Action and Awe

I am going to finish 60 days to Enlightenment today, since I think the last entry is a disappointment and I do not want it to be part of my anniversary post tomorrow.

The next topic is Action/Doing with a quote from Mother Teresa,

"There should be less talk; a preaching point is not a meeting point. What do you do then? Take a broom and clean someone's house. That says enough."

I wondering if take a broom and clean your own house might be better, and by that I mean take responsibility for your own actions. The topic makes me think more of actions are louder than words, but I agree with the idea of that there should be less talk. If you cannot communicate your point in a few minutes, either you are not communicating or the other person isn't listening and any more talking is a waste of time. I remember trying to communicate how I felt to my ex-husband and it would turn into talking that went round and round over the same thing and I thought it was me that was not communicating when really he was not listening and I would finally cry to make it stop. I have not had to do that in a really long time, thank goodness.

The verses below reportedly were written on the wall of Mother Teresa's home for children in Calcutta, India, and are widely attributed to her,

People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies. Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you. Be honest and sincere anyway.
What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight. Create anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous. Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, will often be forgotten. Do good anyway.
Give the best you have, and it will never be enough. Give your best anyway.
In the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.

The last topic is Awe, with a poem by the author. The author! It is a terrible poem and I am not going to post it. I tried to find a different poem for the topic and it is a difficult topic for words, so I will give the author a break, but to end with your own poem and put it in the same category with the greats and use it for the biggest topic just does not seem very enlightened to me.

Thanks again to Colleen for giving me the book. I think she gave it to me in May before I left So Cal and 60 days only took me more than a year. I am not a poetry fan, but I learned about many authors and poets I did not know and enjoyed much of their work, although my favorite is still Gibran's The Prophet. Interesting that The Prophet is set up as a story with a series of poems on topics. Most of all, I enjoyed pondering different spiritual topics and writing about them on this blog when I did not have much else to write. One of my friends challenged herself to write a prayer every morning and that sounds like another path to enlightenment, or inner peace, wait, inner peace and enlightenment are the same thing.

Having finished the book, am I enlightened now? I think enlightenment takes more than 60 days, even when you spread the 60 days over more than a year.