Every day, the first thing I fix my eyes on, are these two cards.
They are on a little wooden table in front of the toilette seat in the bathroom.
I want to see these before I move on to prepare for the day ahead; assessing rather than accepting, and evaluating rather than seeing, my face as I apply the cosmetics.
I want to make sure that my first experience of other people
is one in which nobody is ranked and rated, compared and appraised; but accepted, loved, and appreciated, without conditions and expectations.
As I look into the mirror,walk into the world of social interactions,
draw upon memories to project the past onto the future and make sense of the present;
I will again and again, knowingly and not, assume someone else's perspective and perception of me.
I will at times have to classify, categorize, compare, and calibrate my responses to, other people's behavior according to some system or set of values, rules, or criteria.
To some degree this is necessary for human society to work, and to allow us to navigate the social landscape.
But before I do, I want the last thing I see to be something that reminds me that individuals are incommensurable; that they are, who they are, and what they are, is not up for judgment and ranking as better or worse; even though their actions and their ways of expressing themselves are.
I want to remember too that I, me personally, is loved, accepted, and appreciated by someone who has seen all of me, including all aspects I would have wanted to spare and hide.
I want a message that I cannot dodge that what I have to give is worth giving; that once I accept that I am worth and deserving of love and respect, then there is inextinguishable supply of both; and that this is true for everyone, at all times, and in all ways.
Because that is the sense of myself that enables my interactions with others to be positive for everyone as I can leave behind the insensitivity, mental preoccupation, and ego-centrism of someone who fears rejection and failure, and sees in others competitors for a finite supply of worth and value.
They are on a little wooden table in front of the toilette seat in the bathroom.
I want to see these before I move on to prepare for the day ahead; assessing rather than accepting, and evaluating rather than seeing, my face as I apply the cosmetics.
I want to make sure that my first experience of other people
is one in which nobody is ranked and rated, compared and appraised; but accepted, loved, and appreciated, without conditions and expectations.
As I look into the mirror,walk into the world of social interactions,
draw upon memories to project the past onto the future and make sense of the present;
I will again and again, knowingly and not, assume someone else's perspective and perception of me.
I will at times have to classify, categorize, compare, and calibrate my responses to, other people's behavior according to some system or set of values, rules, or criteria.
To some degree this is necessary for human society to work, and to allow us to navigate the social landscape.
But before I do, I want the last thing I see to be something that reminds me that individuals are incommensurable; that they are, who they are, and what they are, is not up for judgment and ranking as better or worse; even though their actions and their ways of expressing themselves are.
I want to remember too that I, me personally, is loved, accepted, and appreciated by someone who has seen all of me, including all aspects I would have wanted to spare and hide.
I want a message that I cannot dodge that what I have to give is worth giving; that once I accept that I am worth and deserving of love and respect, then there is inextinguishable supply of both; and that this is true for everyone, at all times, and in all ways.
Because that is the sense of myself that enables my interactions with others to be positive for everyone as I can leave behind the insensitivity, mental preoccupation, and ego-centrism of someone who fears rejection and failure, and sees in others competitors for a finite supply of worth and value.