Gleanings

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Gleanings

I Believe:

 Have a seat...relax...and read this slowly. It kind of sums up what life is all about
 
I believe- That we don't have to change friends if we understand that friends change.

 I believe- That no matter how good a friend is, they're going to hurt you every once in a while and, you must forgive them for that. I believe- That true friendship continues to grow, even over the longest distance. Same goes for true love.

I believe- That you can do something in an instant that will give you heartache for life.

I believe- That it's taking me a long time to become the person I want to be.

 I believe- That you should always leave loved ones with loving words.  It may be the last time you see them.

I believe- That you can keep going long after you can't.

 I believe- That we are responsible for what we do, no matter how we feel.
 
I believe- That either you control your attitude or it controls you.

 I believe- That regardless of how hot and steamy a relationship is at first, the passion fades and there had better be something else to take its place.
 
 I believe- That heroes are the people who do what has to be done when it needs to be done, regardless of the consequences.

I believe- That money is a lousy way of keeping score.

 I believe- That my best friend and I can do anything or nothing and have the best time.

I believe- That sometimes the people you expect to kick you when you're down will be the ones to help you get back up.

I believe- That sometimes when I'm angry I have the right to be angry, but that doesn't give me the right to be cruel.
 
 I believe- That just because someone doesn't love you the way you want them to doesn't mean they don't love you with all they have.

I believe- That maturity has more to do with what types of experiences you've had and what you've learned from them and less to do with how  many birthdays have passed

I believe- That it isn't always enough to be forgiven by others.  Sometimes you have to learn to forgive yourself.

 I believe- That no matter how bad your heart is broken the world doesn't stop for your grief.
 
 I believe- That our background and circumstances may have influenced who we are, but we are responsible for whom we become.
 
 I believe- That just because two people argue, it doesn't mean they don't love each other, And just because they don't argue, it doesn't mean they do.

 I believe- That you shouldn't be so eager to find out a secret. It could change your life forever.

 I believe- That two people can look at the exact same thing and see something totally different.
 
 I believe- That your life can be changed in a matter of hours by people who don't even know you.

I believe- That even when you think you have no more to give, when a friend cries out to you - you will find the strength to help.

 I believe- That credentials on the walls do not make you a decent human being.

I believe- That the people you care about most in life are taken from you too soon.

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Fluid Like A River
Living Like Water
 
The journey of water as it flows upon the earth can be a mirror of our own
paths through life. Water begins its residence on earth as it falls from the
sky or melts from ice and streams down a mountain into a tributary or
stream. In the same way, we come into the world and begin our lives on
earth. Like a river that flows within the confines of its banks, we are born
with certain defining characteristics that govern our identity. We are born
in a specific time and place, within a specific family, and with certain
gifts and challenges. Within these parameters, we move through life,
encountering many twists, turns, and obstacles along the way just as a river
flows.
 
Water is a great teacher that shows us how to move through the world with
grace, ease, determination, and humility. When a river breaks at a
waterfall, it gains energy and moves on, as we encounter our own waterfalls,
we may fall hard but we always keep moving on. Water can inspire us to not
become rigid with fear or cling to what's familiar. Water is brave and does
not waste time clinging to its past, but flows onward without looking back.
At the same time, when there is a hole to be filled, water does not run away
from it in fear of the dark; instead, water humbly and bravely fills the
empty space. In the same way, we can face the dark moments of our life
rather than run away from them.
 
Eventually, a river will empty into the sea. Water does not hold back from
joining with a larger body, nor does it fear a loss of identity or control.
It gracefully and humbly tumbles into the vastness by contributing its
energy and merging without resistance. Each time we move beyond our
individual egos to become part of something bigger, we can try our best to
follow the lead of the river.

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                                  Refuse to be a victim

"We focus on the negatives, losing ourselves in the ‘problem.’ We point to our unhappy circumstances to rationalize our negative feelings. This is the easy way out. It takes, after all, very little effort to feel victimized."

-- Elizabeth Kubler-Ross

Nothing and no one can make us a victim. We do it to ourselves when we allow external circumstances to hold power over us.

Although we have no control over what happens to us, we ALWAYS have a choice in how we respond. We hold our power when we accept complete responsibility for our thoughts, feelings and actions.

"A man may fall many times but he won't be a failure until he says someone pushed him."

-- Elmer G. Letterman

"The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed."

-- Steven Biko

We have no more right to put our discordant states of mind into the
lives of those around us and rob them of their sunshine and
brightness than we have to enter their houses and steal their
silverware. (Julia Seton)

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                                               Simple Solution:
   
These clear and simple truths are based on traditional American Indian beliefs. They illuminate the values underlying the Cherokee vision of the Full Circle, and they can help us begin living our lives in more connected, healed, and whole ways.

1. We are our own best experts. No one knows us better than us. Nobody but us has seen with our eyes the things we’ve seen, and most importantly, no one but us has experienced our lives in quite the same way that we have. What others do know of us, they know only through what they see and what we tell them. It is our choice whether or not to invite others to see with our eyes or walk in our shoes; it is their choice whether or not to do so.

2. We are our own worst enemies. No one does a better job of deceiving us or treating ourselves badly than we do. No one can do a better job of finding ways to ignore our innermost thoughts and fears than we can. Certainly, other people may try to make us feel badly, or want us to be different than we are; however, their success depends on our willingness to let them succeed in doing so. Our success in doing ourselves wrong depends solely on intention.

3. The worst thing about having so many choices is having to choose. No one can say for sure who is truly worse off: the one who is forced to do something and wishes she or he could do something entirely different, or the one who freely chooses to do something and later regrets it.

4. Imagination is the one true measure of freedom. It’s not a matter of what you can or cannot do, but what you think you can or cannot do that matters. Inevitably, the rest will follow in time. Being open to experience or the possibilities of every situation reflects the inner strength of one who has established harmony within oneself.

5. Wisdom is having more questions than answers. The one who has found all the answers to his or her questions has run out of questions. The one who has run out of questions has run out of learning. A person who ceases to learn has also ceased to experience. And a person who has run out of experience cannot be wise.

6. Search long and hard enough for something and you’ll surely find it. Sometimes we look for something when there is nothing. However, if we keep looking for it to be there, almost miraculously it will be--this is especially true of limitations. Moreover, the harder we look for a certain quality of limitation, the more likely it is to appear before our very eyes. At the same time, if you look too hard for something you might miss it altogether.

7. Sometimes we try so hard to be what we’re not that we may forget who we are. Our nature provides us with opportunities for becoming something much greater than ourselves. However, if a circle tries to bend by ignoring its center, it’s no longer a circle.

Earth teach me stillness as the grasses are stilled with light.
Earth teach me suffering as old stones suffer with memory.
Earth teach me humility as blossoms are humble with beginning.
Earth Teach me caring as the mother who secures her young.
Earth teach me courage as the tree which stands alone.
Earth teach me limitation as the ant which crawls on the ground.
Earth teach me freedom as the eagle which soars in the sky.
Earth teach me resignation as the leaves which die in the fall.
Earth teach me regeneration as the seed which rises in the spring.
Earth teach me to forget myself as melted snow forgets its life.
Earth teach me to remember kindness as dry fields weep in the rain.
A Native American prayer from the Ute, North American

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                                        A Crones Advice
 
1.  Live-Live each day as if it were your last. One day you may be  right.
 
2. Love- Love yourself first and foremost.When you truly  love yourself,
loving those around you will come as easily as breathing,  and we all must breathe.
 
3. Learn- Learn life's lessons - each as  it comes, for that is the reason we
are here.
 
4. Enjoy- Enjoy your  life, because if you do not most likely someone else
will enjoy it for  you...and then your time here will have been wasted.

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                  "Let us put our minds together as one."
                  --Irving Powless, Sr.,

                  If we sat in a circle and put an object in the
center of the circle and we all described what we saw, everyone would
see different points of views from each other. Some would even see
opposites because they would be sitting on opposite sides of the
circle. In other words, you don't have to see what I see for you to be
right. In fact, everyone in the circle is right based on their own
point of view. If we are willing to listen to everyone's point of
view, then we can get a more accurate description of the object in the
center. This is one way to put our minds together. When we get the
clarity from each other, we should give thanks and be grateful to each
other.
 
            Grandfathers from the four directions, guide me today with
Your wisdom from the east, from the south, from the west and from the
north.

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                                     PISCES urges us to examine our Beliefs

The idea of "Belief" has come to have a negative connotation, because there
is so much "blind belief".  So many do things based on a belief that their
parents had, or their grandparents, or what the government tells us is so...
without truly checking it out.

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                                             Partnerships

Everyone in our lives is a mirror reflecting back the parts we love and dislike about ourselves. If we have the courage to recognize our reflections in each other, we can grow through our partnerships. A partnership that offers both acceptance of who we are and an opportunity for personal transformation can be fertile ground for growing a healthy, lasting union. When we find this kind of partnership, we are more likely to want to keep it, invest in it, and nurture it.
Life is a collaborative effort. Much of what we do can be enhanced through partnership. Together we are stronger because our personal power is multiplied by two. Through partnership we experience the joys of working, living, and loving together.

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A Persian Rosary

1. Love and serve humanity.

2. Praise every soul. If you cannot praise him, let him pass out of your
life.

3. Dare, dare and then; dare more.

4. Do not imitate. Be original. Be inventive. Be yourself. Know yourself.
Stand on your own ground. Do not lean on the borrowed staffs of others.
Think your own thoughts.

5. There is no saint without a past. There is no sinner without a future.

6. See God and good in every face. All the perfections and virtues of the
Deity are hidden in you. Reveal them. The Savior is also in you. Let his
grace emancipate you.

7. Be cheerful. Be courteous. Be a dynamo of irrepressible happiness.
Assist everyone. Let your life be like unto a rose,. Though silent it speaks
in the language of fragrance. You are a trinity of body, mind and soul. The
food of the soul is Divine Love. Therefore, feed your soul on Divine Love;
so that the body and the mind be invigorate.

