"One of the first things to do, is to Love everybody. If you have not done this, begin to do so at once." Ernest Holmes, Science Of Mind, Text p.298.3
Simple, eloquent, life affirming advice. Simple, yes, easy, not so much. Well, not always, not with everyone, all the time. It's easy to love everyone across the globe. Especially those people who are far, far away. The ones we never run across are the easiest to love, aren't they, because we don't have to deal with them! We can love everybody - at a distance! It's those people we bump up against on a daily basis that make it so difficult to love! Family, friends, the drivers on the freeway, the slow pokes in front of us and the speed demons coming up on our tails - those are the people that bug us.
And that's why we call it,"a spiritual PRACTICE." We are practicing all the time. We are forever being reminded to practice, practice, practice, being the Love in the world. We are forever being given opportunities to be the love in the world. We are forever at choice to, "be the change we seek" in the world.
So, just for today, let us be the love. Let us be the thing we seek. Let's strengthen our practice, like being at the gym of our consciousness, and let's give our love a work out! Just for today, love everybody.
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Dog days
Summertime, filled with hot air, trashy fiction and doing nothing...but enough about congress.
How is the summer going for you? Thinking about it? Are you taking some time to check in with yourself and examine the fruits of your labor? This is the time when things have come into full bloom. The things we planted into the soil of consciousness in the spring sprouted, and are in full bloom in the heat of summer. What have you grown? And do you like what you got? Is it time to go back to the drawing board of your thoughts and set new intentions? Or is it time to celebrate your harvest of good fortune, wonderful company and delights of your manifestations?
Whether we manifested the summer of our dreams or are in the process of choosing again, I know that Spirit always supports its own expression, and we are that.
How is the summer going for you? Thinking about it? Are you taking some time to check in with yourself and examine the fruits of your labor? This is the time when things have come into full bloom. The things we planted into the soil of consciousness in the spring sprouted, and are in full bloom in the heat of summer. What have you grown? And do you like what you got? Is it time to go back to the drawing board of your thoughts and set new intentions? Or is it time to celebrate your harvest of good fortune, wonderful company and delights of your manifestations?
Whether we manifested the summer of our dreams or are in the process of choosing again, I know that Spirit always supports its own expression, and we are that.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
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...
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...
Thursday, January 27, 2011
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!
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!
Monday, January 10, 2011
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.
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.
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