WakeUpLive.com presents: “A Passion for Wisdom”

“Passion” and “emotion” are often confused. Unbridled emotion can easily take us off the track; passion for truth, life, and those we love will keep us focussed on that which is most important. Consider three acts of passion which kept emotion in check.

Can You Reap before You Sow?

Parenthood is a great laboratory for personal growth—for both parents and children. My son, Jack, is 10 this year and we have an arrangement that if he hasn't done his homework before Sunday, he can't play computer games or watch TV (which he doesn't get to do during the school week) until he finishes it. As usual, on the way home from his soccer match on Sunday morning, he tried to negotiate a way to play a game first and do his homework later. This made me think of something and I was surprised at how well it worked.

Jim Rohn often uses biblical references for much of his wisdom and the one that I used with Jack was about sowing and reaping. I said, "Pretend you're a farmer who plants crops and your job is to tend the crop, pull out weeds, water it, fertilize it, and then when it's ready, you get to harvest the crop."

Jack said, "Yep, OK."

I asked, "Well, what do you think would happen if you didn't plant the crop or look after it? Do you think you'd get to harvest?"

Jack said, "No."

Then I asked, "What if you yelled at the ground and said 'Give me a crop!' Do you think that would help?"

Jack laughed and agreed that it wouldn't. I told him that this was like his wanting to play the game before he did his homework. Instead, he needs to plant a crop first, that is, do his homework and then he can have his harvest (reward), because that's the way things work best. Jack really got the concept and did his homework cheerfully and got his "harvest" in due course.

Why am I telling you this? It seems to me that this concept is something that we all tend to forget at times—the people who reap great rewards in life are those who have planted lots of crops (taken action), tended those crops, and had the patience to wait until the harvest.

Are You Thinking Accurately?

Last night, just a minute or so after I got home with Lesley and the kids after being out for the evening, we heard a loud bang. I was coming out of the garage and I thought something had fallen in there. Since it was late, I decided to wait until morning to check it out. The next morning I'd forgotten about it. When I went out the front door I saw a red house brick in front of the door. The left-hand glass side panel had red dust and a slight scratch! Someone had obviously thrown this brick from just a few feet away. Luckily; it had bounced off. That explained the noise we heard the night before. I called and made a police report.

The incident made me think about the motive of the person throwing the brick and my own reaction to it. You see, I could have allowed myself all sorts of unhelpful thoughts, such as, "Someone's out to get me," or "the neighbourhood we live in is dangerous." I could have started living in fear. Someone once said, "A life full of fear is a life half lived." I chose to conclude that it was a random act of violence that would probably never happen again. “Thinking accurately” means putting things into proper perspective and not jumping to conclusions. It can be make life a lot less stressful.

When Does Peppermint Tea = Ginger Tea?

A couple of weeks ago, I was having lunch with my wife, Lesley, in a cafe in the Swan Valley here in Perth. There were a number of teas available by the pot; we decided to order "Refreshing Ginger." A few minutes later our tea arrived and we poured ourselves a cup each. After it had cooled a bit, I took a sip and realized straight away that it was peppermint, not ginger. I called a waitress over and asked for the ginger tea instead.

What happened next has an interesting lesson about "reality." A couple of minutes later, the waitress came over with the young lady from the kitchen who had prepared the tea. She had in her hands a tea canister with "Ginger Tea" written on it. She went on to explain that she had made the tea with the correct leaves. I asked her to open the lid and immediately Lesley and I smelled peppermint. I told her that it smelled like peppermint, but she pointed again to the canister (a generic type refilled over and over again) with the “Ginger Tea” label. Because of the label, she was convinced that it was ginger—regardless of smell or taste! We realized that we weren’t going to get ginger tea that day, so we had a laugh and told her we’d have the ginger tea that smells and tastes like peppermint.

This incident is a great illustration of preconceived ideas. I suppose that everyone has them at times. We often don't see things as they are, but as WE are, according to the labels we've put on them—our map of reality. Fortunately, meditation can help us bring our map of reality and reality itself closer together over time. We start seeing things as they actually are. Perception and reality—it’s important to be able to distinguish the two!

*** This article was republished with permission from the best-selling Wake Up...Live the Life You Love book series. To hear more information on this book and the book series, go to http://wakeupteleclass.com/.