8. Be deaf and dumb concerning the faults of others. Do not listen to
gossip. Silence the talebearer with virtuous conversation.

9. Stop the circulation of the poisonous germs of religious fanaticism
through your veins and arteries and those of your children. Never argue with
any soul concerning his religious beliefs. Religious controversies lead to
hatred and separation. Religion is love and Fellowship not theological
dogmas and creeds. When you have Love and Sympathy in your heart for your
fellowmen, you have the highest type of religion, no matter by what name you
may call yourself. Rest assured that the emancipation of the world is
through the Nameless God of Love and in Nameless Religion of Love

10. Develop the qualities of essential goodness.. Every soul is endowed with
the attributes of intrinsic beauty. Discover those attributes and hold them
before the world.

11. Religion is a personal relation between man and his maker. For God's
sake, do not interfere with it, do not organize it, neither try to reduce it
to so many statements. Organization, in whatever form, is the death-knell of
religion. Do not preach this. Practice and teach it. Let no one dictate to
you regarding what you should or what you should not believe and do in your
spiritual life. The ultimate authority is the Authority of the Spirit within
you and not that of any man, dead or alive. The Unerring Witness is standing
in the center of your being ­ all powerful mighty and supreme! His is the
final testimony. His is the court of last appeal.

12. God's love is in you and for you. Share it with others through
association. Do not court separation from the creatures, but unite with them
in love. To know yourself through your fellowmen is to know God.

13. Have courage. Realize your divine origin. You are the ray of the Sun of
Immortal Bliss. You and the Father are one. The deathless, radiant Self is
in you. Reverence your Celestial station. No harm will ever come to you.
God's perfect image and likeness you are abiding in the fort of his
Protection. Association with all the people will lead to spiritual
enfoldment and not to the deterioration of the soul. Live above the work of
faith and infidelity, . religion and atheism,. Orthodoxy and Liberalism,
truth and error,. Angel and devil,. And you will be living with, and in God
. . . the God of Absolute Good, The God of Absolute Beauty, the God of
Absolute Perfection.

14. In relation there is no compulsion. The path to spiritual enfoldment is
not by restriction and constraints not anathema and excommunication, but by
constant progress from world to world, from star to star, from constellation
to constellation, forever and without end.

15. The light of lights is in your heart. Uncover it, and let it shine for
the illumination of mankind. Do not expect a favor from a friend or foe, and
you shall never be disappointed.

16. Overcome malice, envy, personal spite and prejudice, and you are the
master of Destiny.

17. Do not condemn a single soul. In condemning him, you are condemning
yourself. Never for an instant forget that he is also the child of God. Upon
the great sea of the spirit, there is room for every sail. In the limitless
sky of truth there is room for every wing.

18. Do not murder the character of a soul, under the guise of religion,
either by bitter blame or faint praise. Spiritual murder is worse than the
taking of a man's life. Have a sin-covering eye. See only the beautiful, the
lovely the noble.

19. Be gentle. Be lenient. Be forgiving. Be generous. Be merciful. Be
wakeful. Be thoughtful. Be frank Be positive. Soar in the atmosphere of
freedom. Walk in your chosen path and let no criticism disturb you in the
least. This is the way to success, to happiness, to health, prosperity, to
glory. Let me walk in it during the days of my life!

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         You Can Leave Love Behind You

"Love is something that you can leave behind you when you die. It's
that powerful."

--John (Fire) Lame Deer, ROSEBUD LAKOTA

The Old Ones say, love is all anyone needs. Love doesn't go away nor
can love be divided. Once you commit an act of love, you'll find it
continues. Love is like setting up dominos one behind the other. Once
you hit the first domino, it will touch the second one which will
touch the third one and so on. Every love act or love thought has an
affect on each person as well as touching the whole world. If you live
a life filled with love, the results will affect your friends,
relatives and other people, even after you go to the other side. So...
Love.

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             Change

"Life is subject to change without notice
and without your permission.
Sometimes you will choose change and sometimes
change chooses you. We struggle when it reshapes
the familiar and breaks up the continuity in our
lives. Change can bring growth or grief. Change
can be minor, radical, life altering, exciting,
challenging, even frightening, but it can also be
managed.

What was happy can turn to sad, things get
rearranged and nothing stays the same. You cannot
always choose the changes that come your way.
But you can always choose your response. Whether
you are facing an empty nest, life after divorce, a
new city, change in your health or a change in your
daily job policy and procedures, change in weather or
a change of heart from a friend/lover/spouse, learn to
adapt rather than be a victim of change.

Sometimes change is needed but you want to hold on
in spite of the writing on the wall. The need to
change or let go can be obvious, inevitable and the
signs are everywhere to be seen and heard. You
may be resisting change with all your will in fear of
the unknown or the need to have what's comfortable
and familiar remain status quo.

Just like the seasons change, your life
changes. You have to be open to the change that
is coming and willing to learn the lesson it often offer."
Jewel Diamond Taylor
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                                Transference: The outdated Map.

The process of active clinging to an outmoded view of reality is the basis for much mental illness. Psychiatrists refer to it as transference.  Transference is that set of ways of perceiving and responding to the world which is developed in childhood and which is usually entirely appropriate to the childhood environment but which is inappropriately transferred into the adult environment.

The ways in which transference manifests itself, while always pervasive and destructive, are often subtile.  One such example was a patient whose treatment failed by virtue of his transference.  He was a brilliant but unsuccessful computer technician in his early thirties, who came to see me because his wife had left him, taking their two children.   He was not particularly unhappy to lose her, but he was devastated by the loss of his children, to whom he was deeply attached.  It was in hope of regaining them that he initiated psychotherapy, since his wife firmly stated that she would never return to him unless he had psychiatric treatment.  Her principal complaints about him were that he was continually and irrationally jealous of her, and yet at the same time aloof from her, cold, distant, uncommunicative and unaffectionate.  She also complained of his frequent changes of employment.  His life since adolescence had been markedly unstable.  During adolescence he was involved in frequent altercations with the police, and had been jailed three times for intoxication, belligerence, loitering and interfering with the duties of an officer.  He dropped out of collage, where was studying electrical engineering,  because he said, " My teachers were a bunch of hypocrites, hardly different from the police."  Because of his brilliance and creativeness in the field of computer technology, his services were in high demand by industry.  But he had never been able to advance or keep a job for more than a year and a half, occasionally being fired, but more often quitting after disputes with his supervisors, whom he described as, "liars and cheats, interested only in protecting their own ass."  His most frequent expression was, "You can't trust a goddamn soul."  He described his childhood as normal and his parents as average.  In the brief period of time he spent with me, however, he casually and unemotionally recounted numerous instances during childhood in which his parents had let him down. They promised him a bike for his birthday, but they forgot about it and and gave him something else.  Once they forgot his birthday entirely, but he saw nothing drastically wrong with this since, "They were very busy." They would promise to do things with him on weekends, but then were usually "too busy" Numerous times they forgot to pick him up from meetings or parties because, " they had a lot on their minds,"
 
What happened to this man was that when he was a young child he suffered painful disappointment after painful disappointment through his parents' lack of caring. Gradually or suddenly--I don't know which--he came to the agonizing realization in mid-childhood that he could not trust his parents.  once he realized this, however, he began to feel better, and his life became more comfortable. He no longer expected things from his parents or got his hopes up when they made promises.  When he stopped trusting his parents the frequency and severity of his disappointments diminished dramatically. 

Such an adjustment, however, is the basis for future problems. To a child his or her parents are everything; they represent the world.  The child does not have the perspective to see that other parents are different and frequently better.  He assumes that the way his parents do things is the way that things are done. Consequently the realization---the "reality" ---that this child came to was not, "I can't trust my parents"  but "I can't trust people."  Not trusting people therefore became the map with which he entered adolescence and adulthood.  With this map and with an abundant store of resentment resulting from his many disappointments, it was inevitable that he came into conflict with authority figures--police, teacher, employers.  And these conflicts only served to reinforce his feeling that people who had anything to give or offer him in the world couldn't be trusted.  He had many opportunities to revise his map, but they were all passed up.  For one thing, the only way he could learn that there were some people in the adult world he could trust would be to risk trusting them, and that would require a deviation from his Map to begin with.  For another, such relearning would require him to revise his view of his parents--to realize that they did not love him, that he did not have a normal childhood and that his parents were not average in their callousness to his needs. Such a realization would have been extremely painful.  Finally because his distrust of people was a realistic adjustment to the reality of his childhood,  it was an adjustment that worked in terms of diminishing his pain and suffering.  Since it is extremely difficult to give up an adjustment that once worked so well, he continued his course of distrust unconsciously creating situations that served to reinforce it, alienating himself from everyone,  making it impossible for himself to enjoy love and intimacy, warmth and affection.  He could not even allow himself closeness with his wife; she, too, could not be trusted.  The only people he could relate with intimately were his two children.  They were the only ones over whom he had control, the only ones he could trust in the whole world.

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I am not seperate from My Creation
any more than your thoughts
are seperate from you.

I am not the Reality behind the world
But the reality that is in it.
For I am in the world with you
in all your life.

Wherever you are..
wherever you go..
wherever you look..

You can see Me in the Moon.
And in the Stars..
that bring forth light
out of the darkness.
You can feel Me in the Breeze
that kisses your cheek.

You can Hear Me in the
Flowing Waters..
that refresh and renew.
The tiny seed that Grows to
be a Mighty Oak contains My power and the Bud that
Blossoms forth in Flower enfolds My fragrance.

I am with you Now..
in the ever changing present that is True Eternity.
Closer than the Breath that brings Your Body Life.


Closer than the Thought that springs within the Mind.
That Ignorant Men call Finite. Closer than the Beat
that keeps your heart in Tune.


For I am too be found -
Nowhere..
but where you are.

For I Am the One that is all
and can be seen in all.
Anywhere..
Everywhere.

And I Am the All that is One
in everyone.

So find me now..

Touch me now..

Feel me now..

And Love ME Now..
wherever You are..

Then..........

