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9
August 2011 |
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Every
day I live I am more convinced that the waste of life lies
in
the love we have not given, the powers we have not used,
the
selfish prudence that will risk nothing and which,
shirking
pain, misses happiness as well.
Mary
Cholmondeley
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There
are things that we never want to let go of, people we
never want to leave behind. But keep in mind that
letting go isn’t the end of the world; it’s the
beginning of a new life.
unattributed |
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We should be taught not to wait for
inspiration to
start a thing. Action always generates inspiration. Inspiration
seldom generates action.
Frank Tibolt
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The
path of awakening is not about becoming
who you are. Rather it is about
unbecoming who you are not.
Leonard
Jacobson |
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Lessons
from My Father
Denis Waitley
My dad had a keen imagination, and we would often play a
little good-night game that became our special ritual. He would
come into my room to talk to me and listen to the triumphs and
tragedies of my day. As he was leaving, Dad had a way of leaning
back against the switch by my door and rubbing against it to
"magically" blow out my light like the birthday
candles on a cake.
As he did his little routine, Dad would say, "I'm blowing
out your light now, and it will be dark for you. In fact, as far
as you're concerned, it will be dark all over the world because
the only world you ever know is the one you see through your own
eyes. So remember, son, keep your light bright. The world is
yours to see that way. I love you, son. Good night."
When I was very young, I used to lie there in bed after Dad left
and try to understand what he meant. It was confusing to think
that the whole world was dark when I was asleep and that the
only world I would ever know was the one I would see through my
own eyes. What Dad was trying to tell me was that when I went to
sleep at night, as far as I was concerned, the world came to a
stop. When I woke up in the morning I could choose to see a
fresh new world through my own eyes -- if I kept my light
bright. In other words, if I woke up happy, the world was happy.
If I woke up not feeling well, the world was not as well off.
My father's guidance about self-perception and the power in the
eye of the beholder was invaluable. What he was trying to teach
me with his little light show was this: "Denis, everything
depends on how you want to look at what happens in life. It
doesn't make any difference what is going on 'out there' -- what
makes a difference is how you take it."
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Instead of teaching me "my glass was half-empty," my
father taught me "my glass was more than half-full."
He taught me to view life as something that was continually
opening and expanding with new opportunities and events to
enjoy.
Somewhere he picked up a bit of quantum physics theory. Depending on the kind of experiment you conduct, a particle of
light can become a light beam or a light wave. It all depends on
how you want to examine it. The light can change form, not
because of its properties -- it still remains light -- but
because of how you choose to behold it. My dad taught me that
ugliness or beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Want and
abundance are in the eye of the beholder. Being mediocre or
being the best depends on the eye of the beholder.
Those good-night rituals with my father taught me that it didn't
make any difference what the other kids said, what the other
kids wore, or what they did. Their opinion of me wasn't that
important. What was important was the way I handled what they
might do and say.
And the same is true for both you and me today. . . People's
opinions of me aren't what is important--it's the way I handle
their opinions and actions that makes the difference.
Reproduced with permission from the
Denis Waitley Ezine. To subscribe
to Denis Waitley's Ezine, go to www.deniswaitley.com
.
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Living
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Eyes Wide Open
tom walsh
All
around Us--Living Things!
One of my
favorite moments of all the movies I've ever watched comes
in the film Harold and Maude. After Harold
and Maude have planted a tree in the forest, Maude
exclaims something to the effect of: "Isn't it
wonderful? All around us--living things!"
I'm especially aware of the importance of this statement
because I'm spending the summer living in a forest
setting, surrounded by trees and bushes and birds and deer
and all sorts of other living things. In a situation
like this, it's much easier to notice just how much life
there is all around, while during the times that I've
spent living in buildings in the middle of cities or
towns, I haven't felt nearly the depth of the connection
with the other living things about me--even though most of
those other living things were people just like me.
One of the marvelous things about our lives on this planet
is our shared condition of living. Every person that
we see, every animal that we see, every plant that we walk
past--all are alive and functioning thanks to air, food,
water, and sunlight. All are living and breathing
and doing their things, depending on what they are.
Chipmunks are gathering food and hiding from predators and
keeping up their nests, while hawks are trying to find
something like chipmunks to eat, keeping up their nests,
and sleeping and flying about.
