Change

A house or a life can not be built without some form of foundation. When we commiserate in misery, or walk the 'poor me path', it seems our lives will not and cannot change. There is no foundation to build on. We have no working principles in our lives. We believe that we can not become the good  we want to become.

Until we stop wallowing in self doubt and all forms of destructive thinking, we don't know that there is a way we can make ourselves, one day at a time, into the kind of person we can accept.
 
Today, I will find the good in me and build on it.

Spiritual Awakening

Is it possible that we conceive of a spiritual awakening as something gained by blissful tranquility and peace? For many, myself included, it would appear as though this awakening into the realm of Spirit, the Creator of Life itself, more frequently comes through human suffering, a time when we are at our lowest.

"I can grow spiritually wherever I am. Love is the ultimate and the highest goal to which man can aspire. Then I grasped the meaning of the greatest secret that human poetry and human thought and belief have to impart: The salvation of man is through love and in love... In a position of utter desolation, when man cannot express himself in positive action, when his only achievement may consist in enduring his sufferings in the right way - an honorable way - in such a position man can, through loving contemplation of the image he carries of his beloved, achieve fulfillment. For the first time in my life I was able to understand the meaning of the words, "The angels are lost in perpetual contemplation of an infinite glory."  Viktor E. Frankl

"Love thy Neighbor"

Love is actively listening to our fellow man and really hearing what they have to say. Sometimes we find it hard to listen and hear because we are so wrapped in our own stuff, or we have another agenda.

It is impossible to really hear and understand another when we are internally focused on ourselves.

When it is we who need to be heard, we feel that we are understood and accepted when the other person is not trying to fix us, or give us all of the answers. We all need a friend, a confidante, to let us pour our hearts out to, to share our experiences with. By giving another the same attention we'd like to have, openly and without our agenda in the way, we create by the Golden Rule, and we allow ourselves the intimacy of true friendship.

The Road I Travel

 I travel along my own, individualized road through this life -  I am one of a kind, just as you are. It is not my place to judge another person nor should I take others' opinions of me to heart. There have been so many experiences, beliefs, thoughts and actions that have gone into creating who I am - my road in life has been of my own creation, and all those in my environment have an individual road that they travel. I will not judge another person because it is not my road they are travelling along.

As we are all connected through Spirit, when I judge another, I judge myself as the environment around me, the opinions and perceptions I hold are the mere reflection or image of what is really inside of me.

Today, I travel my own road, and look at others with respect, acceptance and gratitude.

Soul in the Natural World

 Have you entertained the possibility that each and every thing, animate and inanimate, carries and is made up of Universal energy or Spirit? Spirit is genderless and shapeless; a part of the air, a bird or an animal, and it lives in everything around us. Spirit is life. Our individual Spirit is an expression of the Universal Spirit, as well as the fallen log and the leaves that rustle in the breeze. All that is contains Spirit and is an expression of Spirit. When we perceive the world around us as being manifestations of Spirit, we begin to see it differently, to value it anew. The world becomes alive, as opposed to just a thing. When we perceive the world as being alive with Spirit, we can connect with it and engage with it rather than try to manage it and move it mindlessly around.
Today,  see the world as a manifestation of Spirit - alive and creating wonders.

Reflection

It's time for us to realize that our attitude - toward the life we're creating and the people in it -  has a tangible, measurable and profound effect on what we experience day by day. When we expect good, then good will surely come to us. When we thrive each day to focus our attitude and perceptions on a sound spiritual foundation, we know it will alter all the experiences of  life for the better, too.

Today, do you accept the fact that you are accountable for all of the experiences in your life, good or bad?

Engagement

 Today I will engage in the experience of living. Thinking about life is not living it. Jane Austin referred in her writing to "the healing waters of action." Participation in living is the key to being a part of the world, valuable, seen, heard and known. When we withdraw from the world around us, we withdraw from soul because the world is of the soul. Being a part of the process of living is being and growing with soul and spirit. Times of reflection and meditation are not disengaging from life - rather, they are engaging into it, connecting to it at a deeper level. Withdrawing or hiding from life are fear-based actions. Participation is forward-moving and interactive. It gives life a feeling of exuberance and purpose. I will engage fully in my day today in whatever it is that I do.