Seasons of the Soul

Quotations as Seed Thoughts

 

 

In one of the issues of Seasons of the Soul print edition, I took quotations and created small articles from each as a reminder that when we see a quote, it is a seed thought that prompts us to think about what has been stated in relation to our own lives.

Seed thoughts are wonderful reminders to look a little deeper. We have our own question and inquiry process that arise as a result of a moving quotation, and we can often find ourselves thinking about something we would otherwise not have given time to, but is enriching or expanding us as a result of reading it and taking time to ponder its message.

A fun exercise is to create slips of paper with quotations on them and then fold them up and toss them in a jar or bowl. We can take one a day out of the container and use that particular quote as a seed thought for the day, focusing on its message as we deal with the opportunities and challenges that arise.

Another interesting approach is to find themes in our own lives that reoccur, and find quotes from the experiences we’ve had that are memorable and meaningful to us.

Quotations are not just from famous people, they are from all of us. And today’s quote can become the seed thought of tomorrow’s creative idea that leads us to new or expanded vistas in our thinking and actions.

Quotations are meant to enrich us, and when we take time with them, their intention is fulfilled, so next time you see a quotation, think about it and how it relates to your life and way of perceiving. Play with it or practice it, and see where it leads. Who knows what bright idea might come as a result!

Success from Failure

 

I am often asked for advice, and have saved some of the questions and answers from my files that might be helpful to others. This particular response is to an e-mail from a friend who moved to her country of origin to begin a business. Her mother was a businesswoman, but felt that her business was a failure in the long run and is very afraid for her daughter to enter the fray. This was my response to her plea for encouragement.

——-

We just saw a show last night called The Big Idea about succeeding from failure - and it was all about how many failures successful people have before they finally have the thing that really takes off. It isn't always so, but the consensus was that we have to allow each failure to move us forward and NOT be afraid to fail. If we have passion and conviction in what we are doing, we can not let the naysayers turn us away from our goals. One man told of how every time he came up with something, others would say, "Why are you doing that? If it was going to ever be anything, it would already have been done." And he said THAT statement was what let him know he was on the right track - he went ahead with his vision and determination and invented things that were successful.

In our journey toward autonomy we are faced with everyone else's fears because they didn't make it happen the way they would have liked it to be - and they are afraid for us to try because they failed or gave up or whatever. One woman said that you have to ask yourself what your objective is. And then look at what your worst fears around it are, and then say, "Okay...if that happens, then what?" and you keep doing that until you see the logical answer is that if you fail you will start something else. It's like baking a cake. If it doesn't turn out, we bake another one!

Starting a business means you are banking on your energy and believing in it. You are going to make a statement that you have something to offer that YOU are willing to invest in. If you are willing to invest in yourself then other people will be willing to invest in you. Your statement of being an entrepreneur says that you believe in your product. That makes other people believe there is something to what you have to offer.

 So, you can look at the worst case scenario and realize that if that happens and you don’t succeed, you'll still be standing, and you can take the lessons you learned from that and start again in whatever way is more appropriate. BUT that is only worst case scenario. You can also succeed!

I would suggest that you ask your mother what she would have done differently in her business to make the outcome different. What did she learn? What did she do that caused it to fail? What did she learn about herself in the process? Perhaps she found out that she really wasn't cut out to be an entrepreneur, and that's a valuable lesson. But perhaps she was naive about financial matters and would have been more savvy about accounting or the people she chose to work with her. Get her to share what she could or would have done differently that would have allowed for the business to be a success - and maybe it was that she was in the wrong business or one that was too demanding. Turn this negative view into some positive pieces of information that you can build on - not be defeated by.

Best case scenario is that you feel the fear, go ahead with your plans anyway, and you succeed beyond your dreams, bringing joy and abundance to everyone and everything you touch. Now, THAT is something to aspire to!

Remember the old saying, “Nothing ventured, nothing gained”.

______

The report back from my friend was that she did ask her mother about the business she had and what she would have done differently. As a result, her mother began sharing tips for how to succeed where she had failed and promised to support her daughter in the venture.

The lesson here is that when we ask for the advice of elders and encourage them to share their journeys instead of getting defensive when they get negative, we move beyond the fear point and engage them in helping us create something very rich in texture and inclusive of each person’s expertise.

Allowing Our Differences

 

 

Facing a blank wall, what do I see in the emptiness as my mind chatters on and on about trivia of the day, expressions of annoyance at the latest diatribe by right wing talk show attack mongrels and left wing pundits? Everything so bound up in either/or, us/them, the mentality of duality that sees anything outside of its own view as evil or wrong. And in life, the extraordinary truth is that this cannot stand. It erupts, disrupts, and causes splintering in the fabric because there is no accommodation for another view or vantage point of a larger truth.

