Such a profound question – what is life?
I wanted a perfect ending. Now I’ve learned, that hard way, that some poems don’t rhyme, and some stories don’t have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what’s going to happen next. Delicious Ambiguity.
– Gilda Radner
When you look around at your friends and family, how many people do you know that “just exist”? They are here. They wake up each day. They take in the breath of life, they eat, they go to work or school, they come home and watch a movie, TV, play video games. They are here, but what else is there in life, besides just being here?
The voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.
– Marcel Proust
There is something about asking questions that opens life up. About being curious. Asking yourself the questions that you are afraid to ask, afraid of how the answers might change your life. Questions like, “Why am I not happy with who I am”?
Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact.
– William James
I think that there is more to life, than just existing. I think of some of the stories that I love best. They are made up of characters that progress down a timeline, the hero’s journey. They are walking along a path and something happens. Things go wrong, they change to meet the challenges and come out the other end a different person than the one we met in the beginning of the story.
Time is like a river, you cannot touch the same water twice, because the flow that has passed will never pass again. Enjoy every moment of life . . . ,
– Unknown
They discover things about themselves during the journey. They discover the “fire in the belly”, passion. They learn to speak up and speak out. They learn that they have courage to fight for truth, justice, life and liberty. We root for them to beat the odds and win. Take the first “Rocky” movie. He is employed in a sketchy business as a collector for a loan shark.. He boxes and is made fun of, nothing but a loser and a bum. He dreams of a better life and thinks that fighting in the ring, could be his ticket to be somebody. He gets a one in a million shot at it, wins against the heavyweight champion, falls in love.
Difficult roads often lead to beautiful destinations.
– Unknown
Boxing was his passion. He learned to have self confidence in his talent. He learned that we can all be somebody if we are willing to pay the price of hard work to make it happen. If we are willing to not give up when it looks hopeless. As the rest of the series of movies show, transformation is an ongoing process. We will learn valuable and painful lessons when we don’t remain conscious of who we are and where we are going in life.
Most of us have been through some sort of personal hero’s journey in our life.
Someday everything will make perfect sense. So, for now, laugh at the confusion, smile through the tears and keep reminding yourself that EVERYTHING happens for a reason.
– Unknown
What did we discover about ourselves? Brendon Buchard tells a story about his own personal journey when he was in college. He had a bad breakup with his girlfriend. She was the one he was going to spend the rest of his life with. So to try and get out of his depression he went on a trip with a college friend to South America. They were driving in a rural mountainous area on a narrow road. The road turned out to be a hairpin curve. His friend lost control of the car, and they went tumbling off the mountain. When he came to he was bleeding. They had fallen down a ravine. He thought that he was dying. In despair he asked himself three questions – Did I live? Did I love? Did I matter?
Thankfully they didn’t die. They both got medical attention, and when he returned to the United States he was a different person. He is an international bestseller with multiple books; he is the founder of Experts Academy and High Performance Academy and is a sought after motivational speaker. How was his life impacted from getting a broken heart? From an auto accident that could have ended his life? We never know how the painful experiences of our life, will be positively used for the rest of our lives.
Life has many ways of testing a person’s will, either by having nothing happen at all or by having everything happen at once.
– Paulo Coelho
I think that we all want to live a life that results in great friends and family that love us. That results in us being happy and passionate about what we do with our days and nights. That results in knowing that we had a positive impact in the world. But sometimes we fall asleep to those dreams. Sometimes we get so beaten down by our hero’s journey, that we give the dream up as being impossible. What I have discovered in life is that we tend to do one of two things. We act without thinking our decision all of the way through and so we end up paying the bill of “unintended consequences”. Or we think about it, and think about it, and do nothing about it. Why? Because we can’t face our fears about “what if?”.
Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them – that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they life.
– Lao Tzo
So each morning, what if the first question we ask ourselves is:
If my life is a story, what can I do today to make it a New York Times Bestseller?
What could I do today, that a movie producer would want to make my life into an inspirational movie?
What can I do today that uses up all the best parts of me (my talents), to inspire the world around me to be a better place?
What can I do today that makes people laugh, smile and be more joyful?
Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside of us while we live.
– Norman Cousins
They have a saying, that the best stories are in the graveyard. There are books that never got written; apologies and forgiveness that were said in their heart, but never left their lips. Millions of secret recipes that never got passed on. Don’t wait for the end to ask, “Did I live, love and matter”, but instead ask it each night. Ask if you showed love, and gave love to others each night. Ask if you were able to do one small thing today that mattered to someone. If you can say yes, to these questions each night, you have a wonderful life. You inspire me to try harder, to be better, to live fully in the present. To lose myself in the sunset.
Never, ever underestimate the importance of having fun.
– Randy Pausch
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How can you tell if you still might be in a caterpillar stage of growth? Some questions to think about –
Do I hide my value or discount the gifts that I have for this world?
Am I tightly guarded, afraid?
Do I feel like I am stuck in the mud, unable to move?
Can I see my potential, but don’t know how to unlock it?
Do I feel vulnerable, tossed about with no control?
