Good morning. It’s Monday. Any future trippers, here? Anyone future tripping about this week, next week, next month?! It’s so easy to do, isn’t it? Just make an outline of your plans, fully understanding that some of these plans will be derailed, and surprises will happen – exciting and disappointing. Nothing will happen exactly as you have planned, and that is what makes life so interesting. Just lean on the fact that you are fully equipped to deal with whatever happens. You’ve proven it to yourself, again and again. Next week has been exhilarating . . . .
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
I hope that everyone is staying cool and comfortable and financially solvent this summer.
The wisest thing that I have read lately is from Taylor Blake, a young woman and a Florida farmer, who has recently received some fame for videos that she has put out on social media, featuring one of her dearest pets, an emu named Emmanuel. Taylor was recently a guest on the Jimmy Fallon show. This is what she recently wrote:
“I spent years of my life hating myself and blocking my own blessings because I allowed other people’s opinions of me to rule my life. I don’t care if you don’t think I am funny. I don’t care if you don’t like me. I love me and I will continue to create content that makes ME happy. <3”
That’s all I’ve got for a Monday. Have a great week!
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
I saw this quote over the weekend and it kind of made me giggle:
“Introverts technically don’t make new friends, they just get adopted by extroverts.” – WiseConnector (Twitter)
It’s true isn’t, it? From grade school on, in every group of friends which I have belonged to, there is always one or two extremely extroverted ring leaders, with a posse of adoring introverts whom they have collected along the way. For a group of friends to work out the best, you definitely need a mix of both extroverted and introverted people.
May this week bring out your most fun, excited extroverted side and your most thoughtful, introspective introverted side. If you get your energy stores from being around a lot of activity and people, may your week be full of plans and crowds and invitations. If you get your energy stores from quiet time by yourself, may your week be full of peace, quiet and solitude. No matter what, may this week be a perfect fit for you!!
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
I rarely watch awards shows. They’re just not my thing. But my husband was watching a pre-recorded bike race (which is also not my thing) and my daughter convinced me that I should sit on the couch with her, and watch the Academy Awards last night. Wow. Just wow. And of course this moment shown above occurred soon after Regina Hall fondled a bunch of good-looking male Hollywood stars in a fake COVID probe skit. That’s when my 18-year-old daughter turned to me and said, “Wow, can you imagine if the roles were reversed and a guy presenter was fondling female stars?!?” Hollywood, I’ve got to hand it to you. You never cease to entertain. And you love to throw judgment out there, but clearly, you need to focus on cleaning up your own house, a little bit. I think that Denzel Washington came out with the best line of the night and it is a good reminder for all:
“Be careful. At your highest moment, that’s when the devil comes for you.”
Have a great week!!!
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
I am terrible at giving directions. I am terrible at following directions. GPS directions technology has changed my own life, in incredible ways. Do you remember when you used to have to give people directions? Or when a slow moving car would sidle by you when you were walking, and ask you for directions? (This was such a tense, anxiety inducing situation for me. First, I would worry that someone was going to try to abduct me. Then, when they asked for directions, I would feel a slight tinge of relief, before the anxiety of having to give directions would make me all tense and nervous all over again.) Do you remember trying to decipher all of the funny landmarks someone would try to describe to you when you asked them for directions? Do you remember using paper maps? Do you remember having to try to fold back up said maps? My kids still love to tease me about the reams of paper I used up, in order to print out textbooks of Mapquest directions for our various road trips. Yes, in my own personal life, GPS on-time directions might be the one of the most positive change inducing inventions which I have ever experienced.
I was thinking, wouldn’t it be great if we could channel our own inner directions and guidance as easily as we can with GPS? Why does our intuition have to be so damn subtle and elusive sometimes? We definitely need better technology than Magic 8 balls for our sixth sense.
