Awakening

For a lot of people of the Christian faith, Easter Sunday is a great day that has deep meaning and marks a joyful day that is etched in time.  One of the greatest things to meditate on for me is the meaning of what arising and awakening can truly mean on this special day.  If you have had cluttered thoughts about a number of different issues, many times one is looking forward to that moment of clarity when things can finally make some sense.  The wait for clarity can be long sometimes, which makes one wonder about whether they will ever see the right solutions manifest themselves.  This is when one clings to their core beliefs and has blind faith at times about what an expected outcome will look like.  It is most interesting when you see someone arrive at clarity in a very short amount of time and you may still be on the sidelines waiting for your breakthrough to occur.  Having a grateful heart in those instances towards others may be difficult to process as well.  The strengthening among people is what actually makes those periods so remembered, as time moves on one call always recall a dark stormy period when the challenge seemed unbearable.  Think about the moments after a great struggle and the elation that can fill your heart and spirit that then elevates you to new heights.  This is when you realize that as much as a struggle may have captivated your strength, time and energy, you will end up being much better as a result.  The issue that most of us has is with the time factor associated with any period of growth.  Just like we would all love to have a magic pill that could eliminate all the extra pounds that we don't need overnight, the reality is that it takes time to work towards the end goal of this and other similar journeys.  As you think about a goal that you are looking to achieve in your life, focus on what the catalyst is for your awakening moment.  Normally, one has contemplated changes for a period of time then something strikes you that provides the impetus to follow through on a change.  Instead of waiting for that magical or inspirational moment, begin walking towards your goal, even if it means taking those small steps daily.  Consistency in your steps is what gets you to the final goal and if you step backwards or stop the momentum at any given time, learn to forgive yourself, dust yourself off and then continue your journey.  Your awakening is held in the power of your own thoughts, so don't be your own detractor.  If you celebrate Easter Sunday with your family and friends in your own places of worship and afterwards in your homes, remember that this day can have additional meaning for you if you put your mind and heart behind your actions.

Shifting Sand

When you see films and they show a desert sand dune, one can be immediately transported to that location which appears to be solemn and perhaps desolate.  Then there is usually wind that sweeps the sand up in the air and transports those particles that end up re-forming the shape of the dune that has been there for a marked period of time.  I grew up in the desert and I never paid much attention to visiting the local dunes outside of my home town when I was young.  My appreciation for this landscape grew as my age did and when I have the opportunity to stop by on those home visits, I walk out in the middle of what appears to be nowhere and I can feel calmness and peace in the midst of these creations.  I also think about the many tiny particles of sand that make up this vast desert landscape and similar to an ocean that has many drops of water, the surrounding dunes are the land version of a calming sea.  For me the feeling of being home now as an adult brings me such a different perspective than what I remember as I was growing up.  When I was young I wanted to not live in this part of the world as I found it boring, as most children do about their home life.  Because the town I was from was small and rather remote in comparison to metropolitan areas, I thought that we were missing out on the things that went on the big cities.  I would watch as the caravans of RV's would drive by town  on the weekends with their off road vehicles and would wonder out loud why people would drive so far to a place that did not have the creature comforts of the urban sprawl.  I thought these people must be missing something, until I grew up and realized what it was that they were seeking.   When you leave the hustle and bustle of big city life, there is a sense of unwinding that can take place as you let go of traffic, busy intersections and hassling with big crowds at a crowded mall.  In the desert, you have none of that and at night the stars shine so clearly that you realize that you are missing out on some of natures beauty, when it paints the sky dark and the twinkling appears before you.  Through meditation I can now find my own space at home that can take me to that place of inner peace that can be so readily found in a desert landscape.  I appreciate so much having been brought up in that type of environment, as I believe that it provided me with an inner calmness that is a constant in my life.  For a child or even an adult the issue of the grass is always greener someplace else can spring up from time to time.  However, when you have true gratitude for  your life and where you came from, you can really appreciate the foundation even more as time goes on.  Whether you are from the big city or from a small little town, remember to be grateful that you had a place that you called home and cherish the memories that were created whi6le you were there.

