I'm writing you today because you are a leader in a position to make a
huge difference within your circle of influence.
I'd like to
thank you in advance for a few moments of your time to introduce you to a
true story we've portrayed in an online movie that
we hope will change lives. It is a reminder to us all to speak those
compliments and acknowledgments as we are thinking them and not hold
back because we just never know when … Our Presence May Be The
Very Present Someone Needs.
Monday, April 14, 2014
Saturday, April 12, 2014
Also on the note of bullying, if you're a Star Trek Fan (who didn't
abandon ship when Next Generation begain airin), then you'll remember
little Wesley Crusher.
His real name is Will Wheaton, and at the Denver Comic Con in 2013 he was asked by a little girl if he was ever bullied because he was a nerd, and if so, how did he deal with it.
His response was powerful and BRILLIANT advice for all of us - adults and children. I know I'll be saving this video for anytime I know somebody who gets bullied simply because they love things that are different than the mainstream.
His real name is Will Wheaton, and at the Denver Comic Con in 2013 he was asked by a little girl if he was ever bullied because he was a nerd, and if so, how did he deal with it.
His response was powerful and BRILLIANT advice for all of us - adults and children. I know I'll be saving this video for anytime I know somebody who gets bullied simply because they love things that are different than the mainstream.
Friday, April 11, 2014
Wednesday, April 9, 2014
Monday, April 7, 2014
When hyocrisy looks like piety...
When hypocrisy
looks like piety
American composer Carlyle Floyd retells the story of the biblical Susannah in his opera set in rural Tennessee. Susannah is accused of bathing naked in a river, a sin in the eyes of “Christian” men who spy on her. Distraught, Susannah asks her brother, Sam, “What’s it all about?” “It’s about the way people is made, I reckon,” he responds. “An’ how they like to believe what’s bad. / How short they are on lovin’ kindness. / It must make the good Lord sad. . . . / At seein’ how men treat one another / An’ say they’re doin’ it all fer His sake.”
American composer Carlyle Floyd retells the story of the biblical Susannah in his opera set in rural Tennessee. Susannah is accused of bathing naked in a river, a sin in the eyes of “Christian” men who spy on her. Distraught, Susannah asks her brother, Sam, “What’s it all about?” “It’s about the way people is made, I reckon,” he responds. “An’ how they like to believe what’s bad. / How short they are on lovin’ kindness. / It must make the good Lord sad. . . . / At seein’ how men treat one another / An’ say they’re doin’ it all fer His sake.”
Wednesday, April 2, 2014
No more inner work for me. I quit
Chris Cade writes: Sometimes quitting can be a good thing. For example, I've decided to quit doing "inner work."
I know it'll be a tough shift. Especially since this is something I've done for so long. Still, I feel it's necessary.
WHY?
Because frankly speaking, I don't feel that the word "work" is an accurate representation of my experience.
It's easy to get stuck in a rut trying to "fix" ourselves. When we feel pain or see a blockage in our lives, the natural inclination is to try and do anything we can to remove the blockage or eliminate the pain.
In other words, we see ourselves as broken and we don't want to be that way. So we do "work" to try and dig ourselves out of the rut or fix what we perceive as broken.
Here's the deal though...
Are you ready for this?
We're not broken.
When we specifically think that there's some flaw in us that needs to be fixed, what we're really doing is limiting ourselves. We're unconsciously avoiding all the other possibilities for our personal growth so that we can focus on the part of us that feels flawed.
From my limited perspective, I feel that kind of thinking is actually flawed because it means we aren't allowing the Divine to reveal to us what we most need to see and know.
So what are we really doing when we focus on "inner work"?
TBD.
It's a beautifully perfect acronyn in this case. "To Be Determined" is exactly what happens when we place our faith in the Divine. We trust that the Divine will determine what we most need to know, see, experience, etc.
In this case though, TBD specifically stands for three things needed for the inner journey home:
Being is the orientation towards Presence. It's living in the Now. It's allowing ourselves to be exactly where we are with our attention focused on this moment. Journeying inwards without our Presence and Being is only going to be psychological, and therefore, inherently limited to just one aspect of our entire human potential. Psychological work without Presence creates a lot of ideas without any actual transformation or change.
Deepening is allowing ourselves to more fully experience the qualities of our true nature so that they can support our inner journey. Courage? Strenght? Joy? Compassion? We've all already got these qualities within us. Part of the inner journey is allowing Truth and Being to support us Deepening into those qualities.
Long story short...
I quit.
I'm not going to refer to these experiences as "inner work" anymore.
That kind of phrasing only sets our brains up to make this journey far more difficult than it needs to be.I choose to relax a little bit, give myself a break, and find en-joy-ment in discovering new things about myself and the world.
I'm not broken. You're not broken.
We are cosmic adventurers on a grand journey inwards...
Towards the center of our hearts...
Our souls...
And our greatest most beautiful potential. :)
I know it'll be a tough shift. Especially since this is something I've done for so long. Still, I feel it's necessary.
WHY?
Because frankly speaking, I don't feel that the word "work" is an accurate representation of my experience.
It's easy to get stuck in a rut trying to "fix" ourselves. When we feel pain or see a blockage in our lives, the natural inclination is to try and do anything we can to remove the blockage or eliminate the pain.
In other words, we see ourselves as broken and we don't want to be that way. So we do "work" to try and dig ourselves out of the rut or fix what we perceive as broken.
