To Live, To Learn, To Love, and To Leave a Legacy

7-23-11                                             4 Needs” Priorities and life view

I’ve been pondering the world-view perspective of a friend.  As I think about what is important to her and how she filters or views the experiences in her life, I think she sees the world through the priority of relationships and emotional deposits.  When I was thinking about this today I was reminded of my world view as a child (and even partially now).  I remember evaluating every word spoken to me from other people trying to read into it what they meant.  So much of relationships are Unseen, and I was trying to see that Unseen part which remains under the surface.

At this point in my life, I think I tend to look at the world through the context of learning.  Every interaction in my mind is evaluating what I can learn from every person I interact with.  My other 4 human needs are filled through the context of the door of learning.  I feel emotional deposits when others learn and share with me.  I get SO elated when we find epiphanies together.  I share things with others in the context of what I feel they can learn from me, or what lessons I have learned that might help them.   Too often I cross the line and start to give advice, but I am learning that I really am in no position to council another person not under my stewardship.  I am trying to rid myself of this pollution of advising others in what I still need to apply for myself. 

Sometimes people don’t understand my context, and misunderstand the content.  A simple way to look at context and content that I often remind myself of is that ‘content’ is like what fills the glass.  Context is the glass.  When someone says something, their words are like the content in the glass.  We do not, however, understand the full picture until we look at the context.  What is their world view?  Why are they saying this? W hat are their motives?  Looking into the heart, seeking to understand life from their perspective, the truth will eventually come to light. 

It seems like this friend’s mission is to help others come into trusting relationships so we can feel like we are in a safe environment together.  Whereas it seems like mine is more suited to learning, living, and sharing after that trust is attained. 

I just had an epiphany.  Let me see if I can explain what I saw.  Missions are like a gray scale that grows lighter the more we get closer to living our mission.  Our mission is not one block of this gray scale alone but we grow in vibrancy the closer we get to our focal purpose.  I know that building relationships is important, and I want to do it, but I don’t feel like I am very good at it.  That is like this friend’s focal mission- her lightest color of block.  Where as my ‘building relationships’ block is a darker shade of gray; it is not my focal mission.  My mission grows lighter in the gray scale as we move toward learning and sharing in trusted relationships.  This is my joy and my life; my purpose and my desire. 

As we learn to work together in synergy, or individual weaknesses are minimized and our strengths together are maximized.