I SEE YOU!

I SEE YOU! 

While I know that those words have been spoken before, they have taken on a new meaning and perhaps even more importance ever since they were uttered on the big screen in Avatar and I was reminded how powerful those words are when I watched the movie again here recently.

I SEE YOU!

It is those things that we see as different that separates us and thus can cause conflict. I know one way we can resolve our issues and that is to approach each other from the basic level that we all share together and that is as human beings. If we simply start and end there, then nothing else will really matter.

I SEE YOU! 

For me, when I look at another person, I see no race, creed, nationality, religion or sex, rather simply another human being.

I SEE YOU!

By taking that approach to life, we can heal this world and it's conflicts. We will no longer tolerate any human being starving to death, being tortured or denied the basic necessities of life.

I SEE YOU!

By truly seeing each other we will naturally progress to live in peace and harmony with each other and the world around us. Which means it will no longer be acceptable to treat our home, Mother Earth, with the disdain and disrespect that we do.

I SEE YOU!

What do these words mean to you? Do you see me? To me, it means the end of separation, fear, war, hunger and pain and the dawning of a new world of love, peace, joy, harmony and prosperity for all!

I SEE YOU!

May you be blessed always and in all ways!

Love and light,

Harry

The Power of Prayer

Today I am sharing a story that was sent to me and touched me at the soul level:

This really touched my heart….esp. seeing that Christmas holiday’s are nearly upon us………

A poorly dressed lady with a look of defeat on her face, walked into a grocery store. She approached the owner of the store in a most humble manner and asked if he would let her charge a few groceries.She softly explained that her husband was very ill and unable to work, they had seven children and they needed food.

John Longhouse, the grocer, scoffed at her and requested that she leave his store at once.

Visualizing the family needs, she said: "Please, sir! I will bring you the money just as soon as I can."

John told her he could not give her credit, since she did not have a charge account at his store.

Standing beside the counter was a customer, who overheard the conversation between the two. The customer walked forward and told the grocer that he would stand good for whatever she needed for her family.

The grocer said in a very reluctant voice, "Do you have a grocery list?"

Louise replied, "Yes sir."

"O. K." he said, "put your grocery list on the scales and whatever your grocery list weighs, I will give you that amount in groceries."

Louise, hesitated a moment with a bowed head, then she reached into her purse and took out a piece of paper and scribbled something on it. She then laid the piece of paper on the scale carefully with her head still bowed.

The eyes of the grocer and the customer showed amazement when the scales went down and stayed down. The grocer, staring at the scales, turned slowly to the customer and said begrudgingly, "I can't believe it."

The customer smiled and the grocer started putting the groceries on the other side of the scales. The scale did not balance so he continued to put more and more groceries on them until the scales would hold no more. The grocer stood there in utter disgust.

Finally, he grabbed the piece of paper from the scales and looked at it with greater amazement. It was not a grocery list, it was a prayer, which said:"DEAR LORD, YOU KNOW MY NEEDS AND I AM LEAVING THIS IN YOUR HANDS."

The grocer gave her the groceries that he had gathered and stood in stunned silence. Louise thanked him and left the store. The other customer handed a fifty-dollar bill to the grocer and said; "It was worth every penny of it.

Only God Knows how much a prayer weighs.

THE POWER OF PRAYER: When you receive this, if you are so inclined, please say a prayer. That's all you have to do. Just stop right now, and say a prayer of thanks for your own good fortune. I believe if you will send this testimony out with prayer in faith, you will receive what you need God to do in your and your families' life.

So dear heart, trust God to heal the sick, provide food for the hungry, clothes and shelter for those that don't have as we do. Amen & Amen

As always, thank you for taking the time to read this today and I welcome your comments and stories how faith and prayer have made a difference in your life.

May you be blessed always and in all ways.

Harry
www.raresenseunlimited.com

Cherish your time on earth!

Lately, my days have been so busy that I have had very little time to blog and because of that today's blog is short and to the point. Recently, friends of mine lost their 27 year old daughter in a traffic accident. She left behind three children and a very devastated family.

As I stood in line for the calling hours yesterday evening I could not help but reflect on my life and wondered:

1. Am I loving enough?
2. Am I living enough?
3. Am I making a difference?

I really wanted to answer yes to all of them but I realized that I simply could not do so. Even though I try everyday to love, live and make a difference, I can still do more in all three areas. So, I vowed that I would.

