Philosophic musings from my break from running.

“If you can, help others; if you cannot do that, at least do not harm them.” 
Dalai Lama

 I think that most people are good or at least have potential to be good. I love to watch children when they are young and just absorbing things around them like sponges. Playing without a care in the world and not caring if anyone is watching them. I don’t think a child is born a bad person who has prejudices and hate in their heart so is it possible to stop teaching them these things? Who knows if this can or will ever happen but if we do not try we are in real trouble. So, let kids be kids and teach them love and respect while taking fear out of the equation. Get them to play outside and learn to appreciate nature and use their imagination. If everyone stopped teaching hate and prejudice today, how many generations would it take to have a peace loving world? What if we start by removing labels from people and take time and get to know them for who they really are? 

I know this probably sounds like I am getting completely side tracked and I hope I have not lost you but I believe that this goes hand in hand. We are all connected and we affect others by our actions and our energy. Try this little experiment; pay close attention to a small group of people who can all be talking calmly about this or that and one begins to complain. What happens to the group? How long does it take everyone else to join in complaining with them? If it works this way it can also work the other way but you will find it takes a lot more positive energy than it does with negative energy, but we are affected by others energy in groups. This is why something might be hilarious at the theater but get a chuckle at home or an entire theater tears up watching the end of Marley and Me but feels a little sadness at home. I will hop down off my soapbox for now but all I ask is to keep this in mind and know that directly or indirectly we affect a lot more than we realize.

Some statistics I recently heard are; at age 3 to 3 and a half a child’s self esteem level is approximately 85% and by early teens it drops to 25%. Adults average 40 to 50 thousand thoughts a day and 85% of them are negative, and 85% of illness and disease are brought on by stress. It is no wonder we are such a mess sometimes, physical scars are easily identified but emotional scars are usually hidden to the outside world. I believe it is important to think before speaking because there are times when we damage someone else and may not even realize it. Adults do it to children, children do it to each other, adults do it to each other, and we do it to ourselves. Since we do not know all of each others stories maybe we can be a little more compassionate with each other. Because face it we are all damaged to some extent, if we keep this in mind we can all heal and rebuild.