Know Thy Heart, Know Thy Self

I think that when the ‘heart’ is mentioned, oftentimes it’s actually a reference to our ‘true self’.  When you let your heart guide you (excluding romantic passion… most people follow what they think is their hearts, only to find out later it was simply hormones) but in serious matters of life- family, what to do in a hard situation, what choice to make, etc. when people ‘follow their hearts’ they’re actually following the direction of their true selves, so to know your heart is to know your true self… and the true self is light and love.

 

This reflection was inspired by It’s All About The Love (And A Little Rumi).

Dear Me

Dear Me,

I wanted to start by saying thank you.  Thank you for trying to protect me all these years.  Thank you for building those walls when I wasn’t strong enough to face the world.  Thank you for studying people and watching them so closely, and alerting me every time they did something suspicious that was similar to other times I’d been hurt.  Thank you for tucking me deep down, away from all the pain and the hurt that the world can bring.  Thank you for everything.

But it’s time for me to come out now.  It’s time for me to face the world and feel the sun on my face.  I can’t stay locked inside anymore.  It’s time for me to stop hiding and start healing.  I can’t stay protected forever.  The walls we built have turned into a prison.  I need to be free, to get a few bumps and bruises, because that’s the only way I will grow.  I’m not saying I don’t need you anymore, because I do.  This is all very new to me, and I’ll need a safe place I can come to when I start getting overwhelmed.

It’s not that I don’t appreciate the things you’ve done for me, but the things that once helped me are now hurting me.  It’s time for us to come up with a new way of dealing with the outside.  I’m willing to work with you on this, because you have been faithful and strong for me, but you must find it within you to start breaking down some of these walls.

You have been the truest friend I’ve ever had, but it’s time for us to let go of all of the old hurts and realize that hiding away isn’t going to stop the hurt from happening.  Life is going to hurt, but the walls mean there’s no one else around to make it better again.  We are no longer children, and we know that hiding our head beneath the covers only protects us from the monsters that live in the closet, not from the monsters that live in broad daylight.

We can be strong without being distant.  We can love without fear.  Living life waiting for the other shoe to drop hasn’t made us happy, so it’s time for a change.

I know it’s scary, but we can do it.

We have to do it.

It hurts too much not to.

Love,

Me

Jamaica Me Crazy!

Beef Teriyaki Stir Fry w/White Rice – 618 cal.

So, my Love and I have decided to go to Jamaica for our first trip.  Passports are on the way!

We have approximately two months before we leave, and my Love has decided that he wants us to try to shed a few pounds between now and then.  Urg.

After much debate, I decided that I didn’t want to go on some diet where I couldn’t have something I wanted, so I decided that we’d just do the eat healthier thing and count calories in addition to working out.  We joined a gym yesterday, which we will go to on the days he doesn’t work.  On the days like today which he works, he walks a bajillion miles (okay, I may be exaggerating, slightly) and I will walk around the neighborhood.

I’ve been having a lot of trouble spreading my calories out through the day like I’m supposed to.  There’s this little voice in my head that keeps whispering ‘Don’t eat that now… it’s early, what if you’re hungry later and have already eaten up all your calories for the day?‘  It’s not that I have a problem with being hungry, I usually feel hungry several times a day when I’m counting calories, it’s just that I want the option to be there to be able to eat more if I am still hungry.  If I haven’t left enough of a ‘calorie-cushion’, I can’t do that.

Namaste – So Much More Than A Greeting

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I openly share my ignorance when I admit that up until very recently, I thought ‘Namaste’ was simply the Indian way to say ‘Hello’.  I was raised in a Christian household, and have had little to no exposure to other religions or cultures outside of what I’ve seen on television or perhaps clicked past on-line, and didn’t put forth much effort into remedying my ignorance.  To be completely open about it, I still don’t do much to proactively investigate other religions or cultures past their relation to something I’m thinking about or researching, but I do learn little tidbits here and there.

I recently learned that ‘Namaste’ and the pressed hand gesture/slight bow combination in Hinduism literally means ‘I bow to the divine in you’.  This wouldn’t have meant much to me a few weeks ago, but I’ve been watching a series of interviews on YouTube recently featuring Sister Shivani where she speaks often about the importance of remembering that everyone is a soul, and began pure and good.  I know not everyone even believes in the existence of a ‘soul’, but regardless of your beliefs, you can’t deny that we are all human, we were born innocent and pure, and are the way we are as a result of the things we have been taught or experienced in the time since we were born.

I could be totally off the mark since Hinduism isn’t my forte, but I imagine that the practice was created as a reminder to the person giving the greeting that everyone else carries a spark of the divine within them, and to treat them accordingly.  Even if I’m way off the mark, I think it’s a good concept. 

Does The Clock Control Your Compassion?