How would you answer those three questions?

What can you do to love more, live more and make more of a difference?

Whatever you do please take the time to tell those you love, "I love you." And let's not sweat the small stuff!

That's all for today! Thank you for reading my blog and always I would appreciate any thoughts, comments, stories and/or questions you may have to share.

Blessings!

Harry
www.raresenseunlimited.com

PEACE!

When thinking about what to write about today, one thing kept popping up, PEACE! So, as I usually do, I go with my intuition.

"There is no need to go to India or anywhere else to find PEACE. You will find that deep place of silence right in your room, your garden or even your bathtub." - Elizabeth Kubler-Ross

But why is PEACE so important? Because PEACE is a necessary and vital ingredient to our ability to live our life to the fullest. PEACE brings clarity to our minds, vitality to our bodies and calmness to our spirit. PEACE ushers in balance and harmony and removes doubt, fear, anxiety and stress.

"Let tears flow of their own accord; their flowing is not inconsistent with inward PEACE and harmony" - Seneca

In the interest of spreading PEACE, the first thing I want to offer is this poem/mantra by my friend Isabella:

I am peace
surrounded by peace
secure in peace.
peace protects me
peace supports me
peace is mine

All is well.
peace to all beings
peace among all beings
I am steeped in peace
Absorbed in peace
In the streets, at our work,
having peaceful thoughts,
peaceful words, peaceful acts.
sending light and love to end your day!

When I first read this I could feel my body relax, my heartbeat slow down and my mind become silent and clear. In essence peace had found it's way into every cell of my being. What a joyous feeling. Try it, I guarantee you will love it.

"First keep the PEACE within yourself and then you can also bring PEACE to others." - Thomas A. Kempis

Then I came across this breathing exercise:

Slowly, deeply inhale, quietly chanting the word: Peace,
Then, slowly,deeply exhale, quietly chanting the word: Love.

And of course I had to try it and once again I was filled with the overwhelming feeling of peace and love. So, if you are having a rough day and you want to bring peace into your life, you know have two wonderful ways to do it.

"Nothing can bring you PEACE but yourself." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

I welcome any comments you may have about this post and any techniques you would like to share for finding peace in your life.

That's all for today.

PEACE!

Harry

Do you learn from your experiences?

"There is only one thing more painful than learning from experience and that is not learning from experience." - Archibald McLeish

Do you learn from your experiences, both good and bad? In everything we attract into our lives there are lessons and sometimes the worse the experience the more we can learn from it.

Are you open to learning and growing? Or do you look at life as just something you have to go through until you reach death?

What can learned from the loss of a loved one? Perhaps that life is fleeting and we need to make the most of every moment. That the experiences you had with them were something that molded and shaped you to be the person you are today. That you had something to learn from them and something to teach them in return.

What can be learned from reaching a goal that you set? How about that you could do something that you thought was out of reach. That getting out of your "comfort zone" allowed you to grow. That it was not as scary as you thought it would be.

If something does not go as you had hoped, do you think of it as a waste of time or an opportunity to learn and/or grow? If you chose it as an opportunity to learn and/or grow then it is never a waste of time.

Whether the experiences are good or bad, if you have the attitude that you can learn from them all, then you will grow more than you could ever have imagined. Growth is not always easy or fun but as long as you approach it with a positive attitude, one that says everything and everyone I experience is to help me grow and be better than before I had the experience, then your life will be one of wonder and awe as you continue to on your life path towards enlightenment and spiritual growth.

Some food for thought, that is all for today!

May you be blessed always and in all ways!

Harry

Simplify!

It is hard to pick up any magazine, read any newspaper or surf the internet without someone talking about simplfying our lives. What I find a little ironic about it for me is that I have lived my life as simply as possible for as long as I can remember.

When I wrote my book "Rare Sense; One Day It Will Be Common" , I wrote it to be a simple guide to living a fulfilled and balanced life. To me life is nothing if not simple, if you look at it at it's basic level. If you read "Conversation With God" by Neale Donald Walsch, it is loaded with simple ideas on how to live your life. If you read the Bible, God broke it down to 10 simple commandments, all the rest is just filler and reminders. Buddha encouraged simple living in his teachings. The Native American Medicine Men & Women taught their spiritual ideas through simple stories and lessons.