Unlike the real caterpillar, we have different phases of transformation. It isn’t a one time thing, go into the chrysalis and come out a butterfly for us. We have a mind, body, and soul, which is continually growing and expanding. Which means that we have different levels of transformation and growth. “Spiritual growth involves giving up the stories of your past, so the universe can write a new one” Marianne Williamson.
Each time we feel stuck, we need to enter the chrysalis and undergo another change. Each time we realize that we have greater potential than we are using, we need to enter the chrysalis and undergo another change.
“It’s not about being perfect. It’s about effort. And when you bring that effort every single day, that’s where transformation happens. That’s have change occurs” Jillian Michaels. Transformation isn’t about “fixing” yourself like you are something broken. It’s about transforming what is no longer serving you, to grow into who you are to become.In this same way, when we get stuck, hide our value, and become tightly guarded, we are not producing anything positive in the world, but rather we are just using up the resources around us. We are not giving back. We are not contributing. “Unless you are prepared to give up something valuable, you will never be able to truly change at all, because you’ll be forever in the control of things you can’t give up” Andy Law
“If we don’t change, we don’t grow. If we don’t grow, we aren’t really living.” Gail Sheehy. But when we change, transform and grow, we are then in a space of being open, and sharing our values with the world around us. We pay it forward, because we delight in the joy of giving. We focus on how we can contribute to make the world a better place. We unfurl our wings to move freely in the expanded space of our transformation. We become a new creation, with a worthy cause fulfilling our divine purpose.
This chrysalis is the place to enter when we need a breakthrough. The breakdown results in a new way of thinking. It is about seeing yourself differently. Where we exercise the patience to grow and transform. The persistence to follow the breakdown through to the breakthrough. Knowing that the surrender is what leads to the life transformation will produce a new happiness of “we did it”. Bob Dylan said “behind every beautiful thing, there’s some kind of pain.”
When you can quiet the fluctuations of your mind and drift into stillness and silence, you can finally hear the whispers of your heart.
– davidji
Silence isn’t just empty space. It is the container that holds all of the answers. But you can’t access it, until you release what you think life should be. It is only then that you can begin to see what is, and accept it. When you can process life as it is, only then you can see what it can be. That is the beginning of the journey of transformation. Because it is only in this place that you can begin to hear the sound of your soul.
True silence is the rest of the mind, and is to the spirit what sleep is to the body, nourishment and refreshment.
– William Penn
It is in the silence you begin to hear your own heart. It is in the heart that the soul hears the whispers of the divine, Gods answers. This is where true intelligence is, not in the mind. By listening to this voice, you see things in a different light, a different space. This is the space that you hear God’s voice answering those prayers for direction. That is the space where your soul is at peace with your minds thoughts.
Dare to stand before those you fear and speak your mind, even if your voice shakes.
– Maggie Kuhn
This is where what they call “out of the box” thinking occurs. It is the place where the curiosity starts, where creativity lives, where you can find the right solutions. It is the place of firm collaboration of the mind, body and soul. Where the spirit and soul commune to stand in an overwhelming force for doing the right thing, regardless of what anyone else is saying or doing.
It’s a shame when the things that are on your mind and in your heart, never reach your lips.
– Unknown
The worst thing that can happen is for people to be too ashamed, too scared, or feel too unworthy to speak their own truth. When other people to try crush you because you don’t share the same religion, the same culture, the same language, the same color of skin, or the same sexual orientation the human race is being robbed. We should welcome all expression. Risk being seen, not just in all of your glory, but with all of your imperfections..
The biggest bully most of us will ever face lives within us, located inside our own heads. The screaming thoughts that we hurl at ourselves about ourselves, we would never allow anyone to say to us. We worry about what kind of person we would be if we let loose who we really are. That we are too much, too emotional, too loving, too sensitive. That we are a bad person; that everyone would judge us as not enough and we will be destroyed. We don’t give ourselves the love we give to others, the grace and forgiveness that we give to others.
Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself and know that everything in this life has a purpose.
– Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
Like most things in life, silence also has it shadow that gets expressed out in the world. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote about this shadow when he said:
Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.
– Martin Luther King Jr.
This is what all civil unrest and protests comes from. Something that matters so much that they are willing to step outside of fear of judgment or retribution. I know that to me these people are like modern day Joan of Arc’s. Their bravery lies in standing in protest, being willing to be beaten, hit with water cannons, or tear gas. To be arrested or even the ultimate sacrifice of their lives. I may not always agree with their beliefs, or their methods. But I do praise their courage that they are willing to stand up for their ideals.
They say that time heals all wounds. It isn’t the passage of time itself that heals. It is the knowledge and application of that knowledge (using it wisely) that heals. I know that from the murder of my nephew, there are stages of grief. The more distance there is from the actual murder, the more time the raw emotions have to pass through you. It is the emotions that create the pain and suffering. But you can only live in that place of raw emotions for so long. If you don’t process through them, they will literally drive you insane. It is self preservation that moves those emotions through you.
The ultimate way of Being lies beyond all contradictory pairs of opposites with which our two dimensional thinking mind operates. As soon as we are successful in silencing the restless activity of the thinking mind and give a chance to intuition, the pure all embracing spirit in us will manifest effortlessly.
