Taking The Past Into The Present, Mindfully

Along the way, with each day and sometimes even each second I learn something new.  As I welcome the new year and reflect over the past years, there are a few “solids” that have unraveled in my life so far, and I want to share with you the culmination of that reflection.  I feel blessed to have been bestowed these gifts upon my ever questioning and wondering “why?” nature.

• There is more good in the world than there is evil.
• Even evil when looked at through the lens of compassion is shown to be fear.
• Loving yourself is the only way to happiness.
• The choice to love your self is not at the expense of others but for the sake of others.
• There is always a choice to respond or a choice to react.
• Abundance, personal power, health, creativity, and knowledge lie in your own hands.
• Like begets like.
• There is no “getting there” for where you are trying to go when you arrive, you are only here and “there” will always one-step ahead. As Ram Dass would say, “BE HERE NOW.”
• Paying attention to what you do not want separates you from yourself in the knowing of what you DO want.
• Standing FOR something rather than standing against something allows clearer action and less fear.
• You are the sum of the things you choose and allow in your life. A very wise person said to me once, “want to know how you feel about yourself? Look at your job, your friends, your car, your home, and everything that you have surrounded yourself with – I mean everything! You will see where the work with yourself truly begins.”
• Feelings are blessings. They are a little GPS designed to let you connect with yourself and guide your choices.
• We are all, every one of us, unique! Yes, we may band together around shared values, hobbies, and interests but there is no other you and the world would be less without you in it – literally.
• There are 8.7 million species in this world, and NONE of them are identical.
• Don’t forget you are breathing, take a moment and notice once in a while.
• You can see others kindness because of the kindness within your own heart.
• Come to know your nature; there is nothing more precious than getting to know your self.
• There is a reason for all those cliché sayings because someone before me had the same experiences I am having.
• On that note, people older than me have something to say, and it matters.
• At the core of all situations, there are two ways to respond – with fear or with love and, the response is a reflection of the relationship with your self.
• Anger is just a disguise that covers up some feeling that feels more vulnerable. Be gentle with your anger because if you look close enough, you may see it’s sadness or fear.
• Everything changes and no matter how tight you hold on every day is a day of saying goodbye.
• Hanging on is OK. There will be a place, someday at some time when you stop holding on with a stranglehold and realize it all exists in your heart for although it leaves from your view keeping it in your heart, well, it never really left at all.

Finally, with my 48 years (which I thought was 49 until I pulled out the calculator this morning, again) there will never be a time in my life when “I get it.”  When I can finally say “I have finally arrived.”  This revelation of “never getting” there was at first a very exhausting thought.  And much to my immediate family and larger family’s chagrin I have embraced that I will always ask why.  New revelations and insights will be illuminated, but questions will remain.  The questions I have learned are a part of being human.  They move us forward.  Experiences shape us, and we always have free will to choose how we relate to ourselves.  How we love ourselves.  How we accept ourselves.  How we forgive ourselves.  How we laugh and dance with ourselves.  And this, in turn, leads the way for how we relate to others and all of the 8.7 million species in the world.

(photo by Greg Rakozy)