Life is simple, we make it complicated with the weight of all the stuff we pile onto ourselves. The guilt, the fear, the hurt, the anger, the worry and the past.

Here are some suggestions on how to simplfy your life:

1. Get organized.
2. Get rid of clutter.
3. Approach everyday with an attitude of gratitude.
4. Approach everything from a position of love.
5. Set goals.

That's it. Simple! Start with those things and in no time, you will see how simple life can be.

May you be blessed always and in all ways!

Harry

Are you positive or negative?

From time to time I like to utilize sonderful stories to illustrate points that I teach. Here is one of those stories.

I heard the story about a king in Africa who had a close friend with whom he had grown up.

The friend had a habit of looking at every situation that occurred
in his life (positive or negative) and remarking, "This is good!"

One day, the king and his friend were out on a hunting expedition. The friend would load and prepare the guns for the king. The friend had apparently done something wrong in preparing one of the guns, for after taking the gun from his friend, the king fired it and his thumb was blown off.

Examining the situation, the friend remarked as usual, "This is good!" to which the king replied, "No, this is NOT good!" and proceeded to have his friend thrown into prison.

About a year later, the king was hunting in an area wherein he should have known not to hunt. Cannibals captured him and took them to their village. They tied his hands, stacked some wood, set up a stake and bound him to the stake. As they came close to set fire to the wood, they noticed that the king was missing a thumb. Being superstitious, they never ate anyone who was less than whole. So untying the king, they sent him on his way.

As he returned home, he was reminded of the event that had taken his thumb
and felt remorse for his treatment of his friend. He went immediately to the prison to speak with his friend.

"You were right", he said,"it was good that my thumb was blown off."

And he proceeded to tell the friend all that had just happened.

"And so I am very sorry for sending you to prison for so long. It was bad for me to do this."

"No," his friend replied, "this is good!"

"What do you mean, 'this is good!'" said the King aghast. "How could it be good that I sent my friend to prison for a year?!"

"Well, if I had NOT been in jail, I would have been with you, and I would have been eaten!"

I hope you enjoyed this story and can see how a positive outlook may even one day save your life.

That's all for today!

May you be blessed always and in all ways!

Harry

Who is more spiritual? And is there such a thing?

In a discussion group that is part of a social networking site, someone proposed this; Put yourself to the test. Are you a "real" spiritual person? (Since the discussion first began and the person who started the discussion got heck for it, the name has since been changed.) Then he proceeded to ask us to watch a video of animals being slaughtered and say that "cruelty is not a spiritual practice.

Well, needless to say the human in me got a perturbed at the suggestions that somehow anyone is less spiritual because they choose to eat meat, thus are contributing to the cruelty towards the animals. It has been a lively discussion to say the least.

Here are my posts in the group thus far. With them I have been trying to invoke thought and further discussion. As a Spiritual person I am not judging which side is right or wrong because quite frankly there is no right or wrong, since I know for me that spirituality is a personal thing. WARNING, THIS ONE IS KINDA LONG!

OK, here goes:

I also do not mean any offense, but I have to agree with Krysteenah, your tone seems to come off like, if you do not believe what I believe, you are not very spiritual.

First of all, I believe the beautiful thing about spirituality is that there is no dogma, religious rules, ceremonies, etc. It is a personal one on one relationship with the Universe (Creator, Great Spirit, God, etc). Spiritual people do not judge and really are not interested in how spiritual others are. We do not have arbitrary rules (the whole no meat on Friday former Catholic rule that was eventually changed by man) about what we can and cannot eat and we do not need commandments or even laws to tell us how to treat one another. We just know!

In my humble opinion spiritual people do not get caught up in all the drama and discussions about religion because it is irrelevant and redundant and really does not matter. We also do not impose our thoughts on others, we simply share ideas about what we believe to be the truth for us and let others find their way.

I do have some questions at this point just to provoke some thought and friendly discussion.

Why would "God" provide something to us that will nourish us physically and not want us to use it? If that is the case, what exactly is the purpose of a beef cow, other than to produce methane gas? And why make some beef cows and some dairy cows?

