Another Tale that I just have to Share

I first heard this story about two months ago.   It was one of the most significant stories that I have ever heard.  Perhaps you will enjoy it as well.

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A wise woman, who was traveling in the mountains, found a precious stone in a stream.
She reverently placed the gem in her bag.

The next day, she met another traveller, who was hungry.

The wise woman opened her bag to share her food.

The hungry traveller saw the precious stone in the wise woman's bag,

admired it, and asked the wise woman to give it to him.

The wise woman did so without hesitation.

The traveller left, rejoicing in his good fortune.

He knew the jewel was worth enough to give him security for the rest of his life. 

But a few days later, he came back, searching for the wise woman.

When he found her, he returned the stone and said,

"I have been thinking. I know how valuable the stone is, but I would like to

exchange it in the hope that you can give me something much more precious.

If you can, teach me the secrets about the power you have within you, the power that enabled you to, without hesitation, give me this precious stone."

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Would you be able to give up guaranteed wealth in favor of another?   It is a difficult question.  The answer that you come up with may surprise you.

Another Train of Thought

I know that I talk about having certain trains of thought.   It is just that again I found myself going down a train that had to be derailed.

I woke up and felt miserable.   Fever, aches, fatigue like you wouldn't believe.   That happens sometimes.  However, when I thought about how bad I felt, I felt worse.

This is sort of how my mind went this morning:

I am cold.   I am sweaty.  I am tired.   I wonder if I have a fever (got up to check)...yes I do.   Not too high, but it may get worse.   Should I go to work?  I don't want to spread what I have.   I really need to rest.   Yes rest.  Plus, I ache all over.   (Suddenly I realize how much I ache all over.)

This is just a snippet of self-talk.   It is amazing how much worse I felt after about 15 minutes of this.   Then I was reminded that I had to go to work.   It was important.   It was not something I could miss.

So I changed my thinking.

I am awake.  I will wake up more in the shower.   I have control over my thoughts.   I must take responsibility for how I react to my body.  I need to be dependable to the people in my life.   My body will get along without me worrying about it so much.

And so....

I got ready, got in the car, and went to work.  I survived the half-day that I needed to be there.

Now what have I learned from this?

I can make myself worse by thinking sick thoughts, or I can get through the day if I think about positive, healthy thoughts.   It is always my choice!  

It is always your choice!

Understanding...rather than Assuming

I have already talked about when I should shut up and when not to.   Well, it came up again. 

I was talking with an acquaintance of mine and we were talking about belief, faith, and religion.   Yes, a loaded subject. 

He basically said that since I thought the way I thought, that is why so many bad things have happened in my life.

I felt immediately offended.   Then I had the opportunity to take some time and think about how to respond.

If I responded in anger, would it solve anything?   Well, I am standing up for myself aren't I?  This guy deserves it, attacking my beliefs!   But....it would only escalate the discussion or stop it dead in it's tracks.   Plus, I really didn't feel like getting angry.

What if I responded, like I normally do, with passivity.   Does this help things?   Not really.   Even though I will have avoided conflict my not saying anything at all, the statement still caused me some pain.  I still hurt, and the other person will be unaware of their effect on me.  Plus, I may start harboring resentment against them because I have not dealt with my own emotions over this.

Ok.  Let me put my reaction aside.   This other person did not cause my offense, I chose to take it to be offensive.   Is what I am going to say going to be just to tell them how they are wrong, or not tell them anything but think they are wrong or cruel?   Will it bring any peace either way?   No.   However, do I think that they need to hear what they said again, but from me?  Not including the emotional overtones, but simply a reflection of what I heard?  No judgment, just a request for clarification?    Yes.

So, I did reflect back to them what I heard them say.   I also asked if this was correct.  Did they mean to say this?   The answer was no.   The conversation continued and a potential misunderstanding was averted.

Now to many of you this may sound like conversation 1.01.   However, to me it is really a new approach to things.  I always was passive, sometimes passive aggressive when similar situations arose before.   Now, I am finally able to choose differently.   To choose the path of understanding, rather than assumption.

