My Christmas Prayer to You

I offer this simple prayer to you in hopes that your days ahead are filled with peace and love. Please pass it on. Enjoy the day...Namaste

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I love you.

I’m sorry. I’m sorry for anything said or done, by me or anyone with whom you and I associate, which has caused you pain or sorrow. I’m sorry for anything that has not been said or done, by me or anyone with whom we associate, that has resulted in your pain or sorrow. I’m sorry for anything that has happened to cause you suffering, for as long as we have been with each other…for as far back in our past as either of us realize.

Please forgive me. Please forgive these moments when your experience of me in your life results in pain and sorrow to you. Please forgive these thoughts and feelings I have, the actions I take as a result of them, and the harsh consequences they bring upon you.

Thank you! Thank you for being You, for being in my life. Thank you the forgiveness you offer me in return for my contrition. Thank you for your petition to the Divine on my behalf, for the purpose of forgiving my thoughts and feelings of fear that result in ill-fated moments between us. Thank you for turning these fearful thoughts and feelings into Love.

I love you!

I'm learning how to blog

You will note an addition along the right margin of my blog, on my evaluating a course in blogging from the same company that produces Simpleology. I'm doing this for at least two reasons:
- I want to make certain I'm providing the best for you that I possibly can. I know I can write well, but can I blog well? That's what I want to learn.
- I would certainly enjoy making a blog for profit as well as fun. Whether or not it is this blog or another one I write remains to be seen.

In any event, I'm grateful for the opportunity to take the course. I will weigh in on it after I've completed it.

Enjoy the day! Namaste

In the big picture, we all are...

I've been busy. Not an excuse for failing to write here...I've spent my free time as lavishly as I have ever done, and perhaps not as haphazardly as I used to. It depends on your perspective. In any event, I could have taken the time to write, but until now I've had nothing I could articulate properly that would justify taking time away from anything else.

I've had opportunity to do a lot of soul searching since my last post. I'm travelling more for my work nowadays than I used to, and windshield time is a wonderful way to get in touch with yourself if you leave the radio off. I've realized that the radio is a great way to temporarily dumb down the voices in your head, but overall has little value if you're working toward achieving enlightenment. I'm looking for inspiration more often than I am entertainment or information, and real life encounters provide far more inspiration to me than anything else.

I realized, too, after several comments from friends who read my blog, that I can't simply be another person who contributes to the global dia-blog at an average or below-average level. Your time is far too valuable to be taken for granted, and so is mine. My time spent away from my keyboard is usually spent with my family, and lately during this holiday season, my friends. I do not intend to depart from any lifetime wishing I would have spent more time at the office, or at work, or even writing.

What I choose to write about has to come from my soul and touch yours, or I've wasted both our time.

Having said that, what I'm about to express in terms of gratitude seems morose if taken in the wrong context. Please read straight through before rendering judgment.

I've had encounters recently with a few people who are, at the moment, less fortunate than me. One gentleman told me his story about how he bought a one-way bus ticket from Milwaukee to look up a lady friend here in the Twin Cities. He had no address or phone number for her, only knew that she worked in one of the hospitals in the area. I was sitting in the Crystal Court at the IDS Tower, waiting for my wife and daughter to finish a little shopping, and was engaged in asking this gentleman questions around his predicament: What was the name of the lady-friend (to see if I could Google her for him)? Where is he staying? How is he getting home? What about the apartment and job he left behind? (Basically, I was vetting him for what came next.) I asked him what I could do to help. He thanked me for the time spent talking with him, and asked if I could spare a few dollars to go toward a meal. I did what I felt I could and wished him well. I didn't know at the time why I felt compelled to ask him so many questions, and yet felt good that I did what I thought was the best I could do.

Fast forward to about 2 hours ago. I'm on my way to my hotel for the evening, and miss my exit off the freeway. A few miles down I take the exit I know has a way to get back onto the freeway going the other direction. This is within the Twin Cities metro, on I-394 going into Minneapolis, and invariably some soul is standing at the top of the exit hoping for a handout. I forget this reality until he stares me in the face as I approach the top of the off-ramp. This evening there was a gentleman, probably in his 50s, with long white hair and a beard, and the stub of a cigarette in his mouth. He was not standing with his sign, but sitting on the ground (20 degrees above with a little wind, in case you're wondering about the weather). I dug through my wallet and gave him what I felt I could; he expressed the humble gratitude of someone in his predicament. With two left turns I was back on the highway and he was gone from my experience.