 You will Walk the Earth in Beauty!

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                                      Ten Tools For Living

1. Be kind to everything and everyone, including oneself, all the time, with no exception.

2. Revere all of life in all its expressions, no matter what, even if one does not understand it.

3. Presume no actual reliable knowledge of any­thing at all. Ask God to reveal its meaning.

4. Intend to see the hidden beauty of all that exists-it then reveals itself.

5. Forgive everything that is witnessed and experi­enced, no matter what.

Remember The Masters all said that all error is due to ignorance. Socrates said all men can choose only what they believe to be the good.

6. Approach all of life with humility and be willing to surrender all positionalities and mental/emo­tional arguments or gain.

7. Be willing to forgo all perceptions of gain, desire, or profit and thereby be willing to be of selfless service to life in all of its expressions.

8. Make one's life a living prayer by intention, align­ment, humility, and surrender. True spiritual real­ity is actually a way of being in the world.

9- By verification, confirm the levels of conscious­ness and spiritual truth of all teachers, teachings, spiritual groups, and literature with which one intends to be aligned or a student.

10. Accept that by spiritual declaration, commit­ment, and surrender, Knowingness arises that provides support, information, and all that is needed for the entire journey.

The most powerful tool that is in the province of the will is devotion.

Thus, it is not just spiritual truth but the degree of one's devotion to it that empowers it to become transformative.

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                                     Here's to the Crazy Ones

Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo.

You can praise them, disagree with them, quote them, disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They invent. They imagine. They heal. They explore. They create. They inspire. They push the human race forward. Maybe they have to be crazy.

How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art? Or sit in silence and hear a song that’s never been written? Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels? While some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius.

Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.

(Advertisement for Apple Computer)

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Messenger
 
My work is loving the world.
Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird —
equal seekers of sweetness.
Here the quickening yeast; there the blue plums.
Here the clam deep in the speckled sand.
 
Are my boots old? Is my coat torn?
Am I no longer young, and still not half-perfect? Let me
keep my mind on what matters,
which is my work,
 
which is mostly standing still and learning to be
astonished.
The phoebe, the delphinium.
The sheep in the pasture, and the pasture.
Which is mostly rejoicing, since all ingredients are here,
 
which is gratitude, to be given a mind and a heart
and these body-clothes,
a mouth with which to give shouts of joy
to the moth and the wren, to the sleepy dug-up clam,
telling them all, over and over, how it is
that we live forever.
 
 
~ Mary Oliver ~

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Good and Evil - From the 'Prophet
"...You are good when you are one with yourself. Yet when you are not one with yourself you are not evil.
For a divided house is not a den of thieves; it is only a divided house. And a ship without rudder may wander aimlessly among perilous isles yet sink not to the bottom.
You are good when you strive to give of yourself. Yet you are not evil when you seek gain for yourself. For when you strive for gain you are but a root that clings to the earth and sucks at her breast. Surely the fruit cannot say to the root, "Be like me, ripe and full and ever giving of your abundance." For to the fruit giving is a need, as receiving is a need to the root.
You are good when you are fully awake in your speech, Yet you are not evil when you sleep while your tongue staggers without purpose. And even stumbling speech may strengthen a weak tongue. You are good when you walk to your goal firmly and with bold steps. Yet you are not evil when you go thither limping. Even those who limp go not backward.
But you who are strong and swift, see that you do not limp before the lame, deeming it kindness.
You are good in countless ways, and you are not evil when you are not good, You are only loitering and sluggard. Pity that the stags cannot teach swiftness to the turtles.
In your longing for your giant self lies your goodness: and that longing is in all of you. But in some of you that longing is a torrent rushing with might to the sea, carrying the secrets of the hillsides and the songs of the forest. And in others it is a flat stream that loses itself in angles and bends and lingers before it reaches the shore.
But let not him who longs much say to him who longs little, "Wherefore are you slow and halting?"
For the truly good ask not the naked, 'Where is your garment?' nor the houseless, 'What has befallen your house?' "
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Meeting our Own Thought with Understanding 
 
A thought is harmless unless we believe it. It is not our thoughts but the
attachment to our thoughts, that causes suffering. Attaching to a thought
means believing that it's true without inquiring. A belief is a thought that we
have been attaching to often for years.
Most people think that they are what their thoughts tell them they are. One
day I noticed that I wasn't breathing-I was breathed. Then I also noticed to
my amazement that I wasn't thinking-that I was actually being thought and
that thinking isn't personal. Do you wake up in the morning and say to yourself,
"I think I wont think today?" It's too late you are already thinking!
Thoughts just appear. They come out of nothing and go back to nothing, like clouds
moving across the empty sky. They come to pass not to stay. There is no harm
in them until we attach to them as if they were true.
No one has ever been able to control his thinking, although people may tell
the story of how they have. I don't let go of my thoughts-I meet them with
understanding. Then they let go of me.
Thoughts are like the breeze or the leaves on the trees or the raindrops
falling. They appear like that and through inquiry we can make friends with
them. Would you argue with a raindrop? Raindrops aren't personal, and neither are
our thoughts. Once a painful concept is met with understanding, the next
time it appears you may find it interesting. What used to be the nightmare is
now just interesting. The next time it appears you may find it funny. The next
time you may not even notice it. This is the power of loving what is.
From
Loving What is.
By Byron Katie
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“Human relationships are the perfect tool for sanding away our rough edges and getting at the core of divinity within us.”
~ Eknath Easwaran
Relationships naturally bring out into full view our desires, attachments and unconscious programs – our likes, dislikes, belief systems, judgments, compulsions, conformities, etc. Relationships challenge us because they take us deep into thoughts, feelings and experiences we have suppressed for a lifetime. That’s why they provide the very best arena for personal growth!
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If you let go of a rock, gravity will cause it to fall to the ground. Though you cannot change the law of gravity, you can control whether you hold on to the rock or let it go.
"I walk in and out of many worlds."
--Joy Harjo, CREEK/CHEROKEE
In my mind are many dwellings. Each of the dwellings we create ourselves - the house of anger, the house of despair, the house of self pity, the house of indifference, the house of negative, the house of positive, the house of hope, the house of joy, the house of peace, the house of enthusiasm, the house of cooperation, the house of giving. Each of these houses we visit each day. We can stay in any house for as long as we want. We can leave these mental houses any time we wish. We create the dwelling, we stay in the dwelling, we leave the dwelling whenever we wish. We can create new rooms, new houses. Whenever we enter these dwellings, this becomes our world until we leave for another. What world will we live in today?
Creator, no one can determine which dwelling I choose to enter. No one has the power to do so, only me. Let me choose wisely today. 
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"The choice is ours. Will we let ourselves feel? Will we take a spiritual
approach, including gratitude, toward the challenges in life? Will we question
life and our Higher Power by asking what we're supposed to be learning and
doing? Or will we use challenging situations to prove old, negative beliefs?
Will we say, "Nothing good ever happens to me... I'm just a victim... People
can't be trusted... Life isn't worth living...
The choice is ours."
Melody Beattie
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Ten Keys to Happiness
Physical well being is inseparable from emotional well being. Happy people are healthy people. The wisdom traditions of the world tell us that happiness does not depend on what you have, but on who you are. Let's take a moment to reflect on what really creates happiness in us. The following ten keys, gleaned from the wisdom traditions, may give us some insight.
1. Listen to your body's wisdom, which expresses itself through signals of comfort and discomfort. When choosing a certain behavior, ask your body, "How do you feel about this?" If your body sends a signal of physical or emotional distress, watch out. If your body sends a signal of comfort and eagerness, proceed.
2. Live in the present, for it is the only moment you have. Keep your attention on what is here and now; look for the fullness in every moment. Accept what comes to you totally and completely so that you can appreciate it, learn from it, and then let it go. The present is as it should be. It reflects infinite laws of Nature that have brought you this exact thought, this exact physical response. This moment is as it is because the universe is as it is. Don't struggle against the infinite scheme of things; instead, be at one with it.
3. Take time to be silent, to meditate, to quiet the internal dialogue. In moments of silence, realize that you are recontacting your source of pure awareness. Pay attention to your inner life so that you can be guided by intuition rather than externally imposed interpretations of what is or isn't good for you.
4. Relinquish your need for external approval. You alone are the judge of your worth, and your goal is to discover infinite worth in yourself, no matter what anyone else thinks. There is great freedom in this realization.
5. When you find yourself reacting with anger or opposition to any person or circumstance, realize that you are only struggling with yourself. Putting up resistance is the response of defenses created by old hurts. When you relinquish this anger, you will be healing yourself and cooperating with the flow of the universe.
6. Know that the world "out there" reflects your reality "in here." The people you react to most strongly, whether with love or hate, are projections of your inner world. What you most hate is what you most deny in yourself. What you most love is what you most wish for in yourself. Use the mirror of relationships to guide your evolution. The goal is total self-knowledge. When you achieve that, what you most want will automatically be there, and what you most dislike will disappear.
7. Shed the burden of judgment - you will feel much lighter. Judgment imposes right and wrong on situations that just are. Everything can be understood and forgiven, but when you judge, you cut off understanding and shut down the process of learning to love. In judging others, you reflect your lack of self-acceptance. Remember that every person you forgive adds to your self-love.
8. Don't contaminate your body with toxins, either through food, drink, or toxic emotions. Your body is more than a life-support system. It is the vehicle that will carry you on the journey of your evolution. The health of every cell directly contributes to your state of well being, because every cell is a point of awareness within the field of awareness that is you.
9. Replace fear-motivated behavior with love-motivated behavior. Fear is the product of memory, which dwells in the past. Remembering what hurt us before, we direct our energies toward making certain that an old hurt will not repeat itself. But trying to impose the past on the present will never wipe out the threat of being hurt. That happens only when you find the security of your own being, which is love. Motivated by the truth inside you, you can face any threat because your inner strength is invulnerable to fear.
10. Understand that the physical world is just a mirror of a deeper intelligence. Intelligence is the invisible organizer of all matter and energy, and since a portion of this intelligence resides in you, you share in the organizing power of the cosmos. Because you are inseparably linked to everything, you cannot afford to foul the planet's air and water. But at a deeper level, you cannot afford to live with a toxic mind, because every thought makes an impression on the whole field of intelligence. Living in balance and purity is the highest good for you and the Earth.
Love,
Deepak
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Read Each One Carefully & Think About It a Second or Two
1. I love you not because of who you are, but because of who I am when I am with you..
2. No man or woman is worth your tears, & the one who is, won't make you cry.
3. Just because someone doesn't love you the way you want them to, doesn't mean they don't love you with all they have.
4. A true friend is someone who reaches for your hand & touches your heart.
5. The worst way to miss someone is to be sitting right beside them knowing you can' t have them
6. Never frown, even when you are sad, because you never know who is falling in love with your smile.
7. To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world.
8. Don't waste your time on someone, who isn't willing to waste their time on you.
9. Maybe God wants us to meet a few wrong people before meeting the right one, so that when we finally meet the person, we will know how to be grateful.
10. Don't cry because it is over, smile because it happened.
11. There's always going to be people that hurt you so what you have to do is keep on trusting & just be more careful about who you trust next time around.
12. Make yourself a better person & know who you are before you try & know someone else & expect them to know you.
13. Don't try so hard, the best things come when you least expect them to.
REMEMBER: WHATEVER HAPPENS, HAPPENS FOR A REASON.
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The Land of Sandra  Dee
Long ago and far  away, In a land that time  forgot, Before the days of Dylan Or
the dawn of  Camelot.
There lived a race of  innocents, And they were you and  me, Long ago and far
away In the Land of Sandra  Dee.
Oh, there was truth and  goodness In that land where we were  born, Where
navels were for  oranges, And Peyton Place was  porn.
For Ike was in the White  House, And Hoss was on TV, And God was in his
heaven In the Land of Sandra  Dee.
We learned to gut a  muffler, We washed our hair at  dawn, We spread our
crinolines  to dry In circles on the  lawn.
And they could hear us  coming All the way to Tennessee, All starched and
sprayed  and rumbling In the Land of Sandra  Dee.
We longed for love and  romance, And waited for our  prince, And Eddie Fisher
married  Liz, And no one's seen him  since.
We danced to "Little  Darlin," And Sang to "Stagger Lee" We cried for Buddy 
Holly In the Land of Sandra  Dee.
Only girls wore earrings  then, And three was one too  many, And only boys
wore  flat-top cuts, Except for Jean  McKinney.
And only in our wildest  dreams Did we expect to  see A boy named George
with  Lipstick In the Land of Sandra  Dee.
We fell for Frankie  Avalon, Annette was oh, so  nice, And when they made a 
movie, They never made it  twice.
We didn't have a Star Trek  Five, Or Psycho Two and  Three, Or Rocky-Rambo 
Twenty In the Land of Sandra  Dee.
Miss Kitty had a heart of  gold, And Chester had a limp, And Reagan was a 
Democrat Whose co-star was a  chimp.
We had a Mr. Wizard, But not a Mr.  T, And Oprah wasn't talkin'  yet In the
Land of Sandra  Dee
We had our share of  heroes, We never thought they'd  go, At least not Bobby 
Darin, Or Marilyn  Monroe.
For youth was still  eternal, And life was yet to  be, And Elvis was  forever, In
the Land of Sandra  Dee.
We'd never seen the rock  band That was Grateful to be  Dead, And Airplanes
weren't  named Jefferson, And Zeppelins weren't  Led.
And Beatles lived in  gardens then, And Monkees in a tree, Madonna was a
virgin In the Land of Sandra  Dee.
We'd never heard of  microwaves, Or telephones in  cars, And babies might be 
bottle-fed, But they weren't grown in  jars.
And pumping iron got  wrinkles out, And "gay" meant  fancy-free, And dorms
were never  co-ed In the Land of Sandra  Dee.
We hadn't seen enough of  jets To talk about the  lag, And microchips were
what  was left in The bottom of the  bag.
And Hardware was a box of  nails, And bytes came from a  flea, And rocket
ships were  fiction In the Land of Sandra  Dee.
Buicks came with  portholes, And side show came with  freaks, And bathing
suits came big  enough To cover both your  cheeks.
And Coke came just in  bottles, And skirts came to the  knee, And Castro came
to power In the Land of Sandra  Dee.
We had no Crest with  Fluoride, We had no Hill Street  Blues, We all wore
superstructure  bras Designed by Howard  Hughes.
We had no patterned  pantyhose Or Lipton herbal tea Or prime-time ads for 
condoms In the Land of Sandra  Dee.
There were no golden  arches, No Perriers to chill, And fish were not called 
Wanda, And cats were not called  Bill.
And middle-aged was  thirty-five And old was  forty-three, And ancient were
our  parents In the Land of Sandra  Dee.
But all things have a  season, Or so we've heard them  say, And now instead of 
Maybelline We swear by  Retin-A.
And they send us  invitations To join AARP, We've come a long way,  baby,
From the Land of Sandra  Dee.
So now we face a brave new  world In slightly larger  jeans, And wonder why
they're  using Smaller print in  magazines.
And we tell our children's  children Of the way it used to  be, Long ago and far
away In the Land of Sandra  Dee.
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If you can look at the sunset and smile,
then you still have hope.

