The Perfection Trap

I am tired of trying to be perfect. I am tired of being told I just necessitate to utilize this deodorant, thrust this car, usage this exercising equipment, eat these foods, and so on. And as if those warnings were not enough, there are all mode of people quite willing to state us what our ends in life should be as well. Friends and household are very good at letting us cognize how we are far from perfect. Are it any wonderment that more than than and more of us are seeking prescriptions for anxiousness and depression? How are we ever supposed to dwell up to all the outlooks other people have got for us? And how make we dwell with ourselves when we can't? Indeed no 1 can be Oklahoma by everybody's standards. There will always be person who can fault with us for something. But the good news is that that is ok. Arsenic Christians we don't necessitate other people's approval. We only necessitate to seek to make the best we can on any given day, knowing that Supreme Being loves us, and also knowing that He understands when our best is sometimes far from great. After all, we are forgiven people, people as 1 Toilet 1:9 reminds us who just necessitate to confess our failings to God. Supreme Being will forgive us, but can we forgive ourselves?

We all cognize that those closest to us cognize just what "buttons" to force to seek to do us experience guilty. When person desires something from us that for whatever ground we are not able or unwilling to give them, their words can often injure us deeply. How many parents today, not willing to put on the line having their children angry with them, are accepting all kinds of unacceptable behavior? And how many grownup children are struggling to dwell up to the criteria that their parents put for them? How many people are not living their ain lives, even perhaps the lives Supreme Being would have got them live, because of fearfulness of the reaction of those they care about? Between these people and all the information we are bombarded with on a day-to-day degree telling us how to better our lives, is it any wonderment that we are stressed? We are constantly being told we are not "good enough"; flawlessness should be our goal.

Trying to be perfect, whether because it is the lone manner we can experience good about ourselves, or because we fear another's response, is keeping many of us in a state of emphasis and unhappiness, often not able to see all the good that is in our lives. I cognize for me that it can still be all too easy to let myself to experience suffering when I expression back on some behaviour or look back on some words I may have got spoken. I can acquire into home on that and in doing so, I am not seeing all the approvals in my life. Today Iodine make workshops and retreats, but it have taken me a long clip to experience able to make this, and the ground that was stopping me was the fearfulness of criticism. Sometimes the things Supreme Being would have got us make can convey unfavorable judgment from others. Not everyone will always hold with us. So, whether it is speaking in public or saying things within our circle of household and friends, at modern times we can be criticized. Sometimes those unfavorable judgments are valid, and sometimes they are not. But, regardless, can we larn to allow travel of the hurting of not being perfect in someone's eyes?

As Christians we cognize on an intellectual degree that we are not perfect, and never will be perfect. It is God's saving grace that offerings us forgiveness for our imperfections. And yet we often beat out ourselves up each clip we are reminded of just how imperfect we can be. We look to bury that in respective topographic points in the Book Jesus Of Nazareth is telling us to love our neighbour as we love ourselves. What makes that sort of love expression like? Are we, and our neighbors, only loveable when we utilize the right products, state the right words, or execute according to person else's expectation? Unconditional love intends just that. We are to love others even when they are not being very lovable. And, yes, at modern times we necessitate to protect ourselves from other's bad behavior, but even when that is the case, we are to still to believe of them with love. After all it is so true about walking a statute mile in another person's shoes. If we really knew all the fortune in anyone's life, could we still stay critical? I believe not.

1 Corinthians 13 is often referred to as the love chapter of the Bible. And for old age I read it only as a verbal description of the manner I should believe of other people. I never looked at it as also a manner that I should handle myself. But, if I am to love others as I love myself, I had better be careful about how I am loving myself. That chapter states us, among other things, that love is patient, kind, maintains no record of wrongs, trusts, hopes, and perseveres. Well, are we patient with ourselves? Are we sort to ourselves? Are we able to halt going over and over in our head those things we may have got done wrong? Or are we able to confess them to Supreme Being and let ourselves to experience forgiven? Can we go on to swear in ourselves, go on to experience hope that each twenty-four hours we are getting better, and especially, are we able to remain true to our desire to be ever more than Christ-like, but without getting into an anxious, self-critical state, thinking we are just such as suffering failures?

