Reality
“One common mistake is to think that one reality is THE reality. You must always be prepared to leave one reality for a greater one.” – Mother Mera
A friend and I were just discussing this subject last Sunday. The Bible says something similar “When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things” – As we grow in our understanding of the world, our world changes. If we aren’t prepared for our reality to change, if we refuse to allow it to change, then we remain in the child’s world. If we keep an open mind and allow ourselves to explore the world, we find that reality is a priceless place (even better than mastercard!) – so love more and be happy and share your reality with others and be open to theirs!
Inspiration
“Without inspiration the best powers of the mind remain dormant, there is a fuel in us which needs to be ignited with sparks.” ~ Johann Gottfried Helnwein Von Herder
This is part of what we hope to create, generate, and liberate in each of us, the spark to be ignited. We each of us have these unique gifts and talents, that unless they are ignited remain dormant – like a seed in the ground that doesn’t germinate, sprout and produce.
Yet if we give that dormant seed a little water, a little sunlight, feed it some rich soil, it will produce an abundant crop.
We can be that water, sunlight or rich soil to and for each other.
When we engage in conscious conversation we feed each others souls, we lift each other up, and we can ignite a blaze in each others hearts and minds. With the group energy of inspiration rising up in us, we change ourselves and support the change in each other – and that is what will change the world.
Greatness
“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”
When you “give a man a fish”, you cripple their ability to grow. They become dependent and it is unhealthy for both you and them. You feel responsible them and at some point you will feel as though you are being used and grow resentful. For them it is restrictive and demeaning. Even though you may have the very best of intentions, at some point they will hate you for how they feel about themselves. We see this play out in families and job situations all of the time.
It reminds me of the old coal towns, when the “company” was the only employer in a small town, and you had to rent your home from the company and buy your food in the company store. I am sure that there were some companies where it started out with the mentality of “give a man a fish”; but it allowed for the “company” to abuse the people, and the people who at first were so glad to have the home and job, later came to resent the company, because it was a restrictive and demeaning way to live. It essentially kept them in poverty and as the old folksong said, “I owe my soul to the company store.” .
When you “teach a man to fish” you give them skills that will last a lifetime. They can take those skills and apply them to a multiple of professions and interests in their lives. They say that you could take a self made millionaire, take away all of their money and drop them off in any town in America and in a short while they would be a millionaire again, because they know what it takes to become one.
They know how to stretch their comfort zone, to think outside of the box and that they have untapped resources in them that come out when they are in a challenging situation. They understand their potential, and they have self confidence, and understand that outside stresses are a catalyst to even bigger capabilities in their lives.
So if life is being challenging to you right now, go deep inside yourself to that “inner knower”. Tap into that space of infinite possibility and see what untapped resources that you have within you. Use those resources as a catalyst to leap forward on your journey. I believe that all of us are more powerful that we ever dreamed – so dream bigger and teach others how to step into their own greatness.
Be Good
I was listening to a graduation speech and he ended the speech with this quote – which I thought was beautiful and wanted to share with everyone:
“Be good to others and be good to yourself. Be the reason that someone has hope in this world, not the reason that someone dreads it. May your noble intentions be elevated and life’s objectives be facilitated as you continue to do all that you do. May your lives be free of any worry, anxiety, hardship or pain and may peace be the core of your existence. May you honor the rights of others and others honors your’s. May you be trusted because you are truthful, praised because you are sincere and elevated because you are someone we can all look up to. May you be protected from hearts that are not humble, from tongues that are not wise and from eyes that have forgotten how to cry. Please do keep me in your thoughts — I will keep you in mine. “
Cause An Uproar
“As long as I continue to push out into the world,” said Susan Jeffers, “as long as I continue to stretch my capabilities, as long as I continue to take risks in making my dreams come true, I am going to experience fear.”
It seems that lately I have been doing so much stretching of my comfort zone that it is like the elastic of my life is all worn out. I feel like I need a weekend alone to nail down some of the ideas and thoughts that are tumbling through my mind in a free fall. I know that a big change is coming as I can feel the buildup of pressure. Sort of like when you are climbing in elevation and your ears pop and then you realize how much pressure was there.