If you can find beauty in the colors of
a small flower, then you still have hope.

If you can find pleasure in the movement
of a butterfly, then you still have hope.

If the smile of a child can still warm your heart,
then you still have hope.

If you can see the good in other people,
then you still have hope.

If the rain breaking on a rooftop can still
lull you to sleep, then you still have hope.

If the sight of a rainbow still makes you
stop and stare in wonder, then you still have hope.

If the soft fur of a favored pet still feels pleasant
under your fingertips, then you still have hope.

If you meet new people with a trace of excitement
and optimism, then you still have hope.

If you give people the benefit of a doubt,
then you still have hope.

If you still offer your hand in friendship to
others that have touched your life,
then you still have hope.

If receiving an unexpected card or letter
still brings a pleasant surprise,
then you still have hope.

If the suffering of others still fills you with
pain and frustration, then you still have hope.

If you refuse to let a friendship die,
or accept that it must end,
then you still have hope.

If you look forward to a time or place of
quiet and reflection, then you still have hope.

If you still buy the ornaments, put up the
Christmas tree or cook the turkey,
then you still have hope.

If you can look to the past and smile,
then you still have hope.

If, when faced with the bad, when told
everything is futile, you can still look up and
end the conversation with the phrase...
"yeah...BUT.," then you still have hope.

Hope is such a marvelous thing.
It bends, it twists, it sometimes hides,
but rarely does it break.

It sustains us when nothing else can.
It gives us reason to continue and courage
to move ahead, when we tell ourselves we'd rather give in.

Hope puts a smile on our face when the heart cannot manage.

Hope puts our feet on the path when our eyes cannot see it.

Hope moves us to act when our souls are confused of the direction.

Hope is a wonderful thing, something to be cherished and nurtured, and
something that will refresh us in return.

And it can be found in each of us,
and it can bring light into the darkest of places.

NEVER LOSE HOPE!

~ Author Unknown~

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 TWO THOUSAND ONE, NINE ELEVEN

Two thousand one, nine eleven
Five thousand plus arrive in heaven
As they pass through the gate,
Thousands more appear in wait

A bearded man with stovepipe hat
Steps forward saying, "Lets sit, lets chat"
They settle down in seats of clouds
A man named Martin shouts out proud
"I have a dream!" and once he did
The Newcomer said, "Your dream still lives."

Groups of soldiers in blue and gray
Others in khaki, and green then say
"We're from Bull Run, Yorktown, the Maine"
The Newcomer said, "You died not in vain."

From a man on sticks one could hear
"The only thing we have to fear.                                        
The Newcomer said, "We know the rest,
Trust us sir, we've passed that test."

"Courage doesn't hide in caves
You can't bury freedom, in a grave,"
The Newcomers had heard this voice before
A distinct Yankees twang from Hyannisport shores.

A silence fell within the mist
Somehow the Newcomer knew that this
Meant time had come for her to say
What was in the hearts of the five thousand plus that day.             

"Back on Earth, we wrote reports,
Watched our children play in sports
Worked our gardens, sang our songs
Went to church and clipped coupons
We smiled, we laughed, we cried, we fought
Unlike you, great we're not"

The tall man in the stovepipe hat
Stood and said, "Don't talk like that!
Look at your country, look and see
You died for freedom, just like me."

Then, before them all appeared a scene 
                   Of rubbled streets and twisted beams                                           
Death, destruction, smoke and dust
And people working just 'cause they must
Hauling ash, lifting stones,
Knee deep in hell, but not alone

"Look! Blackman, Whiteman, Brownman, Yellowman
Side by side helping their fellow man!"
So said Martin, as he watched the scene
"Even from nightmares, can be born a dream."
Down below three firemen raised
The colors high into ashen haze
The soldiers above had seen it before
On Iwo Jima back in '44

The man on sticks studied everything closely
Then shared his perceptions on what he saw mostly
"I see pain, I see tears, 
                  I see sorrow - but I don't see fear."                                                

"You left behind husbands and wives
Daughters and sons and so many lives
Are suffering now because of this wrong
But look very closely. You're not really gone.
All of those people, even those who've never met you
All of their lives, they'll never forget you
Don't you see what has happened?
Don't you see what you've done?
You've brought them together, together as one."

                       With that the man in the stovepipe hat said
                       "Take my hand," and from there he led
                   Five thousand plus heroes, Newcomers to heaven 
                On this day, two thousand one, nine eleven   

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The Problem Independence
from the Relationship Suit
Key concept: Fear of feeling; receiving or

committing; compensation for old emotional slavery

Independence (an unhealed reaction to heartbreak

and jealousy) is one of the three major roles. This role

is a compensation for a painful place of heartbreak,

jealousy, sacrifice or loss. The extent of our

independence is also the extent to which we are

afraid of intimacy and of being in the vulnerable

position of receiving because it would bring up the old

painful feelings. What we are attempting to do

through this role is dissociate from painful feelings.

