WHY?

The timeless question of why? It may be the first thing you remember asking as a child. It fuels our curiosity & drives us to find a better way. The truth is ‘why’ is one of the cornerstones of who we are as human beings, we question everything & although this can lead to new & exciting answers, it can also lead to a spiral of despair.

I understand that when you look back over the last 200 years or so you’ll know that only because of great men asking why have we had all the inventions that we’ve become accustom to. I know that through our curiosity we can grow to a higher level of understanding but I’ve learned first hand of the downside of an active mind. A mind that questions everything & is never truly satisfied with the answer. A mind that lacks contentment & peace, that knows not the joy of the beauty around it.

Yes, that was my mind for many years. I did find beauty from time to time but my mind was always onto the next best thing. I could figure out complex puzzles while watching a movie or walking the dogs. This wasn’t all bad but on a spiritual level I never felt satisfied. My EGO was going wild because there seemed to be nothing I couldn’t do, except find true joy.

The quieting of my mind took me most of my life, thus far, to figure out. I learned painfully well that by ‘over-thinking’ everything in our lives we miss out on the most important thing & that thing is….how we feel. I learned to understand that by allowing myself to feel that deep feeling that comes from my heart, I could discover joy.

Now, I’m not going to sit here & tell you not to think, that’s not the point of this blog. The point is to understand the difference between acting out of pure thought & understanding how you feel in any given situation. There’s always times when you need to look at & analyze things, as there are times when you act on pure emotions without regard to thought. We don’t live in a vacuum where one thing is better then another, we instead live our lives everyday doing the best we can & because of this we look for ways to bring more joy into our lives, to me that way is by understanding our true feelings.

We can grow only so far by reading & thinking & staying on an intellectual level. The longer we stay there the harder it is to move away from it & before you know it you’ll talk yourself out of some the best things in the world. Our hearts won’t lead us stray very often if we truly listen to them. In fact, as we begin to understand how we feel about the things in our lives, we begin to understand ourselves better. It is through this understanding that God/universe acts to give us more of what makes us happy. Each of us was born a pure spirit that knew nothing but joy, we’ve learned to be cynical, we’ve learned to hate & fear. By opening our hearts we begin to discover the joy we knew as a child, the joy that knew no bounds, the joy makes a moment last a lifetime.

Believe in yourself; know that whatever challenges you are facing, big or small, can be overcome by growing your spirit & understanding who you are. Allow yourself to trust in your heart, it will open the world to you. Know that you will make through no matter how difficult it gets. I believe in you & in your spirit, you are special & I am blessed to know you.

Till next time,

Bill

Quote of the day: “Trust in your heart & everything is possible.”

It's not easy being green!

Boy I miss Jim Henson; to me it’s always sad to have such a great talent go away way before his time. Jim Henson changed what children’s television was, through programs like Sesame Street & The Muppet Show. His genius of using the Muppet characters to teach children about difficult situations is still a benchmark that other’s should look to. This is especially true of one little green frog that was the embodiment of his creator. I am, of course, talking about Kermit the frog. Kermit was often misunderstood & sometimes overshadowed by the likes of Miss Piggy, Elmo & Big Bird but to me Kermit always spoke the truth & often tackled the hard

subjects that the Muppets would deal with. His classic song from Sesame Street “It’s not easy being green” is a great example of how to deal not only with race but with the feeling many of us have, even as adults the feeling…..that we don’t like who we are. In these wonderful lyrics Kermit discovers that he is content with being green after thinking that green isn’t a great color to be.

