Get up on the right side of the bed, every day!

October 5, 2009 at 11:22 pm (An alternative perspective)
Tags: , , , , , , , ,

“This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” –Psalms 118:24

When we wake up to a day that seems to start and end with mesmerizing bad news, the world in turmoil, in need, underwater both literally and figuratively, how do we rejoice? When the first thing we wake up to is the same thing that kept us up all night—fear, insecurity, pain, lack of peace—how can we possibly be glad?

The poet who wrote this Psalm (prayer, poem, song) didn’t request that we try to be glad, or make that rejoicing contingent on circumstances. He didn’t give us any excuses. He said, and surely meant, that we will be happy for the day and in the day, that we must be. And the reason we will, must, and most definitely can is because the Lord made it. God, the Creator—all-wise and all-loving, always-wise, always-loving—saw fit to bring this precious day into being, and has placed us in it, to be carried on its purpose, embraced in its comforts, and elevated by its joys, opportunities, blessings. He made this day to show forth His nature, and that nature is infinite goodness, perfect life and love.

This same Psalm begins with this verse: “O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: because his mercy endureth forever.”

This thanks, this acknowledgment, this awareness of the infinite nature of God’s mercy, His love, enabled the writer to rejoice, and to see the present day, this very hour, for what it was—the substance of God’s own intention, activity, consciousness. The day was full of God, good, and not of gloom, doom, trouble. He opened his eyes to this fact, this dawn, rather than to fear and preparation for disappointment. In this morning glow, the Psalmist could then so lovingly remind us all to celebrate this and be ready and receptive to wonderful things, rather than braced for trouble. He was offering, from personal experience most likely, and with real conviction, a ready remedy for a bad day.

With the awareness and acceptance of our good day—the reality of heaven’s promises—it can no longer be hidden to us by a darkened disposition. We simply can’t entertain good thoughts and bad thoughts simultaneously. We can’t be hopeless when we have hope.

The solution to the woes of our lives and the bad news that we read and hear, is not going to appear by our fear, our doubt, our outrage, our sadness. These bad tidings can’t leave when we are holding on to them so tightly, and expecting so little. The darkness feeds on darkness, only deepening its intensity. But the light, even a glimmer—gratitude, honoring God, Life, good—will surely make for a brighter day, rich with new revelations, ripe for miracles, and inviting us into warmly in, to frolic, to flourish, to fearlessly live!

Rejoice and be glad with me today! It is God’s day and ours to celebrate!

www.beingfreenow.com

Leave a Comment

Agree to Believe

November 8, 2008 at 5:02 pm (An alternative perspective)
Tags: , , , ,

Agree to believe.

Those words keep coming to me. I’m inclined to picture cornfields and Kevin Costner. And while that is kind of fun, I really don’t believe this beckoning  is toward a “Field of Dreams,” but perhaps, rather, into an Ocean of Promises.  It’s an opportunity to realize here and now, true safety, comfort, peace, and happiness.

“Agree to believe.”

Agree to believe WHAT? Good question. And you know what? You and I already have the answer. In fact, that’s the whole point. We can agree to believe that what we earnestly hope for, what we love, what we believe in, and that which we aspire to see realized, is possible.

There’s a fundamental and divine truth that we have and that we know. It lives in our hearts. We recognize that deep and generous truth in those ideas, images, songs, prayers, words, that touch us beyond our full understanding or articulating, that inspire us, surprise us, comfort us, stir us, and settle us. This sweet, profound, and powerful truth is absolutely intrinsic. It is native to us. It is that which is our built-in understanding of what is real and enduring. It is our hope before it gets deferred and our dreams before they get dashed.

And, in spite of life’s dampening rains of woe, the reality of things continues to be brilliant and undisturbed, the light that can’t be put out. That hope and that dream and that love of what is right and good and pure is still within us, ready to be re-lit, awakened again. We may have allowed ourselves to give up on the truth, to let the outward appearance of things tell us that we were wrong. We may have decided that it’s naïve to believe, to trust, to expect. We may have gotten accustomed to being angry, victimized, fearful, paranoid. Perhaps we have become attached to our misery and distrust, for it pushes off responsibility and justifies limitation and excuses, blame and criticism. We have also probably found that the very misery and distrust we are diligently guarding is giving us more to be miserable about and distrustful of.

You see, the thought is the thing. The attitude in the moment is the life you live now, and everything about your experience naturally and necessarily reflects what you accept, what you agree to. You know that this is true. The rainy day doesn’t trouble everyone, only those who agree to be troubled, only those that allow the seeming absence of sun to cloud their disposition.

Just try it. Agree to believe that what you love—goodness, life, peace, satisfaction, abundance, happiness, harmony, is actually what’s going on. Agree to the angel voice in your  heart, that says that your fears are unfounded, your doubts are unnecessary, and that good is not only possible, but is the underlying fact of being, your own being. Just, for a moment, suspend your disbelief and decide to be a child again. Agree to believe, to hope, to expect. Accept the good life, until you see it. Meanwhile, enjoy the mere fact that your thoughts are full of light and life and love, that laughing is allowed, that smiling is encouraged, that trusting is a relief.

Agree to believe. The full powers of earth and heaven support you in this. Truly.

www.beingfreenow.com

 

Leave a Comment

Roller coasters, tulips, and the financial crisis

October 14, 2008 at 9:15 pm (An alternative perspective)
Tags: , , , , , , ,

I’m not crazy about roller coasters. The speed and uplift lose their thrill pretty fast when you are on a downward plunge and your heart and stomach have made a fast journey up to your throat. The fun is pretty much dampened (completely doused!) by the terror and discomfort of such an adventure.

