A Dream and Faith

I will take stock of my life today. I will do some small thing to make my day a little bit more beautiful and positive. I only need to do a little better. I don’t need to reach for the moon or to become perfect. If I don’t hold a good dream for myself and this world, who will? It is up to me as much as anyone else. If I don’t have faith in humanity, who will? It is my responsibility to help God. My spirituality and my inner relationship with soul guide me. They show me daily where to look to see light. They let me know that my efforts are worthwhile. I will dream a little dream today. I will think up something – some good work, whether it be planting a tree or helping to build a program. I will make a contribution. Rather than complain about what isn’t here that I want, I will take steps to create it.

I will plant a garden.

All we need to begin with is a dream that we can do better than before. All we need to have is faith, and that dream will come true. All we need to do is act, and the time for action is now.
Carl Sandburg

Hatred

Pretending that painful or negative feelings do not exist doesn’t keep relationships more intimate. It can even create inner distance when I act as if the intimate relationship is not strong enough to hold pain, anger or hate. Powerful feelings can be frightening, but denying their presence keeps me from deeper layers of self. When my intimate relationships are able to hold the powerful, paradoxical feelings of love and hate, anger and forgiveness, something deep within me can relax and let go. If they are not able to do this, I need to withdraw from the relationship in order to be myself.

I can hold angst.

In this era of self-understanding and conscious efforts at parenting, we learn we should not come down to our children’s level. That is, we should not be as hateful toward them as they are to us. Yet, if we seal ourselves off they are cheated and burdened by the illusion that anger and hatred are personally inappropriate. Therapists are like parents. When the therapist comes down to their level, both grow from it when the generation gap is reestablished.
David V. Keith

An Attitude of Healing

It was Viktor E. Frankl who said that the only thing that we have that cannot be taken away from us are our attitudes, the contents of our minds and hearts. Today, more than ever, we are called upon to take an attitude that will promote wellness and healing, to choose life. When I take responsibility for the contents of my mind and heart, I take my place as a person of value to society. Quantum physics tells me that we are all part of the same particle mass, interconnected, of one stuff or soul. Who I am from within affects all that is without.

One very practical thing that I can do for my world is to think positively about it. I can attempt to live a more conscious life. Each person who transforms within, who enters into this struggle toward a more conscious life brings others with them.

I will live consciously today.

and if i ever touched a life. i hope that life knows, that i know, that touching war is and always will be the only true revolution.
nikki giovanni

Surrender

The internal position of surrender is a recognition that I am not in control of every event or circumstance of my life. It is a chosen sense of powerlessness, it frees me from my illusion of control. The take-charge person knows how to work with the natural flow of events and personalities in order to accomplish something; letting providence and individual creativity play a role. The controlling person attempts to manipulate people and situations to conform to her idea of what is right. This person shuts down the creative possibilities.

I let go and let God.

The concept of surrender runs contrary to the Westernmind. We have been taught to aggressively go after what we want, to make things happen. But surrender asks us to allow events to unfold at their own pace, to get out of our own way and to let go of our desire for control. Surrender is an act of trust in the universe, an acknowledgment that there are forces beyond our own will at work. Most people ask for happiness on condition. Happiness can only be felt if you don’t set any condition.
Arthur Rubenstein

For our purposes, a simple way to understand paradigms is to see them as maps. We all know that “the map is not the territory. ” A map is simply an explanation of certain aspects of the territory. That’s exactly what a paradigm is. It is a theory, an explanation, or model of something else.
Stephen R. Covey

Co-Creating a Culture

Anyone can say that the world is going to hell in a handbasket. Not anyone can rise to the challenge of cherishing a world that needs love. We are now living in the global village predicted by Marshall McLuhan, learning what it means to live in a multicultural society, hungry for developing cultural rituals and mythology. We are writing our own story, co-creating a culture. The ideals and the values we are evolving today will impact many generations because we are placed at such a time in our cultural history when we are called upon to form an identity as a society. This evidences itself in a variety of ordinary ways: in the surging interest in architectural style and preservation, in ethnic food varieties, in our desire to explore a personal and cultural mythology, and an impassioned drive to look for self, soul and meaning. We are culture makers. Not only are these drives toward self and social actualization strong because we are lost, but also because we are beginning to be found.

I will do my part to co-create my culture.

A baby is God’s opinion that life should go on.
Carl Sandburg

The Cradle of the Mysterious

All truth and beauty issue from the mysterious. When I tune into the mysteries of human and natural life, I am also contemplating the mysteries of life, time, matter and energy, I am moving my spirit toward creation. I am nourished on every level by my quiet contemplation of the infinite, wherever and however I choose to make contact. Moving toward the source of all life renews my spirit and makes faith not only a leap but an actual experience. I will remember the importance of quiet contemplative time in my day today. Time to be, to tune in, to be still and nourished from the well of wisdom within me. Time to remember and be part of the mystery.

I take time to contemplate the mystery.

The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whosoever does not knou’ it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel. is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed.
Albert Einstein

Dispassionate Observation

When I gain detachment from my own thinking process, I am able to be separate from my own obsessive and neurotic thinking. I can watch my thoughts in a dispassionate manner. I can be a witness to my own emotional and mental processes. When I cultivate this habit of mind, I am provided with a wonderful opportunity to learn about what makes me tick. Getting lost in every thought I have leads me away from self. There is no greater teacher than that of my own internal witness. When I look at the way in which I think, I can begin to self-define; to separate from who I have been programmed to be and make choices as to who I wish to become.

I witness my thought process.

We dis-identify by observing. Instead of being absorbed by sensations, feelings, desires, thoughts, we observe them objectively without judging them, without interfering with them in any way. We see them as distinct from us, as if we were looking at a landscape. We calmly observe these psychic arabesques from a detached viewpoint.
Piero Ferrucci

A Different Kind of Fullness

I am an organic part of this happening called life. It is inescapable, I am one with it, a part of it, real and alive. All that I see around me and feel within me is life repeating itself in vast and wondrous variety. There is nothing but what is real, nothing but what is alive. There are no gaps, no breaks, no empty spots. When I recognize this, I fill up. It is that simple. If all is life, then empty is still alive, empty becomes full. Real also has wondrous variety. It is not walking away; rather, it is staying with it – whether the it be a feeling, a person or a moment in time. Real is being in my own skin and experiencing the moment. Being real is not leaving but staying with life.

I am willing to stay with it.

If it were possible to talk to the unborn, one could never explain to them how it feels to be alive, for life is washed in the speechless real.
Jacques Barzun

Attachment to the Familiar

My attachment to what is familiar can keep me from moving forward in my life. Moving into new areas of experience necessitates experimenting with and recombining the known. If I want to swim in the water, I have to leave the security of the diving board. My soul expresses itself through me; anything that I can do to unblock and open my channels of creativity and productivity allows soul to come through more fully. It is fear that stands in my way – not only fear of the unknown, but also fear of loss. Even if I want to move through and beyond a stage or circumstance of my life, moving beyond is still a loss of the known. Today I will put my faith in the unseen. I trust that God will take care of me if I am willing to take a risk, to make a move toward more of me.

I am willing to lose something that feels familiar.

All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy, for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves: we must die to one life because we can enter into another.
Anatole France