How to Train Your Dragon

We all have an inner dragon. That voice of woe that brings us the hot breath of doom and gloom. That sneaky little nagging, doubtful, worrisome whisper that we nurse almost hourly. "I'll never get out of debt."  "She is smarter than me."  "I don't think I have what it takes to realize my dreams." and my personal favorite, "When is the other shoe going to drop?"

If you deny you have one, I will challenge the fact that you are even alive.

Anyway, lately I've been challenged to talk to myself the way I'd like to be talked to. "I will be out of debt."  "I am intelligent."  "I have what it takes to realize my dreams."  And so, I've been doing it. It feels a little funny at first, almost like bragging. But that doesn't stop me. I've realized that in some weird way I've been superstitious about my life and tried to worry about things as a buffer for them actually happening. Sometimes I even feel proud of myself for thinking ahead about some natural disaster as if it's so crazy it couldn't happen , and now I've prevented it. So you see, I do feel my own thoughts are powerful, but I've been using them in a back door sort of way.

I've begun to be intentional about my thoughts, and about the things I say that I will do.

And do you know what? I feel as if I've walked out of a prison of my own making. The dragon is being trained.

Compassion

What the world needs now is compassion.

Compassion is the cushion that shields our fragile hearts from the jagged edges of the reality of death, sickness and hatred.

When turning on the news, or even opening up my inbox, my first reaction is judgment, a knee jerk reaction to distance myself from catastrophe. That isn't, can't be me. But on one level it is, and it is with myself that I dole out the most compassion. I see why I mess up. I see how I could be misunderstood.

Compassion is love's cousin in workclothes. In order to give compassion I must suspend judgment and stand in the mud with someone. I'd like to be able to do this in Baltimore for both the protesters and the police. I am miles away, and yet, they are in my living room.

As with all of these situations about which I can actually do nothing, I can frame an attitude which will ripple out all the way to Baltimore. So can you.