Loving the vision

a centerpiece that I put together this past Sunday, with some odds and ends from Jack’s store (and a nest below). I didn’t notice until this morning that it reminded me of a hot-air balloon

A few days before Thanksgiving, I was out on a run and suddenly had a vision that I was up in a hot-air balloon, throwing gifts down on the houses of people as I floated by. It was a beautiful vision and I felt happy while I was imagining the scenario. For several days after, I had the feeling that I would see an image of a magical hot-air balloon somewhere (either on a poster or I’d receive an email or card with a picture of one). I’ve come to expect that when I hold a positive vision, confirmation, from this Great Mysterious Spirit of the Universe, will be following. But nothing seemed to appear.

On Thanksgiving morning, I went out for a short run and just as I was heading out the door, something in the sky caught my eye. It was a hot-air balloon, floating up over the mountains behind our house. It floated up in the sky as I watched in awe, until I needed to turn around and head back home and then, almost on command, it slowly began to descend until it was out of sight.

“Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so shall you become. Your Vision is the promise of what you shall one day be. Your Ideal is the prophecy of what you shall at last unveil.” James Allen

p.s. I am having such a good time reading the comments from yesterday’s post…thank you to everyone who played along and if you haven’t yet (or if you want to again) please do!

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A happier place…inside

A new profile picture (that I took of myself!)…sending you a smile today!

I started getting a stuffed-up head one day last week, and by the evening, I had a full-blown headache. As I lay in bed that night, tossing and turning, feeling and thinking, “Pain” and wondering if I was coming down with some bug, it dawned on me, in the middle of my thrashing about, that I was thinking thoughts that were full of discomfort and dis-ease: pain, ache, suffering, worry, illness…all very uncomfortable thoughts. When I realized this, I imagined a loving hand on my forehead and began thinking words that were positive and soothing: health, healing, love, light, flow, and harmony, and before I knew it, I had fallen asleep.

I had a good night’s sleep and woke up headache-free, but before I got out of bed, I found myself thinking about what a friend had said to me (a couple of months ago) that made me uncomfortable. Instantly, the headache returned and I “got it”. What a great feedback system we have in our bodies! Then I realized that I needed to think a better thought, and an image flashed into my mind of my friend laughing and rolling around on his front lawn naked (don’t ask me why this image came to mind but it made me smile) and my heart felt warm and loving toward him and my headache receded until by noon, it was gone.

As I thought about what precipitated the headache in the first place, it was easy to see that I had been thinking about this same negative situation (off and on) during the previous day. And like thoughts always do, the more I pondered what “wasn’t right” with this particular situation, other thoughts about people, places and things that seemed off, jumped on the, “What is wrong” train too.

Nothing in our lives is random. Everything that happens is for us, not to us. Life is like a quiet friend, always whispering, and signaling for us to move up and out of limiting thoughts and beliefs; to think a new thought about an old condition, friendship or situation. This is real freedom….and it is ours for the thinking.

“A man’s surroundings are never against him: they are there to aid him…To maintain an unchangeable sweetness of disposition, to think only thoughts that are pure and gentle, and to be happy under all circumstances, —such blessed conditions and such beauty of character and life should be the aim of all, and particularly so of those who wish to lessen the misery of the world. If anyone has failed to lift himself above ungentleness and unhappiness, he is greatly deluded if he imagines he can make the world happier by the propagation of any theory or theology“. From, Above Life’s Turmoil, by James Allen published in 1910

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The portals of heaven

Fred sitting on the window sill

One thing that I need to be always aware of, is the tendency to look for what is wrong. I find myself petting the cats, and using it as an opportunity to check them for ticks, see if their ears are clean, and scan their furry little bodies for signs of trouble. This is just a bad habit, but wow is it a big one for me. I’ve justified it by saying, “I might as well do two things at once.” But it isn’t true. Petting, appreciating and lovingly gazing at the animals (or at human beings for that matter) is a very different energetic activity from looking for what is defective, inadequate, insufficient, potential trouble, or disease.

My mother was a nurse, and I can remember her doing this with us; always pointing out a pimple, uncombed hair or some other untidy little “defect” that she picked up…..and she looked at herself with the same critical eyes. I wish I could say that I didn’t do this with my sons, but that wouldn’t be true. I didn’t become aware of this trait until they were grown and gone.

So I am working on changing this today. Today, I choose to look for what is right, perfect and lovely, both in myself and in all other beings.

“There is no physician like cheerful thought for dissipating the ills of the body….To live continually in thoughts of ill will, cynicism , suspicion, and envy is to be confined in a self-made prison hole. But to think well of all, to be cheerful with all, to patiently learn to find the good in all, such  thoughts are the very portals of heaven; and to dwell day by day in thoughts of peace toward every creature will bring abounding peace to the possessor.” James Allen (from As A Man Thinketh, 1903)

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Sowing generous thoughts

“Westward Window”, (Mixed media, digital photography, thread) artwork by Kim Gifford http://www.pugsandpics.com          I bought this “photograph” at the Pig Barn Gallery show over the weekend, and now this wonderful little girl (and friends) are keeping an eye on me from above my desk!

I woke up the other night thinking about giving. Most of us are familiar with the idea of “Give and it will be given back to you…” and yet if we feel that we don’t have “it” (whatever that may be) then how do we give it? But giving starts in our minds. What about our thoughts? Do I give generous, big, kind, loving thoughts to the people around me? To my family? To my friends? To my associates?

A man I know had been trying to sell his camp on a local river for a long time. After a couple of years, every time I rode by his place, and saw his for sale sign, I would think, “He’s never going to sell that. The price is too high, it’s not in a good location….” A month or so ago, I finally caught myself with another thought which was, “That was not generous thinking Mary”, and I started saying, “I know that someone is going to want _______’s camp, and look forward to hearing that it sold.” As soon as I thought this, I felt so much better.

