lost something and found something else more important
In life, there are only two things that make an apology meaningless: when your patience has stopped and when your integrity has been compromised. When this situation happens, when both have been compromised, what do you do? I’ll tell you what I do sometimes: I hide. Not physically, but mentally. I escape in my mind and pretend it didn’t happen or I find an outrageous reason for why it happened. It’s wrong. I HAVE to live up to what I’ve done. Our integrity, along with our patience, is what makes us who we are in this world. I am not divine and neither is anyone else in this world. I really do reap what I sow, so when I mess up with this, how do I go about changing my habits? Although I’ve heard it a million times before, I think I finally figured it out. First, I have to forgive myself. Second I have to replace my negative thoughts towards the matter with positive ones. I have heard this many times before but I have never listened to it. But it IS true. I could say that “I’m only human” but I feel like that is a cop out; another way to excuse my actions.
This past month we have been working on this 30 Days of YES program. It is supposed to inspire us to be better people. While I don’t think that I’ve improved these past few weeks, I have noticed that my daily actions are like a road map to my destination of becoming a better person. The thing is: the destination is never truly achieved. You have to work on it every day. Hard work, but I’d rather be the person that I want to be than be a person that I don’t want to be. So, in the end, I am only human and it happens. When it does, I can work on it so it doesn’t happen in the future. Being successful today is all that matters because if you’re successful today, you’re more confident to make yourself successful tomorrow.
by Alex Tienda 3rd Dan at the Asian Arts Center