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Spring is in the air! And the garden is sprouting. It reminded me of my blogs. So I’ve decided to call it my garden of Blogs. See if there’s anything you’d like to sample from it ~
Here at The Positive Slant On the Path Go For 5 – Some interesting facts about the number 5, in my ongoing number series. (599 words)
From the Files Scenes and Musings had In the Haze of Jerry Garcia – the scene of a show I witnessed in the early 80’s with the legendary guitarist from the Grateful Dead. (767 words)
The Positive Slant On Writing featured Organizing Peace Out of Chaos – how we can use our organizing skills as writers to find peace in other areas of our life. (362 words)
From the Files Rants and Raves produced America How I Love Thee! – a taste of my passion for the rock group, in honor of Memorial Day. (1024)
Coming soon to The Positive Slant On Business – a Profile of Diane Lemonides, owner of Verve Marketing and Design, whose artistic vision and grounded family values guide every step of her business.
Choose the things that delight you.
Why not? You make your future in the present. The more delight you can infuse into the present, the more delightful your future will be.
Who knows what the future will bring? Trying to make decisions based on what might happen is futile and frustrating. You can only decide in the present, using the information you have right now.
Don’t be afraid of making the Wrong Choice. If you don’t like your decision, there’s not much that can’t be changed. The closer you are to the real truth of what your needs are, today, the better the odds you’ll have of success in your decision. If you chose for your delight, you’ll be choosing well.
You don’t even have to consider your loved ones. What children (or anyone else for that matter) may need can be dealt with in the planning stages. Others will handle any changes you make. Life is change and everyone around you is subject to the shifting of life. After all, your delightful decision is likely to be better than deception and depression. The decision needs only to be based on your needs right now. What delights you today. What’s truly best for you is best for everyone around you.
Confused about what is best for you? Follow your delightful feelings. It is just that simple: Go for what delights you.
Will is an interesting thing. It will be your best friend and help you to move through life deliberately and gracefully.
However, will can also be hard and unyielding. Sometimes it won’t let you move forward. It convinces you that you can’t change, you must remain the same. Will can keep you stuck in a place you might not want to be. Will is responsible for, like a stubborn child, making you believe you can’t let go.
Will is the difference between giving and taking, holding and releasing. Will can bend you or keep you from going where you should not.
The truth is: life is change and nothing ever remains the same. Will allows life to flow. When you’re willing to let go, life moves like a steady stream. Will is the source of your First choice. What is your will? What do you want?
When you’re willing to let go, when you don’t let resistance get in the way, life is much easier. You will feel calmer and things will seem to come to you.
If you are in the rock hard grasp of Will, you can sometimes loosen it by being willing to be willing. Just that small gap might just remove the boulder out of your way and free your will and your life to fly!
Who remembers the television show, The Rockford Files? I always liked Jim Rockford. As a private investigator, it was a good idea for him to carry a gun. But he kept it in the cookie jar in his trailer by the beach in Los Angeles. He loved to fish, so he kept his trailer close to the ocean. A practical man, Jim Rockford.
One of his qualities I particularly admired, was his ability to read people. He had an uncanny sense (thanks to the writers) to know when he was being conned. There wasn’t always a way out of the situation from that sense, but he could tell you who was telling the truth and who wasn’t. A handy skill in his trade, no doubt.
There used to be a commercial showing a woman coming into a restaurant to meet a friend for breakfast. Her friend was already there, enjoying a luscious plate of French Toast. As our heroine looks hungrily at it, a dial spins in front of her, telling the calories and nutritional information. No thanks, she says and turns to the cart of other options. This one is less fat, but not as much nutrition. Ah, yes, this plate has the right balance! As they leave, both spot a handsome man. Our heroine knows not to bother: Married, two kids. She smiles and keeps walking.
How cool would that be? To have an inner radar that told you what was really going on. This would help you to make far more informed choices.
But, perhaps this dial would shut off options, Only knowing the facts, doesn’t always tell you the whole truth. How does she know this man is happy with his wife and two kids? Maybe he hasn’t seen them in years.
Having the facts, plus an inner sense about people is a powerful combination. If you take the time to get quiet and listen for guidance, I believe, you can develop that sense. As for the calories or martial status, you might be able to look up both on your phone or computer, but it could be wiser to bank on your well-honed inner knowing in the moment.
Rockford would. He’d spend time researching all the facts he could, but when it came down to it, when someone had a gun in his back, all he had was his gut. And it usually came through for him.
I heard a couple of sports commentators discussing a basketball player. He had no special talent for anything, they agreed. He wasn’t what you’d call “good” at the basics, but he had a lot of energy and hustle. They praised him for how hard he worked. His numbers from the night before backed that up.
On the one hand, that affirms a negative thought that if you’re not good enough, you have to work harder than everyone else.
Then again, it says Intention matters. It’s more about passion than talent. You don’t have to be good enough to do well. Excellence is more a matter of drive.
What makes a “good” basketball player, anyway? Certainly, there are many things that go into that – ball handling, ability to shoot and make baskets, height . . . But every really good player has loads of energy and is willing to do what it takes to get the ball. There is always hustle and passion inside a good player.
So it’s not so much about talent, though that can help. But if you have enough love for what you’re doing, and a strong tributary flowing through you of willingness to put everything out there, you can be a very good basketball player . . . or anything else!