Where does one draw the line as to what is OK to eat to be spiritual? Could it be that anything grown under ground is considered dirty and so should not be eaten? And finally, there is one religion out there that according to their religious writings, God said "Everything in moderation", not some things, everything but, everything, so does that make those who follow that religion less spiritual if they eat meat?

Here is my philosophy of life: I do not care what you call yourself, love one another. If all this makes me less spiritual in someone else's eyes, that is for them to deal with, not me. Also, it will be painfully obvious that you are not getting the whole conversation.

May you be blessed always and in all ways.

Now, my second post:

Otter, You raise some interesting points but what I choose to eat should not be the basis on how spiritual I am.

I will agree that there has to be better, more humane ways to allow those of us to eat meat and perhaps more should be done to make it so.

And my last one so far:

Agingstoner, thanks for sharing your thoughts.

Now, please do not take my passion for this subject as me being defensive. I am just pushing the envelope here to provoke further thought and discussion. I am glad that you do not agree with everything I have to say, that is your right and quite frankly the way it should be. Now, please allow me some indulgence. Thanks!

Quite frankly,I believe you missed the whole point of my post. I was not trying to show my animal husbandry knowledge (IN HIS POST HE BLUNTLY TOLD ME THAT BEEF AND DAIRY COWS WERE NOT CREATED BY GOD BUT BY MAN, FOR ME THAT WAS ANOTHER SUBJECT FOR A DIFFERENT DAY), which obviously is a little rusty. LOL

What I was trying to say is that spirituality is in fact personal and no one has the right to judge me in any way as to how spiritual I am. That is between me and ____ (God, Great Spirit, Universe, The Creator, etc).

I also noticed that you conveniently did not address my question about where does one draw the line as to what is OK to eat to be spiritual.

I might think that eating things grown in the earth is not being spiritual because they are dirty. Absurd, right? Now, does that make me more spiritual because of what I think? I can say that no it does not. I mean plants that are consumed by vegetarians are also living things that we kill to eat. So, I guess the killing of one living thing is alright but not the other? Isn't killing, well, killing? And if we agree that all killing of any living thing is wrong, what would we eat? How would we survive? Once again I am taking this to the point of almost absurdity but where do we draw the line?

Native Americans thanked and blessed everything they killed or used to survive. The animals, the plants, the rocks, everything. Does that make them more spiritual? If I thank everything I consume, will I be more spiritual?

I agree with Mary, that the stuff in this video is appalling and you can say that by my eating meat I am condoning it but regardless no human being has the right to judge me on my level of spirituality. I am passionate about this subject because it is this judging that has led to one human being feeling that they are superior to another, which in turn has led to all the countless horrors we have unleashed on one another and the earth.

Once again, I do not care what you call yourself, love one another.

May you be blessed always and in all ways.

OK, that's it so far. So, what do you think? Please share your thoughts but try to do it in a loving, non judgemental manner. Will that make your more spiritual? I d not know, that is between you and your God.

Blessings!

Harry

What do you see in the mirror?

Today, I wanted to share a story that I read in one of the discussions in the social networking site, Tee Bee Dee. I will add some thoughts at the end.

The House of 1000 Mirrors

Long ago in a small, far away village, there was a place known as the House of 1000 Mirrors. A small, happy little dog learned of this place and decided to visit. When he arrived, he bounced happily up the stairs to the doorway of the house. He looked through the doorway with his ears lifted high and his tail wagging as fast as it could. To his great surprise, he found himself staring at 1000 other happy little dogs with their tails wagging just as fast as his. He smiled a great smile, and was answered with 1000 great smiles just as warm and friendly. As he left the house, he thought to himself, "This is a wonderful place. I will come back and visit it often."

In this same village, another little dog, who was not quite as happy as the first one, decided to visit the house. He slowly climbed the stairs and hung his head low as he looked into the door. When he saw the 1000 unfriendly looking dogs staring back at him, he growled at them and was horrified to see 1000 little dogs growling back at him. As he left, he thought to himself, "That is a horrible place, and I will never go back there again."

All the faces in the world are mirrors. What kind of reflections do you see in the faces of the people you meet?

