Where is Your Focus?

There are times when I find myself down; crouching and wallowing in the puddle of my own self pity. Oh, hell, sometimes I even strip down to my skivvies and swim in the rubbish. I’ve even been known to persuade people to take a dip with me. Cuz who wants to swim in “that” alone…right?

Whenever I come from fear, the Universe, which ALWAYS agrees with me, will make sure I have all the things I fear. If I come from lack, Infinite Intelligence will make sure I have situations where I will be lacking something; whether it’s in my finances, my relationships, or my time.

It is the prime example of the simple principle; “what you focus on grows.” Think about it. How many times have you seen a car you really liked, and then instantly you notice them everywhere you go? It isn’t that suddenly there’s hundreds more out there. It isn’t that at all—what’s happened is you’ve suddenly become aware of it. You’ve recognized something that was always there. You’ve named and claimed it, so it showed up. So it is with everything you give thought to in your life. 

Remember back in January when I wrote about the difference between hope and expectation? Hope is when you wish for something to happen, and expectation is when you know it is already done. There is a huge lesson in faith in that statement. Just as there are people who attract chaos in their life, so are there people who bring peace to the world around them. One of the biggest differences between the two types of people is their expectations. If we move through our lives, expecting to be broke, expecting to fight with people, and to be victimized; then guess what? That’s exactly what we’ll get.

If we swim in the muck of discontent, hate, fear, lack, judgment, and disease that’s exactly what’s going to show up in our lives. If we decide to stop hanging in the pool of negativity, we will instantaneously affect the outcome of our lives. The second we give up our stories and wash off the grime of conditional thinking, the outcome of our lives will change. It can’t help but change because it is steeped in the principle of Cause and Effect. What you put out into the world always comes back. You reap what you sow; we all can relate to that…right?

So why are we always shocked when something happens that we expected? Good, bad or indifferent? It isn’t magic or miracles…it is the Universe responding to your demands.

When we recognize that we must change something in our lives or we see what we are doing isn’t working, and we decide to be the change we want to see in the world, the Universe must respond to us instantaneously. It can’t help it, that’s its nature. 

Jesus told us, “Do not imitate the way of this world, but be transformed by the renewing or your minds...” Gandhi recognized it in 1913, “Be the change you want to see in the world.” Buddha claimed it when he said, “We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world.” The Dalai Lama knew it when he stated, “We can never obtain peace in the outer world until we make peace with ourselves.” Dr. Ernest Holmes states it perfectly, “The thing that stands between you and the greater good is a thing of thought and nothing else. It is not Reality that you must change, but your mental reaction to It.”

If these spiritual teachers can speak to our souls, then who are we not turn our ears and listen? Isn’t it time we take up their words, embody the change we want to see in our lives, and become the ambassadors for peace in our world—one thought at a time?

Thanks for hanging out and reading my ramblin’s and Happy Memorial Day!

Where is your focus?

Living in the Moment

Do you remember thinking the world stopped when you weren’t there to experience it? When I was a child, I thought the moment I left—people froze until I met up with them again. There was nothing that occurred outside of my reality—if I didn’t see it, it didn’t happen. I remember, at a fairly young age, when I came to the realization that people didn’t freeze when I wasn’t there to experience them. Needless to say, it was a real hard pill to swallow, when I saw that their life kept on truckin’ along without me.

Fortunately, we are not the same small child that couldn’t comprehend time, or the adolescent that couldn’t wait to grow up. We’ve changed, evolved, expanded our lives, and unfortunately, when the time came, we got sucked right into the race-consciousness of our culture. The world told us there was more to life then kitty cat whiskers and puppy dog tails. Suddenly, we were conditioned to believe that, we can’t have what we want, we will never get it, we can’t afford it, stop dreaming about it, and by all means, don’t be so selfish to ask for it…the list goes on and on. We began to believe that we were separate from life; that thoughts and things were two separate ideas.