As people, we have much more flexibility concerning what
we're able to do with ourselves. We're not a part of
any food chain, so we buy our nourishment from others; we
try to meet other people who share our interests and whom
we like; we try to fulfill our emotional, physical, and
spiritual needs; and we even try to help others to make
the most out of their own lives.
When we see a little baby or a tiny puppy or kitten, it's
really easy to think of the miracle that life really
is. After all, this brand-new life right in front of
us simply wasn't here a few days ago, and now it is.
Somehow, though, we aren't nearly as capable of seeing the
miracle in the life of the cashier at the convenience
store or the police officer or the schoolteacher.
And that dog across the street is kind of nice when it's
not barking, but it certainly isn't a miracle. And
that tree that's been in our back yard forever? A
miracle? Hardly.
The fact is, though, that all life is miraculous.
Every human being that you've ever seen started out as two
cells that joined and grew into millions of cells, just as
every animal that you've ever seen also started out.
And the huge trees once were seeds that were smaller than
our fingernails that grew out of a combination of dirt and
water and sunlight.
I suppose the most important question about all this is a
simple one: so what?
I can only speak from personal experience, but I know that
on the days on which I'm able to look about and see the
truly miraculous things for what they really are, my days
are much richer. I have a feeling of oneness inside
of me, a feeling of connection to everything else, a
sureness that I'm not an isolated occurrence in an
uncaring universe. I share much with all of the
living things about me, and my attitude towards life is
much more positive when I recognize that sharing and
appreciate it.
When Maude makes her comment to Harold, she's voicing her
gratitude for life and living and for all the other living
things that share this planet with her. It's
recognizing the value in everything around her, and
expressing it quite clearly and simply. When we
start to see the value in the other living creatures
around us, our view of the world grows richer and deeper,
and our days grow brighter and more full of wonder as we
get in touch with the miraculous nature of this experience
that we call life.
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Free
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| just for today, i will keep my eyes open. .
. .
just for today, i will spread encouragement. . . .
just for today, i will remember that i'm a very special
person. . . .
just for today, i will be thankful for the sun. . . .
Just for Today, Kindle
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Be
grateful for what you do have, and
you will find it increases. I like to
bless with love all that is in my life
right now--my home, the heat, water,
light, telephone, furniture, plumbing, appliances, clothing,
transportation,
jobs--the money I do have, friends,
my ability to see and feel and taste
and touch and walk and to enjoy
this incredible planet.
Louise Hay
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Work
Samuel Smiles
WORK
is one of the best educators of practical character.
It evokes
and disciplines obedience, self-control, attention, application,
and perseverance; giving a man deftness and skill in his special
calling, and aptitude and dexterity in dealing with the affairs of
ordinary life.
Work is the law of our being--the living principle that carries
men and nations onward.
The greater number of men have to work with
their hands, as a matter of necessity, in order to live; but all
must work in one way or another, if they would enjoy life as it
ought to be enjoyed.
Labour may be a burden and a chastisement, but it is also an
honour and a glory.
Without it, nothing can be accomplished.
All that is great in people comes through work; and
civilization is its product.
Were labour abolished, the race of Adam were at once stricken
by moral death.
It is idleness that is the curse of man--not labour.
Idleness eats the heart out of people as of nations, and
consumes them as rust does iron.
When Alexander conquered the Persians, and had an opportunity
of observing their manners, he remarked that they did not seem
conscious that there could be anything more servile than a life of
pleasure, or more princely than a life of toil.
When the Emperor Severus lay on his deathbed at York, whither he had
been borne on a litter from the foot of the Grampians, his final
watchword to his soldiers was, "LABOREMUS" (we must
work); and nothing but constant toil maintained the power and
extended the authority of the Roman generals.
In describing the earlier social condition of Italy, when the
ordinary occupations of rural life were considered compatible with
the highest civic dignity, Pliny speaks of the triumphant generals
and their men, returning contentedly to the plough.
In those days the lands were tilled by the hands even of
generals, the soil exulting beneath a ploughshare crowned with
laurels, and guided by a husbandman graced with triumphs.
It was only after slaves became extensively employed in all
departments of industry that labour came to be regarded as
dishonourable and servile.
And so
soon as indolence and luxury became the characteristics of the
ruling classes of Rome, the downfall of the empire, sooner or
later, was inevitable.
