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Simply Authentic...Your Soul Voice is Calling. Hidden Belief Systems

Writer's picture: Kimberly GenlyKimberly Genly

Hidden Belief Systems On a recent trip to Tryon Creek Park, one of my favorite places, I parked next to a crumpled up piece of notebook paper. Which annoyed me. If I have one pet peeve (okay, fine, I have more than one), it is litter. I love being out in nature and hate when I find other people’s litter in “my” beautiful natural places. In fact, it annoys me so much – especially if I see the same plastic cup lid or smashed, empty cigarette package there the next time I pass – I often pick up other people’s discarded items and carry them to the nearest appropriate trash receptacle. (Which, on occasion, has been someone else’s garbage bin out by the street. Is it possible that person might consider this littering in their trash bin, since it’s not their trash? Hmm. Something to consider.) Nonetheless…the thing is…no good, respectable person would litter. Anyone who just randomly tosses their garbage by the side of the road, in a parking lot, or in a park, is either disrespectful or thoughtless. Both, maybe even evil! Burns my…I don’t know what it burns, but it burns something. This is my internalized belief system. I have an issue with not just the litter itself but the people who put it there. After my hike, I picked up the crumpled piece of paper to take home and dispose of properly. But, being the curious person I am by nature, something prompted me to open it up before I dropped it in the recycling bin. I read these words, apparently written by a young man: Two goals exist in every man’s life Either be happy Or be rich One day, everyone decides which path to choose No matter where you come from, You can come from as far away as Nairobi, To as close as Tigard This guy (presuming he really is a young man) could be a songwriter, playwright, etc. trying to come up with lyrics or dialog. Or a student with an assignment to complete. Clearly he is a writer of some sort, whether 14 or 24, because he wrote this. On a piece of notebook paper, with a pencil. I presume he wasn’t happy with what he wrote or it wouldn’t have ended up in a wrinkled wad on the ground. What comes to you when you read what he wrote? For me, it brought up the importance of bringing hidden, internalized belief systems to light. If a man truly believes he needs to make a choice between being rich and being happy, he’ll never fully realize wealth or joy. It also brought to mind something a colleague, friend and acting student said to me not long ago: “My daughter is more of herself at 14 than I remember ever being.” “Why?” I asked her. “Why do you think that is?” My friend, who lived a quiet life as an only child, in a more sheltered social structure, had a thoughtful response in regards to her daughter, who was raised with sibling, a younger brother. My friend said she didn’t have any mirrors in which to see herself through other’s eyes. That she has been handing her daughter tools (she’s not talking about the hammer and pliers kind) since she was a baby. And that her daughter is an old soul, literally born with her eyes wide open. Yes, literally. Within the first minute out of the womb her daughter’s eyes were open, looking at her surroundings, and she didn’t cry right away. I’ve not given birth myself in this lifetime, but I do know that is rare. My friend emphasized, as a final note, her daughter has grown up in a much more open and honest culture, perhaps especially since the advent of social media. (I am feeling for those in more repressed cultures right now, big time.) People talk about everything now from sexuality which includes all orientations, coming out of the closet, transgendering, to depression, mental illness, suicide…all topics which weren’t brought out into the open before…rather kept hidden, and secret. So, just for today, I am going to release my idea that no good, respectable person would litter. That anyone who randomly tosses their garbage by the side of the road, or in a parking lot, is either disrespectful or thoughtless. Instead, I’m going to imagine a frustrated 14 year old boy who came to the park to find inspiration. He had an assignment to write about what being rich and happy really meant. And all he could imagine at that moment was this one person he knew who had money and wasn’t all that happy. And then another who was happy, but didn’t have a lot of money. So, therefore, this young man, charged with this one assignment, decided that rich and happy were not congruent within the same sentence. And then he re-read what he had written. He made a different decision. He wadded up that paper, threw it to the ground, went home, and wrote an entirely different story. Authentically Yours, Laura

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