Creating Peace

I’ve been inspired by the post World Peace a Housewife’s Perspective by A Leaf in Springtime.   Her post has had me thinking on peace in general.  I feel strongly that we need to start with ourselves; we need to find peace within ourselves.  Peace cannot be imposed on someone, it has to come within.

I may have been influenced by the song Let Peace Begin with Me; when I was growing up Coca-Cola used this song for their ads. If you have been reading my posts, you already know that soft drinks had a strong influence on my early years.  Here are a few lines from the song:

Let there be peace on Earth,
And let it begin with me.
Let there be peace on Earth,
The peace that was meant to be.

Combining this thought with the fact that the only person we can change is ourselves makes sense to me.  Seeking inner peace is a simple solution, but I believe it to be the only true path to peace.  If we all seek the peace within ourselves and find it, then we will be at peace with not only ourselves, but with every one we meet.

We are influenced by those around us.  If we can find inner peace we can spread peace to our neighbors, co-workers, friends and family; they in turn can spread it.  So on and so on.

Life is good!  God is great! All is right in my world!

Blessings,

Genie

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Changing Yourself Works When

I’ve been thinking about change lately.  Mainly why it works and why it doesn’t work sometimes.

Life is good!  God is great!  All is right in my world!

Blessings,

Genie

How to be Happy – Genie’s Way

It’s been a rocky journey with a lot of wrong turns and dead ends, but I finally have found the path to happiness or least my path to happiness.  Here is a list of my happiness secrets  – the ones I can remember:

1. Do random acts of kindness.

2. Love yourself

3. Surround yourself with loved ones

4. Be grateful for what you had, what you have and what you will receive

5. Spend quality time with your family and friends

6. Spend quality time with yourself

7. Be of service aka volunteer to help someone or an organization

8. Do something you are passionate about i.e. hobby, travel, project, job etc.

9. Forgive everyone including your self

10. Value what you have

11. Compare yourself of today to past self, not to anyone else

12. Respect everyone even those folks you do not understand

13. Get plenty of sleep

14. Have an active spiritual life

15. Know that happiness comes from within – no one or no material good can make you happy

Life is good!  God is great!  All is right in my world!

Blessings,

Genie

Goals

Life is good!  God is great!  All is right in my world!

Blessings,

Genie

Working for God

It’s occurred to me over the years that working for God doesn’t mean you have to be a religious leader.  I believe that when you are living life with love in your heart, you are working for God.

It doesn’t matter if you are a Writer, Artist, Reiki Master, Custodian, Pilot, Firefighter, Librarian, Teacher, Secretary, Clerk, Cashier, President, Spouse, Parent, Bus Driver, Truck Driver, Factory Worker, Designer, Student, Photographer, Actor, Computer Guru, Manager, Nurse, Doctor, Engineer, etc. as long as you have love in your heart for God, us humans and all beings; then you are working for God.

How do you know if you are truly working for God?  Do you feel a sense of peace from head to toe and deep down to your soul? When you are on the way to work are you thinking how happy you are and how much you are looking forward to being of service today?

If you are not feeling IT, and you are thinking on the way to work how much you are dreading today. Do not worry not all is lost.  You do not have to change jobs. You can if you must, but it isn’t necessary; just change your attitude.  The same job you are tolerating and just doing to get a paycheck can become working for God.  It all starts with your own personal feelings.

Find something you like about your job.  First on the list could be that you receive money for just showing up and being there.  A paycheck, that’s something to be grateful for. Then look at your coworkers, find something about each one of them that you like. Even the co-worker you just cannot stand has something about them that is good.  Perhaps at this point the only good you can see, is that they are stubborn no make that determined.

I know this works, because I have used it in my own life.   If you have other tips we can use, I would love to know.  Please share your wisdom and leave a comment.

Life is good!  God is great!  All is right in my world!

Blessings,

Genie

Forgiveness

I have work diligently for over a decade to forgive those who have hurt me in the past whether it was real or an imagined hurt.  Every time I think “I have forgiven X,” I find later on that I truly have not.

