Each person is a mystery

I can't presume to know how to help anyone.

What I have learned as a therapist, something I didn't know before I began this work, is that each person is a mystery never to be fully understood.

The so-called problems people bring to therapy aren't problems at all; they're mysteries, and the response to a mystery should be entirely different from that to a problem. A mystery is something not to be solved, but only to be honoured, appreciated, contemplated, and revered. I can best do my job by offering a chair, week after week, and a space free of ambitious intentions and heroics. I have to wash my hands, the way a priest ritually washes his or her hands before the holiest part of the rite, as an image representing purity of intention. I have to free myself of any salvational fantasies-any need on my part to save this person from fate or destiny, from the pain that is part of the initiatory progress of life, and from whatever demons he or she may describe in the hours of conversation.

- Thomas Moore, The Re-Enchantment of Everyday Life

We are an art form

But the idea of ‘The Environment’ brings other thoughts.

After all we are an art form. I do not mean that we produce consciously now,

but I mean we are an art form, whether we think of it or not,

and whether we do anything about it or not.

We are an environment, each one of us. We are an environment

for the other people with whom we live, the people with whom

we work, the people with whom we communicate. And in this

sense we do not choose an art form and create something in that

form; we are an art form.

Just as 'The Environment' created by modern artists in the museums involves people when they simply

walk in, so we are an environment which is affecting people around us.

People who come across us or who walk into our presence, become involved.

There are various art forms we may or may not have talent for,

may or may not have time for,

and we may or may not be able to express ourselves in,

but we ought to consider this fact- that whether we choose to be an environment or not, we are.

We produce an environment other people have to live in.

We should be conscious of the fact that this environment which we produce by our very "being" can affect the people who live with us or work with us.

The effect on them is something they cannot avoid. We should have thoughtfulness concerning our responsibility in this area.

We should be artists in doing something about the environment we are creating -artists before God, of course.

We have His help because we are artists in this sense, in the hands of the Holy Spirit; for if we are Christians, He is dwelling in us,

and we can ask for His power to help us.

P. 208-209

I think it’s good to ponder and ask yourself “what kind of art am I portraying through my being? And after you have spent some time alone Pondering, go to the next level, take a big risk, and ask those who you live with, work with, communicate with, “How do you experience me?” “If I were a piece of art, what would you feel?” “How am I affecting you?”

And, really listen and consider the answers.

(I found this quote in my commonplace book where I copy down words and thoughts I want to remember and ponder.)