THE DAILY SPARK

"THAT"S NOT WHAT I MEANT"Disagreements among people who mean well usually begin with that emotion.  You meant to say something or agree to something but the "other side" didn't hear it that way.  That's enough for one to walk away forever.  Because denying the experience of the other person doesn't open the door for re-connection.  Forward motion is possible if we can extend the sentence to, "That not what I meant, but that must be what you heard, how do we fix this?  Will you help me make things right again?" If we can agree on intent, it's a lot easier to figure out how to move forward.Quote from Seth Godin's Daily BlogREFLECTION:Is there a relationship you have walked away from due to a disagreement or is there a relationship in your life that is strained because "that is not what I meant" exists?Are you willing to acknowledge the other person might not have heard what you actually meant to say?What if, you can acknowledge there was a misfire in the communication.  What if you could say, "That's not what I meant, but that must be what you heard.  How do we fix this?  Will you help me make things right again?"BE BRAVE... try it! (and let me know how it turned out!)

Most of us, no matter what we say, are walking in the dark, whistling in the dark.  Nobody knows what is going to happen from one moment to the next, or how one will bear it.  This is irreducible.  And it's true of everybody.  Now, it is true that the nature of society is to create, among its citizens, an illusion of safety; but it is also absolutely true that the safety is always necessarily an illusion.  Artists are here to disturb the peace.  FROM:  "An Interview with James Baldwin" (1961) during an interview with Studs Terkel published  in Conversations with James Baldwin (1989)REFLECTION:We don't know what will happen from one moment to the next.  Have you come to terms with the illusion of safety?Think about a time when you thought you could not bear it.  How did you get through this time?What form of art do you create (i.e. cooking, writing, speaking, leading, photography, singing, etc.) How can you "disturb the peace" with you own artist expression?

So often we imagine that THERE is more full of gold than HERE.  It is the same with love and dreams and the work of our lives.  We see the light everywhere but where we are, and chase after what we think we lack, only to find, humbly, it was with us all along.  FROM:  THE BOOK OF AWAKENING  Having the Life You Want By Being Present To The Life You Have by Mark NepoREFLECTION:Are you chasing something you think you lack over THERE?How can you more effectively embrace the HERE and now?