Tag: Grandpa’s Way

Grandpa’s Way: Sanity

Gorilla Thinking – and eating

It’s so easy to get all worked up about trivialities when you’re tired. And yet that’s the very time we need to have peace in our lives. I know. I’ve been there.

But the majority of our stress often comes from things that we cannot change. So we need to learn about our own capabilities. Look at what we can change and get on and do it.

We also need to learn to identify those things that are important, especially if they impact on other people. Those are the things that we should concentrate on changing.

Yet even then, if we cannot change the circumstances, why get stressed over it? Leave it in the hands of those who have both the means and the authority to act. And that allows us to de-clutter our minds so that we can concentrate on the things that we can change.

I’m not suggesting that we adopt an uncaring attitude. I worry just as much as anyone else about those people who are affected by natural disasters. I have friends who have been affected by them. But I don’t have the circumstances to go and help them to rebuild. I have other friends who are far more capable at that than I am. Still, I can support them in other ways.

But being concerned does not mean being miserable. I know that my friends who have been affected by those disasters are equally concerned about me and my circumstances. And we all simply get on with life and deal with those things that we can change.

And that gives us a mind clear enough to get through each day.

Grandpa’s Way: All is Vanity

Semer Water

This is not a religious post, but King Solomon of ancient Israel wrote the words, “all is vanity”, after trying all sorts of different material pursuits and concluding that, in the end, none of it mattered when compared with his relationship with God. Other translations use the phrase, “all is futile.” I’m sure there are similar quotations in other literature.

Solomon used the word “vanity”, not in the sense of conceit, but in the sense of futility. He had engaged in all sorts of material pursuits that many people consider to be the main aims of life, only to find that it meant nothing when you are faced with great loss, whether that is of someone, or something else, or even of your own health or life. After all, as Solomon went on to say, we can’t take it with us when we die, even though the Pharaohs of ancient Egypt seemed to have tried.

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