As far as we know, humans are the only creatures who question this.  We don’t question this so much with dogs, cats, squirrels, insects, leaves, trees, or stars.  We question this about ourselves, as if we’re somehow different from the rest of the Universe – the only “mistake” the Universe has made.  It can’t be.  You are worthy of Love, Beauty, Joy, and Appreciation.  You are a representation of the Universe at the point where you exist.  Big or small, Bright or dull, it doesn’t matter.  You are exactly what you are meant to be.  You belong on this planet and in this Universe just as much as anyone or anything else.  Only your thinking makes it different.

Open yourself to the experience around you.  Allow Light in your life.  Let it warm you and Love you.  You are meant to be Loved.

Something to Think About…..

It took me a long time to fully learn this lesson.  When “I’m right and they’re wrong”, isn’t resistance the right and noble thing to do?  It took me years to understand the teaching of my elders, which says “What you resist, you give power to” – or – “What you resist, persists” – or – “When you resist, you get more of what you don’t want”.

Why is this so?  Isn’t it right to resist that which seems against our highest good?  The problems with resistance are these:

1. While resistance does bring us moments of righteous indignation, for the larger part, resistance also brings feelings of frustration, anger, disappointment, and/or weakness into our lives.
2. A second problem is that resistance actually strengthens the resolve of our “enemy”, and makes them more determined than ever to carry out their course of action.  They push harder.  They become more determined than they were previously to achieve their end goals – goals we don’t want them to achieve.  Simply put, the opposition grows stronger.  As the opposition grows stronger, we often feel our own resolve strengthening – and a titanic struggle often ensues.
3. A third – and related – problem is harder to understand, and isn’t immediately intuitive to me, yet I know it’s true.  The truth is that when you resist something, you are giving that problem or that person your personal power.  You are in effect saying “This has power over me” or “I am afraid of you” – and you experience fear.
4. A fourth problem is that we have only so much time and energy to expend in any given day.  The way you spend that day is your legacy, your gift to the world.  Every moment you have spent in resistance is a moment that you have not spent building the life and society of your dreams.

So, what do you want your life legacy to be?  I encourage you to build the life of your dreams – always.  Build your legacy.  Grow.  Become better.  Create a better life.  Understand that you have all that you need within you.

Something to think about….

September 11 represents what can happen when Fear and Anger run rampant within the Soul.

Today, let us calm our negative emotional expressions, so We represent Love and Acceptance – making Fear and Anger unnecessary historical expressions.

Today, let us move our intentions away from war towards the peaceful building of the society we want our children to live in.

Today, let us move our money away from military weapons of destruction to feeding the hungry and clothing the naked.

Today, let us move our attention away from being afraid.

Today, let us focus our money towards curing disease.

Today.

• Read this through again, only this time substitute the word “God” (or whatever name or designation you assign to the Universal power that is greater than yourself) in place of the phrase “The sun“, and substitute the word “love” in place of the word “light“.

Do you work at a job or at tasks that feel out of alignment with what you’re really meant to do?  Do you feel that your best skills and abilities are going unused?  If you do, please consider using them.

When I’ve talked to people who have worked at jobs that used less than their full abilities, I have learned this:

1. They didn’t enjoy the work
2. The work required them to use talents other than the talents they were naturally gifted with.
3. Their days move slowly when they’re working.

You see, work is only work when your heart would rather be doing something else.  When you’re doing the “work” your Heart would want you to do, it often doesn’t feel like work – even though it may require significant amounts of effort.  Most often, it feels like play.  People who do “work” that makes their heart sing report that they can’t wait to get up in the morning.  They enjoy their day.  They feel like their days fly by, and the work seems somewhat effortless – like it’s a part of them.

Interestingly, I find that when people do what makes their heart sing, they are able to make more money and achieve more recognition than if they were to follow the traditional success models.

All too often, teens are told:  “OK, you’re graduating from High School.  It’s time to get serious with life.  What do you want to do with the rest of your life?  Choose a career that pays well.  Choose a career that allows you to achieve status.”  Many teens go on to study Law, Medicine, Engineering, Economics, Political Science, etc., for the money, success, and status these jobs will bring.  What is often left out of that advice is “Do what makes your heart sing.  Do what makes you the happiest.  Do what allows you to become the next greatest version of yourself”.  When they graduate from College, they find themselves working in careers that allow them to be “successful”, but not necessarily happy.  The world is full of successful unhappy people.

