Month: July 2024

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Mistakes

I am curious about something.

Part of me wishes you were right here so we could talk about this. But from what I can see, many of you who read these posts, live on the other side of the world.

I strongly believe it doesn’t matter where any one of us lives when it comes to being human. We have such similar tendencies, one of which seems to be the idea that it is possible to make “mistakes”.

What I want to ask you is, what if we gave ourselves permission to accept and believe that there are no mistakes? What if we opened our minds to the idea that everything that happens, including our own actions, fits in a grander order, one we generally fail to see? What if, we extended grace to ourselves?

You might be thinking that I’m trying to give us a way out of the harmful, hurtful actions we’ve taken. I’m not.

Each time we do something that hurts someone, we can take responsibility, apologize and try to make amends.

These aren’t the mistakes I’m talking about.

I’m talking about the ones that weigh us down so heavily we can barely manage to move. The ones we keep hidden or camouflaged or blame others for. The ones that weaken us, hold us, harm us.

What if we shifted our perspective and believed in the grander scale of things, where we could properly fit everything that happens? What if we could see how beauty can come from any action, any “mistake” that is made?

I’m not saying it would be easy. It wouldn’t.

What I am saying is that it would be worth it.

Imagine if mistakes we’ve made disappeared, even if it took a minute, an hour, a day, a week for it to happen. Imagine how light we would feel. Imagine if every time you felt you’d made a mistake, you replaced the feeling with love and told others you were sorry if you hurt them. Wouldn’t all of the pain and suffering of our imagined mistakes vanish?

It seems to me that what we perceive as mistakes are in fact golden opportunities. We can be right with the world. We can feel light and be the light.

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Worry

I have an idea for you.

It’s something to try next time you find yourself worrying about something. I’m going to assume if you are reading this that you are now or have in the past, worried about something. I feel this is a safe bet.

I tried this recently and it actually worked, so I thought I would pass it along to you. I know at first glance it is going to seem pretty simple. But I believe the best things in this life of ours are simple. We’re often the ones who make them complicated.

Here it is.

The next time you are worried about something (fill in the blank), ask yourself this question:

“What can I do about it right now?”

Here comes the tricky part. After you ask yourself the question…take action. Do something productive.

The trap I can fall into, and it may happen to you too, is that I focus all of my energy in unproductive ways and rarely move forward with any action. Silly really. Action is the only way to change the present. When I shift my perspective and choose some form (any form) of action, I see the whole world differently. And it changes my sense of worry into hope. Maybe it will work for you too.

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Good or Bad

I am wondering something.

Let’s say that instead of deciding right away, what if we choose to exercise an automatic time delay before we labeled anything as good or bad?

What do you think would happen?

I have a suspicion that I would profit from this experiment. Rather than applying a quick label I might see that it takes time to know for sure.

Even then, I might not be correct.

Do you have any interest in giving this a try?

Suppose you wrote down the situation and your immediate response and set it aside, promising to come back to it “later”.

And suppose, just for one time, you watched what happened, like an observer without an opinion. You simply stood off to the side and waited…for a day, a week, a month, a year. And when the time period was up, you reevaluated.

I’ve tried this from time to time and it always astonishes me. Almost every time I learn something profound. Almost every time I recognize how far from the truth my first response was and how much more I have to learn.

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Life Plan

This is going to be short, but don’t let that fool you. If you give it a moment you may find something truly life changing. I say that because that’s what it is for me.

What if the plan was always to leave with what you came here with…nothing.

I sometimes get caught up with what I possess here on earth and the truth is I leave empty handed, except for one thing…my spirit. That I take with me.

I arrived on earth open and ready to be filled. But I don’t think my purpose was ever to be filled to overflowing with the ‘things’ of this world. They take up too much physical space.

Rather, I believe I came to create and experience connections, deep relationships with others and the world. Those things fill me without taking up space.

There is freedom here. A liberation. A detachment from the weight of the ‘things’ I own (or that own me). A shift in perspective to realize I am going to leave this world with nothing…except what my spirit brings with me…which is the love I found here.

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Complaining Or Not

This is what I was thinking recently.

I need to release my complaints in a different way. I feel justified about expressing them, which ultimately hurts me, because the way I live and express my life either supports and enhances my life OR it creates suffering for me.

I recognize it is my choice.

I am in charge of my attitude and reactions, not a victim or a bystander.

If I truly wish to live a joy-filled life, which is what I say I want, I have to ask myself, how is this going to happen if I fill my time by finding constant fault with the world?

If I looked at my life as having limited time, say 85 years, why would I want to spend any of that time needlessly suffering by choosing to find fault with it?

Every moment I spend complaining is a moment of suffering, and it is something I am doing to myself.

It would be such a wise decision to shift my perspective based on what I really want.

What I really want is to create and experience the maximum amount of joy during my life. This means releasing my need to complain and find, discover, and reveal things that enhance my sense of wonder, curiosity, peace, and joy.

The constant choice is up to me.

Today I’m going to let go of all things that cause me suffering and embrace those which create and enhance my joy.

Today I’m going to be my own best friend.

I invite you to join me, if it feels right to you.