Models

Our minds are confronted with millions of stimuli every moment.   Thousands of discreet objects are caught by our senses, and judged immediately.   Most are judged so quickly as unimportant that we rarely remember even seeing, hearing or feeling them.  Our minds have become very good at taking a "snapshot" of reality and then categorizing, labeling, sorting them based on our models.

Models are the small representations of what we experience in the world.   Like a snow-globe, they are miniaturized, abstracts of larger experiences.   For example, the model child, the model girl, the model boy, the model bad driver, the model house, the model car, the model relationship.   These models are made by us to represent our reality.   There is nothing wrong with having them. until they interfere with our relationships.

If I see a beautiful woman and my mind automatically applied the model of "beautiful woman" to her, I may instantly ascribe to her characteristics that she may not possess.   If that model for beautiful woman includes the assumptions that she cannot be intelligent because she is beautiful, or that she must have been pampered throughout her whole life and therefore would be quite shallow, it would be a grave disservice to both of us.  I would pass these feelings on to her if I talked with her and she, being aware of my reservations, would become guarded or uncomfortable around me.   We would both loose out in getting to know one another for who we are.

On the other hand, people see me and they have models in their head where I would be placed.   Depending on that model, I could be a model geek, a model artist, a model "new age nut", or a model Bible-thumper.   Who knows.   If they talked with me, I may feel that they are not comfortable, or I would feel ill-at-ease and that would make them feel the same way.   Again, we would both loose out on getting to know the other.

Model are necessary.   We need to put things in boxes, labels or cubby-holes because we would not be able to process this world without that.   However, knowing when to discard those models is the trick.

The Crucible of Change

Change happens whether we like it to or not.

But in what environment can we change the best?

I have looked over my life and have found that the most significant changes happened when I was in a crucible of a mixture of failure, paralysis, fear, and ironically love.

Whether it was a person who I felt loved me, or that I once again remembered that God loved me, the love itself allowed the fear to subside to the point that I could take an honest assessment of myself.   Before love arrived, I was paralyzed into repeating the same behavior, the same set of thoughts that created the situation in the first place.  I cannot correct a problem with the same mind and heart that created it.   I had to change to recognize a need for change.

Then the love acted as the walls of the crucible.   Without the overpowering fear, running away, denial, repression, or depression could not occur.  I could look at the problem face on and not flee.   Most of the time, the love I felt also cut through the background fear, self-protectiveness, and self-limiting thoughts that did not allow a solution to be seen before.  

Once I saw the way to another way of living, getting beyond that problem or life-situation, then again love (for myself and my own well-being) gave me the energy to make a plan for change and to implement it.  

Many people say that one of the greatest fears is that of being alone.   I can empathize with that.   Without another being or source of love, change is very difficult indeed.   In fact, the option for change may not even be recognized and people are left in mute misery.   What is important here is not that you believe in God, or even something greater than yourself (though that helps) but that you recognize and let in the love from others in your life.   Even the kindness from a stranger can begin a series of events that may fundamentally change your life forever.   Or, in my case, a continual bombardment of love and support for years upon years to get through my stubborn self.

Other people cannot change you.   However, their love and support can be the crucible for your self-change.

What is the value of a good memory?

I have a really good memory.   It is nice to have.   However, it is also a liability.   I don't get to select what I want to remember from what I would not like to remember.   It can get a little depressing if I go back into some memories.

What use is a good memory?

I have found lately that I can recall some of the happiest times in my life with great detail.   The people, the situations, the smells, the colors, the location, the physical sensations at the time.   Wonderful and vivid memories. 

In fact, the more I concentrate on the good memories, the less temptation is there to revisit the not-so-good memories.   The more times I choose to recall good, the less I recall of the bad.

For example, I can remember some times when growing up that I got so angry at my parents that I called them every name in the book.   Yet, when I was asked the other day about what I remembered from growing up with them, I remembered the great things.  The model rocketry, the airplane flights, the dolphin rides in the pool, changing the oil in the truck together, playing in the snow, arts and crafts, play dough, Christmas.   They all came with a swiftness and clarity that I found that I could not remember any negative thoughts at all.

