Crypt(ic)keeper
“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” – Aristotle
My recent self-revelatory blogs have been lovingly referred to as “cryptic” in a recent voicemail, prompting my big brother to call me and ask me what the hell is going on in my life. Truth be told, my musings make perfect sense to me; but then again, not everyone is privy to the perfect storm swirling around in my head. And in all honesty, there’s not really a lot of stress or any major events affecting these changes in my thought process. I may or may not be the affected character in my own scribblings. What I have been able to do more effectively lately is to put myself in others’ shoes and work through some of my own issues from a different perspective.
While I don’t feel the need to justify what I write, I will clarify that not everything I’m writing and thinking about lately directly reflects my own experiences. I’m finding inspiration in others’ actions, reactions and behavior – in addition to my own. Perhaps “inspiration” isn’t the right word; maybe “spark” is more accurate. Not everything is autobiographical; but much like reading someone else’s blogs and emails or sitting on the porch and listening to someone’s troubles and small successes, what you observe in this life and how you learn and grow from it can prompt you to evaluate how you handle your own internal narrative. Observe and report. Infuse some of your own psycho-babble in the process. Reveal little pieces of yourself while you make sense of what’s going on around you.
I find that while I appreciate my friends’ and family members’ similarities and common bonds to my own beliefs, likes and dislikes, it’s actually the differences between us that have always fascinated me. How can we have so much in common, and still be so different in our makeup? Or, on the flip side, how can we be so well matched at our most basic core beliefs and behave so similarly, but enjoy entirely different hobbies/interests and aspects of life? I treasure these differences because observing how my inner circle of friends and family handle what life throws at them tells me so much about their true selves and forces me to take a hard look at how I handle my own successes and failures.
I admire the grace, humility and creativity in others. But more often, I witness the beauty that lies within the faults, cracks and self-proclaimed mistakes others make while I watch them pick themselves up and carry on. How they reach a breaking point and resolutely choose a path and don’t look back. How they falter, but continue on their journey. I always want to help them along as best I can; although I know the only assistance I can give is to show them they’re not alone. Secretly and selfishly, I want to see how it all turns out. To learn more about what makes them tick and similarly, what drives me, during the process.
So, these blogs may continue to be cryptic and semi-autobiographical. You may recognize a little bit of yourself in what I’m trying to make sense of. What I’m trying to accomplish here is to pull from all the experiences in my orbit and to dig into myself a little bit more as time passes and get back to that girl that used to look at the world with her eyes wide open. Drink it in and use what I see, hear and feel and be a little more fearless in my choices. To understand what it is that drives me and those around me. To find the grace, humility and creativity within myself and provide the “spark” for someone else.
“Self knowledge comes from knowing other men.” - Goethe
My recent self-revelatory blogs have been lovingly referred to as “cryptic” in a recent voicemail, prompting my big brother to call me and ask me what the hell is going on in my life. Truth be told, my musings make perfect sense to me; but then again, not everyone is privy to the perfect storm swirling around in my head. And in all honesty, there’s not really a lot of stress or any major events affecting these changes in my thought process. I may or may not be the affected character in my own scribblings. What I have been able to do more effectively lately is to put myself in others’ shoes and work through some of my own issues from a different perspective.
While I don’t feel the need to justify what I write, I will clarify that not everything I’m writing and thinking about lately directly reflects my own experiences. I’m finding inspiration in others’ actions, reactions and behavior – in addition to my own. Perhaps “inspiration” isn’t the right word; maybe “spark” is more accurate. Not everything is autobiographical; but much like reading someone else’s blogs and emails or sitting on the porch and listening to someone’s troubles and small successes, what you observe in this life and how you learn and grow from it can prompt you to evaluate how you handle your own internal narrative. Observe and report. Infuse some of your own psycho-babble in the process. Reveal little pieces of yourself while you make sense of what’s going on around you.
I find that while I appreciate my friends’ and family members’ similarities and common bonds to my own beliefs, likes and dislikes, it’s actually the differences between us that have always fascinated me. How can we have so much in common, and still be so different in our makeup? Or, on the flip side, how can we be so well matched at our most basic core beliefs and behave so similarly, but enjoy entirely different hobbies/interests and aspects of life? I treasure these differences because observing how my inner circle of friends and family handle what life throws at them tells me so much about their true selves and forces me to take a hard look at how I handle my own successes and failures.
I admire the grace, humility and creativity in others. But more often, I witness the beauty that lies within the faults, cracks and self-proclaimed mistakes others make while I watch them pick themselves up and carry on. How they reach a breaking point and resolutely choose a path and don’t look back. How they falter, but continue on their journey. I always want to help them along as best I can; although I know the only assistance I can give is to show them they’re not alone. Secretly and selfishly, I want to see how it all turns out. To learn more about what makes them tick and similarly, what drives me, during the process.
So, these blogs may continue to be cryptic and semi-autobiographical. You may recognize a little bit of yourself in what I’m trying to make sense of. What I’m trying to accomplish here is to pull from all the experiences in my orbit and to dig into myself a little bit more as time passes and get back to that girl that used to look at the world with her eyes wide open. Drink it in and use what I see, hear and feel and be a little more fearless in my choices. To understand what it is that drives me and those around me. To find the grace, humility and creativity within myself and provide the “spark” for someone else.
“Self knowledge comes from knowing other men.” - Goethe
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