Here's the deal though...
Are you ready for this?
We're not broken.
When we specifically think that there's some flaw in us that needs to be fixed, what we're really doing is limiting ourselves. We're unconsciously avoiding all the other possibilities for our personal growth so that we can focus on the part of us that feels flawed.
From my limited perspective, I feel that kind of thinking is actually flawed because it means we aren't allowing the Divine to reveal to us what we most need to see and know.
So what are we really doing when we focus on "inner work"?
TBD.
It's a beautifully perfect acronyn in this case. "To Be Determined" is exactly what happens when we place our faith in the Divine. We trust that the Divine will determine what we most need to know, see, experience, etc.
In this case though, TBD specifically stands for three things needed for the inner journey home:
- Truth
- Being
- Deepening
Being is the orientation towards Presence. It's living in the Now. It's allowing ourselves to be exactly where we are with our attention focused on this moment. Journeying inwards without our Presence and Being is only going to be psychological, and therefore, inherently limited to just one aspect of our entire human potential. Psychological work without Presence creates a lot of ideas without any actual transformation or change.
Deepening is allowing ourselves to more fully experience the qualities of our true nature so that they can support our inner journey. Courage? Strenght? Joy? Compassion? We've all already got these qualities within us. Part of the inner journey is allowing Truth and Being to support us Deepening into those qualities.
Long story short...
I quit.
I'm not going to refer to these experiences as "inner work" anymore.
That kind of phrasing only sets our brains up to make this journey far more difficult than it needs to be.I choose to relax a little bit, give myself a break, and find en-joy-ment in discovering new things about myself and the world.
I'm not broken. You're not broken.
We are cosmic adventurers on a grand journey inwards...
Towards the center of our hearts...
Our souls...
And our greatest most beautiful potential. :)
Tuesday, April 1, 2014
We become what we think ...
An excerpt from
The Strangest Secret
by Earl Nightingale
George Bernard Shaw said, "People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can't find them, they make them."
Well, it's pretty apparent, isn't it? And every person who discovered this believed (for a while) that he was the first one to work it out. We become what we think about.
Conversely, the person who has no goal, who doesn't know where he's going, and whose thoughts must therefore be thoughts of confusion, anxiety and worry—his life becomes one of frustration, fear, anxiety and worry. And if he thinks about nothing... he becomes nothing.
How does it work? Why do we become what we think about? Well, I'll tell you how it works, as far as we know. To do this, I want to tell you about a situation that parallels the human mind.
Suppose a farmer has some land, and it's good, fertile land. The land gives the farmer a choice; he may plant in that land whatever he chooses. The land doesn't care. It's up to the farmer to make the decision.
We're comparing the human mind with the land because the mind, like the land, doesn't care what you plant in it. It will return what you plant, but it doesn't care what you plant.
Now, let's say that the farmer has two seeds in his hand—one is a seed of corn, the other is nightshade, a deadly poison. He digs two little holes in the earth and he plants both seeds—one corn, the other nightshade. He covers up the holes, waters and takes care of the land...and what will happen? Invariably, the land will return what was planted.
As it's written in the Bible, "As ye sow, so shall ye reap."
Remember the land doesn't care. It will return poison in just as wonderful abundance as it will corn. So up come the two plants—one corn, one poison.
The human mind is far more fertile, far more incredible and mysterious than the land, but it works the same way. It doesn't care what we plant...success...or failure. A concrete, worthwhile goal...or confusion, misunderstanding, fear, anxiety and so on. But what we plant must return to us.
You see, the human mind is the last great unexplored continent on earth. It contains riches beyond our wildest dreams. It will return anything we want to plant.
by Earl Nightingale
George Bernard Shaw said, "People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can't find them, they make them."
Well, it's pretty apparent, isn't it? And every person who discovered this believed (for a while) that he was the first one to work it out. We become what we think about.
Conversely, the person who has no goal, who doesn't know where he's going, and whose thoughts must therefore be thoughts of confusion, anxiety and worry—his life becomes one of frustration, fear, anxiety and worry. And if he thinks about nothing... he becomes nothing.
How does it work? Why do we become what we think about? Well, I'll tell you how it works, as far as we know. To do this, I want to tell you about a situation that parallels the human mind.
Suppose a farmer has some land, and it's good, fertile land. The land gives the farmer a choice; he may plant in that land whatever he chooses. The land doesn't care. It's up to the farmer to make the decision.
We're comparing the human mind with the land because the mind, like the land, doesn't care what you plant in it. It will return what you plant, but it doesn't care what you plant.
Now, let's say that the farmer has two seeds in his hand—one is a seed of corn, the other is nightshade, a deadly poison. He digs two little holes in the earth and he plants both seeds—one corn, the other nightshade. He covers up the holes, waters and takes care of the land...and what will happen? Invariably, the land will return what was planted.
As it's written in the Bible, "As ye sow, so shall ye reap."
Remember the land doesn't care. It will return poison in just as wonderful abundance as it will corn. So up come the two plants—one corn, one poison.
The human mind is far more fertile, far more incredible and mysterious than the land, but it works the same way. It doesn't care what we plant...success...or failure. A concrete, worthwhile goal...or confusion, misunderstanding, fear, anxiety and so on. But what we plant must return to us.
You see, the human mind is the last great unexplored continent on earth. It contains riches beyond our wildest dreams. It will return anything we want to plant.
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