You Are A Butterfly

What if you woke up this morning and felt like a failure? What if you felt that everything in your life was in vain? That no matter what you do, you fail? You are not alone.

Millions of people feel like that today. They feel like they can’t go on. Like their presence doesn’t matter. We all feel discouraged at various times in our lives. It’s natural. Failure is a part of success. If you don’t fail at some point, you won’t succeed.

We are all designed differently. Just like we are meant to succeed in certain aspects, we are equally meant to fail. Though that statement may sound a bit paradoxical if not odd, it is true. That is not to say, give up on everything and don’t do your best. You still have to keep traveling towards your goals. Always do your best. Duck and cover if you have to, but keep going.

Caterpillars are born with the gift of flight, but without wings? They don’t know they can fly until they transform into a butterfly. After weeks of the most intensive, grueling work and the final transformation, they grow wings, leave their cocoons, and learn to fly. They are one of life’s most exquisite creatures.

We overlook that when we first see butterflies, it’s the result of a much longer journey. You are a here to fly. You can succeed beyond your wildest imagination. Create your flight plan and soar to the heights within your Soul. Be an inventor of your own destiny -- a visionary, a deep thinker, a creator, a pilot of your life.

Following are people who didn’t give up. People who forged through the darkness and took flight. Learn from their failures and success.

• Alexander Graham Bell found it almost impossible to find an investor in the telephone. When he patented the telephone in 1876, he approached Western Union, then the largest communications company in America, and offered it exclusive rights to the invention for $100,000. Western Union's president, turned down the offer saying, "What use could this company make of an electrical toy?"
• Thomas A. Edison, was granted more patents by the U.S. Patent office than anyone else--yet they included such duds as a perpetual cigar, furniture made of cement and a way of using goldenrod for rubber. As a child he was told he was unteachable. Before being home-schooled he was kicked out of three schools. He patented over ten thousand inventions including the light-bulb, the phonograph, and film. Those who knew him considered his crackpot ideas to be "crazy". His invention of the light bulb proved everyone wrong.
• Henry Ford went broke five times before he succeeded. He forgot to put the reverse gear in the first car he manufactured. In 1957, he bragged about the car of the decade; the Edsel. It was renowned for doors that wouldn't close, a hood that wouldn't open, paint that peeled, a horn that stuck, and a reputation that made it impossible to resell.
• Abraham Lincoln’s story is astounding. In his entire life, he only attended school for 12 months.
  
• When he was 22, he failed in business.
  
• When he was 23, he ran for the legislature and lost.
  
• When he was 24, he failed in business again.
  
• The following year he was elected to the legislature.
  
• When he was 26, his sweetheart died.
  
• At the age of 27, he had a nervous breakdown.
• When he was 29, he was defeated for the post of Speaker of the House in the State Legislature.
  
• When he was 31, he was defeated as Elector.
  
• When he was 34, he ran for Congress and lost.
  
• At the age of 37, he ran for Congress and finally won.
  
• Two years later, he ran again and lost his seat in Congress.
  
• At the age of 46, he ran for the U.S. Senate and lost.
  
• The following year he ran for Vice President and lost that, too. He ran for the Senate again, and again lost.
  
• Finally, at the age of 51, he was elected the 16th President of the United States. He failed more times than many of us will even try. Yet he helped change a world, and emancipated a population.

You are a butterfly. Spread your wings and fly.

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Curtain Call

“Who has not sat before his own
heart's curtain?
It lifts: and the scenery is falling apart.
Have patience with everything
that remains unsolved in your heart.
Try to love the questions themselves,
like locked rooms and like books
written in a foreign language.
Do not now look for the answers.
They cannot now be given to you
because you could not live them.
It is a question of experiencing everything.
At present you need to live the question.
Perhaps you will gradually,
without even noticing it,
find yourself experiencing the answer,
some distant day.”

~Rainer Maria Rilke

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Celebrate

I think you deserve a little laugh today to carry you into your wonderful weekend. Time to de-stress. Celibrate today. Live well and love even better.

Another gem from Spiritual.com.au

The Pope dies and, naturally, goes to heaven.

He's met by the reception committee, and after a whirlwind tour he is told that he can enjoy any of the myriad of recreations available.

