Your Stuff - My Stuff

A L O H A !

"Where your talents

and the needs of the world meet,

lies your calling." 

Aristotle

" Give me health and a day, 

and I will make the pomp of emperors 

ridiculous. "
Ralph Waldo Emerson

These are ukuleles. Isn't the little banjo-uke cute?

" A painter paints pictures on canvas.

But musicians paint their pictures 

on silence.  "

Leopold Stokowski

" Do not anticipate trouble,

or worry about what may never happen.

Keep in the sunlight. "

Benjamin Franklin

They told us kids,

that if we dug a hole deep enough

we could get to China.

Look, someone DID it!

" To be humble to superiors

is duty,

to equals courtesy,

to inferiors 

nobleness. "

Benjamin Franklin

The hardest thing for me

in day to day life

is my tendancy to be affected

by the emotions

of people around me.

Making their stuff - into my stuff.

Of course this is not unique to me,

Psychologists call it:

"Emotional Contagion"

which makes a frown or smile

akin to a sneeze or cough.

Others are entitled to their moods of course,

it's not my job to assess & uplift everyone I meet-

that would be presumptious.

One never knows what another is going through.

Kinda shallow to joke with someone who is mourning,

eh?

I don't want to 'kill with kindness'

or impose judgement or expectation on others.

All we can do, is to love them,

while respecting them

and their emotions

enough

to let them be.

Jollity & Jocularity can have a pushy edge

to them

at the wrong time. 

Jesus & Buddha weren't back-slappers.

They embodied an 'openness' to others

that invited without imposing.

Kwan Yin, Jesus & Buddha

had welcoming, gentle smiles.

I try to be like that too.

Quietly caring-

and blessing others

on their way.

It is their way, after all

" Rejoice with those who rejoice, 

weep with those who weep. "

Romans 12:15 ESV

        Thanks for sharing with us here!  Warmly, cloudia