But isn’t it interesting that when we were born into this world we were totally reliant upon the giving, caring, and love of others? We couldn’t do anything for ourselves and yet we somehow were able to express our needs. As we grew we learned to ask for what we wanted. We, as children, expected our every need to be met. There was no fear of lack…lack of love, joy, peace, abundance, or contentment. We had no clue that there was a process that must happen in order for us to have the food in our bellies, clothes on our backs, a roof over our heads, and love in our hearts. It just was. We somehow had the consciousness of living in the moment, without even knowing it. There was no idea of doubt, fear, or lack; we only had to be.

Then as adolescents we were taught that the world doesn’t revolve around us. Society conditioned us to stop asking for so much. Society dictated to us that we shouldn’t have such high expectations. Only a few get to experience true success, love, joy, prosperity, and inner peace. The rest of us must spend our lives struggling to figure out how to get it.

Let’s face it; every day we are told to ask for less. We are bombarded with news of lack, fear, doubt, limitations. We let the hook of desperation catch in our mouths and we let the pole of race consciousness just reel us in. We’re pulled out of life, out of our unlimited possibilities, only to be drowned in the bloated nothingness of limited ideas and unfulfilled definitions. Who says we must conform to the world?

“Do not imitate the way of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”* 

It is our birthright to be happy, prosperous, joy-filled, and peaceful. We are designed to experience life, love unconditionally, and serve with gratitude. How amazing would it be if we gave up our old stories of lack, hate, fear, doubt, and jealousy and decided to originate new stories of love, joy, understanding, and peace? Absolutely nothing would restrain the infinite possibilities bursting from our spiritual understanding. You are a gift to this world; the same greatness that resides in the enlightened, awaits you to discover it within youself.

Give up the same ol’ story and create a better one. We are the keepers of our dreams; dare to dust them off, and place them on the shelf of self-discovery. It isn’t the labor of planting the seed that’s hard, it’s not digging it up to see if it’s conspiring to germinate and grow. There is a power in the Universe that knows what to do and how to do it. From an acorn, grows an oak tree, from a tulip bulb, a tulip grows, it doesn’t need our help to realize its potential. We must plant our seeds of genius, and then leave them alone to grow.

Thanks for hanging out and reading my ramblings!

*Romans 12.2

What do you mean, life went on?

Warning, Rapids Ahead!

Life is fluidic. It ebbs and it flows. It crashes against the rocks of uncertainty and laps on the sands of total faith. Some days we can stand in the light of discovery and bathe in complete understanding of our place in the Universe. While, other days we may find ourselves wallowing in the sewage of race consciousness.

Either way, we toss our oars into the river of life and start paddling against the rapids of self pity, judgment, and negative thoughts. Fortunately, we’ve decided to wear a life jacket.

Isn’t it ironic that we begin our journey in the calm waters of serenity, discovery, and peace? We contently float along the shallow river waters, basking in the sun as it soaks into our skin and we listen to the quiet rustling of the leaves cheering us on. But before long, we become restless; suddenly the sun seems too hot, and the leaves are too noisy. We come to realize that we are only content long enough to become bored with our journey.

We watch tons of people paddle past us and wonder if they might know something we don’t. Maybe we notice that the people in the other rafts seem to have the courage to face the raging rapids that swirl so violently ahead. We see others go before us and decide, even though we might be fearful, we will follow them on their journey.

But as we look at the river ahead we see some rafts have over-turned, while others are getting caught in a current that keeps them fighting the same swell over and over again. We notice others are successfully navigating the rapids, and some are ahead in the calm water. Fear bubbles in the back of our throats and for a timeless moment we wonder if we made the right choice?

Well what is choice but the use of our personal power to choose? There is nothing magical about it. It is engrained in our nature just as blinking, swallowing and breathing is. We have volition, and that is what separates us from the animals. We can make a choice and if it isn’t what we expected or wanted…guess what??? We can change our mind, and make a choice to do something different. 

