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Life Happens
Life does, indeed, happen…every second of every minute of every day. You are going along and think you know the daily occurrences. Then a variant enters in, be it health, money, unexpected change of jobs or becoming jobless, loved ones having problems which can impact you, etc. It can be good things as well as bad. Sometimes there are companions that we think are going to last a lifetime, and somehow the variants cause them to take a course that takes them into a different reality.
It is like traveling in a canoe, paddling along, peacefully enjoying the experience. Perhaps there is another in his/her canoe going with you, side by side. Then, unexpectedly, a small island comes up — you go on one side and your companion goes on the other. You pass the island, and your friend does not appear for another current took them off on another path. You cannot reach around and try to re-establish the connection before the island. Yet, it cannot happen because life has presented you with a new way to go. Your only choice is to be where you are and go forward, paddling along.
Sometimes on my journey, this has happened to me. People whom I have dearly loved have disappeared down another channel, never to return. Rarely, do they ever return. It is difficult to let them go on their path and find where it is that I am going. Yet it is mandated by Life.
Life Flows along like a river.
Some people try to stand on the bank with one foot and put the other in the canoe. They never trust the canoe (Journey), so they hobble along, trying to be safe and secure. That can be the biggest myth of all because change comes to everyone. How we respond makes the difference.
In “The Tao of Pooh” by Benjamin Hoff, a story is told:
“Literally, Wu Wei means ‘without doing, causing, or making.’ But practically speaking, it means without meddlesome, combative, or egotistical effort. It seems rather significant that the character Wei developed from the symbols for a clawing hand and a monkey, since the term Wu Wei means no going against the nature of things; no clever tampering; no Monkeying Around.
The efficiency of Wu Wei is like that of water flowing over and around the rocks in its path — not the mechanical, straight-line approach that usually ends up short-circuiting natural laws, but one that evolves from an inner sensitivity to the natural rhythm of things.
Let’s take an example from the writings of Chuang-tse:
At the Gorge of Lu, the great waterfall plunges for thousands of feet, its spray visible for miles. In the churning water below, no living creature can be seen.
One day, K’ung Fu-tse was standing at a distance from the pool’s edge, when he saw an old man being tossed about in the turbulent water. He called to his disciples, and together they ran to rescue the victim. But by the time they reached the water, the old man had climbed out onto the bank and was walking along, singing to himself.
K’ung Fu’tse hurried up to him. ‘You would have to be a ghost to survive that,’ he said, ‘but you seem to be a man, instead. What secret power do you have?’
‘Nothing special,’ the old man replied. ‘I began to learn while very young, and grew up practicing it. Now I am certain of success. I go down with the water and come up with the water. I follow it and forget myself. I survive because I don’t struggle against the water’s superior power. That’s all.’
When we learn to work with our own Inner Nature, and with the natural laws operating around us, we reach the level of Wu Wei. Then we work with the natural order of things and operate on the principle of minimal effort.”
In metaphysics, I have found that if I am struggling, something is amiss. Either I am hanging onto something with a strong grip (and this can be for myself or a loved one), or there are outside forces at work which need examined, dealt with, and resolved. I know what my flow is like. I know I must pay attention to it and give it due process, or I will encounter more problems, which can multiply exponentially. “Just Let Go!” should be written indelibly onto my brain.
A personal example is that I fell on a freshly-mopped floor in a restaurant without a visible “Wet Floor” sign. I injured my left knee, tearing my MCL with Meniscus involvement. I am three months post accident, doing physical therapy. I would like to rush it so I can get better and go back to the activity level I had before the incident. I was starting to walk faster and created a reversal on my healing process. So now I have to slow down and quit trying to hasten the process. I must be where I am and take small doable steps so that I can heal properly. I have to remind myself, moment by moment, to quit “pushing the river.”
Another example is about a loved one’s health changing dramatically, making me very sad for their loss of being able to stay in their home or possibly a stroke changing how they can function. One can only watch sometimes as this happens to others. Yes, you can offer assistance perhaps, but not always. For instance, Dementia — when changes are necessitated by the condition.
