectful and honest answer that every woman will accept with grace, but the difference is that when we LOOK at the world lovingly instead of through the common veils of judgment, comparison, and negativity, we have a lot less to fear of the "truths" that we see.

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