True Beliefs

"But his unconscious influence, the silent, subtle radiation of his personality, the effect of his words and acts, the trifles he never considers, - is tremendous.  Every moment of life he is changing to a degree the life of the whole world.  Every man has an atmosphere which is affecting every other.  There are men and women whose presence seems to radiate sunshine, cheer and optimism.  You feel calmed and rested and restored in a comment to a new and stronger faith in humanity.  There are others who focus in an instant all your latent distrust, morbidness and rebellion against life.  Without knowing why, you chafe and fret in their presence  You lose your bearings on life and its problems."

So you don't believe in God?  What God don't you believe in?

Life: never take this gift for granted.  There is a power in each of us individually that has never existed on this earth before and if we do anything to extinguish or mar this power then it will never exist again.

Most of us underestimate the effect we have on this world.  It's hard to be conscious of the effect we have on others around us.  People really absorb your aura.  We are all familiar with those folks who leave us agitated and disturbed, often for reasons that we can't put into words.

I characterize myself as a hyperactive, competitive, Type A striver, always pushing myself to achieve more, rarely happy with what I've achieved.  When I mention this to people in casual conversation they often say: "Huh.  I don't see that."  

Huh.  Got them fooled.

Willie called the other day to compliment me on my demeanor, my bearing and presence.   This is big because a lot of the time we're ragging on each other about how intolerant and petty we both are.  It's clear that on the one hand we're joking but on the other hand we're being careful to call each other out on some tendencies that we both have that can get out of control if we're not careful.  I had been sharing some of my thoughts with him about a work situation he's currently enduring which is very similar to something I went through, almost exactly, several years ago.  I commented about this fact.

"Yeah, that's not really what I'm talking about here," he said.  "Although I do appreciate the feedback I'm just talking about your aura generally."

So, see?  We affect people when we don't know we're doing it.