DOGS Corner

William Shakespeare, in his play Hamlet, wrote, "To thine own self be true." I never really took the time to understand what he meant until very recently.

One of the few things I learned from my dad (however distant our relationship was) is contentment: finding happiness from within irrespective of external situations and more importantly, never expressing lack. 

It didn't matter what it was we asked; he'd never tell us he didn't have the money for it. Sure, he'd brood over it in the next few days, we'd walk around the house on tippy-toes so as not to set him off (the unspoken rule in our home then was you had to be on your best behavior when you needed Dad to foot a bill or two),but he'd find a way to make sure it became available, even if it took him a while to do so. "I don't have" never left his mouth. If he was under pressure of any sort, he never showed it.

Contentment is everything. This of course doesn't excuse a lack of drive or the willingness to improve one's circumstances. It is rather sad to put yourself under pressure to come off better than someone else or to show that things are moving well for you even when you know they are not. 

There are only three groups of people you owe any measure of self improvement to. Yourself, people who are/were responsible for getting you to where you are or you need to be and those who depend on you to get to where they should be. That's all that matters. This can only happen when you stay true to yourself. Pressure to impress others, straining to keep up a lifestyle that is barely affordable only leads to frustration.

Is effort being made? Great! Are you where you thought you'd be by now? Probably not. Are you going to give up? That thought should never cross your mind. We can trust God for more while thanking Him for what he's already done. A lifestyle of pressure, bothering about opinions and the desperation to look and act the part while nothing substantiates it, makes no sense.

 How can I properly take stock and evaluate my life when I'm living a fake life? Living a lie against myself and in this economy for that matter? Come on, there are less stressful ways to hate oneself.

If you have it, don't talk about it. If you don't have it, still don't talk about it. No one's validation is that important. Battles fought in secret, victories celebrated in silence are essential to results that astound and confound. Which would you rather have? Loud but shallow and empty or quiet, full of mystery and impact? The choice is all yours.