– Anagarika Govinda
Intuition and creativity takes you on a wild ride of so many options and choices, it is life inspiring, life fulfilling, and more valuable that all of the gold in Fort Knox. This is because life is not just light and dark, and choices are not just this or that. We live in a multi-dimensional universe, and we were created in God’s image. Each of us has the power of miracles within us. When we embrace his spirit and power, we manifest our divine destiny.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.
– Eleanor Roosevelt
Eleanor Roosevelt is one of my heroes. She is on my bucket list of people that I would love to have a long visit with. She has such great wisdom, and she was an amazing woman. When we operate from that space of great minds, the soul speaks.
The quieter you become, the more you can hear.
– Ram Dass
It helps when you surround yourself with people who can hear the sound of your soul, as well as their own. If you listen to the voice of intuition, the voice of the soul, you will find the way of life that you love, that was designed just for you. Then all that is left is to have the courage to live it.
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Dreamers make wishes when they blow out the birthday candles with complete confidence they will come true. They blow on the dandelions seeds and spread their wishes all over the world. They wish on the first star they see each night. The secret that they know is — we are all just dreamers in an endless universe. They know that each dandelion seed that lands, plants a new dream for our future. They are the new realities waiting to be born, to step out on life’s stage and say, “Hey, look at me!”. Pay attention, this is important.
Every dreamer knows that it is entirely possible to be homesick for a place you’ve never been to, perhaps more homesick than familiar ground.
– Judith Thurman
These dreamers, dream with eyes wide open, and say, “Why not?” It is about getting creative and caring more about doing it better in some way than doing it perfectly. Perfection creates limitations and silences the creativity. It squishes the dream into a tight container and makes it smaller. More narrow. More limited in possibilities.
The world needs dreamers and the world needs doers. But above all, the world needs dreamers who do.
– Sarah Ban Breathnach
Doers take the dreamers up a notch. They believe in the magic, but they also know that it takes a little bit of elbow grease to make the machines run. They know that to take the dream into reality we must put it in writing. We must plant the seeds, water and fertilize them, weed when needed, and watch in amazement as the miracle of growth happens. Doers know that the energy goes when the attention flows, so rather than giving their energy to their fears, they focus their energy on their dreams. They know that action needs to follow the dream.
A bird sitting on a tree is never afraid of the branch breaking, because her trust is not on the branch, but on it’s own wings. Always believe in yourself.
– unknown
The reason I love this quote is that the basic foundation of your life, needs to be deep within in. Not in a spouse, a parent, a friend, a job. Not in being identified in someone or something else. This frees you to be the dreamer who is also a doer and thinker. Because you know it will not be any one thing that brings that dream into reality. It will be a combination of many small things, some things you will even think didn’t work – but the magic is that all of it is necessary for the birth and education of a dream.
The authentic self is the soul made visible.
– Sarah Ban Breathnach
When we are totally immersed within the dream, we allow our true self to peak through the barriers. It is where the courage to be curious comes from, deep within the soul. The soul or your authentic self knows and believes in your true potential. Thinkers know that they can put the dream on steroids because they realize the power of thought and attitude. It is like strapping a rocket onto the doers goals, when the doer has the right thinking to get the dream off the doers paper and into reality. The trick is the right amount of thinking in combination with action.
If you want to be successful in this world, you have to follow your passion, not a paycheck.
– Jen Wleter
Creative thinking outside the box produces inspiring ideas that can change the world. Creative thinking doesn’t see mistakes. It sees disconnections. It knows that if you just keep tinkering with what you are doing, that the connections will come together. They aren’t afraid of taking risks, of making changes. To them change is synonymous with opportunity.
Thinking: the talking of the soul with itself.
– Plato
When we go deep inside ourselves and draw up the dream, enhance it by stripping away all of the negativity about the dream that we have, we become free thinkers who can see without prejudice what the destiny of the dream is. We talk with our souls and see possibilities for the dream everywhere we look. This helps the doer to pick the best door to open to the best opportunities. We walk away from the fear of never getting what our dreams are reflecting back to us.
That brings us to possibilities.
When you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this: you haven’t.
–Thomas Edison
What we come to realize is that every dream takes us up another level. And each level has new challenges and opportunities for growth. Each level demands we live outside the comfort zone of the previous level. Each level is a new passion, which burns away a new fear and exposes a new dream. The journey never ends. The possibilities just keep multiplying. If you are going to leave the world better than you found it, you need to climb each new staircase, ascending new summits. Be so passionate that you ignite the fire in everyone you meet, to rise up and bring the dream into reality.
I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.
–Thomas Edison
I think that this quote is certainly made by someone who knows it to be absolutely true. If he had not continued his work, then his numerous inventions, most famous being the light bulb would not have been invented. He founded General Electric, had a motion picture and record company in addition to others. All because failure to him was just more information to think about. A part of the process, and not something to be avoided.
In order to save myself I must destroy the me I was told to be.