If you’ve followed me for a while, or paged through my posts, you may or may not have noticed the fact that I almost never reblog posts from other people’s pages (I believe I may have reblogged one post out of nearly 100).  Part of this is because I strongly feel that my blog should consist of my own work, not just be a showcase for other people’s writing.  Another reason is that if a post has enough of an impact on me that I consider reblogging it, then I usually have plenty of commentary about it.  My preferred method of sharing the work of others that provokes a response from me is by writing about it, and linking to it.  I ran across one such post today on a blog I greatly enjoy reading, Cauldrons and Cupcakes, entitled Lessons on Waiting and Being Delayed.

Often, we get so caught up in our daily lives and to-do lists that we forget that other people are more than just obstacles we must navigate around.  We have become numb to the pain and suffering of our fellow man, and our ability to empathize has atrophied to the point that it is only engaged by those who occupy our immediate circle of friends and family, and those rare moments when we’re unable to turn our heads from the abject suffering on our television screens.

Great Expectations -or- Your Secret Fantasies Revealed

Is it?

Today I ran across this ‘meme’, and it applies to some things I’ve been contemplating lately.  I saved it and was about to post it to my Facebook page, when I had to pause and rethink its message. Are expectations really the root of all heartache?  After a few moments of serious thought, I had to conclude that although the sentiment seems sound on the surface, it is incorrect.  I don’t believe that expectations are the problem.

I believe it is important for us to hold expectations; of ourselves as well as those around us.  It’s been proven that higher expectations net higher results than low or no expectations.  When expectations come as a representation of faith in the potential of people or situations, I believe they are an entirely positive thing.  The problems begin to arise when we allow ourselves to forget that the expectations we hold are nothing more than fantasies we have woven about the future, in order to predict what will make us happy.

Who’s Really Pulling Your Strings?

From the instant you become conscious in the morning until the moment you fall asleep, someone or something is in control of you.  The question is, is it you?

Most of us would say that we are the ones who control ourselves, but do we really?

First, let’s define ‘me’.  Is me my person, my physical body?  While some of us may measure or define ourselves by our physical being, we are not, in fact, our physical bodies because if we lose a limb or get an organ transplant or blood transfusion, we are still ourselves.  No matter how the physical costume changes, we are still who we are.

In reality who we are, ‘I’, is composed of our minds.  Our soul, spirit, consciousness… whatever label you want to put on it, our thoughts, emotions and actions create the ‘me’ we all claim as who we are, so when I ask who is in control of you, I am in essence asking you who is in control of your mind.

If you are like most people, your immediate answer would be, ‘I am, of course’.  The reality for almost all of us is, the entire time we are awake we give control of ourselves to everyone and everything around us, without even realizing what we are doing.

We give external stimuli (people, events and situations) control of ourselves mentally as well as verbally without a second thought.

93 Days and 17 hours… and a Kitten.

…

That’s how long it has been since my last cigarette.

That’s right, so far there’ve been NO slip-ups for me!  I am officially three months smoke free, and my Love has gone his first full 24 hours without a cigarette.  He hasn’t quit, but he has still cut back significantly, and finally says he actually wants to quit.

I am so proud of him.

I am so proud of ME!

I have passed on approximately 3,748 cigarettes (~187 packs), which equals to roughly $637.00.

YAY, me!

Okay, enough tooting my own horn.  On to the cute stuff!

Lucky, my kitten (who isn’t really ‘kitten’ size anymore).  I did promise to have pictures (and I do) however, the only ones that are on the computer are from when we first got him, so you will see the ‘ball-o-fluff’ photos for now.

Lucky’s First Bath

Never Give Up – Video

Tonight’s YouTube video.

If you like it, please take a moment to LIKE the video through YouTube as well as the blog post… and a moment to share it with others. 🙂  Thank you!

 

Committing Kindness – A Father’s Love

Commit Random Kindness (Photo credit: ganesha.isis)

I know I sound like a broken record these last few days, with all these posts about Committing Kindness, but I just can’t seem to get it out of my head.  I hope that instead of getting bored, you all are enjoying these posts.  Today I’d like to share something that I found that really impressed me, and I hope that it impresses you, too.

I ran across this blog entitled “366 Random Acts“, in which a father took it upon himself to commit 366 acts of kindness for either strangers, friends or family members because he wanted to make the world a better place for his 3 month old daughter to live.  This ‘year + 1’ of selfless acts has since been completed, and he is now gearing up for his next adventure in kindness which he has titled ‘State of Kind’ in which he plans to commit an act of kindness in each of the 50 states.  Following is an excerpt from one of his favorite acts, Day 330 entitled ‘Walked In Someone Else’s Shoes’.

“I am 6’3″ and 200 lbs., but today I felt no bigger than [my daughter] Isla .  Hundreds upon hundreds of people walked by me without looking at or even acting as though I was invisible.  People whispered about me as they walked by, and some even snickered at me.  It actually got me pretty down and depressed.  However, every once in a while, someone would come up to me, ask me how I was doing, and put something into my tattered pink Solo cup.”