Perseverance, Persistence

There is a difference between these two words, but basically they mean the same as far as intensity of thought and behavior is concerned. To persevere and persist mean to have the ability to stick with something to the end, to keep going with determination and refuse to stop until the goal is achieved or there is a dead end. Perseverance is associated more with endurance and hardship and may entail a reward for not backing down. A famous Roman poet, Ovid, who wrote mythological poems, wrote, "Endure and persevere, this pain will turn good by and by." Persistence, on the other hand, is not so much enduring hardship and using intense effort as it is a tenacious hanging on until the end. Either way, if people are persevering and persistent, they are earnest and go forth in a methodical way despite obstacles, difficulties, and distractions without complaining. They are serious about the accomplishment and completion of a goal and pursue it in an eager, conscientious, devoted, heartfelt, open, and genuine way. Persevering people are: unshakable, steady, inflexible, unyielding, unfaltering, relentless, resolute, and determined. Persistence is more than trying. Trying is an attempt to perform an action or endeavor to accomplish something, but the intensity and effort are not there. Persistent people are steadfast and do not waver or budge in their belief, effort, plan, or even refusal. People who carry on persist in an enterprise or undertaking in spite of counter influences, opposition, or discouragement. If they are not persevering, the options are to give up, give in, submit to, and to succumb to and surrender. The industrialist and philanthropist who founded Standard Oil, John D. Rockefeller, had this to say about perseverance, "I do not think there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance. It overcomes almost everything, even nature." "Courage and perseverance have a magical talisman, before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish into thin air," is a quote by John Qunicy Adams. We have to believe in ourselves and our passions and dreams, and it often takes perseverance to see them through and not become discouraged. J.K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series, was rejected by 12 publishers.

Protect and Serve

There are groups of people who sign up to protect and serve. Some are our military, our police, and our fire fighters. They do what they do to protect and serve so that we can be safe and secure. We may not be safe in our personal life, but great steps and sacrifices are taken to preserve safety and security in our country, our states, our cities, our communities, and our neighborhoods. Being free from harm and danger is due to the protection we receive. Those who protect us are heroes. Animal rescue groups are also composed of heroes who provide safety for all of our creatures. Sometimes there are "unsung heroes" who don't get the recognition they deserve. Heroes carry on resolutely and with undaunted determination to help others. They fight for causes and look out for other's interests, guard, protect, and rescue. Protection is a shield from danger, injury, destruction, or damage. It takes courage and bravery to be a hero. The brave man recognizes the power of thought and isn't defeated by fear, anxiety, frustration, or anger, but rises above these negatives and assumes a positive and victorious approach to life. Courage is the willingness to do the right thing in spite of fear. It is a quality of spirit that enables certain people to face danger, pain, and failure for the larger picture. When someone goes to war, he is supporting his country and its beliefs. Beliefs differ among nations and that is the main reason for conflict and confrontation. In an ideal, perfect word, we would all realize that we are one, that we are all human beings. Many hold a vision of peace in the midst of conflict and imagine and dream of freedom for each one of us. For peace to rise, we need to honor each other and to seek common ground one by one, until then, we will always have those that seek to protect and serve, and to them we say "thank you."

Freedom

I am writing not about freedom from being oppressed or restrained from acting or speaking as we wish, but freedom of our thoughts, emotions, and feelings, freedom to be ourselves. We can be free in our thoughts regardless of our current circumstances, challenges, and issues. We can go anywhere in our minds through the power of prayer, meditation, and our imagination. We have an inborn freedom to think on our own, and our emotions and feelings come from that thinking. No one can tell us how to feel. We are free to think independently and recognize the control we have over our own minds. We can consider evidence, keep an open mind, observe, analyze, question, approach problems both intuitively and logically, and seek the truth. There are no limitations to the power of thought. We are able to think and feel unhampered and unrestricted. With this release comes the positive rather than the negative. It is the nature of thinking that transports us from our circumstances and leads us to build our lives toward our passions, goals, and dreams. It is important to be free of  other people's opinions and allow ourselves to be guided by our natural selfness. We don't have to depend on external signals, but live and have our being from our natural inner voice living in harmony with our beliefs, thoughts, and feelings, and ignoring pressure to do otherwise. Respect your inner nature, trust yourself, your thoughts and feelings. Trust your instincts, insights, and intuition. Ask yourself, "What's my own nature if there are no outside forces telling me who or what I should be?" When we think about what makes us happy and what our dreams are, regardless of our circumstances, or what other people are telling us to think, we are free.

"Easy Does It"

"Easy Does It' is an idiom which is a common, everyday phrase, expression, or saying whose meaning cannot be understood by the individual words. The phrase, or idiom, "easy does it," is a among other things, a common slogan of twelve step programs, used as a  motto or expression usually in particular situations as encouragement from one person to another to relax and take it easy. It is almost soothing just to say the word "easy." If we are taking it easy, or easing into something, we are doing it carefully and at the same time becoming less tense and stressed about situations that are bothering us. This makes other things, like happiness instead of sadness, possible in the meantime. When we take things easier we are less overwhelmed by our circumstances and there is a feeling of relief.  The object is to find easier, more relaxing ways of doing things. When we take it easy we become gentle with people, places, things, and ourselves. We see a new point of view and find a simpler way to approach a problem. When we live life with ease, we find it generally goes smoother. There is comfort in doing things more slowly and gently to help soothe ourselves mentally and physically so we can bring about good effects for ourselves and others. Frankly, we have less confusion and anxiety. There is something to be said for an easy going, unhurried way of life, easing into the moment and not worrying about the past and future. Simply by calming down and not making life so hard and complicated, leads to new feelings of serenity. Following are the lyrics to Supertramps's song "Easy Does it,"...And if you know who you are, you are your own superstar. And only you can shape the music that you make. So when the crowds disappear, and only the silence is here, watch yourself, easy does it, easy does it, easy while you wait." And, if we do take it easy we will be "rolling gently down the stream, merrily, merrily, gently down the stream."