I am not saying I had any traumatic memories.   No.   I had a fairly great childhood.   I am saying that now that my mind is used to recalling good memories, it recalls them first and formost in any trip down memory lane.

"The only use of memory is to remember the times that you loved and were loved."
- A Course in Miracles

Another journey into Poetic Forms

Seconds
Breathe in....Breathe out...
A moment for peace...
Chaos is tomorrow and Regret is Yesterday
Now is for peace...

Minutes
Breathe in....Breathe out...
Longer stay in the garden of now
Shades of the past are less distinct
The next day's shadow is shorter

Hours
Breathe in...Breathe out...
continuity....foundation...cooling breeze
Today is best for Today.
Life is about being here now.

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I try to practice being peace.   Being love.   Being compassion.   Starting out, I have to remind myself of this way of thinking about 100 times a day.  This poem is just a reminder to myself that the longer I stay in this mode of thought, the less yesterday and tomorrow can affect me.

Hey.  If you have your own poem, I will post it.   I am always interested in feedback and creativity in all its wonderful guises.

A Reprint of - If the World Were a Villiage

Even though this has been out on the Internet for a while, I thought it was perfect to reprint in my blog.   It got me thinking a lot about my own life and the attitude of gratitude I want to foster.

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All Credit and Due for The Family Care Foundation

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If the World Were a Village of 100 People
If we could reduce the world’s population to a village of precisely 100 people, with all existing human ratios remaining the same, the demographics would look something like this:
The village would have 60 Asians, 14 Africans, 12 Europeans, 8 Latin Americans, 5 from the USA and Canada, and 1 from the South Pacific

51 would be male, 49 would be female

82 would be non-white; 18 white

67 would be non-Christian; 33 would be Christian

80 would live in substandard housing

67 would be unable to read

50 would be malnourished and 1 dying of starvation

33 would be without access to a safe water supply

39 would lack access to improved sanitation

24 would not have any electricity (And of the 76 that do
have electricity, most would only use it for light at night.)

7 people would have access to the Internet

1 would have a college education

1 would have HIV

2 would be near birth; 1 near death

5 would control 32% of the entire world’s wealth; all 5 would be US citizens

33 would be receiving --and attempting to live on-- only 3% of the income of “the village”

When Silence Becomes Me...

Do you know of a person who always blurts out facts, figures, points, historical tidbits, and statistics to prove his or her point.   In other words, do you know of a smart person who will not allow you or anyone else to forget that they are smart?

I used to be that person.

There were very few conversations in which I would not fail to say such things like, "Did you know that in the 1800's....." and "But the Carpathians didn't do it that way; they....." 

Annoying isn't it!

In the goal of becoming better than I was, I have asked God to remove the need for me to be right, or sound intelligent, or just show off my intelligence.   This time I really meant it.  You know, this time it worked.

The other day I was having dinner and at the table with me were two engineers.   One was a retired structural engineer and the other was a retired nuclear engineer.    At any other time in my life this would have been heaven.  I could have impressed two engineers with my knowledge.   However, this time things were a bit different.   I sat and listened.   Really listened to what they were saying.   All the diatribe that would usually be going through my head and the conversational pauses I would listen for in order to interject my 10 cents of knowledge, I let go by.   I did not have any desire to talk.   No desire to show these heavyweights that there was another intellectual contender.   I was simply interested in what they had to say.

Now this may sound like a small thing to some of you.   To me it is a breakthrough.   I can be a better listener simply because I don't feel like I have to prove anything to myself.   Especially how intelligent or how not intelligent I am.

Trust me.   Some of your comments have made me humble.   There are those of you out there that are truly intelligent.   That give more thought to things than I ever have given.

I hope to be a better listener, and more humble when listening to others.   My goal is to be kind rather than right.

Love....and Love....and Love again

I have heard about many forms of meditation.   Some are very reasonable to me.   Others are somewhat esoteric.  Some involve only yourself and others involve aromas, candles, roots, fire, smoke, you name it.

I like the simple ones.   The ones that you don't have to go to Bed Bath and Beyond to get the trappings.  Ones that are just me and myself.

I tried one the other day that seemed somewhat simple and even childish (this is my ego talking here!)  One is suppose to use it when someone in your life gets you upset, rubs you the wrong way, etc.  I thought I would give the old college try.