I wrote this down the other night for someone, and I think that it captures a lot of what I have been thinking about. I have been making a friend of my fears around money, and it has been showing up in interesting ways. There are so many different keys to this lock that fears has on us – the off road experience is certainly better than the highway of life!
CAUSE AN UPROAR
It is a leap of faith to believe in yourself and leap into the branches of magic and possibilities.
It is a leap of faith to trust each of us “sisters” to do our part.
It is a leap of faith to dare to believe that you can manifest this kind of fuel for the journey.
It is a leap of faith to create a path where none exists and go somewhere that you have never been.
It is a leap of faith that allows you to find a destination that no one knew was even there.
It is a leap of faith to face the unknown with creativity, rather than grasping at what you think are the known quantities of how something should be done.
A leap of faith isn’t what achieves a goal, it is what brings the goal out of the unknown and into existence. It births the goal.
While it is happening, the leap of faith doesn’t feel like anything that you ever want to repeat. Surrendering is letting go of control and it is terrifying. Then it’s over and suddenly you can’t stop thinking about how wonderful it was.
Child
Thanks to Wendy Silvers of Million Mamas Movement for the following poem:
“If I had my child to raise all over again,
I’d build self-esteem first and the house later.
I’d finger paint more and point the finger less.
I would do less correcting and more connecting.
I’d take my eyes off my watch and watch with my eyes.
I would care to know less and know to care more.
I’d take more hikes and fly more kites.
I’d stop playing seriously and seriously play.
I would run through more fields and gaze at more stars.
I’d do more hugging and less nagging.
I’d see the oak tree in the acorn more often.
I would be firm less and affirm much more.
I’d model less about the love of power ….
….. and more about the power of love. ”
Diane Loomans
Brand New Opportunity
“Nobody is who they are based upon one decision, one day, one path, one chance, one relationship, or one anything else.
Every day is brand new and opportunity never stops knocking.
Who’s there? The Universe”
Have you ever seen how they make bobbin lace on a little pillow? They wind the bobbins around and over and under and across and this beautiful pattern emerges from the threads.
When I read today’s message from the universe that is what came to my mind. How in our lives we have these experiences that happen and those experiences follow a wide range of ins and outs, overs and unders, and what emerges is the complex pattern that is us.
If we could stand back from the small view that we have of ourselves we would see the beauty that is us. But as humans we tend to get stuck in the story of the experience and let one of more of those experiences define who we are and what we are capable of becoming. We become the limitation of the experience.
If you only focused on a tiny piece of the lace twists and turn, it wouldn’t look like anything special. But if you stand back and take in the complete piece of lace, it is an amazing intricate piece of art.
I was in a deep discussion last night with another women, about an experience that she went through lately with another women. I commented that when I saw the nature of their relationship a year ago, I thought that at some point there would be a breaking of the friendship. It was something in the way the other women would look at her, that told me that she wasn’t coming from a healthy place. Sometimes we can’t see the lesson that is coming our way, not until it actually happens.
We were discussing how if you look in the mirror, who don’t really see yourself for who you are, but if you take a photo of yourself and look at it, then you can see yourself clearly. I asked her if she had looked at any video footage of them because I thought that if she did, she would see that look and now recognize what I was talking about. And she laughed because she had actually saw what I saw.
All of these experiences that teach us vital lessons are part of the fabric of the beautiful work of art that is us. Each decision, each relationship, each thing that happens creates another piece of the pattern. Without those twists and turns we would just be a formless pile of threads.
So don’t get caught up in what should have or what could have happened. Be grateful and thankful for each experience. Each of those twists and turns make you a victorious master of you,, and while sometimes it feels as though you are a pretzel you are an amazing piece of art!
The Question
Quoted from Insight of the Day: “Dan Kennedy said, “The failure to act is much more often the product of inner, emotional resistance than external resistance. To move forward you must give up your story, whether it is excuses about your childhood, lack of education, your ‘bad luck’, your unsupportive family, your low metabolism, where you live, etc., etc.”