We can each only see a portion of something bigger than ourselves. I am limited by where I stand and what is in front of me. I can turn 360 degrees, but my scope of vision is determined by where I am located. At the base of the mountain, I see dirt and trees and little else. At the top of the mountain, I have a vaster view, but still I am limited by the nature of my singularity and upon what ground I stand, where I am born, what culture I am from, and the gender I inhabit. It isn’t like being able to zoom out on Google Earth and see the whole planet as a passerby. We see what is here and now as the reality of our time and place. And yet, we tend not to give credibility to anyone else’s time and place viewpoint.

The woman in Iran or the Balinese fisherman – the Russian ballerina and the Cuban immigrant - they see things from a perspective framed by their experience – and how can it be otherwise? Yet, in each of our diverse backgrounds there is a beautiful tapestry that we can weave. Each of us has a thread to contribute to something more stunning than our single viewpoint. If we would allow for our stories to emerge and our vantage points to be heard, we could possibly create a world in which we are all welcome and where we would all like to live and thrive and share our resources.

Without allowing for the differences that are intrinsic to our lives, we limit creation. Yet, in creation there is no one-way. There is no one form of weather pattern that touches all the planet at the same time. When I see daylight, those halfway around the world see night. Are they right to say that it is night, and I am wrong to say it is day? Does their truth negate mine, and vice versa? Of course not. Yet, we debate endlessly over whose God is the real and only God. We war over cultural customs and gender differences, and all the other isms and opposites that small minds cannot accept or allow because those differences ask each of us to step out of our comfort zone – out of our familiar patterns and life view to recognize something more as being a way of life.

It doesn’t have to be THE way, nor should it. One form of flower covering the entire earth would be monotonous. One species, one gender, one food choice – we would be bored by the repetition of sameness. And when we limit the sharing of beliefs or ways of being, we are boring. We become parrots of what has gone before, biased into submission, and the end result is a world that splinters and withers in potential. All the talent, creativity and possibility is squandered by non-allowance, and each of us is diminished as a result.

It’s time to become one world - time to become fully human – to see the gift in our variance, and to speak with one another, not posture with enmity in mindless rhetoric. We can bridge the gaping holes that divide us by weaving our tapestry one to the other. We can start simply, finding a point upon which we can agree, by sharing the fact that we are human, that we have children, and then showing pictures of our family and discussing our hopes for them and ourselves. We can describe how we came to believe our beliefs and the foods we eat and the customs we have established, and through this we will become aware of another’s point of view. It will not diminish us; it will enrich us. And then, we can allow for our differences and gradually, gradually hold out a candle to one another that we light in friendship and compassion. Then as we eliminate the gaping gulf of unknowing between us, humanity can come together to celebrate life.

It all begins with allowing our differences. It’s time.

Wisdom From the Taxi Cab Drivers

 

 

 

The taxi driver slammed on his brakes, skidded, and missed the other car by mere inches! The driver of the other car, the guy who almost caused a big accident, whipped his head around and started yelling bad words at the driver and his passenger, but the driver of the cab just smiled and waved at the guy. He was actually friendly!

So, the passenger asked him, "Why did you just do that? This guy almost ruined your car and could've sent us to the hospital!"

And this is when the taxi driver told his passenger about "The Law of Garbage Trucks."

"Many people are like Garbage Trucks. They run around full of garbage, full of frustration, full of anger, and full of disappointment. As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it, and if you let them, they'll dump it on you.  When someone wants to dump on you, don't take it personally. Instead, just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on. You'll be happier because you did."

In another incident, a friend was in Las Vegas and had experienced a near miss at winning $50,000 because a Keno runner did not put her ticket in at the right time. My friend was noticeably upset, but had to hurry to catch a plane.

As she rode in the taxi to the airport, a huge truck pulled directly in front of the cab without looking, and by a miracle, a major accident was avoided through the cabby's swift reaction. After the initial shock, my friend told the cab driver about the lost $50,000 because of the keno runner’s mistake. He looked in the rear view mirror at her and smiled. “You almost had $50,000, and you just almost lost your life. So the balance sheet is even now as you were saved from a dire consequence that the money would not have been able to solve.”

Next time you take a cab, engage the driver in conversation and see what pearl of wisdom he/she has to offer!

Chasing Windmills

 

 

How often do we run after those things that seem elusive, believing that once we catch or grasp them we will be content forever? Yet, once found, and after the initial rush the desire brings, we are once again looking for the next “it” that will satisfy our momentary wants. Life is like that. We take our days as an adventure when we’re young and beginning the journey, and then as experience becomes expectation, we assume certain things will always remain the same while others should magically alter to meet our sense of what ought to be. It’s as though we are chasing windmills—wanting ever-present stimulation. Yet there is a lot of still time in between the bursts of wind or the next “Aha” experience. There is the prospect of doing life on a daily basis that isn’t always glamorous or fulfilling, a lot of ordinariness and rote requirements. And there is nothing wrong with this as long as we recognize the importance of the process.

