A continuation of “Beauty in My Neighborhood.”
In “Ask and It Is Given,” Abraham says something like this: Imagine the most beautiful, livable town you can. It is filled with beautiful things to look at, great places to hike, wonderful people, a plethora of ethnic restaurants, and lots of interesting things to do. It is easy to get around in it, whether on foot, by bike, public transporatation, or car, and there is never a rush hour. There’s just this one, teensy little problem—there’s an enormous pothole on 6th Street. (Notice, he did not say Main Street.)
Now the question is: What are you now focused on—all the wonders of this charming town, or the gigantic pothole on a street which you never need to travel on anyway? It is very easy to fall into the “pothole” of focusing on the “beep-beeps” in my neighborhood, rather than the birds singing, the flowers my neighbors have planted, the quickness of getting almost anywhere in this town from where I am, and the beautiful mountains I can see in the distance from where I stand to wash my dishes.
There is a philosophy which says that you get more of what you focus on, so I am actively training myself to focus on the beauty, because that is what sustains me.
What we choose to focus on
July 30, 2006 at 7:30 pm (Beauty and Sustainability - Laurel Reinhardt, Uncategorized)
chris weaver said,
July 31, 2006 at 5:55 pm
thank you once again laurel!
i laugh about your story because just the other day gayatri and i were trying to recall the pothole story of personal development…something like:
1. i walk down the street and fall in a hole, and wonder how i got there.
2. i walk down the street, see the hole, and fall in it anyway.
3. i walk down the street, see the hole, walk around it, and step backward into it.
4. i wake up the next morning already in the hole (i just added that one myself).
5. i walk down the street, see the hole, walk around it, and continue walking.
6. i walk down a different street.