Ask yourself “The Question”:
“Where you would like to be and have known you would like to be but aren’t?”
You must identify the causes of your internal resistance. Ask yourself “Why?” you want something but refuse to act in congruence with achieving it.
Identify what is holding you back.
Release the brakes.
Change a life today – starting with yours.”
If your personal purpose, professional purpose, and global purpose are not aligned, then you will have resistance. All three need to be congruent, running alongside each other in order for you to successfully accomplish your purpose. Just like the rowers in a race, the oars all need to be in unison to make any progress.
The stories that we adopted as children can show up in surprising places as an adult. I had an experience when I was a young child where I walked into my moms room and surprised her in bed with another man. Shortly thereafter my parents divorced. My story was that it wasn’t safe to be noticed or “seen”. If you drew attention to yourself bad things would happen. So every time I became successful in a job, I would sabotage that job and run away to a new one. It took me years of work to finally put all of the pieces together and figure out why I was doing this.
We all have these variations of stories that we cling to, because they are known and our ego tells us they keep us safe. Some are from what was a major event to a child, and some are from something so minor that as an adult it astounds us that we have this belief formed out of misconceptions and the misunderstanding of what was happening around us. Some are just mantra’s that we heard as children that formed a deep seated belief internally that we may not even realize that we have.
What I know is that if we ask the question and just sit with it, surprising beliefs and thoughts will surface. And if we keep sitting with it asking why, and going deeper into the well, we will discover the incongruency and once we do, we can release that emergency brake and go full speed ahead to our destination.
You've Made It
“You know you’ve made it when you suddenly realize that there’s nothing in the world anyone might ever give you, no matter how grand or fabulous, that you can’t give to yourself.
Nothing. You’ve so made it,” The Universe
The first thing that most people would insert here is “buy for yourself”. But that would be wrong, because he isn’t talking about money.
What I believe he is talking about is behind the money. It is the knowledge, skills, talents – whatever label you want to put on it, that is behind your ability to make the money. It is the belief that you know how to do that.
They say that someone who has made for themselves one million dollars, could lose it, be put down in the middle of any unknown town in the U.S. with one dollar in their pocket and in a matter of time they would be a millionaire again.
It is only the first time we do something that we seem to try and fail and struggle. Once we understand, everything changes. There is an old Persian proverb, “once the puzzle is complete, it looks easy”. When you have done anything for yourself (not necessarily by yourself) then you can recreate that something again.
So once we have that knowledge and inner wisdom on how to apply it, you know how the puzzle pieces fit together and the picture that they make. You realize at some point in your journey that you can use those same skills, knowledge and wisdom to achieve and attain whatever you want – you have the ability to make a key to open any door.
That is what I believe he is talking about – realizing that you have always had the ability to make the key for any door that you choose to open – now that is priceless.
Having A Dream
“Having a dream is awesome.
Having a dream and showing up every day, even when nothing seems to be happening, is priceless.
But having a dream and showing up every day, while sauntering, winking, and hugging everyone, is when the floodgates begin to tremble.
Hugs, The Universe”
This is awesome, because it says under the music of your dream, that you know like you know, like you know, that your dream is going to come true. You aren’t pushing it to happen and neither are you just sitting on your hands saying, “Oh well if it is meant to be it will just happen.
What you are doing is tilling the soil, planting the seeds, weeding and watering and watching it grow with joy. Because you know that if you plant the seed and take care of it as it grows, that it will grow into what it is supposed to be. You don’t make it grow, you just nurture and provide the best growing conditions that are within your power, and trust in the universal laws that say it will grow into what was planted.
The wonderful things about gardens is that many times when a seed doesn’t germinate for this growing season you go outside the next one and there is a plant from the seeds that were planted last year. Sometimes it takes some time for the right conditions to germinate the seed. What dreams have you planted and forgotten about have come true? What dreams are you growing?
