Susan Schulte – Page 26

March 5, 2018April 15, 2020

A Lesson in Humility

I’d like to share a dream I had with you: I’m in an office conference room with a lot of other people. The president of the United States is seated at the end of the long conference room table and people are seated all along both sides of the table. Because the chairs are all taken, several more people in the room are standing, including me. The president is speaking in a way that is totally different from how he speaks in physical reality; he has a humble tone. My impression is he has learned he has a serious illness and will live only a few more months, and knowing this has caused the change in him. At the end of his talk, people go up to him and shake his hand or pat him on the shoulder. Because of all the things the president has done and said in the past that make me dislike and not respect him, I don’t go up to him. I’m surprised to see that a friend of mine, who has been very vocal about what a terrible man he is, walks up to him and gives him a kiss on the forehead.

This dream made me think about several things. There is the striking contrast in the personality of the president shown by the way he speaks with humility in the dream compared to the arrogant, bombastic way the president in physical reality speaks. There is another noticeable contrast in the image of my friend who responds to the president in the dream with caring and affection by kissing his forehead compared to her usual disapproval and criticism of him. According to Jungian dream theory, the characters who appear in our dreams symbolize aspects of ourselves. I believe the dream was given to me to remind me that my egocentric part needs to become more humble and the critical part needs to show caring, especially, I think, when the person who was the object of the criticism has changed in a positive way.

The other person who appears in the dream is me. Of the three main characters in the dream, I’m the only one who doesn’t change. My attitude toward the president stays the same even though he has changed, and I’m surprised and disappointed at my friend’s change of attitude toward him. The dream shows me that I have a degree of rigidity and a tendency to make decisions by using only my logical, thinking abilities and not taking into account the promptings of my intuition. It takes humility to try to listen to my inner voice and to believe it will guide me.

February 23, 2018

Caring in Action

The other day I was walking to the library during my lunch break and saw a man who walked with a limp heading toward the library from another direction. A couple of seconds after I entered the library, I heard a groan, turned around, and saw that the man had fallen a few feet before reaching the entrance door. A young man who was nearby immediately went to the man who had fallen, asked him if he was hurt, and helped him stand up.

It was a meaningful experience for me to witness this kind of caring response. The young man who went to the man who had fallen responded without a moment’s hesitation. Another example of doing unto others as we would have them do unto us. Another example of how we need one another.

February 23, 2018

Paying Attention to Synchronicities

This morning was unusual because several things happened that caused delays on my way to work. The traffic moved considerably more slowly than it normally does. The clerk at a store where I had hoped to make a quick stop couldn’t figure out the code to enter from a gift card and continued to make the same mistake even after I showed him the code on the card. The supervisor the clerk called for assistance stopped to talk to another clerk and was in no hurry to help us. And when I finally was at the entrance of the building where I work, a young man wasn’t paying attention and was blocking the door. I was about to say something when he noticed he was in the way, apologized, and moved. I try to keep things in perspective, and I realize these delays didn’t cause major problems. But it struck me that there were this many delays in a relatively short period of time.

When something happens that catches my attention, I try to discern whether it is a synchronicity and, if so, what it is telling me. Synchronicities are meaningful acausal occurrences. It didn’t take me long to connect the four delays I had experienced with my having put off something I’ve needed to take care of. Realizing this, I made a phone call as the first step in what I’ve needed to do and I resolved to make it a priority to complete the task.

The slow traffic, the slow cashier, the slow supervisor, and the young man not realizing he was blocking the door all occurred in outer reality. And yet they also had a dreamlike quality; I can imagine them happening in a dream and myself in the dream being frustrated and feeling helpless to speed things up. Just as the symbols and stories of dreams help us to learn about ourselves, to become more conscious, and to give us direction, so do synchronicities. Like dreams, synchronicities can give us the push we need to take steps we need to take.

