John Cotta Dana

"Who dares to teach must never cease to learn."

Intention

Read the quote by Peggy below this post. I wanted to share an example of how this works. Last week we had our county fair. Each year, my children and I enter items to be judged, from animals, to artwork, to crafts and baked goods. This year I decided I wanted to enter some cinnamon rolls. I had a new recipe that were hands down the best I have ever tasted. And I knew what I wanted with those rolls. The yellow, Best of Fair ribbon. You have white for third, red for second, and blue for first. But items that are exceptionally good, get an additional yellow ribbon. There are very few given. And I wanted one!

As I began making the cinnamon rolls, I thought about that Best of Fair award, I imagined it my mind and I got REALLY excited. Because I knew I was going to win it. Well, it really helps to have a fail proof recipe. But, I combined intention, with faith, and emotion. When I took them to the fairgrounds, I thought by morning when they judged they would be perfect. And then as I judged in another area, I realized the judging would be done immediately. I actually had a moment of doubt until I realized that my cinnamon rolls were still warm. Oh they would be even yummier and they can just hand me the yellow ribbon now.

When I had completed my judging and left, I could see that my rolls had been judged and given a blue ribbon, but they had been set aside with a few other things. I guessed that these were the potential yellow ribbon items. I went home and completely let it go. I did not worry or fret or wring my hands. I just went home happy.

Usually we go early to the fair, but we did not have animals this year, so it was after lunch before we wandered down. I wasn't even thinking about the yellow ribbon. I just wanted to go in and see if any of my children had won ribbons on their artwork. And lo and behold, I was met at the door by someone I knew with a big smile on her face as she saw me. She asked enthusiastically, "did you see what you won!?" I told her I had not. And she shared the happy news that I had won the Best of Fair ribbon on my cinnamon rolls as I had hoped. I literally jumped with joy and clapped my hands. It felt good to be validated on my accomplishment, but even better to have seen and felt the accomplishment as if it had already happened and then experience it again. Awesome!

Believe.

Peggy McColl

Our intention, coupled with strong feelings of curiosity, enthusiasm, and faith, takes us from seed to flower, and becomes the driving force of achieving or attracting anything.

Believe.

Wayne Dyer

"You'll seldom experience regret for anything that you've done. It is what you haven't done that will torment you. The message, therefore, is clear. Do it! Develop an appreciation for the present moment. Seize every second of your life and savor it. Value your present moments. Using them up in any self-defeating ways means you've lost them forever."

Believe.

9/11 a day late

If we fail to remember the lessons of 9/11, what is the point of remembering?

Where were you when the world stopped turning that September day
Teaching a class full of innocent children
Driving down some cold interstate
Did you feel guilty cause you're a survivor
In a crowded room did you feel alone
Did you call up your mother and tell her you love her
Did you dust off that bible at home
Did you open your eyes and hope it never happened
Close your eyes and not go to sleep
Did you notice the sunset the first time in ages
Speak with some stranger on the street
Did you lay down at night and think of tomorrow
Go out and buy you a gun
Did you turn off that violent old movie you're watching
And turn on "I Love Lucy" reruns
Did you go to a church and hold hands with some stranger
Stand in line and give your own blood
Did you just stay home and cling tight to your family
Thank God you had somebody to love
~Alan Jackson

A lot of wonderful things came out of 9/11. God, family, country. Brotherhood, unity, love. America. Remember and believe in goodness.

Gratitude in ALL things?

In the Bible, in Ephesians, it says, "give thanks always for all things unto God..." and in 1 Thessalonians it says, "in every thing give thanks."

Count your blessings. It's a familiar phrase. It's so easy to do it when life is good and things are humming along how we plan. But life often gets in the way of living and our plans and when it does, are we still grateful? Well, in all things? Like in everything? Yes, in everything. I am not claiming to be an expert, but this is my current focus. To give thanks and gratitude in all of my experiences. So, when the septic system crashes, "thank you God, I know you provide." When there is a problem with a neighbor, "I am grateful that I have an opportunity to strengthen a relationship, practice forgiveness, and overcome my weaknesses."

As I have continued to practice gratitude, I have discovered something. When you are purposely focused on gratitude, you are not focused on all the negativity that you might normally focus on. As a result, I usually feel less anger, frustration, stress and so on. And by being more positively focused, I often find a solution much more quickly than if I was bogged down in the mire of negativity that I might otherwise choose.

Something else I have discovered is that the more gratitude I feel, the more I have to be grateful for. I have found the following statement by Sarah to be true:

“You simply will not be the same person two months from now after consciously giving thanks each day for the abundance that exists in your life. And you will have set in motion an ancient spiritual law: the more you have and are grateful for, the more will be given you.” — Sarah Ban Breathnach

And here are a few more I like.

Melodie Beatti:

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity.... It turns problems into gifts, failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow."

Wallace Wattles:
"The grateful mind is CONSTANTLY fixed upon the best. Therefore it tends to become the best. It takes the form or character of the best, and will receive the best."

Sarah Ban Breathnach: (She is the queen of gratitude)

“Both abundance and lack exist simultaneously in our lives, as parallel realities. It is always our conscious choice which secret garden we will tend… when we choose not to focus on what is missing from our lives but are grateful for the abundance that’s present — love, health, family, friends, work, the joys of nature and personal pursuits that bring us pleasure — the wasteland of illusion falls away and we experience Heaven on earth.”

Heaven on earth sounds like something more of us can use. I remind myself on a regular basis when something presents itself to be unhappy about, that I am seeing an illusion. I am free to choose my reality and am choosing it more and more. Be grateful. You'll be glad you are.

Believe.

PS. Sometimes life hands you some pretty raw deals. Be grateful then too? Well, reservedly yes. There are some times when you are just going to plain and simple feel rotten. It's ok to have these feelings if we don't dwell on them for lengthy periods of time. Even so, we can still find things of value in all of life's experiences. I recommend highly a technique called EFT to help overcome those experiences that have a way of dragging us down. How well does it work? It helped me overcome the grief of my mother's suicide. And that is only the tip of the ice berg. See the video on the sidebar I am going to add now.

Stephen R. Covey

"Our ultimate freedom is the right and power to decide how anybody or anything outside ourselves will affect us."

You hear people say things like Mr Covey and it sounds so great in theory. But what about practice? Practice *IS* the key. The hardest work I have ever done over the last few years is to train, direct, and guard my thoughts. It does take practice. It isn't easy when someone harms you, to bless them, be grateful for the experience, and refrain from slandering them to all your friends. But it can be done. It isn't easy to hear a juicy piece of gossip and refrain from picking up the phone and spreading it. But it can be done. And it gets easier.

I watched Facing the Giants the other day. There is a line, where the coach says, "if we win, we praise Him (God), if we lose, we praise Him. I was thinking how similar that is to gratitude. If we have good things happen, we can choose gratitude. If we have bad things happen, we SHOULD choose gratitude. It's all about the attitude.

We had an experience with a son two years ago as a senior. We are having the exact experience this year with the current son who is a senior. But, the way we are handling it is night and day. Last time, there was emotion, upset, and distress. This time, there is thought, planning, and resolve. I think the outcomes will be drastically different.

Choose your thoughts. Believe.