The roller coaster of alarm and hope in the financial world today can produce a similar, if more mental, nausea. What will tomorrow bring? Am I finished? What is the best course of action? Did I miss my chance at an opportunity? Am I in a state of false expectation? What will “they” do next?

The ups and downs of the economy, the various forces at work, the inexplicable or incomprehensible events and their consequences pressing on us, draining our energy and focus, is no way to live.  A lot of smart (and not-so-smart) people are searching for solutions. Some of those appear to be working, at least for some of us. Sometimes simply waiting seems to work. But is this a lasting peace or a reliable one?

There’s one solution that most likely has not been proposed in corporate boardrooms, government agencies, or at many kitchen tables across the U.S. and abroad.  And yet it is the only one that has the capacity to solve the problem in a satisfactory way, and one far less complicated.

Let me explain where I am heading with this:

The answer can’t come from within the problem. Many and disagreeing fearful or uncertain minds can’t remedy fear and uncertainty. Material solutions are lucky if they can band-aid that which is based on materiality, limitation. Such answers also can’t please everyone universally, or rid us of the temptation to fear again.

9/11 made us afraid of dying.  The 2008 financial crisis has made us afraid for our lives—the health, wealth, quality of life, that would make our days and hours, and those of our children, worth living, that gives us a spirit of freedom to be and to live and to love without qualification or justification.  Both current events have most of us living tentatively, walking on eggshells instead of tiptoeing through the tulips. (And we all should be able to do this. Choose your flower!) We have joined a culture of fear and victimization, and the fact that it feels justified is not any help to us. Can any lasting or intelligent solution come from a state of terror or anger, or a combination of both? And yet, here we are.

But, the thing is, we’re individually and collectively spitting distance from heaven, that state of being and living which is peaceful, harmonious, and free of fear. We’re a mere footstep away from that firm foundation that allows us the stability and ability to flourish without looking over our shoulders, paranoid and envious and competitive and perplexed.  Heaven is within easy reach, because it’s a state of mind, and not a state of matter. It’s a divine state of consciousness that makes all things possible.

Do you want not only to be better off materially, but have a sustained peace? Do you want to run free in the fields, ready to be surprised by joy? Or do you want to ride that roller coaster, uncertain, paralyzed, at the mercy of the machine, and locked in by that ill-fitting metal bar of material limits?

This blog is going to give you some keys to this heaven—freedom from fear and a cause for it, in your financial life and in all those areas that matter to us.  Keep on listening.  Stay tuned. And pass it on…

www.beingfreenow.com 

Leave a Comment

Thanksgiving: a never-ending feast

November 23, 2009 at 10:11 pm (Uncategorized)
Tags: ,

Time to be grateful. Time to gorge on turkey and stuffing and pie. Time to alternately love and totally resent your family. Time to prepare for visits and visitors, to come up with menus or excuses, to expect the best or brace for the worst. It’s Thanksgiving!!

I really wanted to write about this national holiday without sounding too trite or too Pollyanna-ish. I mean, what has NOT been said about gratitude, about “turkey day,” and all the rest. And while it does sound too chirpy, perhaps, there is a lot to love about Thanksgiving, and I love it a lot! I like the food, and I appreciate that there is a lot of giving going on in communities, and that it is a day off for many. But, I really love it for the gratitude part. I love that Thanksgiving is a day that is intended to celebrate our thankfulness for our forefathers, and for what we have on our plate now, so to speak. It may even go so far as to remind us to be thankful every day. I mean, it feels good to be grateful on a continual basis, while it may not feel good to be stuffed on stuffing every day of the year, despite how satisfying it may be on those special occasions.

Gratitude really can make every day a holiday, a holy day, a day resplendent with a cornucopia of blessings. Gratitude is that conscious pause which sees and appreciates the good that is present, rather than being tempted (as we so often are) to focus on the troubles that would arise and want to mesmerize us and blind us to the good at hand. Actively giving thanks—mentally or verbally—can switch on a light and it can also open wide a door.

Try this: First, consciously express your gratitude for those good things, people, etc., in your life. And then, take it further. Make your awareness a catalyst for new riches.  Actively take stock of not only the good things that you see, but those spiritual qualities and ideals and ideas that you may not see, but which most certainly exist here and now. The presence of Truth and Love and intelligence and humor. The beauty of that which is expressed and that which awaits human expression, but is rich and ready to flow free, at God’s appointed time.  Recognize the fullness of promises that beckon.

The willingness to consciously be grateful for the unseen majesty of good, as well as to realize and be grateful for that which tomorrow can bring—opportunity, inspiration, healing, love, laughter, freedom achieved and goodness shared—is that open door to accepting into our experience what is here eager to bless and what waits tenderly for tomorrow to kiss us awake.

Thanksgiving, at its best, can’t be confined to one day, either in practice or in thought. It embraces the past, the present, and the future. It encompasses the seen and the unseen and the yet to be seen. It is a holiday tradition in the United States, but it should really become a way of daily life to us everywhere.

You may still be enjoying the thoroughly enjoyable sense of Thanksgiving as family and food and football, and there’s nothing wrong with that! There is certainly a lot of inherent gratitude in that enjoyment, whether we are consciously expressing thanks or not. But, perhaps just take a pause—it doesn’t take long, believe it or not, to reflect on infinite good (although you may find you want to linger there a while)—and try the Thanksgiving approach that is grateful for grand things, and before the fact. Jesus certainly had a lot of success with that method. He thanked God before Lazarus came out of the tomb. He knew what to expect from God, Life, and he wasn’t disappointed when his friend emerged alive.

So, why not give it a whirl. You probably have some time between helpings, or at half-time, or before Black Friday descends. You could just possibly witness a resurrection and still get that second piece of pie!

 

 

2 Comments