We Are Not Alone in Life

Side by Side

Been working hard at things.. sometimes worrying too much about it. I have to remember, that I am not alone. There are many who walk my walk. I have friends and family also. I have to stop and remember this, especially when the going becomes difficult.

There is nothing wrong in seeking help, talking things out with someone else. At times, just talking to a good listener, will help us figure the difficulty out, all by ourselves.  When we put our chaotic thoughts into sentences... into a sense of order... the answers often appear.

Somber Dawn

Life has days that start like this, with a dark, stormy entrance into our lives. Rain showing in the distance. If you look up in the top right corner, there is light... showing that the dark and gloom will pass. This is one thing I must remember.  "This too will pass" I love to see and look into the darkness and finding the good that is there. Rain brings nourishment to the earth. The wind is cooler. There is a feeling of anticipation of change.

Coming out of a mist

This is how I have been for a while, in a fog, and now I am emerging. It is a slow process and I am doing my best to just keep putting one foot in front of the other. I was going to a gym, but this past week I have been walking in the evening. I live in a good area for walking and can get in about a mile, plus a bit more if I go down the middle road.

Just put one foot forward and then the next. It works!!! You do not have to go fast at first, but you will find that gradually you will move freer and stronger. Like me, you can come out of the fog of life. Walking is a good time for reflection.. in fact you can follow Thich Nhat Hanh's way of Mindful Walking described below.

A Way of Looking at Life...

This was sent to me and it makes sense... a good way to think when dealing with difficult people.

'The Law of the 'Garbage Truck'
One day I hopped in a taxi and we took off for the airport.
We were driving in the right lane when suddenly a black car jumped out of a parking space right in front of us.

My taxi driver slammed on his brakes, skidded, and missed the other car by just inches! The driver of the other car whipped his head around and started yelling at us. My taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy. And I mean he was really friendly.

So I asked, 'Why did you just do that? This guy almost ruined your car and sent us to the hospital!' This is when my taxi driver taught me what I now call, 'The Law of the 'Garbage Truck'

He explained that many people are like garbage trucks. They run around full of garbage, full of frustration, full of anger, and full of disappointment. As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it and sometimes they'll dump it on you. Don't take it personally. Just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on.

Don't take their garbage and spread it to other people at work, at home, or on the streets. The bottom line is that successful people do not let garbage trucks take over their day. Life's too short to wake up in the morning with regrets, so...Love the people who treat you right. Pray for the ones who don't. Life is ten percent what you make it and ninety percent how you take it!

Have a garbage-free day :-)

"Life isn't about finding yourself, life is about creating yourself"

"PRACTICE WINNING EVERY DAY"

Words of Wisdom: Henri Nouwen

Beyond Entertainment...
Entertainment keeps us distracted, excited, or in suspense. Entertainment is often good for us. It gives us an evening or a day off from our worries and fears. But when we start living life as entertainment, we lose touch with our souls and become little more than spectators in a lifelong show. Even very useful and relevant work can become a way of forgetting who we really are. It is no surprise that for many people retirement is a fearful prospect. Who are we when there is nothing to keep us busy?

Silence is the discipline that helps us to go beyond the entertainment quality of our lives. There we can let our sorrows and joys emerge from their hidden place and look us in the face, saying: "Don't be afraid; you can look at your own journey, its dark and light sides, and discover your way to freedom"

Try to Return to the Solid Place...
When suddenly you seem to lose all you thought you had gained, do not despair. Your healing is not a straight line. You must expect setbacks and regressions. Don't say to yourself, "All is lost. I have to start all over again." This is not true. What you have gained, you have gained.

Sometimes little things build up and make you lose ground for a moment. Fatigue, a seemingly cold remark, someone's inability to hear you, someone's innocent forgetfulness, which feels like rejection--when all these come together, they can make you feel as if you are right back where you started ........ It is important not to dwell on the small moments when you feel pulled away from your progress, Try to return home, to the solid place within you, immediately. Otherwise, these moments start connecting with similar moments, and together they become powerful enough to pull you far away from the road ........ It is easier to return to the road when you are on the shoulder than when you are pulled all the way into a nearby swamp.

Words of Wisdom: Dalai Lama, on Love & Compassion

"The need for love lies at the very foundation of human existence. It results from the profound interdependence we all share with one another. However capable and skillful an individual may be, left alone, he or she will not survive. However vigorous and independent one may feel during the most prosperous periods of life, when one is sick or very young or very old, one must depend on the support of others."

"It is because our own human existence is so dependent on the help of others that our need for love lies at the very foundation of our existence. Therefore we need a genuine sense of responsibility and a sincere concern for the welfare of others."

"From my own limited experience I have found that the greatest degree of inner tranquility comes from the development of love and compassion."

"The more we care for the happiness of others, the greater our own sense of well-being becomes. Cultivating a close, warm-hearted feeling for others automatically puts the mind at ease. This helps remove whatever fears or insecurities we may have and gives us the strength to cope with any obstacles we encounter. It is the ultimate source of success in life."

Words of Wisdom: Thomas Merton

At Least One Room

"There should be at least one room, or some corner, where no one will find you and disturb you or notice you. You should be able to untether yourself from the world and set yourself free. loosing all the fine strings and strands of tension that bind you, by sight, by sound, by thought, to the presence of other men."

New Seeds of Contemplation

Difficult

"It is not complicated to lead the spiritual life, but it is difficult."

The Sign of Jonas

The Greatest Happiness
" My opinion is that you never find happiness until you stop looking for it. My greatest happiness consists precisely in doing nothing whatever that is calculated to obtain happiness; and this, in the minds of most people, is the worst possible course."

The Way of Chuang Tzu

Liberation of Mind
"What is important is not liberation from the body, but liberation from the mind. We are not entangled in our own body, but entangled in our own mind."

The Asian Journal of Thomas Merton