When your Life alters course, are you pliable enough to “go with the flow?” Can you chart a course in unknown waters by gathering information about possibilities, choosing the best one you can (with the understanding that the moment of absolute certainty will never arrive), and then get both feet in your canoe and start paddling? Or will you fight, struggle, and resist the new reality? It is your choice, you know.
God bless your journey!
Low water flow
Heavy Water Flow
Flood Stage Water Flow
Remember Lot’s Wife
The whole world knows the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. As Lot and his family were leaving the city, they were forewarned: Do not look back! In Genesis 19:17, it states, “Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed.” In Genesis 19: 24-26, it says, “Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of Heaven; And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground. But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.”
There have been some astute astronomers who state that a meteor did, in fact, strike there. Who is to know for certain? It is a fact that the whole region contains pitch, a petroleum derivative which is flammable and is still used in making torches and charcoal.
In the Lamsa translation of the Bible, it comments that, ” ‘She became a pillar of salt’ is an Eastern idiom which means, ‘She had a stroke, or she was paralyzed and dead.’ In the East, when a man becomes paralyzed or has a stroke, the people say, ‘He has turned into a rock.’ or ‘he has become like a stone.’ ”
It goes on to state: “Lot’s wife had been reluctant to leave the pleasant gardens and orchards of Sodom. She had doubted her husband’s vision and the divine warning. Her sons-in-law had thought Lot had lost his mind and that he was mocking when he told them of the divine warning asking them to leave the city. Evidently Lot’s wife also did not believe the city would be destroyed.
When Lot’s wife disobeyed the divine command and stood up and looked behind and saw the city of orchards and lush gardens and everything which had been dear to her heart, on fire, and the smoke rising to the heavens, she had a stroke and she became hard like a block of salt or flint rock, which is also called salt, and she was dead. Such blocks of salt rock are still to be found in Sodom.
The catastrophe and the loss of her daughters, her sons-in-law, and her other relatives were too much for a woman who had been brought up in the luxuries of Sodom and who had no faith in the God of her husband.”
Emmet Fox states: “Never look back. Always go right ahead. Even if you are quaking, go right ahead. No matter how unattractive or how dangerous the road ahead may be, it is better than the road back. The road ahead may be veiled from sight; but you must teach yourself to regard the unknown as friendly. Remember that God is always on the road ahead.
Psalm 143:8 ‘…cause me to know the way wherein I would walk; for I lift up my soul unto thee.’ “
My point? Our personal histories have a way of projecting themselves from the past into each today and our tomorrows if we let that happen. All you have to do is focus on the past in lieu of the present. Very simple. Not hard. The past, no matter how good it was or how bad it was, is unchangeable. You may take lessons learned from your past and make better choices today because of them, but you cannot change history. Mostly, we concentrate on the bad stuff. Have you noticed that tendency in yourself? Actually, even the good stuff can influence and change your present as well. We try to hang on to it because we think it was better than our present. Then it becomes life defeating because it, too, is unchangeable in the mists of time.
Time does not go backward and does not tarry with yesterday. All you have is today to make different choices so it will change your tomorrow.
I fully appreciate Fox’s point: “go right ahead.” Regardless of your past, good or bad, you have to formulate a new plan of action so that you can begin again to live the life that God has for you. You must begin it NOW! The only place that will effect a difference is NOW!
Are you willing to let go of your yesterdays/history? REMEMBER LOT’S WIFE! Are you willing?
God’s blessings on your journey!
Garden
Flowers
Personal Rejuvenation
Springtime is here! What a wonderful time of year to zero in on your bad habits and look around for a better way to live!
We all do things on a regular basis that do not serve us very well. The bad thing about habits is that the more you resist them, the stronger they appear to be. I use the word, “appear” because it is just an illusion.