Does that description fit you?  Do you feel like you walk through life with your shoes on the wrong feet?  Being in the wrong career saps you of your confidence.  It saps you of your belief in yourself.  Since you are not working at the tasks you are best at, you can be left feeling weak, lacking in confidence, and feeling like you “just don’t fit”.  It robs you of the belief and confidence you need to go out and do what you DO want to do.

For all you teens out there, I have this advice:  Take time to learn what you LOVE to do.  Enjoy it.  Do it better than anyone else, if that feels right to you.  Find a way to get paid for doing that.

I will close this article with one of my favorite stories, pulled from the book “Soar with your Strengths“, by Donald O. Clifton and Paula Nelson.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.  (By the way, I encourage you to purchase the book. It’s full of life truths).

Let the Rabbits Run:  A Parable

Imagine there is a meadow.  In that meadow there is a duck, a fish, an eagle, an owl, a squirrel, and a rabbit.  They decide they want to have a school so they can be smart, just like people.

With the help of some grown-up animals, they come up with a curriculum they believe will make a well-rounded animal:

running

swimming

tree climbing

jumping

flying

On the first day of school, little br’er rabbit combed his ears, and he went hopping off to his running class.

There he was a star.  He ran to the top of the hill and back as fast as he could go, and, oh, did it feel good.  He said to himself, “I can’t believe it.  At school, I get to do what I do best”.

The instructor said:  “Rabbit, you really have talent for running.  You have great muscles in your rear legs.  With some training, you will get more out of every hop.”

The rabbit said “I love school.  I get to do what I like to do and get to learn to do it better”.

The next class was swimming.  When the rabbit smelled the chlorine, he said “Wait, wait!  Rabbits don’t like to swim”.The instructor said “Well, you may not like it now, but five years from now, you’ll know it was a good thing for you”.

In the tree-climbing class, a tree trunk was set at a 30-degree angle so all the animals had a chance to succeed.  The little rabbit tried so hard he hurt his leg.

In jumping class, the rabbit got along just fine; in flying class, he had a problem.  So the teacher gave him a psychological test and discovered he belonged in remedial flying.

In remedial flying class, the rabbit had to practice jumping off a cliff.  They told him if he’d just work hard enough, he could succeed.

The next morning, he went on to swimming class.  The instructor said “Today we jump in the water”.  “Wait, wait.  I talked to my parents about swimming.  They didn’t learn to swim.  We don’t like to get wet.  I’d like to drop this course”.

The instructor said “You can’t drop it.  The drop-and-add period is over.  At this point you have a choice:  Either you jump in or you flunk”.

The rabbit jumped in.  He panicked!  He went down once.  He went down twice.  Bubbles came up.  The instructor saw he was drowning and pulled him out.  The other animals had never seen anything quite as funny as the wet rabbit who looked more like a rat without a tail, and so they chirped, and jumped, and barked, and laughed at the rabbit.  The rabbit was more humiliated than he had ever been in his life.  He wanted desperately to get out of class that day.  He was glad when it was over.

He thought that he would head home, that his parents would understand and help him.  When he arrived, he said to his parents “I don’t like school.  I just want to be free”.

“If rabbits are going to get ahead, you have to get a diploma”, replied the parents.

The rabbit said “I don’t want a diploma”.

The parents said “You’re going to get a diploma whether you want one or not”.

They argued, and finally the parents made the rabbit go to bed.  In the morning the rabbit headed off to school with a slow hop.  Then he remembered that the principal had said that any time he had a problem to remember that the counselor’s door was always open. 

When he arrived at school, he hopped up in the chair by the counselor and said “I don’t like school”.

And the counselor said “Hmmm, tell me about that”.

And the rabbit did.

The counselor said “Rabbit, I hear you.  I hear you saying you don’t like school because you don’t like swimming.  I think I have diagnosed that correctly.  Rabbit, I tell you what we’ll do.  You’re doing just fine in running.  I don’t know why you need to work on running.  What you need work on is swimming.  I’ll arrange it so you don’t have to go to running anymore, and you can have two periods of swimming”.

When the rabbit heard that, he just threw up!

As the rabbit hopped out of the counselor’s office, he looked up and saw his old friend, the Wise Old Owl, who cocked his head and said “Br’er rabbit, life doesn’t have to be that way.  We could have schools and businesses where people are allowed to concentrate on what they do well”.

Br’er rabbit was inspired.  He thought when he graduated, he would start a business where the rabbits would do nothing but run, the squirrels could just climb trees, and the fish could just swim.  As he disappeared into the meadow, he sighed softly to himself and said “Oh, what a great place that would be”.

