From Eckhart Tolle’s Oneness With All Life (excerpted in O, the Oprah Magazine in the January 2009 issue):
“You do not become good by trying to be good, but by finding the goodness that is already within you and allowing that goodness to emerge.”
A few years ago, I read a book by Nick Hornby called How to Be Good. It was a hoot of a book about the competition between a man and his wife over who was more “good.” Good. It’s a loaded word. It’s a word that I tried to ‘be’ for years as I was coming of age. I wanted so much to be good that I sometimes forgot to be me. What I found, ultimately, when I allowed myself to be me was that I was inherently good– we all are. So just for today, go out and let your own brand of goodness emerge in that all you do.
* Yeah, this picture has nothing to do with being good. I just got new computer toys and wanted to play.
I actually love the picture!
So true on having to define “good” before you can say you are or are not 🙂 If I was “good” my high school years, I would have never sneaked around to date my now husband. If I was “good” my college years I would have never fought my way to an early graduation and been a student Interpreter the second semester…
I think when we stand our ground and say what “good” is for us..it eventually gets accepted as our “normal”…my husband, our kids, my career, homeschooling, international adoption, etc… the people that once said we were “weird, rebels, oddballs” now claim us as having a “good” lifestyle, a happy family…. ironic!
Jillian, that is so well-expressed. When we do stand our ground with what our good is, others become able to see the goodness ibn it and us. We just have to brave enough to go there first to say it first!
I hit submit too fast, Jillian. I love that you always saw the goodness in your life and didn’t let anyone distract you from both the truth and your truth.
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ROFL….I was wondering what the pic had to do with what you posted! Do like the picture though 🙂