This goes for the all the “aholic” words you can think of: Chocaholic, workaholic, alcoholic, couchaholic, tv-aholic, game-aholic, text-aholic, foodaholic, phone-aholic, depressed-aholic, party-aholic, etc. Anything you do that does not serve you well qualifies.
There is an old saying that, “Too much of a good thing can become a bad thing.” Ergo, anything done to excess can become “too much of a good thing.”
Moderation can assist anyone who chooses to change. A piece of chocolate, a little tv/game/text/food/party time, etc.
Spring time is a time of renewal. It is, literally, a new beginning. A time when the earth awakens to begin another cycle.
You could choose to look at the illusions you serve and treat as a reality. You can move from concentrating on the problem to one that is looking for an answer. If you ask the question, God can answer you with a magazine article, a book, a person, a teacher, or a class.
Let’s say you want to lose weight, have tried many things unsuccessfully, and have an attitude of hopelessness — one that says you have not done it before, so what makes you think this time will be any different? You are concentrating on the problem, not the answer. There is ALWAYS AN ANSWER — one that will work for you if you consistently try something new. You could NOT eat the whole container of ice cream at one sitting because you are depressed. You could take a class that is appropriate for your physical condition…something that is gentle enough to help you begin to make a difference. You could take a meditation or a yoga class to calm yourself and learn to breathe correctly in lieu of stuffing something into your mouth to anesthetize your overwrought feelings. You could say the same for cigarettes, which everyone knows is detrimental to you to the point of death.
The problem is that the gung-ho attitude for change rarely works. Sooner or later, gung-ho gets weary and leaves. It is replaced by feelings of failure, sadness, hopelessness, etc.
In order to make some changes, you need to have a dialogue with yourself and be gentler. (No strong-arming yourself, please.) Look at the people on the Fastest Loser TV Program. They have given themselves an incentive to do what it takes. Why don’t you try to do the same? Surely, there is something you want that will help you to firm your resolve and take action for a change that is beneficial to your life, your livingness, and your longevity. Make a personal reward part of the program…make the rewards small enough and doable so they reinforce your long-term goal. The only question is, are you willing to take a look at your life, make a list (short or long) of what you want to change, and then come up with at least one suggestion that will help you begin…to take that first step, even if it is like a thousand-mile journey. Again, build in a reward program as well. The journey may be shortened considerably by improved attitudes, more energy, feeling better, liking how you look in the mirror, compliments from others, etc. Then you keep putting one foot in front of the other, moving along, step by step toward the NEW YOU…in looks, actions, etc. Make up new lists of action as you move towards your goal, always keeping the steps small enough that you will be successful, creating Synergy towards where it is you are going.
REMEMBER, THE KEY TO CHANGE IS CONSISTENCY!
Does that mean that, if you make a mistake and eat a box of cookies, you just permanently trashed your choice to be healthier? No, it means that you begin again, this moment, to fix a salad and a piece of meat for dinner. Failure only occurs when you give up.
MAKE A DECISION NOW TO NOT GIVE UP, NO MATTER WHAT! PERSEVERANCE IS THE KEY HERE!
Only you can make this Springtime a journey towards changing whatever it is that is not serving you well. Are you willing to make a list, look at it, and begin?
God’s blessings on your journey!
Tulips in Snow
Growth Happens
Signs of New Life
These three pictures show how Mother Nature perseveres: Growth continues in spite of the horrendous forces that can happen. You can see pictures of trees growing out of rocks and on impossibly steep cliffs, flowers and weeds growing up through the cement, etc. These should give us impetus in our lives to overcome, to begin again, and to go for it!
Talk the Talk OR Walk the Walk?
You have probably heard this phrase for many years: Are you going to TALK the TALK, or WALK the WALK?
It has been used to explain the difference between someone who wants book knowledge so they can seem erudite and able to TALK the TALK, but when it comes to actually living what they have learned, they do not want to WALK the WALK, or make it personal by applying it to their own lives. One example would be someone who can talk about food, but is unable to fry an egg or make a meal. Until you pick up a cookbook or a recipe, nothing works — it is as meaningless as having a menu on a raft in the ocean, but no food at all. How about one who uses all the right personal growth words, yet still lives as though none of it applies to that person? We hear the words, yet the music that should accompany them never happens. It is obvious that two different things are happening here: WORDS vs. ACTIONS.