Japanese Folktale

What I would like to add is that you are the mirror to the world for what is going on inside of you. What are you projecting to the world? If you have a positive attitude, you will reflect that, if it is the opposite, you will project that too.
If you want the world to look better to you need to look better to the world.

May you be blessed always and in all ways.

Harry Shade - Author, Rare Sense; One Day It Will Be Common www.raresenseunlimited.com

Randy Pausch, A Wonderful Spiritual Messenger

Lately, I have been blogging about being a teacher. Today I am going to talk about Randy Pausch, a wonderful spiritual messenger and what a teacher! If you do not know Randy Pausch, I would have to say that he was one of the most spiritual teachers of our time.

About two years ago, he was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer and he left this earthly plane today. The teachings and messages he left behind, however, will live on forever. Through it all, Randy squeezed every bit of living out of his life. He is an example to anyone, whether you are battling a life threatening illness or just wanting to know how to live.

Below is a link to learn more about Randy and the wonderful gift he left behind in his "Last Lecture".

http://www.cmu.edu/randyslecture/

My sympathies go out to his family. The world has lost a wonderful teacher, husband, father and man.

You are a teacher!

If you want to live a fulfilled and balanced life then you have to recognize that you are a teacher and have all the responsibilty that comes with being in such a position.

Whether we realize it or not we are always teaching others. Some of us do it as a profession and all of us do it by our mere actions and words. How we treat others and the words we use, tell the world who we truly are on the inside. We must take this into consideration anytime we are around others.

How do you want the world to see you? What do you want to project? What do you want to teach others? What kind of world do you want to co-create? These are serious questions with serious ramifications, for if you say you want a world of peace, harmony and love, is that what you are teaching the world by your actions and words?

I have a list on my bulletin board entitled the "Five Laws of Life" that illustrates my point rather eloquently:

May every thought that you think be etched in fire in the sky for the whole world to see, for in fact it is...

May every word that you say be said as if the whole world were one great big ear for everyone to hear, for fact it is...

May every deed you do recoil on top of your head, for in fact it will....

May every wish you wish another be a wish you wish for yourself, for in fact it is...

May everything you do be done as if God is doing it, for in fact God is!

That's it, short, sweet and to the point. Sometimes I just like to be efficient.

May you be blessed always and in all ways!

It's Not Being Selfish

Ok, I found myself trying to figure out what to write about today and once again I received inspiration from a complete stranger.

I was reading some posts on the web site Tee Bee Dee, a social networking site for those 40 and over (see link below), when someone with the profile name of DeeD posted the following thoughts in a discussion group about what you are grateful for:

" I am grateful for finally beginning to see what was hidden. I never understood "love yourself" until very recently. Always before when I heard that it came through as blah, blah...
Now I see it. I don't want to do to myself what I won't stand for being done to someone else. I never realized how much mean talking I do to myself, sometimes to the point of cruelty. There are other issues, but this one illustrates well enough. I am grateful for this lesson!"

This is one of the most important lessons to learn in life and the earlier you learn this one the better, for it is key in creating the relationships that you attract into your life. I know what you are going to say, you don't love yourself but you still love others and people still love you. Yes, but...even though everyone has someone who loves them and people that they love, you can love more deeply and unconditionally if you love yourself and it makes it easier for others to love you when they are not constantly having to build you up. It takes energy to constantly be building someone else up, energy that could be used for other things.

Now the next question I get a lot when discussion this topic is: Isn't wanting to take of myself a selfish thing? Another one is: Shouldn't I be more focused on helping and taking care of others first, isn't that the spiritual thing to do? Some comments I get are: I am too busy taking care of everyone else to worry about myself. They just don't allow me time to take care of myself. I just have too many flaws so focusing on others helps me to forget my shortcomings. I don't need to love myself to love others.

Ok, lets examine those aforementioned questions and comments:

Isn't wanting to take of myself a selfish thing? That question is coming from guilt. It is never a selfish thing to want to take care of oneself because if you are not in a good place physically, mentally and spiritually, how can you possibly be there fully for anyone else, if at all. So, it is not selfish it is in a selfless act.

