Don't follow another's dogma; be your own song

What is life after a heart attack or after a diagnosis of incurable cancer? Jonathan Eastman talks about this in a short column,"Make sure your song doesn’t go unsung" for the St. Helena Star. Eastman writes, "Having a heart attack has a way of making you re-examine who you want to be. My life’s purpose, the gift that I bring to the world, is not yours. There is no one right way to be, to live. Discerning what is my way, what is your way, is a spiritual thing. It is a way of tapping into and experiencing the sacred. It means attending to the small things that keep your soul engaged, according to Thomas Moore in Care of the Soul. It means paying attention, focusing, being intentional, being present."

Eastman follows with, "The Hindu poet Tagore wrote, 'I have spent my days stringing and restringing my instrument while the song I came to sing remains unsung.' In essence, living is about making sure your song doesn’t go unsung. And this is as true for families, and for communities, and for churches, as it is for individuals."

He also quotes Steve Jobs of Apple Computers who told a graduating class, "Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other people’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.They somehow already know what you want to become. Everything else is secondary."