– The Dreamer
Inside each of us is the space where we know. We know, that we know, that we know, that anything that comes into our heart and soul for us to do, is for us to do. And most important, that it is completely possible for us to do whatever is in our heart. I love the quote by Audrey Hepburn “I M Possible” instead of impossible.
So greet your dream with open arms, know that the doer and the thinker will show you the endless possibilities for you to bring that dream into reality – then go do it.
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Updated 7/30/2018
Adventures are how we grow and realize the hidden strengths that are inside each of us. Each day we have the opportunity to start a new adventure. We can go on this adventure solo, or we can have partners that join us. It can be a business adventure or a personal journey to explore who we are now and who we can grow into. The choice of destination can be a fixed point, or it can be left open for divine guidance to take us to where the most growth can happen. The trust in the first case is that we did our homework and prepared for everything possible, and are ready for the impossible to show up. In the latter case, the trust is that whatever the divine throws at us to stimulate the growth is something that we can not only handle, but conquer and be victorious over.
One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.
– Henry Miller
Martha Beck in her book, “Finding Your Way in a Wild New World” speaks about leaps of faith. She says that the term for a collective (like herd of cows) for leopards is a “leap”. A leopard will leap up into the branches of a tree with an antelope carcass in its mouth that outweighs it. Each time the leopard leaps, it is an act of faith that it will make it up onto a branch 10 feet above it. If the leopard doesn’t make it, it could mean it’s death, as it would most likely land on its back with the weight of the antelope on top of it. Put yourself in that space and ask yourself – have you have truly ever taken such a leap of faith?
Everyone needs someone who will call and say, “get dressed, we’re going on an adventure”.
– Whisper
She goes on to say that each time we face an unknown, with creativity instead of grasping at known quantities, we leap. Each time we dare to think that our art (I insert here whatever your personal genius is) can sustain us financially we leap. She reflects that each time we surrender to the way things want to happen (not under our control), we leap. When was the last time that you truly surrendered to the divine guidance? That you truly followed the saying , “let go and let God”? It is the acknowledgement that we don’t have the answers. That we want to continue the adventure. That we are letting go of expectations. That we are letting go of our own brains “ideas” of how things should be. That we are letting go of the safety nets. That we are stepping out onto the tightrope,and one step at a time we are walking across,. That we are trusting our inner guidance to be the balance we need to get to the other side – whatever and wherever that is.
I highly recommend any of Martha Beck’s books and especially this book – I bookmarked it for you to check out. http://amzn.to/1Xbnz56
What we discover when we leap, is what we are really made of. Do we shrink back at the challenges or opportunities that present themselves to us? Do we pass by the aid of angelic guides, because we think that what we see isn’t the answer we were looking for? That one is too easy, this one is too hard? Then when we find what we think is the perfect one, we get scared off by a family of bears?
The greatest challenge in life is discovering who you are. The second greatest is being happy with what you find.
– Picturequotes.com
Today I took a leap. trusting in the magic of my soul. Today was the day that I took a deep breath, let go of certainty, trusted my heart, and leaped into “seeing what happens next.”
Faith is not belief without proof, but trust without reservation.
– D Elton Trueblood
So today we traded in all of our fears for faith and trust without reservation in divine guidance. Those who are curious have the best adventures, just ask Alice about her adventures in Wonderland. In traveling, we think that we are losing ourselves. Leaving behind the world that we know with all of its limitations and obligations. Instead, when we travel we find ourselves. We rediscover who we are and what is important. We open ourselves to the infinite stream of possibilities and wonder. Adventure fills your soul.
Only those who will risk going to far can possibly find out how far they can go.
– T.S. Eliot
I think of Dorothy and The Wizard of Oz. She learned so much about herself with her adventures. She had her companions with her, just as I do today. I don’t know the “how” part of this decision. But I listened to my heart, which said that it is the right decision. Dorothy didn’t know the “how” of getting home, but she listened to Glenda and set out on the journey.
It is good to have an end to journey towards, but it is the journey that matters in the end.
– Ursula K. LeGuin
Glenda the Good Witch tells her at the end, “you had the power to go home from the very beginning”, so Dorothy of course asks, “why didn’t you tell me?” Because Glenda said, “you would not have believed it. You had to learn it by yourself.”
Go confidently in the direction of your dreams, live the life you have always imagined.
– Henry David Thoreau
The same is true for me, and you. Adventures is how we learn what are powers are, and what we are capable of creating together.
Faith is the daring of the soul to go further than it can see.
– (from Godfruits.com)
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When we are at the airport and getting ready to check our luggage, they always ask, “Has anyone asked you to carry something for them in your luggage? Has anyone else packed your bags?” Have you ever wondered how much of what weighs you down is not yours to carry? What beliefs do you carry around in your baggage that don’t really belong to you? When we unpack the stories in our luggage, what we find is that we are carrying around stories that belong to our parents, our grandparents, our family, culture, tribe. Most of those stories are not ours. They are not who we are. They belong to others and need to be unpacked, they need to be left with those that they really belong to. That is the luggage that needs to be checked. Release it.
“I can’t”. . . , “it’s not possible”. . . , “I’m not good enough”. . . , These are the lies the demons of your past use to scare away the possibilities of the present.