In observing my thoughts lately, what I’ve discovered is that they are not so much negative, as they are a constant stream of commentary. Though it may not be all negative, it is rampant with judgments.
When I’m judging, I’m not accepting. Without acceptance, it’s harder to change. You don’t have to judge something “wrong” in order to change it. It works far better to tell the truth about who you choose to be in relation to this thing you would like to judge. Telling the truth, as you see it, without the judgment, gives you a broader perspective, a wider berth from which to make any necessary changes. Acceptance is a far more solid and powerful place. You can make more conscious and caring choices which reflect who you really are. Rather than stirring up someone’s ire to fight back. This allows you to choose what you want, rather than what you do not.
I wish to forgive others their minor traffic violations, as I forgive my own. Many of my judgments come into play on the road. The truth is, sometimes, I’m not sure where I’m going and have to make a quick turn. Maybe I’m tired and cannot be as conscious or polite as I’d like to be. Why can’t I offer the same leeway to others? I know it’s okay to make mistakes, after all. We all do it. And through mistakes you find acceptance, adjustments, more knowledge, and clearer vision. I do not need to judge others’ driving ability.
When I find myself judging others, it’s usually in a place where I am unfairly judging myself. Or feel others are judging me.
Woody Allen once said something like, he heard Commentary and Dissent were merging to form “Dissentary.” When judgments are flowing, like dysentery, you need to find medicine to stop that flow. Acceptance and forgiveness are good pills to take. If need be, there’s always the magic potion of gratitude. It’s hard to judge when you’re feeling grateful.
My Dear, I just wanted to say ~
When you doubt the outcome,
you live in Fear and Guilt.
When you relax and remember ~
You are not in charge, God is.
You will know
All is Well (and will continue to be well).
So, you can let go of the Fear and Guilt.
Then, make a new decision
Not to ever doubt God
And choose the action that sponsors love.
All My Lovin’
(From my upcoming book, “Love Letters From Your Soul”)
What do you do when you come to a stage in your evolution when you know that nothing is inherently right or wrong? How, then, do you choose?
As usual, it comes down to how you feel. This is the time to get quiet and look inside for the answer. The tricky piece is – extending the injustice discussion – to find a place to stand where you can love that which you do Not choose.
It is only from that place where a good choice can be activated. It’s highly unlikely that you will change anyone’s mind or direction by arguing and stressing what you think is Right simply by choosing a different way. When you demand that your choice is the right one, it only makes the other side stand up stronger for their way.
I have found that most people believe their choices are Right. They may have even checked their feelings and told the truth about what they see, just like I did. There’s no guarantee that my choice is really right. The “wrong” side is just as sure and committed as I am. So, an adversarial stance is not the most effective place from which to make your choice.
The more evolved way is to make that choice from a place of love for what you don’t choose. To understand the other’s side, knowing it is not inherently wrong, it is just not what you choose in the moment. Tomorrow, you may decide to make another choice.
When you choose in this way, you can begin to meld with the choice you don’t make, and be closer to what the Buddha called, The Middle Way. With enough practice, right and wrong can begin to fade and disappear. Then, you make your choices in the moment, not having to stop to name one choice “right” and one choice “wrong.”
1) You know no one who has done it that you could ask.
2) You can’t find any information on how to do it anywhere.
3) There is an insurmountable physical barrier.
However, this requires an extra step to see if perhaps there is an alternate route or method which would eliminate or provide a way around this barrier.
4) After you’ve fully research, reviewed, searched for, answered all the questions, dug up all the facts, you find you have lost your passion to do it or what you need to do doesn’t feel right or joyful.
5) You’ve taken a second look, asked for help and searched for other ways that could be more joyful or tried to generate the passion you need.
Then, you can say you Can’t.
I get annoyed at injustices. When people don’t treat me or others the way I think they should, my blood starts to boil!
Well, let’s see, we’ve got expectations going on. The fact is, I am expecting people to act a certain way. It’s also a “should” staring me right in the face.
There kind of can’t be any universal justice because what’s “righteous” for me, may not be for you. But, I guess we need to come up with some laws or agreements on what’s right and what’s wrong in our society. If we were more evolved, though, I don’t think we would need to fuss about such things. We’d all just treat each other equally.
So, the point is not whether or not the Justice system is valid. Instead the issue is if I am wise to judge an act wrong, much less expect that people or situations must be a certain way. Does it make sense for me to get upset about what I see as an injustice, if there’s nothing I can do about it?
Maybe it’s about what my part is. Perhaps I get angry, go that far, because I feel guilty that I’m not doing anything to change the situation. Who am I to judge the behavior as “wrong,” if I’m just sitting back and letting it happen?
I must be entitled to my opinion about it, though. Don’t you think? Aren’t I free to say this is something I find objectionable? No, no, no. It’s about seeing the beauty in everything, rather than judging it. I can still tell the truth about what’s going on. Somebody has to. But I need not judge it before I can decide how I wish to be in relationship to it. Just tell the truth as I see it.
So, first I need to stop judging that something is wrong. It isn’t absolutely right or wrong, it just is. If I accept it, just as it is, I am still able to see the injustice. I don’t have to get so angry and frustrated. The anger is only useful to get me fired up enough to do something about it. But in that state, not carried away by my anger, I can see better ways to solve the problem. Or, I can make a decision to let it go.
The Positive Slant On the Path 