I am what I am, I know who I am, and I don´t have to assimilate just because you are bigger, stronger, more profitable, and more dominant. This house in Lucerne has, as far back as I can remember, been misaligned in the eyes of modern city planners.
the conscious decision not to be driven by fads.
the conscious decision not to be driven by fears.
the conscious decision not to confuse uniqueness and consumerist individualism.
the conscious decision not to live at the expense of others.
the conscious decision to be guided by values and principles that are in agreement with one´s own conscience.
the conscious decision to be guided by values and principles that have been recognized, after careful discernment, to be divine will.
To live consciously. To be unique.
“To be humble is not to make comparisons. Secure in its reality, the self is neither better nor worse, bigger nor smaller, than anything else in the universe. It *is*–is nothing, yet at the same time one with everything.” (Dag Hammerskjöld, from the book: Markings)
Ich bin was ich bin, weiss was ich bin, und muss mich nicht anpassen nur weil du grösser, stärker, rentabler, und dominierender bist. Ein Haus an der Obergrundstrasse in Luzern das schon seit meiner Kindheit immer quer steht.
Sich quer stellen:
der bewusste Entscheid sich nicht treiben zu lassen von Modeströmungen.
der bewusste Entscheid sich nicht treiben zu lassen von Ängsten.
der bewusste Entscheid, Einzigartigkeit und konsumorientierter Individualismus nicht miteinander zu verwechseln.
der bewusste Entscheid nicht auf Kosten anderer zu leben.
der bewusste Entscheid sich nach Werten und Prinzipien zu orientieren, die man mit dem eigenem Gewissen vereinbaren kann.
der bewusste Entscheid sich nach Werten und Prinzipien zu orientieren, die man nach reiflicher Prüfung als göttlicher Wille erkannt hat.
Bewusst leben. Einzigartig sein.
“Demut heißt sich nicht vergleichen. In seiner Wirklichkeit ruhend ist das Ich weder besser noch schlechter, weder größer noch kleiner als anderes oder andere. Es ist – nichts, aber gleichzeitig eins mit allem.” (Dag Hammarskjöld, aus dem Buch: Zeichen am Weg)
Zweimal die gleiche Geschichte, in anderen Worten?
In einer Online Zeitung gesehen:
Die Singles wie auf dem Berg Athos (grösser, besser, teurer) ? – oder Einsiedler, die sich Status-Wohnungen leisten? Wer, ausser Mönchen, könnte sich eine solche, tolle Wohnlage leisten (etwa 2,9 Zimmer; unverbaubare Lage mit Blick auf das Meer) ?
Ich bin was ich bin, weiss was ich bin, und muss mich nicht anpassen nur weil du grösser, stärker, rentabler, und dominierender bist. Ein Haus an der Obergrundstrasse in Luzern das schon seit meiner Kindheit immer quer steht. – I am what I am, I know who I am, and I don´t have to assimilate just because you are bigger, stronger, more profitable, and more dominant. This house in Lucerne has, as far back as I can remember, been misaligned in the eyes of modern city planners.
Sich quer stellen:
der bewusste Entscheid sich nicht treiben zu lassen von Modeströmungen.
der bewusste Entscheid sich nicht treiben zu lassen von Ängsten.
der bewusste Entscheid, Einzigartigkeit und konsumorientierter Individualismus miteinander zu verwechseln.
der bewusste Entscheid nicht auf Kosten anderer zu leben.
der bewusste Entscheid sich nach Werten und Prinzipien zu orientieren, die man mit dem eigenem Gewissen vereinbaren kann.
der bewusste Entscheid sich nach Werten und Prinzipien zu orientieren, die man nach reiflicher Prüfung als göttlicher Wille erkannt hat.
Bewusst leben. Einzigartig sein.
(English version below)
“Demut heißt sich nicht vergleichen. In seiner Wirklichkeit ruhend ist das Ich weder besser noch schlechter, weder größer noch kleiner als anderes oder andere. Es ist – nichts, aber gleichzeitig eins mit allem.” (Dag Hammarskjöld, aus dem Buch: Zeichen am Weg)
The last few workdays, I had a chance to be with people in a professional manner again. Yes, it is in many ways a different way of being, no matter what the personal intention behind it is. There is often a very clear mandate, a professional framework, and whole lot of professional culture that determines in various ways the interactions and relationships in such a setting. I have considerable experience in the field of nursing, which operates within the health care system. This most recent experience was in the field of education. I found many commonalities in how we as professionals relate to those in our care.
The most limiting factor I find is the schedule – the work hours. Although the job mandates to relate to people, work hours are a very foreign framework: They are governed by transactional considerations in collective agreements, agency funding, institutional culture, and individual rights and responsibilities. I find this internally inconsistent with the mandate of being with – of relating to people with multiple needs. How often are we forcing our professional expertise (“we know what to do, what is best for you”), our learning goals and plans, our labour benefits (such as break times) onto the individual lives of those who we care for during work hours? It is not possible to catch that learning window when it is open, we have to pry it open: It is time to do crafts, music therapy, spell and sign… because our schedule demands it at this point.
Many times I have been frustrated by these constraints. But I have also witnessed, that it is so much easier, successful, and satisfying to be with people and weave the learning goals and activities into daily living (instead of simulating a formal lesson): Why not sing and engage in musical activity when the person we are caring for is open to engage, even if it is while out on a walk? The squirrels and ravens don’t mind if I sing and if we clap the rhythm to the song together.
A creative result of applied math and social studies: Grittibänz baking for Dec. 6 celebration (Nicholas of Myra feast day)
I remember the days when we home schooled our children. We never did any formal math classes for three years: our children learned their additions, subtractions, multiplications and divisions by working with and adjusting recipes to bake muffins or cup cakes. Continue reading “Life-long learning – a professional and a monastic path”→
Invite somebody to read - Lade jemand zum lesen ein:
The winner of the 2008 Qavvavik sled dog races in Gjoa Haven, Nunavut, supported by the community in an inhospitable environment.
In a previous post I made the statement that “we are insignificant but essential particles in the universe”. Out the of the entire article, this statement yielded an immediate reaction from the readership. I then recalled that I made a similar entry in my diary last summer during the time I was visiting in Switzerland:
A thought about the rank of self within the higher order of the universe: I am a small, insignificant part of a much larger organism. Despite that smallness, the self is assigned a significance of its own because it is at the same time a manifestation of the whole; also because it bears its own potential within. That potential is a substantial part of the larger organism, without which the whole would not be complete.
(my own translation from German)
I believe this thinking is influenced by the thought of Mahatma Gandhi.
OFRADIX 