Integrity

I got this as an email today.

I think integrity is an important issue. Anyone have any thoughts?

INTEGRITY by Zig Ziglar
====================================
Major surgery requires not only a skilled surgeon, but also a number of skilled assistants to make certain that everything happen as it should. They function as a team. No one person, regardless of how brilliant he or she is, could pull off
a major operation alone.

A new head nurse was starting her first assignment in a major medical center. She was in charge of all the nurses on the operating room team. She had full responsibility for performing all the duties nurses perform. When the surgery was complete, the surgeon aid, "Okay, it's time to close the incision. I need the sutures."

The new head nurse responded, "Doctor, you used twelve sponges; we've only removed eleven." The surgeon assured her that all of the sponges had been removed and he was ready to suture. She replied, "Doctor, you used twelve sponges; only eleven have been removed."

With a bit of irritation in his voice, the doctor said, "I will accept full responsibility." The nurse's temper flew and she apparently stomped her foot and said, "Doctor, think of the patient!"

When she said that, the doctor smiled, lifted his foot and revealed the twelfth sponge. He looked at the nurse and said, "You'll do." Her integrity had been tested; she passed with flying colors.

The question is, how many of us, under identical circumstances, would have risked offending the surgeon, remembering that there was a possibility we had miscounted? But this nurse felt the patient's life and health were at stake and she, without hesitation, did the right thing. Over the long haul, that's
the best way to get to the top and stay there.

*****
*****

TRUTH & INTEGRITY

You are guided to be very honest with yourself, and to be true to yourself in all of your activities and actions.

The angels say to you, "Let go of anything in authentic, and all activities that do not mirror your highest intentions for yourself." If something in your life isn't working, be willing to release it to God and the angels.

When we open our hands and release unhealthful situations, the Divine light can enter. Miracles always follow when we surrender troubling conditions. You'll find that the job, relationships, health issue, or other circumstances heals rapidly in ways that you could never imagined. All along the way, the angels will perfectly guide you to actions that will either help you replace the situation with something better, or heal it entirely. Expect a miracle when you decide to "be true to you."


Written by: Doreen Virtue, Ph.D.

*****
*****

InnerSelf.com - Focus of the Day:

* I am a "work in progress". *

*********************************

InnerSelf.com - Daily Inspiration:

There is even more to life than enlightenment.

Life is process. Life is purpose. Life is service. Life is play. Life
is painful. Life is joyful.

We are a "work in progress."

EXCERPTED FROM the InnerSelf.com article:
Keys to a New Life
by Paul Brenner, M.D., Ph.D. and Donna Martin, M.A.

TO READ MORE of this excerpt, go to:
http://innerself.com/Creating_Realities/keys.htm

*****
*****

Elder's Meditation of the Day

"It's very hard to do things in the right manner, but as long as we do things right, we are in turn with the Great Spirit."
--Rolling Thunder, CHEROKEE
When we are right with the Great Spirit, we are right with all things. It is impossible to be out of harmony with anything or anybody when we are in harmony with the Great One. So, if during the day a problem crops up and someone makes us mad, the best thing we can do is talk to the Creator first, ask for His help, then continue our conversation with the other person. In this way, our emotional nature will keep aligned with our thoughts, and we will always stay right with the Great Spirit.

Great Spirit, I ask You to guide me on the Red Road today.

www.whitebison.org

Thank you Tom (you get the best emails!!).... I am copying this and sending it on to freinds ....

Integrity is wondrous stuff. I find that it really starts within, how we honor ourselves, how our inner environment is maintained.... for me, communicating with 'Spirit' on a daily and 'deeply' basis is vital to that maintenance.....

Integrity is the wings of our spirit contributing to the world around us.

Thank you for sharing.
Very nice!

Thanks for sharing this Tom!

Integrity is a word which has become somewhat devalued. One can have a lot of integrity but in relation to what?

Someone can be quite "off the wall" and still have integrity - to his or her own values.

It is one of those words which nearly requires thought before acceptance. To say someone has integrity is almost meaningless without qualification.

Moongold

Moongold said:

Integrity is a word which has become somewhat devalued. One can have a lot of integrity but in relation to what?

Click to expand...

This really is pretty unambiguous, but I can see how that in itself makes it confusing.

I'll quote Doreen Virtue: "You are guided to be very honest with yourself, and to be true to yourself in all of your activities and actions. "

Integrity is being honest with yourself.

My feeling is it only looses it's value if you are not.

I agree with you Moongold - integrity is a great thing but it has to be related to a set of principles. Integrity itself, is only as good as the set of morals against which it is set.

