Family, friends and folks, I have fallen well off the blogging wagon and looking for a way to get back the discipline. This one is a bit of a cheat, but here goes as I turn 55. These are some lessons living with and learning from others:
- Joy is the best emotion
- Giving and receiving love and gratitude is the stuff of joy
- One person can influence the whole trajectory of your life. Choose carefully.
- Do unto others really is the golden rule
- There is grace in forgiving
- There is happiness in releasing and indeed, forgetting some things
- Connected family, good friendships and good works equal the good life
- Everyone feels better receiving and giving affirmations
- It could be so much worse. Perspective generates optimism and vice versa
- Sometimes it IS the answer that brings the row
- Smiling with strangers is a good habit
- Talking to strangers in the airport is curiously relaxing
- There comes a time in friendships when you just accept your friends as they accept you. Troubles, flaws and all. Old friendships should be treasured and new friendships always a possibility
- Interdependence is an existential fact of life. Embrace it.
- Bitterness is like bile, your insides are the only things being eaten up
- Cooking together can feel like love
- There is no chore that does not build some skill and understanding of life
- Clutter is just that but neatness can be over-rated.
- Make the decision and the details will take care of themselves
- Grandparents can make so much difference to children experiencing turbulence
- Nature is definitely a thing but nurture can reinforce, break or improve
- Your children should know exactly who you are
- Naturally wise parents are few. Most of us have to work hard at the discipline of self-management
- Children do not learn life values only through osmosis, words must be used.
- You have to stop judging your adult children’s choices (unless you are affected)
- Knowing when you are affected by your adult children’s choices sufficient to intervene requires wisdom
- There is luck in geography
- The Caribbean really, truly is beautiful
- The outdoors should be enjoyed. Fresh air, blue skies, greenery, rain…
- Caribbean people at their joyful, argumentative best are such fun
- People are as corrupting of politicians as politicians are of people
- Human beings seem hard wired to find and amplify small differences amongst ourselves
- Identity politics untethered from principles of equality, justice and integrity is the ultimate rabbit hole
- Volunteerism is the main ingredient in sustaining social movements
- Curiosity is the other side of open-mindedness
- Yet understanding is not the same as acceptance
- Discrimination, bigotry, ignorance, domination ought not to be accepted or tolerated
- There are too many ways to know the world now to remain ignorant.
- Sisterhood is powerful and powerfully comforting
- Patriarchy may be resilient, but it is an endangered ideology
- Do not judge your insides against the outsides of others (especially for the social media generation)
- We can always be our better selves. Trying is important for the community.
- You are in the sweet spot if you like and are good at what you work at and your community needs it
- Taking care of the environment is the most important thing that we can do now. It is also the hardest as it means giving up on lots of immediate comforts and delights!
- Balance is a thing to be measured over the lifetime. Not every day. No, no one can have it all every day. Choices must be made and things given up, for a time
- There is time
- There may not be time. Somethings ought not to be deferred. Like love, like care, for self and others.
- Work life can be as rewarding as family life. Just in a different way.
- Those who say, ‘Me! I speak my mind’, are usually giving themselves permission to be offensive. Try to get away quickly
- I do not need to express an opinion on everything. Hard!
- Somethings should be said.
- Exercise is a discipline, you have to form the habit
- Everything has meaning though not everything is meaningful
- You cannot help everyone. But everyone can help someone.
- It is like they tell you on the plane, put on your oxygen mask before you do the same for others. You can help others better, when you are well and healthy.
Wonderful read!
Happy Belated Birthday!
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Thank you Roberta! Great to receive more of your words of wisdom. Douglas made me laugh with his no. 3 comment. He may be right. I love no. 41 for the young people in my life. But generally, each one is a nugget to reflect upon. Looking forward to seeing you in these parts again soon.
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Ok, so I’m going to hold you to 6 & 50. Molly taught you 10. I did very well at 3. 18? Hmmm. That from you?
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We are all works in progress
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Welcome back – No. 10 reminds me of a certain Molly….
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Definitely from Molly
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Happy Birthday, Roberta! All health, strength, peace & love be yours! It’s good to have you back in blog mode, and what a wise way to kick it off!
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55 is way too much. I think the first five is all you need
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Well what would your 5 be?
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Truly words to live by. My favourites are #s 9 and 35. Hope you are back on the blog wagon for a while.
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So glad that you are “back”!
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Roberta it is great to see your words of wisdom flowing again. Number 32 is the one that keeps providing clients for therapists like me. 52 is still a work in progress!
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Congrats Roberta! And many more wise years with all the good things in life that you mention above and more.
Gratitude does not feature overtly, but it is the foundation of all good feelings…
Love, Peace, Joy and Harmony, Jan
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Yes Jan. I was thinking that the one big lesson that I left out is that people do need people .Interdependence is an existential fact. I will amend!
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Roberta, thank you for sharing that wisdom. It is , to my mind, and expanded version of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. The prelude to this blog could be “Happy/Blessed are those who know/understand these things and find a way to put them into practice.” Thank you again and again Roberta,; I shall share this inspirational message ‘far and wide’.
A. Doreen
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A. Doreen, one lesson I left out is one I got from you “make the decision and the details will take care of themselves’. I will include!
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Congratulations and Happy Birthday Roberta. Truly words of wisdom. I resonate fully with all but one. For me taking care of the environment is pure joy as I savour clean air and sweet unpolluted water, bite into the fruit ripened on the trees and rest beneath the branches of a shading tree.
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Rosina, savouring nature is great but protecting nature a little harder in our consumer-driven world.
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Wise words Robertaâ! Wishing you a happy birthday and many more happy days to come.B Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone. From: What’s the idea?Sent: Tuesday, 29 September 2015 4:35 AMTo: degreatescape@gmail.comReply To: What’s the idea?Subject: [New post] 55 things I have learnt about living in family and community
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Roostandrights posted: “Family, friends and folks, I have fallen well of the blogging wagon and looking for a way to get back the discipline. This one is a bit of a cheat, but here goes as I turn 55:
Joy is the best emotion Giving and receiving love is the stuff of joy One p”
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