As I left him and turned back down the highway, I was asking the questions to myself this time: Why did I give him such a paltry amount? I could have done a lot more for him...why didn't I? It was only when I got to the hotel that I realized what that encounter was to me: A reality check on my own perception of where I stood in life, right at this moment. In my youth I aspired to be the Good Samaritan; here I was instead checking myself against this gentleman who needed whatever I had much more than I possibly did. By the time I decided to go back and make amends, he had already moved on.

The real kicker is that, as I sit here finishing up this entry, I'm thinking of the last time I had to go down to the bank to borrow some money to keep things going during my business dry spell. All the questions the banker asked me, all the inadequate answers I could only give him at the time, because those were the only answers I thought I had. I didn't blame him...that was his job. Yet it didn't feel any better being on the banker's side of the conversation as it was on the side of the two gentleman I met...in fact, in retrospect, it felt a lot worse afterward. I judged these two individuals based on who they appeared to be right now, not who they could be or who they were. And certainly not on who they are...children of the same Universe I belong to. No one ever aspires to reach the situation they were in, unless they are working themselves up from a far worse one.

What I'm grateful for is not that these poor souls are in the state they are in, but that they crossed my path when I need to meet them most. As I encounter these souls, I usually don't figure it out until after we've parted. I'm happy to say my timing is improving, although I realize I need to work on it. My goal is to get to the point where I never ask why or how, I only ask what I can do to help, and then I do more than is asked.

Because, in the big picture, we all are in the inside what we see and encounter on the outside. And to the extent I can help another soul on their journey, my journey will have been helped as well.

Thank you, dear reader, for your time. Enjoy the day! Namaste

How to Succeed at Life Without Even Trying

Facing the prospect of working 60-hour weeks for the next month or so, (thanks to the dogged determination of one recruiter whom shall at this point remain nameless, for fear that her workload doubles due to my mentioning her in my blog), I decided to treat myself to a little R&R yesterday by attending the Team Ortho Monster 5K and Monster Half Marathon in Minneapolis as a spectator. Marathon Woman and a few of her running club friends had signed up to run the half and, wearing dresses under the guise of "still running for prom queen", they all managed to PR the race. My daughter ran in her normal sportswear during the 5K timed race and PR'ed as well. Everyone had a lot of fun, and were discussing on the ride home the next dress-up race. My wife and I are considering date night some evening in the dress she wore for the race, since it was not only very practical but looked nice on her as well.

I'm grateful for the series of little actions that conspired to bring me to this event yesterday. I had planned originally for a weekend of toil in my home office, "toil" being the operative word here, as the home office is in such disarray right now that the Post-It Notes that clutter my desk match the rainbow of colors of the leaves outside, and are just as numerous. I wasn't necessarily needing an excuse to beg out of this project, to be certain. The late Friday afternoon call from my recruiter, offering me a short-term opportunity that fit precisely in my current work schedule, made me realize that my workdays will be longer and weekends shorter for the foreseeable future. Faced with that prospect, and realizing my daughter was going to otherwise have a few hours to herself alone at the finish line waiting for my wife and her friends to finish, I decided the office could wait a day in favor of spending some quality time with family and friends. The day was cool and sunny, the costumed runners enjoyable to watch, and the entire morning will be a fun autumm memory to cherish in the years ahead.

Only my daughter had the goal of setting a personal record for the race; the running club prom queens were simply out to have fun. The fact that they PR'ed was icing on the cake to them, and they were all quite pleased and surprised at their times when they came in. As I write this entry, I realize that maybe they hit onto something here. They were busy having so much fun running in their costumes that they apparently reached their usual goal of a personal record without even trying and, indeed, without it even being a goal at the onset. Perhaps the habit of doing the best they could given whatever circumstances were present at the time, served them in this current race almost automatically.

If my daughter hadn't signed up for the race, or the new project hadn't surfaced that I will be starting this week, I would not have been motivated to attend the race, and would have missed out on an enjoyable morning and this little insight into how the universe operates.