As a human beingness I volition never be perfect, never totally OK, and neither will any other individual on earth. We can, and should, go on to endeavor to go more than Christ-like, but when we experience we have got failed, Supreme Being is still loving us. Instead of staying stuck in our guilt, we are free to confess and then pick ourselves up and travel on again.

Odin And The Apache Indian Spirit Warriors A True Adventure

When Iodine still lived in Grand Canyon State I performed many more than Odin Rituals then I make here in Pennsylvania.

Willie Whitefeather a very wise Cherokee Medicine adult male and my stopping point friend gave me the ground why.

He said that the Southwest was still a very powerful topographic point for the Indian to live. There are still many liquor of North American Indian warriors and medical specialty work force there. A great topographic point for warriors.

The Great Spirit was still there. If and when the Great Spirit were to go forth than all the powerfulness that protects the Indians would be gone.

He said that in the Northeast where I was born, the Gods and Goddesses of my people once lived. They did not dwell there any more. They were pushed out by the increasing figure of other tribes, from all over the world, that moved in.

These other Tribes now have got got the powerfulness and as more than than than and more come up in, the less powerfulness my people, the Northern Europeans, will have.

He told me more than once (after I had moved back to the Northeast) that I had made a mistake. That Odin and the Gods and goddesses of my people were now there in the Southwest.

He said that though we were different peoples there was not much differences in our basic warrior civilization and gods.

He equated Odin to the Great Spirit.

He said that this alteration of powerfulness in the land was natural. The Indians had been doing it for one thousands of years. Taking over the powerfulness points of other folks and using the energy.

The large difference he said was that though the different Indian folks fought each other, they all had one god, The Great Spirit.

My people had abandoned Odin for foreign gods, that were meant for other tribes.

We gave away almost all our power.

He equated myself and the other Odin following to his people. Within his people there is a definite split between the traditional Indians those who follow the old ways and the hang-arounds the reserve Indians. The 1s who copied the achromatic man's ways and religions. Hated by the traditionals.

Same as Northern European People followers the faith of desert dwellers.

I have got a great trade to share with you about what that wise Indian Shaman taught me when Iodine spent a great trade of clip with him in the desert and mounts of Arizona,for another time.

Lete me state you about this rite called Odin and the Indian Spirits.

Again I share these secret and sacred events in my life with you because I am trying to state you that we necessitate to construct more than one-on-one relationships with Odin and the gods/goddesses. We must halt worshiping him as The Supreme Being of the Vikings. He precedes the Viking Age by one thousands of years. The same as the Great Spirit precedes the Cherokee and the Apaches.

Get quit of those moth eaten Ritual books that were written by another. Go it alone and construct your ain in the mental and Negro spiritual human races and those of your sort will happen you.

So, here is another narrative and rite to animate you.

Each true Viking Spirit Warrior is equal to a thousand Mead guzzling one-half Christian - one-half pagan- sol called Vikings who travel the forest to have got got fun.

When you make existent contact with Odin and the god/goddesses like I have you will happen him and them in the most god-awful places and you will do it alone.

When I was with Willie Whitefeather around the encampment fire we talked about many things. He opened my eyes to many countries that I knew nil about.

To Indians the Spirit World is very real. Communication with liquor is very real. Liquor can ache you.

Gods are very real. The major difference between an Indian Medicine Man and an Indian Warrior, is that the Medicine Man passes more than clip in the Spirit World. He cognizes that is where the powerfulness is.

We became such as stopping point friends that Willie invited me to travel with him to the Hopi North American Indian sacred caves in four corners.

While I was there I was greeted by the grandfather. A very aged but very wise and functional Hopi North American Indian Medicine Man.

I was allowed one visit to one of the sacred caves, with Willie.

I saw a 3000 twelvemonth old pictograph painted on the cave walls.

