My Sunday Talk...@ the Center for Spiritual Living, Diablo Valley

The body of my talk Sunday Aug. 26th, 2012.

“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” One of my favorite quotes by the brilliant Albert Einstein.

How often do we find ourselves believing we are less than or stupid? Whether it is in our physical being or our consciousness? How often have we allowed others to judge us by what we do, or how we look? And on the flip side, how many times have we judged others?

Let’s look at the first four words of the quote. “Everybody is a genius.” It doesn’t say only scientists are geniuses or bankers are geniuses or this race or that religion is genius. Einstein said everyone. EVERYONE is a genius.

In Roman times, the Latin origin of the word genius meant, the guiding spirit. The noun, genius is related to the Latin verb gigno, which translates, “to bring into being.”

Wow, of course we are all geniuses. Just by being born into this world, we get to own the definition, genius. When we are brought into being, Infinite Intelligence, or God, places within each of us the guiding spirit; that intuitiveness deep within us that keeps nudging us onto our spiritual path. Some people call it their still small voice, or an inspiration that floods their consciousness with ideas. Some of us might define it as that cosmic rack a pop on the back of the head. However you can relate to it in your own mind.

Isn’t that wonderful, to know that each and every one of us are geniuses! So as we relate to that, as we swim in the greatness and glory of being a genius, there is something else we have to understand and then embody.

The second sentence of Einstein’s quote… “But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing it is stupid.” Now I wanted to relate this to others judging us for who we are and what we do, but I couldn’t. I felt the need to relate this to our own consciousness. Because the only way we are going to change the world around us or the way it treats us is by changing our own consciousness about how we fit in it.

So often we judge ourselves and never think twice about it. Any time we say “I am” and put something negative or limiting behind it, we are judging the fish for not climbing the tree.

We all have a purpose. Proverbs 16:9. A man’s heart devises his ways; but the Lord directs his steps. And thank goodness we each get to live our purpose in a unique way. Just as a fish demonstrates perfectly its genius as it breathes and swims in the water; just as it’s body has “brought into being,” the ability to live life entirely in water...so are we designed to embody and live our lives in our own life experiences.

We are all familiar with the saying, It is done unto you, as you believe. It doesn’t say, it is done unto you as someone else believes. Or that your life is the result of someone’s thoughts or beliefs. We have all been given the freedom of thought, the power to choose how we live our lives. 

How empowering is that?

When Jesus said, “Go, let it be done to you according to your belief,” in Matthew 8:13, he was basically announcing that your life is the result of your thinking. So it only makes since that if you want a better life, get a better consciousness. 

I will tell you I like to challenge and ask questions, dissecting words and meanings about passages or books that strummed a chord in my spirituality. I always felt that if I am going to invest my time and spiritual(ness) into anything; I am going to question things I don’t understand and embody the things I do. That’s why I found Religious Science so perfect for me. I was encouraged to ask, study, and take from the belief system what worked for me as a youth in this teaching.

Einstein stated, “You can’t fix a problem, using the same level of consciousness that created it.” Pretty powerful huh? We can’t fix anything in our lives if we are coming from the same belief or thought patterns that created it.

If we want to have Peace in our lives; we can’t go around cursing people out for cutting us off on the freeway. We want success in our business, how are we talking about our occupations to others? Are we giving the best part of ourselves to everything we do, or are we holding our hands out expecting someone to fill it with what we think we lack.

When I came to the realization that I am responsible for what happens in my life; that what I focus on grows in my life, I decided to change my mind about everything around me. Because there is nothing more powerful than a made up mind. 

As easy as I make it sound, it’s anything but…trust me on that. 

Just as habits and conditions that we have embodied didn’t appear over night, so is it with changing our beliefs. It takes daily practice. It takes conscious living. And it takes the faith to do it. But we must be willing to recognize when we fall back into old patterns and forgive ourselves when we do. If we can learn and move from a situation a better person, we’ve accomplished something grand.

We don’t have to worry about how it is going to happen or try and map out how spirit is going to work in our lives. All we have to do is have total faith that IT knows what to do and how to do it. 

We stop judging our short comings and start basking in our accomplishments, no matter how small. Rejoice when our lives open up to something greater. You got up today and came to hear me speak. Celebrate the fact that you’re here. Give thanks for everything in your life, no matter how small. Because as you do that, as you transform your thoughts and ideas from judgment and condition, to Love and Peace, you begin to see what your true purpose is. 

When you praise the sun for shining another day, or the refreshingly deep breaths that keep filling your lungs, your consciousness opens up to the Universe and your life unfolds to your unlimited possibilities. Suddenly you will find yourself grateful for the new job you have, the abundance in your bank account, the health you are celebrating, and all the other wonderful things that have opened up to you. What will happen is you’ll see the genius in your life and you will realize it was who you were all along!

What Are Your Dreams?

If you could have anything you wanted, what would it be? Have you thought about it lately? Have you stopped running from here to there to think about what you want in your life? How about what you want to do in your life? 

Oh, now stop blowing it off as poppycock. I know there are a lot of you saying, “Come on, Gretch, you gotta stop living in La-La Land and get real.” And you know what? I can appreciate that. Because I used to believe my boat sailed on what my life’s dream was…until, my life’s dream…changed. 

How many of you keep that feeling tangled against your heart? Oh Geez, put your hands down!

