Pop Quiz
We're always focusing on me in this blog. Today I want to focus on YOU.
Below I have several questions that I want you to read, and think deeply about the answers. I will do the same.
The questions are not my creation - they are from Rob Brezsny, who sends out his wise guiding words every week in his "Free Will Astrology." It is no common astrology column, and worth reading even for all the other signs too. True to it's name, it is free - check it out at http://www.freewillastrology.com
Okay, to the questions. No cheating allowed.
1. What feelings and intuitions have you been trying to ignore lately?
2. Which parts of your life are overdue for death?
3. What messages has life been trying to convey to you but which you've chosen to ignore?
4. What red herrings, straw men, and scapegoats have you chased after obsessively in order to avoid dissolving your most well-rationalized delusions?
5. What unripe parts of yourself are you most ashamed or fearful of? How can you give those parts more ingenious love?
6. What parts of yourself have the least integrity and don't act in harmony with what you regard as your highest values? How can you bring them into alignment with your true desires?
7. Is it possible that in repressing things about yourself that you don't like, you have also disowned potentially strong and beautiful aspects of yourself? What are they?
8. Are those really flaws that are bugging you about the people whose destinies are entwined with yours, or just incompletely developed talents? Are those really flaws that are bugging you about yourself, or merely incompletely developed talents?
9. Some people try to deny their portion of the world's darkness and project it onto individuals or groups they dislike. Others acknowledge its power so readily that they allow themselves to be overwhelmed by it. We believe in taking an in-between position, accepting it as an unworked gift that can serve our liberation. Where do you stand?
10. It's easy to see fanaticism, rigidity, and intolerance inother people, but harder to acknowledge them in yourself. Do you dare?
11. Would you be willing to compose a Mental Hut mission statement? Speak the following sample as if it were yours and see how it feels: "I'm ready to stop the world. I need some extended leave time. A sabbatical from life. I'm not going to wash any dishes, do any laundry, make any small talk, pay any bills. I will follow every weird train of thought or vagrant emotion that captures my imagination. Will lower the barrier between my conscious and unconscious minds. Will follow the smells I like. Listen to my body. Celebrate what's not so beautiful but really interesting about myself and anyone else. Keep my eyes out for surprising new intuitions and teachings. Have wild patience.Smash a clock with a hammer. Actually kiss the earth. Fall out of my chair from laughing so hard at nothing in particular. Listen to music I don't understand. Call out to the sky, 'I defy you, stars.' Give my whole heart or else not offer it at all."
Allright, good work. Now trade papers with the person to your left, and grade your answers.
On another note, to day is signing day for college football recruits. Lets all hope that many of our best and brightest future college athletes will have to wisdom to make the right life choices and play football for the mighty South Carolina Gamecocks. And let us pity those poor foolish boys who choose Clemson instead.
Below I have several questions that I want you to read, and think deeply about the answers. I will do the same.
The questions are not my creation - they are from Rob Brezsny, who sends out his wise guiding words every week in his "Free Will Astrology." It is no common astrology column, and worth reading even for all the other signs too. True to it's name, it is free - check it out at http://www.freewillastrology.com
Okay, to the questions. No cheating allowed.
1. What feelings and intuitions have you been trying to ignore lately?
2. Which parts of your life are overdue for death?
3. What messages has life been trying to convey to you but which you've chosen to ignore?
4. What red herrings, straw men, and scapegoats have you chased after obsessively in order to avoid dissolving your most well-rationalized delusions?
5. What unripe parts of yourself are you most ashamed or fearful of? How can you give those parts more ingenious love?
6. What parts of yourself have the least integrity and don't act in harmony with what you regard as your highest values? How can you bring them into alignment with your true desires?
7. Is it possible that in repressing things about yourself that you don't like, you have also disowned potentially strong and beautiful aspects of yourself? What are they?
8. Are those really flaws that are bugging you about the people whose destinies are entwined with yours, or just incompletely developed talents? Are those really flaws that are bugging you about yourself, or merely incompletely developed talents?
9. Some people try to deny their portion of the world's darkness and project it onto individuals or groups they dislike. Others acknowledge its power so readily that they allow themselves to be overwhelmed by it. We believe in taking an in-between position, accepting it as an unworked gift that can serve our liberation. Where do you stand?
10. It's easy to see fanaticism, rigidity, and intolerance inother people, but harder to acknowledge them in yourself. Do you dare?
11. Would you be willing to compose a Mental Hut mission statement? Speak the following sample as if it were yours and see how it feels: "I'm ready to stop the world. I need some extended leave time. A sabbatical from life. I'm not going to wash any dishes, do any laundry, make any small talk, pay any bills. I will follow every weird train of thought or vagrant emotion that captures my imagination. Will lower the barrier between my conscious and unconscious minds. Will follow the smells I like. Listen to my body. Celebrate what's not so beautiful but really interesting about myself and anyone else. Keep my eyes out for surprising new intuitions and teachings. Have wild patience.Smash a clock with a hammer. Actually kiss the earth. Fall out of my chair from laughing so hard at nothing in particular. Listen to music I don't understand. Call out to the sky, 'I defy you, stars.' Give my whole heart or else not offer it at all."
Allright, good work. Now trade papers with the person to your left, and grade your answers.
On another note, to day is signing day for college football recruits. Lets all hope that many of our best and brightest future college athletes will have to wisdom to make the right life choices and play football for the mighty South Carolina Gamecocks. And let us pity those poor foolish boys who choose Clemson instead.
posted by Psilocide | 9:54 AM
1 Comments:
I stumbled across your blog...and I see no one has answered your questions. So I will.
1. I need to take a chance, regardless of the fact that everybody thinks I'm crazy. I need to stop doing what everyone expects of me.
2. The part of me that still searches for old, familiar faces in crowds--faces I both welcome and dread, but know, deep down, I'll never find. Also, the part of my life, the part of who I am, that tends to defer to the wants of others. That tendency has got to go.
3. I suppose the two above answers could answer this, as well. I have to speak up more than I do, now.
4. I have a thing for unattainable men. It may be something of a game--to get the "ungettable" get. But it's never about what I think it's about, and chasing ghosts is no way to live a life.
5. I used to believe in myself a whole lot more. I am ashamed that I let that fall by the wayside. I can also be very guarded, while appearing otherwise, but that's more of a defense mechanism than anything else.
6. I'm a people pleaser, the youngest child--and therefore, a bit of an entertainer. I try to fix every bad situation, and that really doesn't help me, at all. I need to stop caving in to manipulations.
7. Somehow, I've stopped actively making mistakes. Maybe that sounds strange, but it's true. It's become something I'm very hesitant of, but that is certainly no way to live. The best things I've ever done were mistakes. That's how a person learns.
8. Flaws are a matter of perspective, I suppose. I'm too short-sighted, sometimes, which is weird, 'cause I'm more of a planner. I think my biggest flaw is not trusting myself.
9. Again, everything is about perspective. Most things in life are grey--not black or white. The easy answer is not the best one--in fact, most of the time, it's the wrong answer. An action isn't inherently dark, but the intention colors it that way, or not.
10. I am very rigid when it comes to the way I do certain things. I tend to only drive to places via one route, or listen to one particular cd when I'm in a particular mood. Some call this a routine, but it's a (false) sense of security, I think. As for intolerance, I am a very tolerant person, unless you hurt someone I care about. Or are deliberately mean to someone, in my presence...then, all bets are off.
11. Yes. Consider it done.
Thank you for this, honestly. I haven't been this introspective in a while. :-)
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