I believe this is a huge flaw in me and I wish whole hearty to forgive.  My mind knows that Buddha was right when he said “Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.”

I truly know that I am hurting myself by not truly forgiving everyone.  There is something inside of me that will not let go completely.   I know that I am holding myself back from experiencing that best me I can be.   I do believe what Paul Boese said “Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future.”

So what do I need to do to let go of that final piece of imagined hurt?  I’ve been pondering that for years, then today on Facebook someone posted this quote by Orpah, “True forgiveness is when you can say, “Thank you for that experience.”  Wow, that is an eye opener.

So how come I’m not rushing to say “Thank you” to X?  ­­­At this point I can say the words, but I don’t truly do not feel thankful.  I just had a thought; I should do what­­­ I’ve been doing since I started on my spiritual journey: pretend until it becomes reality.  Or in other words: visualize the possibility, because I know everything created began with a thought.

Life is good!  God is great!  All is right in my world!

Blessings,

Genie­­­­

Quotes from the Masters: Picasso

Robin Jean Marie issued a challenge on June 2, 2012 in one of her blog posts called Quotes From the Masters: Picasso and I have accepted the challenge.  Here’s the quote for this particular challenge: “Everything you can imagine is real” by Pablo Picasso.

This quote speaks to my philosophical nature.  I just love to think about “what if?”  What if, everything out there and right here was a shared illusion?  What if, we could change our lives by not limiting ourselves to what is the norm?  What if, we could imagine ourselves into a much better world?

There is a theory out there that this universe, world we live in, is a hologram. Our true selves have dreamed up this world so we could learn and grow stronger spiritually.   I recently was introduced to this theory when a friend cleaned out his bookcase and let me take what I wanted of his rejects.  I have only read the first few pages so I really don’t know what the author’s theory truly is, but I just had to put down the book and start thinking “what if?”  I’ll get back to the book shortly, but in the meantime I am having loads of fun stretching and wrapping my brain around the concept.

Here is my take on this theory – remember this is rough draft material here, because I haven’t actually read the book.   This theory is a twist on the movie Matrix. We aren’t fighting or struggling against an outer enemy like the characters in the movie; instead we are fighting and struggling with inner enemy – our self.

We are spiritual beings temporarily housed inside a human body.   I accept this truth.  I know each one of us is a powerful being, who can bring what is needed to this shared illusion to create the experience needed for our highest good.  Using our imaginations is a good place to start.

I imagined in the past, thus creating the future I’m living today.  I imagined that would own a house for years then came the day when I did.  I imagined that I would have a college degree; I applied myself and eventually became a college graduate.  I am in the midst of imagining my future and I know that this too will be real.

How I know that I can be happy no matter what happens to me or around me makes more sense.  The shared illusion can be that life is rough and you have to struggle to just get ahead doesn’t have to be my truth.  I can be happy, no matter what situation I find myself in.  I imagine me being happy and so it is.  That’s so cool.  I imagine me being joyous and so it is.  This is totally awesome.

Life is good!  God is great!  All is right in my world.

Blessings,

Genie

Thoughts

It all starts with a thought. Everything!  Isn’t it amazing that all that is created started with a thought?  Nothing happens until someone thinks some version of “That can be done” then gets up and does it.  I find that amazing.  It doesn’t matter if we are creating a piece of artwork, a blog post, a chair, a house, a garden, a hug, etc.  It all starts with a thought.

What are you creating?

Life is good!  God is great!  All is right in my world!

Blessings,

Genie

Labyrinths are a wonderful place to clear your mind of worldly thoughts so you can refresh and create

I Choose

Each day we make choices about our thoughts, which affect our feelings, attitudes and behavior.   Consciously or subconsciously we are constantly making choices about our actions or reactions to our world. I believe we need to stop and think about what we are choosing and why.  If you are not aware of how your thoughts that are affecting your choices; a good place to start is with your actions and reactions.

