On One Day at a Time

     

            One day at a time…

            One day at a time…

            O, Lord, for my sake

            Please help me to take

            One day at a time…

I remember vividly the words of this old hymn, and how wise its cautions are.  I know also that AA people at every level abide by this premise all the time…This day I will not drink…This day I will not use drugs…This day I will not overeat.  They practice restraint; they practice thoughtfulness; they practice true regard for themselves, and almost as important, they realize the wisdom of not “borrowing trouble” in advance.

        

The spontaneity of the day's unknowns

    Yes, we plan for the future as much as we are able, and then we let things unfold as they will.  To live by too many “what ifs” only keeps us from enjoying the moment before us which really is the only moment we have.  We don’t have to cast our fates to the winds and be blown along by every gust and swirl, but we can enjoy the spontaneity of the day’s unknowns with a clear eye.

          

Is the Universe a friendly place?...

  Being a control freak I put my day in order because my natural inclinations and my responsibilities require it.  I have also learned that one cannot have much ease without trust that life itself will be revealed in the best possible ways without the need for constant “tweaking.”  It raises just too much angst to think otherwise.  There are those fortunate folks who seem to navigate their days effortlessly.  I wish I were one of them.  In the meantime I learn; I practice saying yes to Einstein’s question:  Is the universe a friendly place?, and I simply remind myself to look for the good because I’m the only one who’ll find it for myself.

       

     Each day holds it gifts…and its challenges, and so I’ll take them…one day at a time.

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On Fear...and Love

Some thirty five years ago an M.D. named Gerald Jampolsky wrote a wonderful, little gem of a book entitled, Love is Letting Go of Fear. People loved it, and it went everywhere, and so it deserved to. Jampolsky’s major premise was that there are only two emotions, love and fear. The first is our natural inheritance and the other the mind manufacturers. Think of it! This means that it is natural for us to come from love for ourselves and others. It is unnatural for us to move from fear. We have to invent it ourselves, and so we do.

...A brand, new first response...

Thirty five years later, where are we in the scheme of things? Are we cultivating our inborn capacity to love and to choose it as our mode of action every time we go out the front door? Or, more likely, are we so confused and conflicted by the complications of the world that our default response to most everything is some form of fear? I think it is more often the latter. We have become so conditioned by negative, subjective responses that we don’t even recognize a loving response. We can, of course, but we would have to go back into a willingness to trust the gift of love and pull it up as a brand, new first response.

We are purveyors of Love...

Yes, we can, and we can scan ourselves mentally and emotionally to rediscover the strengths that are ours and the responsibilities that are ours as spiritual beings living a human life (Thank you, Wayne Dyer!) We have no business sinking into media marketing or giving away our power to external manipulations. We are more than this. We are purveyors of Love, and we can teach and learn from one another. We more than the tribes into which we were born. We are God’s own… every single one of us… worthy of the best.

"Teach only love...

Let’s give Jampolsky the last word on the relationship between love and fear. He said, “Teach only love for that is what you are.”

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On Living a Simple Life

  

How often, when we are very busy, maybe snowed with lots to do, do we say we want to live more simply? We want to feel more comfortable with our lives. If this is a serious question and not just push-back against busyness, this brings us to a basic inquiry: Do we really want to live a simple life, or do we just want to have less to do? These are two very different things. If we want to do less every day, this can be corrected by culling out activities and choosing when to act and when to cease action. Living a simple life is a whole, ‘nother matter and involves another mind set entirely.

Everything is laden with meaning...

The very busy person can hurry through his days half aware of what is taking place. On the other hand, the person who lives more simply has time and opportunity to enter into every part of his day. Simple living can actually become boring if attention and interest are not given to each turn of nature, each entry into a different room. Everything is laden with meaning, from the first hint of a morning bird song to the beginnings of white caps on a bay front that announce the afternoon winds. Nothing is necessarily more or less important than any other…just present and waiting to be accounted for...with the frank fact that beauty lurks everywhere.

The time to sift through ideas...

Active thought is very much a part of simple living, for there is something quietly compelling about taking the time to sift through ideas…our own perhaps, or maybe the thoughts of a thinker that resonates. Simple living allows for self starts and satisfying finishes, resolute beginnings and endings that seem naturally to occur.

All things are possible...

The one who lives a simple life does not necessarily do less but has the choice of what to do more often. All things are possible, especially when we can actually recognize what those possibilities might be, and happiness, joy, contentment and satisfaction all become distinguishable qualities in a life full of meaning…not just an indistinguishable blur of pleasant feelings that come and go without notice.

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On a new World

Now that we are moving into 2015, what will our new world be like this year? Or if this is perhaps too ambitious, we might cast our eyes on at least a new beginning. In last week’s blog I asked what we were going to say yes to, what forms would we be giving this Infinite Mind to create for us. Because we are sentient, self-aware beings able to use the power of Mind for good or ill, it is important that we take thought about where we find ourselves. Are we where we want to be…or is real change due?

New worlds find us anyway...

Even if we’re not up to setting up a new world for ourselves, sometimes new worlds find us anyway! And sometimes in ways we had not imagined. I have been in my home for over fifty years, and all that time I had a neighbor right across the street from me who had been in her home even longer. As my family grew up, so did hers, and she also grew from an active, compassionate, creative (she was a dressmaker of the first order) neighbor of middle years into widowhood and very old age. This past year she died, and I was unreasonably undone. I knew of course that we all die…that is, most of us do…but some are supposed to be eternal fixtures who remain regardless of our own comings and goings, and my neighbor seemed to be one of those. With my old neighbor’s passing, the last of a very present piece of my family went with her, and to my surprise, I was looking across at a new world. Her extended family spruced up the house and sold it to a young couple. All the familiar motions were gone; the lights and shadows inside the house were different. Even the “feel” of the house was different. Like it or not, my little piece of our street was changed forever.

A place in us that can accept newness...

Perhaps it would be a good idea to make a place for sudden change, unexpected newness. It is harder than ever for things to remain the same for long periods, and there needs to be a place in us that can accept newness, whether or not we invited it.

Become bigger, more insightful, more loving...

This year could be the time for us to become bigger, more insightful, more loving, more compassionate than ever, maybe even bringing a new world of our own into being.

More Essays About Everything is now available on Amazon

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