It involves nothing more than keeping a running word going through your mind.   That's it!   Repeating a word, over and over, in your mind.   Even I couldn't mess this one up!

So the word?   Love.

Yep.

Love.

Everytime I would think about this person in my life that made me feel aggravated I would start repeating in my mind Love....Love.....Love.....etc.

I felt silly the first 100 times I said it.   Then I put it to music.  I would pick themes from TV shows and replace all the lyrics with "LOVE".  Try that with Gilligan's Island or The Jeffersons or even Hawaii-5-O.

I found that after about an hour I felt love toward this person.   In fact, every time I thought about them I would smile because in my mind the connection was no longer with the aggravation I had previously associated with them, but the silly and ultimately fun repetition of Love in my mind.

I had to watch when I was doing it though.  I had lunch at a restaurant and almost called the waitress "Love" without realizing it.  Oh my!   I could just picture that that would be the day that I was pulled over by the police and addressed the officer as "Love".   So many funny possibilities.


Anyhow, back to the subject.


Try this meditation.   The least thing that will happen is that you feel a little foolish.   The most....that perhaps you feel love toward that person, over and above whatever they did to aggravate you.

Don't dare to think of yourself as less than magnificent!

Don't dare to think of yourself as less than magnificent!
-author unknown

This saying blows me away.   I do not know the context, the reason why it was said, but it hits me like a ton of bricks.

First, the author says "Don't dare!"  Like she (or he) won't tolerate thinking other than those thoughts toward yourself that are magnificent.   What a statement!  

Second, that there is a fundamental problem with anyone thinking of themselves as something less than magnificent.   Like by thinking otherwise, we are violating a fundamental law of the universe.

I love this statement.   It shakes me out of the common, everyday thoughts that seem to run through my head.   Trust me, those thoughts are less than magnificent!  I need someone to remind me that there are some fundamental truths that exist whether I think they pertain to me or not.

1.  I am a magnificent creation.  

What are the chances that of all the billions upon billions of cells and billions upon billions of chemical processes taking place, that I am even alive.   How much more remote a chance that I am alive at this time and place.   On top of it all, that I am not only a collection of cells, but that I can think, reason, feel, perceive myself, perceive the world around me. 

2.  I recognize that others are magnificent

Not only is it beyond wonderful that I am a magnificent creation, but that there are 6 billion other people on this planet that are just as magnificent.   This really blows me away.  I could see myself as a cosmic accident.   Perhaps a bit of information that just happened to find a body; a bit of spirit that found the flesh it needed to be aware of itself in this time and space.   But 6 billion!   There is a purpose there!   6 billion spirits having 6 billion human experiences.   My mind is boggled!

If anyone knows who said this quote or from where it came, please tell me!   I would love to know!

What is up with this Guy's Head?

You may wonder what in the world I am writing. Each time I write it is a little different. Sometimes it is very different.

If you come away from a reading, scratching your head, thinking that I am a confused and sometimes warped individual, YOU ARE COMPLETELY SANE.

Yes. You are normal. Relax.

Now for the rest of you......

Many of us have these chaotic minds. Some 60000 thoughts go through our heads every day. Yep, 60000! For many of us they include some 900 or so that are completely insane.

Let me say this again.

In cognitive psychology, it has been shown that about 1.5% of our thoughts have no basis or relation to reality, logic, reason, or understanding. In fact, this small percentage of thoughts act as a pressure release valve for our sanity. One of the worst things to do is to have 100% sane thoughts. You'd go crazy!

In light of this, I must be really sane! I think my thoughts are at about 3% insane. I find immeasurable comfort in this thought.

You just happen to be the recipients of some of that 3% in these blogs. Lucky you! (as you roll your eyes).

It is from the illogical, disconnected, insane thoughts that creativity, passion, wonderful works of the soul seem to happen. (I'm still waiting.)

Celebrate the fact that you are partially crazy. It is one of the most important steps to being mentally healthy!

Unlearning Conditional Love

When I was born I was loved unconditionally by my parents. As a baby, I was totally dependent on them for all my needs, and had the bonus of being loved, regardless of what I did or how I acted.

