Speaker 1 (00:09):
This recording is an offering of Networks For Training and Development's Online University.

Gerry Arango (00:24):
Well, hi and welcome to the monthly healing circle call here at Networks for Training and Development. This is probably as you know a first Monday of the month get-together with a few others or many others listening, or maybe a time away if you're listening to this as a recording, maybe on a walk or something, that's just hopefully a little restorative. And just a way of saying, you know what? We're all out here and we're not alone.

Gerry Arango (00:59):
My name is Gerry, Gerry Arango, and I'm coming to you from my son's bedroom in Wallingford, Pennsylvania. Happy New Year. I didn't realize that until I thought about it yesterday that I am the first podcast for the year 2022 if you are live. It's January 3rd so we have 362 new opportunities and new chances and new opportunities to approach our desires. And that's what I'm thinking about as I share something with you tonight is desire.

Gerry Arango (01:39):
So you may, depending on how old you are, recognize the name, the Desiderata, and it is a prose poem that was really quite popular in the '70s when I was a kid. You kind of have the poster on your wall. But I grew up and had the poster on my bulletin board in my office, and I have it framed in my house and so I still have it. It's a 1927 prose poem by a gentleman named Max Ehrmann and Desiderata is a translation of "things desired."

Gerry Arango (02:21):
It's funny with this poem that I remember looking and seeing a couple of different versions of how old it was and, in truth, it's 1927, which is almost a hundred years old so wow. There's another one out there that says it was found in 16-something in St. Paul's Church and it turns out that it was scribbled on top of the poem. Still 1927 poem that somebody scribbled 1627 on top and so plenty old already at 1927 and one of my personal favorites.

Gerry Arango (02:58):
What I'd like to do with this little poem is to first read it to you straight and maybe you'll say to yourself, "Oh, I do know that one," or maybe not, and I hope you'll enjoy it just to listen.

Gerry Arango (03:14):
Then the second go around, what I'd like to do is to try to read it in first person. I'm going to try to remember to say I, and especially address some of the spots in this poem that speak to me. Different parts of the poem have spoken to me at different parts of my life. So as I read it tonight, it's different to what I would've maybe spoken about 10 years ago. It's still things that I desire.

Gerry Arango (03:40):
Then I want to leave a little space for you and give you some time to think about your desire, things you want, especially in this new year. So without further ado, the Desiderata.

Gerry Arango (04:01): [Desiderata - Max Ehrman - https://www.desiderata.com/desiderata.html]
Go placidly amid the noise and haste and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons.

Gerry Arango (04:15):
Speak your truth quietly and clearly, and listen to others, even to the dull and ignorant. They, too, have their story.

Gerry Arango (04:25):
Avoid loud and aggressive persons. They are vexations to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.

Gerry Arango (04:41):
Enjoy your achievements as well, as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble. It is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

Gerry Arango (04:53):
Exercise caution in your business affairs for the world is full of trickery, but let this not blind you to what virtue there is. Many persons strive for high ideals and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Gerry Arango (05:10):
Be yourself, especially do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love, for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment, it is as perennial as the grass.

Gerry Arango (05:23):
Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth.

Gerry Arango (05:30):
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune, but do not distress yourself with dark imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Gerry Arango (05:41):
Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars. You have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Gerry Arango (06:02):
Therefore, be at peace with God, whatever you conceive God to be. And whatever your labors and aspirations in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul. With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful, strive to be happy.

Gerry Arango (06:29):
So this second read, I'm going to put a couple of my own thoughts in and give you a little space to maybe listen for or feel what resonates with you. And if nothing does, maybe just enjoy the silence and see if something pops up, I don't know, but here we go again. This time I'm going to talk to myself.

Gerry Arango (06:52):
Gerry, go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. I've heard of something called the monkey mind, which to me is my mind. I love the idea of approaching silence and I struggle with it mightily. But what I learned a little bit about the monkey mind, one of the things that I've realize is that we've all got it to an extent. And that when those thoughts kind of pop up in the middle of my big effort at silence, just kind of grab them and toss them behind you and keep going. So maybe silence isn't always dead silence, just moments of silence and I'll take it.

Gerry Arango (07:41):
As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons. That's an interesting one because I focused on the term "without surrender." And I think the best good terms with people are those where you really feel like you aren't surrendering, that you're sort of just being who you are and that you're not compromising. Another goal.

Gerry Arango (08:06):
Speak your truth quietly and clearly, and listen to others, even to the dull and ignorant. They, too, have their story. One of the things I heard there, two things really, and then I'll give you some time to think is listen because listening is a gift and listening is an art. I know when I feel listened to, I feel like somebody just put a big bow on the best gift of all. And when I listen and I truly try to enter into what someone else was going through, it can be really exhausting because there you are giving it all, but wow, what a great gift that all is.

Gerry Arango (08:59):
Then listening even to the dull and ignorant, they, too, have their story, I don't like to call anybody dull or ignorant. But I will say, in all honesty, that sometimes the people in this rather divided world with whom I cannot see eye to eye and don't know how to see eye to eye, maybe part of the reason that I don't or can't because I've never asked them. I've never said, "So why do you feel that way about this?" And maybe there's somewhere that we meet in the middle. I wonder. Take a moment. Does any of this resonate with you?

