How many times?

There was a time in history when the parents said, "Why do you listen to that music? You can't understand a word they are saying!" Music, since the 1950s and 1960s has changed enormously.
Often, not only are the lyrics hard to understand, the music is head (ache) banging. Yet, perhaps because I am of the generation which needed to listen closely to hear the words being sung, I can pretty much understand the artists of today's words. "How many times can I break til I shatter?"
This pretty much is the question of the day. Are we broken or are we shattered? Is there a difference between the two states of being? If an object of value to us breaks, if it seems reparable, we attempt to put it back together. If this same object shatters, not likely to be put into a recognizable state. If broken once, we have a chance to reinstate ourselves, if broken over and over again until shattered, what next? What can be found of value to repair? Often a magician, to demonstrate his power will tear up a piece of paper or brake a vase into small tattered pieces.
Place the pieces into a hat, they say magic words and remove the shattered pieces into whole.
There are times, when believing this power is within ourselves, we survive broken pieces of our lives and dreams. You hear over and over, "just pick up the pieces and start all over again".
Is this possible when our lives and dreams are shattered? There is a difference. Without the magician hat and words of sorcery, what does a mere mortal do in a state of shattered?
Can we love ourselves when we are shattered? Do we even recognize our soul when we are shattered? Who can we turn to? Most shattered objects are swept up and placed into the garbage.
Possibly the phrase for self protection should read: "HANDLE WITH CARE, BROKEN IN THE PAST; NEXT TIME, LIKELY TO SHATTER".
Believing it is possible to rise from shattered pieces..........may depend on the time and place we are in our lives. I am not a fan of what does not kill us, makes us stronger; one door shuts another opens; because, if we do not become stronger or find an open door, we live on a fragile lifeline and more likely to shatter than break. There is a chance we take each time we bring a beautiful object into our lives. We place it in/on a safe area. The unexpected turn we take near it may leave it standing, toss it to the ground to break, or crash into a shattered mess. I can only come to one suggestion. Try with all your might, faith, hope and fear, to pick up the shattered pieces and create a mosaic out of a chaotic shattered life.

To express or suppress, that is the question

It is often said, some cultures are suppressive and others expressive. Is this true? I know, in my experience, when emotion would erupt during a family gathering, we would yell, throw the plate down, then once the voices were done with the "love" they would refill the plates and continue with the meal. At another table, I discovered the least little bit of edge would cause silence and a discouragement of recognizing someone had a problem (for discussion? never). The people gathered would ignore the voice in the wilderness until it no longer felt worthy of existing. Can these two opposing voices learn to coexist in a room, much less the world? If the old pearl "opposite attract" makes any sense at all, then the suppressor and the expressor would be the best match ever. Life is never this simple. Most of my interaction with people of the opposite persuasion (suppressed - they were) always involved someone telling me the poor human assumed I was upset at them when I would only be using a clear, strong, controlled voice to tell them my feelings; I was rarely in "throw the plate down" mode at the time. I was only attempting to make a clear statement. The suppressive culture was so sensitive, so insecure, so out of touch on what it meant to express feelings and feeling expressed around them was like a direct hit. A blow to their delicate cultural condition. Culture is not only a form of ethnicity, each family has an intimate culture which dictates how feelings are viewed. In some families, there are no feelings allowed; and in other families, only feelings are placed out there, in every breath they take. I once said, when you decide you have found a person you might want to start your own family with, look at their culture. Stop and remember, they bring a father and mother from two different cultures, and you bring the same. Stopping there, six people exist in the neat little nest of what should seem like only two. In truth of those who exist in a frienemies, an enemies or a marriagies relationship are living a complex reality of suppression and expression. Bless us all for attempting to succeed, and please hide the dishes!

The right to choice

Contrary to my last writing, I have not been having a gin martini every night - or - even since that night. Yet, I could so choose to do so, if I wished to.
Choice is a complicated action in life. "The right to choice." What does it mean? If we can purely choose for ourselves, we obtain sovereignty. In today's world, this seems almost impossible.
Though you may choose to fix a cup of coffee, go out side on the porch and enjoy a cool morning peacefully, the neighbors have made the choice to hire people to come and tear up their yard on the very same morning. It is the positive and negative of life. A simple choice for self indulgence turns into a tug of rope. Does sovereignty only apply when it is a most important decision we are in the position of making? Believing we have a choice is a step towards sovereignty. Being and claiming to be the one who directs our own life is empowering and lonely at the same time. I can fully understand why the Queen of Hearts shouted "Off with their heads!" Our personal choices are in the direct path of another's personal choice. When you only wish to have it work out, become simple, not a war; what can a person do when faced with the choice of my way or no way? Most fables and parables reflect the life condition of choice. Does a peson choose to be the rabbit or the turtle? Does a person choose to be the responsible "son" or the prodigal son?
Are we both? Is it even possible to be both at the same time? Unfortunately, the norm is to combine the ying and the yang. Without making a clear choice we do not obtain a life of sovereignty. Sovereignty allows us self respect, self understanding and self dignity. Possibly even a bit of self indulgence. Take care of you; it will be the right choice.