Environments

There's a commercial that's been running pretty regularly on TV featuring people who have been blindfolded and taken into a horrendously filthy house and plunked down on furniture that most dogs would refuse to sit in.  The deal is that an air freshener has been sprayed in the air before they are led in.  They're asked to comment on how the place smells.  Wonderful, of course.

It hasn't convinced me that the stuff really works.  Only fresh air smells like fresh air.  It did get me thinking about what a great job the makers of the commercials did at creating an environment.  Purely disgusting-looking, yet perceived as lovely by the actors they hired to look fooled.

If the way things look can create an environment, if the way things smell does as well, how about the way things feel?  How about the way people feel?  How about if we can set up an environment with what's going on inside us?  So that if we choose a specific thought/feeling/energy and clearly hold it, it can radiate out about us and be noticed as readily as that room spray.

I believe this is so.  I invite you to try it, play with it, indulge in choosing the highest and finest state of being that you can.  Then see what happens around you. 

Foolish Words

What's the most foolish thing you've ever said?

I started saying foolish things early, and it wasn't entirely my fault.  I regularly told people I had the milkman's ass before I had any idea of what that meant because that is what my mother told me I had.  And who doesn't believe their mother.  When my high school English teacher invited the class to offer names for her new VW bug, I mentioned it at dinner that night, and my father suggested she call it S.O.B. because she was going to sooner or later.  So I raised my hand the next day and stood up, because that's what we did when we were called on in class, and told her, my very proper teacher at my very proper girls' school, what Dad said.  You could feel the temperature drop in the room.  I also repeated a few ditties my brother taught me which I will not pass on here.  Okay, okay, just one:  Beans!  Beans!  The musical fruit!  The more you eat, the more you toot.  The more you toot, the better you feel, so eat your beans at every meal!

It turns out I'm terribly naive and hopelessly trusting.  I had no idea what I was saying or why it got the reactions it did.

I'm older and wiser now.  I know what it means to put your foot in it. 

Sadly, knowing has not been enough to keep my foot from going in: foolish words still find their way out of my mouth.

The point of this, shall I say, self-expose, is that we are responsible for the effect of our words.  If we have done damage with them, we are as liable of thievery as any other robber of goods.  We take away self-esteem, trust, hope, love. 

As powerful as is our capacity to hurt, we are capable of, if not healing the wounds our words cause, offering a balm that may be the beginning of restoration.

And so

Say it.  Say you're sorry, say you were foolish, say you didn't know what you were thinking, say you would take it back if you could even though you know you cannot.  Not expecting that you will be forgiven.  Only honestly hoping what you give with your words will make some difference.

Love What You Do

When it comes to life choices, I truly am in the do what you love camp.  I'm also in the get real camp.  First, because I haven't found actually getting to do what you love to be an overnight thing.  Second, because doing what you love doesn't mean that you'll love everything you're doing.  You might find parts of doing what you love distinctly unappealing.

What can always happen, regardless of whether or not we've grabbed that magical brass ring and live a life that features doing what we love, is to fully engage in the moments, be they ever so small, when we love what we're doing.  These seemingly insignificant acts will be life changing.  Because:

• You will enjoy the feeling of loving what you're doing and you will look for more ways to get that feeling.
• The more moments spent in loving what you're doing will result in fewer and fewer moments spent focusing on not loving your circumstances.
• You will become in charge of how you feel and so, how you live. 
• You will know what really makes the difference in the quality of your life is how you choose to live, not what you choose to do. 

Chaos

Chaos makes news.  The real news is, there is not a time on earth when there is not chaos.  The beings who survive--and thrive--on this planet are the ones who have developed the ability to live in chaos.  To find the underlying benefit in any chaotic situation, to use that gleam of hope and expectation, and move through it. 

Keep this in mind when the news makers splash their gory, scary stories in front of us.  We humans will find a way.

In peace-
Maureen