He decides that he wants to read all of the ancient original text of the Holy Scriptures, so he spends the next eon or so learning the languages.

After becoming a linguistic master, he sits down in the library and begins to pour over every version of the Bible, working back from the most recent "Easy Reading" to the original script.

All of a sudden there is a scream in the library. The Angels come running in only to find the Pope huddled in his chair, crying to himself, and muttering,

"An 'R'! The scribes left out the 'R'."

A particularly concerned Angel takes him aside, offering comfort, and asks him what the problem is and what does he mean.

After collecting his wits, the Pope sobs again, "It's the letter 'R'. They left out the 'R'.

The word was supposed to be CELEBRATE!"

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Group Hug

Hey guys, this is serious. There seems to be a lot dissension in the air. A lot of hurt seeping through the ethers. A lot of anger and disruption of spiritual good will. There is too much hate going around and we need to stop it.

One of the reasons I started blogging was to help eradicate all that negativity and give you a place to come where you can feel good, put your feet up, let your hair down, tap into your intrinsic goodness, be yourself with no pretense and be happy and at peace for at least for a moment.

There is only so much that we can squeeze into the moment -- and since we are squeezing, let’s squeeze all the juice that we can. I want to give you food to take with you, a seed to grow, an experience like you’ve never had before. Unconditional love.

I would like you to smile. It’s okay to drop your baggage and unburden yourself. We have a lot to deal with in this life. Life is speeding at us rapidly and if we are not careful, we will miss the nuances that make it all worthwhile.

Although putting an end to hate is a lofty idea, we can start the motion, we don’t have to carry it in our hearts and we don’t have to carry it into the world.

We are not here to be unhappy. We are here to love. We have to heal ourselves. Heal the very ailments that have been buried in our hearts for years. Heal.

Let’s join hands and hearts in consciousness. Extend our arms, hug it out.

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Amazing Humans

I used to have aspirations of being a doctor until the writing gods took my hands and said. “We have something else for you to do Alexys.”

Isn’t it funny, how we find our purpose? It could be an “accidental” meeting with someone that changes our way of thinking, or an epiphany.

Often if happens in sports, when players get injuries and then have to rely on other means of support. Others seem to wander off until they find their own stride.

I was fortunate that the gods of journalism corralled me into their court. If not, I may have been a brilliant surgeon slicing and dicing your bodies, instead of piercing your minds, spiritual wherewithal and doctoring your Souls.

One of the most fascinating species is the human species. I could research the species all day and still not get enough. I am intrigued how we act and interact with each other and I thought you might be too.

Following are some amazing facts that you probably never knew about yourself.

• Thinking about your muscles can make you stronger.
• Women blink twice as many times as men do.
• Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair.
• We are about 1 cm taller in the morning than in the evening. Layers of cartilage in the joints gets compressed during the day.
• There are approx. 550 hairs in the eyebrow.
• The strongest muscle in the human body is the tongue.
• The hardest bone in the human body is the jawbone.
• The life span of a taste bud is 10 days.
• The world's youngest parents were 8 and 9 and lived in China in 1910.
• Babies are born without kneecaps. They appear when the child is 2-6 years of age.
• Your body is creating and killing 15 million red blood cells per second.
• Humans were first infected with the HIV virus in the 1930s.
• The force of 1 billion people jumping at the same time is equal to 500 tons of TNT.
• A baby is born every seven seconds.
• You breathe about 10 million times a year.
• The colder the room you sleep in, the better the chances are that you'll have a bad dream.
• The fastest growing nail is on the middle finger.
• The human body weighs 40 times more than the brain.
• After eating too much, your hearing is less sharp.
• There are more people alive today than have ever died.
• The human body is better suited to two four-hour sleep cycles than one eight-hour one.
• A man's beard contains between 7000 and 15,000 hairs.
• A beard grows an average of 140mm a year
• During an average lifetime, a man will spend 3,350 hours removing 8.4 meters of stubble

This is really trippy.

Cna yuo raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can.

i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! if you can raed tihs forwrad it.

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Persistent Resistance

"Pain is a relatively objective,
physical phenomenon;
suffering is our psychological
resistance to what happens.
Events may create physical pain,
but they do not in themselves
create suffering.
Resistance creates suffering.
Stress happens when your mind resists what is...
The only problem in your life
is your mind's resistance
to life as it unfolds."