Assumptions
“Even though we may not like them, it is those moments in life that challenge our most precious assumptions that often prove to be most valuable” – Guy Finley
As we grow up we learn the beliefs of those around us, and most of the time we don’t question those beliefs. Some of them are things we learn in school and church, and others are beliefs that we adopt without even realizing that they are being taught to us.
I grew up with the belief that money was scare and hard to come by, because of the little things that I remember my parents doing. My dad for example never filled up the gas tank unless we were going on a road trip to a relatives house. It was $5 in the tank, no more. Since he drove 70 miles round trip to work, that meant that he was stopping for gas a couple of times a week. My mom smoked when I was young, and I remember that my dad got paid every week and the day before payday she would be going through all of the ashtrays to find a cigarette butt that still had enough tobacco to get a drag or two. Then of course was the constant answer whenever we wanted to do something, “we can’t afford it”.
We don’t even recognize most of the assumptions that we have because they are unconscious belief patterns that are running like computer programs behind the scene. But once in awhile, something happens that puts them out in the open.
I had an unconscious belief pattern that nothing “bad” would happen to my family. The bad being the kind of tragedy that happens and puts you in the news. That I could just keep improving on myself and that was good enough. Then my nephew Carl was murdered and that unconscious belief was brought out into the open. I realized that I had a responsibility, a global purpose to fulfill in helping to make communities that were truly large families that helped each other. That collaborated together to accomplish great things, to solve the social ills of not only their own town, but to then spread out to other towns.
I realized that I couldn’t continue to play small. That I had to grow myself more than what I ever thought was possible, to stretch out my boundaries. Even though Carl’s loss still hurts, he taught me that until all of us are safe to take a shortcut through the park, I have work to do. That it is not about me growing just myself, it is about me making those big changes in my life, and passionately sharing with one more person who then makes those same life altering changes, and they passionately share with one more person, and so on. Pebble by pebble, we can change the world. And so it is.
Resistance
“Any action we may take that’s created by resistance within us to something unwanted in our life ensures only the continuation of a nature so asleep to itself that it can’t see the difference between always trying to escape a prison, and not entering into one in the first place.” – Guy Finley
This reminds me of the saying,” we have seen the enemy and he is us”, which came from all things a comic strip. I have come to appreciate that whenever I am resistant to something, it means that I am in adrenalin and I need to stop and step back. The resistance means that I am either pushing for something to happen or pulling away from something that I am afraid will happen. Either way, the resistance is an indicator that I am going in the wrong direction.
When I am creating from a space of ease and grace there is no resistance. It doesn’t mean that life is always easy with everything flowing into place, or that life is never hard. It just means that I am not painting myself into any corners, or putting myself into a self created prison.
Any resistance is a sure sign that I am not on purpose with something in my life. When this happens I go back to the foundation, which is my personal life. If my foundation isn’t correct, it will mess up my professional life and my global purpose. My professional life is based on a balanced personal life and fuels my global purpose. In other words, if my personal life is screwed up, it follows that everything else I do comes from trying (unsuccessfully) to escape a self created prison (my personal life).
When my personal life is on purpose, it causes my professional life to be on purpose. When what I try to create comes from being in touch with my life’s purpose it always flows strong from that foundation. A successful professional life is what creates fuel to achieve my global purpose and which in turn fuels me to have a successful personal and professional life. I believe that it is absolutely all connected.
Whenever something is wrong in any part of my life, I go “back to the beginning” (one of my favorite quotes from Princess Bride from Inigo Montoya – since I started from the comic strip it is only fair to end with a great fantasy movie) and look to see if I am coming from the adrenalin lifestyle and if so, I need to go back to basics. Take a deep oxytocin breath or two or three, and look to see where I have allowed drama and static back into my life. I pull those cords, release the tension and rebalance back to a state of ease and grace.
That is the really cool thing about the essence of our character, once we realize how the trap is created, we can refuse to enter the self created prison cell in the first place. And we can end with the GI Joe quote, “knowing is half the battle”.