Unfortunately, this cuts off the ability to feel at all,

including the positive feelings and the potential of

receiving. So, the extent of our independence is the

extent of both our heartbreak and sacrifice, which we

have yet to heal. At the heart of independence is a

lack of connection and commitment to others.

Independent people tend to be hard on both

themselves and others. Part of the problem is their

belief that 'if the job is going to be done right, it has

to be done by me'. The other part of the problem is

that this leads to sacrifice, giving without receiving,

which is a role in which we do not give our true self.

Because independent people are afraid of intimacy

and of receiving, they will attempt to run away from

situations, either physically or emotionally, as a way

of 'solving' the problem. This includes being stoic or

dissociative. Another key aspect to independence is

the way one is subtly (or not so subtly) competitive in

relationships. This may be a hidden competition, in

which one becomes so good that no one else dares

compete, or becomes so good that one develops a

jaded 'why-bother-competing-at-all' attitude.

Psychologically, competition is a form of avoidance

which puts all the emphasis on winning. This can be

very destructive in a relationship, since

competition's underlying objective is avoidance of (or

distraction from) the real next step forward.
Using the card: If you get this card today, you are

being asked to look at how your disconnection from

yourself or others (your separation and/or

competition) is creating the problem or issue you

have at hand. Success here will mean a new level of

joining with others. It will reflect your willingness

not to be afraid of painful feelings and your own or

others' needs, and your willingness to feel even the

hidden ones until they transform to positive feelings.

You are asked to repossess what you've been denying

in yourself, and have been projecting on to others; to

learn to accept your needs and feelings, so that you

can also accept and respond to them in others

without running away. Graduating from

independence to true partnership and

interdependence clears out feelings of dissociation,

power struggle and deadness in relationships, and

moves you into the richness of life which comes with

intimacy and connection.

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For every woman who is tired of acting weak when she knows she is strong;
There is a man who is tired of appearing strong when he feels vulnerable.

For every woman who is tired of acting dumb;
There is a man who is burdened with the responsibility of ‘knowing everything’.

For every women who is tired of being called an ‘emotional female’;
There is a man who is denied the right to weep and be gentle.

For every woman who is called unfeminine when she competes;
There is a man for whom competition is the only way to prove he is masculine.

For every woman who is tired of being a sex object;
There is a man who must worry about his potency.

For every woman who feels ‘tied down’ by her children;
There is a man who is denied the full pleasure of parenthood.

For every woman who is denied meaningful employment and equal pay;
There is a man who must bear the financial responsibility for another human being.

For every woman who was not taught the intricacies of an automobile;
There is a man who was not taught the satisfaction of cooking.

For every woman who takes a step towards her own liberation;
There is a man who finds that the way to freedom has been made a little easier

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Exerpt from:

Playing in Life
Two days with Socrates and Jerry Lewis
B Y K A R E N F R A S E R

The task: to not unquestioningly believe anything my mind told me, to not habitually censor my conversations in order to stay small or safe, to not repress my desire for play for fear of judgment. I began to question every movement, every impulse, every motivation to see what premise it was based upon. Did I believe what I wanted to say was not worth listening to? Did I feel I would not be accepted if I lived out loud? In what ways did I limit my life by no longer allowing myself to play and fully enjoy the moment? How big was my playground? What was outside of the boundaries and why?

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All growth is a leap in the dark, a spontaneous unpremeditated act without benefit of experience. - Henry Miller

To laugh is to risk appearing a fool.
To weep is to risk appearing sentimental.
To reach out for another is to risk involvement.
To expose feelings is to risk revealing your true self.
To place you ideas, your dreams, before a crowd
is to risk rejection.
To love is to risk not being loved in return.
To live is to risk dying.
To hope is to risk disappointment.
To try is to risk failure.
But risks must be taken, because the greatest hazard
in life is to risk nothing.
Those who risk nothing, do nothing, have nothing,
and become nothing.
They may avoid present suffering and sorrow, but they
will not learn, feel, change, grow, love, or live.
Chained by their fear, they are slaves who have forfeited
their freedom.
Only a person who risks is free.
The pessimist complains about the wind;
The optimist expects it to change;
And the realist adjusts the sails.
                     Is fear preventing you from taking a necessary risk today?
__________
Gibran's beautiful poem ...

And a woman who held a babe against her bosom said, Speak to us of Children.
And he said:

Your children are not your children,
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.

You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.
The Archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the Archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable.
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Grace is given to Souls.

You don't get Grace when you are busy being an ego. An aged state, however, gives you time for contemplation. There is so much richness to this time of life. There are changes in body, changes in friends and family as people pass away. These changes are wonderful grist for the mill of awakening- of awareness. Being is important. You do, do, do all throughout your life. In your older years you get to Be. You consciously draw back from worldly pressures and deadlines. Sometimes it feels like in today's world time has sped up-yet it hasn't. We know that through meditation you can stretch time out. Growing old is like going into meditation. There is a slowing down that allows you to redirect your focus.

~Ram Das a.k.a. Dr. Richard Alpert
----------------------------------------------------------
 

How to stay young

1. Disregard all nonessential numbers. These include age, weight and height.

2. Keep only cheerful friends. The grouches pull you down. If you really need a grouch, there are
probably family members that fill that need.

3. Keep learning. Learn more about the computer, crafts, gardening, whatever. Just never let the brain
idle.

4. Enjoy the simple things. Remember - when you were young, that's all you could afford. When you
were in college, that's all that you could afford. When you are on retirement, that is all that you can afford!

5. Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath. Laugh so much that you can be tracked
anywhere by your distinctive laughter.

6. The tears happen. Endure, grieve, and move on. The only person who is with us our entire life is
ourselves.

7. Surround yourself with what you love, whether it is family, pets, keepsakes, music, plants, hobbies,
whatever. Your home is your refuge.

8. Cherish your health. If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable, improve it. If it is beyond what you can
improve, get help.

9. Don't take guilt trips. Go to the mall, the next county, a foreign country, but forget the guilt trips!

10. At every opportunity, tell the people you love that you love them.

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The point of a relationship is THE RELATIONSHIP. That’s right … the bond, connection, and interaction between you and your partner. Both of you make up the whole.

It isn’t about him. It isn’t about you. It’s about WHAT YOU CREATE TOGETHER

************************************************************

The Awakening
By Virginia Marie Swift

A time comes in your life when you finally get it. When in the midst of all
your fears and insanity, you stop dead in your tracks, and somewhere the
voice inside your head cries out ~ ENOUGH!

Enough fighting and crying or struggling to hold on. And, like a child
quieting down after a blind tantrum, your sobs begin to subside, you shudder
once or twice, you blink back your tears, and through a mantle of wet lashes
you begin to look at the world through new eyes. This is your awakening. You
realize that it's time to stop hoping and waiting for something to change or
for happiness, safety and security to come galloping over the next horizon.
You come to terms with the fact that he is not Prince Charming and you are
not Cinderella. And you realize in the real world there aren't always fairy
tale endings (or beginnings for that matter), and that any guarantee of
"happily ever after" must begin with you; and in the process, a sense of
serenity is born of acceptance.

You awaken to the fact that you're not perfect, that not everyone will
always love, appreciate, or approve of who or what you are, and that's okay.
(They're entitled to their own views and opinions.) And you learn the
importance of loving and championing yourself; and in the process a sense of
newfound confidence is born of self-approval. You stop complaining and
blaming other people for the things they did to you (or didn't do for you)
and you learn that the only thing you can really count on is the unexpected.
You learn that people don't always say what they mean or mean what they say,
and that not everyone will always be there for you; and that it's not always
about you. So, you learn to stand on your own, and to take care of yourself
and in the process, a sense of safety and security is born of self-reliance.

You stop judging and pointing fingers and you begin to accept people as they
are, and to overlook their shortcomings and human frailties; and in the
process, a sense of peace and contentment is born of forgiveness. You
realize that much of the way you view yourself and the world around you is
as a result of all the messages and opinions that have been ingrained into
your psyche. You begin to sift through all that you've been fed from the
world about how you should behave, how you should look, and how much you
should weigh; what you should wear and where you should shop, and what you
should drive; how and where you should live, and what you should do for a
living; who you should sleep with, who you should marry, and what you should
expect of a marriage; the importance of having and raising children, or what
you owe your parents.

You begin reassessing and redefining who you are and what you really stand
for. You learn the difference between wanting and needing and you begin to
discard the doctrines and values you've outgrown, or should never have
bought into to begin with; and in the process you learn to go with what's
inside your heart.

You learn that it is truly in giving that we receive. And that there is
power and glory in creating and contributing; and you stop maneuvering
through life merely as a "consumer" looking for your next fix. You learn
that principles such as honesty and integrity are not the outdated ideals of
a bygone era, but the mortar that holds together the foundation upon which
you must build a life. You learn that you don't know everything, it's not
your job to save the world and that you can't teach a pig to sing.

You learn to distinguish between guilt and responsibility, and the
importance of setting boundaries, and learning to say NO. You learn that the
only cross to bear is the one you choose to carry, and that martyrs get
burned at the stake. Then you learn about love. Especially God's love,
Agape. How to love, how much to give love no matter if you are not receiving
it in return. You learn not to project your needs or your feelings onto a
relationship. You learn that you will not be more beautiful, more
intelligent, more lovable or important because of the man or woman on your
arm or the child that bears your name.

You learn to look at relationships as they really are and not as you would
have them be. You stop trying to control people, situations, and outcomes.
You learn that just as people grow and change, so it is with love and you
learn that you don't have the right to demand love on your terms just to
make you happy. And, you learn that being alone does not mean being lonely.
And you look in the mirror and come to terms with the fact that you will
never be a size 5 or a perfect 10, and you stop trying to compete with the
image inside your head and agonizing over how you "stack up."