~ Dan Millman

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Shaken, Not Deterred

How many times do we feel laden with problems? How often do we feel that we’re carrying the weight of the world on our shoulders? Wallowing in pain, sorrow and disappointment, we feel alone in our struggle to be free.

Often times we think that we would trade our problems with anyone just to get a little relief. If only we didn’t have to go through the dark night of Soul and could escape the inevitable and excruciating exposition of life.

Well, it doesn’t exactly happen like that does it? We all go through heartache, loss and spiritual flat lining. At the time, we think we won’t survive. We may even question God’s intentions for putting such a tremendous weight on our shoulders.

In those tenuous moments when tears stream down our face and stings our bloodshot eyes and we’re lying on the decimated battlefield with cavernous bullet holes in our Soul, a stirring in our horizon awakens, nudging us towards the effervescent sunrise -- that formidable resolve in our spirit that lifts us from the artillery shell, pinches us and tells us we’re alive.

A spirit of hope and vitality expertly guides us through the contours of the field, fortifying us with the indomitable strength to survive anything.

We can pick ourselves up. We can put ourselves back together. We can go out there again and fight. Fight for our right to be alive. Our right to be feel pain. Our right to feel.

We must thank our pain, though we want to ask God to take the pain away. It is God who puts it there to teach us how to cope. And if we can’t cope, we can’t function property as spiritual beings. It’s like driving a car and it never breaking down. Mechanical vehicles must be tuned in order to operate at their optimum -- so do we.

Without coping skills, we won’t know how to restart our engines. Pain is food for the Soul. We need it to grow, to get fortified, not nullified. Pain leads to rebirth and a revivification of our spiritual prowess.


The following story co-opted from Spiritual.com illustrates my point.


A young man was at the end of his rope. Seeing no way out, he dropped to his knees in prayer.

"God, I can't go on," he said. "I have too heavy a cross to bear."

God replied, "My son, if you can't bear it's weight, just place your cross inside this room. Then open another door and pick any cross you wish."

The young man was filled with relief. "Thank you, God," he sighed, and did as he was told.

As he looked around the room he saw many different crosses; some so large the tops were not visible. Then he spotted a tiny cross leaning against a far wall.

"I'd like that one, God," he whispered.

And God replied, "My son, that's the cross you brought in."

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Are You A Troublemaker?

I have a friend who is labeled a troublemaker. It is a moniker that is not said to his face, but in the heads and under the breath of many people in which he comes in contact.

A troublemaker mind you, when he doesn’t even make the kind of trouble that is more deserved of the title. The only reason he is the proprietor of such a label is that he speaks up for himself.

Recently he asked me to attend a real estate seminar with him, to which I replied, “Like I don’t have enough to do.” But being the giving Soul that I am, I accompanied him to give my support, however secretly I would don my observation glasses, plenty of pens and note pads because I am a professional people watcher -- a playwright for the world stage of life, casting actors in parts they have no idea they are playing.

It wasn’t one of those seminars that you see advertised on late night TV, where, “You too can be a millionaire if you buy the 'I won’t tell you anything relevant now or ever even if you buy this overpriced and overhyped system,' to start you on your way to millionaire paradise. Call now. Only two easy payments of 1 arm and 1 leg, but you have to ACT now!”

It was a legitimate seminar for realtors to be up on the latest trends in the changing market. Although I am not an agent, he got me in as his assistant who would take notes for him. I had two tablets, one was for his notes and another one was for my notes. Which one do you think was full? Lucky for him, I have a great memory to fill his in later.

When we got there, plenty of eager beavers were there ready to learn the next step, the newest laws, and other aspects of the rapidly proliferating real estate business in California; where it costs ten times as much than anywhere else in the country to buy. The gold rush days of old are long behind us, but the gold prices are still here.

Twenty minutes into the seminar, my friend was asked by the speaker who looked like he was sorry he got out of bed, “What credit score qualifies you for a mortgage loan?” My friend answers, “There are three main tiers that qualify an individual, 520, 620, 720, and in my experience I found that though one has a low credit score, one can still qualify for a loan at a higher APR. There are plenty of programs to qualify an individual.”

