Tag: non-sissy
063 Creative Journey
by Charles on Oct.02, 2011, under Creative Journey Blog
Hello my friend,
Welcome to the 63rd installment of The Creative Journey, the experience of one Charles Yerkes, Eadarian Poet, perpetuator, and otherwise mildly creative and excessively modest personage.
Good vs Best Part 2:
It is interesting that the attainment of this smaller and instant fun often makes the child very unhappy with the results caused by that attainment. The joy he had in eating the cake is turned into a hurtful or sad memory, in light of what he then lost the ability to do. And even more interesting is the fact that if he had chosen to wait and not eat the cake, to not do that which is immediately satisfying but instead, wait for the best to arrive, then any unhappiness he experienced by not being able to eat the cake is quickly replaced, more than replaced, by the joy, excitement, and thrill of seeing the Giant Pandas. This joy dwarfs any frustration, ill ease, pain, or consternation that saying no to the chocolate might have caused. And this satisfaction will stay with him for years, he may even proudly tell his own kids and grandkids about thrill of seeing the amazing Pandas. The cake… is less than a forgotten memory.
In many ways our feelings are the same as the child who chooses the chocolate cake, opting to trade that which would truly make us happy for an immediate short-lived delight. And again we are not talking about right verses wrong, good verses evil, or anything like that. That is a discussion for another day.
There was nothing wrong with the child choosing to eat the chocolate cake, to get the cake instead of a trip to the zoo. Nothing wrong with it what so ever. But the good taste of chocolate satisfaction was the enemy of the best source of long lasting joy, seeing the wonderful Giant Pandas. Sad or not, it was an okay choice. Also, and I can’t stress this enough, we are not talking about not being satisfied, but of choosing and hanging onto the deeper and longer lasting sources of joy and satisfaction. The attainment of which is something… not to be missed.
Which does give a whole new (or at least a very interesting) spin to the both the “deny yourself” and the “self-sacrifice” thingies.
It is not about denying yourself joy and satisfaction but rather, that by learning what the deeper sources of joy are and choosing them, you deny yourself being cheated out of them by opting for the shallow and easy, the ‘good’ gratifications.
Yes, it will not always be fun to tell yourself, “No.” But remember, you are really telling yourself, “Yes!” Yes to the fuller, richer, more meaningful, and more abundant satisfaction and joy by waiting for the best. And, your lack of fun in the “No” will be more than made up for in the thrill found in the richer “Yes”.
Do not allow ‘the good’ to be the enemy that defeats you from knowing true joy, true happiness, and the deepest most wonderful satisfactions. In short do not let ‘the good’ keep you from the best.
Grow in peace.
Charles Yerkes
Eadarian Poet, Perpetuator, Photographer, and Fiddle Player
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To choose a past installment(s) of The Creative Journey click here. To view a Quote of the Week, click here.
078 Weekly Quote
by Charles on Sep.26, 2011, under Weekly Quote
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Chaos: Complete confusion and disorder resulting from irresponsible and arbitrary uses of the will. The end results of which are tyrannical in nature stealing away our ability to be truly free. Our ability to exercise free will, to utilize any self-decision, is lessened if not taken completely away.
-The Eadarian Poet
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To see past “Quote of the Week”(s) click here.
Or to choose an installment(s) of our blog, The Creative Journey, click here.
077 Weekly Quote
by Charles on Sep.22, 2011, under Weekly Quote
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Do not allow someone to have a power over you that they do not actually possess.-The Eadarian Poet
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To see past “Quote of the Week”(s) click here.
Or to choose an installment(s) of our blog, The Creative Journey, click here.
076 Weekly Quote
by Charles on Sep.12, 2011, under Weekly Quote
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FREEDOM: The responsible use of purposeful, voluntary, and independent self-decision to exercise our will in a non-arbitrary or non-despotic manner.-The Eadarian Poet
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To see past “Quote of the Week”(s) click here.
Or to choose an installment(s) of our blog, The Creative Journey, click here.