Grant it, when we enter the rapids of our lives, sometimes we will have to live with the consequences. Rafts may over-turn, we may temporarily get stuck in a vortex; but even then, we have the choice of how we react to the circumstances.

It is our fears and lack of faith that makes us feel we are stuck into whatever experience we’ve decided to own. Maybe we’re too scared so we decide to sit in the raft that is stuck swirling in the rapids, or we get tossed from the raft and feel the rocks scrape against our skin and we fight to survive the raging undertow as it is trying to bury us in its fury. OR maybe we decide to skillfully navigate the flow of the river and steer the raft through the rough waters with little or no drama.

It is our choice…we’ve all been in a raft stuck in the middle of the rapids, screaming for someone to save us, and we’ve all been in a raft that makes it through as we stare back wondering how in the hell did we make it through.

There is no shame in being stuck or battered against the river’s bottom. It is life, it is our humanness. BUT (you knew that was coming), it is the way we choose to react once we hit that river’s bottom, that dictates what happens next. Either we will decide to stay down there or we will decide to push off the mud and rocks and live. It is entirely up to us. 

We ALWAYS have a choice.

We must never forget that we were designed to express a life filled with Love, Joy, Abundance and Peace. We are so much stronger than we think, we are more creative than we ever give ourselves credit for, and more than anything, we deserve to be completely and totally happy.

Thanks for hanging out and reading my ramblings.

What Are We Supposed To Handle?

Do you think we are given only that which we can handle? You know the saying, “God doesn’t give us more than we can handle.” But is that really true? Does God really give us events or situations we are supposed to handle? Do we really need that validation? Hey maybe we feel we need to come up with an excuse for the situation we are in; because IF it isn’t some entity outside of ourselves, we must chalk it up to the big guy upstairs. Right??

BUT…(again with the big but)

What if we gave “it” to ourselves? What if we keep creating the conditions and situations that require us to stretch further than we’ve ever stretched before? What if we are submerged in the “livingness” because we haven’t learned to let go?

Too often we are ready to blame or accuse something outside of ourselves for our lives. So and so did this to me; we keep blaming it on the devil, God, my husband, my wife, my kids, my friend, my brother, my sister (fill in the blank). Our excuses fire off quicker than the cognitive process it takes us to think of a reason. We’ve become conditioned into believing that someone or thing outside of ourselves control our experiences. Nobody has enough power over anyone to take that ability away.

We are powerful enough to change outcomes by choosing how we react to what is going on around us. We mustn’t forget it is our reaction to whatever is happening out-there that breeds the situation within.

God doesn’t give us anything we can’t handle because it isn’t God giving it to us. We are responsible for everything in our lives—period! God doesn’t sit up in the sky with a vendetta against us. All this Omnipresent Power (God) knows how to do is give us exactly what we are asking for. So the question is…What are we asking for? What are we spending time thinking about? How have we been treating people around us?

Let’s face it; we train people how to treat us. If we don’t like the way someone is treating us, then we must change how we react to them. Change the way we show people how to treat us. Stop being the victim of circumstances. Listen to the small voice tapping at our consciousness. Find the idea that waits patiently for us to recognize it. Let go of used up definitions and old limited thoughts that keep us stuck in the shadows of our true greatness.

In other words, stop letting others define you. Stop letting old limited ideas of what you used to be become the blocks in which you build your self-worth today. You were created out of greatness to experience greatness!

Take the moment, redefine yourself, and let it come from your heart. Feel the heat of the sun on your skin and the wind dance through the strands of your hair. Know that the same power that created the universe, created you to live in it. There are no mistakes!

You are here to live life to the fullest, without regret, without blame and without guilt. There is nothing more powerful than a made up mind. Isn’t it time to make up your mind to be happy, free, prosperous, loving, and forgiving? Isn’t it time to take responsibility for your life?

Thanks for letting me ramble on about the evolving process of becoming a better person in this world.

And…thanks for reading my ramblings~

What Are We Asking For?