So, all in all, I'm grateful for these little nudges from the universe that tell me to get out and relax for awhile, pay attention to what happens, and reflect afterward to gain an insight and clarity. And now, I guess it's back to the Post-It Note raking and office excavating.

Enjoy the day! Namaste

When I Have a Million Dollars...

In all deference to the group "The Bare Naked Ladies", I've changed the repeating theme of their song to "When I have a million dollars..." and allowed that to dance around in my subconscious for these last few months. The idea here is to think of what I want as if I already have it, a concept every great thinker in every age has ascribed to. I can't say it's done much for my bank account of late, but I have noticed the phrase "million dollars" a whole lot more. It's shown up in a variety of random e-mails from various lists I belong to, been in conversations I've had, etc.

Now, I'm not completely naive to believe a million dollars will just show up out of the ether...I haven't perfected manifestation yet to even come close to this miracle. (Having said that, I still play the lottery with the idea that I need to have that avenue open for receiving the money should it choose that path to follow.) I do realize, however, that in order for me to earn a million dollars for me and my family, I need to provide service to others well in excess of that. The success stories that I've read all indicate this to be true in every possible sense and, as I further realize and understand, the avenue that the money follows in exchange for the service doesn't always follow a straight line. That is to say, it's not either an even trade nor a direct one.

So, how do I go about realizing this goal. First, by visualizing what I would do with the million dollars. This one is easy for me: Help others do the same thing I'm doing. When I have a million dollars and, therefore, the freedom to spend time as I see fit, the best use of my time outside family is in helping others achieve time and money freedom as well.

Next, by setting the receipt of a million dollars as a goal and releasing on it. The Sedona Method has a goals process that I can use for this including, and this is where I'm hung up on now, a process to release on how I feel about goals. (Good thing, too, as I'm aware of a lot of hangups on the topic of goals.)

Third, building a plan to follow and executing it with intention and intuition in pursuit of my goal. This might sound a little mushy here, but I think I've actually got a little of this part figured out. You see, there is another component to this that I recognized a long time ago and haven't really put to action. In order for me to earn any money, I can either trade it for a service that causes the other person in the transaction to lose, or that causes the other person to win. This is the win/lose scenario versus the win/win scenario. Now, if instead of trading a service or idea in exchange for money, I give it away instead with the intention that someone is better served by that idea as a gift, then I would expect whatever money as part of the exchange to come from another source.

Why would I do this? Well, for starters, I've had dozens of ideas over the course of my lifetime that I've never been able to get off the ground, sometimes out of fear of being taken for granted (my dad was noted for partnering up with the wrong people in his ventures, so I have that example in mind), or simply because I don't know the first place to begin. However, if instead of holding onto these ideas I allow them to find the path toward their fulfillment through others, then I could reap the rewards in the enterprises that I do know how to perform.

Thank you again, dear reader, for your time and attention. My moment of gratitude is, once again, in appreciation of your time in reading this post. I hope you find it worthwhile.

Enjoy the day! Namaste

Doubt, faith and my Higher Self

I came upon the realization this morning that my doubt in my higher self does me in more often than not. I find myself in an interesting quagmire with a variety of clients, obligations and circumstances that, in retrospect, are entirely my own doing. Had I taken everything on simple faith that it was going to work out for the best, keep my head firmly focused on the tasks ahead, life would be so much better now. Instead, I'm struggling and fighting to get stuff done...all because I let my ego get in the way and didn't simply have faith in my higher self / universe / God.

Having said all this, I have faith now that things will work out well despite my previous efforts...or lack of them. If I continue to get myself (ego) out of the way of my progress, I expect miracles to occur. Onward and upward!

Enjoy the day! Namaste

Marathon Woman (Part 2)

My wife made a personal record (PR) in her marathon yesterday. She had anticipated doing that, but the fact that the course reached a record 86 degrees made the feat something to really be proud of. Along the way she met a lady who she ran and walked with for most of the race. The notable part of this encounter was the fact that Pam was busy praying at the time for God to send her someone to help her get to the finish line. Mary Pat came along at precisely that moment, and stayed with here until about 2 miles from the finish, when she told Pam to go on ahead and get her PR. Mary Pat finished 11 minutes later.