Do you feel like Br’er Rabbit?  Do you feel like a runner who has been trying to develop swimming skills?  Don’t spend another minute thinking yourself a failure.  Instead, consider the success you can achieve when you do what you LOVE to do.

Something to think about….

What would the world be like if we, as a global people, focused our minds and money on hopeful technologies such as this one, rather than on the development of new weapons of destruction?  What if we could somehow, someway, turn the minds that are now focused on the development of new ways to destroy one another onto the development of new ways to sustain each other?  We could, without a doubt, advance humanity and the planet we live on. Call me a dreamer, I suppose, but I think about these things.

My hope is that the following film could help inspire one child, one person, to live a life for the advancement of humanity. The God given intelligence to advance our world has been given to each of us. It is up to each of us to use that intelligence.

Somthing to think about…..

The elected politicians were elected to care for the problems of the people they represent – not the political viewpoints of their party leaders, and not for their own re-election campaigns.  I want a politician who will do what is morally and ethically right – regardless of whether the “right” thing is popular with party leaders or the President.  I want politicians who will find a way to achieve common ground, and work to solve the problems of the society they represent.

Each of us has been brought into this world carrying our own unique set of values, priorities, and belief systems.  Each of us knows that when we sit in a group conversation, most people in that group will express a unique point of view. Given that reality, I would expect that uniqueness to spill out onto the floor of the House of Representatives during the speech – and yet it doesn’t.  Every congressman and senator seems to ignore their inherent unique points of view and simply applauds (or fails to applaud) ideas and positions that conform to their party’s established viewpoints – a type of lock-step group-think.

I see many of our Senators and Congressmen behaving in rude, inconsiderate, and arrogant manners.  We hear so much about the “Party of NO!”, and the Democrats who exclude others.  Were they not raised better than that?  Did they miss basic Kindergarten etiquette?  If I were raising children, I would discipline them for that type of behavior – and so should you.

I would say to each Senator and Congressman:  To Hell with your damned party.  Stand up for what YOU believe in. Applaud for what YOU believe in. Fight for what YOU believe in.  Represent the people who elected you.  Be respectful towards others – even if their viewpoint differs from your own. People elected you (I hope) not because you were a Republican or a Democrat, but because they placed some level of trust in you, your ideas, and your values.  Please help all of us to achieve a solution to the problems that confront us.  ”My Way or NO WAY” is not a defend-able position.  It’s childish and rude.  If you cannot help solve the problems that confront us, the American People need to vote you out of power in favor of someone who can.

If you happen to be a politician reading this, I hope that you will read some of my other blog entries.  You see, I am not a person to be rude or inconsiderate.  In fact, I am far from that. Yet, this is where I find myself with career politicians. The profession no longer seems noble to me.  I know that I am not alone in my views.  The general public disgust is toward your behavior, and standard Washington politics.  Without solving that, we can’t solve anything else – and we have LOTS of problems we need you to solve.

After President Obama’s speech, I was amazed to hear people immediately start bickering about party lines on taxes, the deficit, health care, etc., etc., but very little was said about President Obama’s words on Washington politics. Washington politics as usual have got to stop, or we can’t move forward.  Period.

Something to think about…..

I’ve also gotten to spend some time researching and thinking about life purpose. I found a few good books along the way, as well as a couple of good websites that I will introduce you to.

I was inspired by another TED Video. This time, the video is by a Pakistani man speaking at TED India. With him, he had brought pictures and greetings from ordinary Pakistani citizens. He read about each of their lives, their life aspirations for their children, and brought a greeting of peace from each of them. He was successful at separating the politics of the nations from the daily dreams and aspirations of everyday people. It occurs to me that these dreams and aspirations are universal, regardless of the nation, religion, or ethnic background we happen to be born into.

We all want to make a difference. We want adequate food, health, and shelter. We want to be known. We want to prepare a better life for those who are to follow us.  We want to be able to follow our dreams. We want our rights to be respected. We want a government that allows us to achieve these goals. I believe that these dreams and aspirations are universal, regardless of the country, religion, or ethnicity you happen to have been born into.

For this holiday season, I wish for each of you to have the opportunity to experience your life dreams.  I believe it is our common birthright, regardless of our country or religion of origin. I wish this for every citizen of the United States, Canada, Britain, Iran, Japan, China, Taiwan, and the citizens of every other world country. I wish this for every Christian, Muslim, Jew, Buddhist, and the participants of every other religion.  My prayer is that we learn to embrace our commonality of desire, not our differences.

