Hate is never the answer

Hatred is a wasteful, ugly, primordial, and frankly useless emotion.  To quote Yoda – “Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering.” Hate is defined, according to dictionary.com as thus: hate  verb (used with object) 1. to dislike intensely or passionately; feel extreme aversion for or extreme hostility toward; detest: to hate the enemy; to hate bigotry. 2.to be unwilling; dislike: I hate to do it. verb (used without object) 3. to feel intense dislike, or extreme aversion or hostility. noun 4. intense dislike; extreme aversion or hostility. 5.the object of extreme aversion or hostility. Why do I bring this up?  Because a lot of people are currently feeling sadness, and sympathy following the recent tragedy in CT.  People are currently grieving.  But the next step will

Pathwalking 50

Confidence is important to Pathwalking. This is not to be confused with competence.  That’s necessary to many skills one may employ in the process of Pathwalking, but what I want to get into here is confidence. Confidence does not come easy for a lot of people.  We often feel that the way others judge us has a pretty major effect on what we are doing with our lives.  But the harshest judge of our confidence is usually ourselves. If I

Pathwalking 49

Old habits are hard to break. This is a phrase it is necessary to let go of in order to accomplish anything with Pathwalking. As I practice Pathwalking, I have found numerous old habits ingrained within my psyche that have held me back for most of my life, in one way or another. There are of course both good habits and bad habits.  So identifying whether the habit in question is a good one or a bad one is important. 

Pathwalking 48

Are you a lover or a fighter? As a Pathwalker, you will find that you need to be both. The pen may well be mightier than the sword, but sometimes the sharpness of the sword is what stands between you and your path. Let’s leave the metaphor and examine this notion more closely. Different jobs require different tools.  A pen will do you no good when you need a spoon, just as a rock is not very helpful when you

Pathwalking 47

Thank you. After “I am” these are probably the two most powerful words we can employ in our lives. And yet, we have a terrible habit of either under-using these words, or else using them without the corresponding feeling of gratitude. To say it is important.  But to feel it is even more important.  Gratitude is too powerful and too important to not be given the attention it deserves. I have talked about gratitude before, here.  And it never ceases

Pathwalking 46

While Pathwalking is a philosophy, Pathwalking is also the ultimate form of self help.  Why?  Because you and you alone are in control. I know many people who turn to various self-help gurus to find ways to do what I’ve been talking about here every week for the past eleven and a half months.  I myself have explored many of these, reading Steven Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Bob Proctor’s You Were Born Rich, Spencer Johnson’s Who Moved

A post-election open letter to the US Congress

Dear United States Congresspeople, Now that the election is over, how about actually doing the will of the people, instead of the will of the business entities that may be funding your future campaigns? No filibusters.  No obstructions.  No policy statements from one party specifically to disrupt the other.  How about doing some lawmaking?  And not just deregulating the businesses promising to fund your next election – actual, factual lawmaking. Try some of these on for size: Taxation.  How about

Pathwalking 45

What if I choose the wrong path?  How will I know if this is the right choice or the wrong choice?  What if I should have zigged instead of zagged? This is an issue that I have seen people constantly grappling with.  The idea of “what if”? “What if” is the questioning of choice.  What would have happened if I had turned left instead of right?  What if that day I had driven instead of walked?  What if while I

Pathwalking 44

The everyday things we readily take for granted can deeply impact Pathwalking.  Beyond diversions, beyond distractions, the unexpected and unplanned can cause Pathwalking to seem unimportant.  And yet…it still is. This is the first week, for example, that I am not posting this on Wednesday.  After forty-three weeks of timely posts, this one has been delayed.  I am displeased about this fact – but there was no alterative.  The unexpected interfered. I live on the East Coast of the United

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“The journey of a thousand miles begins beneath one’s feet.”  – Lao Tzu (Alternate translation of the original Chinese found here.) Pathwalking is not a single journey, and the distance cannot be easily measured.  But it begins with movement.  Until you move from one place to the next, you cannot begin the journey at all. The more recognized variation of the quote replaces “beneath one’s feet” with “a single step.”  But I prefer the deeper meaning of this alternate translation.

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