Paula Underwood 434 words, 386K views, 108 comments
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On Sep 28, 2009Those who wander are not lost... wrote :
To Patsy: What you said definitley struck a chord with me. When I was younger, I was very opinionated, and lived in a pretty surpressed environment. This caused me to become calloused and bitter, and I was closed off to other people's thoughts and ideas. I was constantly waiting for my turn to speak, and was very set in my beliefs. When I realized this about myself, I was determined to reverse it. I spent over a year walking the streets every day, working on my listening skills. I would find a lot of people who wanted to share their stories, and forced myself to say nothing or very little. I would always write about my experiences, and never forget the people I met.
This proved to be one of the best things I ever did. Years later, I still do this regularly, and in a way need to, to make sure that I am constantly learning and being challenged. It feels so amazing to connect to people! I love sharing my ideas and listening, and having conversations that break the shallow barrier of what the weather is like.
The truth is, we are all convinced to believe that we should be in our own little worlds, interacting only when absolutely necessary. (After all, unity is very bad for productivity!) I feel that we need to reclaim our humanity and celebrate our differences, rather than use them as a point of division or pretend they dont exist.
"We have bigger houses but smaller families: We have more degrees but less sense; more knowledge but less judgements; more experts but more problems; more medicines, but less healthiness. We've been all the way to the moon and back, but we have trouble crossing the street
to meet the new neighbour. We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we have less communication. We have become long on quantity but short on quality.
These are times of fast foods, but slow digestion; tall man, but short character;steep profits, but shallow relationships. It is time when there is much in the window but nothing in the room."-Dalai Lama
On Sep 28, 2009 Those who wander are not lost... wrote :
To Patsy: What you said definitley struck a chord with me. When I was younger, I was very opinionated, and lived in a pretty surpressed environment. This caused me to become calloused and bitter, and I was closed off to other people's thoughts and ideas. I was constantly waiting for my turn to speak, and was very set in my beliefs. When I realized this about myself, I was determined to reverse it. I spent over a year walking the streets every day, working on my listening skills. I would find a lot of people who wanted to share their stories, and forced myself to say nothing or very little. I would always write about my experiences, and never forget the people I met.
This proved to be one of the best things I ever did. Years later, I still do this regularly, and in a way need to, to make sure that I am constantly learning and being challenged. It feels so amazing to connect to people! I love sharing my ideas and listening, and having conversations that break the shallow barrier of what the weather is like.
The truth is, we are all convinced to believe that we should be in our own little worlds, interacting only when absolutely necessary. (After all, unity is very bad for productivity!) I feel that we need to reclaim our humanity and celebrate our differences, rather than use them as a point of division or pretend they dont exist.
"We have bigger houses but smaller families: We have more degrees but less sense; more knowledge but less judgements; more experts but more problems; more medicines, but less healthiness. We've been all the way to the moon and back, but we have trouble crossing the street
to meet the new neighbour. We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we have less communication. We have become long on quantity but short on quality.
These are times of fast foods, but slow digestion; tall man, but short character;steep profits, but shallow relationships. It is time when there is much in the window but nothing in the room."-Dalai Lama
...Om Mani Padme Hum...