Sunday, May 16, 2010

Participating in Life



A friend and I were talking this weekend and she was saying that she admired the way I was "participating" in life and she felt like she was a "spectator." Her perception, which I've heard from others, is that I do "cool stuff" and go to "interesting lectures" and have "neat events" at my home. She mentioned, as others have, that I have "a gift" for gathering people together.

She has asked if I would give some presentations about how to be a participant in life instead of letting life just happen. While I love to do speeches, I'm unclear what information I need to share in this case.

All of these things are natural to me. Because new thoughts inspire me I seek them out, and make things like lectures a priority. When I have an idea for an event I just pick a date and ask some friends to join me.

Because it all seems very straightforward to me, I cannot identify what would be beneficial to others. I asked her, "what do I know that others don't know?" She's thinking that over. Obviously, if I'm going to give a presentation on the topic I need to know what to cover. If you have any thoughts on the subject I'd be delighted to hear them.

2 comments:

sigerson said...

It's not a question of skills, Patsy. It's a question of attitude.

Your attitude is to go out, do things and enjoy life. Even if events don't go exactly the way you expected and provide a few bumps along the way, you find the humor and the silver lining in them. For you, life is a learning experience.

A lot of people don't view it that way. They find reasons, excuses, to avoid doing things they might want to do.

You have a wider "comfort zone" than most people. What you could do is inspire people to change their attitudes.

Patsy Terrell said...

I appreciate your input. I've been gathering thoughts on this from various people who know me. Because most of the people I know are very engaged in life it's hard for me to pinpoint what would be helpful to those who want to be more engaged. I appreciate your thoughts.