Are You Serious of What You Speak?

How many times throughout the years do we have to listen to others profess what they’re going to do?  And years later they’re still talking about it and they still haven’t done it?  And what about their friends and family who side with them saying that if you don’t listen you’re stomping on their dream and not giving them license to talk about it on and on in whatever fashion they decide makes you feel like you’re the bad guy just because you don’t want to listen to the dribble anymore.

Sex and the City: Miranda the "Tough Love Meanie," and Carrie the "Chronic Enabler" 

So be the meanie, be the heartless one, be the creep, be the one who is not compassionate and understanding of the others inability to get off their butt and do what they talk about doing ad infinitum but for God’s sake don’t be an enabler.  If nothing else you’ll have your own self-respect as you refuse to be the one who sits there again and again while you feel your eyes glazing over as you listen to a continuing saga that you already know is going nowhere.  If you want to listen to someone who is not serious about their intentions that’s your right.  If you want to listen to someone who is expressing passion in their undertakings that is your right also. Sometimes, the passions lived by others can help spur us forward in our own endeavors. 

Enablers have a tendency to think they’re being nice when all they’re really doing is helping the other person remain stuck because they’re giving them the false impression that kidding themselves is an okay way to go through life.  Giving them years and years of our ears is not going to change that.

People who want to do things do them.  People who have no intentions of doing them just talk about them because they refuse to recognize that talking and doing are two different things. 

💚 Marian

"We're In This Together," Says the Universe

There seems to be some controversy these days about whether the Universe is expanding or stretching but since they don’t seem to have come to any conclusion about which it is I don’t know that it matters unless one is doing a comparative analysis between the Universe and ourselves.  Are we expanding?  Are we stretching?  

Mind Mandala

Or is a better word ‘evolving?  Are we taking advantage of opportunities and open doors?  Are we looking further out beyond our current horizons or are we digging in our heels refusing to move while desperately clinging to our comfort zones?  Are we allowing outside voices to become so loud we can’t even hear ourselves think much less hear Spirit when it’s attempting to speak to and/or through us? 

David Reneke 

Thai Monkey Festival

When we permit the world around us to evolve without us everyone loses.  All the good we have to offer can’t reach intended targets and creative juices no longer continue to flow.  It’s as if we are standing still in the midst of a banquet refusing to partake of the feast.  The goodies are there but we aren’t enjoying them because in order to do so we have to make an effort to move in their direction.  Deciding to move our feet is a conscious decision to do so.  Deciding not to is also a conscious decision.  Both are active but the results are different.

Thai Monkey Festival

 So, doesn’t it stand to reason that regardless of which word we use to describe a Universe that is limitless, we too are limitless?  We are powerful and we can set ourselves up to have powerful experiences.  We can be pioneers and we can move into and occupy a bigger space.  We can tap into the wellspring of abundance being offered and reap the rewards.


💟 
Marian

Jump Already!!!

Blue Cave Castle, Jamaica 

Picture this.  You’re perched high above an abyss.  Your toes are actually holding you in place and keeping you from tottering over.  Now can you release your toes and take one step forward into the unknown?

 

How often have we stood at the edge contemplating whether to jump or not?  No, not that edge. The other one. The one where we stand looking at our future before us and wonder if we should take the chance.  We’ve heard “jump and the ground will appear below us.” Nice words but without taking the plunge, we’re never going to know which presents quite a dilemma.  “Do it,” “don’t do it,” “yes,” “no,” “yes,” “no,” “maybe some other day,” “oh forget it.” All the bogeymen come out to taunt us and the thought of our pending madness in our seeming inability to make a decision to do what we already know needs to be done is not helping.  So, the dialogue continues, “Do it already, what’s the worst that can happen?” Now we move closer to the edge, get scared, pull back and declare, “Stop pushing me, I’m not ready. I don’t care that I’ve been standing in this same spot for ten years.”

