There is a proper balance between not asking enough of oneself and asking or expecting too much. -- May Sarton
The boy's mother baked pies that morning before he was up. She left them on the back porch to cool, their warm aroma curling up through his bedroom window. His mouth was full of the smell when he woke.
Before she left for work, she said, "You may do anything you want today, anything at all. Except for one thing--don't step in those pies."
All day the boy could not get the pies out of his mind; his feet itched just thinking about them.
Don't step in those pies. He heard her voice inside his head. By late afternoon he could control it no longer. One, two, three, four, five, six--his foot fell squarely into the middle of each pie.
When we expect the worst from others, we often get just that. The same goes for our expectations of ourselves. And when we trust others, it too is returned.
Do I expect the best of others--and myself--today?
__________________
Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind. ~Dr. Seuss
That goes really well with that Ghandi quote Lisa2 posted the other day:
"Man often becomes what he believes himself to be. If I keep on saying to myself that I cannot do a certain thing, it is possible that I may end by really becoming incapable of doing it. On the contrary, if I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning." -- from The Words of Gandhi.
I'm a firm believer in the power of positive thinking (and conversely the detriment of negative thinking). When I'm feeling crappy I take the advice of Anthony Robbins and go around with a stupid grin on my face until I feel better, and inevitably it works. Dunno if that's condityioning or positive thinking, but definitelyt walking around frowning never made me feel any better.
