DISCIPLINE

Discipline: to train oneself to do something in a controlled and habitual way.  It is something we all strive for, know we should be better at, or fail miserably when attempting to be so. 

A good source of self-inflicted guilt, discipline can hang over our heads like a black cloud.

Maybe that's because the other meaning behind the word contains punishment. Discipline also means: to train someone to obey rules or codes of behavior, utilizing punishment to correct disobedience. 

No wonder we so easily resist discipline. We wouldn't punish ourselves! We can get away with not doing, right?

But we do punish ourselves, through guilt. When I began these writings I was determined to write six days a week, taking only Saturdays off. And I did well for a while. Then the lens became less focused. Entries felt repetitious. Readership leveled. Does a lack of vision promote complacency? Does complacency make me feel guilty when I don't write? 

You see, discipline involves focus. An ideal must be set. Regarding Smiles, Frowns, and Kisses, I was hoping the vision would become clearer the more I wrote. And in some regard it did, but not to the degree required. 

And so, as the actor Alan Rickman (1946- ) says:

"There's a voice inside you that tells you what you should do."

And so I focus again. Re-focusing must be key. 

The future for Smiles, Frowns, and Kisses is feelings. It's what life is about is it not? We smile. We frown. We love. Feelings are what drives behavior, makes us who we are - and can cause more confusion than we may want to acknowledge. So let's tackle that. 

My original goal in starting this blog was to help people recognize their importance - to their friends and families, to themselves, and in the world - a world in which not all is equal.

So, I urge you as I urge myself:

"The first and best victory is to conquer self." 

Plato (427 BC-327 BC)

See you tomorrow.

CONGRATULATIONS GRADUATES!

"Whatever you do or dream you can do – begin it. Boldness has genius and power and magic in it." 

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)

VIBRATION SCIENCE

"The source of every sound is a vibrating body."

From the song 'Vibration Science' by Kaleidoscope Jukebox

Source: collective-evolution.com

"It is through the law of vibration that the mind exercises control (or thoughts)... We know that every mental action is a vibration... and we know that all form is simply a mode of motion, a rate of vibration. Everything in the Universe is what it is by virtue of its rate of vibration.

The first form which thought will find is language, or words; this determines the importance of words; they are the first manifestation of thought - the vessels in which thought is carried. They take hold of the ether and by setting it in motion reproduce the thought to others in the form of sound.

We cannot escape from the pictures we incessantly photograph on the mind (and share with others), and this photography of erroneous conceptions is exactly what is being done by the use of words when we use any form of language which is not identified with our (or other's) welfare.

Change the rate of vibration and you change the nature, quality, and form of the world you experience."

Charles Haanel (1866-1949)

Let's make it a good one!

ESSAY ON MAN

"Man never knows precisely what is right

So torn between a purpose and a doubt.

He first makes windows to let in the light

And then hangs curtains up to shut it out."

Author Unknown

NATURE'S CHILD

“I sadly want a reform in the construction of children. Nature's only idea seems to be to make them machines for the production of incessant noise.” 

Wilkie Collins (1824-1889)

ON CHILDREN

Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931) On Children, from the book The Prophet (1923)

Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.

They come through you but not from you, and though they are with you, they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts. For they have their own thoughts.

You may house their bodies but not their souls; for their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.

You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you. For Life goes not backwards nor tarries with yesterday.

...You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.

Happy Mother's Day!

Mother's Day is a time to give thanks to our Moms for all the things they have done for us over the years. As with most everything in modern day life, Mother's Day has become over the top commercialized, and so we buy gifts and send cards and make the obligatory visit. Despite that though, we are happy that this day rolls around each year to remind us that our Moms are to be celebrated.

If we are lucky. Sometimes Life isn't always rosy. Abandonment, abuse, neglect exist for some children and those hurts last. We can only look to people like Oprah and Tony Robbins for inspiration. Their childhoods were not so easy but their Moms did bring them into this world, and I think we would all agree, they've made the world a better place for having been in it!

There are some who say that we are on this earth to experience, and we cannot know joy unless we know sorrow, we cannot know love unless we know its lack. And that we choose the circumstances we are born into - the love, the sorrow, the poverty, or the riches. It's a curious thought indeed. But what if we do return again and again in order to experience? With each day, through experience, we learn more and more. Why not Life after Life as well?