February 8, 2018

Two People I Admire

Sometimes when I run errands during breaks from my job, I see a man who uses a motorized wheelchair. This man’s body is the size of that of a 10-year-old boy but his head is the size of an adult’s. I assume he works in one of the offices or businesses near where I work. I don’t know him and I’ve never spoken to him except to say “hi,” but I am so impressed by him. I think of how much more difficult and time-consuming it is for him to get ready for work each day than it is for me. And to commute to work, and to do his work, and so on. Writing this reminds me of another person who impressed me. When I was in graduate school, one of my instructors had multiple sclerosis. During the first couple of classes I sometimes had trouble understanding what she said because her illness affected her speech. But before long I was able to understand her fine; it was similar to getting used to hearing someone who speaks with an accent different from mine. She was an intelligent, knowledgeable, and capable teacher. And at times I would think about the challenges she faced each day because of her illness.

In my writing, I often emphasize the importance of making choices to maintain and improve our health: good nutrition, exercise, not smoking or using drugs, etc. I believe good health is a gift from the Creator, and we should do our best to take care of this precious gift. But sometimes people are given the challenge of health problems they did not cause or to which they did not contribute. Very likely my teacher and the man I’ve referred to were born with their disabilities. When I feel lazy, I think of them. Thinking of them helps me to be motivated to do what I need to do and also reminds me to be thankful for my gift of good health.

February 6, 2018April 15, 2020

Being Thankful

Sometimes before I go to sleep at night I have the thought that I was given the gift of living another day. One cannot know which day will be his or her last one of this earthly journey. Or whether this day will be the last day he or she doesn’t have a serious illness or isn’t disabled in an accident. I don’t mean to sound melodramatic or pessimistic. I mean to be thankful. And I am thankful for each day I get to walk and pray and think and work and interact with people and love others, and do many, many more things that are so easily taken for granted. There is much to be thankful for. And if a serious illness or disability happens, I pray I will have the courage and peace that our Creator gives to do my best to live with the challenge. And to continue to be thankful for all that I have.

January 22, 2018April 15, 2020

We Are All Interconnected

There is a story called the “Allegory of the Long Spoons.” This parable is attributed by many to Rabbi Haim of Romshishok and, although there are variations to how it is told, here’s the basic story: A man asked God what heaven and hell were like. God showed the man a room where many people were seated around a large table and in the middle of the table was a big bowl of delicious, aromatic stew. But the people sitting around the table were sickly, thin, and miserable. Everyone around the table was holding a spoon with a very long handle and was able to take a spoonful of the stew, but because the spoon handles were longer than their arms, no one was able to put the stew in his or her mouth. God told the man, “This is hell.”

Then God showed the man a different room where again many people were sitting around a large table that had the same delicious stew in a big bowl in the center and all were holding the same type of long-handled spoons. But in this room the people were healthy, well nourished, and happy. For in this room, the people were reaching the spoonfuls of stew across the table and feeding each other. God told the man, “This is heaven.”

I first heard this allegory a few years ago and I love how it says so much in just a few words. I have read that this story is present in many cultures and referred to by many religious traditions. My work as a crisis line counselor includes giving callers resource information when I believe it could benefit them based on what they have shared with me in our call together. Although I’m impressed by the many organizations and religious institutions that have programs that help many people, I’m also concerned that there are a lot of people who don’t appear to care about helping others. The allegory of the long spoons portrays love, caring, and the interconnectness of people. We need one another. We need to use the abilities the Creator has given each of us to honor this interconnectedness.

January 2, 2018

Peace Within

In one of his recent tweets, the Dalai Lama wrote, “Peace in the world depends on peace within.” How true. Sometimes when I read or hear about the cruelty of some people toward others, I become disheartened. I question what can be done to help. And then I remind myself it is how each individual person chooses to try to live that makes a difference in our world.

When I think about peace, I’m reminded of how the Creator is the source of “peace that passes all understanding” (Philippians 4:7). I often pray for peace for other people and for myself, and I pray in thanksgiving for the gift of peacefulness I often feel. When I think about “peace within,” I’m also reminded of the Jungian premise that each person who grows in consciousness helps to make the world a better place. Part of becoming more conscious is adding to one’s knowledge about oneself, including about one’s negative aspects. As these aspects come into the light, so to speak, they can be acknowledged, change can take place, and the person becomes more whole. And in becoming more whole, a person experiences more peace within.

