joyous

What I Learned from the People of Haiti

Everyone knows that there is always a gift in a crisis.  I watched this last week, every time I had the opportunity, the devastation in Haiti.  I mean, who could miss that.  But, I saw something else that brought me to tears many times.  I caught a glimpse of the resilience present in so many.  I saw their Spirits, their Essence leading the way for them, including the ones who were recovered after 9 days, 11 days – alive when they “should” not have been able to survive.  What kept them breathing?  What brought them through?  The strength of what we all have inside but many don’t stay aware of it.  We have a Soul that can pull us through things we find unimaginable to have to bear.  Do you use it or just give into your pain or despair or hopelessness at  moments when what you perceive as awful is happening to you in your own life?  

As 56 orphans were flying to the US, none having ever been on a plane before, none knowing about how loud an old military plane can sound, or the turbulence, or…  Did you hear what these 56 children did?  Not one of them cried, not one of them screamed.  Instead, they sang, they were joyous, they knew many spiritual songs and their voices filled the plane with faith, anticipation, gratefulness – for what?  FOR LIFE, FOR A CHANCE TO KEEP LIVING.  

In another part of Haiti a group had gathered at a cemetery.  To cry?  No, to sing spirituals, to praise God that they were alive.  A 15 day old baby was found 8 days after the original earthquake.  How could that be?

It reminds me of a movie I saw many years ago called – The Gods Must Be Crazy.  Did you see that movie?  It was about a coke bottle changing this small island of people who had never heard or seen anything like that. Competition began – we want that bottle, no we want it….  The analogy is that – these people perhaps, in Haiti, have never been introduced to things like “but why don’t I have this” or “how could this happen to me?” or “Life sucks” etc.etc.etc.  I know that baby hadn’t.  I know those orphans hadn’t.  I know that those who were spending their days by the cemetery hadn’t.  

How do I know this?  What would most people you know be doing after such a disaster?  What I became clear about was that, most days we don’t take the time to be grateful for our next breath, for the one we just took, for the privilege of being able to have water whenever we want.  I know that many of you have lived through earthquakes here, downpours of rain, just like last week, but we have lost sight, some of us, of seeing ourselves and each other as Souls filled with the goodness, the joy, the absolute beauty inside and out of people.  Yes, some of us have been very wounded by the cruelty of some, but I know they, the so-called cruel ones, must have been hurt in the past and are taking it out on others, rather than learning how to heal from that great grief they carry. 

My great desire for you (and I trust for yourselves) is that your heart can grow large enough to allow what is to be.  To know that you are doing whatever it is that you are called, by Spirit, not your ego, to do.  You are in charge of what you think (as long as you are conscious of what you are thinking) and you can think “Thank God I am able to walk, to talk, to take a breath, to be generous, to be compassionate, to have the feelings that some are so cut off from.  

I applaud all of you who have taken the time to look at your own life in this past 2 weeks and have seen it from a brand new perspective.  I trust the rest of you can and will.  It is gratifying, to say the least.

joyous

Be Ye Transformed…

Have you heard that verse “be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind?”  Well, as a person thinketh, so is he (or she).  So, what have you been thinking about the most this day?  I want you to take a moment (or several moments) to ponder this question.  What have you been thinking about today – your “problems,” your “mis-takes,” your schedule, your relationship with someone that isn’t going so well, your work, moving, finances, who you have resentment towards right now, or what???  You are totally in charge of what you think, yet I find that only about 1% or less of people get that, they just ruminate about whatever comes to mind and then get upset by it (most likely).  I invite you right now to realize that you always, always have a choice about what you spend your time thinking about.  I have so many people who come to my office, desperate to change, yet completely unaware of what is keeping them stuck.  Guess what is the main reason they stay stuck – they are in a rut – a deep rut – they are going over and over in their minds what they did or didn’t do or what they ate or shouldn’t have eaten, what they said in a note or phone call that might have led to their having no communication with someone at this point…  So many distractions from what they would like to think about and more importantly what they (you) would like to feel.  You are fully in control of what you think and thus what you feel (which of course follows what you think about) yet you don’t seem to get it a lot of the time.  You are in the habit of thinking about what is bothering you the most rather than what would thrill you.  You could be joyous right now, do you think that is possible?  Well, it is, but only if you get more control over what you think at any given moment.  You are so much more powerful than you can imagine, especially right now, when you may be bogged down in the mire of “if only” or “why didn’t I” or “maybe next time” or “when is it ever going to change.”  Guess what, you can turn the corner to a new life right now – remember?  You are transformed by the renewing of your mind.  That means, you are a new person when you commit to thinking about how grateful you are, about how magnificent the Universe is, about how much Love you feel towards …, about the wonderful things that you did this week – acknowledging you, even when no one else notices, about how miraculous so many things are – like a bud opening, a tree changing colors, a child looking to you for attention and you provide it.  You know, you are an amazing being – here in the form of a human but having the mind – if you choose it – of Spirit, of your Essence, your Soul.  You are a one-of-a-kind precious Being that is unrepeatable, power-filled, unique, amazing, astounding and ever-changing (when you choose to be).  How about making a commitment right now to find what is “right” about you rather than what is “wrong” or “unacceptable” or “repugnant” about you?  It is all up to you, whether you focus on the magnificence or on the human “frailties” that you (and everyone of us) can find it we look hard enough.  Who needs to look for the negative when you can feel so much more joy by deciding to look for all that is good and ever so great about you.  Starting now, experiment with listing – on paper if you will, at least in your mind – what YOU know is remarkable about you?  I will be glad to support you in this “project.”  It is essential for the transformation that comes with this renewing of your mind.

