What I did on my Summer Vacation!

 I have made the decision to start my Summer Hiatus a week early, as I need the break.  Not that writing is so tiring, it is not, but life can be challenging, and so I have opted to simply treat myself to an extra week of rest and relaxation.  That being said, this will be my last Blog until my return the first Saturday of September, hence the title to today's blog.  Whereas I have no real idea what I will be doing over the next three months, there are a few things I would like you to ponder, and maybe we can have a discussion about it when I return.  Do we have a deal?

There is zero doubt that many have been tried and tested by fire over the last few years.  Many have succumbed to battles, others have survived, and many have simply scratched their heads wondering what in the world is going on right now. What I'd like you to do over the next few months is paint your story, your canvas,  of what you would like to do, like to be, like to experience.  It is in visioning things, that things come to pass.  We can focus on all the negative, but then negativity is the only thing that awaits you.  On the other side of the coin is seeing life the way life is supposed to be, inserting yourself into what life is supposed to be like.  No matter what might be going on around you, you are the only one who can control how you see something, how you react to things, and ultimately what you do on any given day.

If I had the ability to reach out and grant each of you your heart's desire I would do so.  If I had the ability to flip a switch and immediately the world would be as it was originally designed to be, I would also do that. Too many people are trapped in what they believe they need to be, and not what they were created to be.  The freedom to be you, the freedom to embrace the real you, the freedom to simply be has always been there, yet it has been torn away from most people by virtue of the conditioning of man.  Now I could go on for days talking about man's conditioning, but suffice it to say, man's conditioning has done you no favors.  We have been taught what we can do, what we should do, and most of the time it is contrary to what is in each individuals heart.  What I'd like you to do is look into your heart, listen to your heart, and follow what is in your heart.  Certainly those things in your heart may seem impossible to do, they may even scare you a bit due to the enormity of them, but once you embrace what is in your heart, then and only then will you be positioning yourself in the place you were always intended to be.

I want to go off topic for just a bit and say this: peace and tranquillity need to be accepted.  One can dangle the carrot of peace and tranquility in front of you, but that only leads to a never ending search for it, always reaching but never quite getting there.  It's kind of like that commercial with the fisherman who has the dollar bill on the end of his line and taunting the young lady who is trying to reach for it.  Well peace and tranquillity is nothing that you have to chase, it is something you just have to accept.  Not always the easiest thing to do, but believe it or not it is there for you if you will take it by the hand and walk with it.

So let's get back to the topic at hand, whatever are you going to do for the next few months?  If it were me, and this is just my opinion, but if it were me I would find time to simply relax, rest, and do something fun. Having fun with life seems to have been left on the side of the road some time ago.  We all get wrapped around the axel from time to time, but it seems that once you leave or depart that path of Joy, it becomes increasingly more difficult to get back on it.  Might I suggest you make a bee line for the Joy Path and never look back.  It may seem impossible, or just difficult to do, but is anything really impossible?  Picking up joy, peace, harmony is a choice.  You can either operate in all three or be void of them in your life, in which case my guess is life would pretty much suck.  Do yourself a favor and just think about peace and harmony.  Ask yourself what would life look like if peace, joy, and harmony were all three present at the same time?  One very wise man once said that if you can imagine anything you can create anything.  Well if you can imagine a life dominated by peace, joy, love, happiness, and tons of harmony, then chances are you will be walking in it. 

I love to write, but I equally love my time away from it because each year as I take time away I fill that time with me.  I am able to grow, I am able to dream, I am able to see things in a different light, and often what I see is what is about to come into play in my life.  If one never takes time for themselves and is always doing for others, the time will come when you will have nothing to offer others as you are empty.  Taking time for you is in reality a selfless act.  You cannot help others if you are not filled to the brim with your own peace, your own joy, and your own harmony with the rest of creation.  I'm not sure how we got so off track with the whole I need to work myself to the bone and will only take time for me when I get done.  Truth be told, there will always be those who have need, but if you can't take care of you, there won't be any of you left to help others.  Might I suggest that you take the next three months to fill your tank.  Trust me the world is probably not going to come to an end in three months, and if it does, oh well, we know the ending and how we fair.  

Allow me to end with this, and I hope it brings comfort, understanding, and a tiny bit of peace.  You are a remarkable creation.  You were placed here to do some remarkable things.  If you are not quite familiar with what You have been created to do, then now may be the time to ask the questions of your creator.  In the absence of asking the question, you will never have the answers.  When one begins to grasp the vastness of who they are, then and only then can they celebrate what they are going to be doing.  If one can only see small, then life will become even smaller.  When one sees the truth in who and what they are, then one can begin to walk in those things that were meant for them, and in walking in them, open of the gates of possibility.  

So let me ask you, what will you be doing on your Summer Vacation?  The choice is yours to make, and although it may be clouded by certain outside influences, if you listen to your heart, you will get the right answers.  Have a wonderful three months, and I will see you on the other side.  We have much work to do, and we each have a part, but we can only succeed when you are rested, when you are assured of what you are doing, and only when you buy into the importance of you.  It's a glorious time to be alive, and it is a wonderful time to walk in those things that are meant for you.  Have a blessed day.  I leave you love, light, peace, joy, and happiness.