You also stop working so hard at putting your feelings aside, smoothing
things over and ignoring your needs. You learn that feelings of entitlement
are perfectly OK. And that it is your right to want things and to ask for
the things that you want and that sometimes it is necessary to make demands.
You come to the realization that you deserve to be treated with love,
kindness, sensitivity, and respect; and you won't settle for less. And, you
allow only the hands of a lover who cherishes you to glorify you with
his/her touch and in the process you internalize the meaning of
self-respect.

And you learn that your body really is your temple, and you begin to care
for it and treat it with respect. You begin eating a balanced diet, drinking
more water and taking more time to exercise. You learn that fatigue
diminishes the spirit and can create doubt and fear. So you take more time
to rest. And, just as food fuels the body, laughter fuels our soul. So you
take more time to laugh and to play.

You learn that anything worth achieving is worth working for, and that
wishing for something to happen is different from working toward making it
happen. More importantly, you learn that in order to achieve success you
need direction, discipline, and perseverance.

You also learn that no one can do it all alone and that it's OK to risk
asking for help. You learn that the only thing you must truly fear is the
great robber baron of all time. FEAR itself. You learn to step right into
and through your fears because you know that whatever happens you can handle
it, and to give in to fear is to give away the right to live life on your
terms. And you learn to fight for your life and not to squander it living
under a cloud of impending doom. You learn that life isn't always fair, you
don't always get what you think you deserve; and that sometimes-bad things
happen to unsuspecting, good people. On these occasions, you learn not to
personalize things.

You learn that God isn't punishing you or failing to answer your prayers.
It's just life happening for your own good. And you learn to deal with evil
in its most primal state ~ the ego. You learn negative feelings such as
anger, envy and resentment must be understood and redirected, or they will
suffocate the life out of you, and poison the universe that surrounds you.
You learn to admit when you are wrong and to building bridges instead of
walls.

You learn to be thankful and to take comfort in many of the simple things we
take for granted, things that millions of people upon the earth can only
dream about: a full refrigerator, clean running water, a soft warm bed, a
long hot shower. Slowly, you begin to take responsibility for yourself by
yourself; and you make yourself a promise to never betray yourself and to
never settle for less than your heart's desire! And you hang a wind chime
outside your window so you can listen to the wind. And you make it a point
to keep smiling, keep trusting, and to stay open to every wonderful
possibility. Finally, with courage in your heart and with the Holy Spirit by
your side you take a stand; you take a deep breath, and you begin to live
life the best way you can.

*****************************************************

The soul is always beautiful,
The universe is duly in order,
every thing is in its place,
What has arrived is in its place
and what waits shall be in its place.
by Mary Rutherford DC

One of Wayne Dyer’s visualization exercises is to see ourselves riding on the trolley car of life with a pre-determined path through a set of experiences that teach us about ourselves. Everyone who enters or exists our trolley car does so at exactly the right time. If we get irritated about what happens then we are overlooking the miraculous nature of these events, because everything happens just as it’s supposed to in order to help us learn about ourselves.

During uncertain times, we can use Dr. Dyer’s visualization the trolley strap hanging from the top of the car and see ourselves letting go of our anxieties and frustrations by just allowing ourselves to float up so that we can grab on to that trolley strap and allow ourselves to be taken to the exact places or to the exact experiences we need.

*******************************************************

 Definition of Unconditional Love

"I love you as you are as you seek to find your own special way to relate to
the world, or the way you feel that is right for you. It is important that
you are the person you want to be and not someone that I or others think you
should be. I realize that I cannot know what is best for you although
perhaps sometimes I think I do. I've not been where you have been, viewing
life from that angle you have, I do not know what you have chosen to learn,
how you have chosen to learn it, with whom or in what time period. I have not
walked life looking through your eyes so how can I know what you need.

I allow you to be in the world without a thought or word of judgment from me
about the deeds you undertake. I see no error in the things you say and do,
in this place where I am. I see that there are many ways to perceive and
experience the different facets of our world. I allow without reservation
the choices you make in each moment.

I make no judgment of this for if I were to deny your right to evolution
then I would deny that right to myself and all others. To those who would
choose a way I cannot walk, whilst I may not choose to add my power and my
energy to this way, I will never deny you the gift of love that God/dess has
bestowed within me for all creation, as I love you so I shall be loved, as I
sow, so I shall reap.

I allow you the universal right of free will to walk your own path, creating
steps or to sit a while if that is what is right for you. I will make no
judgment of these steps, whether they are large or small, nor light or heavy
or that they lead up or down, for this is just my viewpoint. I see you do
nothing and judge it to be unworthy and yet it may be that you bring great
healing as you stand blessed by the light of God/dess.

I cannot always see the higher picture of divine order. For it is the
inalienable right of all life to choose their own evolution and with great
love I acknowledge your right to determine your future.

In humility I bow to the realization that the way I see is best for me does
not have to mean that it is also right for you. I know that you are led as I
am following the inner excitement to know your own path.

I know that the many races, religions, customs, nationalities and beliefs
within our world bring us great richness and allow us the benefit of
teachings of such diverseness. I know we each learn in our own unique way in
order to bring that love and wisdom back to the whole. I know that if there
were only one way to do something, there would need to be only one person. I
will not only love you if you behave in a way I think you should, or believe
in those things I believe in, I understand you are truly my brother and
sister though you may have been born in a different place and believe in
another God/dess than I.

The love I feel is for all of God/ess world. I know that every living thing
is part of God/dess and I feel a love deep with every person, and all trees,
and flowers, every bird, river, ocean and for all the creatures in all the
world.

I live my life in loving service being the best me I can becoming wiser in
the perfection of divine truth, becoming happier in the joy of unconditional
love."

-- Author Unknown

********************************************************8

THE LABYRINTH

"Your life is a sacred journey. And it is about change, growth, discovery,
movement, transformation, continuously expanding your vision of what is
possible, stretching your soul, learning to see clearly and deeply,
listening to your intuition, taking courageous challenges at every step
along the way. You are on the path... exactly where you are meant to be
right now... And from here, you can only go forward, shaping your life story
into a magnificent tale of triumph, of healing of courage, of beauty, of
wisdom, of power, of dignity, and of love."
~ Caroline Adams

We are all on the path... exactly where we need to be. The labyrinth is a
model of that path.

A labyrinth is an ancient symbol that relates to wholeness. It combines the
imagery of the circle and the spiral into a meandering but purposeful path.
The Labyrinth represents a journey to our own center and back again out into
the world. Labyrinths have long been used as meditation and prayer tools.

A labyrinth is an archetype with which we can have a direct experience. We
can walk it. It is a metaphor for life's journey. It is a symbol that
creates a sacred space and place and takes us out of our ego to "That Which
Is Within."

Labyrinths and mazes have often been confused. When most people hear of a
labyrinth they think of a maze. A labyrinth is not a maze. A maze is like a
puzzle to be solved. It has twists, turns, and blind alleys. It is a left
brain task that requires logical, sequential, analytical activity to find
the correct path into the maze and out.

A labyrinth has only one path. The way in is the way out. There are no blind
alleys. The path leads you on a circuitous path to the center and out again.

A labyrinth is a right brain task. It involves intuition, creativity, and
imagery. With a maze many choices must be made and an active mind is needed
to solve the problem of finding the center. With a labyrinth there is only
one choice to be made. The choice is to enter or not. A more passive,
receptive mindset is needed. The choice is whether or not to walk a
spiritual path.

At its most basic level the labyrinth is a metaphor for the journey to the
center of your deepest self and back out into the world with a broadened
understanding of who you are.

~ Daniel H. Johnston, Ph.D.

*******************************************************

ABOUT LOVE

Fear has many reasons not to love; love has one reason not to fear: It alone is real.

The path to your dreams is not paved with self-protection; it is paved with trust and a sense of adventure. That road widens with your willingness to step forth even if visibility is less than full. You don't need to see the whole staircase - just the next step. Leaps of faith are rewarded far more often than building survival bunkers. Hesitation pales in the face of resolution. Look before you leap - but then leap. You may land in a place far richer than where you stood.

With Trust,
Conflict and judgment are naturally reduced, as is a need to have relationships manifest in any special way, and people are free to interact lovingly and peacefully in the present moment. And in this atmosphere of trust, the joy of co-creativity can spontaneously arise.

It would be so easy to quit trusting.  So many out there are not worthy of being trusted.   But I am convinced that to trust is not a thing of fools but of the wise, for without trust, there can be no love, so then is it not true that love is worth the risk?  If I trust, then I cannot make a fool of myself,  but the one I trust can become a fool by betraying my trust.  To never trust is to never love.

Love enriches the live of both people. never keeping score of who does more and does what. Just the point of doing.

If you are truly in love and love the other person unconditionally, you will want them to be happy -- even if that means they do not want to be with you - which has to be their choice, not yours. Remember we all have been given free will by God and are all allowed to use it whenever we want to, which means that two people involved in a relationship can be on two totally different wave lengths.

"Often the true path of love begins only when romance has begun to taper off, for love is the capacity to see light when darkness has begun to eclipse it."

Are you so sure your mistakes are just mistakes? Or could they be building blocks to a success beyond any you imagined?

Everything is part of something bigger, and mistakes are no exception. Every minus is half of a plus,

Trust implies faith that there is a wiser plan afoot than the one that meets the eye. Only the inner eye, the insight of higher wisdom, can make sense out of apparent human error.

We are never deceived; we deceive ourselves.

*******************************************

PEOPLE COME INTO YOUR LIFE FOR A REASON

      People come into your life for a reason, a season or a lifetime. When you
      know which one it is, you will know what to do for that person.

      When someone is in your life for a REASON, it is usually to meet a need
      you have expressed. They have come to assist you through a difficulty, to
      provide you with guidance and support, to aid you physically, emotionally
      or spiritually. They may seem like a godsend and they are. They are there
      for the reason you need them to be. Then, without any wrongdoing on your
      part or at an inconvenient time, this person will say or do something to
      bring the relationship to an end.  Sometimes they die. Sometimes they walk
      away. Sometimes they act up and force you to take a stand. What we must
      realize is that our need has been met, our desire fulfilled, their work is
      done. The prayer you sent up has been answered and now it is time to move
      on.

      Some people come into your life for a SEASON, because your turn has come
      to share, grow or learn. They bring you an experience of peace or, make
      you laugh. They may teach you something you have never done.  They usually
      give you an unbelievable amount of joy. Believe it, it is real.  But only
      for a season!

      LIFETIME relationships teach you lifetime lessons, things you must build
      upon in order to have a solid emotional foundation. Your job is to accept
      the lesson, love the person and put what you have learned to use in all
      other relationships and areas of your life. It is said that love is blind
      but friendship is clairvoyant.
      ~ unknown

      Thank you all for being a part of my life, whether you were a reason, a
      season, or a lifetime!

****************************************************

      Building a Support System

      Building a nurturing community is an important aspect of following one's
      Path, because only in the context of a warm circle of caring people can
      you maintain your faith (when it's tested) with loving support. And aren't
      we all tested from time to time?  Peace within a loving community of
      friends is not a difficult goal for which we have to struggle.  The joy of
      being with like-minded people is something we all share.  Finding joy in
      the inherent mystery of the world, and gratitude for whatever life brings
      us helps to create harmony in our lives and relationships.

      As long as you are searching for security through unchanging, static
      relationships or material goods, wisdom will elude you. But the very
      moment you accept that there is no security through attachment, you will
      gain the courage to open yourself to the natural flow of wisdom that can
      be found in every experience.  Let your relationships be free to be what
      they are, knowing that whether they are good or not so good, there is
      wisdom to be gained from every experience.

      Put your trust in the fact that everything within the circumstances of
      your life is there for a good reason... to help you grow on your spiritual
      path... to help your character grow in unconditional love toward your
      fellow man.  Put your trust in the wisdom that comes from deep meditation
      in the Silence, to help you realize the direction of your journey through
      the circumstances of this life. 

      If we learn to trust that this changing Universe brings us exactly what we
      need at every moment to move forward on our journey… if we can dance to
      the continually changing music of the spheres… then we will learn agility.

      It’s worth thinking about…
      ~ Misty-Eve*

******************************************************

What does Love Mean?

A group of professional people posed this question to a group of 4 to 8
year-olds, "What does love mean?"
The answers they got were broader and deeper than anyone could have
imagined. See what you think:

____________________________________

"When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn't bend over and paint her
toenails anymore.

So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got
arthritis too. That's love."

Rebecca- age 8

____________________________________

"When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different.
You just know that your name is safe in their mouth."

Billy - age 4

____________________________________

"Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and
they go out and smell each other."

Karl - age 5

____________________________________

"Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries
without making them give you any of theirs."

Chrissy - age 6

____________________________________

"Love is what makes you smile when you're tired."

Terri - age 4

____________________________________

"Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before
giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK."

Danny - age 7

____________________________________

"Love is when you kiss all the time. Then when you get tired of kissing, you
still want to be together and you talk more.
My Mommy and Daddy are like that. They look gross when they kiss"

Emily - age 8

____________________________________

"Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening
presents and listen."

Bobby - age 7 (Wow!)

____________________________________

"If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you
hate,"

Nikka - age 6

(we need a few million more Nikka's on this planet)

____________________________________

"Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it everyday."


Noelle - age 7

____________________________________

"Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends
even after they know each other so well."

Tommy - age 6

____________________________________

"During my piano recital, I was on a stage and I was scared. I looked at all
the people watching me and saw my daddy waving and smiling.

He was the only one doing that. I wasn't scared anymore."

Cindy - age 8

____________________________________

"My mommy loves me more than anybody

You don't see anyone else kissing me to sleep at night."

Clare - age 6

____________________________________

"Love is when Mommy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken."

Elaine-age 5

____________________________________

"Love is when Mommy sees Daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is
handsomer than Robert Redford."

Chris - age 7

____________________________________

"Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all
day."

Mary Ann - age 4

____________________________________

"I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes
and has to go out and buy new ones."

Lauren - age 4

____________________________________

"When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come
out of you." (what an image)

Karen - age 7

____________________________________

"Love is when Mommy sees Daddy on the toilet and she doesn't think it's
gross."

Mark - age 6

____________________________________

"You really shouldn't say 'I love you' unless you mean it. But if you mean
it, you should say it a lot. People forget."

Jessica - age 8

____________________________________

And the final one -- Author and lecturer Leo Buscaglia once talked about a
contest he was asked to judge.

The purpose of the contest was to find the most caring child.

The winner was a four year old child whose next door neighbor was an elderly
gentleman who had recently lost his wife.

Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman's yard,
climbed onto his lap, and just sat there.

When his Mother asked what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said,


"Nothing, I just helped him cry"

