Nicked from loveandlight

[serene]

1. List the top five things that inflame your passions or emotions.

• my lovers
  
• anger at injustice
  
• the munchkins
  
• reading stuff that teaches me something new
  
• intelligent song lyrics
  

2. Describe your future vision in one sentence.

I want to live a compassionate, ethical life, and make it easier for those around me to do the same.

3. Describe five things in which you experience joy.

Describe? Hm. Well, I'll list some, anyway.

• having my hair brushed
  
• learning a new concept
  
• making life easier/better for someone else
  
• giving oral sex
  
• being alone in a quiet room with a good book
  

4. List your five top life-goals.

I only have three:

• to move toward a more ethical and compassionate life
  
• to make a living as a writer
  
• to sing in public again
  

5. List your five top commitments (with time-spans if applicable).

Oh, dear. Top as in "most time-consuming", or as in "most important"? I guess I'll go with most time-consuming, because it's easier to quantify.

• work, 45-50 hours a week, including the commute (plus, I email with my sweeties all day long, but I haven't counted that below)
  
• sleep, 40-60 hours a week, depending
  
• cute-poet-chick, 30 or so hours a week (from the time she gets home until we go to sleep, except on my date nights)
  
• someotherguy and sogwife, Wednesday evenings and alternate Saturdays-all-day
  
• the munchkins, 4-8 hours a week
  
• stonebender, 3-4 hour phone date once a week, and a 3-4-day weekend every two months
  

6. Describe the fear that stops you from getting what you want.

I fear that I will be (or appear to be) less of a good person than I want to be. I'm also afraid of making a decision and finding out I got something that I didn't end up wanting.

7. List five things that occur to you like they are missing in your life.

• More time with the people I love
  
• Courage and integrity in the amounts I want to have
  

8. List five people who are positive role models for you.

I don't wanna.

9. List five people who are negative role models for you.

Don't wanna do that, either.

10. List something you don't allow yourself to have because you believe it will just become a bitter or sad memory.

Nothing. I don't think like that.

11. List something you allow yourself to have even though you believe it will become a bitter or sad memory.

See #10.

12. Describe your moral, ethical or philosophical stance in one sentence.

Hmm. I guess it's something like "Do as you please, but in so doing, don't harm the person or property of others, and keep your agreements."

13. What is the one thing that you would never, ever say in public?

Hah! I'm not sure there is such a thing. There might be, but I can't imagine what it would possibly be.

14. What is the one thing that you would never, ever say to your lover?

Again, I can't imagine it -- I've never stopped loving someone once I've loved them, though, so I don't think I would ever say "I don't love you any more."

15. What is the one thing you always say to everyone all the time?

I don't say any one thing to everyone, but I say "I love you" to a lot of people on a very frequent basis.

Comments

[firecat]

OK,I'm asking you this not to goad you but because it's also applicable to me, and I want to know if you have a better answer than I do:

4. List your five top life-goals.
I only have three:
to move toward a more ethical and compassionate life
to make a living as a writer
to sing in public again

5. List your five top commitments (with time-spans if applicable).

[commitments snipped]

It looks to me like your time commitments aren't being spent in pursuit of your life goals. How do you reconcile that? How do you plan to meet your life goals when you spend most of your time some other way?

[serenejournal.livejournal.com]

I don't feel goaded. I've been giving this a lot of thought the last couple of days. I guess my first goal is met every day when I live the best life I can. The other two are things I would really like to make a higher priority (or accept that they're not things I care enough about to make time for). What about you? How do you reconcile the time/desire thing? It's a pretty persistent bugaboo for me.

[firecat]

For the projects that are hard and long-term, I'm working on trying to purposely set aside time and make mini-goals each week. That is having some success, but not as much as I'd like, yet.

I am also trying, with limited success, to consider spending time with myself, pursuing my personal goals, as equal-to-higher in importance than spending time with other people. Otherwise I tend to, um, take myself for granted, and wind up not pursuing projects that require solitude, because I figure "I can always do that later, when this person isn't around," but I end up not doing it because by the time "later" rolls around, I'm tired and want to do a certain amount of time-wasting.

[serenejournal.livejournal.com]

*nod* That's almost exactly the way I approach alone-time. It's the fall-back when others aren't around or available, and that doesn't make much sense, considering how important it is to my wellbeing. When I was single, for instance, I got a lot more writing done, because it was either write or get out of the house, which was too much effort. Nowadays, I can just zone out on the computer with net.friends or spend time with loved ones, all of which I like doing, but it doesn't feed that solitude need I have. (Solitude is necessary for two of the three goals I listed, and desirable for the third, if I'm doing it right.)

[firecat]

In order to give myself time and permission to create, I've needed to change my emphasis on the importance of the "helping others directly" aspect of compassion and ethical living.

[serenejournal.livejournal.com]

[note: LOVE the userpic. Love love love.]

I haven't really given that much thought. I like the stuff you're doing in my brain this week, my friend.

[roosterbear.livejournal.com]

Thanks for giving me something to think about.

I might copy borrow from you and make a similar entry later.

[lcohen]

when you say "to sing in public again"--may i ask what you envision and what might keep you from doing so?

as in, would joining a chorus fulfill that and you just don't have the time, or.....?

[serenejournal.livejournal.com]

I really do want to join the women's chorus here. I sat in for a couple meetings two years ago -- it's quite a time and money commitment, so I have to clear the decks first.