GBE - Week 23 - Ownership

When I saw this week's topic, I had two different thoughts about the prompt which I thought were separate, and as it turned out were very similar.

I have been participating in Oprah's Lifeclass on OWN.  (Talk about branding yourself!)  The first class talked about ego, and how it got in the way of our true selves. It resonated with me because I am a firm believer that you must own yourself.  You must take ownership of your thoughts, your actions, your choices.  You must live your life learning who you are, and what lessons are brought to you.  If you find something repeating in your life, you can be sure it will continue to repeat until you learn the lesson.  At the end of the day, we only truly have ourselves.  No matter our relationships, our families, our friends and supporters.  We only have ourselves. 

I also truly believe that we cannot own another living being.  Not our husbands, wives, partners, girlfriends, boyfriends, friends, children.   I have a horse and 3 cats that share my life, I don't own them.  Even my 8-year-old, telling me about a dog he had seen said to me, "... and he was walking down the street with his person and he was SOOO cute!"  He understands that person was not that animal's owner, but the person who shares its life. 

Also, I have this thing about spiders.... don't like them.  But I think they are pretty amazing little things... creating webs that are intricate and, in their own way, beautiful.  I try to avoid them for the most part, but when they come in my house, I escort them outside, remembering that my ego says this is 'my' house and 'it' doesn't belong there.  Letting go of that ego, I realize that it has its own place in the world, as much right to be here as I do, and just because I am larger doesn't give me the right to kill it. 

This over 50 thing is really working out for me in an internal way.  Doing a lot of work on being who I am, and I'm owning that!

Comments

  1. ChristinaOctober 28, 2011 at 9:26 PM

    Good point that if we find something repeating itself in our lives, it'll continue to occur until we've learned the lesson we're supposed to learn. We could save ourselves a lot of trouble if we remembered this.

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  2. JoOctober 28, 2011 at 11:20 PM

    Not owning pets nor any other person is surely true, but I do think you own their love and they own yours. Different though because there is always the choice to pull away and move on. Really like this piece. :)

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  3. CherieOctober 29, 2011 at 10:05 AM

    @Christina - One of the lessons I've learned. Thanks for reading and commenting.

    @Jo - Thanks. I agree with that perspective and that you have their love. I very easily could have gone off on a rant about people using their 'ownership' of animals and treating them like accessories to their wardrobe but I restrained myself. Barely.. hahahaha. Not owning them, doesn't mean you don't bear responsibility for them and love your animals. I think our animals feel those same feelings for us. :D Thanks for your insight.

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  4. Catch My WordsOctober 29, 2011 at 11:42 AM

    I agree, you can't own people. As for the spiders, you're a better person than me. It takes everything I have to kill it. I couldn't carry it outside because what if it crawled on me? Eek. I'm terrified.

    Joyce
    http://joycelansky.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  5. CherieOctober 29, 2011 at 3:59 PM

    Joyce,

    I get that too. Depending on the size of the spider, I put a plastic cup over it and then cardboard underneath. Can't touch me, can't get out. Once, I came home from work, pouring rain, put my hand in my mailbox to get the mail out and came out with a HUGE spider on my hand. Honestly, I think I lost my mind a little and I'm not sure what happened but I know I wound up scraping it off with the porch railing. Creeps me out to this day. Ugh!

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  6. AnonymousOctober 30, 2011 at 1:00 AM

    EXCELLENT post! I absolutely agree about lessons repeating until we get them. And the spiders--I don't kill them, either. When I see one, I coax it onto a paper plate (the official spider plate!), cover it with a cup and release it outside. I think that they shouldn't have to die just because they took a wrong turn. If I took a wrong turn, I'd hope that someone would head me back in the right direction. :O)

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  7. Brenda StevensOctober 30, 2011 at 8:25 PM

    yup!!!!!! :0)

    What kind of horse? Do you still ride? I miss ours....that season is over for now..and that's ok...and so is 50 something hehe

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  8. CherieOctober 30, 2011 at 10:08 PM

    @Beth - I love the way you said that. I hope that someone would right me when I make a wrong turn too!

    @Brenda - I have a 15-year-old Arab X, and yes I ride him 2 to 3 times a week. Got him in March, and first we put weight on him and are still conditioning him, but he's muscling up nicely. His name is Bahja - it means beauty, brilliance, lightness, and joy. :D

    ReplyDelete

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