{"id":5209,"date":"2016-11-24T10:12:13","date_gmt":"2016-11-24T15:12:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/?p=5209"},"modified":"2016-11-24T10:12:13","modified_gmt":"2016-11-24T15:12:13","slug":"on-doing-well","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/general\/on-doing-well\/","title":{"rendered":"on Doing Well"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is so much happiness to be found through the presence of our children.\u00a0 I’m a fortunate man to have been been blessed<\/em> with four such sources of wonder.<\/p>\n

Blessed…<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Blessed is such a difficult concept to comprehend.\u00a0 If we are blessed, who are we blessed by?\u00a0 Life is a gift.\u00a0 I know that beyond any doubt, however I have no knowledge as to its source.\u00a0 Life isn’t a gift from some all powerful entity, I know that as well – for many reasons I won’t raise now as this post isn’t about dogma.\u00a0 {Perhaps another time, or perhaps I’ve already touched on it elsewhere in my posted thoughts.}<\/p>\n

So, if we aren’t blessed by some divine entity, then by what are we blessed?<\/p>\n

By our children…<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

They are each unique.\u00a0 They are each wonderful.\u00a0 They are each frustrating in how they are capable of so much more than their efforts or their insecurities indicate.\u00a0 Some children take a lot longer to realize how their own actions shape them for the future.\u00a0 As their parents it is very difficult not to fall into the traps set by a system in which the social hierarchy is based on monetary wealth and inherited acclaim.<\/p>\n

We desperately want our children to do well<\/em><\/strong>, but in the context of current times doing well doesn’t mean “do good things<\/em><\/strong>“, it means “make a lot of money<\/em><\/strong>“.\u00a0 What a sad state of affairs that two of the most prevalent meanings of “do well<\/em>” are so mutually exclusive.<\/p>\n

I hope your children do well, by themselves and also by others.\u00a0 I hope they seek and find happiness, and in their quest they bring happiness to others.\u00a0 I hope they experience compassion, and freely grant it to others.\u00a0 I hope they feel your love, and learn to love well.<\/p>\n

After all, aren’t happiness, compassion and love the source of themselves?<\/p>\n

Here’s a final chain of thought to take away.\u00a0 This isn’t a chain to bind, it is a chain to help set you free.<\/p>\n

Our children are the only things we truly create, for without us they could not be.\u00a0 Our most profound blessings are our children.\u00a0 We create our own blessings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is so much happiness to be found through the presence of our children.\u00a0 I’m a fortunate man to have been been blessed with four such sources of wonder. Blessed… Blessed is such a difficult concept to comprehend.\u00a0 If we are blessed, who are we blessed by?\u00a0 Life is a gift.\u00a0 I know that beyond […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[51,88],"class_list":["post-5209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-blessings","tag-compassion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5209\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cgayling.com\/malmaxa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}