This week we looked at the concept of a Theme for your life, as opposed to having goals. Here is a rough copy of my notes. 

Reading:

Mary Kay Ash (Mary Kay cosmetics): We must have a theme, a goal, a purpose in our lives. If you don’t know where you’re aiming, you don’t have a goal. My goal is to live my life in such a way that when I die, someone can say, “She cared.”

Daniel’s Reflections:

Theme: an idea that recurs in or pervades a work of art or literature.

What was the theme of  photographer Ansel Adams? Love of natural beauty pervades his work; it is easy to see that this is one of the main Themes of Adams’ art.

A goal is different than a theme.

Goal: the object of a person’s ambition or effort; an aim or desired result.

The destination of a journey : the aircraft bumped toward our goal some 400 miles to the west.

A goal is something that is worked on for a time and is either accomplished or not.

Themes are not goals, they are never accomplished or completed.

Theme: an idea that recurs in or pervades a work of art or literature.  — or a life.

What themes pervade your live?

What are you known for?

You are always known for something

My Themes:

In our building I am the man with the hat or the train man. I am also known as a happy person. I want to expand on that…

So far this year my Theme has been Joy, but it is time to consider again. What Theme do I want for myself and my life now? Honesty, careful listening, hope? I’ll be thinking these over this coming week, and I suggest you do also.

What are you known for?

What are you all about?

Your theme?

What pervades your life?

The documentary photographer Dorothea Lange said, Pick a theme and work it to exhaustion… the subject must be something you truly love or truly hate.

Choose something in you that you want to expand as your Theme. It must be something positive, because after all, you are divine.

As you consider and revise your Theme each day, remember to do so during quiet times. Remember to be silent.

William Penn: True silence is the rest of the mind, and is to the spirit what sleep is to the body, nourishment and refreshment.

I’ll be working on my theme this week. It could change tomorrow – or today. Honesty, careful listening, hope, ???

Close:

Fortune cookie: Put yourself proudly in front of the world and declare you place.

May you proudly declare you Theme!

Namaste!

(Take another look at the Spiritual Practice Card above.. Print it out and put it someplace where you will notice it everyday.)