REMAINING CENTERED

How do we remain calm and self assured when all hell's breaking loose around us? I know for me it does take quite a bit of adjusting at times just to remain at peace on the inside as well as the outer.But I do believe at the same time that there is a place within my innermost being that cannot ever be roiled up by anything that is going on in this 3 dimesional world. And it remains my burden to see that I always keep this sacred place unsoiled by any one or anything.And this is a burden I gladly bear! One of my favorite authors Kahlil Gibran, AKA The Prophet, has stated the following:"We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them." How true he is, how true! And from the Science of Mind comes this jewel:No matter what our emotional storm, or what our objective situation may be, there is always a something hidden in the inner being that has never been violated. Now that is a very reassuring statement. My hope for each of you kind folks is that you have discovered this "inner" place of your own and that you can always turn to it at any given time to remind yourself that all is well in your life now and forever! And please remember to try and do at least one good thing for someone today just because you can and that you wish to!

THE IMPULSE OF LOVE

Everything good created has risen from the state of love.Simply put pure and perfect love is the cornerstone of all that is right with us and the world we are now in.George Sand has stated the following:" There is only one happiness in life, to love and be loved." I agree completely. And in the Science of Mind textbook comes this quote:Love is the sole impulse for creation..... So whatever your condition, your status in life, or whatever anything, whatever you do, do it with love and out of love, and then it will be a gift to all of us!

YOU ARE A STAR IN MY WORLD

As human beings I think we are often guilty of thinking we are the center of everything that is going on. At least it feels that way to us.I mean its human nature to feel our problems are the "biggest" our ideas are the "grandest" and our stories should be front and center.But I think in reality we must realize that we are all a part of everything that is, and no more nor no less important than anyone or anything else.From the Science of Mind comes this quote: Man(woman) already has, within himself, the key to freedom, But he must come to realize his relation to the Whole. This relationship is one of complete Unity. So my hope is that today all of us can see and truly feel our relationship to ALL and start to treat things as the treasures they really are. I will leave you with another quote that I absolutely love. It comes from Joan Borysenko who states the following:"When we begin to think more about the interdependence of things, we take our place as one more star in a magnificent universe, rather than as the sun around  which the universe revolves. Our heart grows peaceful." I now leave all of you with thoughts of love peace and joy. If you can then right now try to do something nice for someone and I guarantee that will make you feel more like the bright shining star that you truly are!

LESS MAY BE MORE

As human beings we seem to be tied to our possessions and find that we spend a lot of our time trying to make more money so we can get more possessions.Then we find our possessions are not really making us happy so waht do we do? Yeah, we go and amass more stuff thinking it will surely make us happy this time.And no matter how much money we have we seem to always want more. Not that there is anything wrong with wanting to be wealthy but we must be careful so that we dont spend all our precious time working harder to just have more money. I will leave you with a quote from George Santayana who stated: "I like to walk among the beautiful things that adorn the world; but private wealth I should decline, or any sort of personal possessions, because they would take away my liberty." I leave all of you with thoughts of love , peace, and happiness to you and yours. And please try and do something nice for someone today just for the heck of it!

