The Story of Little Owl

...And then one day, when owl felt so small and worthless he had nothing left to lose, he decided to fight back, to draw a line in the sand, to say “I will take no more”. 

And the others were surprised at his anger and his refusal to continue to allow them to put him down.  These changes surprised them so much and they were disappointed that they could no longer control him with their taunts and they left him all alone as punishment for daring to stand up to them and their insults. 

And all alone owl then started to rebuild that which had been stolen from him.  Day by day he recovered his dignity and his self esteem.  Day by day he learnt to love and respect himself.  Day by day he learnt that what had been done to him by those bullies was wrong and wicked. 

And owl grew strong in the realization that he was worthy of love and respect and that those who could not see and accept that were the ones that really had the problem.  And owl went out into the world and found others who loved and respected him for who he was and not for what he could do for them.  

And owl was happy.

Renate Dundys Marrello 

photo credit - Healing childhood wounds

thank you Inner Child Healing for posting the picture that inspired my story.
Follow my Reflections on Facebook

My journal blog entries and pictures are copyright

I love when you share my page and spread the word. 
If you want to quote me please provide a link back to my page. 

Photoart may be ordered as signed art if you contact me.

Reflecting on Finding Peace after being Estranged

“Be selective in your battles, sometimes peace is better than being right”

peaceful reflections

My inner peace comes from accepting who I am.  I can let others work on their efforts to be right.

I have reached that place where I no longer feel the need to constantly battle with myself to be perfect. I accept that I am human and therefore make mistakes. 

I am sorry if my mistakes hurt anyone, but I can’t continue to live a life where I punish myself day in and day out for mistakes made unwittingly in the past. 

I am an estranged parent.  That in itself is continual punishment for my shortcomings. It is enough that my daughter feels the need to keep on punishing me. 

However, I am done punishing myself.  I am a good person.  I tried hard to do what was right and good.  The fact that I failed is not for lack of trying.  It may be for lack of the right information or insufficient knowledge but never for the lack of trying.  I can not be blamed for what I did not know!  I did the best with the information that I had.  I did everything with love and best intentions.  I can not be expected to have accomplished more.  I was not perfect, I was human.

If my daughter wishes to live the rest of her life blaming me for not being perfect that is her right.  She can try to live up to her own expectations of being perfect and suffer the consequences when the time comes and she too realizes that perfection is an illusion.  She has chosen the “need to be right” path.  I have chosen the path to my own inner peace.

I think in relationships with ourselves as well as with others, we all need to take a moment to reflect on the good things and the positive virtues.  We need to go beyond the arguments and the disagreements to the core value of imperfect people trying to be OK.  I'm not talking about criminal activity; I am addressing the simple human failings that go with living life.  If we ostracize everyone for every failing they have we will soon find ourselves perpetually alone for no one will ever be able to live up to our expectations of perfection.

I have learnt that the need to be right or perfect in ourselves destroys our ability to find peace within.  And our need to be right in our relationships distracts from peaceful solutions with others.

My need to be at peace with myself is greater than my need to be right and for the first time in my life I can start to appreciate who I am without the enormous burden of the inner critic constantly talking inside my head.  I bring this new awareness to the new relationships that I am building.   Being right is not as important as caring communication.  And dialogue to expand horizons is more important than having the same point of view.  I don’t need to be right, I need peace.

© Renate Dundys Marrello

Follow my Reflections on Facebook

My journal blog entries and pictures are copyright

I love when you share my page and spread the word. 
If you want to quote me please provide a link back to my page. 

Photoart may be ordered as signed art if you contact me.