FROM THE INSIDE OUT

The medical profession is know for it but I believe every profession should accept it as their guiding principle. Truthfully, I believe it should be the guiding principle of life in general! "It" is: DO NO HARM.

Think about how much better everyone's life would be if each individual (who makes up everyone) did no harm? How much better would your time here on earth be if all people dedicated their lives to not harming themselves, their family, their community and their environment?

Shouldn't you dedicate your life to doing good? "Good" sounds like something you should be doing, but I believe first you do no harm, and if you have time left over, then you can do some good.

Imagine a twenty-four hour period where you do no harm to yourself; you eat all the appropriate food groups, sleep your eight hours, and exercise your mind and body. You treat each member of your family with honor, love and respect. You are a contributing member to your community, and you are gentle with the environment. Sounds like a full day eh? Once you've done all of that, you're now free to spend the rest of your day doing good, if there is any good left to be done.

Lesson: If we each take care of our self there will be nobody left to take care of.

LEST WE FORGET

The elephant was mistreated. The elephant was rescued. The elephant was sent back to Botswanna. Years later the man who mistreated the elephant visited Botswanna. The mean man went walking in the jungle. The mistreated elephant came out of the jungle and squished the bad man like a bug.

Another elephant was sick. The good man fed the elephant oranges. The elephant got well and was sent home to South Africa. Years later other nice men wanted to help the elephant who had gotten sick again. The elephant wouldn't come out of the jungle for his medicine. The nice men sent for the good man. He came. The good man went to the edge of the jungle and held up an orange. The sick elephant came out for his medicine. The elephant got better. The end.

The lesson from these two stories is too simple to make any more complicated. If elephants, in these basically true stories, don't forget rights and wrongs done to them years ago, how much more grudge-carrying, debt-owing can we humans be?

I don't believe it's just your extraordinary human memory that remembers the good and the bad done to you. Remembrance goes deeper. Sometimes when there is a lot of energy around a criticism or a praise, it seeps in every molecule of your being. That memory becomes part of who you are and fundamentally changes you. You shed indignities and dignities in the short term, but at some level you, like an elephant, never forget.

This primal and permanent memory requires you be very selective with what you choose to let in. The choice you have of what to remember, and how strongly to remember it, differentiates you from Dumbo. (And also that trunk thing.)


Lesson: Be careful what you choose to remember because you'll never forget it.