I never meant to write about my spirituality, my belief system or what makes me tick. It was never my intention to create such a personal and revealing blog. I created Written & Ready to have somewhere to post about my journey of being an author and things I’ve learned as I’ve navigated through the process.

The state of my last few blog posts haven’t been the most positive or what some of you have come to expect to read. But being so intimate with you through my words and connecting to the creativeness that fosters my vulnerability I must remember certain posts will resonate with some of you, while other posts would be better left unread.

Thank you for sharing in my vulnerability and your thoughtful responses. Thank you for coming back and recognizing the compassion that binds each of us to one another.

Sometimes when we are bent and twisted into uncomfortable conclusions or our expectations dwindle to regrets and every salutation begins to waver away from our inner Truth; we can’t help but begin to look outside of ourselves to be made whole again. We are wounded by the spires of words piercing the deepest cracks of our souls. We take the longest routes to inner peace and struggle to remain embedded in the misery because we think it will protect us from truly feeling life.

I get it…I don’t live in a bubble pretending to know the answers to every murky moment. But I do know that sometimes it isn’t the answer we need to look for; sometimes we must come to realize that maybe we keep asking the wrong question.

What if we are asking the wrong questions? What motivates us to keep magnifying the problem instead of the solution?

It’s what we do every day that will define what the world makes of us or what we make of the world. Struggling isn’t our way; worry, doubt, fear and lack aren’t natural for mankind. IF those negative experiences were supposed to be our true existence, than we wouldn’t long for peace, love, joy and abundance in our lives. We would be meek and meager living in the complacency of darkness. 

We desire the light because we are forever expanding and expressing our lives through nature. We need to stop defining ourselves by the world around us. We aren’t our physical conditions, our bank accounts or our jobs. We are the porters of Creative Expression; we are the curators of Knowledge, and the guardians of Love.

Even when it seems like nothing is going right and life has kicked us in the gut yet again, we still seek the comfort of a hug, or the reassuring inspiration of the written word. So often we fall to our knees in moments of weakness only to forget to stand up in times of unbinding strength. But it’s when we reconnect with what makes us strong and we live from gratitude then moments that bring us to our knees become fewer and far between.

Don’t waste time wallowing in the mistakes of yesterday, it will not brighten today, and waiting for tomorrow to be healed will just bring disappointment. It is living today that dissolves the pains of yesterday and the expectations of tomorrow. It is being present in the exact moment of taking a breath that defines who we are.

It’s time we stopped holding our breaths.

Thanks for reading my ramblings.

Blood Isn't Thicker Than Water...

Most of you know that my blog is where I work out my creative moments of realization. Maybe this post isn’t the most positive; maybe not even the most beautiful use of words, okay it’s not the most perfect moment to heave the tired and weary words clouding my thoughts, but it’s all I have to give.

So as I work through watching someone I love fighting not to die, I find myself struggling not to resent being left as the keeper of the keys. Lack of love or compassion has nothing to do with it. I love her so much it hurts. But waiting for decisions, while completely powerless; is painful. Blood isn’t thicker than water.

SUFFER NO MORE MY DEAR FRIEND

Skin clinging to bones like wet skirts pulled by gravity.

Muscles dissolved, twitching to feel life.

Veins bleeding for a life, vacuumed against worldly experiences.

Breath struggling for a rhythm locked by forgotten words.

Eyes closed, wasting the beauty between life and death.

Sparks of your fire keeps raging for more time.

Tell me what you want me to do?

Life’s unkind, bringing demons to your thoughts.

Mind won’t stop fluctuating between then and now.

Happy moments torture your missing thoughts.

Bones crumble and decay while shaking for support.

Smiles keep wasting away to bitter scowls.

Do you know who I am?

Bless this life, reduced to a reluctant player.

Aged to believe that suffering is for the righteous.

An unforgettable story of strapping death to the old.

Please resign in peace and know true love.

Be free from the prison your body has created.

Know the beginning of another journey.

Wake another without pain, without suffering.

Dignity is yours—my dear friend.