Personal Responsibility

What does this tenet/affirmation mean to you?

"We practice personal responsibility in our daily lives".

To me the duty of practicing personal responsibility has many facets. I have to do the things I say I am going to do, take care of my self in mind, body, and spirit, answer for the things that I have done, and push myself to be open and honest with everyone including myself. The idea of practice to me comes from the fact that it is often difficult to recognize personal responsibility. We stay in situations too long, obsess about things, overlook things that would benefit us, do things that are self defeating, do things without thinking about them. So we have to practice and practice and recognize what is our best action and reaction to the life that is happening right now. We can’t blame others for situations we put ourselves in. We can choose to change things. We can change tones, clarify, understand the bigger picture, we can remove ourselves, and move on. We have to be active in our daily lives, just going through the motions, isn’t always in our best interests.

I am a spiritual person, and everything I do involves my spiritual practice. It is difficult for me to feel like I am being spiritual in the work place, but doing my job to my best ability and with my being is spiritual. I have to work to support my family. I recognize that I may not be doing exactly what I want to be doing, but I have put myself in this situation and made commitments that have to be kept.

I have to be as healthy as I can to live as full a life as possible. I haven’t made all the best healthy choices in the world, I enjoyed smoking for many years, I do like sweet things, there are some wonderful drugs out there, I don’t like working out just to work out, but I have made those choices and have chosen to work through them.

Practicing personal responsibility in my daily life means that I don’t blame my actions on others, if I need more information, then I try and get it, if spirit is trying to speak, I listen or I suffer the consequences, I try and pay my debts, I stay involved with my community, life, work, family, and my self. When I feel that I fail, I evaluate and learn. I practice, I change, I evolve, I help, I work with others to keep on keeping on.

This statement is plural, we practice, our personal lives. We can learn from each other and help each other recognize our personal needs, and work through our problems. We are a Tribe of individuals, a family, not alone in all of this.

Awaken the eyes of the child,
See clear and know yourself,
Illusions, misinformation,
Unknown awareness,
Pull clear the vail,
Speak the words from your heart
Let love move through your being,
Grow, tell your tale and move on.
The adventure only begins right now,
And the now is quickly going by,
See through those eyes
Tell me what you see
Tell me what will be
Speak of those possibilities
Let your mind be free
Remember and know...