Gerry Arango (09:59):
Let's keep going. Avoid loud and aggressive persons. They are vexations to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter, for always there will be greater or lesser persons than yourself. Uh-oh, I'm going to rephrase that. If I compare myself with others, I may become vain or bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than myself.

Gerry Arango (10:28):
I know there was a period in my life where we were really struggling in my house. I would get on Facebook and I would see what a great time everybody else was having and I would do something I heard succinctly called compare and despair. And compare and despair isn't fair because when I post things, I don't post every single day of my life. I post the fun stuff. Do not believe that I have fun literally everyday like Facebook makes me look. So maybe that's something I should lose, that idea of comparing because compare leads to despair for me.

Gerry Arango (11:10):
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, Gerry, however humble. It is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time. I'm going to go back to enjoy my achievements, enjoy my achievements as well as my plans.

Gerry Arango (11:29):
There's something funny about the big thing we plan for. Every big thing I've ever planned for, maybe this sounds familiar to you as well, the big thing I actually planned for last maybe two or three hours, a wedding, my daughter is in the Navy, a big deployment party, a christening, all kinds of things that last a couple of hours. But the planning that goes into them can be weeks, months of prep, weeks and months of just picking and choosing and deciding and doing all kinds of things that really are what I remember more than the events themselves. Because when I'm in the event, there I am in the event, making sure everything's going right and I tend to not remember it after the fact. But what I do remember is everything I did to make it happen.

Gerry Arango (12:31):
That's a cool model and I think that that says to me that the joy might really be in the journey. That it's not about the catch. It's about the chase. And sometimes taking a moment to say, "Wow, I'm creating something wonderful here," really can make the whole thing just that much more beautiful because I can enjoy my achievement, but I can remember my plans. How about you?

Gerry Arango (13:19):
Exercise caution in your business affairs, Gerry, for the world is full of trickery, but let this not blind me to what virtue there is. Many persons strive for high ideals and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Gerry Arango (13:37):
Be myself. Especially do not feign affection. For in the face of all aridity and disenchantment do not be, sorry. Do not be cynical about love for in the face of aridity and disenchantment, it is as perennial as the grass.

Gerry Arango (13:58):
This next line especially resonates with me right now. Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth. I remember looking at that line when I was young, back in the '70s when I would look at this poster on my wall and think, "What would it be like to surrender the things of youth, of my youth?" But now, passed a major milestone last year, and I thought about the surrendering of the things of youth and how to gracefully surrender them, and I think that that's going to make it a little easier. I definitely surrendered high heels years ago, and last year I surrendered brown hair and it's all gray. How about you?

Gerry Arango (15:14):
I'll nurture strength of spirit to shield me in sudden misfortune, but I won't distress myself with dark imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness and we can insert COVID all through that, can't we? Sudden misfortune and strength of spirit, not to distress ourselves with dark imaginings. What do we do in a world where we're not sure what to imagine? We have to figure out what we're going to imagine. And so many fears are born of fatigue, and they've already named it COVID fatigue and loneliness. So I wish us all that strength of spirit.

Gerry Arango (16:03):
Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with myself. I'm a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars. I have a right to be here. Let's take a moment. How about you?

Gerry Arango (16:35):
And whether or not it is clear to me, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. Therefore, be at peace with God, whatever I conceive Him to be and whatever my labors and aspirations in the noisy confusion of life, I keep peace in my soul. Well, I think with this one, I realize this is the way the universe is unfolding. You get to ask. You get to ask. But I think one of the things is what do I do with that? If the universe is unfolding as it should what I have to realize and I still struggle with is that the universe unfolding as I want it isn't necessarily best for everyone and so it's bigger than me. It's kind of a grand scheme. So I try to be at peace with God as I conceive God to be, and I try and I will try in this new year to keep peace in my soul.

Gerry Arango (17:50):
Finally, with all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy. Yeah. You know what, it is still a beautiful world and yeah, sham, yep, drudgery, yep, broken dreams. It is still a beautiful world because there's so much more to it than that. And we have to reach out to each other and check in and make sure that we all share the little moments of beauty. And if we can share it, bring it, whatever, so much better.

Gerry Arango (18:22):
Be cheerful, strive to be happy, happy, happy. Not so much for me. Good thing I always thought it was, which was a big smile all the time. Everything's great. How can we ever aspire to that? That's not what happy is. What does happy mean? I think that this year, what I was thinking about is ways to figure out that baseline of happy. I have two things I'm going to do this year. I'm thinking about, one, to say to myself, "Hey, find the good" and, two, "I have something to offer." And when I feel like, well, no one wants to know or how could I possibly be right, I'm going to try and stay true so that's me.

Gerry Arango (19:17):
I'm going to give you a little time. How about you?

Gerry Arango (19:32):
Well, that's my little share for this evening. I hope you enjoyed it. Again, it's one of my personal favorites. And as we close tonight, I wish you peace. I wish you a happy and healthy new year and I thank you for stopping by for this Networks Healing Circle Call.

Gerry Arango (19:56):
Remember that we offer these calls on the first Monday of every month at 8:00 Eastern time. If you aren't listening live, or you want to listen to this again, come back and it'll be on Networks site and it is in podcast. We've got about four years of lovely podcast, lovely thoughts, lovely shares from all sorts of people, from all walks of life who are friends of Networks like me. Thank you.

Speaker 1 (20:36):
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