Shouldn't I be more focused on helping and taking care of others first, isn't that the spiritual thing to do? Ahhh, I call this the martyr question. Well, part of the answer to this question is the same as the answer to the aforementioned question. You cannot take care of others if you do not take care of yourself. The second part of the answer is this; you do not have to suffer to be spiritual, in fact your suffering does not make you more spiritual, it just makes you more miserable. The universe wants you to be happy and healthy, if that is what you want! You are being more spiritual when you are happy and healthy, not depressed and sick.

Now for the comments I get all too often and mainly I have to say from women.

I am too busy taking care of everyone else to worry about myself. Really! I find this comment to be interesting for two reasons. First of all it flies in the face of all logic. Once again (I really hate to beat a dead house), if you do not take time for yourself you cannot be fully there for anyone else. You may think you are doing grand, unselfish things but in reality you cannot give 100% to those you want to take care of because you are not taking care of yourself. Secondly, aren't you putting yourself up on a pedestal, just a little bit? Maybe those that you think you have to constantly take care of would really be better served in the long run to have to do some things for themselves. Might actually build some confidence, independence and sense of responsibility in their lives.

They just don't allow me time to take care of myself. OK, do you have free will? Who is not allowing what to happen? It seems to me that if you point out the logic that I have put forth prior, it would actually make sense to them. Now, if you have loved ones that are so totally dependent on you that they rebel at first you have to first tell yourself, well I created this situation. Then just insist that you are going to take time to care for yourself and that they will just have to get used to it and fend for themselves. In fact, you may just want to point out that they should helping to take care of you too!

I just have too many flaws, so focusing on helping others helps me to forget my shortcomings. Yes, you are not perfect, nobody is, but ignoring things that you would like to change about yourself will not make them go away. They will just fester, get worse with time and eventually come out in some of the most unpleasant ways. No, if there are things you do not like about yourself then you must take the time and effort to change the ones you can and accept the ones you can't so you can truly love yourself.

I don't need to love myself to love others. This is probably my all time favorite. While it is true that you can love others and others can love you, even if you do not fully love yourself, it is never unconditional. You cannot give of yourself 100% because you do not have 100% to give. There is always going to be something either missing or lacking. Because you do not love you, you are going to question how anyone else can love you, either in your head or by actually asking. This can put a strain on even the best of relationships and has you in a constant state of worry. Is that any way to live?

You see loving yourself is in fact the selfless thing to do for it allows you to give your love unconditionally and allow yourself to be loved unconditionally. In this way there is no guilt, no martyrs, no anger and no resentment. There is simply love!

Make it a great day!

Please give my web site a visit @ http://www.raresenseunlimited.com/ and check out Tee Bee Dee and my profile @ http://www.tbd.com/viewProfile.html. Blessings!

My Encounter With Walter, Part 2

OK, so yesterday I told you about my wonderful encounter with Walter. Well there is more to the story. In fact there is a second story that he shared with me and I am now going to share it with you.

Walter went on to say that he was coming out of church one Sunday and saw a young woman that he had not spoken to before. So, in classic Walter style, he approached the young woman and said:

"Good morning! How are you today?"

The young lady smiled and responded: "I'm fine, how about you?"

Walter responded: "I am having a wonderful day!"

To which the young lady responded: "You know I have been coming to this church for some time now and you are the first person who has taken the time to speak with me."

Walter said he smiled and replied: "And so have many people have you initiated a conversation with."

Walter continued that a "knowing" recognition came over the young lady's face and as they parted ways he noticed that she had approached another couple and had began a conversation.

Sometimes in life we are so busy waiting for someone else to do something that nothing ever happens. If we want to see change in the world or just in our own lives we have to be willing to take the first step to make it happen. Yeah, it can be scary to be the first to initiate something but you have to work through the fear. Who knows you may get to have a highly spiritual experience like I had with Walter.

Thanks Walter for adding such a positive experience to my life!

Random Thoughts

From time to time I am just going to post some random thoughts of mine in a effort to affect conscious reflection and thought.

Things such as:

Why is it it seems that those that profess their religion the loudest are often the ones most likely to not even live by the basic tenets of their professed religion?

Why do we waste so much time on things like gay marriage when there are so many other issues that we should concern ourselves with like hunger and homelessness?

Why is the main stream media so focused on the "bad" that happens in society and seems to be is blind to all the "good"?

