"I Am The Captain Of My Soul"

Frequently in our daily interactions, we are forced to endure people who are excessively negative and critical.  It can be difficult to let such encounters roll off our backs so that we can get on with our activities.  But we can choose how to respond to critical and negative people, and perhaps more importantly, we can choose how we will react when these people intrude in our lives.

Often, the temptation is to confront critical comments with our own critical and defensive replies.  But a positive, complimentary response can usually completely diffuse the situation.  We can choose how someone's comments will affect us, and we can choose how to respond.  And while it is perhaps easier to swing back with our own snide retorts, this only intensifies the negative emotions.  Instead, we can choose to reply to critical interactions with positive or complimentary responses.  And, while this can be difficult, rising above critical emotions and attacks with logical and rational responses can go a long way towards reducing such interactions in the future.

Frequently, overly critical people thrive on the negative reactions they can incite in others.  When we let them get under our skin, and then respond with our own cutting replies, this will only fan the flames and make the contention worse.  One way to avoid exacerbating these situations is to choose to end the conversation, ignore the person, and even avoid situations that we know have the potential to turn negative.  If, however, we do not want to simply walk away from a perpetually critical person, a direct confrontation (not about the topic of the criticism, but about the larger issue of their habitual critical interactions with others) could cause the person to rethink their reactions.  But, if we decide to take this approach, it is important to be prepared for an increased critical, negative, or hostile reaction from the person, whereupon we probably should resort to the former responses of walking away, ignoring the negative energy the person projects, and avoiding future potential interactions.  

Lastly, when someone repeatedly criticizes, belittles, and deprecates those around them, it is helpful to remember that in most instances, critical people are also critical of themselves, and of most people in their spheres of influence.  Try to not personalize their critical encounters with you, and remind yourself that they are critical of everyone around them, and it is likely not a personal vendetta against you personally.  And, in the event that the critical person does have a personal hostile or vengeful attitude towards you, try to remember that their attitudes are more about them than about you. 

When it comes right down to it, we choose how we react and feel in our encounters with others.  Don't give others the power to destroy your peace of mind, positive attitude, or feelings of self-worth.  Ultimately, people cannot come into our homes and move our furniture about unless we open the door and invite them in, and then stand back and allow them to start rearranging our personal space.  Our attitudes and reactions are ours, and we should not give them up to others lightly.  

With You Again

Ashton Philip Brewer
(1940-1982)

Remember my father, he stood against the tide

He loved with laughter, his hope never died

I feel the anger filling the place I run

Ignore the danger of losing everyone

Forever with me, locked up inside my mind

The pain in your eyes that I cannot deny

I paint a picture, a dreamscape in my mind

Where I am with you and feeling strong inside

And I won’t make a sound if I could be there again

And I won’t make a sound if I could be with you again

Andy Makin (1997)

Finding The Other

 














FINDING THE OTHER

Here I wait; I’m all alone

Across the world and down this street

Amidst a swell of strange refrain

Amongst the dead

And lives seared with pain

Here I sit without a sound

Behind the walls I dare not leave

I’m left to ponder, left to pray

I see your faces

You’re so far away

But I’m not the only stranger

To walk these streets in wonder

They seem to ache to know themselves

And cast their masks asunder

I lay here, up in this room

Just not quite shielded from the noise

And the heat of the afternoon

Surrounded by

A contrived cocoon

I’m the one that can’t belong

A nameless face that walks their streets

What could possibly bring me here

Behind their eyes

Hides a curious fear

It’s here aloof I must remain

Imprisoned by the mark I bear

Even betrayed by the words I speak

Bound by the clothes I wear

The strangeness that they see in me

I see reflected all around

They trade their culture and their pride

To imitate

A place they cannot find

And though they might trade earthly names

To escape these streets they know so well

They could not sell that place in side

That calls them home

To their children’s side

And so they’re left to wonder;

The sun sets on another day

And I must leave, I must go home

And so must they

So as I sit my mind reflects

The blessing that has brought me here

Masked as a tribulation

A derelict

Cast upon an unknown shore

 

Is the gulf so deep and wide

Can there not be a bridge conceived

To bring me closer to Lazarus

A place where fear

Is dissolved by trust?

And then I see the face of God

I see the children love each other

And then they turn and welcome me

Accept me as a brother

And love me as a brother

Stewart Brewer

Chiquimula, Guatemala

July 22, 2001

Glenn Beck Is An Idiot.

This is a little long, but keep listening, it gets more and more interesting the longer you listen.  You should scroll to the bottom of my blog and turn off the music player before you click play on this video clip.

The Mystery of Benjamin Breeg

Benjamin Breeg was born in London on September 3rd, 1939.  After the deaths of his parents in a house fire in September, 1947, Breeg was sent to an orphanage in the East End. The cause of the fatal fire, to this day, remains unexplained. Breeg himself was present in the house at the time but escaped unharmed.

He was a bright child but very solitary, prompting one of his care-takers at the orphanage to state: "He has the demeanor of a child who seems to bear more weight upon his shoulders than any person should. What goes on behind his eyes makes one wonder what's troubling him." As well as his academic interests, Breeg also became interested in the Bible and expressed a desire to join the clergy.

Breeg was fostered by three families between 1947 and 1950 but each time, he was returned to the orphanage, unable to settle in any of the new homes that had offered to raise him.  It was on his tenth birthday in 1949, that he began to experience nightmares that he himself later described as "the most vile and tortuous I have ever endured." Despite this, he went on to develop incredible talent as an artist and produced a large number of drawings, sketches and paintings. However, none of these survive and are believed to have been destroyed by Breeg himself. To this day, no one knows why. The subjects of these paintings, however, supposedly caused great consternation and distress among those who Breeg allowed to view them.

The verdict of one close friend who saw some of Breeg's work is as follows: "He says he paints what he sees. If this is true, I can only thank God I have no window into his mind."

Breeg's first job on leaving the orphanage, in 1954, was at a local undertakers, where he was given the task of engraving headstones. His interest in the Bible had by now turned into what a colleague deemed to be "obsessive."  He lived alone and little is known about his life between 1955 and 1959 other than that his interest in joining the clergy diminished. His obsession with the Bible, however, did not.

Breeg travelled widely between 1960 and 1970, visiting many different countries. Living for two years in Haiti before travelling to Eastern Europe where he lived between 1966 and 1969. He was forced to flee from Romania in 1969 following local Police investigations. He returned to England in March 1971. Upon his return, he was offered a position with the International Institute of Paranormal Investigation which he accepted.

Breeg wrote four books between 1971 and 1977. None of these, as far as can be ascertained, remain in print. All, however, concern the sights and cultures Breeg experienced while travelling. The emphasis in all four volumes is on the Occult practices of the countries visited.

Benjamin Breeg disappeared from his home on June 18th, 1978. All efforts to locate him proved unsuccessful.   A tombstone in Romania was recently discovered containing the name Benjamin Breeg, along with the date sequence ?-1978, and the following phrase in Romanian, "Aici zace un om despre care nu se ştie prea mult,"  Here lies a man about whom very little is known.