Month: November 2021

“For each one of us, there is only one thing necessary: to fulfill our own destiny, according to God’s will, to be what God wants us to be.”

This quote is by Thomas Merton, who was a monk, writer, poet, mystic, and social activist.  These words are from his book of essays entitled No Man Is an Island.  They remind us of what matters most:  Each of us trying to discern the Creator’s will for ourselves and then endeavoring to live as our Creator wants us to live.

The idea of living a purposeful and meaningful life is emphasized in religious terms, as Merton has done, in Jungian psychological theory, as I’ve written about in other posts, and in many works of literature.  Some Jungian psychotherapists write about how religious and Jungian psychological ideas overlap.  It seems to me, as well as to many authors whose books I have read, that believing each of us has an inner voice that wants to guide us in our daily living corresponds to embracing the Jungian concept of the Self that helps to guide us toward individuation.  Choosing to approach life through a Jungian psychological lens or through a religious/spiritual lens, or through both, will lead us in the right direction.

Endeavoring to listen for and follow inner wisdom refers to every aspect of our lives.  It affects how we experience our relationships with others, our ability to love genuinely, the way we approach the work we do, how we spend our time when we’re not working, and every choice we make.  What matters is that we try.  All of us will make mistakes along the way, for we are human.  No person is perfect.  Some of what we learn as we travel our earthly journey is learned from making mistakes and then trying again.

We learn in many other ways, as well:  By paying attention to our dreams, noticing when projection might have occurred, trying to find the possible meanings of synchronicities, and acknowledging and being thankful when unexpected help from the universe is given to us.  In these and other ways, we take the steps needed toward fulfilling our destiny.  Our destiny according to God’s will.

“Every human being, of whatever origin, of whatever station, deserves respect. We must each respect others even as we respect ourselves.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson

I recently attended a meeting of employees of the agency where I work as a crisis line counselor.  The crisis line service is one of several programs of the agency.  The meeting had been scheduled because a few employees felt that some administrative staff hadn’t addressed certain matters as those employees thought they should have.  The goals of the meeting were to make it possible for all staff to hear each other’s points of view, to clarify misunderstandings, and to talk about possible procedural changes if it was determined such changes were needed.

Although the majority of employees who spoke at the meeting did so in a respectful way and showed empathy for those who were being criticized, I was surprised and disheartened by the way some employees expressed themselves.  It was as if their goal was to verbally attack the administrative staff rather than to gain a better understanding of the perspectives of each person involved.  Their overly critical and demeaning approach made me think about how assertiveness and aggressiveness are not the same.  Assertiveness involves presenting one’s point of view in a respectful way.  Aggressiveness involves trying to control others, putting one’s needs first, and not caring about the feelings and needs of others.

As I listened to the verbal attacks, I thought about how that way of acting is encouraged and applauded by certain websites, news outlets, politicians, and celebrities.  Not all, thankfully, but some.  And some is too many.

The behavior I observed at the meeting reflected what sometimes happens in other interactions, be they between two people in a relationship or between leaders of nations.  But just as the majority of those employees who spoke at the meeting did so with integrity and empathy and with the intention of improving the agency, such a respectful approach is often true in many other situations where people discuss problems or concerns.  That is hopeful.  Because verbal attacks only cause harm.  Nothing positive results from them.

Treating others with respect includes recognizing the basic dignity of every person, as is reflected in the quotation above by philosopher, abolitionist, and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson.