Personal Note

To honor and celebrate the opportunity and possibilities...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEsO24naqQI

...regardless of the outcome. Thank you.

Value Added

As I have shared with you, how you interpret an event dictates how you receive it. The emotional charge (positive-negative) experienced is, to a large extent, wholly dependent on the value you assign that occurrence. With that in mind, watch the following video...

http://www.ted.com/talks/paul_bloom_the_origins_of_pleasure.html

If you can perceive a situation as a "gift," what does it then become? No matter the initial response to the stimuli, try to create space (room) for another interpretation. That contrary to your immediate reaction that this is "bad," Life is actually bringing you a blessing. The dynamic that you create is self-fulfilling. It is how we are "wired." (neuroscience and the physiology of your brain--see link)  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9XfCCT3ki0

If this is so, (and it is) what is preventing you from initiating G-G-G as a practice? If you resist initiating this practice in your life, ask yourself why? The answer you come up with will provide an invaluable insight on why you nurture your unhappiness.  

Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall

              You Tell on Yourself

You tell on yourself by the friends you seek
By the very manner in which you speak
By the way you employ your leisure time
By the use you make of dollar and dime

You tell what you are by the things you wear
By the spirit in which your burdens bear
By the kind of things at which you laugh
By the records you play on your phonograph

You tell what you are by the way you walk
By the things of which you delight to talk
By the manner in which you bear defeat
By so simple a thing as how you eat

By the books you choose from a well-filled shelf
In these ways and more you tell on yourself
So there's really no particular sense
In an effort to keep up false pretense

~Author Unknown

Heat Treatment

I spent over a decade in the aerospace industry. We supplied solid (and later, blind) rivets to Boeing, McDonnell Douglas, Lockheed, and other aircraft manufacturers. While working with metals like monel and titanium, the vast majority of rivets we produced were made of aluminum alloy's. After cold heading a rivet, they were subject to a production process known as "heat treat." What we were doing was "annealing" the metal. This heat treatment would change the metals properties to increase its ductility. Ductility is the measure of strain a metal can withstand before rupturing. A metal with low ductility is said to be "brittle." According to my New World Dictionary, brittle is defined as; 1) easily broken or shattered because it is hard and not flexible. 2) having a sharp, hard quality 3) stiff and unbending in manner.

My question to you is this: how do you react when the "heat is on?" Heat comes from fire, fire from friction, friction from rubbing two objects against one another. In our particular case, I am speaking of the friction created by disagreement or conflict because of differences of opinion. How do you handle the "heat" in your personal relationships? Have you become the very definition of brittle?

People avoid conflict. They are reluctant to engage because often, in the "heat of battle," things are said or done that cause irreparable damage or heartbreak. I totally understand. What might not be clear to you is in the annealing process the metal is allowed to return to room temperature naturally. This cooling off period is part of the process that refines the structure of the metal while increasing its rate of diffusion. In other words, after heating up and cooling down, the metal becomes more ductile.

My challenge to you is this: when things heat up, create the image that you are being "heat treated." That Life has brought you an opportunity to go through a process that can change long held beliefs. That the situation can be exactly what you need to become more expansive, inclusive, understanding. That a situation is defined solely by your perception of it, and employing your imagination can alter the construct by which the dynamic is interpreted. Rather than having your feet "held to the fire," you can cherish the chance to enjoy a natural by-product of the heat treating process; internal stress reduction. Ductility is defined by what can be stretched, drawn, or hammered without breaking. My wish for you is that you develop the ability to bend, not break. And I just may "bring the heat" to see that it happens.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIVdP8otRr0

The 91st

For He will give His angels charge of you
To guard you in all your ways
To bear you up less you dash your foot against a stone

In times of doubt or trouble, marshal your resources. It really doesn't matter what mental construct they take. Some are comfortable putting themselves in the "white light." Others use spells or incantations. Often a mentor, guru, or saint is petitioned. It makes little difference. Utilize what resonates with you. Slow and deepen your breath. Then, let what happens happen.

The bottom line is you can handle it. And, if you're a repeat visitor, you may even be able to put it in the context of a gift. Or not...it doesn't matter. The time will come when you can. Know this though, your limitations are self-imposed. The Universe wants, needs, and is desirous for you to become an adept, masterfully ingenious in your ability to transform trouble to tranquility. Let it be so.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SiylvmFI_8

Godspen

    Prelude--A Hole for a Soul

The Devil laughed you simple twit
Nothing more than the Creators shit
Hear, at last, the dominant theme
You're never to have your cherished dream

...but that Devil wasn't finished yet
He clamored there was still a debt
And so the fiend sent a mighty blow
That tore asunder my very soul

The demon cried, "you have no dream!"
But the man had found another stream
That nothing could obstruct nor bar
Who's portal was the Piscean star

      The Fiction of Affliction

A thought, a theme, a precious glimmer
Amid the madness began to shimmer
Then the Source revealed It's presence
Began to share It's holy essence

A moment before his mind could snap
The Creator's love revealed the trap
The man was shown another course
A way to handle demonic force...

"What credit do you give this thing?
Who's voice is it that truly sings?
Submit, surrender, and just let go
Don't resist what I make flow

Your demon is a paradox
It makes you hare while it plays fox
Convinces black when you see white
Ignores the love and longs to fight

Says me, my needs, and all my way
Don't give a damn about their say
It's me, it's mine, I've got to have it
Tramples all in greed to grab it

Step back my child and take a look
An obvious worm on a rusty hook
Your ego's "I" at all expense
Erects the most constricting fence

Yet ever you would run and hide
To seek assurances in your pride
Excluding this, condemning that
While all the while promoting Pat

Your way, your say, is not My will
Not just your heart that I would fill
Let go, let Me, accept the chance
That all is divine in the cosmic dance."

~WPG

Fullfillment

The only way you can ever have enough is to realize you are enough.

~Jonathan Kolber