Choosing to Live or Die Each Day

I came to the realization at a point in my own live several years ago that I was dying each day to the idea of how someone else thought I should live my life.  Wow! 

Are you doing that? 

Do you put other people’s ideas of you above your own? 

Whose life are you living? 

Keep the flashlight on, keep looking for your own voice and listen to the wisdom of your soul.  

This is your day to live!

Do you sleep when the wind blows?

A handsome young man applied for a job as a farmhand. When the old farmer asked for his qualifications, he replied with an air of confidence “I can sleep when the wind blows.” The statement puzzled the farmer. But he liked the pleasant looking young man nevertheless and hired him.

A few days later, the old farmer and his wife were rudely awakened in the night by a violent storm. They quickly began to check things out to see if all was secure. They found that the shutters of the farmhouse had been securely fastened. A good supply of logs had been set next to the fireplace. The farm tools had been placed neatly in the storage shed, safe from the elements. The tractor had been moved into the garage. The barn was properly locked. Even the animals were calm. The young man slept soundly. All was well. The farmer then understood the meaning of the young man’s words, “I can sleep when the wind blows “.

 Because the farmhand did his work loyally and faithfully when the skies were clear, he was prepared for the storm when it broke loose. So when the wind blew, he was fearless. He slept in peace. 

How does this apply to our lives?

Author Unknown

 As we, the Forgetting 2 Remember Participants and Staff, prepare ourselves for this up coming  weekend retreat.  Turn on your light and start looking into your heart.  Start your work today, listening, breathing, tuning into your soul. 

What is your heart’s desire from the level of your soul?

I’m here, present and available for each of you.  317-833-4942

Derinda

Don’t Believe Everything…

I once found a bumper sticker that read: “Don’t believe everything that you think!” 

“Most people spend their entire life imprisoned with in the confines of their own thoughts.  They never go beyond a narrow, mind-made, personalized sense of self that is conditioned by the past.”  Eckhart Tolle – Stillness Speaks.

What if we stop that thought, choose a different one, change the narrow, mind-made perception and expand the vision?   What more can you “see” and understand? 

How will your day change when YOU stop believing everything that YOU think? 

 Now, that is something to think about!

A Day Without Shoes.

 

 

“Life is a challenge by choice”….

 

Remember that from my prior blogs?

 

 Well, how about “Life is a challenge when barefoot!”

 

 

 

 

Yesterday, April 8th, 2010 in celebration of Tom’s Shoes “One Day Without Shoes“, I subscribed to their quest of asking to go barefoot for one day. In doing so, Tom’s Shoes continues their homage to the underprivileged by donating a pair of shoes for every pair purchased. It is their way of bringing attention to the issue that many people do not have shoes to wear. As many countries strive to feed their people, even more struggle with the fact that they do not even have something to wear on their feet, to protect and comfort them. “One Day Without Shoes” is to bring a true sense of awareness to this issue that is global. Thank you, Blake Mycoskie.

  

I started my support for the cause by purchasing their T-shirts that had the slogan “Barefoot so they don’t have to be“, thinking that if I decided I could not go barefoot, I could at least wear the clothing. But after researching the site of Tom’s Shoes, I knew that I needed to follow my heart. Today was a totally barefoot day!

 

 Let me share with you what my day without shoes felt like. I noticed as I got dressed and ready to leave the house for my appointments that I “felt” like something was wrong. It was brisk here today and setting out into the cold garage floor was a big shock. Feeling the cold on my feet I instantly turned on the heat when I started my car, blowing all the hot air to the floor. It felt weird to feel the carpet of the car and the rubber of the gas pedal as I drove. My first stop was Starbucks for a Life Coaching session. My thought, “Surely Starbucks will not throw me out, they are way too hip.” Most people just observed me, no one ask me why I didn’t have shoes on. Successful! 

 

Next stop Broadripple!  My thoughts again, “Surely I won’t get thrown out of Broadripple as it is way too hip.” I wondered how many I would find even wearing shoes! Interesting enough, of all the various places that I went in Broadripple, I was the only one WITHOUT shoes! Most people just observed my bare feet and looked to receive a smile from me. It was almost as if walking around barefooted was the normal. But it is not. I still see the signs “No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service”. 

I’m blessed every day to walk into my closet and decide among many pairs of shoes which ones I want to wear. Sometimes I even wear two or three different pairs in the same day, never even giving it a thought. 

