Sometimes it can be a scary thing when we listen to the things we say to ourselves, never mind each other. When we consciously listen to what we are saying to ourselves, we can catch ourselves slipping into a state of negativity. A space when we begin to lie to ourselves. When we hear someone we love start to say negative and self-deprecating things about themselves, we might jump in and help them to look at the space they are in that is enabling them to speak this way about themselves. However, who does it for us, especially when those thoughts are not coming out of our mouths, but just floating around in the back of our head.
Read moreWho are we?
I was watching a 2-minute video by Don Miguel Ruiz called The Truth about Cats and Dogs. He talked about how cats do not identify themselves as cats or dogs as dogs or any animal as a species or series of roles. As we are not a part of those species, we will never know that for sure. However, his whole point was that we are more then any word we use to identify ourselves.
As I thought about this, I found myself going back to a story from the book of Exodus in the Hebrew Bible. There Moses asks God, who shall I say sent me.
Read moreRecapturing I can
For some this may be easier then others, but can you remember a time when you were young and free enough to think you could do anything. Take a moment and remember that time when you could imagine yourself as whatever you chose to be, you could travel to far off places and accomplish amazing things in the world. One of my favorite films is the movie UP! In part because it captures the imaginary and liberating creativity experienced by Elie and Carl as they formed a secret club and fantasized about traveling to Paradise Falls, somewhere in South America, as part of their fantasy of finding the once famous explorer Charles Muntz and his blimp The Spirit of Adventure.
Read moreThe black, white, and greys of life.
It seems as if so many people are searching for the truth. As if there is A truth to any question. As I remember reading somewhere once, when we stop looking the minute we find a right answer, then we miss all the other right answers. Sometimes it feels as if we are on this question to prove what we know or how we do something is the right way and the way that will lead to eternal truth. That leads me to a question, which I know I will not be able to answer here and that is what truth is.
Read moreThe Lens of Love
Whenever I go to the ophthalmologist’s office, they check my eyes to see how my vision is doing. While they are able to see behind my eye and assess all kinds of information about my vision, they are unable to assess how I see people. see there is more to our vision then just whether or not it is 20/20 or if we need corrective lenses or contacts to enable us to see better. When it comes to seeing others or ourselves the only lens we need to wear is a lens of love.
How we see others and ourselves is about us and where we are at in our journeys. If we cannot see ourselves through a lens of love, then how can we see others through that lens? The lens of love is unconditional. Some refer to this as agape love, a love that transcends the ability to be frustrated. It cannot be frustrated because there is no expectation attached to it. When we see others and ourselves through this lens of unconditional love, it means we have released our expectations for others and ourselves. When we see ourselves getting frustrated with someone because they have not fulfilled my expectations, it is a signal that our love for them conditional.
Read moreYou are the answer to your prayer!
Recently I read someone’s blog where they spoke about how they were waiting for God to hear and answer their prayers. As I read it, I had this image of God as a virtual assistant. Then I had this kind of comedic conversation going on in my head. “God, thank you for checking in this morning. Listen, this is what I need you to do for me. I need you to find a job for the people on this list, heal the people on this list, bless the people on this list, and in your spare time, can you end world hunger, restore world peace, dismantle the systems of inequality, and help it to be on earth as it is in heaven
Read moreBe a Leap Frog
When I taught Sunday School to youth, which now seeks multiple reiterations of my life ago, I talked with the children about being a FROG. This was an acronym for being Fully Reliant On God. So often, even as adults, we need to be reminded of the need to be receptive each moment to our connection to the Divine. Amazing things happen in our lives when we stay Fully Reliant on the Divine/God/Higher Power.
As a child, we used to play Leap Frog. Sometimes we would leap forward in baby leaps.
Read moreJudging Others is Judging Self
I have been rereading sections of a book from last month’s Spirituality Book Club called Dancing with your Dragon by Shaeri Richards. One section made me realize that when I judge others I am really judging myself. Shaeri shares the story about how she could have so easily gotten into an argument with her husband over whether or not her butt was looking too big. As she wrote about it, this was a no win situation for him, because no matter what he said it was not going to be what she needed to hear. Even if he said of course not dear, she would not believe him. How she heard how he answered this question was all about her, and had very little to do with him.
Read moreHave you broke free?
When you look back across time, one finds a trail of people who have broke loose from the shackles that were on their body, mind, and soul. They broke loose from society’s expectations of them and societal norms. They had a vision of what they were to do, took a leap of faith, and have contributed to the change they wanted to see in the world. They did as Ghandi had suggested and became the change they wanted to see in the world.
Read moreLoving my “enemies”
Most people I know, when they think about their “enemies,” do not talk about loving them. What if we did though? What if we put our “enemies” on the top of our prayer list and blessed them? Why is it that every faith tradition in the world teaches one to love their “enemies”? Is there even an “enemy?”
Iyanla Vanzant once wrote about being grateful for those who got on your last nerve. I could not agree more. I have learned so much from those I had once considered my “enemies.”
Read moreDecoding your Spiritual DNA
Last week, I challenged us to activate our spiritual DNA. The question, however, is how does one do that. While there are some questions we can each meditate on and explore, the journey to activate our spiritual DNA is different for each of us. This is not a one size fits all kind of journey. One of the books I have been reading is called Soul Types by Robert Norton and Richard Southern. They suggest there are four soul types, which are the ways in which we live out our identity, values, purpose, and vision. All four types reside within each of us as possibilities, but most of us choose one or two to focus on more directly. Each one is centered on something different: heart, mind, soul, and strength.