061 Creative Journey
by Charles on Sep.12, 2011, under Creative Journey Blog
Hello my friend,
Welcome to the 61st installment of The Creative Journey, the experience of one Charles Yerkes, Eadarian Poet, perpetuator, and otherwise mildly creative and excessively modest personage.
Taking a brief pause in preparing the newest topic for the Creative Journey to relate something I just read that is related to a previous entry. This goes back to Creative Journey entries 56, 57, and 58; the subject being Meek not mousy.
I found some incredibly precise and clear statements about Meekness that were just too cool not to share. These come from a book Broadman Press published in 1971, Creative Expectancy by Albert McClellan.
The man of meekness is firm without being hard.
He is shrewd but not wily.
He is strong but not destructive.
He is intelligent but not overbearing.
The man of meekness seeks no credit.
He listens intensely with the heart.
He asserts his love and even his ideas but not himself.
When in trouble the man of meekness does not run.
He does not create false issues or cast false images.
He is no prima donna.
He is not afraid of his enemies.
He never builds himself up at the expense of others.
He is never concerned with what he calls, “My rights.”
He makes no proud assertions.
He does not contemplate his own meekness.
He fights with words and ideas but not with doubts and slurs.
He defends himself with true spirit and an open attitude but not with the destruction of others.
He stands by his convictions and admires his enemies who stand by theirs.
He pitches his battle on fair ground; if he loses, he asks no quarter; if he wins, he helps bind up the wounds of his enemy.
None need fear losing anything to the man of meekness, neither purse, nor character, nor life.
He sits at the foot of the table until he is asked to come higher.
He goes to the bottom of the line and spells his way to the top, never boasting.
He is big enough to look any man in the eyes, but small enough so no man has to look up to him.
To some he looks like a zero, to others a world of hope, a world of wholeness, through whom the earth is about to be reborn.
This sums up rather well the idea of meekness. This is strength under control. I’ll even venture to say that this is the path to true freedom, but that can be a discussion for another day. 
Believe it or not that wraps things up for this entry,
Have a great one!
Grow in freedom;
Grow in peace.
Charles Yerkes
Eadarian Poet, Perpetuator, Photographer, and Fiddle Player
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If you liked this blog entry, check out the shirt designs based upon it. Just click here for: Meek not Mousy, here for: Bold, Daring, Meek, or here for: Meek and In Control at our cafepress store.
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To choose a past installment(s) of The Creative Journey click here. To view a Quote of the Week, click here.
075 Weekly Quote
by Charles on Aug.29, 2011, under Weekly Quote
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The past is ours no longer, and the future is ours not yet. The present is all we have. Choose to live here and happier you will be.-The Eadarian Poet
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To see past “Quote of the Week”(s) click here.
Or to choose an installment(s) of our blog, The Creative Journey, click here.
060 Creative Journey
by Charles on Aug.29, 2011, under Creative Journey Blog
Hello my friend,
Welcome to the 60th installment of The Creative Journey, the experience of one Charles Yerkes, Eadarian Poet, perpetuator, and otherwise mildly creative and excessively modest personage.
Freedom not Chaos
Part 2:
An interesting thing about Chaos is that it only ever arrives through the use of our freedom; or, more appropriately, the misuse of it. The greater and longer the misuse, the greater the chaos we generate. Which is perhaps one of the greatest tragedies known to mankind, the loosing of one’s freedom to his own despotic self.
Who has not known of the one who has surrendered the freedom of rising above their situation to the escape and misery of the bottle? The freedom of growing in relationships to the justifications for explosive anger? The freedom of laughter to the bitterness of self-pity? This blog is not addressing the reasons, or situations that led us to the point of making these choices, to drink excessively, to always be very angry and bear grudges, or to wallow in self pity. It is addressing that the choosing of these is the choosing of chaos and not freedom.