– Dr. Steve Maraboli
There is a movie that Lucille Ball made with her husband about a trip they were making in a car that was towing a big trailer. Along the trip the character Lucille was playing kept putting in these large stones or rocks of everyplace they stopped. Finally the weight was so much, they couldn’t tow the trailer up over the mountains. This is the same for us.
How many of us walk around being weighed down by the baggage of our journey? You can’t possibly embrace that new relationship, that new companion, that new career, that new friendship, or that new life you want while you’re still holding on to the baggage of the last one. Let go . . . , and allow yourself to embrace what is waiting for you right at your feet.
– Dr. Steve Maraboli
Our mind has these filters. They sort through everything that we see and do, looking for proof of our beliefs. We carry with us all of these heavy stones, which are stories of our past. At some point the weight of the stories will pull us down, if they are weighted with negativity. We need to unpack all of the “I should of’s” and “I shouldn’t have’s” and leave those stones at the side of the road you are traveling on. We need to lighten the load, by releasing everything negative.
I am like a book, with pages that have stuck together for want of use. My mind needs unpacking and the truths stored within must be turned over from time to time, to be ready when occasion demands.
– Seneca
The problem with our stories, is that they are usually one sided. This is because our “truth” is never the entire truth. It takes courage to break those chains and redefine your own life. What we need to do is examine all of those stories. We need to unpack the stories and ask, why they are important? What about our true values do they reflect? What about them brings us joy and happiness? What do they tell us from a space of self love and trust? When we focus our light on the things that build us up, the things that were dragging us down will disappear on their own. They can’t exist in our authentic light of love and truth.
Sometimes you don’t realize the weight of something you’ve been carrying until you feel the weight of its release
– powerofpositivity.com
Our minds do not know the difference between actual events and our imagination. Most of us carry these unconscious beliefs formed as a small child before we really understood what was really happening. For example, when I was around four years old, I walked in on my mom having an affair. Shortly thereafter my mom and dad divorced. As a four year old, I assumed the responsibility of breaking up the marriage. I felt that I wasn’t to be trusted, and that it wasn’t safe to be seen.
That program ran my life all of my childhood and most of my adult life. When I figured out what was creating the pattern of “my foot on the brake and gas at the same time”, I released that story. I had nothing to do with the breakup of my parents marriage. Now this pattern no longer shows up in my life. Most of us have patterns created by a small child, that were made up by our imagination to explain something that we didn’t understand..
The things you want are always possible; it is just that the way to get them is not always apparent. The only real obstacle in your path to a fulfilling life is you, and that can be a considerable obstacle because you carry the baggage of insecurities and past experience.
– Les Brown
So take a few moments and ask yourselves the questions we talked about. Loosen up the load; put down the bags; unlock the chains and let them fall to the ground; unpack those bags. Set yourself free. Reminds me of the lyrics from 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover – Just slip out the back Jack and set yourself free.
Sometimes the most difficult part of any journey is believing that you’re worthy of the destination. The one where you see that goal, that dream or what it is that you have always longed for. You are brave enough to face the challenges and strong enough to see it through the end. Never be afraid to take that first step. With each new step, bringing you closer to it. Believe it! You can do it.
– Brigitte Nicole
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It’s better to walk alone, than with a crowd going in the wrong direction.
– Diane Grant
When we try to walk down another persons road, it leads to disillusionment and disappointment. That is because it isn’t “our” road. In the book “The Pilgrimage”, Paulo Coelho said that:
It is our decision to walk, that creates the road ahead of us.
– Paulo Coelho
Trying to explain to someone what our personal truth is for the path we are walking, is like trying to explain rocket science to a baby. It isn’t that the baby will never understand rocket science. It is that the baby isn’t yet developed enough to understand. We can’t explain our path to someone who isn’t yet at that same stage of their own truth. It will only create misunderstandings, miscommunications, and lots of frustration. Even we sometimes can’t put into words the necessity for why we have to do something. We just know that we have to do it. It has to do with our being conscious and open minded enough to realize when we are being directed. It has to do with our acceptance of that direction, even when we don’t know why.
It takes courage to keep walking when the path is obscured by confusion. TRUST. BELIEVE. And just keep walking. The way will be revealed.
– Sue Krebs
It is both being courageous and having curiosity, that keeps us forging ahead on the path. It is the journey itself, that grows us as a person. It is our attitude about what happens. It molds us either for our greater good, or for living out life disappointed as a victim of circumstances and bad luck. It is the difference between knowing what you need to do, and doing what needs to be done. It is easy to get the knowledge, but the wisdom only comes from putting that knowledge into action. It can’t just be “book learning”, it also has to be married to “learning in action”.
Getting lost along your path is part of finding the path you are meant to be on.
– Robin S. Sharma
It has been said that it’s never about obtaining the “goal”. It is rather about who you need to become, to achieve the goal. There are many different roads to walk. They go through many different landscapes. It could be a forest path, with giant trees that shadow the land. It could be through sand dunes and along beaches. It could be a path of a river which sometimes meanders slowly, and other times rushes through rapids crushing you against the rocks, and then dumps you down a waterfall. It could be the hot desert or the frozen tundra. Each path will require different skillsets in order for you to become the master of your journey. Different clothing, different shoes, different temperatures to be endured. Different equipment from ropes, boats, sleds etc. . . . It is always your choice of where you step, and which path(s) your choose. If you don’t like the first road you chose, move over to a new one.
