Last year,
I arranged to have some pencils imprinted for a class I was taking…
with the helpful awareness and reminder…
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“Everyone is doing the best they can”
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I continually remind myself of this idea, and I do find it so helpful!
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I have noticed, however, that it’s a lot easier to live with this awareness when everyone is aligned with similar ideas, similar motivations and similar ways of doing things…all nice and orderly like the pencils in this basket…
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Unfortunately, our interactions with other people aren’t always that “orderly.”
Some days, it might feel more like this…
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We each have so many varying motivations, habit patterns, beliefs, values,
interaction styles and ways of looking at things…
variations in the multitude of “capacities” within each of us,
as each one of us is attempting to do “the best we can”
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When I’m in the midst of those variations, I find it A LOT more difficult to keep this level of acceptance in mind… we may all be doing the best we can, but it sure can be hard to see that at times!
My own “best I can” might be very different from someone else’s “best I can”… but for me to try, as often as possible, to keep this in mind…
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And perhaps….
just as important as being aware of “others” doing the best they can…
to realize and appreciate
that each one of us is also doing the best we can….
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~shifting and learning to view ourselves and others with…
awareness, understanding, acceptance, kindness and compassion
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To try to keep this in mind…
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 viewing ourselves and others with…
awareness, understanding, acceptance, kindness and compassion
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“Everyone is doing the best they can”
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A single “re-minder” page…
for helping to keep these ideas “in mind”…
learning to “live” these ideas and awarenesses in everyday life
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Pocket Perspectives 
This is beautiful! Thank you!
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Oh, you’re very welcome….a great little reminder, isn’t it? I kept several of the pencils for ongoing use… great reminders as I use them!
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I can honestly tell you this reminder comes to me at the perfect time! Thank you…and what a cool idea to have the pencils printed with this message. 🙂
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I’m so happy theideas and that some of the reminders might be helpful for you. They sure have helped me over the past few years! 🙂
And the pencils?…a teacher at a Wednesday Morning meditation group at Spirit Rock Meditation Center had asked me to get the pencils made…Sylvia Boorstein, a very lovely woman and insightful teacher…a true delight! I use those pencils, often daily, to underline as I’m reading books… a good reminder for me as I’m learning!
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love this. it is so true and such a needed reminder. and as I read it I thought ‘I am doing the best I can”. relief.
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I think it’s easy, at times, to forget to bring that kind and gentle awareness to ourselves… and yes…such a relief when we do that… I’m so happy to hear from you! …hope all is well in France! 🙂
(Joss, yesterday, at noon time, as I was driving to a local monastery, to teach basic English to some wonderful monks from Tibet,… I saw a bumper sticker on the back trunk of a dark gray car, placed diagonally on the trunk, like the pencils and titles in the “mixed up pencils” photo…that rectangular bumper sticker had a solid maroon background…just like the pencils!…and white letters…just like the pencils, too! And it said…
“So many mistakes…
so little time”
Now that was a shock, once I noticed the similarities in looks! I was directly behind that car for around 5 minutes…and trying to figure out how that “message” ties in with the pencils and ideas in this post… Any ideas????
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I hope you smiled, realizing your pencil message/ awareness is wiser than that one. You were being reminded how far you have traveled on this journey of consciousness, my friend,
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I really was quite bewildered by the similarities of colors and the oddness of what it said…trying to find some positives, but bewildered…. so, thank you for pointing out that positive perspective, Joss…a nice thought….
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