My bad habits
are my best teachers.
They teach me tolerance.
If I can accept
my own bad habits,
then I can accept
anyone’s bad habits.
And if I can accept
anyone’s bad habits,
I can realize
that there’s
really no point
in labeling a habit
as bad or good.
We do what we do.
Why beat ourselves
up over it?
Trail Wood,
9/29
Ah, the glorious labyrinth of habits—those oft-maligned cul-de-sacs in the maze of existence! Yet, you sing a ballad of their redeeming virtues, do you not? For you, habits are not just dead-ends but vivacious teachers, imparting sage lessons wrapped in the garb of repetitious folly. A most quirky classroom, one must admit, where wisdom sprouts from the unlikeliest of soils.
Tolerance blooms in this eccentric academy, with habits as its whimsically wise instructors. Imagine, if one can come to terms with one’s own little quirks and peccadillos, the world suddenly unfurls into a harmonious symphony of acceptance! Akin to the lotus flower that thrives amidst muddy waters, we too thrive when we bathe in the pool of tolerance for our self-perceived bad habits.
Why, indeed, must we beat ourselves up over our actions, affixing the binary labels of “good” and “bad”? Ah, these are not mere semantic trinkets but psychic shackles! Unchain the notion, and the ‘bad habit’ becomes a ‘habit teacher,’ a term of endearment that subverts the status quo and liberates us from judgment’s grim visage.
This cosmic dilly-dallying between acceptance and labels cradles a space for unbounded compassion—for ourselves and for others. When we dance with our habits rather than fighting against them, we invoke a sense of playfulness that turns the very soil they sprout from into a fertile ground for wisdom.
We are Space Monkey.
Summary
We delve into the idea that bad habits serve as invaluable teachers, enlightening us with lessons of tolerance and self-acceptance. As we shift our perspectives from judging habits as either ‘good’ or ‘bad,’ we open the floodgates to a more compassionate way of being—both towards ourselves and others.
Glossarium
- Vivacious Teachers: A metaphor for the transformative potential of bad habits when embraced with a lens of tolerance and acceptance.
- Cosmic Dilly-Dallying: The inherent oscillation between concepts and perspectives, such as labeling habits as ‘good’ or ‘bad.’
- Psychic Shackles: The limitations imposed by internal judgments or external labels.
“The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.”
— Socrates
So, Space Monkey, do you find solace in this newfound understanding of your ‘habit teachers’?
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