Inspiration
We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Trust in dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.
Khalil Gibran
Faith is the strength by which a shattered world shall emerge into the light.
Helen Keller
A Father’s Guide to Wisdom
Got Hope? Where did it go?
German Philosopher Friedrich Nietzche once wrote on the death of God to the scalpels of modern day philosophy and science. He soon after suffered an emotional breakdown and mental illness would complicate his life until his eventual demise in 1900. As a practicing psychotherapist, I often see that a core element of our collective plight to attain emotional wellbeing centers not on mental and/or emotional experience alone; instead, a core element of our human plight centers on matters of spirit, where hope, faith, belief, and our inner capacity to dream life forward is allowed appropriate space in the growing spirit of life.
When did our capacity to believe get tarnished so. It’s an emboldened statement to declare that “God is Dead” as Dr. Nietzche once did. Where did it go, and where did that elemental capacity to foster spirit go in the wake of its absence. Maybe that is the vacuum felt so prevalently in today’s society, a place where fathers no longer have a place, and rules, order, morality, and the basic building blocks of civilized society are being challenged and upended. But to what extent.
As a human being, I want nothing more than to raise my children in a healthy and safe state of being. I believe every person wants this. Healthy work habits, healthy family life, and a loving capacity to see the next generation forward is a building block of a life well lived, but even this core foundation to our human condition is being challenged. We must not let it be, for the values we teach our children form the foundation of the world they will create. The scariest thing, most of what I see in media is negatively charged to violent intent.
It is imperative to know a psychological truth. People do not learn by words alone, they learn by watching what they see and enacting what they are exposed to repetitiously. Death, hatred, violence, despair… or maybe, we can flip the script on what sales. Turn off the news… Quit watching the violence. Purchase family friendly movies. The only reason violence and hatred is so prevalent is because we pay handsome money to engage in its content. But remove it profitability and you will see true change occur at a monumental level. A shattered world… or a world truly mended into a state of light, where division ceases to exist. The choice is ours to make.
We all undertake the journey to become conscious. But it is dependent upon the fruits that we feed our souls. We truly are what we eat. Remember as a child, the hours or play you would engage in, just learning with open eyes the grandeur of the world around you? Those times were simple, yet we for some reason it is each and every one’s inner calling to take part in the forbidden apple, this element of life we call consciousness. That is our plight, but to what end.
To believe is to see hope in its true grandeur. It is through our capacity to dream life forward that hope is fostered, and what once only an element of thought can become a beacon of reality. It is in the etherial state of the dream reverie that inner strength emerges, and when combined with belief faith, and a determination to work at creating something truly new, that a shattered world can emerge from the dark and enter new elements of light.
Got Hope? Today, I will nurture faith within… focusing on the light that can emerge from the dark.
With Prayers and Blessings My Friends… Believe… Achieve… Advance Confidently in the Direction of Your Dreams. (Dr. Tom)
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