Later on, I learned that most people do not have unconditional love for others. There were conditions to everything.

If I didn't hit the ball and get a run in tee-ball, I wasn't given and encouragement. I was ignored. That is until I hit the ball directly to 1st base and I got an out. Then it was negative attention.

In school, if I didn't make my letters a certain way, the teacher yelled at me. Again, another condition be being felt loved, or in this case unloved.

With friends, I learned that if I played the games that they wanted they liked spending time with me. If I played what I wanted, they lost interest or made excuses to not play with me.

These kind of situations molded my behavior away from expecting unconditional love and acceptance to knowing that for people to like me, I had to meet their expectations.

Now I am learning that I can choose to not put conditions on how I love other people. I cannot change other people and the conditions they may put on relationships, but I can change myself.

There are times that I feel aggravated with others, when I feel that I have been unfairly treated. The knee-jerk response is to feel the same way toward the other person. Eye for an eye. Anger for anger.

One pledge that I have made is to try to ask myself what would a person who loved unconditionally do in each of these instances.

I have found that I need to give up my ego to do what love would do. That is the most difficult part. My ego wants to fight. To protect itself. To throw a punch when it feels like it has been hit.

I still have to give up my ego! I need an ego-extomy.

It is very difficult sometimes, but when it works, there is instant forgiveness, peace, and a sense of love and all the other negative feelings disappear. (I tell myself this several times a day. It is the ammunition to use against my ego. As love increases, my ego looses it power.)

I Believe in You vs. I Know From You

I want to compare two things.

Sometimes people say to you "I believe in you!" It is great to hear. It is optimistic. Sometimes it is inspiring. However, it is a statement of faith. I have faith that you will do this this time. There is a definite time and place to use this statement.

There is another that is used very rarely, but means something a little different.

"I know from you that....."

For example, instead of using "I believe that you will make up with your sister." someone may say, "I know from you that you are the kind of person who will make things right with your sister."

What is the difference?

The first statement is one of faith.

The second statement is one of knowing.

To believe in something is to put energy toward that belief. It is a leap of faith.

To know something is to have a conviction that something already exists. It takes no energy. It is a simple statement of fact.

Now think of those situations where the knowing of something is preferable to the belief in something.

Conversely, think of those situations where belief is preferable to knowing.

It make you think (well, it makes me think!).

Two Perspectives using Poetry

Tattering and Rickety
Well Worn on the rungs of time
Shuddering and Creaking
Old Ghost of forgotten crimes.

Wind Blown and Barely Standing
A Proclamation of Decay
Sand Streaked and Broken
The End of the Final Day

It is sometimes amazing what kind of imagery comes up when I read some poems. The one above I created to try to reproduce a certain feeling.

When you read it, think about what feelings and pictures come to mind.
Now compare that to the following poem:


Popping and Wobbly
Many steps in splendor care
Vibrating and Singing
Well spent memories shared

Breath Born and Patterned
A Resounding of fulfilled years
Beach Blown and Rustic
The Beginning of joy, the End of tears



How about that poem?

Different imagery for sure.

Can you guess what both poems are describing. They describe the exact same things but from two different points of view.

Give it a guess.

Fitting On Emotions

Have you ever been through a trial, a challenge and the people around you are saying things like, "You know I would be $&*^% mad if I were you!" or "I would have thrown them out on their ear!"
Yet, you don't have those reactions. Everyone is telling you that you should feel this way or you should feel that way, and you start trying out those emotions for yourself.

"Anyone else would be furious over this, you tell yourself. So in your mind you try out anger. You visualize giving that other person a piece of your mind. You imagine yelling or shouting, just getting into a great old scrap with them. Then you ask yourself, "Am I that angry?" Perhaps anger just doesn't fit.

How about "everyone tells me to throw him (her) out for this." So you slip that outrage and betrayal on like a new suit of clothes. Again, you have visions of throwing that person out. Does this emotion fit?

These examples are the more extreme of those that come up all the time. Most situations are more in the line of getting a flat tire, having to pay more for something, feeling harassed by someone or someone getting on your nerves.