It was a line drawing of three seafaring ships in line.

When we left the cave Willie smiled and nodded. He told me that the Hopi Indians the keeper of North American North American Indian history, knew of the approaching of Capital Of Ohio over 1500 old age before he showed up

Remind me to state you the narrative of how I establish pictograph runic letters in a cave on the drop walls of Superstitution Mountains.

Willie had to remain over, in Four Corners, so I had to do the long thrust back to Capital Of Grand Canyon State myself in my ole 1979 Contrivance pickup.

When I left the Hopi Indian reserve I started down the long high desert main road towards the giant Indian Rock Monuments that this portion of Arizona is so celebrated for.

I passed the most celebrated Ship Rock Memorial and roared on down the higway at 70. These main roads are straigth as an arrow, and devoid of all traffic.

You could experience the Indian Power all around you, especially when you passed one of the standing sacred rocks.

Suddenly it started!

At first Iodine thought something was incorrect with my steering, it was awfully tight.

I was being pulled to the right. Not knowing what it was my first inherent aptitude was to decelerate down to 40.

I instantly started to chant my Odin Rituals.

These repetitious Odin chants have got pulled me out of many hard musca volitans before. Both on the physical airplane and the interior planes.

I softly chanted, "Odin, Odin, Odin usher me. Odin, Odin, Odin mend me. Odin, Odin, Odin protect me." My favourite for it covers all bases.

The guidance was still tight and the wheel seemed to desire to draw me more than than and more to the right.

Then it locked up. Did my guidance box break? Did I lose all fluid?

I felt the hairs on the dorsum of my cervix base up. I looked down the route and there about a statute mile away stood two very big jagged and powerful Indian rocks. They were very fold to the road, one on each side.

My chanting got louder and faster. "Odin, Odin, Odin usher me. Odin, Odin, Odin mend me. Odin, Odin, Odin protect me."

The guidance wheel was jammed and I was drifting to the right very slowly. With all my strength (I weigh 225) I could not stir it. I could see that I was being pulled towards the jagged Indian stone on the right.

No more than formalities. I shouted as loud advertisement I could, "Odin, Odin, Odin .........."

Continuously.

I swallowed my fearfulness and jam-packed the gas bicycle to the floor. I had to acquire past those Indian rocks.

Forty-five, 50 ........ I was going to run this Indian Gaunlet or decease trying. No turning back.

At 70 Iodine literately flew at the Indian rocks.

This was indeed a conflict to the death. (Have you ever been in a conflict to the death?) The barred stering wheel, the jagged Indian stones and my every musculus straining to turn back to the center of the road.

Plus don't bury my Odin, Odin, Odin at the top of my lungs. (I never bury ODIN, especially in a Tight spot)

I don't cognize how I did it but I flew past the Indian stones like a rocket. And as I set distance between myself and those deathly stones the wheel loosened up.

I got to the center of the route and slowed down.

The followers hebdomad I met willie Whitefeather and told him what had happened.

He stayed soundless and becokoned me to follow him. We got into his old toyota pickup truck and headed to the desert. Once there, still soundless Willie took his medical specialty bag with him and went out alone.

He stopped by a little gun barrel cactus and sprinkled bluish maize repast around it in a circle. Then he sat down, held his sacred medical specialty pouch in his both custody and closed his eyes.

I knew that he was seeking a Vision.

After awhile he got up, thanked the Great Spirit and came back to me.

"You were attacked by two Apache Spirit warriors" Wille said.

"They felt your warrior spirit and were angry that you should be allowed on the sacred Hopi North American Indian grounds. For they were never allowed such as an honor", Willie continued.

So they decided to destruct you but taking control of you motortruck and crashing you into one of the jagged rocks.

Wille stopped and smiled. "It was when that one-eyed warrior spirit appeared and took control of the guidance wheel. He drove the Apache liquor away.

"Ragnar," he smiled, "you did not make it."

"Odin Iodine asked?"

Yes Willie smiled and nodded.