Selective Inventory

There are many things that make my heart happy.  When I was contemplating the things that make me smile, I could not categorize or put a specific number of what those are.  Yesterday afternoon I was outside watering my plants when I heard the laughter of children from the neighbors house and that in itself made me smile.  Then they were playing a game of red light green light, which quickly took me back to my elementary school days.  I stopped there for a moment and recalled the days of my youth when a simple game like the one these children were playing was simply joyful.  We all have many memories stored inside of us where we have a created a full library of items, that we can all check in and check out at any given time.  Because we grow older our library always is filling up with brand new memories that were not there before, yet the feelings that these memories have provide us with similar emotions that are similar to other periods in our life.  As I thought about my life's library of moments that are etched enough that I can recall them in a snap, I find that many are thankfully filled with happy emotions.  Not to say that there were not those others that were more challenging and less upbeat, I just choose to be selective and have no desire to check those particular volumes out.   If your life could use a bit more cheerfulness, then I suggest that you work on eliminating the dispirited memories that do not bring you joy or a smile to your face.  Clean out and spruce up your memories, so that your library holds only those pages or volumes of the things that fulfill you with true happiness.  Life is tough enough at times that one can easily begin filling their inventories with  cheerless instances, that will not necessarily bear the kind of fruit you wish to have in your life.  As you experience new things, think about how you will memorialize those instances within your happy or joyful inventory.  Save those that make you smile and wonder for the not so happy times, when you can use a good dose of something that can make you feel good in an instant.  

Living Benchmarks

Accomplishment in one's life can be seen as milestones or even benchmarks that define your success.  Similar to a timeline that has notches at given places to signify the step that was achieved, we can work towards a living benchmark that constantly moves to define what your definition of success is.  When we talk about things that we aspire to do, they stay in the abstract until you actually put energy, planning and action behind it.  When you look back at where you were ten years ago, I am sure most people can pick those spots that were filled with achievement.  Likewise, if you can remember the locations of where you had some trials, you could probably see the measures of growth that came afterwards.  What we never realize until much later is how much a challenge was that created the ability for us to grow exponentially.  Most people can get stuck on why they failed at something or perhaps focus too much on being stretched to the point of being broken, as opposed to what positive results came from that.  Life as such, has a wonderful mixture of  lessons that are filled with good times along with others that are filled with opportunities if you decide to look at them that way.  Ideally, there are small steps that should be taken towards the direction that you want to arrive at.  Just remember all change may be uncomfortable at first, however, think of that feeling as your catalyst of energy that is propelling you forward.  At times we can lose track of the many achievements that did take place in our lives, perhaps because they may not have seemed to large.  Similar to New Year's Eve, when people contemplate what transpired over the last year and look towards hope and prosperity in the future, we should all be more diligent about having that thoughtful reflection more often.  Don't wait for a holiday or other special occasion to take stock of where you are.  Get in the habit of doing it more often and think of the many things you have achieved in your life benchmarks, that are the building blocks of what you consider success to be for your life.  

Life Lessons

I was thinking about the power of words earlier today, when I thought about some of the great speakers that I have had the privilege to hear.  Among them John Maxwell, Jack Canfield and Joyce Meyer to name a few.  I can recall being mesmerized by them and feeling that I wanted to do a version of what they did in the future.  Although I have been a witness to many powerful speakers, I quickly thought about what was my first memory of myself speaking in public.  For that I would have to regress to the fifth grade and a school competition reciting the American's Creed.  It was a competition within the classroom, however, I vividly remember it being a popularity contest more so than anything.  I had always been good at memorizing and although I could get nervous speaking in front of a group, I could rely on the fact that I would remember my lines when push came to shove.  I had practiced for many days prior to the competition and the teacher was recording our speeches with a tape recorder.  When I completed my speech, I felt that I had done a pretty good job in my delivery and the rest of the class agreed as they had voted for me as the best in the delivery of the speech.  However, one of the most popular boys in the class had gone before me and he forgot his lines several times and laughed his way through the end.  Upon the conclusion of our competition, the popular classmate begged the teacher for a do-over and she bowed down to his request as the class wanted him to do it again.  The second time was much better, however, he still giggled his way through parts of the speech.  Then it came down to the class deciding on who would win and they overwhelmingly chose the more popular kid.  I received some type of certificate for coming in second, however, it was one of those times that I realized that their are intangible reasons for a person to win a competition and that life is not always fair.  It was a great lesson for me to learn, as it made me realize that I needed to be even better if I wanted to compete against someone with popularity as a deciding factor.  I decided then that I would have to be that much better so there would be no question about a contest given similar circumstances.  Even though I may have lost in the eyes of my peers, I actually won by learning from what this lesson taught me.  Over the course of my career, I have had many more opportunities to sharpen my skills in this area and although I do feel much more comfortable in that role, I still do my homework and practice in order to ensure that I reach a level of expectation that I can live with.  Lessons come in many disguises and for the most part, you may not realize that you are learning something new or that your personal growth is about to expand.  My suggestion is that if you find yourself in the middle of a lesson, get centered and listen to what your heart tells you.  Be thoughtful about your next steps and have faith in yourself that you are capable of achieving what is in front of you and more.  The other lesson is about being popular, I found that this is temporary in nature and harnessing the power of words can last a lifetime.

