Chief Plenty Coup from the Crow Nation of Montana once said, “The ground on which we stand is sacred ground. It is the blood of our ancestors.”
Later that day in 1835 the United States Congress passed the Indian Removal Act initiating the relocation of thousands of people.
Stand back twenty two point six feet and take a nice long gander at where we stand one hundred and seventy six chapters deeper into the book called American history; has anything changed?
Sri Aurobindo wrote in his book Thoughts and Glimpses, “When we have passed beyond willingness, then we shall have power. Effort was the helper. Effort is the bar.”
The true keepers of this territory weren’t willing to give up this soil therefore there was unfair war. What you almost never read about were the hundreds of thousands of American soldiers and their leader’s fresh from the Civil battles back east who were willing to continue fighting with weapons that comparably speaking were just as powerful as today’s Stealth bombers and nuclear submarines.
Willingness was at war; the willingness to save versus the willingness to take.
If asked to paint a portrait of the current place you stand what are you willing to open in the way of sharing the first image your imagination sees with those impatiently waiting to see? To be willing in the way of expressing does that give you power?
Let’s bust open that word “Will.” We are conditioned to believe that being willing indicates that our deeper selves or higher realities express true knowledge therefore the end result is expressed action.
But is there power in being willing to do, act or react to?
Sri is saying that power doesn’t come from being willing to put in ten to fifteen hours a day at work. Power doesn’t come from a willing neighbor that chooses to help mow your lawn and trim the trees. Willingness doesn’t feed the power required to get the bills and taxes paid on time.
He’s saying power arrives beyond the stages of willingness.
How often have you bumped into someone at work that’s constantly willing to reach out and help countless other’s that require an extra set of legs to lean on? Are they people of power, decision and policy makers? No...they're usually the first to get sent to the unemployment line when the higher voice calmly says, “Cut back…”
Willingness comes not from the inner core but rather the outer shell of your presence. Where there’s a will there’s a way sounds like a deep thought until you put will up against reality. To will is not to have power but to express desire.
How can you reach beyond willingness? If there’s to be power and having the will to achieve it isn’t the fuel that feeds the fire; where’s it located? Sri says it’s in the force of truth.
Take your willingness and apply it by way of making it effective; a personal effort to progress and through effort willing and or desire no longer plays out…power becomes the guide.
Let’s look at it through separate pair of glasses; you can come across as being sincere but that doesn’t make you a sincere person. It requires a committed effort to reach true sincerity.
This is why I can’t stand it when people write or shout out, “You’re the man! You’re brilliant and you have no idea how much we appreciate you.”
99.9% of the time the individuals using these catch phrases truly don’t compliment your efforts it’s more like, “Here! I need it by 2pm! Oh so you aren’t a team player…”
Put me in solitary confinement and I will die the happiest man on earth.
I don’t believe in comedy. Comedy doesn’t exist…it’s a frail word that puts a face on what’s truly taking place. To be fun, funny or comical is like willingness. You can try all day to make someone laugh and instantly run out of gas. Through effort, by relating with those listening, picking subjects they know of, live with or have experienced…giggle snorts erupt like crazy volcanoes when what you’ve shared can be compared. Comedy is a fancy word for relating with and that requires effort.
Laughing at your own jokes doesn’t make you a comedian.
“The ground on which we stand is sacred ground. It is the blood of our ancestors.”
What are you willing to do about it?
I will always believe in you first…
arroecollins@clearchannel.com
No comments:
Post a Comment