For those who don't believe. I inquire you:.... "how many traffic make you have got with the spirit world?" How much make you believe in the gods/goddesses of your people? How much make you believe in the Great Spirit. Rich Person you go too materialistic? (believe in lone what you can touch, smell, see?)

Get out of the large metropolises before it is too late. Take your children back to nature.

Thank you for listening.

Ragnar Storyteller

I had put up the Resonant Frequency of Odin. His warring energy came out of the Measure Ocean (where he now resides) and covered my motortruck with his powerful energy.

The Apache Spirit Warriors felt it and ran.

You make not necessitate (nor make I believe many of us have got the power) to pull Odin in the flehs to assist you. Attracting his energy in modern times of danger is enough. (Laws of Measure Physics and Resonant Frequencies.)

Teenagers And Grief - How To Deal

You just got the telephone phone call - "Did you hear? ______ is dead!" After those first words, you may or may not have got heard the rest. The caller's voice may look to have got trailed off in a linguistic communication that you don't hear or understand. Those prickling words were all your encephalon could handle. No 1 is there, but you curse person just punched you as difficult as they could in the gut. How can this be? You just talked to _____ this morning! It can't be true. You get to cry, and then to scream. Then you pick up the telephone to seek and happen person to state you it isn't real.

Everyone grieves. Everyone experiences decease at some point in life. Some people see decease when they are young, some when they are old. So what do you, the teenager, so special? Well, physically and psychologically, you are special. You are different from everyone at every other age. One of the toughest things about the adolescent old age is that you experience everything modern times about a hundred. All the growth and the hormones, you just feel more. You are at the most sensitive topographic point in life, so when heartache happens, it hits sol hard. Another particular thing about you is that you have got this astonishing powerfulness to resile back from things that knocking you down.

There is hope for the teens who grieve. When decease hits stopping point to home, whether it is a household member, a friend or classmate, it do us recognize that we actually can die. It doesn't just go on to 'other people'. Our basic security acquires shaken, and for maybe the first time, we are afraid. We also experience the heart-wrenching emptiness where this individual used to be. The friends set together. We write, draw, sing, drama music, whatever conveys some kind of comfort. We experience agony, despair, loss, depression, or disbelief. It is of import to cognize that these feelings will go through in time. We must happen a manner to cover with the initial daze period, and then slowly get to set the pieces back together.

Teenagers are the absolute best at honoring their fallen blood brothers and sisters. The integrity and honestness they demo in these dark modern times excel what most grownups are capable of expressing. So now what make you do? Now you must grieve in your ain particular way, so that you may dwell a full and happy life. You cognize your loved one would desire it that way. But How?

There are some basic guidelines you must retrieve after a loss.

•Stay stopping point to those who share in your suffering. Clinging to each other is the best manner to cover with the daze of death. (Remember- even when we cognize person is going to die, we are never truly prepared for the existent event)

•Talk about it. Cry, boot and screaming if you necessitate to.

•Find A trusted individual to speak to about your feelings

•Try not to close the grownups out who seek to help. They necessitate to cognize how to assist you.

•Write, draw, sing, whatever is your manner of ego expression. Creativity is a perfect mercantile establishment for emphasis and emotions.

•Memorialize. Building some kind of a memorial, whether it be a scrapbook, a cadmium of your loved one's favourite songs, a butterfly garden, planting a tree, lighting a candle, watching their favourite movie, or wearing their favourite carpet slippers around the house, it is a very healthy manner to experience close to them. Perhaps putting together a photograph record album or a book for all the friends and household to subscribe and compose notes. These are all fantastic ways of helping to heal, and honoring the memory of the 1 you have got all lost.

•Expect the unexpected. You may undergo temper swings from unhappiness to rage, and everything in between. THIS IS COMPLETELY NORMAL, and it may travel on for a while.

