Relationships

You can't change life, but you can change your relationship to it. Not my problem or your problem, but our shared problem. Put beautiful qualities between you and the other: peace, kindness, respect. In between is where the action is in life. The filter of mistrust. What you see in the other, what you pay attention to, grows in them; what you expect, you generate. The example of prisoners. If you water the flowers, flowers grow; if you water the weeds, weeds grow.

The most important thing in life, you are in total control of. Life itself is totally out of control, but the way you relate to it, you are in full control, you can always make it work - this is the law of kamma. Baking a cake simile - not the ingredients, but what you make of them. Mother-in-law jokes. How do you look at yourself? The two-finger smile. Playfulness as a source of creativity, of fun and growth. Funeral and wedding stories. You can't find contentment by trying to change yourself; you find it by changing your attitude to yourself. Don't blame life; don't put negativity between you and life. The king and the doctor story: "Good or bad, who knows?”. Late taxi driver story. Not "Why me?", but what are you doing about it?

Take away pain, suffering and disappointment by this wonderful relationship with life, with yourself and your loved ones: seeing the beautiful, the positive, seeing what you can respect, that there is something you can do - this changes your whole attitude. Life is not suffering any more, it is a challenge, a journey, exciting, interesting, all learning and growing experiences. Sometimes the most difficult experiences are the ones we learn most from. Not the partner or the event, but the relationship. Topical example of the Bhikkhuni ordination. Julie's story. Put something beautiful there, and you can learn to change the relationship. The world is a relationship problem.

Today slightly disappointed about the lack of contact. But I try to understand. I am okay as long as I am preoccupied. I don't have time anyway or much of what is left.