I once had an advanced math teacher who was the professor of his division. He could talk the principles and be very exacting in his English, but he could not convey the essence of what he was teaching to most of his students. I ended up in the Math Lab to find the teacher who could help me understand the principles of the problems. It was useless to me unless I could apply the knowledge I was attempting to acquire.
Have you ever been talking with someone, and they are speaking words that are English, yet they do not communicate at all in such a way that you can understand it? You can hear the words, but they do not make any sense to you. It might as well be a foreign language for all the good it does.
These are just a few ways of how we can get caught up in the sound of our own voice, yet never check to see if we are actually being heard and understood by our audience. (Forget Active Listening Principles as they are fast becoming a lost art.)
Personally, I have met people who can talk Religion in many forms, Protestants of many kinds, Catholics, metaphysics, New Thought, etc. They love the sounds of their own voices so much that they never consider whether or not they are actually communicating. They are reiterating some creed or dogma as though it was the only way to Heaven. Never mind that many others differ on just exactly how that will happen. Never mind that each person has their own definitions and points of reference. Just keep hitting your audience over the head with your words, hoping some of it will sink in so they can come to your point of view (whether or not it is good for them). TALK, TALK, TALK!
I have attended many workshops, sought after many teachers of varied personal growth subjects, done symposiums, heard lots of lectures from people of note, and spent a small fortune in doing so. I say to you that it is all for naught unless one actually USES whatever it is he/she hears with the best of one’s understanding — put the words into your heart and mind. Act from that new wisdom that is created when the head and the heart meet. The product of that meeting will influence you the rest of your days. WALK the WALK!
If you hear a great sermon on Sunday coming from the pulpit, think about it long after the church doors close. Do not just go on your merry way and do as you please. Make a list of the ways that you can apply those good words to your life, and then do it. WALK the WALK!
Ernest Holmes, the Founder of Science of Mind, stated that you can only fly as high as your roots grow into the ground. In other words, your mind can fly up to the ether, but your feet have to stay on the earth. You cannot over-reach in your zest and enthusiasm but must stay grounded in utilizing what you have learned in your every-day life. You have to realize where you are, and take the steps to grow into whatever else you are attempting to achieve. If you are a Caterpillar, you will have to go through the Cocoon stage before you can become that beautiful Butterfly! Take each step, one at a time, in the direction you need to go. WALK the WALK!
You are the captain of your ship, whether you want to be or not. You sail your ship as no one else can. If you TALK the TALK but do not WALK the WALK, you are rudderless in your journey. Is that something you want to do? Doubt it. You never get anywhere when you do that. That is usually accompanied by feelings of being out of control of your life and hopelessness, wondering if anything will ever get better. ANSWER: Nope, not till you change your attitude.
Read your books, go to the workshops, take the lessons, and listen to wisdom in any form. Just know that you are the only one who can make a difference in your life, and no one can do it for you. You cannot send your valet to the gym and gain muscle strength thereby. You have to do it yourself. It is no different in learning new ways to interact with your world, respond to others, and live a more fulfilling life. That is why you get on your computer, looking for good words, or read books, etc.
PERSONALIZE whatever it is you are seeking by looking for ways to use it in your day-to-day living. You can TALK a good game, but can you WALK it?
Life comes to us every day in many forms, some good and some not-so-good. How you react to what is happening will determine how you live your life and how it will unfold before you.
If you are a SEEKER, be a FINDER as well. When you find something that rings your chimes, USE IT to the best of your ability and understanding. It will change your choices, which will change your life permanently for the better.
The ball is in your court: Do you want to TALK the TALK, or WALK the WALK?
Caterpillar Stage
Cocoon Stage
Butterfly Stage
upliftingthoughts4u 