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Thanks With A Side Of Gratitude
Nov 26th
Thanksgiving. For most people, the one day of the year where they take some time and think about things they’re thankful for. I can remember as a kid, sitting around the table on thanksgiving, going around in a circle and having to say something I was thankful for. For some reason that escapes me, I remember always being embarrassed about whatever I would say. Perhaps it was because, although logically, I was thankful for whatever thing I said I was thankful for, I didn’t feel it.
I’ve since come to learn that gratitude is something to be felt everyday, and in fact it is the first step towards making any kind of changes in your life. You must be grateful for where you are and where you’ve come from, both what you would consider the good and the bad. If you can’t be grateful for something in your life, I’d wager that it’s because you haven’t taken responsibility for it. Perhaps this Thanksgiving you can take a look at your life and be thankful for all of it.
What I’m Thankful For:
My Earthly Mother, my Heavenly Father, a family that is unusual and strange and full of love for each other, a mother who’s always blindly believed in me, a father who did his best, even if it still wasn’t quite good enough, he was a much better father than his own father was to him.
For sunlight warming the skin, the breeze for blowing, the trees for showing me how to stand tall and strong even in the fiercest winds. For the songs I hear in my head that come to me from somewhere I call Magical, for the stories whispered in my ear of fantastical places and people. For friends and people of character, may there be more in the world.
For a great relationship and a horrible break-up that taught me how to love, honor, and trust myself, and for the Pain that finally taught me that I didn’t want to be motivated by pain anymore.
For two cats, Calvin and Izzy, who daily teach me patience and that if you want to be petted than put yourself right up against someone and rub 
For a band that I love and love to be in, who daily teach me patience and that if you want to be petted than put yourself right up against someone and rub!!!
For a God who remains known and unknown, and the Universe that continually reveals one mystery after the next.
Most of all, I’m extremely grateful for Life. For the fact that I’m here, that I exist, that I experience. I’m thankful for Love and her still small voice never forcing, never controlling, always free.
This is the short list, and tomorrow (or later today I suppose) when the sun comes up I will wake and smile and feel Gratitude, and with my actions, may I give thanks.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Growing Up and Down
Nov 10th
According to nature, in order to grow in a healthy vibrant manner, man, just as a plant, must grow up and down. Just like the mighty oak tree, he must send his roots down deep into the earth and throw his hands high into the air, stretching ever farther into the heavens.
If we wish to reach into the heavens, we must reach just as far below. If we are not rooted deeply in the natural, it stands to reason that we will not grow to great heights in the spiritual. At least not without the risk of being knocked down by the first wind to blow. Notice how the deeply rooted trees dance and delight in the winds and storms that blow their way.
How many people do you know that delight when something shakes their world up? How many people do you know that are so heavenly minded that they are no earthly good? And vice versa? We are here in this life for a reason, and it’s not just for whatever happens after this life. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to be a part of this world, to change it and shape it and create it to be more beautiful then when you first arrived.
Grow up — learn, create, love, and dream. And grow down — connect to the planet and people you live with. Be a part of this earth. So many of us spend so much of our time wishing we were somewhere else. I know in the past I’ve been one of these people. Spending so much time living for a future life that isn’t here yet. It’s premature thinking. I wasted a lot of time not enjoying the life I have because I was so busy chasing one that didn’t exist yet.
It’s a common occurrence, especially in America. We want the end product now, and we rush through the process often times overlooking safety measures and checks and balances as we speed head long into a canyon.
I think you’ll find that if you take the time to send down your roots, your life will be much fuller, more enjoyable, and you’ll be able to reach farther into the heavens then you ever thought possible. Take a lesson from the trees: In order to go up, you must first go down.
Children Be Free
Nov 4th
Follow your hearts. Dream your dreams. Stop playing those silly adult games that leave a hole in your soul. Do what you want to do. This is your life, it belongs to you. Not to your parents, or your offspring, or your job, or what other people expect of you, or your religion, or your wife or your husband. Stop selling your life away for being entertained by tv, for just enough money to get by.
Get out of the rat race, the matrix. You’re more than just a consumer who spends their life as a slave to consumerism, only to bring more consumers into the world. Be rich, be poor, be whatever you want to be, but do it freely. Open your eyes children. Stop taking shit from all these people who have no idea what the F@%! they’re talking about. Make your own mistakes. Don’t live on borrowed wisdom, for it isn’t wisdom at all until you’ve experienced it. Live free, Children of Earth, Children of God.
Releasing Pain
Jun 2nd
At times in life, we all undergo periods of discomfort and pain, whether physically or emotionally. Quite often the two are interrelated, with the negative emotions bringing dis-ease to the body, and vice versa. The pain is there to let us know we need to do something differently, whether to stay off our feet for a few days, or not eat that thing that upsets our stomach, or to keep better guard over our hearts and thoughts. The most important thing with pain is to listen to it. Learn what it wants to teach you, then you can thank it and send it on its way.
I am a firm believer that pain is a tool that guides us to a place of being where we can no longer experience it. It is a strong stimulus pushing us upward on our journey of spiritual and physical evolution. The old Chinese saying goes, “Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.” While pain can be healing, sometimes we get stuck there when it is no longer useful to us. We can become addicted to the feeling of a bad memory, the rush of the chemically depressing cocktail that our brain puts out when we think a certain way. In this case we are no longer in pain, but in suffering. Suffering is a choice that we can make at every opportunity. Have you ever noticed how some people around you seem to always be caught up in some kind of drama? Their car breaks down, they got in a fight with their spouse, the waiter brought them the wrong meal, the dry cleaners lost their clothes. It all comes back to how you want to look at the glass, whether half full or half empty. Lately, with great success, I have been welcoming the pain when it comes. Not seeking it out mind you, but not resisting it when it cannot be resisted. Then once the pain is accepted, I give myself permission to enjoy it. This works especially well with painful or negative emotions. Don’t fight against them, just enjoy them to no end. The funniest thing happens; before you know it, there is a smile on your face and you’re no longer in a bad mood, or angry, or hurt. The next time you’re in a funk, try to really enjoy it. See what happens and let me know about it.