You may happen you are experiencing overpowering anger. This is normal. However, it is of import that you happen a manner to cover with it so no harm is done before it passes. Hurting yourself or person else out of choler and heartache NEVER helps. It just do things worse. Anger usually come ups from fear, guiltiness or pain, underneath. Examining these possibilities with a friend may help. Sometimes professional may be needed for utmost uncontrolled fury until the crisis passes. There is no shame in asking for aid when you necessitate it. Look at what you have got been through!

Survivor's guiltiness is very common when person dies. The inquiry "Why them?" or "Why not me?" is common, especially when perhaps you were supposed to be in that auto and they went at the last minute, or you experience you should have got somehow been able to halt this. Guilt is possibly the most misguiding emotion we have. It is only utile to remind us about right and wrong. Too many modern times we experience guilty when we are absolutely not responsible. Reason these things out with another person. You will see things much clearer than if you allow it revolve around inside your head, and you are the lone individual answering yourself!

Ask for aid if you ever experience like you desire to ache yourself. If you cannot talking to your parents, happen an grownup you trust. PLEASE make not disregard danger marks such as as this! Nothing is EVER hopeless!

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes: There IS Life Outside the Comfort Zone

"Unless you change how you are, you will always have got what you've got". – Jim Rohn, The Great Challenge of Life.

Two of the best conferences I've ever attended shook me right out of my comfortableness zone.

You cognize how it is when you go to a conference; you usually hang around with the people you know, or the 1s who look the most like you. You usually sit down in the same portion of the room, even in the same chair if you can pull off it.

Conference #1 - We are the Conference

Right off the chiropteran we were out of our seats, rotating to a new treatment grouping every 15 minutes, until an hr had passed and we'd already interacted with every single individual attending the conference.

Initially there was a nervous energy in the air, eventually turning to exhilaration as everyone kept meeting new people and making personal connections.

It changed our idea process, opened our acquisition and deeply enriched our conference experience. The energy degree went through the roof. Everyone rated it as one of the best parts of the conference.

What these conference organisers understood is that the best acquisition we make at a conference usually come ups out of our interactions with other participants. Not only in discussing what we've heard from the "experts", but our ain thoughts and opinions. Our heads are stretched farther and farther by the different positions and points of view we hear.

Conference #2 - Get up and Dance!

These conference organisers also got us out of our seating every morning, but they did it with cheerful music and by inviting us to dance. It was energizing, invigorating and a whole batch of fun!

By the 3rd twenty-four hours of the conference, what seemed like an unusual and slightly daunting activity became banal and comfortable. And that's after lone 3 days!

Kind of brands you wonder, doesn't it? What other alterations could you acquire used to just as quickly?

When I'm leading workshops, I make my best to agitate delegates out of their comfortableness zone as well. I make this by sneaking into the room before the 2nd twenty-four hours starts, and shift around the topographic point cards.

From an abutting room, I watched as one participant switched her topographic point card back. She felt comfy in that seat, and just wasn't willing to stretch.

An organisation I used to work for asked me to turn to their low staff morale. People were suffering and there was a batch of fighting and conflict. I accepted the challenge and soon establish myself in a room with 20 angry people.

I asked them what was wrong, and spent the adjacent 45-minutes authorship their ailments down on impudent chart pages, that eventually filled the walls of the room.

As I started to turn to the issues and make suggestions, all of a sudden the choler was directed at me. One participated came right out and said, "Who do you believe you are? How dare you seek to change things around here!"

They were miserable. But they were comfortable. They were more than comfy in their wretchedness than they were willing to change and hazard uncomfortableness in order to better their situation.

When you're open up to change, you're cook for new and better things to come up into your life. You can begin little and pattern little changes. Construct the seeds of alteration by altering your modus operandis and environments:

Change the order of your morning clip routine.

Take a different path to work.

Shave at a different time of day.

Take a new social class at the gym.

Read a new magazine.

Read non-fiction instead of fiction.

Try a new restaurant.

Cook with a new combination of spices.

Choose person you admire and make something they've done.

Say, "Yes!" to something you would normally state "no" to.

Remember lining up to lodge your wage check at the bank? If person hadn't been unfastened to change we wouldn't have got the convenience of standard atmosphere machines today.

