We say we want better lives in a better world. Do we know how to accomplish it? Do we want to learn?
If we are willing to put in the effort, we can. The best place to learn is by practicing on ourselves. And there is a pressing need for us to give ourselves permission to do so.
The first step is to learn to respect ourselves. Only then can we learn to respect others. Each of us is a unique individual, with a unique contribution to make. None of us is without value. We must safeguard and tend our own value so that it is always growing, always capable of contributing.
Wisdom and understanding can be nurtured only when we are capable of administering judgment and mercy in their proper proportions, and at the appropriate times. Sometimes we need mercy, and at other times we require judgment. The choice is ours to make. The ability to make it depends on our actions and our awareness.
In the deepest sense, the lives we live are a result of the choices we make. Humans have a capacity for negativity and a capacity for good. We have the capacity for both within us at all times. It's not the capacity that we need to change. What we need to change are the choices we make. We need to learn to make better choices about how we use our capacities. Each and every one of us has free will. But we must exercise our choice muscle in order for the power of free will to gain strength.
So many times we look back with 20/20 hindsight and see where we have made a choice that could have been different. At those moments we need to train ourselves to use mercy and judgment as we would use rare and precious spices. We want to get the seasoning just right.
Our goal should be to add just enough mercy to add the flavor of acceptance and forgiveness. Life is supposed to be a learning process. If we knew everything yesterday that we know today there would be no purpose for tomorrow. Without tomorrow there would be no future. Our future is dependent on our ability to learn from the choices we made yesterday.
The task of adding the spice of judgment is the most difficult. We want to add just enough so that we can still detect the subtle taste of mercy. The perfect balance of mercy and judgment brings us one of the greatest prizes in the universe. The prize is the ability to learn from and correct our mistakes. When we have developed this ability we will be able to create a better life in a better world.
It all starts with each one of us. The choices we have made that need to be corrected are like an uninvited houseguest. The thought or the choice knocked on the door of our mind and we opened it. They asked if they could spend the night and we said yes. We gave them a comfortable bed and tucked them in. In the morning they were sleeping peacefully and we didn't want to disturb them. Then they awakened and wanted to be fed. So we gave them food. The process continued and now we have become slaves and they have become our master.
The only mind any of us can change is our own. If our mind is cluttered with uninvited thoughts or poor choices the responsibility is ours and ours alone.
How can we change our mind? By respecting ourselves. We can learn to honor ourselves and nurture our desire for a better life by making better choices today. We can exercise our choice muscle one thought, one idea at a time. We can train ourselves to observe with hindsight and to season it with the perfect blend of mercy and judgment. Then we can work to manifest our vision of a better future.
How do we learn? With constant practice.