I have found that most of people's opinions as to how I should feel given any set of circumstances is usually not what I am feeling. When I try on these other emotions they are just not me. I cannot see myself behaving like other people say they think I should behave.

All I can say is don't let other people talk you into feeling a way that you would not normally feel. Be authentic in all your feelings.

Your Perfect Day

Have you ever thought about what your perfect day would be?

If there was no limit, no restrictions, but something that was still physically possible, something that someone on the planet could still do, it would be:

Tricky question?

Now with your vision in mind, what would it take you to get from where you are to the place where you could have that day?

For example, I will share my perfect day.
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The day would start with waking up next to someone I love. One of my first thoughts would be how wonderful to start the day with her, to begin again a day of sharing and loving each other.

I would then take a relaxing shower, meditate, and then have breakfast with her out on the beach by the sea.

After breakfast, I would find a nice little bistro and write letters to friends, work on my book, and stop and talk with the new people or old friends and acquaintances that come in.

In the afternoon, I would be working with teens, in my foundation, where each day we would help teens to live a life of purpose and one full of possibilities, to overcome fears and excuses, to become better at communication, loving others, loving themselves, and teaching them the skills needed to balance the real world with each one's desire for the future. (Something like this anyhow).

Late afternoon, I would spend by a waterfall, near a crystal clear stream, just being silent before dinner, appreciating all that is around and all that is in my life.

Evening, my wife (girlfriend?) would have dinner, something simple, someplace where we could talk about the days we have each had.

In bed, I would meditate again and thank God for the day.
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Now what would it take for me now in my life to get to that point?

It would take founding a foundation for teens.
Finding a woman to be a partner in life
Having the resources to have a house on the beach.
Working for myself to have the flexibility in my schedule
To be confident that at some moment in my life, all these things will be there. That this day will happen.

What would it take you to get to your perfect day?

Everything in Moderation

What happens when we are told time and again "All things in Moderation" and yet there are things that we want to do that go above and beyond moderation?

Do I want love in moderation? I wonder about that. If it means less pain and struggle to have less love in my life, is that a compromise that I am willing to make?

Do I want happiness in moderation? Can I be so happy that people no longer can relate to me. The town fool, the fuggy-head granola person who meditates and is happy all the time?

Do I want peace in moderation? If I have all peace and I am no longer affected negatively by anything that happens in my life, will I loose my empathy and compassion for others?

Do I want joy in moderation? Can I have so much joy, that I would no longer appreciate it in relation to despair or depression? Would I even be able to recognize these feelings in others or myself?

Do I want faith in moderation? Can I have so much faith that doubt is no longer a part of my life?

I have come to the conclusion that while we are in this world, while we are in these bodies, we experience things by feeling their opposites.

Our nature is one of duality.

Emotions are experienced through the understanding and experience of their polar opposite. How can we experience joy if we do not experience despair. How to know of love except by it's absence. How to know and appreciate faith except through doubt.

I would say that "Everything in Moderation" is a wise thing, but I would say also "Everything in relation to everything else."

When Sadness Strikes

I forgot how sadness strikes sometimes. It seems to come from out of the blue. I wasn't expecting it, didn't go look for it, didn't have defenses up.

I spent a wonderful time with a dear friend of mine. I was really enjoying all the things we did and the time we spent talking and eating out and all. At the end of the final day before she left, I had this sudden, overwhelming feeling of sadness. I knew that within the hour I would say goodbye again. All this emotion just poured in.

The lump in the throat and the tears starting.

Why?

I knew that it was irrational. We keep in touch all the time. Why this emotion now. If I am going to get sad, how about after the goodbyes.

Being sad is something that everyone experiences from time to time. It is just so inconvenient when it strikes an inopportune times. It should be after the goodbyes so that each moment we spend with our friends or family should be a celebration. Tell me when you have figured out how to do this. I apparently have not yet.

Feeding the Fire called Peace

I have to use mental games to get my thinking to do what it needs to do. Take in point, getting my mind to think peaceful thoughts.