____________________________________
 


~~~~ A Creed to Live By ~~~~

~~ Don't determine your worth by comparing
yourself with others. It is because we are
different that each of us is special.

~~ Don't set your goals by what others deem
important. Only you know what is best for you.

~~ Don't take for granted the things closest to
your heart; cling to them as you would your life,
for without them life is meaningless.

~~ Don't let your life slip through your fingers
by living in the past or for the future.

~~ By living your life ONE DAY AT A TIME
you will live all the days of your life.

~~ Don't give up when you still have something
to give.

~~ Nothing is really over... until the moment
you stop trying

~~ Don't be afraid to admit that you are less
than perfect; it is this fragile thread that binds
us to each other.

~~ Don't be afraid to encounter risks,
It's by taking chances we learn how to be brave.

~~ Don't shut LOVE out of your life
by saying it's impossible to find.

~~ The quickest way to receive LOVE is to
give LOVE, the fastest way to lose LOVE is
to hold it too tightly and the best way to keep
LOVE is to give it wings.

~~ Don't dismiss your dreams.
To be without dreams is to be without HOPE;
To be without HOPE is to be without purpose.

~~ Don't run through life so fast that you forget
not only WHERE YOU'VE BEEN--but also--
WHERE YOU'RE GOING.

~~ Life isn't a race, but...
A JOURNEY-- TO BE SAVORED EACH STEP
OF THE WAY --Author Unknown

***************************************************

If someone or something has left you by surprise, or seemingly unfairly, you are in a perfect position to affirm, "Til breath do us part." Life itself is breath, and if Great Spirit has breathed someone out of your life, there is a reason. Rest assured that the same life force that breathed them out will breathe someone or something else in. Spirit is intelligent and responsible. Know this, and fear will have no power over you.

Everyone comes into our life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime. Some people show up for a momentary shared purpose and move on as quickly as they came. Others walk by our side for a significant phase of life. (Sometimes those who challenge us fall into this category as well.) Others are lifetime companions, and we are truly blessed by these. Real friends are with us even when we do not see them, as we are with them.

Breath brings us together and breath moves us apart. Breath starts years and ends them. The breath of life is like the breath of our body: for every breath out, there is a new one in. Inspiration, release; inspiration, release. Let us complete this year not with regret or lament, but with breath, which not only does us part, but most profoundly does us join.

******************************************************

To be Loved is to be whole

When love and human connection are absent from our lives, we feel
impoverished and dry. Life seems less than full. Our senses seem dulled. The
world seems to lack the lively spark of life, to be less beautiful and less
compelling. It is as though we are in a desert, where the water of life
seems to have retreated under the harsh sand.

The force of love, which the Greeks represented with the magnificent figure
of Aphrodite, transforms us and the world at the same time. It need not be
an intimate partnership, for friendship and family bonds are also forms of
love that sustain and enliven us. But to live without intimacy is to live in
a desert of the heart. Opening to others entails risk ~ the risk of being
hurt ~ but unless we take that risk, we do not truly live.

By Patricia Monaghan
________________________________________________________

Courage: The Joy of
Living Dangerously

by Osho

 
Excerpt From the Book :

 

The Courage of Love

 

This Cake is Delicious !

 

Love is very rare. To meet a person at his center is to pass through a revolution, because if you want to meet a person at his center you will have to allow that person to reach to your center also. You will have to become vulnerable, absolutely vulnerable, open.

It is risky. To allow somebody to reach your center is risky, dangerous, because you never know what that person will do to you. And once all your secrets are known, once your hiddenness has become unhidden, once you are exposed completely, what that other person will do, you never know. The fear is there. That’s why we never open.

Just acquaintance, and we think love has happened. Peripheries meet, and we think we have met. You are not your periphery. Really, the periphery is the boundary where you end, just the fencing around you. It is not you! The periphery is the place where you end and the world begins.

Even husbands and wives who might have lived together for many years, may be just acquaintances. They may not have known each other. And the more you live with someone the more you forget completely that the centers have remained unknown.

So the first thing to be understood is, don’t take acquaintance as love. You may be making love, you may be sexually related, but sex is also peripheral. Unless centers meet, sex is just a meeting of two bodies. And a meeting of two bodies is not your meeting. Sex also remains acquaintance – physical, bodily, but still just an acquaintance. You can allow somebody to enter to your center only when you are not afraid, when you are not fearful.

There are two types of living: one fear-oriented, one love-oriented. Fear-oriented living can never lead you into deep relationship. You remain afraid, and the other cannot be allowed, cannot be allowed to penetrate you to your very core. To an extent you allow the other and then the wall comes and everything stops.

The love-oriented person means one who is not afraid of the future, one who is not afraid of the result and the consequence, who lives here and now. Don’t be bothered about the result; that is the fear-oriented mind. Don’t think about what will happen out of it. Just be here, and act totally. Don’t calculate. A fear-oriented man is always calculating, planning, arranging, safeguarding. His whole life is lost in this way.

I have heard about an old Zen monk: He was on his deathbed. The last day had come, and he declared that on that evening he would be no more. So followers, disciples, friends started coming. He had many lovers, they all started coming; from far and wide people gathered. One of his old disciples, when he heard that the master was going to die, ran to the market. Somebody asked, "The Master is dying in his hut, why are you going to the market?" The old disciple said, "I know that my master loves a particular type of cake, so I am going to purchase the cake." It was difficult to find the cake, but by the evening somehow he managed. He came running with the cake.

And everybody was worried – it was as if the Master was waiting for someone. He would open his eyes and look, and close his eyes again. When this disciple came, he said, "Okay, so you have come. Where is the cake?" The disciple produced the cake – and he was very happy that the Master asked about it. Dying, the Master took the cake in his hand… but his hand was not trembling. He was very old, but his hand was not trembling. So somebody asked, "You are so old and just on the verge of dying. The last breath is soon to leave you, but your hand is not trembling."

The Master said, "I never tremble, because there is no fear. My body has become old but I am still young, and I will remain young even when the body is gone." Then he took a bite, started munching the cake. And then somebody asked, "What is your last message, Master? You will be leaving us soon. What do you want us to remember?" The Master smiled and said, "Ah, this cake is delicious." This is a man who lives in the here and now: This cake is delicious. Even death is irrelevant. The next moment is meaningless. This moment, this cake is delicious. If you can be in this moment, this present moment, this presentness, the plenitude, then only can you love.

Love is a rare flowering. It happens only sometimes. Millions and millions of people live in the false attitude that they are lovers. They believe that they love, but that is their belief only.

Love is a rare flowering. Sometimes it happens. It is rare because it can happen only when there is no fear, never before. That means love can happen only to a very deeply spiritual, religious person. Sex is possible for all. Acquaintance is possible for all. Not love.

When you are not afraid, then there is nothing to hide; then you can be open, then you can withdraw all boundaries. And then you can invite the other to penetrate you to the very core.

And remember, if you allow somebody to penetrate you deeply, the other will allow you to penetrate into himself or herself, because when you allow somebody to penetrate you, trust is created. When you are not afraid, the other becomes fearless.

In your love, fear is always there. The husband is afraid of the wife, the wife is afraid of the husband. Lovers are always afraid. Then it is not love. Then it is just an arrangement of two fearful persons depending on each other, fighting, exploiting, manipulating, controlling, dominating, possessing – but it is not love.


If you can allow love to happen, there is no need for prayer, there is no need for meditation, there is no need for any church, any temple. You can completely forget God if you can love – because through love, everything will have happened to you: meditation, prayer, God, everything will have happened to you. That’s what Jesus means when he says love is God.

But love is difficult. Fear has to be dropped. And this is the strange thing, that you are so afraid and you have nothing to lose.

The mystic Kabir has said somewhere, "I look into people… they are so much afraid, but I can’t see why – because they have nothing to lose." Says Kabir, "They are like a person who is naked, but never goes to take a bath in the river because he is afraid – where will he dry his clothes?" This is the situation you are in – naked, with no clothes, but always worried about the clothes.

What have you got to lose? Nothing. This body will be taken by death; before it is taken by death, give it to love. Whatsoever you have will be taken away; before it is taken away, why not share it? That is the only way of possessing it. If you can share and give, you are the master. It is going to be taken away – there is nothing which you can retain forever. Death will destroy everything.

So, if you follow me rightly, the struggle is between death and love. If you can give, there will be no death. Before anything can be taken away from you, you will have already given it, you will have made it a gift. There can be no death.

For a lover there is no death. For a non-lover, every moment is a death because every moment something is being snatched away from him. The body is disappearing, he is losing every moment. And then there will be death, and everything will be annihilated.

What is the fear? Why are you so afraid? Even if everything is known about you and you are an open book, why fear? How can it harm you? Just false conceptions, just conditionings given by the society – that you have to hide, that you have to protect yourself, that you have to be constantly in a fighting mood, that everybody is an enemy, that everybody is against you.

Nobody is against you! Even if you feel somebody is against you, he too is not against you – because everybody is concerned with himself, not with you. There is nothing to fear. This has to be realized before a real relationship can happen. There is nothing to fear.

Meditate on it. And then allow the other to enter you, invite the other to enter you. Don’t create any barrier anywhere; become a passage always open, no locks, no doors on you, no closed doors on you. Then love is possible.

When two centers meet, there is love. And love is an alchemical phenomenon – just like hydrogen and oxygen meet and a new thing, water, is created. You can have hydrogen, you can have oxygen, but if you are thirsty they will be useless. You can have as much oxygen as you want, as much hydrogen as you like, but the thirst will not go.

When two centers meet a new thing is created. That new thing is love. And it is just like water; the thirst of many, many lives is satisfied. Suddenly you become content. That is the visible sign of love; you become content, as if you have achieved everything. There is nothing to achieve now; you have reached the goal. There is no further goal, destiny is fulfilled. The seed has become a flower, has come to its total flowering.

Deep contentment is the visible sign of love. Whenever a person is in love, he is in deep contentment. Love cannot be seen but contentment, the deep satisfaction around him...his every breath, his every movement, his very being, content.

You may be surprised when I say to you that love makes you desireless, but desire comes with discontent. You desire because you don’t have. You desire because you think that if you have something it will give you contentment. Desire comes out of discontent.

When there is love and two centers have met and dissolved and merged, and a new alchemical quality is born, contentment is there. It is as if the whole existence has stopped – no movement. Then the present moment is the only moment. And then you can say, "Ah, this cake is delicious." Even death doesn’t mean anything to a man who is in love.

 

Reprinted by Permission of Osho International

commemorate the end and the beginning of a cycle in your love life. A desire to be free and retreat may take precedence. Reject artificial or attention-getting behavior. Temporary lovers or shallow distractions may not cultivate trust or may bring only momentary fulfillment, for these things need constant replenishment and upkeep. Aimlessness, dependency or wasteful indulgences may not leave much room for the soul time you need in order to foster personal development. Instead, reclaim your sensuality by nurturing those wild, but finer things you may have taken for granted. Those simple things that you can count on to almost take care of themselves will give back in abundance.


sex sells, but the quality, not the quantity, of your sensual self should be your consistent measure for improving earthly pleasures. Don't let it be just a way to keep score or merely something to cross off the to-do list -- otherwise, you might become bored with the same old same old. Try not to be absorbed by the minutiae of every detail. Find something in which the process itself gives you pleasure, rather than only in its tangible end result. Having your eye on the prize can keep you focused, but a preoccupation with perfectionism might adversely affect the support and security of your domestic situation, or slow the progress in what could otherwise become a labor of love.

In relationships we attract that which we need to learn. We resonate with some people and not with others. We learn love and how to let go. Not everybody loves us how we wish to be loved. They too have choice and lessons to be learned within their own path. The Law of Attraction does not say that we can bend someone else to our will. Freedom is the gift of thought and how we gift that to ourselves and others is The Secret.

Giving someone all your love
Is never an assurance that they'll love you back!
Don't expect love in return;
Just wait for it to grow in their heart
But if it doesn't, be content it grew in yours.
It takes only a minute to get a crush on someone,
An hour to like someone,
And a day to love someone,
But it takes a lifetime to forget someone.

Don't go for looks; they can deceive.
Don't go for wealth; even that fades away.
Go for someone who makes you smile
Because it takes only a smile to make a dark day seem bright.
Find the one that makes your heart smile.

Article from the Houston Chronicle:
            On Nov. 18, 1995, Itzhak Perlman, the violinist, came on stage to
            give a concert at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center in New York
            City. If you have ever been to a Perlman concert, you know that
            getting on stage is no small achievement for him. He was stricken
            with polio as a child, and so he has braces on both legs and walks
            with the aid of two crutches.
            To see him walk across the stage one step at a time, painfully and
            slowly, is an unforgettable sight. He walks painfully, yet
            majestically, until he reaches his chair. Then he sits down, slowly,
            puts his crutches on the floor, undoes the clasps on his legs, tucks
            one foot back and extends the other foot forward. Then he bends down
            and picks up the violin, puts it under his chin, nods to the
            conductor and proceeds to play.
            By now, the audience is used to this ritual. They sit quietly while
            he makes his way across the stage to his chair. They remain
            reverently silent while he undoes the clasps on his legs. They wait
            until he is ready to play.
            But this time, something went wrong. Just as he finished the first
            few bars, one of the strings on his violin broke. You could hear it
            snap - it went off like gunfire across the room. There was no
            mistaking what that sound meant. There was no mistaking what he had
            to do.
            People who were there that night thought to themselves: "We figured
            that he would have to get up, put on the clasps again, pick up the
            crutches and limp his way off stage — to either find another violin
            or else find another string for this one."
            But he didn't. Instead, he waited a moment, closed his eyes and then
            signaled the conductor to begin again. The orchestra began, and he
            played from where he had left off. And he played with such passion
            and such power and such purity as they had never heard before. Of
            course, anyone knows that it is impossible to play a symphonic work
            with just three strings. I know that, and you know that, but that
            night Itzhak Perlman refused to know that. You could see him
            modulating, changing, recomposing the piece in his head.
            At one point, it sounded like he was de-tuning the strings to get
            new sounds from them that they had never made before. When he
            finished, there was an awesome silence in the room. And then people
            rose and cheered. There was an extraordinary outburst of applause
            from every corner of the auditorium. We were all on our feet,
            screaming and cheering, doing everything we could to show how much
            we appreciated what he had done.
            He smiled, wiped the sweat from this brow, raised his bow to quiet
            us, and then he said, not boastfully, but in a quiet, pensive,
            reverent tone, "You know, sometimes it is the artist's task to find
            out how much music you can still make with what you have left."
            What a powerful line that is. It has stayed in my mind ever since I
            heard it. And who knows? Perhaps that is the way of life - not just
            for artists but for all of us. Here is a man who has prepared all
            his life to make music on a violin of four strings, who, all of a
            sudden, in the middle of a concert, finds himself with only three
            strings. So he makes music with three strings, and the music he made
            that night with just three strings was more beautiful, more sacred,
            more memorable, than any that he had ever made before, when he had
            four strings.
            So, perhaps our task in this shaky, fast-changing, bewildering world
            in which we live is to make music, at first with all that we have,
            and then, when that is no longer possible, to make music with what
            we have left.