The speaker didn’t know what to do, he was so used to the “easy answer.” It totally threw him off course, it made him angry that someone in the audience would answer in such a way to show him up. He quickly remarks, “Are you a mortgage broker?” My friend says, “No, but I have personally bought and sold many properties and a lender will do everything possible to make a person qualify. It’s still a business.”

The speaker scorns, “You don’t know what you are talking about,” and completely dismisses my friend’s answer. He didn’t even consider that someone else may have had an answer, but that wasn’t the answer he was looking for. As the speaker continued to mislead the audience, I thought of the old adage, “Those who can’t do teach.” What about those who can’t teach either?”

My friend has years of experience as a property owner, (he currently owns several income properties, including a bank), but you would never know it. He’s really the gentlest, sweetest, kindness, most humble man you’d want to meet.

Yet he is constantly ridiculed for speaking his mind, being a troublemaker, being an independent thinker and going against the grain. An independent thinker can also be labeled a know-it-all, odd man out, someone who rocks the boat, makes waves, or rattles cages. Labels that don’t do a free thinker any justice. Labels that were created by the sheep consciousness.

It puzzles to him that no one else seems to be willing to speak up. There are always a few timid Souls who come up to him after the fact and say, “Thank you.”

In fact years of putting up with incompetent realtors caused him to get his own real estate license. His former realtors would give him misinformation, wrong facts and figures that he only found out after the fact. When the realtors were questioned as to why they said what they said, one by one, they replied, “I never said that.” It’s no wonder they say the things they do when they are taught by people who don’t know.

How long can the blind lead the blind? If we don’t open our eyes, we will never see. I have concluded that real estate conjures up a lot of F words. Flipping. Foreclosures. Fiction. Fees. First Mortgage. Fixed Rate. Flat Broke. My three favorites are, Flakes, Fakes and Fools.

Attention all troublemakers, the sheep have inherited the earth -- it’s time to take it back.

When it comes to speaking his mind, standing up for himself, not backing down from a challenge, my friend is like Patrick Henry, who said, “Give me liberty or give me death.” That was the last line of one of the most passionate speeches in history. The real passion in this speech is not that line.
I think the crux of that speech is captured in this quote.

“...different men often see the same subject in different lights; and, therefore, I hope it will not be thought disrespectful to those gentlemen if, entertaining as I do opinions of a character very opposite to theirs, I shall speak forth my sentiments freely and without reserve...

If we wish to be free -- if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending -- if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained -- we must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight! An appeal to arms and to the God of hosts is all that is left us!

“The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave.”

~Patrick Henry

Feel free to read the rest of the speech.

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Create Your Bliss

I love waterfalls. Every time I see one, I stop and stare at it. It draws me into its power, into its majesty. I like how the water follows an order of motion, yet falls freely and gracefully into its destiny. It’s one of nature’s most beautiful acts.

Even though I live in a densely populated city, I wake up to a waterfall everyday. It’s like waking up in an dream. It’s so enchanting. Although the waterfall was constructed for the whole complex to enjoy, I get the best benefit because it is only five feet from my door.

Waterfalls or moving water create white noise. White noise helps screen out unwanted sounds and brings balance. Balance is all we want to filter out stress. Even if you can’t wake up to a waterfall, you can create your own bliss.

Following are some ways to help you stimulate the peace in your Soul.

• Find a quiet place where you can be alone to listen to your inner voices. They can lead you to make good decisions.
• Turn off all electronic devices, computer, cell phones, MP3 players, TV’s, etc. What will you do now? Can you think of anything? (Go back to number 1.) Just not having to think about what button to press is blissful.
• Light a candle and watch the flame flicker. It will induce you into thinking clearly and focusing.
• Dream. Spend at least 1 hour on your dream. Write down your plans and visualize what you want. Day after day, you move it closer to reality.
• Take a hike. Get your blood pumping. It helps circulation, improves breathing and your oxygen intake. Can’t go to the mountains? Take a walk through your neighborhood park or your neighborhood. Look at the faces of people, each with their different stories. Smile. Speak. Walk. Be.
• Read a book. Pick a book you’ve been wanting to read, but didn’t have time to do it. If you really want to do it, you HAVE the time. Read a little each day. Don’t rush, the story will still be there.
• Listen to a lullaby. Not only is it relaxing, it unlocks your sensory memories to a time when the only thing you had to do was eat and sleep. Music soothes the savage beast.
• Write a love letter -- by hand. You don’t need a quill pen, a regular one will do. Let your heart leap onto the page. You will be surprised how free you feel to express yourself. Even if you never send it, write it anyway.
• Free choice. Do something that will inspire you. Anything -- but do something. Life can be boiled down to two principles; what you give to it and what you take from it.
• Give gratitude for all that you have -- and all that you don’t.