Here’s the Lyrics:

“It's not that easy being green

Having to spend each day the color of the leaves

When I think it could be nicer being red, or yellow or gold

Or something much more colorful like that

It's not easy being green

It seems you blend in with so many other ordinary things

And people tend to pass you over 'cause you're

Not standing out like flashy sparkles in the water

Or stars in the sky

But green's the color of Spring

And green can be cool and friendly-like

And green can be big like an ocean, or important

Like a mountain, or tall like a tree

When green is all there is to be

It could make you wonder why, but why wonder why

Wonder, I am green and it'll do fine, it's beautiful

And I think it's what I want to be”

Have you ever thought that life would be different if you were someone who you weren’t? Many of us go through our lives wondering what would happen if…… & although it’s great to dream (in fact I encourage it) the truth is we have to get comfortable in our own skin before we can tackle the bigger questions in our lives. The greatest gift any of us has to give is love & if we don’t love who we are, we can’t possibly give our love to everyone else in our life. As in the song, sometimes we just need to realize how great we actually are. We are all created out of love & through love we can accomplish anything we want. It really is ok to be green or purple or red. Embrace who you are & the world will embrace you back. This isn’t meant to say that we we’re perfect, as human’s we never will be, but by loving who we are & working to improve

ourselves we will continue to grow. It is through this growth that we can become the person we want to be. Remember that everything is possible it only takes the first step to get you started & the desire to change.

Jim Henson brought out the best in people by showing them that even a little green frog can find happiness. Magic & miracles happen everyday around us. All we need to do is look for them & they’ll appear.

We’ve become so jaded as a society that we look right past the miracles in our lives, which brings me to another great Kermit the frog song; Rainbow connection, here’s the lyrics:

“Why are there so many songs about rainbows

and what's on the other side?

Rainbows are visions, but only illusions,

and rainbows have nothing to hide.

So we've been told and some choose to believe it.

I know they're wrong, wait and see.

Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection.

The lovers, the dreamers and me.

Who said that every wish would be heard

and answered when wished on the morning star?

Somebody thought of that and someone believed it.

Look what it's done so far.

What's so amazing that keeps us star gazing

and what do we think we might see?

Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection.

The lovers, the dreamers and me.

All of us under its spell. We know that it's probably magic.

Have you been half asleep and have you heard voices?

I've heard them calling my name.

Is this the sweet sound that called the young sailors.

The voice might be one and the same.

I've heard it too many times to ignore it.

It's something that I'm supposed to be.

Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection.

The lovers, the dreamers and me”

Even in this simple song we find that just by believing we can make it so. That’s the way God/universe works believe or in today’s lingo, set your intention. Know that God/universe will create the perfect solution; sometimes it’s not what we think it will be but often it’s even better. The key, as I’ve written about before, is to let go of the EGO & set the intention on something that will make you better as a person, not something that satisfies the EGO.

Life is a journey that becomes whatever you want it to be. Trust in your power, believe in yourself & change the world one step at a time.

Boy I miss Jim Henson……

Till next time,

Bill

Quote of the day: “Know in your heart that you have the power to change everything in your life, it’s all up to you….believe & it will be.”

Lifting each other up!

Times have been hard for many of us over the past couple of years. I know for me it’s been a very difficult time, starting with 15 months of unemployment & ending with moving my family halfway across the country after being apart for 6 months. I’ve written often about how I kept positive & continued to move my life forward even through this difficult time.

The one thing that stayed consistent for me was helping others. I believe strongly in the law of attraction which simply states “Whatever we give out comes back to us magnified.” The reason I could continue leading a joyful life even when things weren’t great for me is because I knew that I would in someway be given back for everything I’ve done to help others.

This happened to me over & over again with small & large gestures from family & sometimes from people I hardly knew. The bottom line was that I found great joy in all the little surprises that came my way & helped me to get through a difficult time.

In addition to receiving the benefits of the law of attraction, I rediscovered the simple joy in just helping others. The acts of kindness that each of us undertake on a daily basis can truly change the world. We don’t always see the ripple effect of what we start by helping another person but trust me the ripple continues well beyond what you can imagine.

The smallest gesture can change another person’s outlook & that person can then affect everyone they come in contact with & so on & so on. Sometimes you may never see how a simple word or gesture changes a person’s life forever but trust me it happens all the time.

The challenge we all face is understanding the way we can affect others that pass into our lives, even when they are chance encounters with someone we don’t know or will never know again. Your actions are like a pebble in the pond of the universe & I challenge each of you to take action everyday to lift another person up. Help a neighbor, help a friend, help someone you don’t even know but take action today.

