Personal Growth Planet Blog

I’m 1 week ahead as my visiting father departs my home and my mother-in-law arrives for a visit. I bid farewell and welcome this flurry of guests.

Now, I’m 24 years in the past, with friends at a high school show choir performance. We are singing, dancing and having a great time together.

Next, I am a year from now at the beach with my husband and sons. The ocean swells and we play together in the surf and the sand.

All of that time travel happened for me in the span of about 15 minutes (more or less).

Guilt can crop up in our lives at just about every turn.

You might feel guilty because you’ve strayed from your diet.
You may feel guilty because you forgot the birthday of a dear friend.
You could feel guilty because you spoke harshly to your spouse.
You may feel guilty because you aren’t as kind, generous, reliable, eco-friendly, productive, religious or spiritual…. as you think you should be.

It seems that we humans are hard-wired with a propensity to feel guilty.

As a child, I dreamed of being a Country & Western singer (I don’t even know if such a musical category still exists today). I would sing as I did my chores, sing as I walked to school and sing every other moment I could.  I even had a stage name picked out for myself– it was Dusty Rose, I think.

I’m not sure if my elementary school-aged self really believed that one day I would be a professional singer, but it was certainly an enchanting dream. As I got older, my aspirations for what I wanted to be changed.

“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new”- Albert Einstein

No matter how many wise and witty quotes I read about the value– even the necessity– of making mistakes in life, it’s still uncomfortable and sometimes painful for me when they happen.

There have got to be very few people in this world who actually enjoy making mistakes.

Even the most laid-back, easy-going souls among us probably cringe when they say the “wrong” thing, drop a plate full of food on someone’s white carpeting, forget an important deadline or some other blunder among the millions of possible blunders a person could make.

It’s like a feel-good chain letter in real life…that doesn’t involve some threat of bad luck if you don’t pass it on.

I’m talking about “Pay It Forward Day” which has been declared to be on Thursday, April 29th. Even if you’re reading this blog post after the 29th, you can still join in on the magic of it.

About 10 years ago, a powerful film called “Pay It Forward” was released in the U.S. The story centers on a 12 year old boy who, acting from a belief in the inherent goodness in all people, is motivated to do something kind for someone else.

“Freedom ain’t a state like Maine or Virginia
Freedom ain’t across some county line
Freedom is a flame that burns within ya
Freedom’s in the state of mind”– Peter Udell, “Shenandoah”

There are days when I long for freedom.

I might feel chained to my computer on a warm Spring day. Or, maybe I’m craving travel to faraway places with no worries about the finances to pay for it, who will care for the pets, our home and if the rest of my family would enjoy the places I’d like to visit.

By Amy Phillips-Gary

What do you tend to do when faced with something unexpected and seemingly threatening in your life?

• A neighbor is chewing you out about your dog’s barking or the volume of your stereo.

• A piece of plywood flies off a truck and into your lane of traffic as you drive down the highway.

• Your partner fiercely disagrees with a major decision that you have made and is making his or her point known.

In situations like these, do you tend react to what’s going on without much consciousness about it? If so, you are not alone.