What new and better things could acquire used to if you stepped outside of your comfortableness zone?

(c) Ted Shawn Shepheard, 2007.

The Process of a Miracle: A 30 Day Experiment - Day Four

Day Four...Spiritual Detox

I couldn't kip last night.

My head was a clutter of emotional rags replaying the years events over and over in the composure of "insomnia."

Yesterday, Iodine cleaned out quite a spot of the physical leftovers of my past. That nighttime as each old memory resurfaced shedding layer after layer of emotion. What was concealment beneath all this was nil I had considered but never the less revealed itself.

The attic; The bottomless cavity inside my head that hid within its shadows; those soundless tentacles that slithered out of its darkness, encircling themselves around me absorbing me firmly in the past.

I was about to undergo a Spiritual detox.

It was about 11:00am before I finally felt tired adequate to fall asleep. At this point I felt empty and a spot scared of what the consequence of releasing so much emotional disturbance would be.

I never lived without the contorted creature comforts of my beliefs and letting spell of so much in such as a short amount of clip left me feeling empty. Fear may turn within the emptiness of uncertainty….

But so makes my spirit.

I drop asleep instantly but not in to the deep la-la fantasy of candy land dreams. Inside me the pieces of myself I had imprisoned within the deepest portion of my beingness prepared themselves for the conflict of my freedom. To face the fat slothfulness of my egotism which sat heavily upon my spirit munching away on a hot manipulate ice-cream sundae of my pain.

It was clip for me to be released.

I had served my sentence.

I had willingly done my clip and it was clip for me to take my freedom back.

It seemed that I was awake but asleep… if that's level possible. I was in the kitchen of my flat and something kept playing fast ones on me. The kitchen stove would travel on without me turning it on. Things kept appearing and reappearing. It was just freaky.

When I awoke spots and pieces were still with me but mostly I didn't retrieve what it was about. I couldn't really do sense of the leftovers that lingered, so into the kitchen I went to acquire a cup of coffee. As I'm standing there still half asleep Iodine expression at my stove…and Iodine retrieve the dream.

I retrieve how the kitchen stove was combustion something and I now saw what it was. I looked around me and I saw it all. Every memory of every event I felt I was a victim of….

The metallic element divot on the kitchen stove from Mike, The first serious fellow I ever had who cheated on me again and again.

The vase from the flat where I first stuck a acerate leaf in my arm.

The carpet in my sleeping room with the fire holes from nodding out.

The clothing from Volition who had beaten, raped and imprisoned me for years.

The jewellery from Karl who treated me like a inexpensive pornography star.

On and on the listing went. It was all there with me now.

The self-deceit.

The lies.

The torture.

The insecurity.

The jealously.

The anger.

The resentment.

The self-pity.

The disillusion.

The disappointment.

The lost hopes of my dreams.

The absolute boiling hate of myself that oozed out from these lesions infecting every action Iodine displayed throughout my life.

I had voluntary carried it all with me never understanding or comprehending for a minute it all represented...

THE PAIN.

It was everything Iodine never wanted my life to be and everything my life was.

I cried.

I cried for the load of shame I silently carried into maturity of the adult male who molested me.

I cried for the small miss that felt so ugly and unloved.

I cried for the miss I grew into who settled for the tabular array remnants of love tossed to me by work force that I allowed to abused me.

I cried for the adult female I became who was determined to destruct herself.

I'm crying as I compose this, because I cognize I don't have got to maintain this anymore. I don't have got to transport any of it. Every spot and piece of the hurting is not a load I take to follow me into the future.

I'm free.

I take me.

Ace's Insights-Birds Don't Resemble Eggs!

Jalaluddin Rumi was born in Islamic State Of Afghanistan in 1207. His household consisted of scholars, legal experts and theologians. He and his family, fled Islamic State Of Afghanistan to avoid the Mongolian invasions and settled in Konya, Turkey. He was the original swirling dervish, a dance of surrender, that is still practiced in some spiritual ceremonials around the world.