For the Greater Good

 What is the Greater Good?  Does it exist in the world today?  Is there a way to determine what is the Greater Good, and even if you can find it or describe it, is it something that anyone even concerns themselves with any longer?  Now it may seem like I'm heading down a negative path, but I can assure that what I have to share today is very positive.  Today I want to inspire you, and at the same time let you know that you are set up perfectly to make a mark on this planet, and touch the lives of countless people, some of which you might never meet. 

Now let me address the picture associated with today's Blog.  The word "Grateful" should resonate with every individual.  There are times when we fully understand this word, when we walk in gratefulness, when we embrace gratefulness.  Sadly there are many who haven't felt this in a long time, but let's hope we can change that today.  When one is grateful one is aware of the blessings that abound around them.  Many of these blessings are for the individual, some are for the masses.  Either way being grateful is a state of mind, and it is this state of mind that will bring comfort, in some cases understanding, and mostly it brings peace.  Some might be asking what does being grateful have to do with the greater good.  Allow me a moment to explain, and I do believe you will see where I am going with this.

Each of us has a calling, a mission, a purpose.  This charge we have been given is not to hoard up for ourselves, rather to administer to the rest of the world, to those around us.  Our calling, our mission, our purpose and passions are for the greater good.  The talents each of you have are in you so you might accomplish your mission in this life.  I would suggest to each of you that this one simple truth should cause absolute gratefulness to surround you.  If you are not grateful, then I doubt very seriously that you are aware of your calling, nor will you ever accomplish it.  I don't say that as a judgement, rather it comes from a place of sadness as operating, walking in, living your purpose is the single greatest honor there is.

The Greater Good is simply placing the needs of others above your own needs.  I'm not saying that you should ignore the needs you have, or the needs of family and friends, but let's be real for a moment, and this is where the rubber hits the road.  If you are only thinking about yourself, then does it really matter what you have, what you do, or where you might be going?  At the end of the day what you think you have will only be a modicum of what you could truly have.  When your focus is on the greater good then it is impossible to out give God.  When your focus is on giving then you have assimilated to the world of the greater good.  Too many people fail to give because they are afraid of loosing what they have.  Sadly what they have has provided them their identity.  They have become what they drive, why they do for work, and they have missed who they truly are, or are at least unaware of who and what they are. 

When we work towards the greater good we open the gates of blessing.  I for one am grateful, there's that word again, but I am grateful for all that I have been asked to do.  Certainly there are times when I might come up short, when I might make a mistake, but I still move forward and do what I can do to the best of my abilities.  It is in my attempts, in my desire to walk in my calling that I find peace, where I find joy and happiness, where I find completion.  If you are constantly striving for more, seeking to hide it away for a rainy day, I can assure you that you will never have enough.  Comfort does not come because you have a huge house, fancy car, of large sums of money.  Comfort comes when you know you are walking in the perfect will of God, when you embrace all that you are, and when you joyfully give.  Now let me say this, least you think I am against having nice things.  You can have all the nice things in the world as long as those nice things don't have you.  When you only identify with what you own, that is a problem.  Being blessed is having the desires of your heart.  If those desires are in you, they are there and have been placed there for a reason.  Maturity knows what to do with the blessings, how to act with the blessings.  Sadly many people cry out to God for a blessing and when it doesn't come right away they feel God has abandoned them, not wanting to bless them.  The truth of the matter is that God may be waiting for the perfect time as if you receive it too early on in your journey you may not be ready for it.

Everything you are, everything you have, everything you think is ultimately for the greater good.  That doesn't mean you won't enjoy the fruits of your labor, it simply means your focus is not just on "Me" it is in fact on what you can do for others.  We live in a world where so many look out for number one.  We participate in a society where what you have is what places you are the community wish list for status.  Now not everyone is looking for status, but let's be real for a moment.  There are probably more people in the world who are looking for status than those who are not.  Doing things for the greater good of humanity may not be glamorous, it may not be seen as the thing to do.  Doing things for the greater good may never get you into a Hall of Fame.  However, doing things for the greater good will ultimately fill you with something that can't be bought with money, can't be replaced by fame or fortune, and can't be manufactured by those around you who know nothing about the greater good.  The knowing, the understanding, the acceptance of your calling is what will provide you with all the riches in the world. I don't mean monetarily, I mean riches in knowing that you get to do what you were created to do.  

It is time to seek out those things that will benefit others, things that will change the world, things that are for the greater good.  This is why you were called, chosen, and why you see things a little differently than most others around you.  Stand in your visions, your dreams, your passions.  I promise you that doing this will indeed change humanity, and after all isn't that what's important?  

When you care to give the very best!!

 The Gift of Giving, often misunderstood, often misused, and far too often misguided. The actual practice of giving, or what should be the practice, has lost its place in many societies today, and so today I want to help change that.  Today I want to bring you my take on giving.  I want to make a few suggestions, and it is my hope that you will walk away with a new vitality.  I hope you will see things a little differently, and in those subtle differences maybe make a small course correction from where you were headed.

We have different reasons for giving, but at the end of the day what matters most is the heart motive for giving.  I've been in so many situations that called for giving, and that is when the process begins, and just as importantly when the rational is used for each gift. Let me explain, and maybe you will see where I'm going with this. We give gifts for many reasons. Obviously the two biggest days of the year for gift giving is Christmas, and or course Birthdays.  We will spend hour on top of hour trying to figure out the prefect gift.  Countless hours of sleep are lost each year as you toss and turn trying to figure out what to get, how to present it, and hope against hope that your gut was telling the right thing to give. Seems to me that the stress one succumbs too in the process of selecting the perfect gift, in presenting the perfect give, somehow takes away from the joy of giving the perfect gift. Am I wrong? 

I can remember trying to figure out what to do about Christmas shopping.  Now in Christmas shopping it is critical that you match what is anticipated from other family members.  As if one has ESP and can come within two cents of what someone else spent, and now the hunt was on to find the right priced item that may or may not be exactly what you were thinking about getting, but since the parameters were changed midstream you had no choice but change your choice of gifts. Kind of takes away the intent of giving wouldn't you say?  I guess the question that arises from this scenario is this: are you giving because you truly want to, or are you giving because it is expected of you?  When I am expected to do something I can tell you it takes all the joy out of it, and when all the joy is removed from the equation, then more often than not so is the reward.  I'm never looking for a pat on the back or something given in return.  What I desire is knowing that I heard from God and that I followed through.  Keeping up with the Jones' is just not the game I wish to participate in when it comes too giving.  

Most everyone has been in the situation when you truly desired to give, but in that moment did not have the resources to do much of anything.  Let me ask this, and you don't have to answer but just think about it. Has anyone not gone to a party, after you said you would be there, because you were unable for whatever reason to get a gift for the occasion?  I've been there, and I've allowed my fear of what others would think to stop me from enjoying what I had been invited to participate in.  Sometimes gift giving takes on a whole new meaning based on ones financial standing or status, and often the true meaning gets lost based on the expectations of others round you, and your very own expectations.

For a moment let's forget about gifts in general and look at giving motives, or should I say giving prompters.  Why do we desire to give?  What are our own motivations?  Each person is different, and each time we give we are going to be challenged to stand on those things we believe, verses what others expect.  Quite frankly I am over having to meet someone else's expectation of my giving habits. If I choose to simply provide a card with words of encouragement and love for a particular event, should that be looked  down upon because it wasn't as splendid as the flashy new car sitting in the driveway?  Sadly we pretty much know the answer to that question, but that doesn't make it right.  We simply have to worry less about other's impressions of our actions, or their critique of our gift selection, and focus more on what we are being lead to do, and stick to that leading.

I love to give, working on the receiving portion of that equation, but love to give.  What I don't love is when I fall into the trap of having to fit in with the giving. What I don't like is having to do what others have set up as a standard.  Don't misunderstand, there are times when limits or parameters are required, but what I am talking about are the mental limits or parameters that others place on you.  When did the free process of giving, giving with love, giving with compassion, giving with thought, when did that all become legalistic and far less free?  When did giving stop being fun, and when did we become victims to our own giving?  Quite frankly I am tired of having to live up to someone else's expectations, and it's time we all just say enough is enough.  Here's my new baseline: I will do as I want, as I please, as I am directed to do by my Creator, and if anyone has an issue with that, you can take it up with God. How's that sound?  Think it may be time to put joy and happiness back into giving, and walk away from the whole expectation setting crowd?

I want to give because I love to give.  I may not always pick out the right gift, but it is my belief that if I base my choice on what I am being guided to do, then it will be the perfect gift.  Perfection for the moment, perfection for the person, and perfection for the situation.  I give with zero expectation of a return on my investment from the person I just gave to.  I give with zero expectation of how they will use the gift.  If you desire to regift it next year, hey, makes for less shopping for that pesky gift swap at the Office Christmas Party.  I don't give to get, I give because that is my nature, and that is what I truly love doing.  My desire to give is based on my love of self, and wanting others to know they are loved just as much.  My motivation for giving is to change a life.  My motivation for giving is love.  My motivation for giving is nothing more than accepting the joy of giving, and to be honest that is good enough for me. 

I can't and won't tell you how to give, or why to give.  What I will challenge you with is that you decide why you give, and just know the real reason.  We all will have different reasons, different motives, but when all is said and done, was God involved with your decision?  Big, small, new or used, matters not.  Any gift based on love will be the perfect gift, even if the recipient doesn't see it yet.  When one plants a seed it will come to full maturity at some point, and a gift given may take time to germinate, may take time to grown, but it will never come back void when you have followed your heart, and done what was in the perfection of your design. 

When you care to give the very best, give from your heart.  When you care to give the very best cover it in love.  When you care to give the very best then it doesn't matter what you give, what matters is you. When your desire is to give the very best, then I can assure you that will happen. Never give up on giving, and never doubt the significance of your willingness to give, that in and of it self will change the world.