Don’t make this about money, it’s great to give to organizations that help others or help causes we believe in but this is about a personal daily connection in your life that will make a difference. Smile, do the smallest thing & watch the ripples grow. Your life as well as many others will change for the good because of your actions.

Take the first step today & watch the world change around you!

Till next time,

Bill

Quote of the day: “Take the first step today to lift someone else up, by taking this action your life will change forever.”

Mixed Signals

I have written often about the connection we all have with one another & with God/universe. With this connection we can discover a pathway to a better life. We can learn to set our intentions & watch them materialize. We can understand that anything is possible & that everything unfolds perfectly before us.

So what happens when you feel you’re connected & things around you begin to change but God/universe sends you “mixed signals”? What do I mean by “mixed signals”? To me, mixed signals are when you receive messages from God/universe that seem to contradict one another, as in: You apply for a new job that seems perfect & out of the blue your old job gives you a raise & a promotion. These two things seem to contradict one another but truthfully it’s all in the way you look at it.

In life, it’s much easier for all of us to stay where we are, even if the place we’re at isn’t the best place. We find a great comfort in knowing what to expect in our life even if we’re not as happy as we’d like to be.

So why does God/universe send us mixed signals? The answer to this can be very difficult but there are two very easy answers that allow us to understand how the process of intentions works. The first answer is that often God/universe gives us choices to see if we’ve learned what we need to know to move to a better place in our life. I believe that if we don’t learn & grow in our life the lessons will continue to repeat themselves until we learn the lessons we need to learn. So, in the case of “mixed signals” God/universe is saying, you have a choice of moving forward to a better place or staying where you are because it’s comfortable. The choice is always ours & it’s always more difficult to take a risk then it is to stay in a safe place.

I personally took along time to learn this message. Early on in my professional career I would always chase the job that paid more money regardless of how happy I was where I was at. I thought that money was the answer to my happiness & I learned the hard way that being happy has nothing to do with money & everything to do with enjoying where you’re at. In this first example God/universe is giving you the choice to learn & grow.

In the second answer, we need to look within. The truth is that since we create everything in our lives consciously or subconsciously we alone may be the cause of the mixed signals in our lives. We may be uncertain of what we want so the intentions we set are unclear to God/universe & thus we receive “mixed signals” in return. The setting of our intentions are in fact one of the hardest things to master & the clearer our intentions the better the result we will see.

I have at times, found it difficult to be certain of how clear the intention is that I’m setting, releasing & allowing God/universe to act on in the perfect way. So I have discovered that the only way, for me, to set an intention is to take time to be quite & focus on what feels right in my heart. Then I release the intention & ask for God/universe to allow my intention to unfold perfectly before me. The hardest part for me in this process is moving beyond my head & into my heart. I’ve written before of the power of the EGO & its need for instant gratification. This hurdle can be a tough one to overcome & until you do you may continue to discover mixed signals in your life.

The bottom line is when “mixed signals” appear in my life I take time to evaluate what God/universe is trying to show me. Self reflection will always bring more clarity to the situation & the “mixed signals” will begin to dissipate as you begin to understand what you truly want in your life.

Till next time,

Bill

Quote of the day: “Through self-reflection we can begin to understand the mixed signals that appear in our lives. Through this understanding we can grow to a better life.”

Understanding your dark side

Yes we all have one even if we don’t want to admit it. In fact trying to bury it away is one of the biggest problems we can face. The trick, I’ve found, with the dark side is to acknowledge it & know when it’s needed. Yes, there truly are times that we need to allow ourselves to slip into the dark side.

What do I mean by the dark side? To me it’s the part of myself that's selfish, cranky, rude & sometimes wishes ill will to ours. We all have those moments in our life when we snap at someone or do something truly for our own benefit even if it means hurting someone else. I’m sure if we explored deeper we would find even nastier parts of ourselves & exploring is the key. If we can’t understand ourselves how can we expect anyone else to understand where we’re coming from or what motivates us. It truly is impossible! What often happens next is a feeling of frustration because we feel misunderstood & alone.