You must learn a new way to think before you can master a new way to be.
– Marianne Williamson
It is always our decision to skip and sing our way along the yellow brick road, or to whine, complain, dragging our feet as we ask “are we there yet”? Are you standing in your own truth? Are you walking your own path? Is your heart guiding you? Look for the opportunities to better understand the journey. Look for the helpers to guide us on our path. The destination or outcome of our journey isn’t what is important. It is who we are becoming, what we are actually doing that makes us successful.
I have always loved the saying, “It’s not the destination,… it’s the journey”. This is because the path we choose is our journey. It is where we live our life. It is all of life’s experiences. The good, bad, and the ugly. The messy parts, as well as the glorious adventures. We can see treasures every single day, if we just take the time to notice them. Life goes on, it moves on. It does it regardless of whether we are saying yes to our destiny or running the other way. Since the path to happiness lies in the direction of our destiny, why not say yes? Choose happiness.
Does the walker choose the path, or the path the walker?
– Garth Nix
Along the way, we live life out loud. We can choose to taste and savor the experiences that that journey brings to us. The more that we can reach out in happiness, joy, and just plain exuberance, the richer our life is. The destination is simply a road sign. A sign that we made it to “X”. Then we begin planning a new destination or goal. It’s all about the road we choose, the path we forge. Who we are becoming. What we reveal and release that is not truly who we are at heart.
By choosing the path, we choose the destination.
– Thomas Monson
Have you ever heard the saying, “you can’t go home again”? The reason why is that while you were away, you changed. You look at things differently. You think that everything changed. But in reality it was you who changed. The house you lived in as a small child, suddenly looks much smaller – the house didn’t change size – but your way of looking at the world changed. We are all far from who we once were, and we are still farther from whom we are growing into. What is really scary is when you go home again, and see those who haven’t changed. They haven’t even put on foot onto their path. They are still stuck back five, ten, or twenty years ago with the same victimhood mentality. They are caution signs to keep walking on your path.
One’s destination is never a place but rather a new way of looking at things.
– Henry Miller
So cast off the bowlines. Sail out of the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds and see where they take you. Remember that you are always only one decision away from a totally different life. Embrace the journey and it will love you back. Trust your journey, even when you don’t understand where destiny is taking you. It could just be the biggest, most juiciest trip of your life.
Let yourself be silently drawn by the strange pull of what you really love. It will not lead you astray.
– Rumi
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Years ago, when I was young, I had opinions on what would I do, if “such and such” happened in my life. I think that when most of us hear of an experience that someone has, we think “well if that happened to me, this is what I would do”.
You might not agree with the decision that another has made, when your imagined scenario happens to them. But you have no idea why they made the choice they made. You don’t know all of the circumstances and limitations they were facing.
The lemons that life gives you are not supposed to paralyze you. They are not supposed to make you bitter. They are not supposed to make you give up on life. They happen to help you dig down deep and discover what you are capable of.
“Who I am and what I am capable of doing has always managed to surprise me” – Jodi Picoult
When life does hand you lemons (your imagined scenario), and you are the one trying to make lemonade out of it, many times you come to a totally different decision.
There are many reasons for this. Each of life’s lemons come to you wrapped up in a different series of circumstances. You could look at multiple experiences of someone losing a loved one to violence, and you would find that each instance was handled in a different way.
While the label may be the same “man killed by random shooting”, the circumstances in each case tell their own unique story.
In 1995 Tariq a pizza delivery man was shot and killed by a 14-year-old gang member. Initially Azim, Tariq’s father could barely function. But he came to understand that the 14 yr. old boy named Tony who killed his son, was also a victim.
He felt called to forgive Tony and became friends with Tony’s grandfather and guardian. He started a foundation to help kids stop killing other kids. He began talking with kids in schools about the realities of that lifestyle and the importance of making right choices.
“From the onset, I saw victims on both ends of the gun. I will mourn Tariq’s death for the rest of my life. Now, however, my grief has been transformed into a powerful commitment to change. Change is urgently needed in a society where children kill children” – Azim, Tariq’s Father
He made lemonade out of his lemons. This foundation (http://tkf.org/) has grown into an organization of 13 full time staff members and 30 volunteers that mentor over 20,000 students each year. In the article I read, in 13 years they had touched eight million kids (this same foundation is now over 24 years old).
But I would bet that if you had asked him if this were the road he would take if someone killed his son, this is not the answer he would have given. His unknown road that he journeyed on revealed what kind of man he truly was. This is forgiveness in action.
You are on a road, a journey to discover who you really are. What you are capable of becoming.
“No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path” – Buddha
Azim saved himself by walking the path of true forgiveness. He wanted to not only prevent other innocents from being killed, but he also wanted to save those other victims – “kids” becoming killers themselves. His difficult road has led to a beautiful destination – saving others.
