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The Courage to Be Happy It's All in the Perception A Moment Like This The Train We Ride The Winter of Our Discontent Standing on the Edge As the Days Shorten A Moon That's the Colour of Bone An Attitude of Gratitude Belonging to Tomorrow, Missing Today
When the Weeds Take Over the Garden Practising Who You Are What We Get is What We Are Lighting A Candle The Blues of Spring The Path of Change Beating the Valentine's Day Blues A New Year, A New You 
Authentically You
Just a couple of weekends ago I found myself leafing through an old, dog-eared set of Encyclopaedia Britannica at a car boot sale. As a younger man, it was my dream to own a complete set of this remarkable compendium of human knowledge and erudition. In those far off salad days the Britannica seemed to me to be the embodiment of knowledge and information.
Time passed and, years later, I was fortunate enough to be able to buy my own set and it became a wonderful source of information, knowledge and joy.
Yet knowledge -- unlike understanding -- can so very quickly become out of date and before very long even the updating year books couldn't keep up with the changing world.
As I prized my mind out of the 20th and into the 21st Century, my encyclopaedia was replaced by the 'information highway' of the internet.
A simple entry into Google or any search engine would give me as much information on just about any subject as I could possibly want or even desire.
I still continue to read books, of course, but neither they nor the internet can think for me.
You see, long before I made that jump to the internet, I had learned something of real importance: Knowledge and information is valuable and worthwhile, but it is understanding that is truly rare and precious.
Today our world is awash with information. Yet information without understanding is the stuff of which monsters are made.
The fact is that information tells us something of what has happened and something of what is happening. Understanding allows us a clearer picture of what will come as a result of this.
Understanding gives us vision. It allows us to see possibilities that others cannot even glimpse.
The time and effort we put into understanding brings real value to our life and to our world.
And nowhere is this truer than in the journey of self understanding.
If you are stuck, lost, troubled or confused, ask yourself this: Is the information that you have built your views and opinions upon still true and relevant? Is it really current and correct?
Or is the opinion you have of yourself, of your abilities and of your expectations -- of your own future and your own world -- simply based on information 'programmed' into you at some time in your past?
Have the courage to break free of your past. Seek not simply to know, but also to understand.
Do this and you will begin to live a wisdom that no book or search engine can ever provide.
More than this, you will become authentically you.
I do not want the peace that passeth understanding.
I want the understanding which bringeth peace.
Helen Keller
I want the understanding which bringeth peace.
Helen Keller Copyright © 2009 Peter Field - All rights reserved.
Reproduction in any form is prohibited
Reproduction in any form is prohibited
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