Sunday Scribblings #104 - Shame

I could talk about the concept of shame for hours.
But I feel like I've already said what I need to say, so I'll keep it short.

Shame is almost instinctual.

For instance, when recently traveling in Hungary, I explained to my Hungarian friend's husband, Gabor, that we Canadians continually apologize. Even when a situation is not our fault, we babble on and offer "sorry". God knows why, but we do. Pretty pathetic really.

So my way of connecting with Gabor and his minimal command of English (and my paltry command of Hungarian) was to jokingly say "sorry, sorry" each time we interacted. He thought that was funny, and so did I.

And yet I've grown to learn there's really no room for shame in our existence.

We are what we are and who we are and we have been given our lot to move us along the path towards achieving englightenment. Simple. That's it.

I remember my Reiki master in Riskhikesh, India telling us that asking the universe for our needs and desires is our birthright. So we shouldn't feel shame in asking for what we desire.

One of my classmates (let's call him Bob, cuz I forget his real name) in my Reiki training was balding. Bob was cool. He was a nurse from America who was disillusioned with his work in allopathic health care. He knew there must be something more to healing. High five to Bob.

Our Reiki master (man, what was her name!??! dang....) had us doing an exercise where we were to do Reiki on our intentions or dreams. See, the thing about  Reiki  is that channeling it (it or Reiki being 'universal life force energy') into things we see and intend helps bring about additional power to that thing or intention.

I guess it's kind of like taking vitamins during the wintertime to help boost our immune systems and guard against colds and flus.

So in any case, 'Bob' wanted to to create an intention about having a full head of hair, but said he felt guilty about that.

"But it's your birthright to have what you want" said our German Reiki Master (whatever her name was).

That stuck with me.

No shame for what we want, desire or are.
That would be against our birthright.

Photo credit

Does this picture not depict the stupidity of shame?

Sunday Scribblings #103 - Junk

I have this interesting relationship with the word "junk".

I can hear myself saying it with emphasis:  "JJJUNK".

This way of saying it involves using seriously pursed lips for the /j/ sound, a clipped /k/ and an overall kind of harsh-slash-angry pronunciation of the whole word.

Is it a suprise that my twin sister Kim says this word in the very same way? And that now my husband Paul and my nephew Andrew follow suit? Imitation is a form of flattery, or so they say....

When Paul and I moved from Jedburgh Rd. to Cambridge Ave, I remember him wanting to sell stuff we'd been storing in our basement left by Vivian (the previous owner).  They were things we thought we might use some day, but had never got around to doing so in the 5 years we'd lived there.

So obviously this stuff wasn't much use to us (i.e., it was JUNK), and I seriously questioned whether it would be of any use or interest to anyone else.  Nonetheless.  the debate was about the effort involved in selling it vs. the ease of walking it down the driveway. Posting it on Craigslist, getting a fair price and arranging delivery was far too much to think about in my mind. Walking a few steps to the curb was much more reasonable and efficient for me.

Paul argued that the stuff was "antique".  I  maintained it was "junk".

In the end, it ended up on the curb. My fastidiousness and purging attitude won out over Paul's laziness. Bonus for me!