Give Up and/or Surrender

Today is Thursday and yesterday was the first day of the Lenten season - Ash Wednesday - which, when I was a child, always meant there was something for me to "give up" for Lent. I tried to "give up" broccoli for Lent one year but my mother would have none of it. Off and on, I tried to "give up" those things I hated in an effort to circumvent the whole denying myself things I enjoy because I never saw the point. Let's deny ourselves the good things in life and suffer so we can say that we can suffer. Life can deliver suffering to us free of charge, unexpectedly and out of the blue, so I feel no need to add to it by making up more ways to make myself suffer.
If I am to keep a true Lent, then I believe I must "give up" those things that keep me stuck in my false and limiting beliefs. I must "give up" my judgments about people, my condemnations regarding events, and my cynicism around situations. I must give up those things that keep me from seeing the beauty, the perfection, the oneness of all life. If I am to keep a true Lent, which means to loose and let go, then I want to let go of my prejudices, my small mindedness, and my petty ideas of how it "should" be.
So, I'm giving up on "giving up", and I'm surrendering my small self in these next 40 days to grasp an image of the Divine as all things. I'll let you know how it goes...

This Comes With Attachments

I keep noticing where I am attached to things, I suffer. Yeah, I know, so what else is new? What's new, I suppose, is when I'm noticing how many things I seem to be attached to. Big things, little things, insignificant things, important things, all sorts of things can be the source of my attachments. I'm learning, once again, to let go. Another turn of the wheel, another year, another opportunity to practice the presence. Sometimes, I must remember day by day, other times I need to remind myself minute by minute and there are those times, crazy times, forgetful times, high stress times, "everything should go the way I want it to" times, when all of it seems to go out the window and I am attached to everything! Oh yeah, "If I ruled the world, then (fill in the blank here) would or would not be happening!!!"
Then, I remember to breathe. Then, I remember Love. Then, I remember Forgiveness.
Ah, yes, the old f-word. Forgiveness, self-forgiveness, because that's where it begins. We cannot forgive others if we are unwilling to forgive ourselves. Extending forgiveness to others is an extension of self-forgiveness. I'm not talking about condoning, or blaming, or "letting someone (or the self) off the hook", I'm simply saying self-forgiveness is the practice of releasing oneself from the behaviors of the past. It is choosing to suffer no longer from events which occurred before this present moment. By extension, forgiving others is also a practice of releasing oneself from the past, because when we imprison someone else in the past of their behavior, we must remain there to be the warden.
Indulging in the head talk of "When he said this, then I should have said..." or the endless stream of "What if..." scenarios, or even the "If I ruled the world, then this would not be happening!" thoughts dis-empower us. When we are busy regretting the past, worrying about the future, awful-izing about conditions, we are in the effect, attached to all of the "stuff" of life.
Well, wait two minutes, the stuff will change. Everything in life changes. Nothing is here to stay. As they say in the Bible, "It came to pass..." Everything in life came to pass, not to stay. Sometimes my affirmation is, "This too shall pass..." Only the Eternal remains unchanged.
When I remember to breathe, to Love and to Forgive, I can release my attachments, and bring myself, fully present, into the Eternal Now. Breathe, Love, Forgive, Breathe, Love, Forgive, Breathe...some days that's all I do!

New Year, New Me?

Well, we are 10 days into the new year and have you been keeping all your new year's resolutions? Have you made any new year's resolutions? Yeah, me neither. Let's face it, they don't work. Ask anyone who is a regular gym member. At this time of the year, January, the regulars can't find an open stair master, and unoccupied elliptical or a free lane in the swimming pool. The gyms are packed with the January resolute. The regulars don't have to be concerned, though, having been through this year after year, the regulars know too well that the newly resolute will be gone before January ends.
Real change comes from within, not at the gym. We are reborn every morning, every new day brings a new you. Newness happens every moment, every time we remember who we are, not when the calendar turns a page. We can set an intention in the morning, for that day, for that hour or minute, and we can see it realized. In this way, we build success upon success, victory upon victory. Then go to the gym, just for one day at a time.

