Keeping an Open Mind

We are back home after a week of traveling parts of Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee and Mississippi.  We missed all of the rains in Oklahoma and the floods that became part of that experience.  All was fine where we live except the grass had grown to unnatural heights.

While in Memphis, we attended a high school graduation with 500 plus students.  The pomp and circumstance parade seemed endless.  It was held in a multiplex building that was filled to capacity.  It was massive.  

I have always been interested in graduation speeches but was stunned with the quality of the Principle and Superintendent of the school.  Both looked to me to be "experienced" and that this was not their first rodeo.  Neither of them knew how to use the microphone.  The Principle was barely audible.  How disappointing!  The Superintendent was trying to be inspiring by using Steve Jobs and Bill Gates as examples.  Glory be!  They are the "has beens."  I wanted to stand up and tell him to get current and get with the program.

I will say that when one of the staff members gave a report on the total amount of the scholarships received, the amount was way over 40 million dollars.  That was very impressive.  

Since every student was named in the diploma processional, I decided that the only way to get through the process was to get interested in the names they all had.  At one point, we all decided that the parents couldn't spell properly.  Looking at the names and hearing the roll call were two different things.  I wondered if the parents even thought of the fact that the names they gave their children would follow them the rest of their lives.  No wonder some of us apply for the name change.

I am sure that some people look at my name and wonder...  My father spelled my name incorrectly on my birth announcement.  Maybe that is what happened to some of the names like T'Roderick, Termarree, Erykah, TreAnna Ciera, Teal Marie (that's kind of pretty) RoDaisha Shir'Lesia, Marquicio, Ciquoiah along with Marilynn, Allyson, Shuyi, and Jalen.

This whole experience was a bit of an adventure.  I kept having to remind myself to be accepting rather than judging.  I guess all of this is about making life interesting.  What's happening in your world?

Remembering What We Know

I do not want.  I love into my experience the things I desire.  Ernest Holmes

Recently, there have been a number of attempted burglaries in our neighborhood.  We cannot control what goes on "out there," but we can control what goes "inside."  Meaning I can control what I think and how I think about.  

Whether you believe in Angels or not, Higher Powers, or not, I believe in invoking everything there is to assist me in protecting me and mine.  Sometimes I call them Angels or just call on the Higher Power to protect our perimeter of all that is ours.  I do this when I remember that I know how to do life.  

It occurs to me that all I need to do is "love" my way through all that I want to experience.  I love that _____.  Or as my teacher of long ago instructed, claim what you want.  See what there is and claim it.  "That's for me!"

Just an example of that, I love seeing the Cardinals frolicking in our front yard.  I can sit at my computer and see out my window to check on what's new.  I watch the big spider come out from hiding at the edge of the window and capture what is caught in it's web.  Twice I have been startled with birds flying into the window panes.  But best of all, I love seeing the birds bounce on the grass looking for interesting tidbits to eat.  The more I "love it" the more they show up.

Love living affluently.  Love being prosperous.  Love living joyously.  Love feeling good.  Love good health.  Love being in love.  Get it?  Love whatever you want into existence in your life.  I love doing this - it is so easy!  

Most spiritual lessons are about remembering what we already know, but have forgotten to use when we need it.  

What's Next?

You are part of an Infinite Intelligence, you are one with Mind that knows.  This Mind is all-revealing at the level of our receptivity.  A new way never opens to the person that is thoroughly satisfied with what he or she is doing now.  To expand, you accept the good that you have and using your initiative, you will ensure continuous renewal and increase.  You become mentally receptive to the new ideas that will bring this increase about.  Robert Bitzer

This is how we increase our consciousness in order to have new ideas for new experiences.  I am only interested in how I can create a quality of life that fills me with satisfaction.  I am only interested in how I can create a mind that is of God - meaning that when I think, I instantly create.  Since all of us are of God, I don't see why we can't have all that we dream of having.  The question is, are we willing to pay the price for living our dreams.  

The price we have pay for those dreams is taking the time to come up with the idea of the dream and then develop it into something that is so compelling that we want to work with it over a long period of time.  The reason I say, "long" is that I want something that is going to take me from where I am into something that is "pleasing" for the long haul with lots of interesting in-between projects.

Jumping from one idea to another is not all that satisfying for me.  It just brings up too many choices and I end up not doing anything at all, which is very frustrating for me.

What represents a "quality of life" is going to be different for each of us.  At this point in my life, I want to be surrounded in comfort, items that ease my work load, things that make me smile as I see the beauty around me and make my life easier to live.

Recently, I volunteered by services by "guarding" a room in a house that was decorated for charity.  My room was simple enough except for too many pillows on the bed and not a comfortable chair in it for reading.  But the room that really put me over the top was the "Media" room.  In order for it to resemble a high-tech club, they covered the whole ceiling with feathers that were hand-applied in an ombre effect.  It didn't matter to me that the shades and tones blended with each other, I couldn't figure out how to keep each of the thousands of feathers clean.  Living in Oklahoma "where the wind comes sweepin' down the plain," you can write your name on every flat surface in your house at any given time of the day.  I need to "clean and tidy" every day in order not to sneeze up all of the dirt.  Can you imagine what these feathers could do?

I want the ease of having to "clean and tidy" too!  I am always thinking about when is it time to "change" the air filters and why aren't they picking more of what is floating around the house.  

All of this is fun to speculate and contemplate.  What is important is what are you willing to live with and how is it going to show up down the road?  My journey is easing up and more than anything, I am laughing about some of the choices I have made in the past and am willing to jettison more of what is gathering dust in my beautiful living areas.  Life is fun and interesting, isn't it?

Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys..

Willie Nelson recorded the above song several years ago and I am always reminded of it when I see men wearing their hats in inappropriate places.  I always wonder if the hats and boots come off while - well, never mind.

Recently, while out to dinner at an upscale restaurant, we were seated in an area where the tables were pushed together to seat about 30 people.  Soon, they started to filter in.  The women were dressed nicely in what I would call "business casual."  The men were dressed in jeans, shirts and what I am going to call "baseball type hats."  It was an obvious family of several generations.

Having been raised on a farm and later a small town in North Dakota, I was exactly exposed to the "high life."  I moved to Los Angeles, CA., after I graduated from high school and it was there I that I was exposed to what to do, when to do and how to show up in public.  This was back in the days when women wore high heels and business suits to work.  In fact, in wearing a pants suit, one office I was in, would not allow the women to take off their jackets.  

Later when I would go out to dinner with one of my older sisters and we saw a man wear a hat during the meal, she would say to me, "Poor man, he must not have had a mother to teach him to take off his hat while eating."

Back to the dinner, I wanted to scream at the men to take off their hats when in the presence of their wives, mothers, or mothers-in-law, and grandmothers.  I was stunned that one of the women said anything.  And in pure Oklahoma Bible belt tradition, a prayer was said before the meal. The hats didn't even come off then.  

Somehow in our relaxed traditions, we have given up good manners.  How sad.  When I see men opening up doors, or holding chairs for the women around them, I take it to mean that the women are adored and respected.  I like seeing that and I want more of it.  How about you?