HOW DO YOU MEND A BROKEN HEART

Allow me to take a wild guess here and say that either you or someone you know has been the victim of a broken heart at least once.If not, then you are probably very young, very fortunate, or you wont allow yourself to get close enough to another person to risk becoming a victim.I would not be afraid to say that almost everybody will at one time in their life have to deal with overcoming a broken heart.We are just made that way I think.Yes I know there are some folks who just dont seem to love anybody and say they will never have a broken heart, and that could be true. But in any case like that I truly feel bad for that person who will not at least give true love a chance. Love is the most powerful force in the Universe.I really do believe that.Fear will run a close second I imagine but real love can just do so many wonderful things.But how do you mend a heart that has been broken? I wish I had an answer that would do justice to that question but Im afraid I don't.I do know that I have suffered a broken heart so many years ago and at that time in my life I really didnt know if I was going to recover or not.It was definately the hardest thing I ever had to overcome while at the same time it was the "best" thing that ever happened to me. I know that sounds like an oxymoron but it is the truth.Because during that time of healing I was forced to take a closer look at who I really was, what I truly wanted to become, and how to make sure I never had to deal with a broken heart again.Believe me it was a struggle, especially right after  the loss of the loved ones who had left me to pursue other adventures in life.I think when someone is faced with divorce, a death, or seperation it usually puts the person in a state of shock.I remember reading where this term was referred to as "love shock". But I think what happens is that nature tries to protect us from ourselves and when first faced with loss the shock keeps us from acting too irrational. After the initial recovery from this state of shock we usually go into a state of anger,usually directed to the person or persons who have broken our heart, and thats when we tend to do a lot of irrational stuff.You know, like writing dumb letters to the person who has left us. Or calling and then hanging up when they answer the phone. Or telling everyone we dont really care and then try to act like we are happy.Then after spending way too much time trying to win this person back(why would we want someone who has told us they dont give a damn about us?) wse finally resign ourselves to the fact we are once again "alone" We swear we will never love again simply because it hurts too damn bad when love goes wrong. Well, I am only speaking from my personal experiences and I know things are different in each case and with each person.But one thing I really would like to share with anyone who is at this time recovering from a broken heart is this:You will get through this!No matter how sad or bad you feel you will make it!You've gotta keep your mind focused on that one certainty-You will survive! But I might suggest that the walls you build to protect yourself from experiencing this pain ever again are not so fortified that you refuse to give love another chance.Years ago when I was struggling trying to recover I already knew that I would love again and take a nother chance because without love I didn't want to survive.So I went through those trials one minute at a time, I cried, I laughed, I listened to those old blues songs(amazing how much comfort one can get by listening to others sing or talk about struggling with the thing you are now going through) I visited with friends and family, I stayed home alone and meditated, I wrote silly poems and stories, I guess I just did whatever I could to get through another day and night.I still was fractured on the inside and it hurt like hell to go to bed every night to once again face all those old hurtful feelings once again.But you know what, I began to see that the harshness of those hurt feelings started to diminish. I was getting over losing the ones I loved. The bad feelings started to wane and I was getting better day by day then two by two and one I woke up and I knew I was healed enough to once again look for companionship.I took the lessons from my "lost love" and made sure I didn't make the same mistakes over. I took full responsibility for my part in the seperation and learned a lot about myself in the process.From the time I suffered my"loss" until I once again found true love was about 4 years. It seemed lots longer then but now I see it was only a fleeting part of my experience here.And all the "good" I got from suffering through this sure made it all worthwhile! Im just so thankful I was able to give love one more chance because if I had not done that I would never have met my true soulmate who has now been by my side for almost 17 years.And yes, she is indeed an angel and I rest assured she will always be here with me forever!Yes broken hearts are indeed the worse kind of pain any  person will ever have to endear.But if you do ever find yourself being a victim of love please remember-you will get better, the shock will wear off, and you can if you so choose love again. And I do hope all of you will never give up on love because without love nothing else matters! I will close by saying this-if you are now in a loving relationship give your partner a big hug and tell him or her just how much you love them. And if you have not yet found the "right" one for you please remember that in times all good things come to those who are patient.And if, Heaven forbid, you are now going through a divorce or seperation,  please try to remember that love truly does heal all wounds.And do not forget just how powerful a person you are when you allow the perfect Love of the Universe to flow freely through you and tehn outward again to gently touch each soul you may encounter along lifes way.I leave you all with thoughts of love, peace, and joy. If you have a free moment how about doing something really nice for another.Anything it doesnt have to cost money, it dont have to be anything complex, just a warm smile at the person standing next to you in the grocery line, or holding the door open for someone to enter, or by placing a call to an old friend,you get the picture Im sure. And guess what? By doing nice things for others who knows-you may just find Mr or Mrs Right.But dont do the thing itself expecting to get something back. Instead just give freely of yourself with no expectations of any kind because that is the real gift.You do this often enough and Im sure you will finally realize the people you are being nice to are actually giving the best gift to you! That being the opportunity to grow both as a human being and as a spiritual being.The best to all of you my friends and fellow travelers.