In the fast paced world we live in today everybody is looking for the quick fix, the miracle cure & many of us are unwilling to take the time needed to discover who we truly are. A big reason for this is we’re afraid of what we’ll find. So how many skeletons have you buried inside of yourself? How much hurt & pain have you tucked away for fear of experiencing it? We all do it but does that make it right? I think not!!!

There are two things you need to remember when you begin the exploration of yourself:

1) Anything you discover about yourself can be changed. This is a proven fact by many studies throughout the last decade or so. Granted it’s not always easy to change things that you’ve been doing for a longtime but it can be done with work & repetition.

2) Only by dealing with the emotions & feelings that we have deep inside can we move beyond them to a better a life. That fear or pain that you’ve buried will always come back to haunt you at the most inopportune times until you learned to move beyond it..

I’m not going to kid you sometimes it’s a difficult process to really look into yourself. I know for me it’s was very hard process but I discovered so much about myself that it was very worthwhile. I shed many a tear looking at the pain I buried inside & realized the pain that I caused others because of my selfish actions at different times in my life. I am a better person because I understand now that if I get angry or feel hurt or act in a selfish way, where that feeling comes from & how to move beyond that feeling to a better place.

So, the question you’re probably asking yourself is, how? The answer to that is a difficult one. We all process things differently because of the life experiences we have so there’s no set pattern (although you could read books that tell you an easy way). I believe that it all begins with taking time for yourself. Go into a room alone turn everything off & allow your mind to run with whatever it wants to. I always brought a pad a paper in to jot down the thoughts I had & the feelings associated with those thoughts.; Then backtrack through your life till you get to the earliest thing you remember. Throughout this journey pay attention to the feelings that emerge as you recount the events of your life. Give yourself praise for getting through any & all the difficult times you’ve had, for by making it through you proven you can get through anything that life throws your way.

Understand when you acted selfishly or were angry or cruel to someone. Try to think about why you acted that way & if now you could think about a better way to handle the situation. Forgive yourself for the mistakes you made & for the times you didn’t act as your best self would. Understand that the past can’t be changed but that you can be the person you want to be in every situation if you understand why you acted the way you did.

Everything is possible in life & the journey we are on together or separately should always be to act as the best person we can be. We all make mistakes, we are only human but by learning from those mistakes & growing into the person we know we can be, we can change the world one step at a time.

Always remember that no matter how dark the storm becomes nothing lasts forever & you will endure because you have before. Sometimes through the darkest parts of our lives we gain the most knowledge, I wish it wasn’t so but for many of us it is. Relish the dark by discovering the joy even in the worst….it’s always there.

Till next time,

Bill

Quote of the day: “Only by understanding the dark side of ourselves can we become who we truly want to be!”

Love for Life

Yes, it’s a phrase we hear often in life “He/She has a love for life” but what does it really mean & how can each of us discover a true love of live? I’ve debated this thought often in my life because although most of the time I’m a very joyful happy person there are times that I too struggle. In fact when I was younger I struggled much more often then I do now.

The secret of this phrase to me is to enjoy the moment. I know this is another often heard phrase & in today’s busy world it’s actually becoming a little cliché. I never throw things out into the world unless I truly believe them & I honestly know in my heart that they make a difference & that’s the way it is for me with living in the moment.

Many of you know I’ve had a huge transition in the past year. Going from being unemployed for 15 months to working half a country away, from home, on my own to finally being offered a full-time job & moving my family to a new home in a new state. I’m not going to sit here & say that it was always easy, in fact the truth is there were many times that were very difficult but the one thing that kept me going was just living in the moment. I discovered that overall things that we think are so important in our life actually find a way to take care of themselves if we allow them to.

I wrote a blog a while ago on the Prayer of St. Francis, in that blog I described how everything has it’s time & in the journey I’ve taken over the past 8 months I’ve discovered that not only do things have their own time but if we allow them they will find their own time. Now don’t misunderstand this, certainly there are things that we all have to take care of now but we put the “now” tag on many more things then we should. The truth is that most things in life can wait & if we allow the choice or the event to find its own time things will flow much more easily.