Taking the plunge doesn’t mean we’ve failed when everything doesn’t fall into place right away.  It means we’ve started and each next step will be its own new plunge. But for each one and for each success each leap gets easier and easier.

So, let’s fly, fly off the edge right into our dreams.  And don’t look down. Look forward because that’s where we’re headed.  We’re not falling, we’ve being lifted up.  

From Fun Kids Live

💝 

Marian 

What Train Are You On?

Margaret Ann Case -2008 

Margaret Ann Case, whom I studied Reiki under in New York City and who transitioned while I was living in Portland, wrote a great article entitled “What Train Are You On?”  Margaret Ann’s specific message was geared towards our spiritual journeys but we can extrapolate what she had to say to many subject matters. She said “the cornucopia of offerings is amazing, dazzling and often overwhelming.  But what inspires us doesn’t always inspire someone else.”

 

At times, we find ourselves wanting to teach or help others know what we know.  Trouble is we’re all excited about sharing our knowledge and new found discoveries and the people we hope will join us on our train simply are not interested.  That’s because they’re on a different train. So, should we be discouraged and concerned they will miss out if they’re not with us or can we be content knowing that if they take a later or different train they will be fine?  Can we stop bashing our heads against a wall when frustrated by the inability of others to see what we consider to be as clear as the nose on their face or should we keep pushing and pulling until they get the message or until they say they do just to shut us up?  And does it even matter? As long as we’re happy with the train we’re on can that be enough? The answer to that is – yes, it does matter. What we have to share is important. But what we have to share might not be good for others at least not at the time we’re making our offer.  But that doesn’t mean we can’t talk about it.

From Istock

from Istock

Margaret Ann went on to say “…our human personality self can be extraordinarily impatient, unreasonable, and put out by what we interpret as a lack of support, interest, and sometimes even outright opposition.”  It’s not easy when we come upon what we consider a truth and want to use it to help the world or at least those we care about. But if others have shut us down, we can’t force the issue. We can, though, keep doing what we’re doing.  Sometimes being a good role model is just as effective and it’s less aggravating as we continue our walk while allowing others to embark on their own.

💙

Marian

Do Teachable Moments Teach or Can They Be About Something Else?

How often have you walked around muttering under your breath, something along the lines of, “I swear one more teachable moment and I’m going to lose it.  No more. I mean it. Give them to someone else. Yikes did I actually say that?” Of course, then your next thought is ‘what am I going to do if another one does come along.’  

There was a TV movie about a woman with two small children whose husband left her and then refused her any financial assistance including child support.  She constantly struggled to survive and everywhere she turned she hit a brick wall. At one point, a friend asked her what she wanted and she said, “I don’t want any more teachable moments.”  But in this true story, all her difficulties led her to discover ways to survive, and at the same time, help others in similar situations.

Sometimes we can’t figure out why we’re going through certain experiences.  Things come along that stop us in our tracks and all we seem to get is suffering and unhappiness.   We go on and on fighting to make things work until we get tired of trying to figure out why things aren’t working and decide instead to try and figure out what does work.

When we get to the end of this woman’s story, we find out that all she went through made her a stronger person, one who would not allow others to stop her as she continued refusing to continue listening to things that made absolutely no sense.  She charged ahead not looking back at the things she had to endure unjustly but towards a future in which she refused to accept anything that was not good enough for her and her family. And as she continued to charge forward, rising to higher levels of self-confidence and self-respect, she was able to change federal laws so other women would not have to suffer as she and her family had. 

Things happen for a reason and sometimes that reason means being called to do things we never would have chosen for ourselves.  That’s because it’s not always about us. Sometimes it’s about us AND about others. Sometimes, although we can’t see it at the time, we are the stronger one and others need us.  Sometimes we have to go through things so that the bigger picture is altered for the good of all concerned. There are no accidents and when we are picked to be the one who gets to do a certain job, well, we are picked to do that job.  Period. 

Marian