Be, Do, Have

This thought has been tormenting me to become a blog post.  I'm not sure why I'm supposed to write this, only that it needs to be done for the benefit of someone out there.  So here it is.

That explanatory preface completed, I'll proceed with the actual topic of this article. 

It is not unusual for us to read how we can have want we want, do what we love and become a better person on our journey of self-improvement.  Yet look at the three verbs. 

"Have" entails buying, spending money, online, in a mall, however.  While some of our time could be involved, we could hire a personal assistant to purchase it for us, thus freeing our time and using just our funds.  After all, we can make more money, but not necessarily more time.  (Although there's that Old Testament Bible verse where a man prayed for fifteen more years and got it--so maybe we can create more time.  But I digress.)  So the "having" probably takes the least involvement by us personally.

Moving on to "do," this verb describes action that probably cannot be delegated.  Granted, "I'll do it" seems like literally that person volunteering would actually carry it out, but could still be passed on to another.  Unless it was a dentist appointment or the like.  For our purposes, when we set out to "do," it enlists us, our time, our expenditure of effort.  Whether an hour of exercise, giving a weekend to Habitat for Humanity, a Saturday for a garage sale, a Friday night of babysitting, we give ourselves for a certain part of a day or week.

Finally, "be."  This is the most demanding verb of the three.  To be a better person, a better parent, a better spouse, a better author or whatever, takes over the rest of our life once we decide this.  Talk about time-consuming.  There it is.  For it warrants our complete attention not for a short duration, like when "doing," but long-term.

Maybe we need to learn first about Have, then Do, then Be.  Maybe its a maturity-based learning curve where we graduate from one to the next.  Maybe it is simply about focus.  First money, then action, then essence.  Or dollars, time, discipline.  Could be lessons on patience mixed with engaging the law of giving and receiving, starting with an immediate exchange, progressing to the short-term exchange and finally experiencing a long-term exchange. Maybe it is all of the above and yet still more.

I don't know.  I don't have all the answers.  But maybe these questions will get us to thinking and will lead to the greater knowledge out there, hooking us into the Universal Mind and giving us insight.

Maybe I was just supposed to write this entry for myself.  If so, the reasoning is still not clear.  But it will come.  And to the person(s) in need of it.  Because that's the way the world works.  Like William James said: "Let everything you do be done as if it makes a difference."