Change

Change is inevitable, sometimes we like it and sometimes we don't. Whether a change is welcome or not is not the issue, it is how we respond to it. We can try and hold tightly to what is being changed, try to keep things the same, and be uncomfortable because it is happening anyway. Or we can lean into the change, be adaptable and flexible, and accept it into our lives. As Alan Watts has to say, "The harder we try to catch hold of the moment, to seize a pleasant sensation...the more elusive it becomes..." The only thing that doesn't change is change itself, except for the past. Change can be minor or transformative. It is all right to feel disappointed, skeptical, resentful, joyous, excited, or confused about our changing circumstances. The important thing is to accept what we feel. No matter how permanently fixed in the center of our lives it may seem, whatever we experience in this ever-changing life is sure to pass. And difficult situations often bring out qualities in us that otherwise might not have risen to the surface, such as courage, faith, and our need for one another. As far as changing ourselves is concerned, no one can make us change and no one can stop us from changing. Only we can decide what changes we want to make and know that it only takes a slight shift in direction to begin to change our lives. We can only change ourselves, it is an exercise in futility and frustration to try and change the behavior of others. The serenity prayer by Reinhold Niebuhr is pertinent here as he tells us to pray for the courage to change the things we can and have the wisdom to know what we can't. Possibly the best way to react to change is to experience all that life has to offer by remaining teachable when change comes. Staying open minded, replacing old ides with the new, and as changes occur letting go of old defenses and attitudes that aren't working work for us anymore. If we don't get too attached to any one way to approach life, and adjust to the changes in our lives, we will live with more happiness, less stress, and our lives may become one adventure after another.

Flexibility with a Twist

When we are flexible, we are capable of making changes by bending to situations and adapting to our circumstances. We are not rigid, but pliable and don't stress ourselves if everything is not the way we want it to be. Being flexible is when we make choices to weather storms by allowing them to blow through us without resistance. It is relaxing, not fighting, and going with what confronts us, or the decisions we have to make. When flexible, we are open to all possibilities without fear and ego-driven attachments. I have had this piece on flexibility started for a couple of days, but because of, what I now realize is the subconscious, I have not been able to write it. I have been facing a decision that has caused me to be inflexible. I have been in conflict with myself and fighting what has confronted me while a depression built up, almost unbeknownst to me. I have not been adapting to a particular situation, but trying to make a decision coming from fear and anxiety. In my resistance and ensuing decision not to leave my comfort zone, I ultimately have disappointed myself and others. In my resistance I have suffered.  I know if I am willing to make changes, accept life on "life's terms," and come from a positive place with a good attitude, things seem to run more smoothly, but I am not perfect. I am not always like the stately palm tree weathering a storm, rather sometimes feel like a piece of sage brush hurled about the by desert wind. It is hard to make changes about what we know for the unknown. What I write are my inspirations and philosophies, but they are also ideals. What I must, we must, remember is that we are human. Striving to live a certain way, doesn't mean we are a failure when we don't. I am finishing my thoughts on the advantages of being flexible because sometimes we learn by knowing about what it is like to not live up to an ideal. I may not follow the ideals I write about, and always walk my talk, but I will continue to write about them because I am learning about myself and my beliefs, they give me something to strive for, it is good for me, writing makes me happy, and just possibly, somewhere along the way, someone might be able to relate to something I have to say. I wrote on fear, perfection, willingness, changing our thoughts, and failure. Perhaps I should reread them for being flexible to weather storms is certainly an ideal and trait I wish to possess.

What Does "Being" Mean

When I wrote about "reverence for nature," I wrote about just "being" rather than doing, being like the existing of nature. "Being" means letting our life run its course and accepting people, places, and things, and ourselves, as is rather than trying to be in control all the time. Of course we have to prepare and plan, but then we should relax and know that all will go the way it is supposed to. Think good thoughts and have a good attitude.  Attitude is a state of being as is joyfulness, faithfulness, and being in balance. When we are being, we are in the present moment where we find peace. We are not full of tension and worry. These come when we are thinking about the past and the future. The goal is to be in the present moment rather than "living in the past," or "becoming in the future." In the moment, the qualities of spirit...peace, hope, and love are immediately available and can be expressed in our everyday living because these intangible qualities are ingrained in our being. Who we are. We can also be forgiving, tolerant, and happy now instead of postponing positive and productive living to some vague and indefinite future. By being, we are not wasting time dreaming about the rich life we may live next year, or ten years from now, but it is beginning to to live our best right now, today. Putting our creative energy into the present because of the awareness of the infinite possibilities in each magic moment. In being we have aids in knowing. They are our instinct, intuition, and insight. We all have inborn patterns of behavior that are responsive to certain stimuli. This is our instinct and it happens naturally. We also have intuition. Because of our intuition we are able to quickly understand and interpret situations and people's behavior without using reason. Then, we have insight, which we gain partially by using our intuition. Insight is developed more in some people than in others. It is when we have a feeling, emotion, or thought that helps us know something essential about people, places, or things. We are able to form a clear and deep perception, and, often suddenly, understand a complex situation. These ways of knowing are not based on hard facts or evidence and don't entail our five sense, but are more like a sixth sense. Instinct, intuition, and insight, are available to use in our current state of being, and, along with the accumulation of our experiences, moment to moment, we are not only "being," we have the reality of ourselves.