If I want a big, abundant, expansive life, I won’t get it by giving small, stingy thoughts about myself, or about any one else.  Beneath the surface of life, we really are all one. So it follows that just like I cannot think a poor, unhappy thought about someone without owning it first (after all, it is my thought so it will impact my life), I cannot think a wonderful, loving, generous thought about someone else without it positively changing me and my life as well.

P.S. a couple of days after I had the thought about the camp selling, Jack came home and said, “Guess whose place finally sold?!”

“You have to sow before you can reap. You have to give before you can get”. Robert Collier

(Robert Collier wrote a number of books in the 1920′s and 30′s on the creative power of thought and they are really wonderful)

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as we think of ourselves

Eleanor

A few years ago, I was starting a new venture in my life, and as I sat with a very close friend talking about it, feeling somewhat discouraged that it wasn’t right, she said, “It’s too small for you Mary.” She went on to tell me, what she thought some of my real talents and abilities were, and I listened to her. I didn’t brush off or dismiss her positive thoughts about me. So many of us have been conditioned to refuse “compliments”;  To see them as empty and valueless, to believe that we shouldn’t listen to them, and this is true about “empty praise”, but I think that the greater danger is in not taking another persons more expansive view of us, to heart.

I have had people say some very nice things about me and thought, “If they only knew me, or if they could see inside my head they wouldn’t think that.” which is really the internal chatter that goes on day and night telling us how sub-par we are, how inadequate. If someone says that I am kind, my mind will throw up examples galore of how I was impatient. There is a part of us that blocks these higher opinions of ourselves from “taking root”.

Our lives and our worlds change for the better when our conception of ourselves changes for the better, but if we won’t “let in” any new information; any new and better view of ourselves, we don’t change. The people in my life that have helped me the most are the ones who have had, and held, the highest and best thoughts about me.

How about making a decision to listen, and pause, and to really take in, the next compliment that you are given. Take a minute to consider it to be true.

“As A Man Thinketh,  FORWARD, by James Allen

THIS little volume (the result of meditation and experience) is not intended as an exhaustive treatise on the much-written-upon subject of the power of thought. It is suggestive rather than explanatory, its object being to stimulate men and women to the discovery and perception of the truth that—  “They themselves are makers of themselves”  by virtue of the thoughts, which they choose and encourage; that mind is the master-weaver, both of the inner garment of character and the outer garment of circumstance, and that, as they may have hitherto woven in ignorance and pain they may now weave in enlightenment and happiness”.

(this entire little book is available on-line as a free download)

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Who we really are

Fred

I have been getting a strong message lately that I need to slow down mentally, and step into more and more relaxation in everything that I do. There is a lot of energy “in the air” right now and many people are feeling it, including me. The other day, I was sautéing onions in a rather unpeaceful state of mind. I didn’t catch myself until I “tasted” one of the hot onions and burned my lip. The little burn sort of snapped me back into myself, and I realized that I had been pondering a situation in my life that I didn’t like.

When I am rushing around, feeling “all worked up”, it just reveals to me that in the moment, I have  forgotten who I really am, and think that I am alone “out here”, afraid and struggling to make my life work well. This internal struggle will manifest in my outer world as unpleasant circumstances. James Allen said that circumstances do not make the man, they reveal him. We are much vaster beings than we realize. We are all “points of God consciousness”: deeply spiritual beings with the power to create.

Maybe we should join minds for the weekend and make a pact, to keep  focused on the good things in our lives and to refuse to worry, just for a couple of days,… to give  our over-worked brains a break, and to let the peace and calm of who we really are, bubble to the surface.

“You are not a human being in search of a spiritual experience. You are a spiritual being immersed in a human experience.” Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

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Heaven on Earth

my morning coffee spot and new wind chime

I went out yesterday evening to shut my cars windows before it rained. The sweet guy who mows our lawn had just left and as I walked around the back of my car I noticed that the rear window was shattered. A stone must have flown up from our driveway and hit it. I am sure that he didn’t notice it as he zipped around on his riding mower, with his protective headset on.

I felt stunned and thought, “I should do something, but I am not sure what that is!” It was 6 pm and too late to call for an appointment to get it fixed. I decided to cover it with a blue tarp and went back inside. I sat down to read and opened to the words, “Heaven on earth is happening simultaneously with the way our lives are showing up, right now in this moment. The trick is to be able to access this coexisting state, day in, day out, moment by moment, not just when in pleasant, ideal circumstances.”

I was going to take a picture of my car to post with this blog and then thought, “So many wonderful things happened yesterday, why would I choose the one thing that felt not great to capture forever and show to the world?”  We do this sometimes. We “showcase” our pain/drama/chaos because it makes captivating reading, telling. It also becomes a way of life, and leads to a very emotionally rough ride.

As I repeated to myself, “This is not a big deal, the solution will be perfect”, and kept saying these words to myself, my emotions calmed down too and I started to feel the way that I wanted to feel instead of letting my thoughts/feelings take me on a wild ride and leave me exhausted and depleted at the end (still with a broken windshield that had to be taken care of today). It has taken me many years to realize that I can choose how to think about anything.

I ordered the windchime, in the picture above, last week and it came yesterday too. It is really magnificent. Yesterday was a great day. Today is a great day.

“A particular train of thought persisted in, be it good or bad, cannot fail to produce its results on the character and circumstances. A man cannot directly choose his circumstances, but he can choose his thoughts, and so indirectly, yet surely, shape his circumstances”  James Allen  (1864-1912) from the book, As A Man Thinketh (a great little book by the way!)

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