Fixing Others

You are not here to “fix” other people or mother earth. You are here to heal the deep wounds within your own being. Please tend to this task and all else will fall into place without any effort on your part. ~Pamela Kribbe

I found this quote on my friend and collegue, Josha Grant's, Facebook today.  What an awesome re-minder and one worth meditating on.  I am taking it to my journal.  Hope you enjoy it as I have.

Getting Rid of the Thorn In Your Side

"When you made visible what is not true, what is true became invisible to you." -A Course In Miracles

So true.  And, when you focus on the *invisible* you know is True, the *visible thorn in your side* you experience will vanish.

Who or what is pissing you off - treating you wrong - holding you back - holding you down - standing in your way?

Whoever or whatever you think is at fault, is false.  Conflict will dissolve when you re-alize your are interacting with the false/fearful self of the person who does you wrong.  It could go like this in your mind. "Oh. So and So is doing that thing that I can't stand.  This is not the true So and So.  This is the false So and So.  I re-cognize the same or similar defense in myself.  Ah yes.  I know the false self that I re-act from.  Oh, that is what is going on here.  I do it, too.  Maybe I do it differently.  Yep, I tend to attack myself instead of others (or whatever).  I choose not to relate false self to false self.  I choose to be present to my true self and their true self.

What I experience/perceive as wrong is covering up the Truth I don't see right now.  I look past this false experience to the Truth I know is present.

What did I make visible that I don't like?  What Truth became invisible to me as a result?  What Truth is present even if I don't *see* it now?

What Your Experience Is Telling You

"Everything you behold without is a judgment of what you beheld within." -A Course In Miracles

So what have you "beheld within"?  (Note the past tense?) You can deduce this by what you are experiencing now.  Allow your experience to be your guide not your "reality."

Are you experiencing harmony or dissension in your relationships?  Answer that and you can discern whether or not you have beheld harmony or dissension within.  Often we are attacking ourselves with very little or no awareness.

Are you experiencing abundant health, abundant wealth, abundant joy?  If not, you are not beholding it within.

Do you experience giving and receiving unconditional love and non-judgement?  Answer that and you can discern whether or not you have beheld unconditional love and non-judgement towards yourself.

Answering these questions is not a way to beat yourself up.  All disharmony without is a call to harmony within. Covering your pain with a coating of "harmony" will not work, rather asking your pain for guidance towards what is out of alignment and bringing it back to Truth will work. Ask with a curious heart.  Inquire as a means to find the place that is blocking you and with the intention of beholding true perspective within.

Are you experiencing light, peace and joy.  If so, you are beholding these things.  Focus there.
 

What If You Were Happy?

What if you focused on happiness in your life?  What if, even if it were really difficult to find, you focused on it anyway?  What if you looked in all the nooks and crannies for happiness?

I hear the retorts, "That would be so Polly Anna!"  So!?  What if you could be happy?  What if you were so happy you didn't care if they called you Polly Anna?

And, I'm not talking about not feeling sadness, anger, grief or whatever comes up.  I'm talking about consciously focusing on happiness, on joy.  If anger comes up when you focus on happiness and joy, then by all means feel it.  I'd be willing to bet it will pass quickly, very quickly.

Conduct your own experiment.  See what happens.

I am there

Day 21 of 21 Days of Prayer Outside the Box Closing

I am There by James Dillet Freeman

Do you need me?

I am there.

You cannot see me, yet I am the light you see by.

You cannot hear Me, yet I speak through your voice.

You cannot feel Me, yet I am the power at work in your hands.

I am at work, though you do not understand My ways.

I am at work, though you do not recognize My works.

I am not strange visions.  I am not mysteries.

Only in absolute stillness, beyond self, can you know Me as I am, and then but as a feeling and a faith.

Yet I am there.  Yet I hear. Yet I answer.

When you need Me. I am there.

Even if you deny Me. I am there.

Even when you feel most alone. I am there.

Even in your fears. I am there.

Even in your pain, I am there.

I am there when you pray and when you do not pray.

I am in you, and you are in Me.

Only in your mind can you feel separate from Me, for only in your mind are the mists of "yours" and mine."

Yet only with your mind can you know Me and experience Me.

Empty your heart of empty fears.

When you get yourself out of the way, I am there.

You can of yourself do nothing, but I can do all.

And I am in all.

Though you may not see the good, good is there, for I am there.

I am there because I have to be, because I am.

Only in Me does the world have meaning, only out of Me does the world take form; only because of Me does the world go forward.

I am the law on which the movement of the stars and the growth of living cells are founded.

I am the love that is the law's fulfilling.  I am assurance.  I am peace. I am oneness. I am the law that you can live by.  I am the love that you can cling to.  I am your assurance. I am your peace.  I am one with you. I am.

Though you fail to find Me, I do not fail you. 

Though your faith in Me is unsure, My faith in you never wavers, because I know you, because I love you.

Beloved, I am there.

P.S. What I found out:

Even if you find yourself on the floor in the closet believing that I am not there, I am and you can pray and I will answer even if you have no idea what to say.

Powerful Forgiveness

Day 21 of 21 Days of Prayer Outside the Box

I may have repeated this forgiveness prayer more than any other.  It seems when I ask for God to teach me true perspective it is about a relationship with another person that could use forgiveness more than 90 percent of the time.  When I first started learning about forgiveness I thought I only had a couple people I needed to forgive.  I thought I didn't hold many grudges.  I thought I was very forgiving and only had difficulty forgiving a very few.

My first really big aha was when someone told me I wouldn't reach forgiveness with those few people if I didn't allow myself to release the anger I harbored in a healthy way. I had no idea how angry I was.
 I didn't even know anger could be released in a healthy way.  So I started down a journey for many years learning about that.

On the journey I found that actually I spent a lot more time than I wanted to admit in anger.  I found that I needed to forgive.  I learned that forgiveness was not something I did for the other person.  I found ultimately that the person I most needed to forgive was myself.

So here is the prayer my mentor gave me.  I use it a lot like affirmative prayer from Day 5.

I love you.
I bless you.
I release you.
I fully and freely forgive you.
Now be on you way.

I have used it in this way for years.  The last line reminds me of a gentler version of the Day 19 prayer. (Sometimes Day 19 may need to proceed this prayer). Recently I have begun to change the last line to "May your life be filled with joy."  Forgiveness has been a journey and a process for me, a freeing journey and process.

Happy New Year

Thank You

Day 20 of 21 Days of Prayer Outside the Box

This bears repeating. "If the only prayer you said was thank you, that would be enough." Try this today.  Use it as you would an affirmative prayer from Day 5.  Try seeing how many times you can find a time to pray the "Thank you" prayer.  

Take it one step further.  My dad (who was more out of the box than anyone I knew, but liked to figure out what made the in the box stuff tick) introduced me to Merlin Carothers book "Prison to Praise" before I could even listen to anything that came from the Bible without crawling out of my skin.  His book is all about the verse from I Thessalonians "In every thing give thanks."  This may sound like a tall order.  Really?  Everything?  It is incredibly effective prayer.  If the Bible is difficult for you, as it was for me for some time, this book may challenge you, but if you are ready for a big challenge this may be just the thing.

If nothing else, just try it.  You can find thousands of things written on gratitude, but when it comes right down to it truly trying it will give you something no amount of reading can.