Windmills are useful. They fuel activity, and when harnessed, can propel us in grand ways toward the next adventure. Chasing windmills, however, negates a whole part of our lives that is also important—the in between time when we can distill what we’ve experienced and let it settle into us. It’s the old need for balance between doing and being—and some of us are more adept at this than others. Yet when we recognize the benefit of what the windmill brings (or our creative process) we can then utilize that “wind” to propel our project forward and take the down time that follows to let the fruit of our labor distill and deepen our understanding.

The wind will come again—it always does. But we don’t have to chase it, for it will arrive right on time as we need it and are ready for the next “Aha” moment.

We are the Consciousness of the World

 

 

In a class the other evening, one of the participants commented that after she read the dreary deadlines and predictions of the day and for the future (invasions of Iran, etc), she always came to the Seasons of the Soul site to see something inspiring. And as I considered her comments, it was further evidence to me of the necessity for each of us to recognize that what we are viewing in the collective on television, tablets, phones, movies, Internet, radio, magazines, and newspapers is a compilation of our collective consciousness.

As we abdicate our responsibility – ability to respond – to contribute to the uplifting of consciousness through our choices and our voices, we are allowing the lowest common denominator to prevail. Unfortunately, there is a lot of adrenalin that is manufactured by fear-based messages. There is something within the human being that feeds off that energy, and in return the fear based energy feeds off of the feeders. It becomes a vicious cycle that spirals out of control, and before we know it, we have a world in chaos and at war. We have distrust, mishandling of communication, and all the other unintended results of giving in to the lowest impulses of our nature.

It takes discernment and discipline to rise above chaos. It takes a self-organizing attitude that recognizes that we are walking through a minefield of information. Actually it is a mind field. And that mind field is going to pluck from us what we put our attention to. What does that mean?

Whatever we focus on magnifies. We feed thoughts of fear or faith, depending on what we are tuning in to. What channel is predominant in our lives? Are we titillated by disturbing news? Are we disempowered by stories that seem so overwhelming that we become insignificant? Do we feel helpless in the face of insurmountable odds presented to us daily by the news media? And furthermore, does a sense of futility help us to discharge any sense of obligation because what we see is way too much for us to handle?

If we do a little self-examination, we may find that taking the easier path of falling in to the soap opera mentality of the nation releases us from a burden to take action. After all, what can one person do? And yet, if we truly understood that the very message that we feel disempowered by is being empowered by our lack of action, we would realize that we do indeed create and are responsible for our reality. And the reality we create affects not only us, but everyone else. When the overwhelming thought process is focused on disease, war, dishonesty, attack, and all the other soul demeaning events, this is a contribution to that consciousness. If each of us said “NO!” to those forms of materialization and turned only to what is uplifting, restoring, hopeful, and life giving – THAT would become the predominant force and consciousness that would emerge.

We are not victims of some outside plot. We are victims of our own creation – and just as we have fallen into a trap of complicity, we can climb up and out of that state by changing the channel – by focusing on what CAN be done to make the world and our lives a better place, and then vocalizing it, acting upon it, and shifting the frequency from helplessness to helpfulness. We are the creators of our reality, and if we don’t like what we see, we have the power to make change. Every small step leads us to a destination. As we bring our intentions into focus and band together as a force for the good, the larger pool of consciousness adjusts to reflect the overriding and predominant view.

 The task may seem daunting, but it is not. We know the power of what one person can do for good or ill. We know what was accomplished by the example of a Gandhi and a Mother Teresa. We also know what happens when no one stops a Hitler or the fanatics in Rwanda. Our thoughts and actions support and uplift the good, or allow the fall of humanity into the grips of despair. It is that simple and that hard. It requires an adjustment in the lens with which we focus. But by doing so, we can contribute in small or large ways to the creation of a world we want to see.

Is God High Maintenance?

 

 

At our Sunday Circle, the talk was centered on the idea that God spelled backwards is Dog. We were asked to name the qualities of dogs, and as people added their comments of loyalty, dependability, unconditional love, playfulness, helpfulness, etc. etc., my mind went to high maintenance, needy, slobbery, messy, and smelly. Don’t get me wrong, I do like dogs, but as I’ve gotten older, I appreciate cats more.

Yet, as the discussion leader went on and on about the great qualities of dogs and how they are like God, I thought to myself, “hm….is God high maintenance?” And the thought that followed was, “yes.” God needs our attention, wants our loyalty, requires us to be helpful to one another, and is in need of us cleaning up the messes created by nature and ourselves. So…yes. God IS high maintenance. And that’s not a bad thing. It reminds us that we cannot take God for granted. After all, if you don’t walk a dog, doesn’t it become lethargic and overweight? For maximum health, you have to walk the dog daily, and make sure it is fed – preferably with nutritious food. God requires that from us daily, too. We have to walk with God – and we have to interact – paying attention, allowing ourselves to be fed nutritious thoughts by the connection we forge with our Creator.