What I have learned in life, is to hope that I can emulate the grace I see in others’ lives, as they grapple with life’s lemons. That until I find myself in that same hard place, I don’t really know what my decision will be. I do know that there is no turning back. So, each decision needs to be made in prayer and meditation, with that understanding.
What can you learn from the lemons in your own life?
Who are you?
A person of deep strength who keeps walking the path, knowing that new wonders are going to be revealed right around the next bend.
Jack Canfield tells a wonderful story of an elderly woman who is meeting with her minister to plan out her future funeral. She tells him all the things that she wants around her and she says that she wants a fork. Puzzled the minister asks her why a fork? So she says, “when they have the potlucks at the church you know you are going to have a special desert, when they say to save your fork. The fork is to remind everyone that the best is yet to come.”
When a friendship, relationship ends, or a loved one dies, it can seem like our broken heart is all that we have left. There can be no happy ending. That is when we need to remember the story of the fork. We need to remember that the best is yet to come. We may not even see a glimmer of what it could be. We may look at the broken pieces of our heart and think that there is no way it can be mended. “new beginnings are often disguised as painful endings” Lao Tzu
But what we are doing is not really mending the heart. It is giving the heart a new beginning. Think of a clear calm lake. No waves, just a perfect surface reflecting all that is around it. Now pick up a stone and throw it as far as you can into the lake. As it hits the surface, it creates a ripple on the surface of the lake. It starts small and expands out to the entire lake. Eventually the ripples expand to the point that the surface of the lake is completely calm again. “Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” Arthur Ashe.
However the lake has been forever changed. It now contains that stone on the bottom of the lake. This is our heart. Our heart will never be the same, as it contains both the love and heartbreak that occurred. It can come back into it’s new shape, and look the same, but it has been forever changed. It is always a new beginning. “I feel a new beginning coming towards me and I’m running to it with open arms.: Unknown.
So when someone or something breaks your heart, know that eventually the ripples of sorrow, loss and pain will expand out and fade away. Our heart has been forever changed by the loss, but remember the fork – the best is yet to come. A new beginning. “Every day is a new beginning. Treat it that way. Stay away from what might have been, and look at what can be.” Marsha Petrie Sue. Trust in the magic of new beginnings. Look forward to what is coming next.
Life is too short to think small. If you think that something can be done, then it is too small. If you think something is probably impossible, that is the goal to go for. Not because the goal itself is the thing, but because of how trying to reach it will grow you.
If it doesn’t challenge you, it won’t change you. Go for the moon shot kind of goals.
Moon shot goals involve others in coming together as a community to make the really big goals happen. Moon shot goals help others to reach out past their own boundaries and limitations as they buy into helping you accomplish yours.
The will to win. The desire to succeed. The urge to reach your full potential.., these are the keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence. – Sabine Mondestin
The hard work of the goal is in making the vision clear. When you can see the minute detail, then you can make plans. With plans come steps. With steps, you begin moving into action. You gain a tremendous feeling of confidence when this happens. This confidence, grants you personal empowerment. Empowerment fuels your passion to bring the goals into reality. This is how the miracles begin.
It is like the infinity circle in which one part feeds and fuels the next part, in an never ending cycle. Clarity fuels the plans. Then plans fuel the steps.
Then steps start the wheels moving and you get action. Action gets you excited that stuff is finally happening.
Personal empowerment comes from actions taking place. Personal empowerment in turn fuels passion. Passion feeds back into clarity. Clarity begins the whole process again.
This is because as the vision starts moving forward into implementation, you get more clarity. Clarity starts new plans. New plans lead to revised actions. The whole cycle begins spinning again.
With engagement the divine one moves in with synchronicities and doors begin to open. People show up, all to bring your goals into reality. You are not meant to accomplish things by yourself. But no one can help you, until you help yourself.
I used to extinguish under the weight of living, but one day, I reached into my chest, dusted off my courage, and asked myself, “where’s your fire?” – D. Antoinette Foy
Be strong about your goals, and flexible about your methods. Be willing to try things you don’t think will work. To try things that you have never done. You learn by discovering what will work for you.
Has anyone ever tried you train you by having you watch them do the job? They walk you through a program. They tell you what your inputs should be. You go back to your desk, and you can’t remember what to do. Your notes don’t make any sense to you.
But when someone sits beside you, and guides you as you do the work, now it sinks in. You learn by doing it yourself. As you do the work, you have the space to think of the questions you need to ask to understand the process. When you just learn the process you are just a cog in a machine. When you understand the process, now you can innovate. Now you can teach it.
When you become visible, you take a huge risk. Because not everyone is going to like you. Some people are going to hate you, just because you are different. There will be those people that will be mean and cruel. That needs to be okay. You need to understand that you are not here for everyone.
You are not here with your gifts for those who don’t want them. You are here for those that do.
The only real difference between us, is that some of us have remembered why we are here. Others are still asleep to their true purpose. They don’t remember their divine inheritance. They will find fault with what you are doing, without really understanding why it bothers them so much. They act as a challenge to help you reach your highest potential.
