… a little contest!

The prize!

It’s 9:30 in the morning and already 85 degrees. I slept until 7 a.m. (Fred finally woke me up) and I’m looking at all of our animals lying prostrate on the wooden parts of the floor. Slow down, relax, take a deep breath, don’t rush, be easy with yourself today, seems to be the message…. and I am listening. So what better thing to do than a give-away? It is an easy and fun thing to do.

If you would like to enter this give-away, then just comment with a word  (or 2) that best illustrates the way you would like to feel, or have more, of in your life (examples; happy, calm, excited, faith, inner-peace, self-love) and I’ll choose a random entry on Friday, June 1st . The winner will receive a tin of the skin balm that I make….my words are, self-confidence.

• “Watch your thoughts, they become your words
  Watch your words, they become your actions
  Watch your actions, they become your habits
  Watch your habits, they become your character
  Watch your character, it becomes your destiny.”
  - Anonymous

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A special enterprise of God

Esther greeting me yesterday afternoon...she has an intense interest in cars.

I went to the eye doctor yesterday. I had broken a blood vessel in the same place last October and it seemed too odd not to have it checked out by someone who knew more about eyes than I did. I liked the doctor that examined me from the moment I met him. He was calm, thoughtful and was confident in a quiet way. I asked him why he chose Ophthalmology as a profession, and he told me a little bit about his own journey of having very poor vision as a child, spending lots of time with eye doctors, and his intense interest in how eyes and the brain function, which ultimately led him to this work.

So many of us have been taught that it is wrong to think well of ourselves and to have confidence in our abilities; that true humility is never admitting that we know something, always questioning ourselves, keeping quiet so we don’t seem boastful, but this is no more humble or helpful than spouting off constantly about our “greatness”. Each one of us is unique and special. We are here to bring that quality to light and then to help others by bringing it to the world.

I love the words of Emmet Fox, “…you are a special enterprise on the part of God…” So, maybe for this weekend, ask yourself the question, What has my journey led me to love, and how can I start to appreciate this aspect of myself more?

“The world will take you at your own valuation. Your body will take you at your own valuation. Your business will take you at your own valuation; for the value that you put on upon yourself is the one that manifests. … Nature always takes you at your own valuation. …Believe that you express Life, Truth, Love. Believe that Wisdom guides you. Believe that you are a special enterprise on the part of God – and what you really believe, that you will demonstrate“. Emmet Fox pp. 170 Find and Use Your Inner Power

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Internal compass

smiling sky...today

I visited my mother yesterday who has been ill for a couple of weeks. When I first saw her, I felt alarmed. She  looked scared; her skin was grey and she had  huge dark circles under her eyes. She hadn’t wanted me to visit but when I insisted, I think that she was relieved. Toward the end of the visit, she just happened to mention that the person doing her taxes was very concerned about a large chunk of money that seemed to be missing. They found the issue a couple of weeks ago and told her that they would get back to her but she hadn’t heard anything and had not called them either.

I asked her what she had done about this and she said that she was using “positive thinking” and every time she thought about it, she got so sick to her stomach that she wasn’t thinking about it.  She hadn’t really been able to eat in a couple of weeks. I realized as we talked that she had been so frightened about this tax issue, that it was compounding her illness. I asked her if she would mind if I made a call to a friend who is a CPA and then my mother herself, made a call to the tax preparers. I looked over at her talking on the phone, while I made her a quiche, and I could see the color returning to her face. She called last night to say that she was feeling much better. Nothing about the tax issue has been resolved yet but she wasn’t afraid anymore.

Positive thinking is not ignoring feelings. It is not just repeating rote affirmations over and over, while underneath feeling terror. It is acknowledging the feelings, and working to change them before we take action. I always ask myself the question, “What thought can I think right now about this situation that would make me feel better?” and then I stay with it until I actually feel the change. As I begin to feel better, either the solution (or next step for me to take) presents itself or the problem seems to dissolve. Sometimes I need to take action, sometimes I don’t, but either way, I never ignore my feelings. They are my internal compass, letting me know if I am going in the right direction.

“Success comes from taking the initiative and following up… persisting… eloquently expressing the depth of your love. What simple action could you take today to produce a new momentum toward success in your life?” Tony Robbins

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Paying attention

Fred

I was cleaning out  Fred’s ear yesterday morning, and some of the “stuff” flew into my eye. As I quickly made my way to the bathroom to wash it out, I thought, “OK Mary. What were you thinking when that happened?, and just as quickly, I realized that I had been thinking about my mother, who I’d visited the day before. She’d been criticizing a former friend of hers, and I was half-consciously thinking about this when the “crud in the eye” incident startled me into full consciousness.

I became aware of this pattern a number of years ago as a runner. I’ve very rarely fallen, but the times when I have tripped significantly, were always when I was mulling over a complaint, or having some one-sided argument in my mind.

I pay attention to everything in my life. I do not even consider anymore, that this is a random universe. Every little thing that happens, like tripping, reminds me to become conscious of my thoughts. Years ago, when I first started noticing this pattern, I would be very hard on myself for these lapses in thought, but being self-critical is no better than criticising someone else. Blame and critical thoughts are low energy, which if not changed, keep attracting more things to feel critical about. What I try to do now, when I catch myself thinking some unpleasant thought, is simply to say, “OK, enough of that. Let it go. What better thought can you think right now?”

The metaphor of life as a big classroom, where I get to try out a variety of approaches to living; find what works, and what fails, and to just keep advancing, is appealing to me. I’m not expected to do it perfectly the first time. I will make hundreds, maybe thousands, of “mistakes”, but I believe that we are all here to learn and grow, to day-dream and to pay attention.

“The ancestor of every action is a thought“. Ralph Waldo Emerson

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