What is your automatic reaction to adverse conditions?  Do you react in a positive or negative manner; or are you neutral?   If you don’t know, I have a few questions for you:  How would you react if you dropped a full egg carton in your freshly cleaned kitchen and all 12 of the eggs splattered everywhere (on the floor, cabinets, stove, chairs, table, etc.)?    Would you calmly clean up the mess and go on with your day?  Would you rant and rave until you got it out of your system?  Then would you clean up the mess and tell everyone you meet what a rotten day you are having or would you let it go?  Or is your reaction something else?

I picked this example, because it happened to me about thirty years ago and I just looked at the mess a bit stunned, sighed, then cleaned it up and went on being happy.  I haven’t managed to drop a full dozen since then, but I have dropped an egg or two since.  My reaction changed as I changed.  There was a time or two (that’s all I feel like admitting to at this point) when I was so angry about other things in my life that I let myself become frustrated about dropping the eggs and I let it set the tone for the day.  It was further proof that the world didn’t like me much.  Crazy thinking, but that was where I was then. Looking back I prefer my original reaction.  My day was peaceful; because I didn’t take one small incident and exaggerate it to the point that I let it ruined my whole day.

“I let” is the answer to choosing how I react.  I let myself choose to remain happy, no matter what happens.  I’m admit at times I still let myself pout a bit, until I realize what I’m doing then I consciously choose to be happy and have a peaceful day.

Life is good! God is great!  All is right in my world!

Blessings,

Genie

How My Mind Works

I’ve been asked how I find the good in negative events.  Well, sometimes it’s easy and sometimes it’s a huge challenge, but eventually I get there.  I thought I would write my thought process on a minor negative event in my life – hey, I’m not going out there to look for a major one to write about.

The temperature is in the mid-90s where I live and summer is nearly a month away.  I do not want to think about the coming summer’s temperature.  Wait I’m already off topic.

I found out the other day that my car’s air conditioner isn’t up to the job of even pretending it’s going to keep me cool.  It was mid-afternoon, the temperature is 94 degrees and it probably will get higher before the day is over.  I needed to go somewhere that is a 15 minute drive away.  Okay, I’m the queen of finding the good in everything.  What’s the good in this?

Hmmm.  I have a nice pink glow happening here and I really look good in pink.  Okay, I’m laughing at myself now; I’m on the right track.  What else?  I’m sweating off at least a pound or two as I drive from here to there and back again.  Sweat releases toxins from the body so I’m going to be really healthy by the end of the day.

That’s not quite enough what else can I think of?  I have a working car that’s beautiful – red.  My car works, so I don’t have to walk or bum a ride.  It’s okay I don’t have the money to fix the air conditioner, because all the Saturn dealerships are closed so there is nowhere to take my car to get it fixed. I’m counting that as a plus.

Let’s see what else?  The humidity is high enough to cause me to have breathing issues, but I have a car to take me to the medical clinic when I need to go.  The folks at the medical clinic are wonderful and seem to be happy to see me.  Then there is the bonus they know what they are doing and they care.

What bonuses can I find about the weather?  There is a possibility that I will be able to grow my own tropical fruit trees if the climate stays this warm each year.  I’m thinking mango trees to grow with peach trees to make my favorite blended juice.  I had to stop and find out if mangoes grow on trees.  I’m thankful for the internet – I got an instant answer “Yes, mangoes grow on trees.”

By the time I got to the medical clinic I was hyperventilating, so before my butt got comfortable in the waiting room chair, I was called back.  See, they care about me here.  I scared the receptionist and she got the medical staff busy.

I should tell you that this is the place where I was given a prescription for a wheelchair nearly two years ago.  Everyone there is excited to see me walking.    Let me stop and tell you that I was having trouble breathing, because of allergies – so nothing really serious going on.  A couple of prescriptions and I was good to go.  I got to talking to update them on my life, basically bragging about myself.  I showed the nurse my new Reiki business card.  She said she would keep it so she could recommend me to her patients.  So I dug out of my purse all the business cards I had and gave them to her.  Do I really need to explain the great positive there?

So that’s how I think. This is how I get from being in a negative moment to being a living breathing positive force for good.  I think it would work for anyone.  Do you?

Life is good!  God is great!  All is right in my world!

Blessings,

Genie

I already know will have to grow enough fruit trees to share