If you are persistent, you will get it. If you are consistent you will keep it. – Unknown
Such an interesting quote. Being persistent is how you learn something. Have you ever listened to a two year old, asking “why”? They are the most persistent creatures in the universe. Persistence is how you learn. Understanding comes from doing it consistently.
You literally sink the learning down into your bones. I like to think of learning, as how you learned to ride a bike. Most of us can ride a bike.
You were persistent enough to learn to ride, getting back on every time you fell. But were you consistent enough to go past the basics and learn all of the tricks of riding a bike – did you become a master?
How do you let the amazing out?
Curiosity is the compass that leads you to your purpose. Your reason for being here now.
When you are tempted to give up, your breakthrough is probably just around the corner. – Joyce Meyer
Then you work on your true inheritance, and accept that as you become masters on this earth, that your signature will become your autograph.
A signature is so much more than just a splash of ink across the paper. A signature is style. It is a “look”. It is something that says who you are. When you see the Nike symbol, what pops into your mind? Nike is not just about shoes.
When you hear the Coca Cola jingle, “I’d like to teach the world to sing” how does it make you feel? Coca Cola is more than just a drink. That is what a signature is.
You have so much inside of your soul waiting to come out. That is why you will risk becoming visible. That is why you can’t think small.
Because some part of you deep inside knows how truly magnificent you really are. Each of us is a thread in Gods tapestry. Each of us has a part to play. Each of us has to become visible, in order for the pattern to be seen. Each of us has that special one of a kind signature that the world needs to see, feel, and hear.
Revised 5/13/2019
I wrote this poem on a Sunday (see it at the bottom). It had been banging around in my head for a while wanting to be released. So, I took some quiet time while everyone was asleep and let it out. The entire poem is printed at the end of the post.
There is no growth without change. You’ve got to let go of some old stuff. And that can hurt. Often when I’m in the most pain, I realize it’s coming from my trying to control everything. Or resisting the changes that come with the progress. But you see that light . . ., that beautiful next level . . ., and that’s what you have to focus on – Ali Brown
I found the quote by Ali after I wrote the poem and was struck by how much of what I am trying to express in the poem is in her quote.
You have to release what no longer serves you. That could be the story that you have been telling yourself that holds you in chains of fear about success and failure. It could be the story that you tell yourself that you are not capable of being more. The stories you could be telling yourself go on and on. They are varied and unending, depending on what your life has been about so far.
This control is when you stand up on the ship of your own destiny and release the anchor holding you to your stories. You drop the weight that holds you in place. You open to the winds of change. You drop all of the baggage of blaming the world for where you are at this moment in time. You decide to take your control back – control of how you think, how you react.
You can’t calm the storm, so stop trying. What you can do is calm yourself. The storm will pass – Thimber Hawkeye
It takes a lot of courage to stand up to the storm of fears and doubts. To realize that as you set sail on your ship, that there will be those who you leave behind, because they are still chained to their own stories.
When I thought deeply about this I thought of Pompeii. The volcano was going to erupt. It had been giving signs of the coming destruction for months. The people who were awake and listening, left the island behind. But so many of the people didn’t believe what they were seeing on a day-to-day basis. And they left fleeing to safety too late.
I am sure that they fully believed the lies they were telling themselves, the false stories about how safety lay in staying – not in fleeing with nothing to their names, to untold dangers. No, for them staying was the only smart thing to do.
You, however, face your fears of not knowing how you will steer the ship, or even where the next safe harbor will be. You have the courage to face the fears of the unknown, to face the lies that you told yourself and make the right decision – to face and live through the changes that are coming.
There comes a time when you just have to listen to the music of your soul and set sail to the unknown. And so the journey begins.
Life’s Storms
Storms without a name whip the seas into a fury, winds screaming through torrents of rain.
Waves crashing against the shore, bring in lost and forgotten debris.
Stand tall on the deck of your ship, as the birds scatter beneath the howling winds,
Let it blow away what no longer serves you.
You feel the backlash of empty words with no truth, the shadows are winning.
No sunlight, every battle lost, and shadow is winning. No rescue.
The lack of love, the hunger for life is insatiable, an open mouth that wails to be fed.
You can’t undo what has been done, it doesn’t serve you.
Thunder rolls and lightning flashes exposing what still needs to be released.
Let it go out the door, don’t run after it as if falls off the deck and into the sea.
Feel the weight of the past, as the sounds of the anchor being lifted vibrate through your body,
The anchor being lifted from the bottom of the sea, the sound of your journey echoing onward.
Change, the anchor of our soul, it both drops into the sea, and is pulled back up into the ship,
Change moves us ever forward on the journey, unearthing the destination clue by clue, star by star.
Change reveals the next adventure, the next treasure that we are seeking,
Change reveals the next harbor in which to rest our soul
Bright morning stars, as day breaks open the dawn releasing the light, as it climbs the clear sky,
Light breezes blow as it fills the sails, with the dust blown clear, we see what has been done.
Every color sparkles as it plays upon the sea, as we awaken, transformed once more,
We hear the music of our soul, whispering as the journey begins again, echoing ever onward.