Generosity Always Returns

I wrote about a lady and her lucky penny not too long ago and the moral to her story was that the value of something was in the eye of the beholder.  Interestingly enough last week I was at a meeting and as we were getting under way, one of the people I was talking with had just arrived a bit late.  As he sat down he apologized and then he quickly walked around the conference table and was giving everyone a penny.  I internally laughed a bit, because I thought here we go again.  Except when I received the penny from the gracious gentleman, it had a carved cross in the middle of it as if someone had cut it out.  He explained that he knew a pastor that made these and gave them out as a form of outreach in his ministry.  Everyone around the table was immediately taken by it and one person liked it so much that she put it on her gold chain that she was wearing in front of us.  I admired the workmanship and was completely fulfilled by not only the gesture, in addition, by the way it made me feel.  I had images that came to my head about the lady that I had helped get her lucky penny and how much she appreciated someone assisting her to retrieve it.  In an instant I thought about an act of kindness and how that action usually creates a reciprocal reaction.  Generosity knows no bounds and when you do something out of the goodness of your heart or with the best of intentions, there is a chain reaction that is set in motion.  People always say that giving is better than receiving and until you feel what this is like, it can be an ambiguous thought.  However, when you become the recipient of such an action, you can immediately feel the power and strength behind such actions or intentions.  That afternoon as I concluded the meeting, I leaned over to the person that gave me my penny and I thanked him for his thoughtfulness and kindness.  We all left our meeting with a smile along with a pep in our step, as we emanated in the goodness of this person who made our day.  The next time you contemplate giving of yourself or making a contribution towards someone or something else, don't think about it too long.  My suggestion is to go with your gut instinct and proceed accordingly.  What is in your heart's best intentions will ultimately make its way back to you and fill you up with a dose of positive, enlightened and happy energy that no amount of money could buy.  

Intentions & Motives

I am sharing my new column that will be published next month.

Inventing Your Life

“Intentions & Motives”

By

Rob Claudio

I read an article recently about a woman who was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer and was given the prognosis of having very little time left following her medical results.  Although the subject matter may sound like it was a depressing article, it actually was one of the most positive and inspiring articles that I have read in some time.  The woman had the best disposition about her circumstances, considering what the ramifications were as a result of her diagnosis.  She decided to tell her family to not make a fuss over the situation and asked them to instead do something nice for somebody else, then come back and tell her about it.  Her decision to proceed with her version of holistic medicine that could aid in her condition with hearing about good deeds was life changing not only for her but for the people that she ended touching all around the world.  Her story made it to a website; www.caringbridge.org, which is a website dedicated to supporting people on their health journey. The examples of what people did ran the spectrum from buying groceries for a needy family, to helping an elderly person financially and giving someone a hug in her honor.  Her request manifested far beyond her immediate circle and it became a worldwide effort.  The other piece to this was that although her prognosis was not good, she kept living far beyond what her medical doctor’s expectations were.  At one point she told her family that it was the many great deeds that people were doing that were keeping her alive.  The daughter of this individual was so involved with this new found passion for good deeds, that she dedicated her time to helping start a website that was dedicated globally to hear about the many stories of people that had done positive things for others.  The site is; www.gratitude.crowdmap.com and it tracks gratitude efforts globally.  Although this inspiring person did end up passing away due to her illness, it was two years after her terminal diagnosis.  The amount of time that she was able to live was far beyond what was ever expected considering her condition.   When you think about it, if you had the last two years of your life filled with nothing but great stories demonstrating the good in people all over the world, I would imagine that it would be validating to think that the rest of the globe was actually not that bad of a place after all.  It is inspiring to see what people can do to change the direction of not only their own lives, but those of others as well.  If you have the ability to go beyond someone else’s expectations for your own life, you can also have an impact that may be the chain reaction that was needed for others to change their purpose and destiny.  Think about the things that you do or the words that you say to yourself along with the intent behind them.  Ask yourself what your motives are behind the words that you use.  If you don't like the answers to some of your responses, then think about how you will change your motives to achieve a different outcome.  Give yourself a chance to create a positive result in your life, by doing things with the best of your intentions behind them.  Whenever you have a moment of self-doubt or think about not pursuing what you started, think about the person who willed good among others whose name was Joan Z. Lewis and changed other people's destinies along with her own.

               

“Good intentions might sound nice,

but it's positive actions that matter.”

-Tim Fargo