Let's Go Back...

I recently saw a statement in a magazine that said, “If you could say one thing to your 16-year old self, it’d be…”  I would say, “Stop, rest assured that all will be better than you ever imagined it to be.”

High school was the bitter pits for me.  Living in a dysfunctional home with an even more dysfunctional mother, I never knew from one moment to the next what was about to happen.  Fill it in with the insecurities of self-esteem, lack of confidence and all else that happens in high school that is filled with drama and thinking that all is super important!

Quite frankly, I am surprised that any of us survived childhood and high school.  Why didn’t someone teach me to trust myself early on - to know that when I do, life shows up according to what I have pictured in my mind.  Why did it take me so long to figure out that I needed to think in the affirmative because that is what shows up?  Who knew that when the storms showed up that I could just dance in the rain and jump in the puddles? 

Why didn’t someone in high school tell me the importance of what I was learning was going to make my life easier later on?  Or what to do with checking accounts, savings accounts, paychecks, etc?

So, whoever in my life influenced me to do better, to go for excellence, to take the hard road rather than the easy one, to always give more, and to always be kind, you have my heart felt thanks.  And I am glad you took the time with me to explain the importance of each step in my life. 

Because you did, I can truly say that my life is better than I ever imagined it to be.  You, like John Quincy Adams, encouraged me to remember that my actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more in order to be an influential leader.

I couldn't do that...

Several of us recently were in a conversation about blowing glass for beads.  The woman next to me was showing me her latest creation and I commented on how beautiful it was.

The woman in front of us, turned and said, “I couldn’t’ do that!”  I asked her if she had ever done any glass blowing.  “No, I could never do that!”  I asked her, “How do you know that?”  She replied, “I just couldn’t do that.”

How many times have we judged some wonderful opportunity because we have said “no” instead of “I wonder if I could.” So many times we don’t even know what is involved but we have deemed it “too hard, too complicated, I could never do that!”

That conversation taught me to check out something before I deem it “anything.”  I usually start off with “I wonder if” and go from there.  Most of the time it turns out easier than I expected and usually more fun that I could have imagined.

The Truth of the matter is, YES we can!  Do it, that is.  Most of us don’t have a clue as to some of the hidden talents we have within us.  We need to get curious about “what else is there.”  And as Jean Houston tells us, “we are multi-talented.”

I wonder what my next new adventure is going to be?

Spiritual Community

            Since semi-retiring earlier this year, I have been feeling the separation of being with and in a spiritual community.  I have not been comfortable returning to the community I retired from and there isn’t another similar community in the city I live. 

            One of the reasons we need spiritual community is to keep us in the conversation of Spirit.  There seems to be an added dimension of hanging out with people of similar belief systems that add to what it is that we are experiencing. 

            The value of being with people is to remind us of what it is that we know, what it is that is important to us, and what it is that we need to practice in our lives in order to continue dancing playfully through life. 

            When things are going good in our lives, we tend to forget what it took to get there.  Maintaining that level consciousness is as tenuous as when we were working to get there.  Recently, I told my prayer partner that I wanted to “bask in the glory of grace.”  Even I had to stop and think about that request for a minute.  Having achieved this level, I want to stay and go even higher.  Once achieving a new level takes getting use to and it needs to become familiar before we can go up to the next level.

            I invite you to think about finding a spiritual community that challenges you to think bigger, greater and in different ways of being.

I know there are many ways to create community and so, my challenge, is to explore different ways of doing this for myself.

Today, we will write music...

           For my enjoyment and because it was something I always wanted to do, I take piano lessons.  I am not very disciplined and don’t always have the time to practice but I have kept up the process.

            One day, my instructor said, “Today, we will write music.”  Write music?  Okay.  He asked me to pick a cord with my left hand and I did.  I choose a C cord.  Then he asked me what notes went with a C cord for the right hand?  I played them.  He then asked to me vary the cadence and rhythm.  I did.  I felt like I was just playing around and didn’t realize that he was writing down the notes as I was playing them.  Shortly, we went on to something else.

            The next week I sit down to his piano and there in published form is my composition of the week before.  I was stunned.  My music on paper!  I played with my right hand and recognized as I remembered “my song.”  He played it for me, and my heart opened.  I had a professional playing a song I wrote.

