The same (rebel) priest that recently held the Mary Magdalene retreat, has done many other amazing things in his career. He has done a lot in education, been a principal, started a school for kids with learning differences, on and on the impressive list goes.
Actually, he was once a principal in the Catholic school where I started teaching, several years before I got there. He created a set of five rules by which the school would operate. Kids. Teachers. Staff. Parents. Everyone. I learned them almost 25 years ago, but of course, fail to use them most days. I'm convinced they are the keys to happiness. I did blog about these on my old blog, but I realize that was many moons ago, so here they are in summary:
1) No Scarcity: "I agree to act on my belief that there is enough of what we all need if we cooperate."
2) Equal Rights: "I agree to respect your rights as a person, as equal to mine." Everyone has an equal responsibility to cooperate.
3) No Power Plays: "I agree not to use power plays to get what I want." Power plays - hitting, yelling withdrawing, slamming doors, threatening, staying angry, refusing to talk, refusing to cooperate, etc.
4) No Rescues: "I will not do for you anything that makes me angry."
5) No Secrets: "I will tell you what I am feeling, especially when I am feeling angry or afraid."
For whatever reason, the one that trips me up the most is No Scarcity. I do have a real fear that there is simply not enough. Not enough time. Not enough energy. Not enough of anything, really, simply put, everything is scarce. I know that's not true, but I believe it's true.
When I am all in a tizzy (too many times to count), if I slow myself down enough to get at what's under the tizzy, it's a belief in scarcity. I need to hurry because there isn't enough time. I need to do it because there aren't enough people to do it. I need to do it today because tomorrow there won't be enough time/energy/etc.
I am going "back in" with these rules, and while I don't pretend I'll ever master them, I'm going to spend some time with each one until I am at least thinking that way more often than not. Good thing there's no scarcity of time!
* Sanskrit for abundance
5 comments:
Lovely. I'm passing these tenets on to the head of Eve's school. Simple. Fair. Comprehensive.
Thanks.
Dear Carrie,
Those five standards for how we treat one another must have made such a difference in that school. And even if we can follow them only haphazardly and occasionally, they could bring peace to our world.
They seem very Buddhist to me and I think I could hold on to them better if I truly practiced living in the moment, being aware. When I do that, I realize that it is only this moment--and not ones I don't have--that bring me renewal. Thank you for your honesty in sharing your thoughts and your work with this.
This is good shit. I'm swipin' it.
(try not to swoon at my eloquence...)
:)
Love all of these. No scarcity. Only expansion. xo
I have issues with the scarcity thing too. This will definitely help with working on it!
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