"A Hit Dog is Gonna Bark!"

No one makes us angry. Oh I know, I have just stirred the pot and you are already preparing your rebuttal. Whether you agree with that statement or not, does not negate its truth. Anger, along with many other emotions comes from the inside out. You are now thinking, “Oh no he/she did this or that and it made me angry, and I will say to you, “He/she did do this or that and that action/words triggered an emotion, a pain within, that already existed. Have you ever heard the saying, “A hit dog is gonna bark.”? That old adage pretty much sums it up! Their actions or words triggered a fear=anger within you and you barked. You know how you will know this is true? Because when someone does something ‘wrong’ to you, if you are not on their same ‘emotional’ wavelength (pain-body) you will not re-act. When we re-act we are doing exactly what that word means; tendency to revert to a former state. We re-act in anger or fear (which are the same) when their arrow hits a place within us that is already wounded. It’s like bumping up against your dresser with the hip you just bruised roller-skating ~ not the same accident or perpetrator but you just got hit in the same wounded spot and yes, you will find yourself cussing out the furniture. Eckhart Tolle speaks of the ‘pain-body’ in his book ‘A New Earth’. The pain-body is ~ “Any negative emotion that is not fully faced and seen for what it is in the moment it arises does not completely dissolve. It leaves behind a remnant.” That remnant is what you are truly re-acting to when someone awakens those sleeping giants with misspoke words or indifferent actions. 98% of the time they did not mean to harm you but because of a past pain (pain-body) that was not dealt with you clobber them. I once wrote an email to a friend and at the end wrote the sentiment “Merry Christmas”. Well, this friend had converted to Judaism and though I meant no harm by that sentiment she took great offense and in return wrote to me a three page response, blasting everything from my hair color to my toes. Well, of course, this was not a ‘reasonable’ response to Merry Christmas but this was a person who was very damaged and angry and always fighting some battle against the devil. She had demons but they did not reside in a place called Hell. She was living in her ‘own’ hell. We often want to demonize our problems to some outside force so we do not have to take personal responsibility for our actions. My father-in-law had a favorite saying that he repeated to almost any situation we ‘kids’, as he would call us, would encounter and it was; “There are two important characteristics an individual must possess to succeed in life and they are #1 personal responsibility and #2 self-discipline. Basically, the only way out ~ is through. So the next time someone ‘offends’ you try not to re-act that old pain but acknowledge the hurt feelings you are presently experiencing and then try something new ~ Don’t Bark! Remember their actions are their karma but you re-actions are your Karma. You will know you have healed a ‘pain-body’ when someone does something that at one time would have sent you over the top but now has absolutely no effect on you. It takes a lot of work but it is possible. Our salvation can be found in our deepest darkest secrets but they have to be exposed and dealt with. Lastly, I will leave you with one of my favorite passages from the good book, “It is for each man to work out his own salvation.” No one is going to save us, and we wouldn’t really want them to would we? If they could, which they cannot, they would have robbed us of our heritage, the trip of a lifetime ~ The Journey ~ the finding of ourselves. Namaste’, God Bless & Shalom Baby! The Dalai Mama

The Butterfly Effect

"Everything connects to everything; therefore, as we change, the world cannot but change with us." ~ Marianne Williamson ~ Imagine a string tied around your waist. Now imagine that string connected to you, is also tied and connected to everything and everyone around you. Now imagine yourself making decisions and moving forward in the direction of those decisions. Remember, the string tied to you is conneted to everyting and everyone around you, and as you move they move, when you stop they stop. When you get tied in knots, emotionally,they are tied in knots. Everything we think, say or do affects everthing around us and beyond. You know it is said that the flutter of a butterfly's wings can affect the weather thousands of miles away. The vibration of her wings, although invisible, are felt across the world. Our thoughts are vibrations and therefore go far beyond our minds, out into our world and yes form everything around us and others. Haven't you ever been in the presence of another and 'felt' their judgment? Have you ever walked into a room where you could cut the 'tension' with a knife? There's your proof that our thoughts, whether good, bad or indifferent, affect everyone and every thing around us. You now may be thinking that I have placed a tremendous weight onto your shoulders or even a noose around your neck but the good news is ~ you CAN reverse, any negative thoughts you have been entertaining. How? One positive thought can wipe out a hundred negative thoughts! So just decide right now to think 'Happy' thoughts. In the middle of whatever you are going through the one thing you CAN control is your attitude. “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” ― Viktor E. Frankl ~ One road to a life filled with more positive thinking than negative thinking, or I as I like to say 'stinking thinking', is to start each day writing down ten or more things you are grateful to have in your life. Gratefulness IS the highest prayer. I know this sound simplistic but it actually works.

So, as you go through your day today ~ remember the strings attached ~ imagine the vibration of your thoughts, like radio waves going out into the world ~ and please be responsible for the energy you bring to each and everyone you encounter. Namaste'

"Be Ye transformed by the renewing of your minds." You know the only true lasting transformation is the one that takes place between your ears. Many of us, including myself, do everything in our power, including our regular visits with our 'dentist', to transform ourselves into the images we see on magazine covers. We spend endless hours and minutes in mirror-walled gyms, where flexing arms and stances abound, pushing our bodies to be transformed. There is a passage in the bible where Paul speaks of how physical training is of some value but your spiritual walk is much more valuable. With each year that passes these temples, these vehicles of the soul travail to whence they came. Our eyes wither, our lines become more defined, if we have hair it grows coarse and lighter and we start to crackle and pop in the most peculiar places. But you know, I love aging! I truly enjoy the wisdom that only comes with age. You can read all the books in the library about wisdom when you are twenty, but wisdom arrives in her own sweet time. You still have to 'work out' your mind by reading good stuff and learning new ways to handle old problems, which by the way are just blessings in disguise and lessons to be learned. By a certain age, you have made enough mistakes that hopefully you have learned from them and thereby obtained a tad of wisdom. For some reason, in my forties, everything I had been told about life and instructed to do, just didn't work for me anymore. As a woman, in my twenties ignorance was bliss, in my thirties I was too busy burping babies and changing smelly diapers to even know ignorance, bliss or wisdom. But in my forties, I had a brief moment of clarity, a hunger for more and so there I went ~ down the road less traveled and finally escaped 'the moor'. No this is not a typo. 'The Moor' refers to being held down, secured by chains or cables, trapped, or deserted in a wasteland. All my life, I longed for more but always retreated to 'the moor', that safe spot. So in my forties I left 'the moor' and set out on my journey. I read so many books that now I could open a book store. I studied Buddhism, read the Tao Te Ching and a plethora of other books on the topic of spirituality. In the end, this is what I know for certain; 1. No one is going to save you, for it is up to each man to 'work out' his own salvation. 2. All roads lead to Home. & 3. Love covers a multitude of 'wrong turns'.