Lessons from Geese

Learn from Allah's creation.

FACT 1:
As each goose flaps its wings it creates an "uplift" for the birds that follow. By flying in a "V" formation, the whole flock adds 71% greater flying range than if each bird flew alone.
LESSON:
People who share a common direction and sense of community can get where they are going quicker and easier because they are traveling on the thrust of one another.

FACT 2:
When a goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag and resistance of flying alone. It quickly moves back into formation to take advantage of the lifting power of the bird immediately in front of it.
LESSON:
If we have as much sense as a goose we stay in formation with those headed where we want to go. We are willing to accept their help and give our help to others.

FACT 3:
When the lead goose tires, it rotates back into formation and another goose flies to the point position.
LESSON:
It pays to take turns doing the hard tasks and sharing leadership. As with geese, people are interdependent on each other's skills, capabilities and unique arrangements of gifts, talents or resources.

FACT 4:
The geese flying in formation honk to encourage those up front to keep up their speed.
LESSON:
We need to make sure our honking is encouraging. In groups where there is encouragement, the production is much greater. The power of encouragement (to stand by one's heart or core values and encourage the heart and core of others) is the quality of honking we seek.

FACT 5:
When a goose gets sick, wounded or shot down, two geese drop out of formation and follow it to help and protect it. They stay with it until it dies or is able to fly again. Then, they launch out with another formation or catch up with the flock.
LESSON:
If we have as much sense as geese, we will stand by each other in difficult times as well as when we are strong.

From the Diary of a Survivor of Schizophrenia

I was told I had a disease that was like diabetes, and if I continued to take neuroleptic medications for the rest of my life and avoided stress, I might be able to cope. I remember that as these words were spoken to me by my psychologist it felt as if my whole teenage world - which I aspired to dreams of being a valued person in valued roles, of playing lacrosee for the US Women's Team or maybe joining the Peace Corp - began to crumble and shatter. It felt as if these parts of my identity were being stripped from me. I was beginning to undergo that radically dehumanizing and devaluing transformation from a person to being an illness: from being a Pat Deegan to being "a schizophrenic."

As I look back on those days I am struck by how all alone I was. This profound sense of being all alone only served to compund my sense of feeling worthless and of having no value. Granted, people gave me medications, people monitored my blood pressure, people did art therapy, psychotherapy, occupational therapy, and recreational therapy with me. But in a very fundamental way I experienced myself being all alone, adrift on nameless sea without compass or bearing. And that deep sense of lonliness came from the fact that although many people were talking to me about my symptoms, no one was talking to me about how I was doing. No one came to me and said, "Hey, I know you're going through hell righht now. I kno you feel totally lost in some nightmare. I know you can't see a way out right now. But I've been where you are today. I got labeled with schizophrenia and a whole bunch of other things too. And I'm here to tell you that there is a way out and that your life doesn't have to be about being in mental institution. I'm around if you want to talk."

No one ever came to me and said those words. All I knew were the stereotypes I had seen on television or in the movies. To me, mental illness meant Dr. Jekyll and Mr.Hyde, psychopathic serial killers, loony bins, morons, schizos, fruitcakes, nuts, striaght jackets, and raving lunatics. They were all I knew about mental illnesses, as well as the possibility of recovering, of healing, and of building a new life for myself. It would have been good to have role models - people I could look up to who had experienced what I was going through - people who had found a good job, or who were in love, or who had an apartment or a house on their own, or who were making valuable contribution to society, but as I said, this did not happen for me in those early years.

Mind over Matter

One thing I’ve learnt, which I’ve always known from before but I guess knowing is not everything. Denial never works. U cannot deny something that exists. Its like death, you can run but you cant hide. Becoming an ostrich in times of danger is so easy and desirable. Being a lion about it is so so so hard.
Man is lazy by nature, right? That’s what Freud said. And looking at facts and facing your fears is a hard thing. We’re lazy by nature, our first tendency is to go run and hide. But that doesn’t really solve any problems. And I guess mankind has learnt that over the years too. That’s why when something bothers us we’re told to face our problems, look at fear in the eye, take the bull by the horns, etc. Be brave. And that is where our mind comes in. That path might be rougher, tougher and longer, but in the end its the sweetest and the most satisfying.
It is after the heart has made a decision, that the head decides to work for it or go along with it. Head without heart is just a machine. I always used to be on the opposite end of this debate. Not anymore.

Control is an Illusion

Life gives us these little reality checks here and there. Just so that we can un-check 'control' from our lives. Control is an illusion. We think things are going our way, everything's running smoothly, but it is so because it is destined to be so... its no grand work of ours. Those are the times when we actually forget that we are not the ones in control of our lives - bigger forces are. Invisible forces much stronger than us. We dont feel them when things go as planned, or as desired. But once they take a turn; when things start going hay-wire, when we forget that planning is not everything - thats when reality knocks hard on our door and we then have no ammunitions, no protection, no choice but to surrender..... humbly.
Sometimes, we need that.
When you look back in life as a whole... you can almost feel the forces operating in the past. Chances are, they are operating right now as you read. They are in motion even when you are not. THEY run your lives, you dont.
May the one God of all the forces have mercy on all of us.

In The Last Samurai, Katsumoto asks Algren if he believes that a man can change his destiny. Algren replies, “I think a man does what he can, until his destiny is revealed.”