Wearing sunglasses

Wearing sunglasses

The sun shines  on a non cloudy day with unhindered brightness. You put on your cool polarized sun glasses and give your eyes the much needed shade. You look at things through your glasses very differently. If you turn your head from side to side while focussing on some lcd screens you may find that an interesting illusion occurs. Objects on the screen appear and disappear depending on the direction you move your head ergo your glasses. This phenomenon is understood due to the simple physics of the polarized glasses in that as light is essentially blocked in one plane or the next depending on the angle of the glasses. This got me thinking....

All too often we exist within our lives with out ever living as we are always wearing these shades over our eyes. We do not and sometimes cannot see the goodness and the beauty surrounding us through nature, through mankind, and certainly cannot appreciate our own reflection of perfection that we choose to ignore. After a while we are so used to seeing everything through these shades that our brains, our  minds and our hearts forget that we have become polarized and biased in what ever we see. We turn a blind eye to injustice, lying, greed, jealousy and then live in a field of negativity, totally unaware of our situation. The darkened sensitivity becomes the norm, and we then blend with the darker shades of light and become jaded right into our core. We are unable to see the lighter side of things. We are unable to appreciate the positivity, the warmth of natures beauty, or the genuineness of others. If everyone just roamed around with their sunglasses on at all times of the day, well who is left to testify that there is light to be seen. 

With these polarized glasses and reduced vision we are easily swayed and lose perspective and believe that everyones' intentions are also flawed and in error, and that is when the ego comes in to tell us that we are right and that only our individual pair of branded sunglasses are the correct vision glasses. We dwell in the negativity of what we believe we see, and so lose hope, encouragement and revel in the land of unfulfilled dreams. By catching yourself off guard, you can tilt your head just enough to realize the illusion. By becoming aware of the moment you then have the ability to gently take off your glasses and take in the light. At first you shun away from the intensity of the sunlight with your hands, as you realize that the world you are living in has been a falsehood. Too much to bear you almost put the glasses back on hoping to fall back into  your comfortable world of polar opposites. Yet something inside tells you to stop and give the light a chance. That something is You. The spirit, the soul or your inner Self.  Call it what you will, but it is the same stuff as the Universal light  that is always shining bright. Soon you bask in the sunlight and take it all in. The goodness, the love, the happiness, the joy, the peace and the strength all embedded in this light enables us to move forward. So again in a non cloudy day the sun shines bright uninterrupted all around us. The question is really whether you are willing to accommodate to the brightness around you and within you, and allow the positivity embrace you and hence you radiate it back out, or are you more apt to put your polarized designer sun glasses back on and live in the drudgery of your day. 

Are you too cool for shades?  

Shuffling your deck of cards

Shuffling your deck of cards

As you open a fresh pack the newness of the cards is known. You shuffle, you cut, you spread them out across from you  in a straight line. There are multiple shuffling techniques enabling the randomness to be distributed within the deck. You play whichever card game you wish with the hope of winning, but of course.  Playing a game of cards is the same as playing the game in life. The cards represent each possibility of a choice that you make. Do you give away and replace cards in poker, or do you add cards till you 'bust" in the game of 21. Every card has an equal chance in getting you to your next level of achievement. The key is not necessarily knowing the cards but using them in the right sequence as a means to an end. There are those professional card players who will reluctantly tell you that the secret of the game is not playing your set of cards but instead playing that of your opponents' hand. In life this too applies. 

Each card is a chance at an opportunity or an experience that you can have. Each card like the experience is unique and can lead to a different sequence and eventual shift in your game or consciousness. Each card or card game can be viewed as the individual lives of all of the people around you and not just pertaining to you. There are so many cards in the deck and each one as important as the next. Each person or each card has its own value and their own future plans as they get shuffled in the deck or world with all the other people in it. You can either look at the deck of cards as yours with each card for you, or that you are just another card. Sometimes trusting the dealer is just as important as trusting the hand you are dealt. The dealer namely God, the universe or life, distributes the cards of your experiences or distributes everyone represented as a card in a cosmic deck with fairness. Which card you pick and how you "gamble" the choices is up to you.

 Just remember the "house" always wins. By that I mean that the universal mind will always win at the game of life to bring happiness, peace and joy and stability to the game. You may lose if not paying attention to the game and get upset at your dealt hand and blame the Dealer yet it is not the dealer's fault of the outcome of the game when it is your game that you are playing. My suggestion would be not to try to cheat the game,  but instead play your own hand with fairness and being aware of the moment, and by playing your cards right you are in fact playing your opponent which in many cases is the "house"

Enjoying the game and not gambling off your prize possessions and qualities of integrity, honesty, truth and character as bargaining chips helps you to stay in the game and select the appropriate card instinctively ensuring your own winning streak.  How good you are in which ever game you decide to play depends on practice, and so this practice needs patience, steadfastness and of course mindfulness. With the right focus, leads to awareness, attention to details and correct hands of cards that lead to the "full house" for a successful and winning game.

Pick a card, any card and have the greatest game of your life. 

Enjoying the rose garden

Enjoying the Rose garden

The gardeners among us or at least those with a green thumb love to spend their precious time on the knees, hands covered with dirt and connecting with nature. No garden is really complete without a rose garden. Roses are beautiful not only for their variety of colors but also their delightful scents. We pluck them and given as an offering of love to someone we care about. For some reason I have always been afraid of roses. I thought back long and hard and remembered an incident in England as a child, running innocently through bushes of roses and then picking at a stem and getting nastily  pricked. I can still seem to recall the pain and the mending of my wounds by my parents. A negative emotion has been stuck in my mind with what others would deem a magnificent flower. The rose has been the subject of countless stories, symbolic gestures and terrific icons of love, power or strength, and in some instances spirituality in various faiths or as in British royal history the famous war of roses signifying the historical battles of rivaling Royal Houses. 