You see to me the joy of life is what is in-front of me right now. I discover joy in the littlest things & that joy gives me a true love of life. The love that I have for the world around me comes from the deepest part of me. It’s a quiet place that can always bring me back to a calm feeling even in the biggest storm around me. I believe with every fiber of my being that if we allow it things will work out as they should.

In today’s world that’s a difficult lesson because there’s so much hype to have everything now & to do everything now! Don’t allow yourself to get caught up in this hype. The material world will never bring you the joy you are looking for. It is only through our connection to everything & everyone that we discover the joy around us. We are made of love. Just take a moment & think back to any child you’ve known. Think about the joy & wonderment in their face over the smallest thing….like the flower in the grass or the way the clouds move. Children show us our true self. The self that only knows love & trust & goodness, the part of us that we never loose but sometimes forget about.

Take time to remember wonderment, look at the world anew in each & every moment. Practice this “letting go” until it becomes apart of you again. Through this “change of focus” the smallest things will affect you like never before. Joy is all around us but it’s up to us to discover it. Open your heart, change your focus, discover the wonderment of a child. Laugh that little giggly laugh that only a child knows because there’s so much to enjoy in this world we live in.

No matter how dark the world seems to get, there is always something to find joy in & when we as a connected community of spirits begin to discover that through our thoughts & our thoughts alone we can change the world, amazing things will begin to happen. We are at the doorstep of a new age of man, together we can cross through to a world that knows love first & that understands that we are all one.

Till next time,

Bill

Quote of the day: “A true of love of life begins within each us of. Open your heart & mind & discover the joy in this moment.”

Moving out of your own way

For many of us this title sounds like an easy thing to do. We believe we know where we’re going & just what steps we need to take to get to our ultimate destination but in fact this can be one of the hardest lessons to learn in life or at least it was for me.

I know I haven’t written much lately & I apologize to all of you for that. Life has been very busy settling into a new job & relocating to a new state. I’ve had many thoughts but not the time to write them all down & then yesterday I was reminded that so often we get in our own way of happiness. In fact we set ourselves up for disappointment, how do we do this? For many of us, it’s expecting a result.

I’m not going to tell you that all expectations are bad, but I’ve learned in my life that there really is no place for them. The best result that can happen way we expect a result is that we get what we expected &, for me, that diminishes the result because we only met our expectation. On the other side of the coin if we don’t get what we expected we can be crushed & left wondering why? or what’s next?

So often in life we make up our mind that “this” is what we need to be happy & when we don’t get it we blame God/universe for our sadness because all we needed was “X” & you didn’t give it me.

The truth is we set ourselves up for this disappointment because we think we know what’s best for us. I have found in life that opening your mind to possibilities will allow things to happen in your life that you never thought could or would happen. That’s truly the way we create our future. It’s an ever evolving path that we create cooperatively with God/universe. It is only through this ebb & flow that we can create the life we want to live, for when we get set in our path or in our ways we close off the world of possibilities & stay stuck where we are, which may not be the best place.

How many times in your life have you discovered after the fact that the thing you thought you wanted the most wasn’t really all that great. I can’t answer for you but for me it was often. When I was a young man I made things happen by sheer will. I wouldn’t take no for an answer & I moved through life knowing that I could get the “brass ring” anytime I wanted.

The sad part was I was never truly happy because I thought I knew what I needed to be happy & I believed that I knew what was best for me. I went through my younger years with great highs & sometimes very deep lows because the truth was I had no idea what I wanted & I allowed my EGO to dictate what was best in the moment. The EGO always wants the instant gratification & by following the EGO we can discover tremendous highs. The problem is that the EGO is never truly satisfied it always wants more & when it doesn’t get it, we crash & burn.

I have discovered that by stepping out of my own way that life is on a much more even keel & expectations play a big roll in that. I allow the best outcome to be created, rather then expect the result that I believe is the best.

The bottom is it’s all up to you: Open your mind & allow possibilities or close your mind & expect results. Trust me when I say this choice is life changing.

Until next time,

Bill

Quote of the day: “To expect an outcome only diminishes the result, be surprised, be open to the possibility & watch the world change around you.”