Blessings for a bright, safe, and healthy Holiday Season.

Something to think about…..

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I thought about this recently when people reacted negatively to President Obama bowing in greeting to Emperor Akihito from Japan.  I believe that the negative reaction President Obama received was from Americans who understood what the action meant in their culture, based on their upbringing.  In the Japanese culture, however, the bow (or lack thereof) may mean something far different. I am reluctant to pass any judgement on that bow, since I understand that I am not well versed in Japanese customs or culture, nor am I well versed in diplomatic protocols.  I do, however, understand that the bow may have been a component of achieving a mutually satisfying exchange of ideas, informal agreements, etc.

From my perspective, a bow may simply have been a respectful greeting, honoring the humanity of the person being greeted in a manner most appealing to the person being greeted.  From my perspective, it did not signify American subservience to Japan, nor did it signify any weakness of America.  I don’t believe the bow in any way weakened our position to negotiate or discuss our relative positions.  In fact, I think President Obama may have strengthened our negotiating hand by greeting the Emperor in a manner meaningful to his traditions.

This is similar to how I hope to greet you, should I ever have that opportunity.  I hope that I have the knowledge and grace to greet you in a manner that is pleasing to you.  With that greeting, I intend to honor your humanity.  After the greeting, we can go to work to discuss anything that is of importance – including those areas where we may strongly disagree.

In a recent TED presentation, Devdutt Pattanaik presented a far clearer picture of how this works than I can do here. His 19 minute presentation discussed the difference between the Western and Eastern culture, religions, traditions, and resulting mindsets. In a world hungry for conflict resolution, I think it is a video worth watching.  Just click on the link that follows.

TED Video

Something to think about…..

While I was half watching, the thought came.  These are the people who are leading our country?  People who engage in personal attack, disrespectful behavior, and congressmen who insult others to their face?  Politicians who work to instill fear of the future into the hearts and minds of it’s citizens, as they search for a political advantage?  Speaking for myself, this behavior is far more discouraging than the individual policies they may represent.

Our problems are too big, and too complex to be playing a game of political football.  From my perspective, we need our representatives to muster all of the Love and Spiritual Power they can find, along with their best understandings of compassion, respect, and kindness, and then put them to use to solve our problems.  The congressmen I see represented in the media  spend a lot of time fighting the ideas / bills / laws they don’t want, and not as clearly emphasizing what they want to build.

We simply cannot build what we want by fighting what we don’t want.  It doesn’t work that way.  You want Health Care that works for everyone?  Put a plan in front of us that will allow us to make the best possible choices from a wide list of selections, and help us to understand why your plan is better – don’t try to sell your plan by attacking someone else’s plan.  All that tells me is that your plan is not that good.  The time you spend attacking and insulting another’s plan is time you have wasted.  Better to spend time developing and educating the public about your own plan.

Equally unacceptable is the News Media’s role in this.  We need a news media who will report to us what is happening – objectively.  It is not acceptable for the news media to simply give time to the extreme elements of society – people who rudely disrupt proceedings and pundits with narrow views in an increasingly complex world.

This is what I mean by “Spiritual Leadership”.  We need politicians and news media to be guided by the common spiritual principles of kinship, compassion, fair play, and Love.  We need leaders who are worthy of the public trust, and who work to develop a greater society.

I understand the concept of the Separation of Church and State.  The founders of the United States did not want the government led by one faith’s set of religious principles.  They wanted people of all faiths to have an equal say in how their country is governed.  They did not intend that our leaders would have to disregard all spiritual principles before they entered the halls of Government.  Although I don’t want the Government led from a perspective of strict Catholic, Baptist, Lutheran, Jewish, Muslim, or Buddhist doctrine, I also don’t want my government leaders to discard the core spiritual traditions of Compassion, Love, Justice, and Fair Play. I want the Media to do the same.  I want them to embrace core spiritual values, which are shared by all major world religions.

Of course, it’s not enough that we demand this of our leaders, if we don’t also demand it of ourselves.  Our politicians are, in the end, a reflection of the people who elect them. One of the lessons I’ve learned in my life is that I usually cannot change other’s beliefs by force, but I can often change them by example and by positive leadership. Does our daily behavior exhibit the values that we want our children and our politicians to display?  Will you join me in my attempt to set a better example for those in our world?

Something to think about…..

We live in the house we all build – www.earthshare.org