Faith, Social Collateral, & Believing Continued Friday 9/18/15

The season is changing! It's more apparent in the Home land with the colors in the trees and consistent cooler temperatures. In SoCal, I have to look at what the corporations are marketing to know the seasons are changing coming from Minnesota; the seasons all look the same to me..perpetual Summer, and early Fall/late Spring! LOL. So I look for the signs like the Thanksgiving designs on today's morning cup of Joe. It's an experience you have to have a few times to appreciate how much of your life or my life, as it is, was affected by the anticipation of having to hibernate when the cold comes and everything that follows. I remember the first time that I flew home to the Winter and was "too happy" according to my friends! They were right. I was happier. I had sun and not the constant overcast of Winter sucking the life out of me! Hahaha.

There are some positive things that do come out of the seasonal changes this side of the calendar like the "food holidays" we all remember our families, the bigger picture in life that we are apart of, and if we're not one of them, the less fortunate. This is the time when people take time to slow it down, spend a little more time with a loved one, and cherish how good we have it just to be apart of something with someone. True story. Or, like a good number of people, we want it to go by quickly, painlessly so we are past it..past the season of not being with people or someone and only observing others in it. As I look back it all now, I've spend an even share of holidays with loved ones and with strangers I'd met along the way that understood why I was there...alone. I often was contented that other people had what I was looking for, and in the moments I had mixed feelings (anger, jealousy, sorrow, etc.), I was reminded that I was that much closer to having move of it.

The only difference is that I was out trying to find it---happiness. I just wasn't there yet, and seeing others having it was really the Creator motivating me to keep moving forward for at least a couple of reasons: First, remembering I have a family that loves me and is always waiting for me to come home from where ever I am at in the world. For them, it's a matter of pride that one of their own left with little to nothing, had many obstacles to overcome, and achieved much with the odds stacked against me with nothing except some street wisdom and iron will determination to rise.

Secondly, that although my efforts and striving have often left me alone, my having taken some leaps of faith towards those various endeavors inspired others to "keep on, keeping on" if they were at a point of deciding to pursue of their dreams. I'm not yet sure how this holiday season will go, but I'm optimistic it will be as good as last if not better cause the ocean isn't that far away, the sun is shining, and I am being give exactly what I need when I let go of my control and have "faith" that things can and will happen--I just have to show up so they can! LOL.

So, now let's get back to it, the talk about faith, social collateral, and believing. I left off at the point were we discussed what the basic definition of faith, and I was leading up to how it develops over a person's life by practicing it. When we begin the learning process of ourselves, we are exploring the unknown. We are asking ourselves not only personality questions, likes/dislikes, but we are also learning what we are good at 'smarts-wise' but also in a practical kind of sense. "What am I good at and what do I like to do?" So, begins the experimental process of succeeding and failing until we get a feel for what and how we do things. This is the beginning of having some faith in yourself, and we grow out of the failures and successes alike.

The later leads to other areas of  our life like relationships, employment, family development and whatever other manner one is able to experience to further develop their sense of self. Some people travel, live in foreign countries, diversify their education, etc. etc, and at some point in time we get a feel for what we can do in most situations or may be able to do if we reach out a little bit in new ones! We do this all of  this in front of, with, and in relationship to other people...family, friends, and the people that become our significant others. This is the beginning our social collateral , and this is the presence, ambiance, sentiment, or picture we paint of ourselves, someone else or our interaction between us and someone else; it is the conscious and unconscious development of support or validation for the ourselves, another person, or our interaction with that other person to use any number of ways in the present time or in the future.

Now with a working definition of social collateral, it should be acknowledged that not everybody keeps on striving to reach for new things, and that's great! People may decide sooner than others what they want and are happy with where they are at in life. Others spend more time in life trying to answer the same questions with what makes sense to us because the world as we know it is rapidly changing and growing smaller with the advancement of technology, knowledge, and health. So many options are out there that we have easy access to, live longer to enjoy and to have to decide on one thing over another is not necessarily a requirement...we can get around to move of them in time...

TO BE CONTINUED...