Rumi's message of love and integrity have been translated by respective western scholars, I establish this piece in Coleman Barks book, "Rumi We Are Three." The book is dedicated to people in the San Francisco area, who attended one of Barks readings in 1986.

The messages in the book are for everyone, from every religion and every belief. Rumi's funeral in 1273, was attended by representatives from Christian, Jewish, Moslem and other religions, to honour the plant and life of this great teacher. His message united the liquor of all religions and he is still uniting people from all corners of the human race with his love and truth.

I am thankful for determination Rumi, he have changed my ideas and have aid me retrieve who I am; a spirit having a human experience.

From Rumi's Mathnawi,III, 3494-3516, bask this nutrient for thought:

"A friend comments to the Prophet, "Why is it I acquire screwed in concern deals? It's wish a spell. I go distracted by concern talking and do incorrect decisions."
The Prophet replies, "Stipulate with every dealing that you necessitate three years to do sure."

Deliberation is one of the qualities of God. Throw a domestic dog a spot of something. He whiffs to see if he desires it.

Be that careful. Sniff with your wisdom nose. Get clear. Then decide. The existence came into being gradually over six days. Supreme Being could have got just commanded, Be! Little by small a individual attains 40 and 50 and sixty, and experiences more than complete. Supreme Being could have got thrown full blown Prophets flying through the universe in an instant. Jesus Of Nazareth said one word, and a dead adult male sat up, but creative activity usually unfolds, like composure breakers.

Constant, slow motion learns us to maintain working like a little brook that corset clear, that doesn't stagnate, but happens a manner through numerous details, deliberately. Deliberation is born of joy, like a bird from an egg.

Birds don't resemble eggs! Think how different the brood out is.
Type A achromatic leathery serpent egg, a sparrow's egg; a quince bush seed, an apple seed: Very different things look similar at one stage.

These leaves, our carnal personalities, look identical, but the Earth of psyche fruit we make, each is elaborately unique."

Rumi

Remembering The Little Things

On a recent trip to South Carolina my grandfather who is 94 years young did something that I will always remember. He showed me the importance of remembering the little things and how much it can bring joy to someone's life.

That Sunday after church as members fellowshipped with one another I saw my grandfather take the hand of a woman who came over to speak to him and kiss it. As I witnessed this expression of old school affection I learned two things; that my grandfather is still very young in mind, heart and spirit, and the smile which caressed the woman's face showed how much she appreciated his gesture. When I saw this, it not only touched me, but made me mindful of just how important the little things in life really are.

Often times it's easy to let the little things fall by the way side due to the hustle and bustle of life and managing our everyday responsibilities, however we have opportunities everyday to share a smile, a hug, a kiss, encouraging words, or a simple hello with someone. We never know what that person could be going through in their life or on that particular day, but one thing we do know a smile is contagious and if you give one, more than likely you'll get an even bigger one in return.

I'll be the first to admit that on those days where I'm in the zone and don't want to be bothered or I'm deep in thought over a situation, perfect strangers who I may have seen at the gas station, in the line at the grocery store, or the bank have shared a smile or a hello, which in turn made me reflect on myself and the mood I was in. When I couldn't come up with a good enough reason to be in that mood, it was immediately lifted off of me. My outlook on my day changed, because I realized things aren't always as bad as they seem and that it's the little things in life that make living life so much easier. Can you imagine if everyone walked around with a frown on their face? How gloomy and desolate would life be?

The little things in life extend far beyond a hello or a simple sweet smile. Picking up the phone to call a friend you haven't talked to in years or volunteering to help the elderly and those in need, coaching or mentoring children in your community who may not have the positive influence they so desperately need. The little things are just that, little things that require little time or effort. They don't cost a thing and no matter how little you may think they are they can mean the world to someone else. I like to think of the little things in life as what God gave us to keep us connected with one another.

So I challenge you to share the little things in life with someone. You just never know how it will touch and change their life.

Stay inspired & empowered.