But yesterday,I scraped my toes on the sidewalk, burnt my heel on an ember of cigarette ash, found myself more than just a bit uncomfortable being in a public restroom, and a bit frightened with what I really saw when I looked down. I didn’t have any idea what a day without shoes would feel like. I had to watch every step I took. Do you know there is broken glass everywhere? There is trash at each corner. There are dog and bird droppings to step around when walking. There was the sharpness of the gravel that my tender feet were not used to. 

One person had stopped to ask me why I was barefoot and shared that they just thought I was just “doing my own thing.”  I ask them to join me in the cause for the rest of the day and they declined. 

At the end of my day, after having dinner with a friend and boasting of my dirty but proud feet, I was stopped by a young man with his 2 children outside the restaurant. He read my T-shirt and saw my bare feet and inquired. When I told him about the cause, he snapped off his tennis shoes and socks stood outside with me in a quiet rejoice. His children giggled and he then looked at me and said, “I have been to those places. I have seen what you are talking about. I understand.” And then after I thanked him, he walked his girls to the car and left. I stood there in quiet, but proud amazement. Out of the entire day and hundreds of people and a dozen places visited, it took just one person to understand. 

A willing participant. Thank you again! 

My feet are covered in dirt and cold. I feel the pain of the day in my “soles” and in my soul as I write this. So much we take for granted, whether it be shoes or eachother, having a job, a home to live in and a bathtub to wash my feet. 

What cause to do you stand for? Have you even thought about it before? 

I encourage you to “step outside the box” and give it some special time in your mind and heart today. 

If you need or want some ideas on giving of yourself in service of a cause, let me know. I have a list. 

Peace and blessings, 

Derinda 

                                           

From The Wisdom of Enzo….

The last blog I introduced you to a book that I’m reading ” Art of racing in the rain.” As I said this whole book is from the insight and wisdom of Enzo, a dog. It is an amazing story and so hard to put down and get to the real business of the day.Enzo says, ” People, like dogs, love repetition. Chasing a ball, lapping a course in a race car, sliding down a slide. Because as much as each incident is similar, so it is different.”

How is that dance showing up for you?

Well this dog got me thinking about the love of repetition or in other words the love of knowing what is happening next, being in control. Our desire to just let it happen and stay on the surface of life. It makes it so much easier than mixing it up or stepping outside that familiar box. But Enzo is so right in the fact that even in that repetition there is a difference. That difference is in each of us. Embrace the dance of similar and difference.

The Domino Effect

The domino effect is a chain reaction that occurs when a small change causes a similar change nearby, which then will cause another similar change, and so on in linear sequence.

A beautiful lady shared a story with me today about a contest involving dominoes. This contest took place in Las Vegas. There were three groups in a race to build the biggest and the best structure. Each started out with great enthusiasm building quickly and accurately their creations. In the end an enormous castle with a fence and trees and bridges was built. The castle was elegant and elaborate with every detail imaginable. People were in awe!

After being on view for a while the builder wanted to watch the chain reaction of their structure, so out of the crowd they chose a small older lady to come a push a domino to start the effect. Though she was hesitant in her desire to touch the castle, they encouraged her to just touch a domino on the fence and she did. Within seconds the fence dropped one by one and then the trees, the bridges, and with great momentum the castle released itself piece by piece. The noise from the collapse was so loud the casino went quiet looking to see what had happened.

She went on to talk about how we are dominoes in each other’s lives. A small word, a warm hug, and fresh view can start a spiral of change that never has to come to an end.

What kind of domino are you?

What is your rippled effect in this world?

Change is a blessed part of life if indeed we reach for the place within ourselves that gets touched and embrace the journey, sometimes slowly one by one, and at other times the change comes with great momentum. Hold on tightly, your domino effect can change the world.

Let’s all start building our castles today!

Why a broken heart?

Understanding a broken heart, a friendship lost, and the shift when a loved one chooses a different path is something we have all experienced  in our life and often fall in the trap of “why.” We want to understand why, how, when, who and what happened.  It is human nature to ask yourself those questions.  Why do some have to come and go, and why have some remained?

Perhaps this poem will shed some light on things for you:

Reason, Season, or Lifetime

People come into your life for a reason, a season or a lifetime.
When you figure out which one it is,
you will know what to do for each person. 

