Vision

Things get tough at times. We sometimes feel like tossing in the towel, just giving up. We may feel that everything is working against us. Either way we slice it, we just don’t want to deal with it anymore.

Some of these feelings of discouragement are rooted in selfishness. Not all of our discouraging feelings are calculated from a selfish act or desire. However, when we analyze troubled times going back in our history we will find that many of our feelings of discouragement were because we were thinking selfishly. When we had our own interests above that of another or when our plans were more important than those involved, our minds and hearts would not allow us to see clearly the feelings of those around us. We begin to react negatively and this further narrows our vision of assistance to those we care about. This is an act of selfishness.

To overcome troubling times there’s a phenomenal concept to increase joy, its service. Do something to lift the burden of someone near you. When you move toward helping another, your vision for those around you broadens and you begin to lift personal heartaches and depression. It has everything to do with your vision.

If the room you’re walking through is dark you could stub your toe if you’re not careful. You take extra precaution in movement and your focus is on obstacles that could be in your way. You have one objective: get to where you’re trying to go without bumping into anything and getting hurt. Think of service as turning the light on. Your senses will be better able to clearly see all obstacles around you. When you clearly see obstacles, navigation becomes easier. Learning to navigate toward happiness can be achieved when vision is increased, when you see more of the picture. When your vision increases you begin to see there maybe more than just you in the room.

Self Reliance

In reading a magazine article recently I came across a story that outlined an article from the Reader’s Digest many, many years ago. It reads:

“In our friendly neighbor city of St. Augustine great flocks of sea gulls are starving amid plenty. Fishing is still good, but the gulls don’t know how to fish. For generations they have depended on the shrimp fleet to toss them scraps from the nets. Now the fleet has moved… “

“The shrimpers had created a ‘Welfare State’ for the… sea gulls. The big birds never bothered to learn how to fish for themselves and they never taught their children to fish. Instead they led their little ones to the shrimp nets.”

“Now the sea gulls, the fine free birds that almost symbolize liberty itself, are starving to death because they gave in to the ‘something for nothing lure’! They sacrificed their independence for a handout.”

“A lot of people are like that, too. They see nothing wrong in picking delectable scraps from the tax nets of the U.S. Government’s shrimp fleet. But what will happen when the Government runs out of goods? What about our children of generations to come?”

“Let’s not be gullible gulls. We… must preserve our talents of self sufficiency, our genius for creating things for ourselves, our sense of thrift and our true love of independence. “

Self reliance isn’t everything, if you believe that you will almost always miss the mark. However, it is an essential ingredient in finding more joy.