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Let's Dance

“And we should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once. And we should call every truth false which was not accompanied by at least one laugh.”

~Friedrich Nietzsche

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Noble Souls

"This is the manner of noble souls:
they do not want
to have anything
for nothing;
least of all, life.
Whoever is of the mob
wants to live for nothing;
we others, however,
to whom life gave itself,
we always think about
what we might best give in return...
One should not wish
to enjoy where one
does not give joy."

~ Friedrich Nietzsche

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Holding Your Own

I was out an doing errands all day yesterday and I was flabbergasted at what I found. Aside from the normal rushing and near misses of people almost knocking each other over, there was a total disregard of humanity in the air. A get-out-of-my-way-or-I-just-might-kill-you attitude.

As I studied this theory further, I discovered the problem. I stood back and observed several people entering and exiting various buildings.

As one person entered, they would let the door shut in the face of the person a few steps behind. This has always intrigued me how other people are so unaware or don’t even care that others exist.

What happened to random acts of kindness? What happened to just turning around and seeing if there is anyone behind you? It doesn’t take much to hold the door. Only five to ten seconds max.

An exercise you can do today, if you’re so inclined. When you go somewhere in public and it requires that you open a door to gain access, hold it open for the next person.

You will cause a chain of love. When you hold it open for someone, someone holds it open for someone else. It’s also symbolism -- when you hold the door open, you are opening your heart to the flow of life.

Kindness always pays dividends. Check this out, it's cool to be kind. Have a kind weekend.

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Train Of Thought

My neighbor just got a new remote control that cost $1,000. I know, that kind of money can feed a village in a third world country -- for several years.

Even I as a tech fan, I would not have bought such a device. Supposedly it does everything except create world peace, but I hear they are working on that.

I have always maintained that technology makes us lazy. In my mind, the remote control started what has been the demise of our desire or ability to actually get up from our comfortable positions, walk to the TV and change the channel.

We are so used to the remote doing our leg work with such swift precision that we would not know what to do if it were ever disabled. Yes we would -- pound it on our thighs until it works again or utters it’s last breath and causes us to get up and change the batteries -- or use the spare remote strapped to our ankle.

Just when we think it is safe to rest, the geniuses at Hitachi have come up with yet another way for us to remain glued to our seats.

In Hatoyama, Japan, a new technology lets you control electronic devices without lifting a finger or any other part of your body, simply by reading brain activity. By analyzing slight changes in the brain’s blood flow, the “brain-machine interface,” can translate brain motion into electric signals.

This is the kind of stuff horror films are made of. At any moment the Jeckyll and Hyde in us is ready to blow. One demonstration where a cap connects to a mapping device by optical fibers via a control computer and motor actually moved a toy train set. Talk about train of thought.

Hitachi's scientists are set to develop a brain TV remote control activated only by thinking. Thinking what? If TV watchers were thinking, they would not be watching. And if they’re not watching, they’re more than likely thinking about watching.

Hamlet foresaw this over 400 years ago back in 1604 and addressed this conundrum in one of his speeches.

“To TV or not TV, that is the question;
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind
to buffer the streaming video
of outrageous distortion,
Or to take arms against
a TV of troubles,
And by opposing, end them.
Thus conscience does make
cowards of us all,
And thus the native hue of resolution,
Is sicklied o'er with
the pale cast of thought...”

There has always been a divide in the scientific and spiritual communities. One side thinks they have the answers to creation, while the other side swears that only they know.

If the two sides could only come together on this and create a desire to reach for something more than a remote. Technology is growing by leaps and bounds, some of it is brilliant. It leads us to a more convenient life, but not a more meaningful life.

