Have I allowed culture and others to dictate my values?

Who are you, really? 

What values have you cast aside in conversations whenever someone expresses differently?

Or have you cast them aside so often, you forgot what those values were?

 

These are questions I asked me tonight, but I realize I have to start differently. I have to travel all the way back and ask, 'Do you have any values? What are they?'

How do you find out?

When you are just drifting through days, weeks, and months, years may pass you by. And you might sit down one day and realize you are struggling to answer a simple question about your values.

I'm the kind of person who keeps quiet instead of rocking the boat. If i have to be honest with even myself, I have to admit I truly am a wave tossed in the ocean, here today and gone tomorrow - someone drifting through life like a ghost. 

Through my little encounters with people, I realize I underestimate the strength and resilience of the human being. I can't seem to find the words to express how much I'm encouraged by simply listening to how they've overcome. 

No, I don't mean the stories about glorifying your flaws and weaknesses, pain and suffering. But stories about how they breakthrough their circumstances - stories about how they gain strength to grow and change themselves. and strength to accept circumstances they cannot change.

So let's start with one value tonight. 

That is to be the encouragement to people without compromising on the truth.

What is truth? That is a question for another night.