There are times that I get impatient. There are times I get cranky. We all have those moments. The cat has made a mess just before I want to go out the door. The gas pump I drive up to is the only open one and it is out of order. The electricity bill is larger than you expect, on top of another bill that just took you back into the red.

I have found that if I picture my thoughts as bits of paper and the peace I could be feeling as a campfire, then the more thoughts that are of peace, the larger the fire becomes. The warmer and more centered I feel. I must say that sometimes that fire is about to go out for lack of fuel.

The other thoughts that take away from my peace, they don't really go away as much as they are pushed out by the number of positive thoughts that take their place, in order to get the fire going again.

Sometimes I have to resort to tricking my mind. I think of something else, or sing or do something to occupy my mind while paying the bills, cleaning up after the cat, etc. Then when I can I return to more peaceful thoughts.

Don't know if this trick can help other people, but there it is.

I love the quote from a Course in Miracles that said that at any moment you can choose peace. That means me buddy (I am talking to my mind here)!

The one that eludes

I have had several ideas for books but have had no luck in writing them down. I think that these ideas should not be wasted. Therefore, I am giving this one away. Take it if you are inclined to write. Publish a book. Make some money. Take the idea and make it your own.

Genre: Science Fiction

There is a race of aliens who have two life cycles. In their first, they are much like us. Each having an individual personality, each person unique. However, during their transition they have an overpowering need to leave the land they are in and travel as far as they can. In this travel, they are mindless, in a trance. At some point they stop and wake up. Nothing of the first part of their lives is remembered. It is taboo for someone from the first life to even acknowledge someone in the second part of their lives.

In this second incarnation, they are the polar opposite of what they were in the first. A murder and tormentor becomes almost a saint. A man of principles becomes someone with fluid morals and situational ethics.

There have been those that have tried to remember their first lives. If caught, they are removed and locked up for their own good. Those that help them are "heavily counseled" and rarely try to give such aid again. For anyone who has ever tried to recover their first life has died before their first life memories ever surfaced.

The story is told by the only one who has survived this passage. It is her story. The risks she took, the wisdom she learned, and the way her heart and thoughts had to change to survive the absolute shock of remembering both lives. Accepting deep into herself that she was both killer and healer, violent and peaceful, criminal and judge, executioner and savior.

Take it with my compliments. Write your heart out.

I am a mutant

I just read the book, "Mutant Message Down Under" by Marlo Morgan. It is a story about how the author changed her life view after having spend 3 months on a walkabout with the Aborigines.

There is so much to this book that I cannot explain it fully here. The one thing that really stood out for me was that the Real People (the Aborigines) call Westerners mutants. They recognize that to hurt another is really to hurt yourself. To take more than you need is to deprive yourself later on. To harbor violence toward another is to hurt yourself. We don't recognize this connectedness.

In my own life I know that the times I was mean or cruel in my behavior toward someone else, it always turned out for the worse. If I cut in line, or tried impressing a boss to get a job over another person, were always self-destructive.

In addition, the notion that for 50000 years the Real People of Australia never polluted a stream, caused an animal to go extinct, destroyed any land is a testament to not only themselves but to the American Indians, the native Africans before other countries entered the country, the indigenous people's of Central and South America. A lot of parallels can be drawn.

I know that I am a mutant. I a slowly becoming less so. I am beginning to understand the interconnectedness of all things. This book just helped me to see it in a new light.

Fixing Graves

I used to love visiting graveyards. There was a peace and holy presence there that was different than any other place. Perhaps it was the accumulated prayers of so many visitors. Who knows.

I was in a graveyard once that had a wall surrounding one of the graves. It turned out that this wall was left in place to remind people of the prejudice and hatred of African-Americans during the civil war. This grave was dug in secret and filled with the body of an African American child whose parents simply wanted their boy to be buried in consecrated earth. At the time there was not consecrated or blessed cemetery for African Americans.

When the members of the community found out, they built a wall around the grave so no one would be able to see the gravestone or be reminded of that boy.

Later, several decades later, the wall around the grave was torn down on two sides so that the gravestone could be seen. A plaque explaining the burial was affixed to the wall.

We think of fixing things as building them. But in this case, fixing meant tearing down the wall. Injustices should not be allowed to stand!