Gadgets are fun, but they will never replace our capacity to be happy. By knowing ourself and understanding what makes us happy, we can move our life in any direction -- we don’t need a mind control remote. We don’t even need a TV.

We can channel our thoughts into creating what we want in our life. The type of job, the people, the experiences -- they all start with thought. If we concentrate on what we desire, (not who) we are starting to manifest it, thus creating it in our mind and making a space for it in our life.

Our consciousness is our only guide. TV or not TV never enters the equation.

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Nature Of Soul

The new community which I now call home is spectacular. Not only is it bucolic, but it has a little history of its own. It was once part of the Ballona Wetlands.

The first inhabitants of the land were the Gabrielino Native Americans. European settlers arrived in 1769 and in the early 1800s, this area became dairy farms and agricultural fields.

In the 1940s, industrialist-aviator-engineer-film producer, Howard Hughes bought the site and constructed his aircraft plant, runway, hangars and later built the famous Spruce Goose.

The Spruce Goose was 319 feet and 11 inches, had eight engines, the capacity to hold 700 passengers and still holds the record for the largest wingspan of any plane ever built. While Hughes was behind the controls on its maiden and only flight, the Spruce Goose got 70 feet off the ground and only traveled one mile.

Now the aircraft hangars have been converted into sound stages. Scenes from movies such as Titanic, World Trade Center, End Of Days, What Lies Beneath and What Women Want have been filmed here.

There are 215 species of birds here, 15 species of fish and various plants and trees to compliment the wildlife. Egrets, geese and ducks use it as a resting place and feeding ground on their annual migrations up and down the Pacific Flyway from Canada to South America.

So as I walk around these grounds, I soak in the history and watch the family of Blue-Winged Teals quack their way through the freshwater marsh. Their coloring is striking. Males have a gray head and neck, a white crescent in front of the eyes, a black bill and orange legs and feet. Females are similar with yellow legs and feet.

They are more vocal than most ducks - their high-pitched peeping and nasal quacking is commonly heard over the traffic and other city sounds. Yet in the cacophony, a peacefulness overtakes me as I observe in awe how they interact with each other.

The mother navigates the water path with her little ones close behind. The drake swims in the rear, keeping one eye on the family and another one peeled for predators. (All females are ducks and males are drakes.)

What impresses me the most is how well they work together as a family, a team of love watching out for each other. There is such a tenderness in their togetherness. A sweetness. A real pureness that grabs hold of my heart. A feeling of connection. Connection is something I speak of often because I see human connections deteriorating.

Life can make some of us, angry, hard and uncaring, but that’s just not a way to live. We have to let go of those experiences that harden our hearts. Get back to the pureness of living. Hang around people who are positive influences. Get rid of negativity. Stop listening to it. Stop repeating it. Stop adding to it. Throw it out with the bath water.

Get back to the nature of your Soul. Let it breathe. Feel. Love. Grow. Watch nature and let it teach you. Let it rekindle your passion for living. It could be something as simple as getting a plant and nurturing it or even going to the zoo. Anything that changes your daily thought patterns. Flip the script. Surprise yourself. Be spontaneous.

For everything that can be construed as negative, life has pockets of magnificence. They are scattered everywhere. When you find one, something magical happens. It’s like a bolt of lightening across a dark sky. You get a glimpse of the heavens opening their heart to you, wrapping around your Soul.

While you navigate through your day, just observe yourself against nature -- your own nature. It may give you all that you need today to know that you are loved. And if by some small chance you still don’t feel it, reach out and watch how it reflects back to you.

When you leave this life, what will you take with you, but the nature of your soul and the lightening bolts you’ve collected along the way.

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Motionless Motion

“No matter how slow the film,
Spirit always stands still
long enough for the photographer
It has chosen.”

~Minor White

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If They Only Knew

Sometime in the 1970’s, a Vietnam vet finally coming home from the war called his parents from the airport.

"Mom and Dad, I'm coming home and I have a friend I'd like to bring home with me."

"Sure," they replied, "We would d love to meet him."

"There's something you should know," the son continued, "he was hurt pretty badly in the fighting. He stepped on a land mind and lost an arm and a leg. He has nowhere else to go and I want him to come live with us."