joyous

Be Bold, Be Brave, Be Brand New today

What do I see, what do I hear and what do I encounter every day as I go to one of my five offices, four in Los Angeles area, one in Santa Fe?  Discontent of some kind, either with themselves or with their relationships.  I rarely find people who directly say – I am fed up with the me I’ve created so far, the life I have chosen up until now.  That very statement, though, is what I hear as I listen between the lines.  What are people fed up with?  Their unwillingness to take the chances necessary to have a great, joyous and free life.  Bound by their old belief patterns, imprisoned by their own decisions along the way, these people need to break out of their safe, little shells and become somebody they don’t even recognize – that can happen in an instant, once a choice to break free has been made.  Do it, see what happens.  You can always go back to the old, habitual ways of being.  For today, do something different with your life, even if it is just driving a totally different way to work or deciding you are going to talk about things and to people that you ordinarily would not do.  I was working with someone last week who told me some very moving experiences he had had about 6 years ago, before he moved to another state.  As we talked, he almost in a whisper said, “what I’m describing to you is what I know I came into this world to do, yet, I’m not doing it now.”  He almost wept.  He was somewhat startled to have heard these very words come out of his mouth.  But, they were out in the room now, those words, his admission, his jarring understanding of how far off course he had gotten.  It was very moving to be with him during this moment and the time that was left for us to process what he was uncovering from the depths of his awakened mind.  

What do you think your purpose is?  How close to your calling, your message from your Soul, are you?  Is what you are doing what you know you are to do here at this time in your life?  If so, hurray for you.  If not, when do you think you might start doing and being what you came here to do and to be?  The time is now, the openings you have missed are probably many, due to your just not paying attention to what was being whispered into your “ear” (through hunches, nudges, intuitive waves of clarity).  You are here for something so much greater than you have been willing to embrace, I am imagining.  You haven’t even touched the huge calling that has been waiting  for you to embrace it and run with it.  What have you been doing instead, what have you said to yourself that made it okay to ignore this enormous, glorious undertaking that only you are here to do.  No one else was given this particular assignment, you were.  I sense that you have an inkling of what it is but don’t want to think about it for very long – just a fleeting second, a fleeting glimpse of what it truly is.

Oh yes, your Soul has been trying to get your attention, yes it has.  When will you get still enough to let It tell you Its Knowings.  Now?  Next week?  Next year?  What are you waiting for?  I mean, really, what are you doing to stop yourself from “going for it, whatever “it” is?  I know, fear, in all its many disguises.  Underneath it all, it is fear – fear of failure and fear of success.  That about covers it, doesn’t it?  Well, I urge you to reconsider the timing, the world is waiting for you to come out of hiding and gift us all with your doing your thing, your particular, unique thing.  You don’t have to study anymore to know how to do what it is – you have the knowledge inside of you, the answers came in with you, your Soul has kept them very neatly in a place that is immediately accessible to you, you just have to be open to receiving.  Open, like a beautiful bud that gives us its inside majestic part at the exact moment it is meant to open.  Have you ever watched that bud from beginning to the end, have you noticed that most of the buds open up at night?  That seems like a great metaphor for us today, doesn’t it?  We usually don’t even think about changing what we are doing or questioning our calling until we are “in the dark times” of our lives – things aren’t feeling too great that we are doing day after day.  We are a bit depressed, perhaps, or just discontented with where we are at this time in our lives.

