Friday, March 6, 2009

Create Your Own World


"Every day has its own rewards and its own unique challenges. None of us has the same exact worries or responsibilities, because life is shaped around each of us as individuals. It's important to remember that we all create our own worlds. Who we are and the way we act are how we control our lives. There are endless opportunities for us to change and rearrange the day-to-day moments we are given. It's up to each of us to decide which way we want to go; how far or how fast we go in life are the choices we all must make for ourselves." - Dena Ditaconi

I liked this thought I read today in the book I'm reading. It reminds me of things my mom taught me just by being her.....what I mean is, I don't believe she set out a plan to teach me these things, she just did. She was definitely a person who by nature allowed us as her children to be influenced by her, but not overwhelmed by her. She had the ability, for the most part I believe, to see who we were as individual spirits and encourage us to be own selves. For me especially, being the only daughter, I appreciated this because I'm sure there were many times that she may have wanted to "mold" me into something more conducive to her ideal daughter, but she just let me be me. She gave me opportunities to explore things I wanted to, and also explore things she thought I might want to, never really making me feel like I needed to be her....or her version of what she thought I should be. By doing this, she taught me to be patient and appreciative of other people....and celebrate our differences and similarities without feeling threatened by either. It's very human and natural for us to want people to see things the way we do and do things the way we do them and be what we think they should be, but it's not right to make them feel that. I'm very far from being like my mom on this, but I think she definitely helped me on the path to becoming better at it.

I also liked the above thought because it expresses the idea that we are in fact in control of our happiness (or misery) and the choices we make determines this.

2 comments:

Hopie said...

I believe this also. Maybe it was your mom that helped me figure that out too!!!

Jodi Glazner said...

We were just talking in Sunday School about why Christ wants us to be like little children and I had the thought that kids just absorb so much without having to sit down to a lesson. It's amazing how much as adults we forget to just "learn" without having to be "taught". Good for you for recognizing your Mom's lessons without her having to tell you exactly what she was trying to teach you. Now she can still teach you so much even without a physical body. I miss you Shmeena.