What I'm grateful for about this encounter is two-fold. First, that they both met each other at precisely the moment Pam needed her to cross her path. At mile six she was already struggling with staying in the race, and her running group had already broken ranks, so Pam was pretty much on her own physically as well as emotionally and mentally; Mary Pat seemed to fill this void for her, and together they endured.

The second point of gratitude is the epiphany that came to me this evening while discussing this with my wife. She had related much of the story to me in segments over the last 24 hours, and the last comment was one she was sharing with our daughter about the her belief that God answers prayer. She said she knew that to be true because Mary Pat came by just as she was praying to God for help. I blurted out "What makes you think that you weren't the answer to her prayers as well? After all, that's what the Law of Attraction is all about...like attracts like. You both perhaps needed each other."

Where did this come from, I wondered later to myself. I knew in my mind this is true, of course, and have had a struggle lately trying to figure out what I've been attracting into my life. But I spoke this statement with such conviction that I realized that, deep down inside, I knew this to be true despite my current failures at making it work. Or is it perhaps a possibility that I'm attracting what I'm feeling subconsciously and haven't yet recognized it? At this point, I suspect the latter. So, can I let go of wanting to figure it out? :-)

Enjoy the day! Namaste

Marathon Woman

I am grateful today, tomorrow and everyday for my wonderful wife of over 15 years, who has put up with more crap from her spouse than any wife really should. I admire her dedication and perserverance toward tasks and goals she sets her mind to. Several years ago, running a marathon was simply a dream for her, and one for which she spent many long hours training in every weather imaginable before that first marathon became a reality. Now, on the eve of her second consecutive Twin Cities Marathon, I salute her. I wish you well, my dear, and trust that I will see you at the finish line close to your goal time and with a satisfied, exhausted smile on your lovely face.

Enjoy the day! Namaste

No Small Wonder

Of the many subjects I'm fascinated with, the one that has occupied a good deal of my time lately is the Sedona Method. Briefly, the Sedona Method is a way to release emotional and mental baggage trapped in your subconscious mind through past conditioning, habits, outdated beliefs, etc. It's a way of "letting go" of the feelings and wants that actually hold you back from having what you desire in the here and now. Skipping the whole backstory on how I was introduced to the Method, suffice to say that it fell under the same pattern that a variety of good-for-me activities pass through my life: I picked up on it in a moment of strife and struggle, found success in its application, then summarily put it on the shelf and went back to the same old habits when the crisis was over. At the time, I had yet to recognize that the very habits I resumed were the ones that got me to that previous crisis to begin with...I didn't pick up on that until the latest crisis emerged.

I've felt myself under a lot of pressure since the beginning of the year: Financial pressure mostly, with the occasional work and family issues peppered into the mix to keep it interesting. I read through the Sedona Method book once again and ordered and listened to the course CDs. I must say that the second time around it finally clicked for me. I have been since able to get through a fair amount of mental and emotional junk that I've been carrying around for decades and, yes, came to the realization that the latest crisis manifested from the same bad or outmoded habits that brought it about the last time.


As well, stuff from my early childhood had far more impact on me than I realized. For one thing, I had been carrying around this belief that if I gain sympathy from others, then I can get the approval and security to have what I want or need in life. This worked well in childhood, and being somewhat of a sickly kid when I was little, it almost seemed automatic. Too automatic, as it appears, as that belief born of jealousy and quiet despiration in my youth, once it was firmly imbedded in my subconscious, was doing a fine job of screwing up my adult life. Parts of my adolescence and adult life have followed this course, and other times in my life are the other side of the coin: I sometimes am drawn to the types of situations that require I ride in as the knight in shining armor, giving sympathy and aid with a passion to those in distress. You can imagine that these adventures at best wind up with me becoming bored once the original issue is resolved, or frustrated with the situation if it cannot be resolved. At worst, these situations can also become completely out of control and spiral downward in a big and nasty way.

I remember the "Peter Principle" which, in part, states that an employee will rise to the level of their incompetence. (The corollary I came up with in my youth was "Some people have a shorter distance than others"...a bit judgmental of me as I look at it with the wisdom of experience and age, but funny coming from a guy struggling to get attention.) I have a strong hope for me that the Sedona Method is the remedy for my individual experiences of the "Peter Principle". Pulling out the mental stops is certainly a good start, since those things tend to define my level of incompetence. Now I release several times daily, sometimes just because a feeling came up in my conscious awareness, other times when I'm pointedly working through an issue and a new feeling appears.

