more from wise ♥men….

♥ DAILY LOVE TIP – Wednesday October 19, 2011

Hello dear ♥Friends,

People have been appreciating the post ♥ DAILY LOVE TIP – Sunday August 21, 2011 – 3 wise ♥men which shares the wisdom of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi…….♥kindness is a theme that is strong for me at this time and it is shows up over and over in the writings of the Dalai Lama so I wanted to share more of his work….

As well I am going to take some time to honour a wise and big-hearted ♥man from my life – KEITH GILES whose memorial is today…. Keith was very important to me in my early twenties – about 37 years ago….. he was my first ever professional ‘boss’ – and more or less he was the main ‘boss’ I’ve had – as most of my life I have been self-employed…..  he was a mentor for me, a teacher,…someone who inspired me, believed in me, supported me, challenged me and did it all in such a good-natured, kind and ♥LOVE-ing way……someone I felt really safe and secure with. Keith had an amazing LAUGH which preceeeded him and one always heard it well before he arrived in the room……I remember writing an article about him back then and named it –

“By his LAUGH ye shall know him”…..

We were called Rural Youth Extension Officers and the job was essentially offering a Youth Service for kids in the rural areas of our very big Western Australian state…..and by kids they were actually older teenagers and people in their early twenties… kids who  predominantly lived on farms….and who were quite conservative in many ways… as were their parents and the Board who hired me……And the only reason I got the job – being anything other than conservative even back then – or maybe especially back then, as I had spent the previous 18 months before applying for the job doing the typical young person finish-university-travelling-around-on-‘the smell of an oil rag’ stint…….and had lived in many alternative communities and my main reason for working at that stage was to buy land….

I was determined that I was not prepared to ‘sell my soul’ to get any job and maybe just a tad naive as well….Yet Keith liked me standing up for my beliefs and being authentic and genuine about who I was. As head of the Extension Service he had much power over who was employed and I was told later that if it hadn’t been for Keith I certainly would not have been the choice of the rest of the Board…..fairly understandable when you consider I was wearing a long ‘hippie’ skirt and top and no bra for the job interview!!! 🙂

I remember many times going to Keith and asking him how to do something (I probably wanted him to tell me exactly how to do it) and he would sit there with his wise warm look and listen to me and not let on that he really knew what to do…..and then he’d tell me to go out and have a go at doing whatever I came up with as we talked and do it as an experiment…..which I would……and then I would come back and tell him what I had done knowing he knew all along exactly how to do it…..It was like a game we played yet I did end up feeling honoured as he was always so valuing of me…..and it really increased my confidence to believe in myself and to experiement and have a go…..

It is interesting looking back at my life and thinking about someone like Keith who has been a significant influence for me – and remarkable as well that I only worked in that job for a short couple of years as I left to become a full-time mother after my second daughter Freea was born in 1977…..how we all have the potential – and I think also the responsibility……to influence and inspire and shape the lives of people we come in contact with….

I dedicate the following quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson to Keith…….with thanks to Michael Noyes for the beautiful callligraphy – www.michaelnoyes.com 

 “To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others, to give one’s self; to leave the world a little better; whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

My deep gratitude Keith for the special man that you were to many and for the part you played in shaping and moulding some very important parts of my character.

Question for you: looking back who has been a strong influence/teacher/mentor/inspiration in your life? Share about your experience in a ♥MIRRORING structure….

And here’s some more wisdom from The Dalai Lama:

“If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion” ~ The Dalai Lama

This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness. 
~ The Dalai Lama

My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.  ~ The Dalai Lama

 

 

 

 

Question for you: What impacts you about these words from The Dalai Lama…..

Todays’ Addition to my list of My ♥favourite things…..is again elders…… I am so grateful for the gift of their knowledge and ♥kindness and their generosity in sharing it.

Feeling blessed and grateful, ♥LOVE , SUSIE.