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| Taken from the Pearls, Vintage Jewelery and Handbangs board on Pinterest |
Happy New Year.
Happy New Pearl Seeker.
May you become a Seeker of Pearls this
year.
A Seeker of Pearls of Knowledge.
A Seeker of Pearls of Wisdom.
To catch these pearls, you will need a
net.
Not a physical net.
But a psychological and spiritual net.
Which you can weave from these abundantly
available materials...
Humility.
Awe.
Curiosity.
An open mind.
Prayer.
Tenacity.
Attentiveness.
A net woven, in other words, from your
own resources.
Be alert.
Because a pearl will not always announce
itself as a pearl.
Many pearls are dropped before deaf
ears; many pearls are dropped before blind eyes.
The deaf ears and blind eyes of an
unwillingness to see because we are trapped in our own obstinacy, arrogance, faulty
thinking and self-centered preoccupation…
Once we shed these things and begin to tap
into our humility, our awe, our curiosity, our faith and an open mind, we realize
“there’s something beyond” and we
are ready for pearls.
Could it take a fall from grace?
Sometimes.
When we fall from grace, over
confidence goes out and humility rushes in.
Often it is only then, we realize our name, our talents,
our expertise, our accomplishments, our fame and fortune cannot help us.
The perfect
storm for catching pearls.
From Diogenes to St. Augustine,
from Chuck Colson to Martha Stewart, people have turned their
lives around and gained more than they lost -- after mistakes, after a fall
from grace.
Which is why we should be really interested
in what Lance Armstrong and David Petraeus and Tiger Woods
do next.
Will they "Fall Upwards" as Richard Rohrs believes is a natural progression?
As to pearls, they could be …..
Will they "Fall Upwards" as Richard Rohrs believes is a natural progression?
As to pearls, they could be …..
Something you experience, as this experience my daughter had last year.
Something you hear – such as St. Augustine’s pearl.
Something your friends say and do.
Something you read.
What I picked up from reading Sylvie and Bruno by Lewis Caroll was the senselessness of
taking life for sport, and it led to a such a strong desire to become vegetarian, I had to act on it immediately.
You can read about this in my Amazon review of On Becoming Vegetarian by Anita Saran.
That was a pearl.
What I picked up from reading Socrates A Man For Our Time by Paul Johnson (covered in my post The Art of Conversation) was that Socrates
was interested in what everyone he met thought about everything - making him one
of the best conversationalists of all time.
That was a pearl.
What I picked up from Richard Bolles’s classic book for Job
Seekers - What Color Is Your Parachute?
- was a zillion different things (some of which are covered in my post Can A Book About Job-Hunting Show You The Path Back to Yourself?) - including how I really wanted to earn an income.
That was a pearl.
What I picked up from reading How God Changes Your Brain by neurologists Andrew Newberg and Mark Robert Waldman was a
technique for meditation. Considering
all the benefits I have derived and continue to derive from meditation (you
can learn more about this from my post Connected Minds)….
That was a pearl.
It’s no accident we may pick up the
most pearls by reading.
That’s because we are at our most
attentive and reflective when reading.
Having chosen to give our time to the
author - and the author alone - we become able to receive.
Therefore, to the list of materials
for pearl-seeking, we should also add….
Devoted Reading.
Read as if your life depended on it.
Read even if you don’t have the time to
read.
Read even even when you are not sure what
you are reading…..
…even even when you are not sure why
you are reading.
A pearl defined as something one can
use and apply…
Your life can change dramatically
because of pearls.
And you might be a pearl creator too.
Could Lewis Caroll have imagined someone
would turn vegetarian after reading his book, a
whole 100 years after he wrote his book?
This is the beauty of pearls.
We are creating pearls even without
knowing it.
And somewhere, sometime, someone with
a net will pick them up.
And you will be the cause of a miracle in their lives.
Do You
Need a Miracle?
Well, then….
Get to work crafting your pearl net.
The materials again are…
Humility.
Awe.
Curiosity.
An open mind.
Prayer.
Tenacity.
Attentiveness.
Devoted Reading.
Let me know if I missed anything.
Happy New Year.
Happy Pearl Seeker.
Thanks for reading and see you next
week…….M (An avid Pearl Seeker)
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