It's the Most wonderful Time of Year

It's the holiday season, Christmas time once again, and we are right in the thick of it! How is it going for you? Is all your Christmas shopping done? I'm still actively gift searching and loving every minute of it. I enjoy walking around the malls and shopping centers looking at the displays and observing the hustle and bustle of the people going by. I must admit, I do alot more looking than actual buying but I enjoy it all. Christmas music on the radio since Thanksgiving weekend, shopping and looking since Black Friday, all's right with the world...
Every Christmas season brings memories of Christmas Past, my past, growing up on Staten Island, NY. I recall tree shopping with my Dad. It always snowed when we were out picking a tree from one of the corner lots. The Christmas lights were strung across Victory Blvd. and Manor Rd. from light pole to light pole. Ribbon candy and maple sugar Santas. Ice skating at Silver Lake. It was usually so freakin' cold my ears felt like they would fall off if I didn't cover them! I remember visiting the big tree at Rockefeller Center and walking down 5th Ave. looking at each store's Christmas window decorations. Wonderful memories!
What kind of memories are you making this year that you will look back on in the years to come? Make them happy ones.

Everything Old is New Again

I reached that age where I am recognizing the repeating cycles, cycles of fashion, cycles of politics, cycles of learning, cycles of fads, cycles of everything. I suspected it a while ago when I started to see high school kids wearing bell bottoms, ugh. If bell bottoms can come back, what could be next? I wore bell bottoms in high school, along with other highly questionable fashions. There were the bell bottoms with all the patches, the Danskin body suits, orange construction boots, overalls, all those gauzy woven shirts made in India, headbands, puka beads, platform shoes and carpet bags. Blast from the past, right? But seriously, what else can one do with jeans? Bell them out, peg leg them in, make them tight as can be, make them elephant legged, low rise, high waisted, zipper fly, button fly, stone washed, acid washed, but that's about it. The cycle continues and round and round we go...
Same is true with those other things I mentioned. Just watch.

Everything That's Old, is New Again

Things run in cycles...
We plant seeds, we see the sprouts spring up from the ground, they grow into full bloom, we harvest, we turn the soil under and see the ground as barren, fallow earth, then begin to plant again.
And the cycle repeats itself...
What would you plant this time? We have the power to set our intentions, to make manifest what we would experience for ourselves, so again, what would you plant this time around?
I know for me, I would have Peace of Mind, I pray into Joy, and I affirm Abundance for all. I know God's gifts come to all alike and I pray rain for the parched, Wisdom for the ignorant, Unity for the separate, Balance for the tipped, Freedom for the bound, Love for the despised, Order for the confused, Power for the weak, Wholeness for the fractured.
I know the gifts of Spirit come to all alike and as we affirm the gifts are ours already, I know we experience them. Blessed be.

YoufromNY?Nokidding!ImfromNYtoo!

So, I'm reading the book, "Revolutionaries" by Jack Rakove, which is a wonderfully insightful look at the a 20 year span before, during and just after the American Revolutionary War. It provides great detail about the lives of our Founding Fathers and the events surrounding the birth of this great country.
The part that made me laugh out loud, however, was in the telling of the journey some of the delegates made from Boston to Philadelphia to attend the first Continental Congress. As the men made their way south, they stopped in various cities, New York being one of them. They loved the city, thought their accomodations were first rate, but John Adams had this to say about their New York hosts, "They talk very loud, very fast, and alltogether. If they ask you a question, before you can utter three words of your answer, they will break out upon you again-and talk away."
It just made me howl! The country wasn't even a country yet, and already NYers had a reputation! It took only 100 years for a colony of European settlers to acquire "the New York state of mind." Hilarious! Some things never change. I know, being born and raised in NY, it is still the same! And so am I. I really have to practice speaking slower, lower and not interrupting. It's a spiritual practice really, breathe & listen, breathe & listen...