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From Bud to Bloom
God created us to flourish. We are each born with seeds of our highest good inside of us. These seeds, once planted in good soil and nourished, proceed by expanding beyond its shell, growing upwards towards the light, becoming a stem, then buds which proceed to blossom.
Are you tending to your inner garden so your seeds will expand into your reality? Quietness of spirit, enjoying the sounds of birds twittering, watching the natural world around you as it changes daily, and developing an awareness of your possibilities to change and become a reality in your experiences daily…all of these happen as you nourish your spirit.
How do you do that? By getting off the merry-go-round of life. Sounds easy, yes? Actually, it is…but we are so used to the busyness of our life that we never stand still.
Psalm 46:10 says: “Be still and know…”
Can you do that?
That commandment is a key to unfoldment of inner peace and a sense of tranquillity that guides you through everything if you just begin to understand it. It is said that just thinking about something new is the beginning of change.
Meditation and reading on subjects that nourish your inner garden is a wonderful beginning. Use your time wisely. Notice the many ways God brings your attention to the beauty and wonder innate in your surroundings wherever you are. Feed your soul. Every child knows this. Watch their curiosity bounding forth as they explore their world, using all their senses to see, touch, feel, taste, etc. Each one has a passion to really live. You, too, can do that.
Imagine you are living in a box of your own making. You have put a lot of effort into it, including and excluding items with every choice you make. But your box does not have a lid, so peer over the top to see what is out there that the walls of your box has excluded.
Life is meant to be lived…not on a merry-go-round of your own making. Tend to your inner garden faithfully and watch the blooms come forth! Imagine it! Wow!
Bloom where you are planted!
God’s blessings on your journey.
Are Your Roots Healthy?
When I ask the question, “Are your roots healthy?” – I am referring to your basic thoughts, feelings, and expressions of life. How you are living, the choices you make, what you think about, how stressed you are, etc., all form the background of every minute of every day of your life.
Are you so concerned about what others think of you that you never stop to ask that question of yourself?
Roots are just like a plant: Unless you nourish them with your spirit, thoughts, and positive emotions, they can just wither away, drying out and draining you of your life force, every day in every way.
Nourishment occurs when you stop for a moment, take a deep breath, and look for something beautiful in your environment. Beauty brings peace, calmness, serenity, and joy into your life. When was the last time you did this? Do you remember the early morning sunrise or sunset at evening? Did you stop and smell the flowers along your path today? Did you notice a beautiful or unusual bird?
Or are you so busy with the every-day work demands, your families’ needs, soccer practice, making a cake for the bazaar to support your child’s activities, dancing lessons for your little girl, football practice for your young boy, etc., that you have just gotten lost in the shuffle? You know we have all had our turn at having to perform those requirements. The bad news is that it can go on for the rest of your life if you let it. You will not have much time to yourself to ponder your personal growth issues. In fact, that may sound like a joke to you as you drop wearily into bed at night. Whatever you need is at the very bottom because everyone else’s needs/demands/wants have to come first…or so you may have been taught to think that way, especially if you are a woman with a family or a man providing for same. The daily vicissitudes (wear and tear) of life can exhaust you.
So where do you begin to make a change in the above priorities? It all starts with thinking about it and writing it all down. Once written down, ideas come to mind as you look at the words. Perhaps you can begin to question how important each one is and decide whether or not to keep doing same.
Albert Einstein one said: “The definition of Insanity is to keep doing the same things over again the same way, but expect different results.”
So I am asking you to just step back from your life for a few moments, think, grab a pen and begin writing your observations of yourself/your choices/your life. If you are willing to do that, you are raising your awareness. Awareness of the need for a change is actually the beginning of a new life for you, living more according to your purpose, happier, and more able to actually support the loved ones around you because of your new vision. Are you willing?
God’s blessings upon your journey!
Maui Sunrise
Bougainvillea with Palm Trees, early morning Waikiki
Red-Crested Cardinal – Beautiful Bird on Oahu, Hawaii
Growth Happens From The Inside To the Outside
As you watch the trees, Growth Happens From the Inside To the Outside. Some of the bark peels off, but enough of it stays to add to the tree ring which scientists use to tell the age of the tree. Each ring represents a year of life for that tree. The tree draws sustenance from its root system, the sap, and the leaves, which use photosynthesis to feed the tree. No matter how little the tree is or how big, the above holds true.
So, if you were a tree, what would your ring look like? How is your root system? How do you nourish yourself? Would you be a healthy tree, or a spindly sapling?
Your root system is your beliefs. The Religion you espouse yourself to be is a belief system. Do you live your beliefs? Or is it a Sunday only kind of thing? Is it a healthy one, or not?
The Aspen trees can become quite big. Yet, when you look at their root system, it is very shallow and small. A strong wind can blow it over.
When you look at a Maple tree, its root system is huge and can be up to 1-1/2 times its height. Strong winds may break off a branch, but not the tree.
Cottonwoods can become rather large. Yet they rot and deteriorate from the inside. When the winds blow them over or break them, they are hollow inside.
Which tree would you want to be most like? Are your beliefs so strong that, though strong winds of life may blow, you are able to bend with the wind and not break? Or is it shallow and built on what others have told you for years? Have you put to use the words so they become part of your story? Or do they lie fallow, like a field that is not planted?
Do you sometimes feel hollow inside? Perhaps you are unsure of yourself and lack confidence in your decision-making capability. Perhaps you have low self esteem, established when others told you that you did not measure up. Believe it or not, these are repairable. You are not doomed to be that way forever.
The sap of the tree is likened to your mind chatter. How is it you are thinking? This is what feeds your tree. Are you sometimes poisoning your tree by condemning yourself for some shortcoming, either perceived or real? Self condemnation is the biggest inhibitor to growth and change that exists.
The leaves are your daily actions, which generate life-giving, spirit-lifting moments and experiences. Do you take action mindfully or do you just slop along, doing what you do without enthusiasm? What do your leaves look like? Are they vibrant and colorful or wilting and sad?
Together, all of these analogies speak to someone who is enjoying their life, whatever that looks like. The trees I speak of are whole beings, and so are you. One cannot take just one element of it and have it survive. It takes the entire system in order to be complete.
Jesus talked many times of ATONEMENT. What if you were to break it apart into AT-ONE-MENT? Would it mean something entirely new to you?
The winds of life come at us every day in varying force and velocity. How you tend to your tree (yourself) will determine how you can survive it, learn from it, and go forth with a happy heart.
Are you willing to look at the elements of your tree: Is your belief system firmly rooted, able to guide you come what may? Do you control your mind chatter, directing it wisely into good channels of thought, or does it control you, dictating to you about every detail of your existence? Are your daily actions mindfully and thoughtfully directed or willy-nilly, being blown every which direction?
Take hope. You can use the power of CHOICE and begin to learn to change whatever you think you need to. Books, teachers, workshops, preachers, etc., can all play a part in your growth. Once you DECIDE to implement some new directions in your life, the LAW OF ATTRACTION will come into play. SERENDIPITY and SYNCHRONICITY will unleash their powers for you.
Are you willing to take a close look at your personal tree of life in order to determine if changes are needed? Is the Status Quo good enough for you? Are you willing to live the way you do for the rest of your life? Only you can answer that question.
Rest assured that growth does, indeed, happen from the inside to the outside of you!
God’s blessings upon your journey!
Colorful Trees
Colorful Leaves
upliftingthoughts4u 