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Page 1 of 2 Mid-week Inspiration,
Often we think we are subject to our environment, it is the greatest reason given for ill behavior and untoward actions. As long as it was a justifiable reaction then it was OK. The child molester who was himself molested. The parent who resorts to violence with her children because she was physically abused. The alcoholic who comes from a long line of alcoholics; even the coffee drinker who drinks coffee because it is the beverage of choice in the western world. All, scenarios justified by our environment. When we truly think about it there are probably few moments in our lives that are not the result of our social or physical environment. So what.
So, if we are acting from our environment then we are reacting. The beauty of reacting is that we never have to take responsibility for our actions; we can live in blame. The curse of reacting is that we remain stuck; we never move ourselves into a better state of living. And I am not talking about the size of your house, I am speaking of the quality of your life. How much of the time you feel happy, at peace and truly grateful for this thing called life. These are feelings that only increase as we become more proactive in the situations of our lives. Generally speaking the only thing that has defined famous people over ordinary people was a willingness to act consciously in a situation. A willingness to do what was right rather than what everybody else was doing. A good case in point is the story of the mayor of Tuzla during the civil war in the country formerly known as Yugoslavia, now Bosnia. During a time of complete chaos raging through the country, when men, women and children were being slaughtered by the thousands just because of their choices of beliefs, Tuzla remained free of this 'ethnic cleansing', largely due to the actions of her mayor, Selim Beslagic, who is accredited with tirelessly working with the different ethnic groups to ensure peace and harmony; using City coffers to restore sites damaged by the national insurgence of ethnic violence and constantly listenning to his peoples needs. When asked why his city did not deteriorate into the ethnic cleansing, he responded with this: ‘If I came to Holland and asked you why the Catholics weren’t killing the Muslims, you’d look at me like I was crazy. Normal people just don’t go about killing each other. Why don’t you go to Sarajevo and the rest of the country and ask them why they did start killing each other. All we did in Tuzla was remain normal.’ Yet in our world, to be normal we must actually make conscious decisions. We must decide to do what feels right, rather than what the neighbours are doing. We must act from our hearts rather than our instincts. Our instincts will always demand that we conform to our neighbours and swim along like fish in a school. To make a global change we must act consciously; we must allow ourselves to be globally aware, and not just of the conflicts that seem to sell so well in the news, but rather of what is really behind those conflicts. What are the needs of the people involved? And how can I act consciously in my neighbourhood to meet those needs?
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