to judge is a mental game...

People are sensitive. As much as I don’t want to say it, I’m the same. I don’t know if its an age thing, a society thing, or a South African thing, but as far as I can tell, human beings are just sensitive! We have this sort of guilty conscience, and immediately assume that others think badly of us and are telling others about it.

The sad thing is that often- this is the case. Our society is OBSESSED with everyone else’s lives. We’re always so interested in who did what and who went where with who and blah blah blah... We have websites, magazines and even television channels solely devoted to digging up dirt in peoples’ lives.

On the other hand, you know that saying, ‘I feel judged’. I think sometimes that comes from us putting judgement on ourselves. We start to believe that people are judging us for our actions, when in reality, they aren’t - it’s all been in our heads!

How do we get out of this bottomless mud-filled chasm of gossip, judgment and mind-games that we find ourselves in? Are you ready for some ‘1-year-out-of-school-wisdom’??? ( ha- that was a joke)

kill it before it grows

I believe that is the solution- Don’t give these issues (and any issue for that matter) space to grow. its like a flame. without oxygen, it dies. You give a fire oxygen, it turns into a raging fire. Give it more oxygen and the next thing you know, half of Australia is in Ashes. (sorry Australians, it seemed appropriate, you always seem to get forest fires. and you play in the ashes)

You see, the small flame will always be there! We can try out best to ‘not judge’- but we’ll always mess up because our minds are sinful. We can also try to ‘not care what others think’ but again, our mind does it for us! So rather than pretend we’re perfect, lets just confront stuff head-on, straight to the person before a small birthday candle turns into a raging veldfire with the berg-winds of gossip. (you see that analogy? brilliant)

A friend of mine once said in a sermon that unforgiveness is one of satan’s greatest weapons. - If we don’t sort out our issues with people early, that hurt grows on us and never stops (even if we’re in denial about it's affect on us). We end up with lost relationships, and insane hurt, and later on have to pick up the pieces.

Just kill it before it grows!

I leave you with a quote... ‘Unforgiveness is like drinking poison, and hoping the other guy dies’

'two oh double one ... that was a fine year'

Sometimes, when I step back and pretend I am not human, I think - ‘those humans are pretty strange!’... (I do this with a lot of things, its really a fun exercise)
Let me give you an example...

So some genius people back in the day took a look at the stars, the sun and the moon, and some how created this incredibly complex theory of measuring time. They discovered and decided to use a 365 day year, with a leap year every 4 years. That's 365.25 days per year. But, three of every four century-years is not a leap year. By doing that we are subtracting off 3 days every 400 years, or .0075 days every year. That gives us a year of 365.2425 days. Ridiculous right? yes! I agree

So the rest of us not so smart people have turned this scientific GENIUS into an emotional and pyschological idea. We have turned the new year into a day where we hope everything will change, or everything will be better. We tell ourselves we will be better people, and make ‘new years resolution’ like - go to gym, eat less junk, make more friends, take risks or (insert your New Years Resolution here).....

One of my favourite bands once wrote: ‘So this is the new year and I don’t feel any different’. I think that’s how I often feel come the 1st of January. Because really, the difference between the 31st of December and the 1st of Jan is no different to any other day...

However, this year, I have decided to join my fellow humans, and over dramatize and emotionalize the setting and the rising of the sun. Why? Because 2010 was an AMAZING year- and... its over. Its a new decade! It’s time to move on with anticipation about 2011 which for me, is a year to get excited about. So much change can, and will happen in my life this year, and there is so much opportunity for growth.

So maybe we're already a week into 2011, but lets make our resolution to be open to change and growth in 2011. That way, we can still get fat and not feel bad about it! Agreed?