The rules of life: there are no fixed rules. We all make up our own. We start with personal rules – these we develop as guidelines for what we like and what we don’t when we are quite little people. Crossing the line – emotionally and physically – is not appreciated, clearly, from a very young age. What makes us set down our first boundaries? I think it is instinct. Children are intuitive creatures. They feel us, our vibes. And they mirror our behaviours. It’s hardly surprising that there is a delinquent overdose in the UK – too many kids have been brought up watching their parents lack focus and ambition.
Children should have tolerance. Even young children. If a child is missing tolerance in its repertoire of behaviours then it is disadvantaged. Tolerance is learned. Tolerance is a word every person understands by virtue of its effect. To be tolerated – particularly when you are being frustrating or damnably changeable – is a gift. Tolerance is not accepting the unacceptable. It is not mindlessly putting up with somebody or something that offends you, or breaks your personal rules. It is about realising that you are in a bigger picture than the one in which you are affected. Tolerance is about standing away from yourself; your troubles, your desires, your judgement. It is about following your heart to a place of feeling rather than taking your head to a place of reason. You cannot reason with intolerance. It is easy to find reason for tolerance when you consider that we are all learning in this life. Even God is learning something new each day, about how humans have evolved. That first-world man has freedom of choice does amaze me some days. That he refuses to appreciate it and fully make use of its facility infuriates me. I do not understand a man with a lethargy for choosing the path of his future. How can you leave your life to run its own course when you have no idea where your future is? That is like driving a car with your eyes closed.
Should you find yourself swamped by official rules – rules that you recognise as being imposed upon you by a needlessly anal bureaucracy (society can make you feel that way on occasion) then you must allow yourself to break a few of those rules. Try not to break the law, that is different. It brings with it due consequence. Consider that if you make the rules that govern your days, you are entitled to break them. Break with your own rules, your old traditions. Open your future out in your mind. Your possibility is limitless. Really limitless. You have to see beyond your limitations because you have imposed them upon yourself. Trust that you can do what your mind dreams of if you allow yourself to step outside of your own box. Stepping out of your box means pushing parameters, letting go of what you know in favour of the unknown. The unknown is a place worth visiting. It is found on the other side of your strict personal regime.
C.J. Birch
C.J. Birch 