GRATITUDE

We have all heard how important it is to maintain an “attitude of gratitude,” but this is not as easy as one might think....It takes practice! 

So with that in mind, start small… be grateful that you’re still breathing. 

Expanding your attention outwards, be aware of your existence in the grand scheme of life here on Earth and what an honour and privilege it is to participate in the unfolding story of us. 

Be grateful for your senses, your gifts and your talents. 
Moving outward, be grateful for the people in your life and the lessons you have learned from them, even if the only lesson was defining what type of person you don’t want to be! 

Expanding ever outward, be grateful for the fact that this planet is filled with far more goodness and light than evil and darkness. 

For every murder there are millions of acts of kindness. 
For every plane crash hundreds of thousands of planes fly safely. 
For every angry person you meet there is an uncountable army of people doing their best to live in joy and compassion.

Now, once you’re in the habit of being thankful for all that is good, the real challenge begins. 

For like unconditional love, there is also a state of unconditional gratitude, a state of mind and spirit where you are grateful not just for all the wonderful things in life, but for EVERY thing in life: 

The illness, the uncertainty, the loss… all of these can serve to raise your awareness and vibration, and so are many things that we can be grateful for. 

ps/smoh

The faster we run, the more determined is the Universe to slow us down.

The more embedded our methods of self-distraction, the more agitating the truth aches calling us back into authenticity.

The more eagerly we race to the sky, the more intense the lessons that bring us back to earth.

That's the nature of karmic gravity.

It keeps bringing us back…

Nowhere to go but here.

Return to sender, address now known.

It’s not all falling apart, it’s all coming together and it takes many forms more than ever, in this waking waiting dance of life.

To really feel what love and peace means is BLISS and self inspiring and renewing.

I am so wondrous that some can't take the reflection n back to their own limitations.

They aren't ready for wondrous yet...so do not take it deeply personal when they took themselves away from you.

I truly believe with all my heart, that some people are simply not 'ready' for the divineness we have to offer them.

They are unable to set their fears, beliefs, limitations aside, and see with true eyes the love we are willing to offer, even if they asked for it prior to our arrival.

And as painful as these lesson have been for me, I know now they simply weren't ready. I still love them all the same and will always; however I simply accept that they weren't ready to walk through that door.

If my job is to offer love, all I do is hold the door open, it's their job to walk in or out.

The door remains open...

The love remains the same if they ever choose to revisit

ps/smoh.

Saturday thoughts....

The Creator has a Temple
In silence it dwells
In peace it is found
In light it is surrounded

With eyes closed, it is seen
With inner light it is shown
Thru prayer is a key
Thru prayer it is known

Ask and you shall receive
Seek and you will find
Knock and the door
With be open unto you

Into light for all Humankind

The soul learns in spirals, not direct, linear paths.

"Be aware of where your energy is at the moment. Stay grounded in your body and don't let anyone else's energy occupy it. Take a few deep breaths and with intention cut all cords to people who are dragging you down."

ps/smoh

Thoughts just are! Neither good nor bad...simply there and accepted as part of this "now" if they are present.

Your life situation doesn't need to be perfect. 

You don't need to be blissed-out all of the time. 
You don't always need to be certain, or right. 
You don't need to be at peace all the time, or joyful all the time. 

You don't need to be anything, in fact - since you are everything, and there is room for everything, here in the vast and unchanging ocean of Being that you are, an ocean that is radically open to all of those waves of experience as they arise and dissolve. 

You are the backdrop of stillness in an ever-changing gossamer world, where nothing remains fixed and where all edges and boundaries are subject to decay and dissolution and mystery. 

You are what remains when all is gone, even the idea "all is gone" and "I am what remains". 

What holds all of it, allows all of it? 
What cannot be doubted, even when there is doubt? 
What is reading these words right now? 
What is trying to understand them? 

This is not the perfection of the mind, not "the perfect life" or 
"the perfect body" or 
"the perfect experience" or 
even "the perfect moment", 
but the perfection that is the absolute embrace of all of this, exactly as it is - the embrace you already are.

People often talk about living in the moment, but it is my experience that we do not live in the moment if we are not living in truth. TRUTH IS THE GATEWAY TO THE MOMENT. 

It doesn’t matter how much we achieve, or how many things we master, if it is not our true-path. 

The moment we lie, we leave the moment. 

The work we do to separate false-path from true-path is not just spiritually beneficial, it is our best and only hope.

The truth is how I roll. When it's not "good enough" I haven't accepted something. Awareness of the Truth is first, and then acceptance is the key to freedom!

ps/smoh

TRULY AWAKENED!!!!

Take a fresh look at the experience we call anxiety, fear and nervousness and ask: can we discover an ever-present stillness amidst the stormy waves of life?

It seems that we have forgotten who we really are, freely given peace beyond comparison, judgement and condition; this silent, restful background of being that we are.

The vast ocean of consciousness that unconditionally embraces its beloved ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ children with equal tenderness,

that loves its ‘dark’ and ‘light’ waves to death,

that holds its ‘yin’ and ‘yang’ with equal understanding.

Life is not the problem.

Thoughts and feelings are not the problem.

The waves in the ocean are not the problem.

Being human is not the problem.

It never was.

The ‘problem’ begins with the ‘solutions’ that we are offered, the paths we follow in our misguided innocence, and in our fear.

We do not need solutions to the non-existent problem of being alive here and now.

At last someone who is TRULY AWAKENED!

ps/smoh

Facing it.

An easy life doesn't often facilitate growth. 

The more you overcome in your life, the better you are for it. 

Every situation that scares you, tempts you, saddens you is an opportunity to grow in consciousness, wisdom, and self mastery. 

The insights gained from your struggles are priceless to others and humanity as a whole; be sure to share them. 

Be strong, be aware, and be glad that you've been blessed with the opportunity for growth. 

Struggle is a high calling; embrace it with excitement for what's in store. 

And don't forget to ask for help seen or unseen. 

If you need it , it's always there. 

You aren't alone, you need only to ask, and help will come.

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence is not an act, but a habit. Aristotle

Do you want to be a man or woman of honor, integrity and character? 

Then you have to act like a man or woman of honour, integrity and character. 

Not just once and a while, not just when you are in a good mood, not just around people who you consider important, but all the time. 

You have to get into the habit of living a life full of honour. 

It doesn’t just happen automatically. You have to practice it and work at it. Sometimes you have to just plain grit your teeth and do it despite your feelings, until the time when acting with honour and integrity becomes automatic.

Aristotle also tells us that excellence is an art form and that it is acquired by training and repetition. 

You do not do the right thing because you have virtue, but rather you have virtue because you do the right thing. Your actions and intentions form your character. 

Later, when your character has been formed and becomes a habit, it determines your actions.

The warrior must be careful to make his actions and intentions right. He/she has to make a habit out of this until we have perfected our character. 

Once we have begun to perfect our character, acts of honour and integrity come naturally, without conscious thought. When you get to this point, living a life of excellence will become your nature. 

Your actions determine who you become.

ps/smoh