C H O I C E

What is CHOICE?  According to one popular on-line source, choice is: 1. the power of choosing  2. the best part (of something) 3. the person or thing chosen  4. care in selecting 5. something preferred Sounds overall pretty positive, yes? What is choice really but a reflection of us, who we are and what we stand for! But do we use our ability to choose wisely, and select the best part of something or someone or do we follow others and do what they tell us is right.  We all make choices. Every day. However, taking responsibility for your choices is key to staying true to yourself. And that requires thinking. “To think is easy. To act is hard. But the hardest thing in the world is to act in accordance with your thinking." Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) How many times have we allowed ourselves to be led by someone else because we thought him or her to be more educated, more experienced, or just more eloquent - parents, religious leaders, teachers, politicians, the boss at work, or any other variety of people. Look at today's headlines, television news, and internet buzz. War, guns, gay rights, health insurance - everyone has an opinion and wants you to join their side. But do you do the research? Do you spend the time to understand the issues? Or do you forward the next email or comment on a post, riled up perhaps by its inflationary content (that may or may not be accurate), without thinking! If the sender of a message has anything to gain by its content then we should all consider that message carefully, and with jaundiced eye. "There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action." Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) By following the crowd, by not taking a stand, or even worse, making a choice based on automatic pilot or rote response, you compromise who you are and what you stand for. One of the hardest things to learn to say is "No" to those we see as leaders in our lifetime and to stand up for ourselves and for others who may not be able to stand up for themselves. So say '"No" next time to that random inflationary email or reject biased news reports, and make a decision true to you - whether it be casting a vote or challenging a friend. "NO!" Learn to speak this little word In its proper place, Let no timid doubt be heard Clothed with skeptic grace. Let thy lips without disguise  Boldly pour it out Though a thousand dulcet lies Keep hovering about. For be sure our lives would lose Future years of woe If our courage could refuse The present hour with "No". Eliza Cook (1818-1889) The choice is yours. Make it your own.

T H E - S A G E - O F - C O N C O R D

"Relation and connection are not somewhere and some time, but everywhere and always."

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

THE CREATIVE POWER OF THOUGHT

The following is a collection of teachings by Charles Haanel, author of The Master Key System written in 1912. Charles Haanel was thought by many to be one of the finest writers on self improvement and higher consciousness ever published.

Haanel believed that all power is from within and that if you can control your thoughts and focus on one ideal or desire, it will manifest in your life. A brief summary of his teachings is listed here. The book, The Master Key System is a free internet download (see link below) and is highly recommended reading. 

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1. Thought is always seeking expression. Is it weak, critical, and negative? Or is it powerful, constructive, and positive?  Quality, character, and nature of thought creates your world without.

2. What do you wish to manifest in your life? Know that idle thinking dissipates, constructive thinking creates.

3. So create a clear, decisive, calm, deliberate, sustained thought with a definite end in view.

4. Three things are needed for success:

        The knowledge of your power

        The courage to dare

        The faith to do

5. Power depends on consciousness of power. Realize the power of attention: it generates interest, then dedication (to your ideal).

6. Silent thought concentration is the means. Hold your ideal in the consciousness and it will become the subconscious. Visualize the new pictures to hasten the process.

7. Think of being a ship’s captain, the train’s engineer. Focus, like a magnifying glass in sunlight. 

8. Reverse the evidence of the senses. Abundance not want. Health not disease. Harmony not discord

9. Use constructive, positive imagination. Rid all thoughts that are not constructive. Eliminate all fear, for that will destroy all power. The fear from doubt, hesitation, and criticism.

10. Our future is determined by our present. Do you see only the incomplete, the imperfect, the limited? You will only get more. The world without is an external reflection – so change the world within.

Free download:  http://www.thefreemasterkey.com/

K I N D N E S S

“You cannot do a kindness too soon, 

for you never know how soon it will be too late.” 

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

F R O T H -&- B U B B L E

Question not, but live and labor

Till your goal be won,

Helping every feeble neighbor

Seeking help from none.

Life is mostly froth and bubble,

Two things stand as stone:

Kindness in another's trouble

Courage in your own.

Adam Lindsay Gordon (1833-1870)

R E S P O N S I B I L I T Y

While the internet has made us more connected, it has also made us more disconnected. How easy it has become to become inhuman. 

So easy it is to hide behind our LCD screens and cast dispersions into the ether of cyberspace. How easy it is to post or forward a disparaging or embarrassing picture, place it on our Facebook page for others to see and laugh perhaps uncomfortably, comment with words that bite and sting; then click that little x and step away, forgetting that: 

"No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible." 

 Voltaire (1694-1778)

Like when road rage strikes, it is easy to lose our sense of individual responsibility. We get caught up in the opacity of cyberspace, become disconnected, exhibiting behavior that we would not otherwise exhibit should we be face to face with a real person. Meanwhile those words or deeds we carelessly passed along hang in space, hauntingly, sometimes forever.

But perhaps we just need to be reminded: 

"It is my daily mood that makes the weather. I possess tremendous power to make life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal." 

In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis is escalated or de-escalated, and a person is humanized or de-humanized."

"If we treat people as they are, we make them worse. If we treat people as they ought to be, we help them become what they are capable of becoming.”

J. W. Goethe (1749-1832)

P E A C E

Today is Easter Sunday, a day celebrated by millions of people across the globe. How one man could have such an influence on our planet is indeed a miracle. Meanwhile this week and last, millions of Jews celebrate Passover, an equally important holiday world-wide.  At the same time our planet is in turmoil. Why? Because we have forgotten...

If I could take away anything from this celebratory time it would be this wish for our planet: that we all remember four little lines by Louis I. Newman: 

I sought to hear the voice of God,

and climbed the topmost steeple.

But God declared: "Go down again,

I dwell among the people."

Have we not forgotten? As John Muir reminds us: “When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.” Whether it be Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, or any of the many other religions worldwide, what does it matter what we call the Maker of our Universe? Differences are wonderful things and make life deliciously interesting!

"All who have actually attained any real religious experience never wrangle over the form in which the different religions are expressed. They know that the soul of all religions is the same and so they have no quarrel with anybody just because he or she does not speak in the same tongue."  Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902)

I leave you with one final thought:

 "Peace is not the absence of war (or discord): it is a virtue; a state of mind; a disposition for benevolence and justice." Benedict De Spinoza (1632-1677)

P E A C E - May we all live by it and within.