We sometimes hold onto

what we should let go,

and let go what we should

hold onto.



Look at It This Way...

"When I look around, I see that there's too much pain and suffering caused by evildoing, catastrophe, and economic crisis. Is danger hovering around us all the time, or is there another way to look at things. --- Len, 31, Portland, Oregon

"I'm sure you realize that there is another way to look at things, so the real question is how to adopt another way. You can't talk yourself into seeing sunshine on a rainy day. If you try, you are deluding yourself. Many people, thinking of themselves as realists, feel the same about good and evil. They don't want to take their eyes off the negative aspects of life, because realism demands that we take the bitter with the sweet.

"Yet who is to say that the bitter is more real than the sweet? If your vision of life contains love and peace, if you yourself has renounced violence, if you set yourself on the spiritual path, these things don't mean you aren't a realist. they mean you aim for a higher reality. I don't mean God, although I am not excluding religion. We are talking about hidden potential. Human nature is divided; it contains both darkness and light. You can choose to accept the darkness and lament it, or you can choose to expand the light until the darkness no longer dominates.

"There is no getting around this choice, which is highly personal. I know that millions of people are alienated and disenchanted.They sit passively watching the latest reports of violence and catastrophes, corruption and misdeeds, float by on the evening news. But the old adage is true: one candle is enough to cause the darkness to go away. Once you choose to raise your own awareness, you will have done the most you can to defeat the dark side of human nature and to discover that a higher reality can actually be found and lived. "

--- Deepak Chopra

(Spiritual Solutions)

The Soul in all living creatures...

When someone's in the dark,
even a candle makes a
difference.

You can be a candle.

"You are the light of the world. " --- Jesus

Hatfields and McCoys: a history of hatred

I'd been looking forward to watching the made-for-TV-mini-series since first I saw it advertised on The History Channel --- the legendary feud between the Hatfield family and McCoy family. 

For two nights Tammy and I watched. Finally, we turned stopped. We grew weary of knowing what was going to happen next --- someone was going to 'get kilt' --- either a Hatfield or a McCoy, someone was going to get shot or stabbed to death.

One thing the mini-series did, though, was prompt a good discussion between Tammy and me about hatred and what it does to the human heart. Whether we'll admit it or not, all of us have the capacity for intense hate --- given the fertile circumstances. Also, in the right circumstances, we all have the capacity, not just for hate but also, to execute atrocities to which hatred gives birth. 

Nothing good is ever born of hatred. Nothing.

The mini series depicted the animosity between two families for each other, the Hatfields and the Mccoys, and the cancer it becomes. While the killing of each by the other was tragic, the truth is once a person is dead, they're dead. They're harmed no longer.

The real tragedy depicted by the series is what hatred, and it's kith and kin, does to the human heart. Before any deed is done, it's a thought that simmers unseen. After a thought simmers and gives birth to a deed, the memory of the deed simmers, unseen, in the heart and impacts the soul.

Each of us has a higher self and also a lower self. Like the words in Robert Frost's Poem, which we choose makes all the difference:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference. The two roads of Frost's poem are in my heart. The one less traveled is the more difficult of the two. It's the road of my higher self.

Home is...

A heart divided has no home.

An Oldie, but a Goodie --- Desiderata

Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons,
they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.

Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs;
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.

You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.