Why can't we just look at one another as human beings and forget all the rest of the things that separate us from one another?

Why do wonderful shows with redeeming value like Joan of Arcadia get cancelled when others like Wife Swap and Family Guy go on and on?

Why do some parents seem to think that schools and not them are responsible for teaching their children things like manners, respect and morals?

Well that's all for this time. I am sure I will have more in the future. remember I am trying to provoke conscious thought and help to expand minds. It is never my intention to offend anyone but if you are offended by anything I have asked above maybe you need to look inside your own heart and try to figure out why the question offended you in the first place!

Forgiveness: A sign of strength or weakness?

I have heard people say that revenge rather than forgiveness is the way to go. Some will even go as far to say that forgiving someone is cowardly, or unmanly, foolish and shows weakness. Don't believe them. Those are the people that want to live in the past and keep everyone else there as well.

For you see, that forgiveness is actually the more, strong, courageous, honorable, mature and spiritual thing to do. When we refuse to forgive another's perceived transgressions all we are doing is continuing to allow those same transgressions to hurt us over and over again. We are literally giving them power to take not only our time and effort but our spirit as well. So then, those that have transgressed against us in the past get the advantage of doing it over and over again.

No, forgiveness is neither weak, cowardly nor foolish. It is what we must do if we are to continue to grow and become the best person we can be and that takes, strength, courage and vision.

We are one or are we?

Of course in the spiritual sense we are in fact one but can we achieve this in the human sense?

For anyone that knows me, I will try to keep this short and simple as I feel that is best and allows people to ponder what I have to say without trying to decipher it. So here goes.
Yes, we can be one in the human sense but we have to get rid of or look past all the things we use to seperate one another. In fact seperation is so impervious to our society that this is why I say we need to start here. I mean other than the obvious (race, creed, sex, religion, nationality, sexual orientation) we do it in sometimes more subtle ways, from what teams we cheer for to what is our favorite color. Our society does its darndest to keep us seperate through labeling and membership in organizations. Don't get me wrong that is where our individuality lies but it is not where our humanity lies!

I am going to give everyone a simple and easy way to get us back to one and that is first looking at each other from the basics and that is first and foremost as human beings. Start there and all the seperation simply melts away. There is really nothing else we need to know about one another! If we simply start here we can create a society that values all its members, a society where harmony, balance and peace are the norm. A society that protects and loves all its citizens. A society where judgement, hate and fear is obsolete.

We can continue to use all those things that seperate us and we will continue to have a fractured society but the one fundamental truth will always remain, waiting to be recognized and acted upon. We are all human beings, period!

Spiritual or Religious

OK, now for my first post on something spiritual!

First of all keep in mind that I am giving my beliefs and/or opinions here. You may or may not agree with me and that is OK. I am not here to judge anyone and their thoughts/beliefs and that is one way that I believe that I am being spiritual. To me being spiritual means the following:

1. Having a direct and personal relationship with the universe or if you will God, Allah, etc.

2. Taking responsibility for your own spiritual growth.

3. Acceptance and tolerance for other people’s views.

4. Not attempting to convert anyone to your way of thinking.

5. Sharing your thoughts on things in a nonthreatening, nonjudgmental way.

6. Knowing that we are not perfect in this human form. I believe we are spiritual beings having a human experience!

7. Not following any specific religious philosophy but taking the time to try and understand the different religious viewpoints. I have read just about every major religious text currently out there and have discovered that they are all based upon the same principle and that is LOVE!

8. Keeping to my philosophy in one simple statement, "I do not care what you call yourself, just love one another!" It is not the label I am interested in but rather simply in how you treat both yourself and others.

9. Living my life from a position of love not fear.

10. Knowing that I am a compassionate, limitless being, capable of great things and that I am creating my experiences on this earth through my thoughts and actions!

I believe that people who say they are religious still need someone else to either guide them or to who they can look to to forgive them of their "sins". They need a more structured approach with all the ceremony and traditions of a religion and that is OK, as long as they are giving and sharing love and not judging and/or condeming others for their beliefs. I believe that religion is man made and spirituality is a direct connection to the source.

That are my thoughts on this subject. Whether you agree with me or not I would love to hear what you think and will neither judge nor condem you for taking the time to share!

Make it a blessed life! Namaste!