Freedom only comes when we refuse to hide behind such things as the bottle, anger, and pity. This is not the easy way for no defensive walls are put up. Indeed, it is only when we are purposeful and very non-arbitrary in resolving whatever situation we are in, that the strength of freedom, the joy of freedom is earned and known.
The human being is an incredibly complicated critter. And so, before the big and apparent chaotic behaviors (like those listed above) arrive on the scene, there are many smaller occurrences of chaos that have arrived and these have built into the complex ones. And most great truths can be simply applied to all aspects of our lives, if we let them.
So let’s look at some of the smaller ways chaos enters our lives and by which freedom, while not completely dying, is stolen from us bit by bit. Sort of like the frog, when the temperature is gradually turned up on the pot of water he is sitting in, will not feel the temperature change, but will boil to death before he knows what is happening.
As the complex humans we are, we can hold many contradictory views, at the same time, and hold each as fact. Confusing? Yes and, since confusion is not Confucius, it is is a pathway to chaos. And yes, if we are honest with ourselves, most of us hold at least one set of these conflicting ideas.
Some such sets of simple contradictions are as follows: we want to get ahead at work and yet while at work, we want to sit around doing as little as possible, talking, playing games, or texting friends. We want to get ahead, the pay raise, the promotion, and we want to do all the things that lead to us not getting ahead. We want more money and more hours at work to get it, yet we also demand more time off. Or perhaps we want more friends, more social interactions, yet we also want others to show an interest in us first. Or, we want everyone to be courteous to us on the road, yet we feel no desire to give consideration to others while we drive.
I can see you shaking your head and saying, “Ok, now you are just being silly.”
Simple yes, silly… not.
I forget who said this, and if anyone can help with that please let me know for I’d love to give credit where credit is due, but it is said, “You can tell the most about a people by how the handle the little things.” For how you handle the little things will tell/show how you will handle the big things. And there are no approved shortcuts.
So the question is, are we responsible enough to choose the use of purposeful, voluntary, and independent self-decision to handle the little things of life well? To be non-arbitrary or non-despotic in pursuing our dreams, careers, relationships, and growing maturity? That I leave for you to decide. Be honest with your self; you might as well for you cannot trick chaos into being freedom. Chaos is chaos and it always will be. And experiencing the strength of integrity that freedom well lived brings should be missed by no one.
Grow well my friend,
Grow into your freedom well.
Charles Yerkes
Eadarian Poet, Perpetuator, Photographer, and Fiddle Player
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If you liked this blog entry, check out the shirt designs that support it. Just click here for design ‘Freedom not Chaos’, and here for design ‘Strong Enough to be Free’, at our cafepress store.
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To choose a past installment(s) of The Creative Journey click here. To view a Quote of the Week, click here.
059 Creative Journey
by Charles on Aug.26, 2011, under Creative Journey, Creative Journey Blog
Hello my friend,
Welcome to the 59th installment of The Creative Journey, the experience of one Charles Yerkes, Eadarian Poet, perpetuator, and otherwise mildly creative and excessively modest personage.
Freedom not Chaos
Part 1:
Sometime ago there was a weekly quote here on the Eadarian Network (number 63), “You are only as free as you are responsible enough to be.” This from that wonderful sage and guru, the Eadarian Poet.
This train of thought then led me to another phrase that may well become a future quote of the week: “Freedom not Chaos”.
As I have begun to share this phrase with others, they have immediately thought that I am referring to politics. This I am not. I am only concerned with you and I as individuals. That is something to remember about this bolg, and I only share what I have experienced on my own journey.
So, to ensure understanding of what this post is addressing, I am talking about personal freedom verses personal chaos. Those, which reside in the individual and over which this same individual has control.
So what does all this mean? What does this look like? Let’s start with the thought, “You are only as free as you are responsible enough to be.” And see what develops.
I’m finding that the older dictionaries are quickly becoming my favorites. They seem to have a deeper range of meanings than most modern dictionaries do. In any event…
From the 1913 Webster Dictionary, Freedom: Exemption from necessity – as freedom of will –
From the 1913 Modern English Illustrated Dictionary: Not arbitrary or despotic.