Let’s digress back to when we were kids and we thought the world was ours to discover. We weren’t aware of responsibilities of a household, business, or careers. We didn’t worry about where our next meal was coming from or how we were going to make ends meet. We lived under the guise of bliss. We believed in a world of endless possibilities!

Come on how many of us wanted to be professional sports figures, dancers, singers, actresses, or musicians?

It wasn’t until someone came to our party and walked around with a stick pin and popped all our balloons, that we felt we couldn’t live our dreams. Before that, we thought we were going to be the next big thing.

What’s a unfulfilled dream anyway? Is there something different we could to call it? Maybe a lost opportunity? What is a lost opportunity, but a moment we goofed and didn’t open up to the unlimited possibilities in our lives? But hold on…you want to know what’s so amazing about life? It is always giving us new opportunities. Anything is possible. 

That’s right, I said it, and I’ll say it again…The only thing that hinders possibilities is a lack of faith in them.

If we could go back 5 years and ask anyone who knew me, if they thought I would be a writer and a published author whose books are selling, they’d probably laugh in your face. They would first check to see if you are delirious, then laugh in your face.

That is what’s so amazing about life…you can be anything you want if you’re willing to do the work. Dreams change, our bodies’ change, and our ideas change, so maybe the dream of being a world famous ballerina at 45 is unreasonable, but opening your own studio might not be. Funding young people who have talent and opportunities might become your dream.

Dreams of your childhood always have a way of evolving and morphing into dreams you have as adults.

Maybe the dreams you had as a child catapulted different dreams for you as an adult. You never know where life is going to take you, so why are you trying to hold onto the reigns and control it.

I tried that. Hell, my hands hurt so bad from clutching those reigns of life. I still find myself trying to control life. But every time I let go and let the Universe guide me, I find it turns out so much better than when I try and outline what is going to happen or how it will occur.

It's always so funny to me; the moment I stopped trying to steer the roller coaster it instantly became more enjoyable. Suddenly, I was excited to feel the drops, turns, and loops ahead. I had no control of what was going to happen to me, so when I realized and embraced it, I had a blast. Besides the fact that roller coasters don’t have steering wheels!

Okay, I’ll let you in on my dream when I was younger…I desperately wanted to be an actress, to the point of majoring in drama in college and continuing my schooling with private lessons in the city for several years…I never made it to Hollywood, but I learned how to connect with my inner confidence and speak to large groups, and I discovered I could write pretty good stories. By following my dream to be an actress, it opened me up to my adult dream of becoming a published author. I could say my dreams came true, even if it manifested through my novels.

Thanks for hanging out and reading my ramblings~

The sunset as we drove to see the Red Hot Chili Peppers!

Expectations...Really???

So what happens when we can’t be everything to everyone? Are we supposed to shrivel up and blow away? Maybe we think we have to shrink back into that empty space we clawed and fought so hard to overcome.

Let’s admit it; no matter who we are, or what we've accomplished in our lives, we’ve all been dealt this card before. Whether from family members, friends, acquaintances, or perfect strangers, we’ve all had to deal with disappointing someone!

If we look at our essential titles of parent, best friend, brother, sister, or spouse, we will find expectations of how we’re supposed to act, feel, and live within those definitions.

We all pretty much know how we’re supposed to be when acting in the confines of what we are when society calls us a sister, friend, mother, etcetera. But what happens when we become tired of dragging hurried moment across our lives? What will it take to allow who we truly are to obliterate the guilt of not fitting into the mold society has so pretentiously slapped across us at birth.

Do you ever wonder what would happen if we decided to accept each other for whom we really are? How freeing it would be to work in a cooperative manner instead of the pressing judgment from the competitive mind. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying some competition isn’t good, but why must we feel threatened by the success of another? Of all the things in the world to be threatened by, successful, happy, innovative, harmonious people shouldn’t be one of them. We should be celebrating greatness within each and every person we meet.

When we recognize the potential steeping within every person; when we take the time to connect with the genius that radiates from their hearts, we will experience a mental shift toward living in gratitude. Life can come at us from all different directions, but when we consciously make a choice to live in gratitude, people open up, our world shifts, and we start to attract the relationships that guilt, fear, and doubt have no place.

When we come from love and gratitude, we understand that there is no need for guilt to hammer us. Holding on to anger or resentment isn’t an option when you live in gratitude and love. Let me be perfectly clear, I’m not saying that when we live in love and gratitude, we will never get angry or feel guilty. That is part of being human; life isn’t so black and white. But when we act with good intentions and live life consciously, we can’t help but increase our chances to have a creative, loving, harmonious life. When we learn how to let people’s limited ideas and conditional love go, the hold of the judgmental will weaken until it dissolves from our lives.

But we must make a conscious choice to come from that unadulterated creative space within us. We must choose everyday to let go of the idea that we can’t live up to the expectations people label us with; because we really don’t have to. Once we learn to live life in gratitude and interact with others from love…what people think of us tends to matter less. Their judgmental pokes and prods start to melt away and we begin to see they really have no power over us. They are likely to drift away from us and become the rocks that outline our path to our full potential.

We want to change our lives; we must begin by forgiving ourselves. Only then can we forgive others. Once we do that…once we decide to heal our personal pain with forgiveness, then the world becomes our oyster and our consciousness can’t help but expand to encompass more love, joy, peace and prosperity. Just remember to give thanks and pay it forward!

Thanks for hanging out and reading my ramblings!