Read moreActivate your DNA
Are you ready to activate your DNA? When I ask about activating your DNA, I am not asking about your genetic DNA, but your spiritual DNA. We are far more then our genetic coding. Our genetic coding also contains spiritual coding from the Divine buried within us, like a treasure in a clay jar. It has always been there waiting for us to choose to connect with it, cultivate it, activate it, and express it in our lives. While our genetic DNA makes us candidates for all kinds of traits in our lives, our spiritual DNA makes a perfect candidate for enlightenment and transformation. Those qualities and traits will lay dormant in us until we choose to activate them. We are the ones who have to choose to engage in a spiritual journey. Until we do, our spiritual DNA lies dormant.
Read moreWhere Joy Resides
During our love and inspiration gathering on Sunday, April 1st one of the women in our gathering suggested that on the 8th (Easter Sunday for those who celebrate Easter) we have a dinner instead of our morning gathering. With the group’s enthusiastic approval, as well as my wife’s endorsement pending my willingness to make my baked ham and seven cheese mac and cheese, we agreed to do so. Shortly after some of our guests arrived and the abundance of food was on the table, one of our guests received a call from a family member in crisis and she needed to call 911. Our guests responded in different ways. One woman asked me for assistance with 911. Another began crying because it stimulated some of her past behavior. A third one felt helpless because she was not sure how to help her niece.
Read moreWhat are you filling up with?
The other night I was watching a commercial with all these people filling their gas tanks. It made me think about how what we put in our car, and the ability to keep the tank full of the right kind of gasoline, will determine how smoothly, if at all, our cars run. If there is no gas in the tank, one is not going anywhere and then winds up reaching out for help.
In some respects, this is like our lives. We are what flows through us.
Read moreWhere do you live?
This past week, I have had a chance to talk with a wide diversity of people with differing attitudes about life. Some of them seem to be living in a garden where life is blooming and others seem to be living in a minefield where they are waiting for the next bomb in life to go off. So where are you living? Are you living in a garden, a minefield, or a prison?
Minefields are loaded with bombs hidden under the terrain. When one steps on a mine, you can be blown up by bombs of worry, doubt, fear, lack, and limitation.
Read moreDon’t Worry, Be Happy!
It’s funny how sometimes those one hit wonders from your past come back and speak to you spiritually. For some reason I have found myself hearing the tune to Don’t Worry, Be Happy playing in my head. It is hard to be fully living when we are spending our time worrying. If I were to write the song today, I would call it Don’t Worry, Live Fully!
I found the lyrics to the song and realized they are just as relevant now as they were then.
Here is a little song I wrote
Read moreIntegrity and Integration
I woke up this morning with this epiphany I had to share with a friend. The funny thing is my epiphanies tend to be things I knew at some level, but then rise to the top of my consciousness. This is what I remembered this morning about truth. We are to be about truth. We are to be about speaking from a place of truth. Not just our truth, but THE truth. Sometimes we might like to say we are the sole possessors of the truth, but like so many others, we are on a journey, which is constantly revealing new understandings and new insights about THE truth. Everyone, even those we do not necessarily agree with can have an insight into truth we do not have. What is important is that we always conduct our search for truth guided by the principles of love
As we conduct our search, we may find ourselves living with greater and more conscious levels of integrity. Integrity is about wholeness and authenticity.
Read more37 Seconds To Read: May Change Your View For A Lifetime
I shared this story on Sunday at Love and Inspiration and it was suggested I post it here as well. I found it one of the websites which I read periodically.
37 Seconds To Read: May Change Your View For A Lifetime
Two men, both seriously ill, occupied the same hospital room.
One man was allowed to sit up in his bed for an hour each afternoon to help drain the fluid from his lungs.
His bed was next to the room’s only window
The other man had to spend all his time flat on his back.
Read moreWhat are you aligned with?
Michael Beckwith once wrote, “The daily headlines describe a global culture that has been cur off from the soul.” One need not look farther then the headlines on any form of news media for stories about violence, whether it is overt, subtle, verbal, physical, emotional, psychological, or spiritual. We manifest violence through our words, actions, and thoughts. Violence is associated with power, either the misuse of the power one has or an attempt to feel powerful in a world where they have felt disempowered. Violence can be individual or structural. We hear about individual violence in stories of wars, abuse, neglect, murders, rapes, bombings, terrorism, etc.
Read moreMission Possible
Henry Ford once said “whether you think can or can’t, you’re right.” We have each been created for a purpose. We each have a specific mission we were born to fulfill. Some of us believe that mission is possible and others believe it is impossible. Whether you think you have been assigned mission possible or impossible you are right. Like the team on mission impossible, we are each given a mission should we choose to accept it.
At some point in time, we probably heard the directions directly from the Creator before the tape self-destructed. However, remnants of that directive linger within each of us. You may experience this impulse to manifest something. You might feel compelled to create something. You might feel as if you are being called on a quest of some type. The mission is yours should you choose to accept it. Sometimes one might feel reluctant. One might question as to whether or not we have the skills and gifts to fulfill this mission.
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