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How do you show you care?

“Love is not only something you feel. It is something you do.”

— David Wilkerson

In her book, ‘No Less Than Greatness,’ Mary Manin Morrissey speaks of a research study that explored how family members communicate with each other. Apparently, the most frequently spoken words between husbands, wives, sisters and brothers were “What’s on?” and “Move.”

She goes on to say, “We all desire great relationships but often settle for just getting by. Many of us have stopped questioning the fact that we may know fictitious TV families more intimately than we do our own.”

The most powerful force in our lives is our ability to love. Indeed, it’s the most basic essence of who we are. How do you experience and express your love for the people in your life?

“The whole idea of compassion is based on a keen awareness of the other…. The whole purpose of life is to live by love.”

— Thomas Merton

Two views

“… no matter what our difficulties may be, we recognize that there is a deep untroubled stream flowing below all surface troubles and that we are of one substance with that stream. The soul knows no difficulties.”

— James Thornton

Masters teach that we can experience two completely different states of reality at the same time — from the personality and from the soul.

Author Pema Chödron talks about being hungry, cold and tired but at that same time deeply content. Ram Dass speaks of how the emotional heart can be breaking while we recognize that all is unfolding perfectly.

Allowing our soul to be present with the discomforts of the personality shifts our experience of the discomforts.

“True self simply refers to the aspect of our being that is completely aware of its expanded nature no matter what we may be experiencing in our lives.”

— Martia Nelson

Forgive the hurts

“Forgiveness will never fail to free you.”

— Jerrold Mundis

How do we forgive when we’re angry and hurt?

As a first step, we can be willing to truly feel our anger and hurt. Honouring our feelings by being fully present with them helps to release the feelings themselves.

And it helps to remember that people only hurt others when they themselves are in pain. When we can recognize the other person’s suffering, our heart can open in compassion. We can also remember that at some time or another, we too have hurt someone through our own unskilful action.

Only love can heal the rifts caused by a hurtful deed. Forgiveness holds immense power because it mends separation. It moves us towards the unity and love that lie at the core of our being. It is a fundamental part of the healing process.

“Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future.”

— Paul Boese

“God has a big eraser.”

— Billy Zeoli

Use your power to create

“I am a child of God. I came from the womb of creation.”

— Tao Te Ching

Our grand business in life is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.”

— Thomas Carlyle

We each play a role in the bigger game of life. In this bigger picture, life plays with energy and matter to expand, create, express and evolve. It explores new possibilities, realizes them and then reaches for even more. Life continually transforms what is into something brand new.

We choose how actively we take part in this cosmic dance. We can become mere spectators to life if we get stuck in old ideas that have lost their energy for us.

How much passion do you feel for your goals? Are you still being creative in how you work with them?

“Embrace fully your capacity to create, to think in unlimited ways, and to pursue everything that you have been wanting. Be flexible, open and willing to let the new come to you. “This can be the most joyous, prosperous, and creative time of your life.”

— Sanaya Roman and Duane Packer

Time to blossom

“The voice of our original self is often muffled, overwhelmed, even strangled, by the voices of other people’s expectations.”

— Julia Cameron

Many of us unconsciously believe that we’re unworthy or defective. We adopted this belief very early in our lives when the people we looked up to disapproved of our demands, wishes and behaviours. We concluded that we had to learn to be good.

Unfortunately, ‘being good’ usually meant giving up our own differences or uniqueness. We learned that we might get the love we wanted if we acted and felt like others wanted us to.

If we seek true joy and connection with life, we now need to remove these artificial masks and express our deep authentic nature.

“For all those years you’ve protected the seed. It’s time to become the beautiful flower.”

— Stephen C. Paul

A light look at life’s journey

“Inside every older person is a younger person—wondering what the hell happened.”

— Cora Harvey Armstrong

“The hardest years in life are those between 10 and 70.”

— Helen Hayes (at 73)

“Old age ain’t no place for sissies.”

— Bette Davis

“Thirty-five is when you finally get your head together and your body starts falling apart.”

— Caryn Leschen

“If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn’t lead anywhere.”

— Frank A. Clark

“I’m looking forward to looking back on all this.”

— Sandra Knell