From the 1955 Webster Dictionary: independent, self-deciding, voluntary.
For Chaos (from all the dictionaries): complete confusion or disorder
For Despotic: irresponsible and arbitrary, tyrannical.
So, freedom can be said to be: The responsible use of purposeful, voluntary, and independent self-decision to exercise our will in a non-arbitrary or despotic manner. A matter of the will, a matter of choice.
Chaos can be said to be: Complete confusion and disorder resulting from irresponsible and arbitrary uses of the will. The end results of which are tyrannical in nature stealing away our ability to be truly free. Our ability to exercise free will, to utilize any self-decision is lessened if not taken completely away.
To be continued….
Grow in freedom;
Grow in peace.
Charles Yerkes
Eadarian Poet, Perpetuator, Photographer, and Fiddle Player
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If you liked this blog entry, check out the shirt designs that support it. Just click here for design ‘Freedom not Chaos’, and here for design ‘Strong Enough to be Free’, at our cafepress store.
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To choose a past installment(s) of The Creative Journey click here. To view a Quote of the Week, click here.
074 Weekly Quote
by Charles on Aug.24, 2011, under Weekly Quote
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Conceit: Confidence that has lost its humility.-The Eadarian Poet
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To see past “Quote of the Week”(s) click here.
Or to choose an installment(s) of our blog, The Creative Journey, click here.
058 Creative Journey
by Charles on Aug.17, 2011, under Creative Journey Blog
Hello my friend,
Welcome to the 58th installment of The Creative Journey, the experience of one Charles Yerkes, Eadarian Poet, perpetuator, and otherwise mildly creative and excessively modest personage.
MEEK not mousy:
Part 3.
So back to the issue at hand, being meek without being mousy.
Jesus is often shown as a shining example of meekness. So let’s take a look at some of what he did.
He stood up to demons, without whining or sniveling, drove corrupt merchants from the temple with a whip he fashioned himself, and spoke to thousands of people at a time while on the bank of a lake (five thousand and greater) without so much as a bullhorn, never mind a microphone and speaker system; nothing mousy there.
This hardly fits the retiring, quiet, self-defacing characterizations we think of today when we think of one who is meek.
And finally, (there are many more examples that could be shared, but because we are only looking at the possibility of being meek and not mousy, these are enough to show that this is in fact a possibility and we need to move on) in the book of Second Timothy (in the same Bible as before) chapter 1 verse 7, one of the greatest apostles Christianity has ever known, Paul, wrote to a young man the following. “For God has not given you a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline.”
Forgive me, but this does not sound mousy. For God has not given you a mousy spirit, but one of power, love, and discipline… this sounds kind of bold and daring to me… and very meek in nature.
Allow me to quickly draw your attention back to the 1913 Webster’s Dictionary for just a moment more. In this definition is the word: Forbearing. This word caught my attention so I looked it up as well.
It means: Showing patient and unruffled self-control and restraint under adversity.
Wow, self-control. This reminds me of something I heard concerning the word meek. I do not remember where I heard this, nor exactly when I heard it. But, as much as I would love to say otherwise, I did not think of this on my own. Here it is:
Meekness is strength under control.
What an amazing concept.
Well my friends, there is much more that could be said, but I think we have gone on long enough.
Until next time,
Peace,
And may true bold and daring Meekness be yours.
Grow in freedom;
Grow in peace;
Grow in Strength Under Control.
Charles Yerkes
Eadarian Poet, Perpetuator, Photographer, and Fiddle Player
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If you liked this blog entry, check out the shirt designs based upon it. Just click here for design 1, here for a design 2, here for design 3 at our cafepress store.
And Thank you.
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To choose a past installment(s) of The Creative Journey click here. To view a Quote of the Week, click here.
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Worth Quoting
Never be so libelous as to call a man perfect; once a person is so labeled it is too easy to tear him apart for being what he is, a human being.
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