One thing that was inspiring from my brief visit to Cambodia was the prevalent attitude of everyone I spoke with that while they will remember the horrors of the past, they will not engage in the destructive reliving and rehearsing of the nightmare. With amazing energy and determination they are building the life they want. Sadly, I think this is a rare attitude. There is probably no nation or culture which hasn't experienced some kind of repression or oppression from someone in their past. The Cambodian holocaust is quite recent in the big scheme of things.
I did not experience hatred or resentment toward me as an American for what we did to Cambodia, although our landmines are still causing constant pain. I don't know how this has happened or how we can learn from them. At some point in the past, I wrote about the slogan "Forgiveness is for me. Forgiveness sets me free." I practice this and have experienced the amazing lifting from the heaviness of carrying around old shit. And I have experienced the brutal power of old stuff that wants to keep finding a new way to creep back in. The ego is so devious. Reprogramming takes some real effort.
I guess what it comes down to is that my happiness is my responsibility and the only thing I have any ability to control is now. I can't change the past and I can't determine the future. This sounds like a vapid self-help book. I don't mean to. What I am pondering is how a whole country seems to be moving forward and creating a fresh hopeful life, a society where young people, no matter how poor, are grabbing every bit of education everywhere they can get it. Nelson Mandela left a legacy of inspiration for forging ahead into the impossible.
This is an insignificant example, but it is mine. I have never been any good at yoga but after I broke my hip, I went to a few yoga classes and couldn't do much of anything. So, I decided it was a waste of money and effort to continue. My yoga days were over. In Thailand, I had a strong urge to take a yoga class. Then day after day, I couldn't manage to get to the class which was at nine in the morning, a time when I was usually busy smoking and drinking coffee.
When I finally went to the class, I tried to tell the teacher that I was handicapped. She told me to get over it. I flipped a mental switch and decided that all I could possible hurt were dumb old muscles and what the hell? I did an extremely strenuous class and felt like a million dollars after the class. I was a bit sore, but nothing a massage couldn't take care of. I assume you get my drift. It was my mind not my body that was in my way. It was past pain that was keeping me from moving forward. It was fear that kept me down. It was risk aversion that kept me from accomplishment. It was a gift from the good gods that let me have my little break through.
I don't know what it is, the spirit that I saw moving through the young people in Cambodia, but I wish it would be an infectious epidemic and spread around the planet.
I did not experience hatred or resentment toward me as an American for what we did to Cambodia, although our landmines are still causing constant pain. I don't know how this has happened or how we can learn from them. At some point in the past, I wrote about the slogan "Forgiveness is for me. Forgiveness sets me free." I practice this and have experienced the amazing lifting from the heaviness of carrying around old shit. And I have experienced the brutal power of old stuff that wants to keep finding a new way to creep back in. The ego is so devious. Reprogramming takes some real effort.
I guess what it comes down to is that my happiness is my responsibility and the only thing I have any ability to control is now. I can't change the past and I can't determine the future. This sounds like a vapid self-help book. I don't mean to. What I am pondering is how a whole country seems to be moving forward and creating a fresh hopeful life, a society where young people, no matter how poor, are grabbing every bit of education everywhere they can get it. Nelson Mandela left a legacy of inspiration for forging ahead into the impossible.
This is an insignificant example, but it is mine. I have never been any good at yoga but after I broke my hip, I went to a few yoga classes and couldn't do much of anything. So, I decided it was a waste of money and effort to continue. My yoga days were over. In Thailand, I had a strong urge to take a yoga class. Then day after day, I couldn't manage to get to the class which was at nine in the morning, a time when I was usually busy smoking and drinking coffee.
When I finally went to the class, I tried to tell the teacher that I was handicapped. She told me to get over it. I flipped a mental switch and decided that all I could possible hurt were dumb old muscles and what the hell? I did an extremely strenuous class and felt like a million dollars after the class. I was a bit sore, but nothing a massage couldn't take care of. I assume you get my drift. It was my mind not my body that was in my way. It was past pain that was keeping me from moving forward. It was fear that kept me down. It was risk aversion that kept me from accomplishment. It was a gift from the good gods that let me have my little break through.
I don't know what it is, the spirit that I saw moving through the young people in Cambodia, but I wish it would be an infectious epidemic and spread around the planet.
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