When someone is in your life for a REASON,
it is usually to meet a need you have expressed.
They have come to assist you through a difficulty;
to provide you with guidance and support;
to aid you physically, emotionally or spiritually.
They may seem like a godsend, and they are.
They are there for the reason you need them to be.

Then, without any wrongdoing on your part or at an inconvenient time,
this person will say or do something to bring the relationship to an end.
Sometimes they die. Sometimes they walk away.
Sometimes they act up and force you to take a stand.
What we must realize is that our need has been met, our desire fulfilled; their work is done.
The prayer you sent up has been answered and now it is time to move on.

Some people come into your life for a SEASON,
because your turn has come to share, grow or learn.
They bring you an experience of peace or make you laugh.
They may teach you something you have never done.
They usually give you an unbelievable amount of joy.
Believe it. It is real. But, only for a season. And like Spring turns to Summer and Summer to fall, the season eventually ends.

LIFETIME relationships teach you lifetime lessons;
things you must build upon in order to have a solid emotional foundation.
Your job is to accept the lesson, love the person,
and put what you have learned to use in all other relationships and areas of your life.
It is said that love is blind but friendship is clairvoyant. Thank you for being in mine….

— Unknown

If we keep our hearts open and our mind free from taking it personally but learn the lessons from the experience then every relationship is with purpose. There is nothing ever to regret but to only be honored as part of your journey. 

 A heart that is broken wide open only gives us a bigger space to love again,  if we continue to choose love.

Life’s Only Guarantee…

My answer to that statement used to be that we all die.  And yes that is true.  The bigger picture of this statement is that life’s only guarantee is that it will change and change it will!  If we set our vision on predicting that things are going to stay the same we have set ourselves up for a difficult life.  All things change!  One of my favorite sayings is, ” Blessed are the flexible for they shall not break.”  When you find yourself in the middle of a tumultuous time keep in mind that it, too,will change.  Oh yes, and then you die!

Embrace the journey my loves, it is well worth the ride.  Live it fully!

Regaining Our Passion

I read a story recently that I want to share with you.  An elementary school teacher was giving a drawing class to a group of six-year-old children. At the back of the room sat a little girl who normally didn’t pay much attention in school.  She did, though, in the drawing class.  For more than twenty minutes, the girl sat with her arms curled around her paper, totally absorbed in what she was doing.  The teacher found this fascinating.  Eventually, she asked the girl what she was drawing. 

Without looking up, the girl said, “I’m drawing a picture of God.”  Surprised, the teacher said, “But nobody knows what God looks like.”  The girl said, “They will in a minute.”

I love this story because it reminds me that young children are wonderfully confident in their own imaginations.   Most of us lose this confidence as we grow up.  Ask a group of first graders if they think they are creative and they will all put their hands up, some even jumping up and down in their chairs. Ask a group of high school seniors the same question and most of them won’t. 

I believe passionately we are all born with tremendous natural capacities, and that we lose many of them as we spend time in the world.  Educational systems, religious dogma, society pressures and parents’ belief systems all play a part of us losing the sense of who we really are.

Who are you?  What is a passion you have inside of you that somehow got tucked back into the corner of your mind? 

Becoming aware of the confidence that little boy or girl inside of you once had is a great start to rekindling those forgotten flames.  And now as an adult, we try to figure out how to get it back.  When all is said and done, though, it’s been in you all the time.  You are already whole and complete.  You just get to find the spark and remember it again. 

Need help in finding that spark?  The weekend intensive seminars are filling fast.  Give me a call or send me an email and take that first step into remembering. 

We all know of people in our lives that can grow from the experience of remembering who they are.  Please pass this along to them or have them join you for a weekend intensive retreat. 

What an amazing sight it will be by the end of this summer to see a group of incredible people that have chosen to “Bridge the Gap” between where they are in life and where they want to be.

Living with Purpose

 I’m often asked what my business purpose is.  My purpose for Forgetting 2 Remember is to support you in a bridge building journey replacing fear and old beliefs with love and self-acceptance in a way that is transferable to family, friends, work and community.  How does that sound?

Interestingly, no one has ever come up and ask me what my purpose for living is.  It falls under the same category of people asking what you do, but never who you are.  So what is your purpose for living?  What gifts are inside of you that you give to the world? 

Living on purpose with your own mission statement seems to be a great way to stay on track to how you want to be living every day.  So what is your mission statement?  Think about it and let me know!