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!

Happy Labor Day

I’m not one to blog on subjects like Labor Day.  My subjects usually are intended to be helpful in self-awareness, bringing a smile or maybe even a tear to your day.  Joyful self- aware “AHA” tears only please!

Why a Labor Day?  The holiday was first observe in Canada in 1870 over the labor disputes (“Nine-Hour Movement”).  In the United States it was first celebrated in 1882.

As Americans we now celebrate it as the symbolic last day of summer and the start of  the school year.  Anna ( my daughter) started back August 11 so I’m not sure that we observe that part of the holiday anymore.

So why am I blogging about Labor Day?  I’m just extremely happy to have another day off work to be with my family and celebrate life!

Wishing you a great day!!

Who Matters?

I’m giving my sister the stage today.  She sent this to me in an email yesterday and with her 50th birthday tomorrow she has earned the right to pass on some wisdom.

 

There comes a point in your life when you realize:

 

Who matters,

Who never did,

and who doesn’t anymore….and who always will.

 

So don’t worry about people from your past, there’s a reason why they

didn’t make it to your future.

Thanks Sis and happy birthday to you!

Back Home Again in Indiana

Arriving into the Indianapolis Airport on Sunday afternoon was somewhat surreal. Having lived here my whole life it becomes easy to look past what we have around us all the time. After spending 4 days in Colorado and literally being over come by the beauty, Spirit and peacefulness, I wanted to come home with fresh eyes and see what I miss that is around me everyday. I wonder if people in Colorado begin not see after a while as well?

What would I see if this were my first time to land in Indiana? What would be my experience? How would people seem? What would the energy of Indiana feel like?

Flying in I saw the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and remembered meeting some visitors in the early 1980’s that had come all the way from Switzerland just to have the opportunity to attend the 500 mile race. It is a beautiful slight to see from the sky. I have seen it many times and even been there in person several times but overlook it day to day. Indianapolis, Lucas Stadium, historical Meridian Street, White River Canal and the beautiful trees and flowers all would have impressed me on a first visit. I would have been in awe of these places and surroundings too.

The more I looked around with the freshness of a new choice to see I quickly was reminded of the sameness in everything and everybody. Smiling faces, a guy on the corner needing help, young, old and in-between there is no difference. There is humanity, all the same, just a different face in a different place.

Whether in Indiana or Colorado everyone is going about life in the best way we know and the beauty around us is just a bonus!

Life is an occasion rise to it no matter where you are!

It feels good to be home again.

 

 

How does one reach awareness?

People wonder, how do I reach a state of awareness that brings a level of inner peace into my life?

I can share with you what I have learned about finding and staying present to inner peace.  First,  the desire to reach that state of awareness must be intense.  From that intensity comes the discipline to act with constant and universal forgiveness and gentleness, without exception.  One has to be compassionate toward everything, including your own self and thoughts.  Finally surrendering the past and the future and become present to the moments of NOW. 

The presence is silent and allows for a state of peace.  With it, all fear disappears, and spiritual joy occurs on a quiet level of pure peace.  Because the experience of time stops, there’s no apprehension, regret, pain or anticipation;  the source of joy is unending and ever-present.  With no beginning or ending, there can be no loss, grief, or suffering for everything is already perfect and complete.

I was a young girl around seven or eight when I first became aware that time was not as it is perceived.  This concept was something that I could articulate but the thoughts were not received well when I shared.  A little wacky to the unaware.

To test this “no time theory” all you have to do is stop and think about a time that something or someone totally and completely brought every part of you to that present moment.  In that moment everything was perfect.

Reaching that awareness takes a constant and unrelenting focus that is in all of us to achieve.

Remembering…

It is hard for me to imagine that it has been 19 years since I first read this touching quote from Robert Fulghum’s book - All I need to know I learned in Kindergarden. It touched my heart then and still does to this day. I hope you enjoy!

 

All I really need to know I learned in kindergarten.
ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW about how to live and what to do
and how to be I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not
at the top of the graduate-school mountain, but there in the
sandpile at Sunday School. These are the things I learned:

Share everything.

Play fair.

Don’t hit people.

Put things back where you found them.

Clean up your own mess.

Don’t take things that aren’t yours.

Say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody.

Wash your hands before you eat.

Flush.

Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.

Live a balanced life – learn some and think some
and draw and paint and sing and dance and play
and work every day some.

Take a nap every afternoon.

When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic,
hold hands, and stick together.

Be aware of wonder.
Remember the little seed in the styrofoam cup:
The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody
really knows how or why, but we are all like that.

Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even
the little seed in the Styrofoam cup – they all die.
So do we.

And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books
and the first word you learned – the biggest
word of all – LOOK.

Everything you need to know is in there somewhere.
The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation.
Ecology and politics and equality and sane living.

Take any of those items and extrapolate it into
sophisticated adult terms and apply it to your
family life or your work or your government or
your world and it holds true and clear and firm.
Think what a better world it would be if
all – the whole world – had cookies and milk about
three o’clock every afternoon and then lay down with
our blankies for a nap. Or if all governments
had a basic policy to always put thing back where
they found them and to clean up their own mess.

 And it is still true, no matter how old you are – when you go out into the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together. 

Life can be pretty darn simple when we really get down to it!   Cookies, milk and nap time for me!!

The many faces of fear.

Let’s face it, fear can look a thousand different ways.  It does not show itself only with the terrified look of distress but can be masked in a joke or a smile too.  Fear is just that, fear.  An insecure feeling that is overriding your normal state of love.  It is a feeling of being threatened in some way.  That could be a belief system or a thought pattern that you hold dear to your sense of self.  It does not always show up the way that we typically would think of fear.  Being shy, arrogant, rude or even a Polly Anna are faces of fear. 

How is fear showing up in your life? 

 Stop to consider some of your actions to see if they are from a place of love or a place of fear. 

 Being an observer of ourselves and asking that question is a great way to recognize where fear is showing up for us and where we need to make ourselves more aware in understanding and learning why.

Happy observing.

Balance in Life

“Live a balanced life – learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.”
Robert Fulghum

I know for me that when my life is out of balance, the whole world feels out of balance!  When everything around me feels like it is falling apart, I have to stop and do a check in with myself.  What is going on with me?  Why am I feeling this way?  Why does everything feel so difficult?  Because a unbalanced life is stressful!  We are created to need rest, play time and work time.  When one of those areas start to overwhelm the others, life is out of balance.  It not only happens with work but with play and sleep as well.  Too much of anything is not good, therefore not in balance.

Stop and take a look at your life.  Are you in balance?  There are 24 hours in a day, 8 hours to work, 8 hours to play and 8 hours to sleep.  I know from my own experience that I’m a much healthier, happier, and more creative human being when I’m living in balance. 

What about you?

Success

“It’s not the things you get but the hearts you touch that will determine your success in life.”  Mac Anderson

The Dash Poem, by Linda Ellis

I read of a man who stood to speak
At the funeral of a friend
He referred to the dates on her tombstone
From the beginning to the end

He noted that first came the date of her birth
And spoke the following date with tears,
But he said what mattered most of all
Was the dash between those years

For that dash represents all the time
That she spent alive on earth.
And now only those who loved her
Know what that little line is worth.

For it matters not how much we own;
The cars, the house, the cash,
What matters is how we live and love
And how we spend our dash.

So think about this long and hard.
Are there things you’d like to change?
For you never know how much time is left,
That can still be rearranged.

If we could just slow down enough
To consider what’s true and real
And always try to understand
The way other people feel.

And be less quick to anger,
And show appreciation more
And love the people in our lives
Like we’ve never loved before.

If we treat each other with respect,
And more often wear a smile
Remembering that this special dash
Might only last a little while.

So, when your eulogy is being read
With your life’s actions to rehash
Would you be proud of the things they say
About how you spent your dash?

Have a great week and make your dash count!

Trusting

Wow, this one is hard for everyone.  We think we have it all worked out in our mind on how our life is going to look.  When I’m going to graduate, move to my own place, get a ” real” job in the field that my degree is in, get married, have children, grow old with my loved ones beside me.  In our perfect world and all in our perfect plan. 

Life has it’s own plan though and most of the time it simply does not match up to what we had in mind.  Only a few ever live so contently in their plan, only a few ever have it turn out to way they imagined.  Are they the lucky ones?  Did the Universe shine more brightly on them than us? 

I don’t think so.  I think that there is a plan and one of greatness if we can just trust the process.  Learning from it’s teachings and even letting  go of our own ideas.  I believe that even the lucky few that had life turned out on schedule still did that exact thing.  Let life lead and embraced it.   I believe that everything happens for a reason and that everyone we encounter comes into our life to teach us.  The lessons that we can open ourselves up to and grow from helps us in understanding the need to trust.  To grow with life, to become life and to be one with life.  We all become the lucky ones then, not just the select few.

And the time we most need to trust the journey is the time when we don’t think we can.