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
“everything funnier when yοu nοt allowed to laugh” -@slvppy (Twitter)
The other day my daughter and I got the giggles over something entirely inappropriate to laugh about. I was hating myself for laughing, but then watching her eyes bulge from trying to stifle her laughter, made it all the more funny. It’s like getting the giggles at church or at a funeral. You are filled with self-disgust, but yet you just can’t stop, so you fidget, and your lips start vibrating, so you bite your lips and then you try to pretend that you are just coughing. All of this overdone reaction just makes for more comedy. This is what Wikipedia says about laughter:
“Laughter is a physical reaction consisting usually of rhythmical, often audible contractions of the diaphragm and other parts of the respiratory system. It is a response to certain external or internal stimuli. Laughter can arise from such activities as being tickled,[1] or from humorous stories or thoughts.[2] Most commonly, it is considered an auditory expression of a number of positive emotional states, such as joy, mirth, happiness, relief, etc. On some occasions, however, it maybe caused by contrary emotional states such as embarrassment, surprise, or confusion such as nervous laughter or courtesy laugh. Age, gender, education, language, and culture are all indicators[3] as to whether a person will experience laughter in a given situation. Some other species of primate (chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans) show laughter-like vocalizations in response to physical contact such as wrestling, play chasing or tickling. ”
Sometimes we are overwhelmed with emotions, and laughter can be the quickest, easiest release of those feelings. Laughter is just a physical response to emotion, like crying, shaking, or yelling. Maybe we should always be allowed to laugh. Unfortunately, I am one who tends to cry when I am angry, and laugh when I am embarrassed or overwhelmed. Maybe I would better be able to control my physical responses, if there weren’t such stigmas and rules attached to them.
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
“I think in the future we are going to have 15 minutes of anonymity.” – Erica Rhodes
We got a new Firestick for one of our TVs and interestingly, all of these old pictures of our family, and of our past pets, etc. are showing up on the TV, as a screensaver. No one asked the stick to do that for us. Alexa took it upon herself, I suppose. This reminded me of a time (way back when you had to get your pictures developed, just to even view them), that the photography technician took it upon himself to blow up and frame a picture of my two little middle sons, in their matching green dragon Halloween costumes. I was equally delighted and creeped out by that gesture, all at the same time. (And yes, of course, I couldn’t resist buying the whole kit and kaboodle in the frame, and it still sits on our picture shelf today.)
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
(credit: Rex Masters, Twitter)
Good morning! Happy Monday! (Let’s try not to make that statement an oxymoron in real life.) I hope that you have a lot of good things on your experience menu, for this upcoming week. You are the chief chef. Make it delicious! If all else fails, just add garlic. It’s the cure-all for everything.
“The total amount of energy and matter in the Universe remains constant, merely changing from one form to another. The First Law of Thermodynamics (Conservation) states that energy is always conserved, it cannot be created or destroyed.” – The Law of Thermodynamics
When you get really quiet and still, such as when you are involved in meditation or in a listening prayer state, or at a point where you choose to completely surrender to what is happening right in the moment to the degree that you lose all sense of time, you are connected to the part of you that will never, ever disappear. When you are in that detached, peaceful state of awareness, you come to understand what is eternal. This awareness doesn’t have thoughts, although it has all-knowingness. This awareness energy just notices thoughts, like it notices bodily sensations, without naming or judging anything. It just lovingly notices all that is going on right in the very moment. This deep, eternal part of you, is peace and love beyond understanding. It cannot be touched by fear, or by worry, or by desperation. It is untouchable, indestructible and everlasting. This awareness energy is always available to you. Today you can choose to stay with the realest, deepest, most undisturbed energy that lies within you, or you can stay mired in all of the scary news of the day. Use your feelings as a navigation system. What feels better – obsessively scrolling through the negative news feeds and trying to make intellectual sense of it all, or staying connected to the very, now moment, in which you are breathing, and in which you are completely okay? What state is your body in, when you are mired in fear and anger and distress? Is it tight muscles with cold extremities? What state is your body in when you are calm and connected to your inner peace? Is it warm and soft? We don’t want to believe that peace is a choice, but it is. As I have written recently, peace is a practice. But it is a worthwhile act. Peace is a practice of noticing what is always there, and always available to us, deep below the surface.
When you realize that you have this untouchable awareness inside of you, you come to realize that every other living thing has this same exact awareness inside of them, too. You come to realize that this awareness is what binds you to every other being for eternity. You come to realize that it is this very continual awareness that creates, and yet also experiences Creation. You come to realize that this peaceful, knowing awareness is what makes all of us One. So that if you think that you are hurting or attacking another, you may bruise their bodies, or their egos, but you can never destroy their Awareness, and nor can they destroy yours. And even more so, how silly it is to try to destroy that which is a very part of you, and that what is eternally indestructible.
I know that this is deep for my blog on a Monday. It is fun to start the week off on a joke, like I typically do on Monday-Fundays. But it is strength to start the week out on the right foot, by making peace a practice. When peace is your practice, you can laugh and you can cry, but at your core, you remain in tranquil bliss forevermore.
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