What I'm grateful for today is the set of circumstances that led me to this point in my life, not a very pleasant one I assure you. (More in another post...this one's too long already.) The whole sympathy notion is a startling revelation to me, to be sure, and one I likely would have never discovered if events and circumstances were different, as I had always saw myself on the other side of that arrangement. I've since seen other layers of emotion and misguided beliefs come forward...that's good, because now they can be let go as well. Had I known four years ago what I know now, I know I wouldn't be where I'm at today. I know that now, so four years into the future has a strong chance of being different than where I'm at today.

Enjoy the day! Namaste

Notes from the Universe

My wife and I have been subscribers to Audible for the last few months. We downloaded a title recently that was divided into multiple parts, as Pam wanted to listen to it for her book club while she was in her car traveling to and from work. (She can read the book faster than listening to it, but the local library didn't have enough copies for her and another club member, so she opted for CDs and windshield time instead.) However, two CDs in the middle of the set didn't burn properly, becoming repeats of previous sections of the book instead of the chapters they were to have been. I spent all of last evening trying to figure out how to reburn those two CDs.

At the beginning of the evening, while on Audible's website and on hold on the phone with their customer support, I clicked a link that took me to Mike Dooley's audio book "Notes from the Universe: New Perspectives from an Old Friend" and, after googling the title, to his website at www.tut.com. He was in the video "The Secret" and, initially, I wasn't sure what to make of him. His motto seemed almost too simple: "Thoughts become things". Yeah, I got that from all my other studies in metaphysics, etc. Nothing new here...or so I thought. Now, I'm kicking myself (and apologizing both to Mike and the Universe) for the judgment and for, once again, overthinking my life.

"Notes from the Universe" is nothing short of astounding, in my humble opinion. The book set is a compliation of notes e-mail to subscribers since its inception...it's on my list of books to purchase now. I became a subscriber last night, and the note I got today was spot-on to what I needed to hear...which is kinda refreshing, since the only other time that happens with regularity is in church -- my pastor's homilies often speak to me in ways that are really needed at the time they appear. The difference here is that my "Note" is a few minutes in length and is sent to my e-mail box every weekday. So, now I've got all but Saturday covered in the targeted inspirational message area of my life. Maybe I will read all the weekly notes again on Saturday.

I'm grateful that the problem my wife ran into with her audio book CDs resulted in reintroducing me to exactly what I need right now. Now I just need to get those two CDs fixed for her to return the favor.

Enjoy the day! Namaste

My First Post

I have two intentions for this blog. The first is to express gratitude at least once daily for something in my life. "Good" or "bad" are labels that won't apply in this context. Deepak Chopra, in the audio version of "The Book of Secrets", points out that polarity of experience is in our mind and in how we choose to label the stuff that comes along. Either it is good for us directly, or it brings us to or sets us up for what's good for us indirectly. Recognizing and being grateful for whatever comes along accelerates the process. So if you find my list of "gratitudes" a bit unusual, please consider them in this context.


The second intention for this blog is to pass along useful knowledge to anyone who reads it, such that the return value to me directly or indirectly reaches a predetermined goal I have in mind. Many people I've studied over the years have one ratio or another that is considered a benchmark for this exchange. The Bible mentions a 30-fold, 60-fold or 100-fold return for what is contributed, while modern-day philosophers consider it the other direction: Provide a "use-value" 10, 20 or 100 times greater than the monetary value you ask for. I believe the former falls under tithing, gifting or donation; the latter appears to be when you're attracting money through normal trade. Maybe that's the single difference between the two, if you're asking for a specific value compared to if you're contributing something of a specific value. I hope to understand that better someday; your comments here would be greatly appreciated.



So, what am I grateful for today? Second chances. I've been having an unusually difficult time posting this first message. I've put two or three different ones out here, only to either edit them or delete them and start again. The edits from my most recent attempt were actually lost altogether due to some computer glitch...no matter, I didn't like very much what I typed anyway. So now I feel I've finally got my mind wrapped around what to say, and I'm ready to start the party. I'm grateful for the second chance at making a first impression. :-)

Enjoy the day! Namaste