There is, perhaps, no tendency of our nature that has to be more
carefully guarded against than indolence.
When Mr. Gurney asked an intelligent foreigner who had
travelled over the greater part of the world, whether he had
observed any one quality which, more than another, could be
regarded as a universal characteristic of our species, his answer
was, in broken English, "Me tink dat all men LOVE LAZY."
It is characteristic of the savage as of the despot.
It is natural to men to endeavour to enjoy the products of
labour without its toils.
Indeed, so universal is this desire, that
James Mill has argued that it was to prevent its indulgence at the
expense of society at large, that the expedient of Government was
originally invented.
Indolence is equally degrading to individuals as to nations.
Sloth never made its mark in the world, and never will.
Sloth never climbed a hill, nor overcame a difficulty that
it could avoid.
Indolence always failed in life, and always will.
It is in
the nature of things that it should not succeed in anything.
It is a burden, an incumbrance, and a nuisance--always useless,
complaining, melancholy, and miserable.
Burton, in his quaint and curious, book--the only one, Johnson
says, that ever took him out of bed two hours sooner than he
wished to rise--describes the causes of Melancholy as hinging
mainly on Idleness.
"Idleness," he says, "is the bane of body
and mind, the nurse of naughtiness, the chief mother of all
mischief, one of the seven deadly sins, the devil's cushion, his
pillow and chief reposal.... An idle dog will be mangy; and how shall an idle person
escape? Idleness of the mind is much worse than that of the body:
wit, without employment, is a disease--the rust of the soul, a
plague, a hell itself.
As in a standing pool, worms and filthy creepers increase,
so do evil and corrupt thoughts in an idle person; the soul is
contaminated....
Thus much I dare boldly
say: he or she that is idle, be they of what condition they will,
never so rich, so well allied, fortunate, happy--let them have all
things in abundance and felicity that heart can wish and desire,
all contentment--so long as he, or she, or they, are idle, they
shall never be pleased, never well in body or mind, but weary
still, sickly still, vexed still, loathing still, weeping,
sighing, grieving, suspecting, offended with the world, with every
object, wishing themselves gone or dead, or else carried away with
some foolish phantasie or other."
Burton says a great deal more to the same effect; the burden and
lesson of his book being embodied in the pregnant sentence with
which it winds up:- "Only take this for a corollary and
conclusion, as thou tenderest thine own welfare in this, and all
other melancholy, thy good health of body and mind, observe this
short precept, Give not way to solitariness and idleness.
BE NOT SOLITARY--BE
NOT IDLE."
The indolent, however, are not wholly indolent.
Though the body may shirk labour, the brain is not idle.
If it do not grow corn, it will grow thistles, which will
be found springing up all along the idle man's course in life.
The ghosts of indolence rise up
in the dark, ever staring the recreant in the face, and tormenting
him:
"The gods are just, and
of our pleasant vices,
Make instrument to scourge us."
True happiness is never found in torpor of the faculties, but
in their action and useful employment.
It is indolence that exhausts, not action, in which there
is life, health, and pleasure.
The spirits may be exhausted and wearied by employment, but
they are utterly wasted by idleness.
Hence a wise physician was accustomed to regard occupation
as one of his most valuable remedial measures.
"Nothing is so injurious," said Dr. Marshall
Hall, "as unoccupied time."
An archbishop of Mayence used to say that
"the human heart is like a millstone: if you put wheat under
it, it grinds the wheat into flour; if you put no wheat, it grinds
on, but then 'tis itself it wears away."
Indolence is usually full of excuses; and the sluggard, though
unwilling to work, is often an active sophist. "There is a
lion in the path;" or "The hill is hard to climb;"
or "There is no use trying--I have tried, and failed, and
cannot do it."
To the sophistries of such an excuser, Sir Samuel Romilly
once wrote to a young man:- "My attack upon your indolence,
loss of time, etc., was most serious, and I really think that
it can be to nothing but your habitual want of exertion that can
be ascribed your using such curious arguments as you do in your
defence.
Your theory is this: Every man does all the good that he
can.
If a particular individual does no good, it is a proof that
he is incapable of doing it.
That you don't write proves that you can't; and your want
of inclination demonstrates your want of talents.
What an admirable
system!--and what beneficial effects would it be attended with, if
it were but universally received!"