            That week we worked on variations of the theme and I now have three pages of “my song.”  One Easter Sunday, it was presented at the Church for Today and played by our pianist, Fred Harris.  Again, I was astonished that something that beautiful came out of me. 

            The lesson in is to just do it.  A lot of the time, when getting ready to ‘write,’ for example, I have to have clear and clean it up my desk, my pens need to be just so, my mind ready, my favorite coffee cup nearby and, then, maybe, I am… ready.  Today, we will write music.  Today, I will write.  Today, I will exercise.  Today, I will….

Bridge for Sale

Yesterday, while driving to Corpus Christi from San Antonio, out in the middle of nowhere, I see a bridge in the middle of a field with a sign on it that says, “Bridge for Sale.”  Bridge for Sale? 

This has to be a “guy” thing, right?  What did he do?  Wake up one day and think to himself,  “I will build a bridge today.”  So, how do you decide to do this?  How long?  How wide?  Do you just use left over material from building a back deck or maybe a barn?  What?  How far across is the water, gap, or ditch that you want to cross?  How do you decide how long it is going to be?  Why is it for sale?  Didn’t it fit?  Too short?  Too long?  What?  Ah, I get it…too narrow. 

After it is built, it brings up more problems.  Okay, so you want to sell it.  How do you deliver it to wherever it needs to go?  Can you just hear the conversation that is going on?  Well, tell me more about it.  How much do you want for it?  What is it made of?  Can you email a picture of it to me?  Does eBay know about this?

Is there a demand in the world for bridges?  Was it used?   I am sure there are designers for bridges in this world.  Architects?  But what about the back yard builders?  Back to the questions from a prospective buyer…what is the payload?  Can I run my cattle across it?  Is it wide enough for my 1949 John Deere tractor pulling a load of hay?

So, if ever you have a need of a bridge…I know where there is one for sale.

Stay in the process - no matter what!

            One day my printer just would not work.  I changed the ink cartridges. Nothing.  What to do?

I had a printer stored in the garage for just such an occasion as this.  Got it out, set up and the software was not compatible with my computer’s operating system.  Now what?

As I am pondering this question, my computer screed turned blank and black and very slowly came back to its glorious blue color.  Ah Oh!  As I thought back to the years of great service I had with this computer, I decided that maybe it was time to retire it and get a new computer.  I did.

The printer worked!  Great!

Oh! NO!  All of my last year’s tax information was on the old computer.  But wait!  I backed up my information on a Zip Disk!  Yeah!  How do I get the information off the Zip Disk and into my new computer?  I’ll just go down and buy a Zip Disk Drive.  I did. 

I got it all set up.  Put in the software disk and it said that it was not compatible with my operating system.  Groan!  Now what?  Call Iomega and see if they have a newer system out.  Anything has got to be easier than reentering all of the information for a whole year. 

Finally, getting to tech support, the guy said, “Throw away the software and just plug it into your USB port and use it.”  Do what?  This can’t be that easy?  He said, “Just do it.”

I did and it worked. 

            

Abounding Opportunities

At a club meeting recently, I was saying goodbye to a club member who was no longer going to be attending the meetings.  In the course of our conversation, Les told me that he “enjoying coming to the meetings because I brought so much energy” with me.

That next weekend, I did a memorial service for a long time member of our community and the funeral director told me what a pleasure it was to “work with someone as professional as I was.”

That afternoon, I did an email spiritual mind treatment for a member of our community and the reply was that “the treatment was very good and went far beyond what he thought.”

That evening, while having dinner with the neighbors, another guest and I were talking about having to get up early to go to work on Sunday and she asked me what I did.  When I told her I was a Spiritual Leader, her face lit up and she said, “I knew there was something special about you.  Your face radiates light.”

I got home and thought, “Glory Be! Four times in one week, I was certainly validated.”  Immediately, the thought popped into my head that these were like opportunities, possibilities and potentials.  They are all around us all the time, but I haven’t been paying close enough attention to them.  It took four, count them, FOUR times for me to get that opportunities abound all the time.  It is time for me to wake up to the good in my life.