So God is a give and take God. The qualities of the dog are also the qualities that God exemplifies, but also the qualities that we demonstrate to God. After all, who does clean up our messes? Who overlooks our slobbery, needy states? Who cares about us even though we are eternally “high maintenance”? And who is the only one who will stay loyal to us regardless of whether we demonstrate our love for Him or not?

Dogs love their owners, regardless of whether they are treated well or cruelly. They continuously come back for more, and have unbelievable acceptance of the frailty of the human species. So does God. Dogs wait patiently for their owners to return to them, no matter how long it takes – and they want to be with their owners no matter how boring. Doesn’t God do the same? Dogs try to protect their masters whenever possible. So does God seek to protect us, in spite of ourselves. So, is God high maintenance, or are we? Perhaps a dog’s great qualities are akin to God’s qualities towards us, and a dog’s downside is the same as our laxness toward God. The gap is bridged through unbelievable Love. It is the binding force that brings human and Creator together – and it doesn’t matter who is high maintenance – for it is a high privilege to have the opportunity to be able to call on and receive the blessings from the top dog of all – God.

 

We Are Blessed!

 

 

We are blessed, and often do not see it because we are looking for things to show up in our lives in a different way. And when they don’t, we bitterly complain that life has cheated us or passed us by, or have a myriad number of other complaints. Yet, everything that comes for us is a blessing. It isn’t even in disguise—it is presented in a way that will cause us to pay attention. And when we don’t, it comes in a different, perhaps more difficult form, to assist us in seeing the good that is in our lives, and to adjust an area of ourselves that needs correction or refinement.

The painful reminder from the body that we are not in harmony is a blessing when we pay attention in the beginning of the “gift”. If we wait too long, we have to experience a more painful form of blessing—but all of it is given to assist us in re-orienting the way we are living our lives.

I watched a recent interview with Al Gore, and in it he expressed how he has taken on the work of educating the public as to the real emergency we face in global warming. Listening to him speak, I recognized that this man is doing a greater work potentially than that of being president. Instead of stewarding a country, he may be the voice that tips the balance to save our planet. So losing the presidential election was actually a blessing, for this work is one he is ideally suited for.

A health issue I face reminds me that I need to change my way of eating. It is a blessing to awaken me to what is needed. An issue with a friend or my loved ones is a blessing—reminding me to practice compassion, forgiveness, and acceptance.

Nothings is wasted. Nothing comes without a meaningful gift attached—even if it seems hard to believe. Death is a given, but we can experience the blessing of resolution on our death bed. And while alive, we need to take the clues presented, appreciate what is in our lives rather than grousing about what is not, and see how much life seeks to help us grow through its continuous and unrelenting forms of blessing.

 

Revelation

 

 

There is considerable interest in a new revelation about Jesus and Judas that you may have heard about. A lost gospel of Judas has been located that shows Judas actually did the bidding of Jesus by seemingly betraying him in order that a prophecy would be fulfilled. This has fueled deep debate and consternation, as we have believed the story of Judas being betrayer as unassailable.

There are also two new books that have been released recently that examine the Bible in depth, with unsettling discoveries that call for reflection.

In the book, Misquoting Jesus, author Bart D. Ehrman, a deeply devoted fundamentalist Christian and biblical scholar, found that the Bible had been changed throughout the years by incompetent translators, capricious power mongers, and for political purposes. He frames his account with personal reflections on how his study of the Greek manuscripts made him abandon his once ultraconservative view of the Bible.

Ehrman makes the provocative case that many of our cherished biblical stories and widely held beliefs concerning the divinity of Jesus, the Trinity, and the divine origin of the Bible itself stem from both intentional and accidental alterations by scribes—alterations that dramatically affected all subsequent versions of the Bible.

In Michael Baigent’s new book, The Jesus Papers, he delves into similar arenas of investigation, but uncovers evidence of a cover-up designed to keep a powerful church in control of how people viewed Jesus and the subsequent Keepers of the Faith.

More books and revelations will probably be forthcoming as investigators are on the trail of “truth”, and in this some may become disillusioned or distraught. However, the reminder to us is that truth is not in the details, but in the spiritual sustenance we receive through teachings that make us better human beings. As we release attachment to the need for our stories to be the exact Word, we can put our attention where it needs to be—on unity within ourselves, to one another, and most importantly, in God.

Man can no longer live his life for himself alone.  We realize that all life is valuable and that we are united to all this life.  From this knowledge comes our spiritual relationship with the universe. 

~Albert Schweitzer