OLD FRIENDS

There is no friend like an old friend! It's such a blessing thinking of all the friends I have made in this life. Some spent several years of being close friends, some spent a few years or months or perhaps just for a couple of days. No matter how long our friendship lasted nor why we seemed to have grown apart, I stilll think of all of them from time to time.I think of the joys we shared, the hard times we shared, and all other times we were together. And yes, I was truly blessed that each one of them were willing to share a part of their life with me. I learned so much from all of them and in some way all of them have helped me to become a much better human being! And whenever I take a moment to call or visit with any of my "old" friends its like we had never parted at all.To all my dear friends of today,yesterday, and tomorrow I want you to know just how much I love each  and every one of you! And my dear readers, may I suggest that if you want a quick pick-me-up today, just take a moment and call or visit an old friend and then you will see what a joy friends truly are. Why not make that call right now!!Believe me, it will make you feel so much better about everything. I leave you all with love and best wishes.

FORGIVENESS

"Well it's alright riding around in the breeze, and its alright if you live the life you please"
"And it's alright, remember to live and let live, and its alright, the best you can do is forgive"

Those lyrics from the song The End of the Line by the Traveling Wilburys has so much truth in them I thougth I'd use it with today's blog entry.Why is forgiveness so necessary for one's peace of mind? I believe that if we hold any grudges or ill feeling towards any of our human brothers and sisters that it will eventually eat away at our inner peace and contentment until it destroys us completely.Why is it so hard for us to forgive another who has wronged us in any way? I cant answer that question for you but it seems that we as human beings it is ingrained in us to "get even" or to exact revenge. If someone does something to bring us harm then by all means we feel it is necessary to get back at them in some way. And this I personally feel is the wrong way for us to react.I agree with you that at times others do things that are not very nice and cause us to suffer in one way or another. And I must admit that my first impulse is to "pay them back" in like manner.But in my life I have found that as long as I have those kind of feelings I am never gonna be entirely happy and at peace with myself.So does that mean I should just accept the "hurt" another has cause and go about my business as if nothing has happened? No, I dont feel that is the right thing to do but I do feel as if I should work on forgiving that person and then just let it go while at the same time remembering things as they happened so I can protect myself from getting hurt again by the same person.This forgiveness thing can be very tricky also. There have been times in my life when I truly felt I had totally forgiven someone but later find those old feelings (or grudges) again surfacing.It is just too easy to tell oneself they have forgiven another when in reality they are only trying to fool themself into believing that they have . I feel true forgiveness is when we can see the offending party as only reacting to things in their own way and that even tho we dont want to be around them, if by chance we find ourselves in the same room we can still treat that person with dignity and class. And that means being able to accept them as a fellow human being even after they have done something horrible to us.Now why should we forgive anyone if they treat us mean?The biggest reason I feel is not because they deserve our forgiveness but because as long as we hold on to those old hurts then the offending party is still winning!I have seen people carry a lifetime grudge against someone and the person they hate is not even aware of the animosity sent their way. While the offended one or the grudge holder is punishing themselves every day by hanging on to those negative hateful thoughts that soon erode their happiness and peace of mind. I think it would be better for that person to truly forgive the other and just go about thir lives with a lot more peace and contentment in thier lives. Remember, the best revenge is living well!Someone has done you wrong so be it!Dont give them another chance to hurt you again but try your best to forgive.That way you can live well and the offending person will not get the satisfaction of knowing they have hurt you time and time again simply because you continue to carry around all those negative feelings. Free yourself today from all bondage of past hurts and grudges by just letting yourself truly forgive, and I believe you will find life a lot more pleasant. And if you really want to "get back" at those who have offended you in any way, then do something nice for them when they least expect it. And as you learn to forgive and let live please try to remember to do something nice for someone every day just because you can! Best wishes to all!