2 Things You Can’t Thrive Without

“My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.” ` Maya Angelou

Who can’t agree with the above statement from the late and great, Ms Angelou? We all want the full juicy experience that the cornucopia of life can lay tumbling at our feet.

ROFLOL, Drive and Grace

To have strong, hot passion — in whatever we endeavor to do — is the delectability of living this life. To be able to laugh at our fragile mortality and existential situations is pure magic and can be one of the most important exercises in our daily routine. And to be bestowed with style is simply flamboyantly fabulous, darling! They all make life more livable (and in the case of style — our wardrobes heavier and our wallets lighter).

But the two things I think are paramount to living the life extraordinaire are to have a limitless supply of love and compassion.

“Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive.” ` Dalai Lama

I think the Dalai Lama hit the nail on the head with that one. These two ‘traits’ are our innate tools to a trade-up in human existence.

Most of us want peace on earth and the sense that we are evolving and not devolving. Although on the surface it might look like society is on an insidious degeneration, I feel that where love and compassion exist — even if it is in small packages (after all, we’re going to do this one fabulous soul at a time — one courageous community at a time) — there is hope for reprieve.

Connect, Love and Fertilize — Happy Days!

Love holds our intrinsic ability to connect with and hold space for each other (fleshy or furry) and the planet (and the universe!) — it’s the glue that holds existence together IMHO (soon I’ll be writing these articles in pure acronym — God forbid!).

Compassion fertilizes the soil for love to grow strong (*violin softly playing in the background*). If we can’t empathize with each other we are doomed. Truth is not singular and we need to open up to the possibility that not everyone thinks the way we do…duh! Retaliation is never going to lead us to peace.

The antithesis would be to hold fear for others and even possibly for our planet (that can appear so volatile at any given moment). Fear often leads us to judgment — the need to make someone right and someone wrong — which inevitably closes down the channel to empathy and understanding.

Hippy Nonsense!

I know I’m going to get some people shaking their heads and saying that love and compassion ‘aint going to cut it — we need justice in the world!

I’m not arguing the fact that justice may indeed need to be withheld for a community to run smoothly, I’m just pointing out that you can still have love and compassion for a person(s) who has done ‘wrong’. Instead of condemning someone for life, try to see if you can rather figure out the ‘why’ (compassion) and then treat the root of the problem (with love).

Okay, said my piece now. Ciao until next week.

Cherie Roe Dirksen is a self-empowerment author and multi-media artist from South Africa. To date, she has published 3 self-help and motivational books and brings out weekly inspirational blogs at her site www.cherieroedirksen.com.

Her ambition is to help you to connect with your innate gift of creativity and living the life you came here to experience by taking responsibility for your actions and becoming the co-creator of your reality.

You can also follow Cherie on Facebook (The Art of Empowerment).

Cherie posts a new article on CLN every Thursday. To view her articles, click HERE.