Daily Inspiration 11-16-19

"Begin challenging 

 your own assumptions. 

Your assumptions are
your windows on the world. 

 Scrub them off 

every once in a while, 

or the light won't come in." 

-- Alan Alda 

New: Audio version

[Classic post from 6-27-15]

Some challenging questions to scrub off our assumptions:

Where and when did I learn that?
When did I learn to feel sad about that; those kinds of things or situations?
How many things do I feel sad about?
When did I learn to hate that or them or it?
How many things do I hate?
When did I learn to worry about that, this, them?
How did I learn to be jealous? Envious?
When did I learn to feel guilty?
Why do I feel insecure?
Where did I learn that?
How often am I unhappy? Why? When?

I heard this story long ago and perhaps you have as well: A mother and daughter were in the kitchen cooking a holiday meal of ham. The mother cut the ends off of the ham, and her daughter was very curious about that and said, "mother, why do you cut the ends off the ham?" She thinks about it and says, "well, I'm not really sure. I've always done it. I think I learned it from my mother." Since this is a holiday gathering, the mother finds her mother and asks her why she always cut the ends off the ham. Her mother said, "well, I don't know why except that my mother did that and I guess I learned it from her." So, they ask the great grandmother why she did that, and she said, "Oh, when I was first married way back, we had a very small kitchen and a very small oven and the ham wouldn't fit, so I cut the ends off."

Sometimes, and probably often, we just don't know or seem to be aware of what we are doing day to day, situation to situation, event to event. We learned something and never questioned it. We assumed that was the way to do it and so we do it that way, at that time, during this part of the year, under these circumstances, with these people, with these choices. It became a habit. Now it seems to be part of us. We see it as truth, the right way, the way it should be, the only way, my way. We own it.

A good question to ask from time to time might be, "is this assumption, this truth, this way serving me? Or is it not serving me?" Another great question is, "how do I feel about this or that?" If it doesn't cause you to feel good, the questions can help bring awareness and then the opportunity to change the assumption. Because they used to believe that the world was flat. In fact, the list of things that people used to believe as truth has changed so much, that today we question how they could have ever made that assumption, to begin with. We can't even fathom believing it now. Now it is false. It used to be the truth.

The truth may not be as solid as we once thought. Just like the planet, we stand on. We think it is solid, but there is much more going on underneath than we realize. It's okay and even good to challenge our own truths and assumptions, why we do things, how we feel about things, what allows happiness within us and what causes unhappy feelings.

When I was going to church, I heard the Senior Pastor say many times that "you know it when you know in your knower." Well, on the surface, that may sound silly, but I knew it as profound. We all have an inner knower, a Christ consciousness, a Universal Mind, a God within. When we line up with that, we know. When we follow others, we may have to challenge that learning. The place to challenge it is by seeing if it lines up with our 'knower' or not.


All Scrubbed Off And Feeling Good Again! 

Spread Some Joy Today--by loving more. Just love. Leo Tolstoy said it so well when he said, "If you want to be happy, be."