Come now, walk into the Light, the wisdom is right beyond your mind’s excuses for staying where you are. Stop listening to your mind and start listening carefully to your heart, your Spirit, your Essence, your Soul.  What a magnificent discovery you will find, not when you reason it all out, but rather when you turn off the analysis of it all and just flow with your revelations as they come to you – they don’t make “sense” sometimes but you follow those hunches, those intuitive inklings and a whole new world will appear – it will seem out of nowhere, but really it has been there all the time.  You had to take off the old pair of glasses and the worn-out ear plugs and allow the astounding True Self to appear.  Welcome that Brand New You, unrecognizable yet somehow familiar.  Life is just beginning – again.  Things will now become effortless.  Energy will be boundless and you will be a new alleluia from head to toe.  ”Thank you, O my Soul, for this new me” you will be whispering.

joyous

Dwell in Possibility part 2

Yesterday I started talking about this wonderful subject.  Today, I want to go into more detail about how a person can dwell there when things look rather bleak in their lives.  Have you ever been able to be joyous when things all around you were rather annoying, going wrong or just blah?  That is a wonderful practice that leads you right into dwelling in possibility.  You see, if you look at appearances, that is, things that are around you at the moment, you are seeing what you (and others) created by thinking certain thoughts, by repeating certain thought patterns over time.  When you begin to become acutely aware of what you are thinking and start to monitor it to the extent that you change any “impossible for me” thoughts or “I am too old” or ” it happens to others but not me” or “I’ve tried everything and nothing is working for me” thoughts or “this all sounds too good to be true, change your thoughts, change your life stuff” thoughts and really, really begin to experiment, at least, with the notion that it is your skepticism that is preventing any miraculous experiences from entering your life, you will be astounded at what starts to happen.  Believe me, well, you don’t have to believe me yet, just be willing to do the experiment – which is, to watch every thought that you have – from the moment you wake up until you lay your head down for the night.  What are you thinking?  I had a man write down every thought he had all day and evening one day a few years ago.  He was very upset when he discovered that 90% were rather negative and, when he decided to do it for a second day, found that he was repeating almost all the thoughts he had had the day before – again.  Now, that could be rather discouraging, don’t you think???  ”The Secret” is not a bunch of witchcraft, it isn’t even “too far out” to be believed.  It is age-old wisdom that has become common knowledge and a common experience of those who choose to believe in it fully, not half-heartedly, but fully.  You do attract what you think about, whether you are doing it consciously or not.  You bring about what you think about.  If you are a person who sees the cynical side of life, you are likely to continue to see that in your day-to-day life.  How come?  Because you believe it.  Words do become “things.”  Think about this fact – if you are a skeptic, you are not going to see the miracles of life that are happening all around you.  You really aren’t.  You will see through the eyes of a person who can only view life, most often, with a negative edge.  You may not even imagine yourself as a negative person, but notice, on Monday and the rest of the work week, what you are thinking about the day.  Do you wake up saying to yourself, “here we go again, same ole stuff, I hate Mondays.”  How could your day be glorious after such a “bah humbug” start?  Just try waking up this Monday with the thought “I am going to look for beautiful things and acknowledge them to myself all day long – whether it is a child I notice as I do my early morning walk or a flower I pass as I drive to work or a tree that is all twisted but amazing in its own way…”  You will see what you choose to see, that is just how it is.  So, choose to see beauty, loveliness, unusual happenings, smiling faces (I’m beginning to sound way too “Dr. Positive” here), but really, choose to see things you have passed by on all the other days you have driven this route to your work.  Consciously set an intention (a blog I wrote about a week or so ago) to do things a different way, to take note of things you’ve never noticed.  See what you find out about you.  You don’t have to answer to anyone, you just may be surprised at how life seems different somehow, at the end of that day.

I wasn’t kidding about being joyous when the day is humdrum either.  You get to choose how you are going to go through a day, despite anything that is occurring at the moment in your life.  See how that works for you too.  So you have some experimenting to do.

Hurray for you if you decide to do these things I am inviting you to do.  That will be a great start to a  new life, one that dwells in possibility rather than one that is stuck in impossibility.  Let me know how it is for you.