Like Lego...Just keep building

On a trip to Orlando’s Disney World, I passed by the Lego display.  I was overwhelmed with what they had built in Legos.  There were Lego cars, bridges, playhouses complete with furniture, windows, doors and roof.  There were miniature legos; giant legos and medium sized ones, round ones and square ones.  There were giant cranes, trucks that moved large Lego logs, dump trucks that scooped up more Legos.  I was even walking on a Lego surface. 

I turned in awe at all that I saw and realized that life is like that Lego Village.  We just need to keep building in various sizes until we get the result we want.  Just like the Legos we find in various sized containers, we have the choice of picking and choosing what it is that we want and in whatever color suits us at the time.  Yesterday was a yellow day.  Today, I will use green.  I can include circles, squares, rectangles and triangles.  Life is full of different sizes, colors and textures. 

When life becomes dull, boring or we forget why we are doing what we are doing, remember, that life was meant to be an adventure for all of us.  It was meant to be fun.  Go, out and buy a box of Lego’s and see what you can build out of them. 

Maybe some of us who take life to seriously, need a good dose of Legos in our life.  Play with them and when you are tired of them, give them away to some little person who would love to build, create, image what life is like.  Better yet, share the experience and see what you can learn.

What's next?

I read a quote by Thomas Edison that said, “If we did all the things we were capable of doing, we would literally astonish ourselves.”  I remembered thinking, “what would it be like to astonish myself?”

Several summers ago, I got into doing what is called pen turning.  This is putting little bits of wood on a spinning lathe and carving these wood pieces into cylindrical pieces and then assembling them into pens.  I love fountain pens and thought, “Wow! A new pen.”  So, I ordered the assembly pieces and got started. 

When it was finished, I loaded it with ink and sat down to write with it for the first time.  I pulled out my journal book and fully went into a feeling of overwhelm.  I realized that the journal I was using was the one I had written several years ago, the pen in my hand was one that I had produced and I just had to sit with the experience for a while.

I had an astonishing experience.  It was like nothing I had ever experienced before.  Now that I have had one, I want more.  So, my  next question is, “what else am I capable of doing?”

Support the roadside lemonade stands...

Driving through the neighborhood today, I saw a tiny table set up with a tiny sign that said, "Lemonade for Sale."  Two very cute girls were sitting behind the table anxiously awaiting their customers.  The price for the lemonade was $.25 or $1.25.  Interesting.  Did I want a quarter cup or full cup of lemonade?

Since buying my fancy car, I have secret hiding drawers in it and one of them is for the storage of extra quarters.  Instead of digging in the back seat for my purse, I used my stash of quarters.  So, I kept handing one little girl a quarter at a time while she counted and kept track.  When we got to the requisite $1.25, I just kept handing her more money.  "Stop," she said, "this is more than enough."

Her sign said that they were collecting for the Cancer Society so I told her to just keep taking the money until I ran out.  Well, her eyes got so big.  What fun it was to astound her with generosity.

One of the things I love doing is supporting other people in doing what it is that they love to do.  What would life have been like for all of us, had we had the generous support while being eight or nine years old?  We need to do everything we can to support our neighborhood entrepreneurs.  These tiny sales people made me want to drive around the block and come back and buy more lemonade.

Remembering that everything in our lives matter, including supporting those along our path.  If you can't astonish yourself, do something wonderful to astonish someone else.

What is the purpose of the gym?

Soon after I opened up more time in my life, I decided that I wanted to create a healthier body, be stronger, more flexible and be able to bend and move with ease.  Solution?  Take up Yoga.

Looking around for a class was daunting.  There were lots of choices but most all of them were located across town from me.  Ah, there was a YMCA nearby and they had Yoga.

Off I go.  When I get there, there are a lot of cars in the parking lot and so I drive to the back and proceed to park.  As I get out of my car, I see a car circling the parking lot.  As I get closer to the front door, a spot opens and this car pulls in.

This whole thing has me a bit puzzled because I come to the YMCA for exercise.  Even walking the parking lot is exercise for me.  What is with parking close to the door?  It's not even summertime yet!