January 2, 2018April 15, 2020

The Gift of Humility

In his book Meeting Force With Silence, author and Jungian psychotherapist Dr. Terry Chitwood writes, “If you are fortunate, you have already been gifted with humility. Treasure this gift.” It is so easy to take things for granted, including positive qualities such as humility. To live honestly we need to recognize that our creativity, intellectual ability, talents, accomplishments, health, and the many other attributes that make each of us a unique person, a unique creation, are gifts from the Creator. And for those of us who put effort into improving ourselves, such as by having the discipline to do what is needed to develop a talent we’ve been given or to do physical exercise regularly to maintain and improve our health, we need to recognize that that discipline is also a gift from the Creator.

Dr. Chitwood also writes “Humility is a necessity, not a virtue.” If our egos are lacking humility, they do not recognize a power greater than themselves. This is unnatural, and at some point the universe will try to correct such inflated egos by requiring them to go through painful experiences. Having humility is necessary in order for us to recognize and honor the source of our being. And by being humble we are better able to be thankful for all that we have been given.

December 6, 2017April 15, 2020

Dreams Provide Direction

If you have read my other blogs, you know I think highly of the writing of John A. Sanford, a Jungian analyst, writer, and speaker, who also was an Episcopal priest for 19 years. In his book Dreams and Healing, Sanford writes: “Dreams also help us by showing us what it is upon which we should focus our attention. It is easy to be overwhelmed by our fears, the confusion of life, and the myriad small and great worries that beset us. A dream gives us an image of what it is we most need to ponder. In this way dreams can lift us beyond the narrow confines of our ordinary conscious life, and present us with a larger picture.”

I have found this to be true. In my experience, and based on reading I’ve done, some dreams are more clearly meant to direct a person to take some type of action. And when a person has a dream like that, trying to take the steps toward accomplishing what the dream is directing is what matters most. As Sanford says, that is where we should focus our attention. Because dreams when properly understood help us to learn about ourselves by bringing unconscious content to consciousness, each person becomes more whole as he or she tries to follow dream direction. This takes courage because we don’t necessarily know what will result from following dream direction.

A number of years ago I had a dream where several women were busy packing my belongings, putting them into boxes and sealing the boxes. For a few months before having that dream, I had thought it might be time to move to a different city, and this dream confirmed that yes, I needed to move. I didn’t particularly want to move; it would be costly, I would need to find a job, I would be leaving friends I cared about. But this dream was so clear in its meaning that I knew I would be going against what was right for me if I didn’t follow the dream’s direction. And I’m happy to say I have never regretted moving to where I live. My family and I benefited in many ways because I followed the direction of the dream.

December 6, 2017

We Need One Another

The other day something I read reminded me of the song “No Man Is an Island.” I remember singing it in elementary school. Here is the first verse: “No man is an island, no man stands alone. Each man’s joy is joy to me, each man’s grief is my own. We need one another, so I will defend each man as my brother, each man as my friend.” I believe that song coming to mind several days in a row was an inner prompting to write about it. I was hesitant to do so because of the masculine wording, but I hope people reading my blog will accept that the song was written at a time when using the word “man” referred to all people and “brother” referred to both men and women.

The lyrics certainly portray empathy, in particular where the song refers to feeling the joy as well as the grief that other people experience. I am concerned about the lack of empathy that many people display when talking about other people or groups of people, such as those of ethnicities and/or socioeconomic levels that are different from their own. The lyrics also portray support, being there for one another. In my work as a crisis line counselor, I hear from people who say no one understands what they’re going through. And many people who call say they feel very alone. I’m thankful they call the crisis line so they can talk to me, make a connection with another human being, and have a respite from their aloneness.

In Jungian thought there is emphasis on each person becoming more conscious and, through that, becoming the unique individual he or she is meant to be. And in addition there is emphasis on being of service to other people. Growing in consciousness and being of service are interconnected. I believe the song “No Man Is an Island” came to me to remind me of these truths and to share them with you