” There is a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance;that imitation is suicide;” Ralph Waldo Emerson
These immortal words in Emerson’s essay on Self-Reliance are just as true today as they were 150 years ago when they were written.
Yet in our current culture we are encouraged to compare ourselves with air-brushed 30-year -old models and to value ourselves by our possessions. Television and print media show us perfect, happy people, perfectly dressed and coiffed, driving the newest cars. The message is clear that we too can be happy, good-looking and well-dressed if we …
Nothing could be further from the spiritual truth.
Since the spiritual truth is that we are creative beings, made in the image and nature of Creator, there is absolutely no good reason to imitate or to feel envious! As creative being, our lives are limited only by our imaginations. If we want a certain quality or outcome, we learn to accept it as ours in mind. We learn to treasure the gift of creativity within ourselves.
This is a lesson I have been learning for many years.
When I was a school-age child, I envied my best friend Lois, who always seemed to wear the latest styles in shoes. My parents took our family to a special shoe store, where our feet were carefully measured for the year’s sensible shoes. While my friend was wearing penny loafers, I was stuck with saddle shoes. I hated those shoes. they were so old-fashioned! I definitely envied my friend, whose parents let their children buy the shoes in fashion. There were many times that i would have gladly traded my strict stodgy parents for hers.
During my early-teen years, i was a typically rebellious kid, strong-willed. Some might say stubborn. However, the rebelliousness did not lead me to be an independent thinker. It led me to follow the trends of the day, and to imitate the current Hollywood stars.
Now I can see how blessed I was to have the parents I had, for encouraging me to think for myself and for loving me through all the changes and phases of my life. Ironically, now I think that those saddle shoes were kind of cute.
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| Saddle Shoes like the ones I had to wear |
Cute Penny Loafers
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| You Can’t See Them But I likely was Wearing Saddle Shoes |