The petals are elegant and are interestingly edible not only to humans but to many animals like squirrels and deer who are unafraid of the thorns. Those prickly protectors deter some but not everyone. So too can this apply to our own personalities. Rosy on the outside we are ever cheerful, happy and at peace with our surroundings. With wonderful scent we give off the vibes of being good, kind and gentle. Underneath we have the thorns, or subconscious driven by fear, to turn our outlook pleasant appearance into one of anger, resentment and hate that wards off anyone coming towards us. There are those people who are not perturbed by the outward appearance and will still assist and befriend us, like the timely squirrel or deer who are undisturbed by the thorny stems. 

My reaction to the roses was one of negativity and yet it was so strong and intense that it has transcended time and lasted this long into adulthood. Our personas that we emanate can generate strong feelings and energies within others to either welcome them near us or deter them from us. That persona is perceived and remembered by history. We can look at the outward bouquets of roses or even remember the solitary beautiful rose but never forget the potential of the harming thorns within that can hurt. The thorns are a protective mechanism for the flower, and so is the power of fear to keep us from harm by being vigilant and sharp to enable self preservation, it is evolutionary. Yet there are thornless roses that thrive just as well. Either we can be rose bushes with thorns and tolerate adversity or we can be thorn bushes with roses and bear sacrifice. My opinion is that of keeping the thorns pruned and at a minimum so as to allow just enough prickliness to be able to protect yourself from getting eaten but overwhelmingly be the rose. Ever attractive, ever at peace, symbolizing beauty, purity and dignity. Keeping an elevated status amongst the botanical world has certainly not been easy for the rose, but not an impossibility. Happiness, serenity and goodness are the qualities that the rose instills in you when you lays eyes on it, I would encourage you to take a lesson from this messenger of nature and be the same.

Roses are red, violets are blue, I wish only peace from me to you.

Everything in moderation

Everything in moderation

"Water in moderation never killed anyone"-Mark Twain.  One of my favorite quotes. Water is so powerful that its power can never truly be harnessed, yet it travels gently in streams and with tumultuous force in water falls and in storms. We are always rearing to go. Have you noticed that when you are driving and come to a red light, the moment the person in front of you has moved forward you too accelerate with full force and close the gap quickly. The same applies while driving on the high way leading to tail gating as you speed up behind the car. We are quick to react, we are quick to consume the life around us whether it is food, conversation, or love. If we cannot control our minds how can we expect to control our  temperaments. Unfortunately moderation has fallen out of our vocabulary. Even political reactions between countries have to be an "appropriately  measured response." Yet bombing another nation is never a moderate response regardless of who started the fight. 

The definition of moderation is avoidance of extremes. Too high or too low, too much force or too little force. Excess or scarcity of anything violates the concept of moderation. Moderation is about balance. It is about being equanimous and resisting the tipping of temperaments in any direction. We can start by understanding moderation by simply being aware of the moment we are in. Therefore by being aware of the moment we immediately "see" what we are doing and so realize the upset of balance and hence the movement back to harmony is quick and swift. There are innumerable examples in our daily lives of how we are off kilter and just by recognition of the moment we restore moderation. Eating and drinking at every meal as one example. Acknowledging what we are putting into our bodies, and the types and portions of food and drink helps control what touches our lips. By exercising portion control or number of alcoholic beverages consumed at any one time through awareness of the moment helps us to swing back the pendulum of excess to moderation. 

Yelling and screaming at another person is yet another example. Pausing before the yell helps awareness to take hold and an instant judgment of appropriate response is calculated. This in turn helps to "moderate" the response. Centering your  mind helps  to maintain a focal point from which a response and reaction is controlled by the Self and not by the uninitiated mind. Moderation is a great tool in not just life and self fulfillment through exercise, nutrition, social interactions but also in  connection with our fellow beings, nature and our inner selves. 

One might argue that if you just stay in moderation you do not "get ahead" in life or in competition or through exercise when " pushing your limits" to get stronger or more stamina. Competition is when we get ahead whether in the pursuit of areas finance, intellect, profession or even in relationships. I would propose that the "pushing your limits" is beneficial certainly but not mutually exclusive of moderation. If you are advancing your "set point" then do so with a clear conscience, thought and purpose. Ethically with restraint the set point is moved to a new higher level of progress whereby a new balance and moderate status is joyfully achieved. Lack of good conduct, lack of faith and integrity will upset the balance and the new set point will never last. Every peak can be advanced. Even the highest tip of the Himalayan mountains has a new height each year, as the mountain grows ever so slowly, with poise and purpose, and so moderation is always achieved. 

We can learn a tremendous amount from nature and its use of moderation to grow, expand and flourish. Respect, reverence and resolution are some of the stepping stones as you try to embrace moderation. The force and fluidity of water,  the solidification of a mountain, the vastness of the sky, the intensity of a burning fire, and the wonder of the immeasurable Self are all examples of extremes that have moderate temperaments within nature. The more aware you are of the moment, the more "in moderation" you become. The more moderate you become, the more awake you truly are, and so the harmonic restoration of balance of your Self is attained. And is not that what we are in fact what we are all searching for in our lifespan?

All this immense expansive power to grow tempered in a little child or seed of a plant, now that is moderation.