Realizing that everything in my life is important, not finding a parking spot in front of the door, is equally as important because it facilitates my larger purpose of exercise.  Working out outside the YMCA means working less on the inside.  Being in the sunshine, breathing fresh spring air in the early morning... doesn't get any better than this.

Sweet Smelling People

Spent the morning touring The Alamo with my grandniece, Katie.  While sitting on the wall outside, resting while we were enjoying a lime icey (St. Patrick's Day, you know), a homeless person came by asking for 2 dimes.  What can anyone do with 2 dimes these days?  I was about to accommodate him when this breeze wafted over him in my direction.  I about keeled over!  Now, I could hardly wait until he moved on.

While working in San Francisco, we use to have a man who patrolled our street that we called the Toll Taker.  He always asked for a quarter.  One day, I told him that I didn't have a quarter but did have  a dollar.  He said no, he needed a quarter and walked away.

What do they do?  Accumulate the money in order to get what it is that they want?

There have been times when I have had to work outside on a very hot day and could hardly stand the smell of myself.  Do you get use the stench?  What?

Walking in downtown San Francisco one day with a friend, we saw some public rest rooms - just out in the open.  The cost to get in was a quarter.  We paid the quarter and when we closed the door, we could stand inside and look outside. The whole outside world was visible. When people walked by and looked at the facility, it looked like they were looking inside.  There was a sink, toilet and a shower.  We got out of there as quickly as possible as it gave us both the hibbie-gibbies.  Needless, to say, this was a topic of conversation for months afterward.

This morning, I wanted that public restroom to be in San Antonio because I would have gladly paid for the guy to bath, drink coffee, get a soft drink, have a sit-down-seven-course-dinner, whatever he wanted.

My gratitude journal today addresses the fact that "there for the grace of God go I."  Infinite Intelligence help me keep making some really good choices.  Keep me smelling sweet.

Think Solution

Dr. David Hawkins tells me, "One basic principle has the power to resolve the problems of the social marketplace: Support the solution instead of attacking the supposed causes."


I learned a variation of this principle early in my studies of Religious Science, but it is one that still plagues me to this day.  Maybe it is from my early childhood upbringing, cultural habits, or maybe even not wanting to take full responsibility of what I have created in my life, but going for the solution and not focusing on the problem is a real challenge.

Just rereading the last paragraph makes me think about "why" is this such a challenge?  I was raised with "what would the neighbors think," or "just for the fun of it, let's blame....," or "I didn't know better."  Anything to not face up to "It's my fault."

Most of the problems I have in my life now are from the fact that I wasn't able to face the solution or come to a solution in times past.  I am still working on something that happened years ago, when I took for face value that someone was telling me the truth when in essence, wasn't.  I didn't want to have to figure out my own solution at the time.  Guess what?  Now I have to not only figure out how to solve it but I have to go back and figure out how to get out from under the issue.

Another one of my teachers, Vernon Howard, tells me, "do what is in front of you." In recent years, I have been able to do that.  The trick to it is to think about the solution or the decision made not just for the present time, but for the future times too.  Now, I really want to be sure that the decision I make is not about to come back and bite me in the posterior region.  That makes the process of "thinking solution" a little more involved than just surface thinking.

Maybe the title of this should be "Think Deeper!"

Whoa!

Having been off work for two weeks, I still seem to be moving at the pace of great speed and for no good reason.  Going back to my days of growing up on a farm in North Dakota, I am having to remind myself of a word my Father used to slow down the huge draft horses - Whoa!

What is this speed about anyway?  What do I think I am going to miss if I slow down?  My spiritual practice tells me that the Infinite speaks to us at a time when we can listen carefully and when our attention is focused inwardly.

In the book, "The Seven Whispers," Christina Baldwin has a great breathing spiritual practice which with each inhalation leads to inspiration.

1. One breath to let go.
2. One breath to be here.
3. One breath to ask now what?
4. One breath to listen.

In order to live consciously, I must remember to slow down to the speed of God, breathe, and listen carefully for my next direction in my new life.  It is very exciting to be involved in the next new mystery that is calling me forward in my highest and best life.  Whoa!