From the Oxford Dictionary
1 the quality of being honest and morally upright. 2 the state of being whole or unified. 3 soundness of construction

Being true to yourself in everything is great but brings its own problems. A person who is true to themselves and thinks they have integrity may think they are morally right in almost any given situation. This could be a grave mistake if they have fooled themselves, in the firstplace. I always think, if you can look at yourself in a mirror, a lack of integrity will soon show up!

I like Doreen Virtues idea about releasing unhealthy situations and replacing them with something better. This isn't always easy though. People who find situations difficult to let go off and dwell on things are more prone to illness.

J

I completely disagree with you Jewel-ry, here's why.

There is no law set on what is morally right either. There are the laws of our society. For instance, to some christians, tarot is morally wrong, to us, there's nothing morally wrong with tarot. Morals is a base of principles based on what one person deems as right or wrong. There are some morals that we all share yes, but others we don't. Morals is also a base of guide lines, I can honestly say that I don't lie, and I despise liars, but I have lied in my past, even though at the time, it was against my morals in doing so. What happend is, there is something else that takes place that you deem as more important, and another moral takes presedence, perhaps, to keep to the moral that takes presedence, you have to lie. Morals are subject to change, and be manipulated.

I see that integrity is also a personal set of codes of what is right. In the case of the story shared, her set of morals to what is right and in the best interest for her patient took place, and she showed her integrity to the Doctor. Some nurses may not have been so bold due to fear of loosing their job. In fact, integrity can be a moral.

In any case, I just wanted to let you know that I disagree and why, but it's always good to have different views, if we didn't, we wouldn't learn as much as we do here at Aeclectic. I think it's great!

Yes Sagitarian,

I can see that morals are a set of guidelines which can be manipulated, but do you not see that as somewhat dangerous then? Yes we can all 'manipulate' our own personal values but to what extent is that acceptable?

I had a neighbour once who was extremely religious, so much so that when we had a dispute about a parking issue they thought that they were more 'right' because of their commitment to their religion. I think thats dangerous. They thought that because they went to church religiously on a Sunday (and I'm not knocking that, before you all start coming back at me) they had God on their side which made them right and us wrong .. er no! Their car was virtually parked on my front lawn, so much so that I couldnt get my car in or out of my driveway. They considered themselves to have integrity. They manipulated that to suit their ends but that didn't make them right.

I think the nurse did the right thing and I agree that many would not have said their piece. She had a lot of other qualities apart from integrity. She was very brave.

I work quite closely with neurosurgeons and I agree they can be scarey but they are not God either (although many of them think they are )

I too like a healthy debate!
J

precisely! If it weren't that way, then we wouldn't have a need for courts, jury's, judges, lawyers, etc. When we feel that something morally unjust was done, we take it to court. We in some cases, we don't have the ability to settle the arguement, dispute, or situation. Sometimes this is due to emotions, compassion, and our set of morals and integrity. A mother who losses her child due to a drunk driver is going to pursue her dispute legally and have the man jailed. In most cases, the mother will win this dispute, and no one would argue the intense emotional loss. This is exactly what the nurse in the story above was trying to prevent, that the patients loved ones would not loose her/him to death due to a surgeon that could prevent it. Morals are manipulated, and no one has the exact same set of morals or integrity as the next. it's part of what makes us so different, seperate, and beautiful internally.

I believe that the majority of people in this world are good people, with a good sense of morals and integrity.

I don't think it's a situation that should be released, I think it's the emotions and how one views the situation that needs to be released and replaced. Sometimes this does mean rewriting our mentality, which isn't easy...this being changing who we are. The situation is irrelevant, what matters is the emotions involved, and those emotions are effected by the way one precieves what has happend. If something needs to be released, it's the emotions involved, and the change needs to come from the intellect, the mind. Replacing something with something else, isn't always effective, not for long term change...then again, it's all dependent on the situation. A mother who lost her child will always morn the loss, and she may be able to have another, but it will never replace the other. What can change is allowing her to release the emotions she feels, by crying, writing things down, and more. She can change her mind set to accepting what has happend (eventually) and deciding to try to bring another child into the world (or adopt a child) and spend her love on the new child instead of living a life of remorse. I've had friends that have lost their children, and some have gone on to be a mother of another child, others choose to not try again and let it be done. Either way, the mother has to come to terms with what has happend, and eventually that will mean to change her mentality to accept what has happend and go on with her life, one way or the other.

I agree that manipulating morals isn't "moral" but it happens, and that is why there is understanding and compassion, to make a way to allow these things to happen. This is how we as humans learn.

As I said, we may never agree on this Jewel-ry, and that's fine, regardless, I'm having a wonderful time getting to know more about you, and the debate that we are having is a beautiful one, and one about humanity in general, which I really love.

Hugs you tightly.

You are a beautiful person! Thank you for sharing your wonderful thoughts on the subject!