I Am the Decisive Element

As I set goals for 2014, I recall these two quotes that North Stars for our Outward Bound trek a couple years ago.

I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element. It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It is my daily mood that makes the weather. I possess tremendous power to make life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration, I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis is escalated or de-escalated, and a person is humanized or de-humanized. If we treat people as they are, we make them worse. If we treat people as they ought to be, we help them become what they are capable of becoming.

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Why don't you stay in the wilderness?  Because that isn't where its at; it's back in the city, back in downtown St. Louis, back in Los Angeles.  The final test is whether your experience of the sacred in nature enables you to cope more efficiently with the problems of man.  if it does not enable you to cope more effectively with the problems - and sometimes it doesn't, sometimes it just sucks you right out into the wilderness and you stay there the rest of your life - then when that happens, by my scale of value, it's failed.  You go to nature for an experience of the sacred... to re-establish your contact with the core of things, where it's really at, in order to enable you to come back into the world of man and operate more effectively.  Seek ye first the kingdom of nature, that the kingdom of man might be realized.

Willi Unsoeld

Guidelines for the new year

My mom gave me a framed copy of this piece called "Desiderata", found in Old St. Paul's Church, Baltimore (1692). I like it's honesty and attainability.

Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly and listen to others, even the dull and ignorant; they too have their story. ~Avoid loud and aggressive person, they are vexations to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter; for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself. Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. ~Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time. Exercise caution in your business affairs; for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals, and everywhere life is full of heroism. ~Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is perennial as the grass. ~Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. but do not distress yourself with imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness. Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. ~You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. ~Therefore, be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be, and whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul. ~With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be careful. Strive to be happy.