Believe in Magic

“Chance is always powerful. Let your hook always be cast; in the pool where you least expect it, there will be a fish.”  -Ovid

It’s a magical day.  I like to think that way.  I mean it’s true.  Everyday has magic in it.  We grow up and we stop believing in magic.  Why?  Why do we teach our kids that magic is real if we don’t believe it ourselves?  Do we not know what the Universe is capable of?  In fairy tales you have to believe in order for the magic to happen to you.  The same is true in real life.  Now I’m not saying that you just sit around and wait.  That would be foolish.  But the point is that we limit ourselves and the outcomes of our lives if we don’t believe in possibility and actually a little bit of impossibility.

Our job is to work.  To do what we are called to do.  And the Universe’s job is outcome.  We just keep on working.  Listening within.  Work hard.  Don’t stop doing what you are called to do.  You can’t give up. The answer will come when and where you least expect it.

I guess it’s like this:  I remember my college professor telling me that you can search and search for the answer to your  question.  You can look for a month, a year, five years even, and not find it.  And then one day, when you have completely exhausted yourself from the search, and you are sitting around doing nothing, thinking of nothing, biting into an apple, the answer comes.

Trust instinct.  Trust the Universe.  Work hard.  And always leave a little room for magic.

Live for what is Important

“If I have lost confidence in myself, I have the Universe against me.”  -Ralph Waldo Emerson

It’s a great new day.  A day for adventure into life….again.  You may think it’s boring by now…life.  But it never is.  It always is new.  It always has something for you.  You awake and think.  More of the same.  Maybe so, but look underneath the same.  Is there anything else there?  Is there a shred of evidence that the Universe is taking care of you?  Is there a shred that something magnificent is about to happen?  Look closer.  Maybe you don’t have trust.  Maybe this world has worn you down.  Think Alice in Wonderland style.  All things are possible.  All things.  Don’t give up.  Keep trying.  Remember that the only failures are there because we ultimately give up.  But  look past the obvious.  Look past the everyday and look into your soul.  Read it.  Why are you here?  I mean it’s not just to wake up, make money, live in a nice house, go on vacation, retire and die.  No.  There has to be another reason.  Many reasons.  What are yours?  Think about what you want your life to say.  How do you want to be remembered?  And live for what is important to you.  The children.  The needy.  The suffering.  People.  Animals.  The planet.  The World.  Think on how you can give back.   Live joyously.  Live outrageously.  Live thankfully.  Your life is a gift.

One Way

“It’s not about you, it’s about your art.”  -Danny Barnes, musician

When I read about the careers in the arts they all say the same thing.  “Don’t do it, unless there is nothing else in the world that you can do that will make you happy.”   Don’t be an actor unless it is the only way you can be happy.  Don’t be a musician unless it is the only way you can happy.  Don’t be an artist unless it is the only way you can be happy.  And this is true about anything in life that you pour your heart and soul into.  Because real life is hard.  It’s easier to just get a job doing.  Doing something else.  Avoiding your calling.  Doing anything besides using your soul and your passions and your gifts.  But if you are called to something.  If you have drive in your being that will not rest until you say it, until you show it, until you write about it.  Then, you must do it.  You must listen.  You are responsible to the Universe.  Remember, it’s not about you, it’s about your art.  There is only one way and it is the way of the heart.  The answer is the one way sign right in front of your face.  Go that way.  This is living the art of life:  Discovering yourself and your path, and then going for it.

That courage stuff.

“Courage is the ladder on which all other virtues mount.”  -Clare Booth Luce

Sometimes when I get scared I tell myself, “well at least I won’t to jail over this”.  I mean whatever happens, it’s just stuff.  You always have the people in your life that love you and that you love back.  People (and pets of course) are all that really matters.  Our stuff is cool, but it’s still just “stuff”.  Where we vacation wouldn’t be what it is without the people we love.  Traveling and seeing the world wouldn’t be all that it’s cracked up to be if we couldn’t tell anyone about it.   Everything that exists in our house, might be really fantastic to look at or sit on or use, but it’s still just “stuff”.

So I pull myself up by and have a talking with myself.  Why are you afraid?  What are you going to do about it?  I can sit and do nothing or I can go forward into the mess of fear.  At least then something happens.  If I freeze up and don’t do anything, then nothing happens.  So move.  Get up and go forward.  Figure out how to get through the web of difficulty that you are entangled in.  I guarantee you that if you do, something will happen.  It has too.  That is just the way  the Universe works.  You have to get the ball rolling.  That is all that you are responsible for.  Just doing  your part.  And then let the Universe do the rest.

Travel your path

“This time like all times is a good one if we but know what to do with it.”  -Ralph Waldo Emerson

Travel the path before you.  You may only be able to see just 2 feet in front of you.  You cannot see where the path ultimately leads. But trust it.  You have to walk it.  There is no other path for you.  It might be difficult.  You might not understand.  Maybe you made some bad decisions along the way.  But now those decisions are webbed within your path.  The Universe takes them and makes them a part of your life, and then uses them for good.  Mistakes are bittersweet.   They are a part of the journey.  Somehow they perfect you and make you better.  Just like the ocean refining the rocks and making them smoother, so life’s mistakes and trials refine your soul.  Be strong.  Keep on.  Chin up.  This is a time to be steady in the midst of an unsteady environment.

Breathing time.