It has been truly said, that to desire to possess, without being
burdened with the trouble of acquiring, is as much a sign of
weakness, as to recognise that everything worth having is only to
be got by paying its price, is the prime secret of practical
strength.
Even leisure cannot be enjoyed unless it is won by effort.
If it have not been earned by work, the price has not been
paid for it.
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Living
Life Fully's Daily Meditations, Year One
now available in Kindle and Nook editions!
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your way to a consistently uplifting reading experience!
For the Nook edition, click here. |
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Please feel
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When
you can do the common
things of life in an uncommon
way,
you will command
the attention of the world.
George
Washington Carver
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Some
Dynamics of Life
1.
Nothing stays the same. All conditions are temporary, and how
they change
depends on the choices I make.
2. Action to
try to make things happen is hard work, but action taken
from a place of
love and pure inspiration is living at its grandest.
3. Living
from and in the moment is being mindful of thoughts,
words, feelings and
actions.
4. There are
infinite variations in how people see any single event.
5. Labels
like right or wrong, good or bad, evil or holy serve
to separate people,
one from another. In truth, there are
as many shades of gray between
those opposites of labels
as there are people.
6. The
differences in life are contrast that drives decision.
7. Abundance
abounds. There is enough of everything for everyone;
there is no reason to
fear running out.
8.
Suffering, pain or struggle is not a requirement of life.
9. Passion is
not expectation, and expectation is not passion.
10. True
faith comes from knowing that no matter what things
look like, all is well
and will turn out for the best.
unattributed
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Face
your deficiencies and
acknowledge them; but do not
let them master you. Let them
teach you patience,
sweetness, insight.
Helen
Keller
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Seeing
with Innocence
(an excerpt)
Deepak Chopra
Ego is
"I"; it is your singular point of view. In
innocence, this point of view is pure, like a clear lens.
But without innocence the ego's focus is extremely
distorting. If you think you know something--including
yourself--you are actually seeing your own judgments and
labels. The simplest words we use to describe each
other--such as friend, family, stranger--are loaded with
judgments. The enormous gulf in meaning between friend
and stranger, for example, is filled with
interpretations. A friend is treated one way, an enemy
another. Even if we do not bring these judgments to the
surface, they cloud our vision like dust obscuring a lens.
Because he has
no labels for things, the wizard sees them afresh. For him
there is no dust on the lens, so the world sparkles with
newness. The same faint song is heard in everything:
"Behold yourself." God could be defined as
someone who looks around and sees only Him- or Herself in all
directions; insofar as we are created in His/Her image, our
world is also a looking glass.
Mortals found
this wizardly viewpoint very strange, for their interest was
drawn in an entirely different direction. They looked
outward and were fascinated by things, and whatever thing
they saw, they craved to name and then to use. Names had
to be given to all the birds and beasts. Plants were grown
for food or pleasure.
Merlin showed
almost no interest in any of this. Wizards often do not
know names for the most ordinary things, like oak trees, fallow
deer, or the constellations. However, a wizard could look
at a gnarled oak, a feeding doe, or the night sky for hours, and
every moment of his contemplation would be all absorbing.
Mortals wanted
to share this kind of rapt attention. When asked the
secret of how to look at the world afresh, with delighted eyes,
Merlin said, "You lack innocence. Having labeled a
thing, you no longer see that thing, you see its label
instead." This was easy enough to illustrate.
If two knights who were strangers met in the forest, they
immediately searched for the emblem or pennant that told them
whether the other was friend or foe. The instant this sign
was spied, the knights could act, but only then. A friend
could be embraced, welcomed to the feast, invited to tell
stories. A foe could only be fought with.
This obsession
to label things, Merlin said, is the activity of mind, pure and
simple. Mind cannot react without a label. We carry
millions of labels in our heads, and our minds can run through
these labels with lightning swiftness. The speed of the
mind is dazzling, but speed does not save us from
staleness. Whatever you can think about, you have already
experienced. you are going to grow tired of. "Do you
wonder that you cannot look at an oak or a deer or a star for
more than a minute?" he said. "I can hear your
minds all but groaning, 'That old thing!' and off you go on your
mad rush for something new." |
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Deepak
Chopra's The Way
of the Wizard contains
twenty spiritual lessons
that help the reader
create a new and better
life--a life that we all
want but have trouble
charting a course toward.
(From the back cover.) |
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