"I'm sorry to hear that, son, the father said. “Maybe we can help him find somewhere to live?"

"No, I want him to live with us, the son insisted."

"Son, you don't know what you're asking,” the father expressed. Someone with such a handicap would be a terrible burden on us. We have our own lives to live, and we can't let something like this interfere with our lives. I think you should just come home and forget about this guy. He'll find a way to live on his own."

At that point, the son hung up the phone. The parents heard nothing more from him. A few days later, however, they received a call from the police.

Their son committed suicide by overdosing on sleeping pills. The grief-stricken parents were taken to the morgue to identify the body of their son. When they saw him, they were shocked to discover that he had only one arm and one leg.

The parents in this story are like many of us. We find it easy to love those who are good-looking or fun to have around, but we don't like people who inconvenience us or make us feel uncomfortable.

We would rather stay away from people who aren't as healthy, beautiful, or smart as we are -- Anyone who is different or doesn’t fit into the standards of what is acceptable.

Tonight, before you tuck yourself in for the night, evaluate how you look at people. Do you judge them? Do you reject them because they are not like you?

Wouldn’t it be nice if we accepted people as living souls and we were more understanding of those who are different from us?

Article co-opted from Spiritual.com.

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Freedom

Today in America, we celebrate what we know as Independence Day. On this day, July 4, 1776, members of the Second Continental Congress adopted the final draft of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia.

The war didn’t end until 7 years later in 1783 and July 4 became a holiday in some places. In Boston, it replaced the date of the Boston Massacre, March 5, as the major patriotic holiday. People celebrated with speeches, military events, parades, and fireworks. In 1941, Congress declared July 4 a federal holiday.

The war of independence is a war we all fight. We are constantly fighting to become free. Free of our vices, habits and anything that keeps us from feeling our true spirit. Some of us live with certain liberties that others don’t.

One day we will be free from the weight of this world and released from this mortal coil, but in the interim, we still have to strive for peace within ourselves. A peace that no matter where we are in our lives, will take hold of us. A peace that is resolute in our Souls. A peace and knowingness that will always reside inside of us.

There are soldiers all over the world in wars that should have never started, but nevertheless they are there shedding blood, while their families shed tears. Through all death and destruction, new life forms, a new world order takes place, and for some people they can live free, but freedom comes with a price.

Like Ghandi said, “An eye for an eye leaves everyone blind.”

Following is a quote from a soldier in Afghanistan.

“Battles are decided not only by the Soldiers on the field, the armament, or the weather. They are also won and lost by the lessons learned from prior battles. We learn these lessons because someone told their story. As a young Soldier I was a sponge for knowledge; it was before the current age of mass communication. Older Soldiers told their stories in hopes that a single silver strand of wisdom would be gleaned and be passed on. It is part of what we contribute to society. When we can glean wisdom from the lessons others have learned, we can avoid repeating the hardships by which they gained that knowledge. And by sharing our lessons we are helping someone else. That is one of our greatest contributions to humanity.”

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An Inside Job

When you look in the mirror who do you see? Are you happy with your inner reflection or does it leave something to be desired. Usually we can see ourselves in others -- that’s what attracts or repels us.

We are so caught up in criticizing others that we fail to see what’s inside us. The world is our mirror. When we find faults in others, those are the same faults in us. When we see good in others, we see the good in us. To recognize something, we must know it ourselves.

When we are conscious of what we think, say, and do, we are also aware of the energy that we put out. If it is a negative energy, it comes back to us as such. If it is a positive energy it also come back to us.

To change our thought process, we have to understand that everyone is really in the same boat. There is no one person on earth that is greater than another. No God is bigger than another. We are all here to purify our Souls in love. It’s a basic premise that we often overlook.

The love we have reflects in everything we do. It’s such a strong current that people feel it and respond to us. It causes a ripple effect. To change our world mirror, we must change ourselves.

When we see the best in others, we are at our best. When we appreciate beauty, we appreciate our beauty. When we love, we are loved and when we feel love, our possibilities are endless. Reflect the love in your heart and watch how it changes the people around you.

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Wide Open Spaces

“If you can't have faith

in what is held up to you for faith,
you must find things
to believe in yourself,
for a life without
faith in something
is too narrow a space to live.”

~George E. Woodberry

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