“Real freedom lies in wildness, not in civilization.”  -Charles Lindbergh

Breathe.  Breathe.  Breathe.  This is the second year, or actually maybe the third year that I said I would take up yoga.  I know I should.  I go too fast.  Yoga is about breathing.  Just slowing down and understanding yourself.  Listening to what you already know within.  I read an article yesterday about an Australian woman.  She had 3 kids, ages 6, 4 and a newborn.  She made a comment like, “Australian woman don’t work an 80 hour work week and then come home and stay up half the night cooking cupcakes for their daughters school class just to feel like a successful mother.”  They breathe.  They take time.  A day might consist of running errands in the morning and then making crafts in the backyard together.  What I say?  Bliss.  That is what that sounds like to me.  I find myself running ragged.  How do these women do this?  Are they just overwhelmingly rich?  Because I don’t see a way otherwise.  I thought I prided myself in not over-doing.  But I justify my crazy life by saying I have to.  I have to work, I have to take care of the kids, I have to exercise, I have to play, I have to cook, I have to clean, I have to….I have to…..

Stop for a minute and re-evaluate.  Remember you only have a little time here on this earth.  I wish I lived a care-free life.  But I don’t.  But, how can I start to have a more carefree way of thinking?   I mean, I do to myself.  We all do.  We all have a choice.   I’m not sitting on a million dollars, that’s for sure, but somehow I still have choices. I still can breathe.  I still can say no to things.  I can still take 10 minutes at the beginning of every day to think and sort and plan.  I can stop for a minute and smell the flowers.  I can take my daughter to the park.  I can throw the ball for my dog.  I can say no to the laundry pile.  No to the perfectness that I can’t ever perfect.  I just need a little quietness of spirit here and there.  Yes, I think we all just need a little breathing time.

Listening to your instinct

“Abide at the center of your being, for the more you leave it, the less you learn.  -Lao-tzu

Time to buckle down.  It’s that time of year.  Nine days into the new year, and the rubber  is hitting the road.  You have to actually DO your New Year’s goals.

Time to look at yourself in the mirror.  See what’s really there.  See what you are supposed to be about this year.  Only you can know.  It is difficult when you have so many things going on.  You have to focus.

There is this theory that animals have a sixth sense.  They do. The thing is, people do too, but we have conditioned ourselves out of it.  The sixth sense isn’t enough of a concrete thought  for us to believe.  Animals trust.  They know what is coming. They listen to their inner understanding.  How come we don’t do this?  We’d be so much better off.  Animals are conditioned to not reevaluate in their heads.  They just go by instinct.

What if we just went by instinct?  What if we didn’t doubt what we were told.  We just did it.  We responded to the universe around us by listening to our inner self.  I wonder how many opportunities we miss because we re-evaluate everything inside of our head instead of just listening and doing.  This is something we are born with and yet we have bred it out of ourselves.  How can we bring it back into our lives?  Abide at the center of your being.  Pray.  Listen.  Learn.  Don’t doubt.  Believe.

Today, try to incorporate this new thought into your New Years resolutions and goals.  I’m not saying go blindly without thinking.  But I am saying to listen to your internal compass given to you by the Universe.  Trust your instincts.  Listen to your heart.  Believe that goodness will come.  And follow what you are told.

Prayer for a New Year

“Living apart and at peace with myself, I came to realize more vividly the meaning of the doctrine of acceptance. To refrain from giving advice, to refrain from meddling in the affairs of others, to refrain, even though the motives be the highest, from tampering with another’s way of life – so simple, yet so difficult for an active spirit.”  -Henry Miller

Lord, help me today.   Help me to use my gifts, my abilities and my drive for bettering the universe.  Help me by starting with myself.  Help me to accept others just like they are, which is true love.  Let me not  judge, not  put others through my grid, because my grid only works for me.  Whether or not I am accepted by another, help me to accept myself and realize that I am created for a purpose.  Help me today to get my goals together for this new year.  Help me to make a difference.  Help me to not be selfish, but instead be motivated to do my best.  To believe that I can.  To face my fears everyday no matter what they may be.  Help me to be a good example to the children of what life is.  That life is all about exploring and seeking and finding; and loving, creating and being.  That I should never give up on my dreams, but always persevere.  Show me the beauty in life.  Oh yes… you already did that, please just help me to open my eyes so I can actually see it.   I am grateful to be alive.  I am grateful for another year, another try at life, another chance to go on and fulfill my goals and my dreams.  Be great in my life, O Lord.  Thank you for all these things which I know in advance will happen.  I am extremely grateful.   I am extremely blessed.  I am extremely loved.  Let me give this back to all.  Amen.

Only you can

“Make visible what, without you, might perhaps never have been seen.”  -Robert Bresson

Happy New Year.  I have been away for awhile.  I have missed it here.  I need to write so that I can think.  I write so that I can understand.  It’s new out.  It’s time for a new start.  I wonder why we think that we need a new year to start something new.  We should just be able to start any day and yet it is so hard sometimes.

I encourage you to decide upon at least one goal for 2010.  Maybe you are a person that has several goals.  I think 3-5 is a good number.  That allows you to make goals for different areas of your life.  Personal, work, fitness.  You probably already know what your goals are.  Write them down if you are serious.  Put them on your mirror. Or maybe in your closet so only you can see them.  Do them this year.  It is so easy to fall by the wayside with our goals.  I am guilty of this too.  But we have to be successful this year.  If we don’t no one else will.  Tell yourself you will accomplish.  You will succeed.  You will do what you set out to do.  Push yourself.  Make yourself.  Only you can.