This is your life! Don't give it away!

How easily we give away our lives! How quickly we abandon our experience and knowledge in the face of those who we are told know more about us than we do. How easily manipulate and controlled we are by science and its' professionals despite knowing that what they are saying isn't true for us.

I know that those with chronic non-life threatening (in most cases) illnesses have had to face this predicament on a daily basis. I now from our experience that doctors, for example, dismiss the patients insights to the detriment of both. We lost 3 pregnancies because people dismissed my wife's statements. Only one apologised, and he was an intern still young enough to care.

I had a moment recently when I did just that, gave my life away despite knowing differently and allowed it to adversely affect. I won't go into details, suffice to say I have recognised the truth of something I say to my students everyday - trust your experience and knowledge and do not blindly abandon it to others, especially those we are told are the arbiters of truth, be that the church, science or peer groups.

How do we do that:

• Know your self. Be aware of who you are, what you have learnt from your life and experience and value it all. The world and God does not waste experiences, they all have a purpose. Our task is to allow that purpose to be revealed and stay faithful to it.

• Value your experience. Value what you have seen, felt, touched and been touched by. What you have experienced at you deepest centre will hold you in a world that wants to mould you like play doh into it's own image.  You are of such importance to the world community that your experiences are life-giving to the world in which you live.

• Value what you know. There are things you know about yourself that others can not prove by science or  diagnosis. These are true regardless of what the professionals say. Hold onto those despite the pressure to let go and become one of the herd. (See my earlier post on 'Rhinoceritis').

• Hold to what is true for you.  This is not about being the centre of the world but about knowing and valuing yourself.  It is about adding to the world community's experience and knowledge bank, it is about remaining firm to those values and experiences which have been life giving and empowering for you. Hang on!

What I Learnt about Twitter from My Dog

@Montythespoodle is on track to have more followers on twitter than me (@glennloughrey)! How can that happen@! I mean, I am an intelligent, creative human being who tweets interesting stuff I find all over the net. I try and ensure that what I have to say is worthwhile and interesting to my followers. And I am not a dog.

Perhaps that's the problem. You see, @Montythespoodle only follows other dogs, keeps his tweets focussed and follows back - it seems to be the standard in the world of wooftweetters' - you follow back. I find many I follow simply don't do that. It's all about me and my profile and I won't support you by following back seems to be the standard for human tweetters'.

Wooftweeters' also message, give thanks when others follow them and engage in conversation. They don't want to sell you anything, invite you to something or convert you to a cause or project. They just want to say hello.

I wonder what we can learn?

What I Learnt from the Arlo Guthrie Concert

At the recent Arlo Guthrie concert I had an ahha! moment.  In 2015 it will be 50 years since his iconic anti-war song, 'Alice's Restaurant' as written. It became a hit some 3-4 years later. By deduction that means I was about 12-13 when I first heard it, was introduced to Woody Guthrie, the legendary American songwriter and singer, Arlo's Dad, and started to read John Steinbeck. On stage at the concert were 2 generations of the Guthrie clan and one of the Steinbeck family, representatives of a dynasty which has played a significant role in my growing up.

For more on this go to http://bit.ly/15vOwGg

Rhinoceritis - Thomas Merton on Being Human

It seems a little ironic that I will be presenting my paper on "Rhinoceritis - Thomas Merton on Being Human" at the Newcastle University tomorrow and it hasn't stopped raining since I arrived!

In Merton' article, "Rain and the Rhinoceros", he is suggesting we are unable to control or own the rain. After 6+weeks of rain at home, I get it!  The rain is, simply rain. As rain, it is the subject of it's own existence and can not be objectified and owned by another.  He compares that to people who, if seen as objects, can and are owned, controlled and consumed by others. You and I are objects to those who benefit from our consumer society, for example. And more.

For more on Merton's thought and my paper insert this link in your browser http://bit.ly/VWBgYp