What is true, good and beautiful about each of us is that we are, each of us, the creators of our thoughts and our character. Each of us is the author of our story. Each of us is the surveyor of our own life-path. Each of us can choose the well-worn path that others have traveled or, as Robert Frost so powerfully noted, each of us can choose the ‘road less traveled’ – and that choice will ‘make all the difference.’
As a fully human being each of us is capable of being power-full. Each of us is capable of developing our intellect and our natural gifts and abilities. Each of us is capable of being love-able. Each of us is capable of being unconditionally response-able. Each of us is capable of choosing which thoughts to nurture to fruition. Each of us contains within our self a transforming and renewing ability; we use this ability to ‘make us what we will.’
Each of us has power, even in our weakest and most desolate state. Viktor Frankl can be one of our powerful role models (Gentle Reader, if you have not read and reflected upon Frankl’s story ‘Man’s Search for Meaning’ I invite you to do so). As he notes: Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.
At times what is true, good and beautiful about my self is revealed by searching, seeking, reflecting and discerning. In a sense each of us contains a vein of raw gold; this vein and this gold is unique to us – no one else possesses the gold we possess. We have been entrusted with this gold and we have been put on this earth so that we and others might benefit from our unique gold. First, the raw gold must be found and once found it must then be mined, hammered, chiseled, hotted up, formed, cooled and polished. Then we gift ourselves and others with our gold. The gold is our character.
The process is simple (not simplistic). We watch, we reflect upon our experiences. We reflect upon the effects our thoughts-actions have upon ourselves and upon the other(s). As we become aware of our thoughts, actions and effects upon, we reinforce some and where necessary we alter others. We are patient about this process – it must not be hurried. We pay attention to the important and we pay attention to the trivial (the little everyday occurrences) as we search for the knowledge about our self.
There is an old law at work: ‘Those that seek shall find.’ For those who seek, a way to the well of self-knowledge and self-awareness will open. Our search will then reveal to each of us ‘What is True, Good and Beautiful About. . .’
Searcher-Seeker 