Thankful For Unknown Memories...

I am sitting here on this early Saturday morning in the cold stages of Arizona's fall season and trying to think about what I should share with the world today and all I can think about is how good the season shift feels and how happy I am to have my family all around me. I guess November really does invoke a "Thankful" feeling to the season. I wonder what it is. Is it the crisp in the air? Maybe it is the kids wrapped all cozy in their feetzie pajamas cuddled in their blankets watch Saturday morning cartoons. It could be the way my 9 month old is shining so bright. I am not sure but I feel really good and I feel a great appreciation for being here in the now.
This morning I jumped in the car to go to the local QT and grab a energy drink and a coffee for my beautiful partner and the air was so crisp from the first fallen rain of the season. I started to feel so nostalgic and happy that the seasons shifted over night. The I started to have the same odd desires I have ever holiday season. When the seasons shift I have this uncontrollable desire to cuddle up in warm clothes and take my family to the city. By city I mean San Francisco or New York. I desire being warm in the cold and seeing the holiday lights and eating in authentic twenties style restaurants. I want to go window shopping and suck in the feelings in the air. The thing is if you know me you know I'm not a big city person. I don't care for crowds the traffic is just not my thing. So where does this uncanny feeling come into play. To me it feels like a memory that plays over and over like a record every year when the season hits. Could it be a memory? Maybe one not of this life or dimension? It's so real that I when I look deep into the feelings I get I explore all the things that feel good to me and it starts to get vivid. Holiday music, smells, cold brisk air, the city, old restaurants, shopping, being cozy, loved ones. I never get any specifics and it tugs at me and all I want to do is indulge in the sensations. There must be more to it than just a change of seasons. Or not. All I know is that today I have a great appreciation for life and I am going to do my best to help others feel the good feelings too!
Today I am thankful for my loved ones and the change of the seasons!
What are you thankful for? I'd love to hear how you are feeling as the season shifts!

We Are All Catalysts...

Have you ever heard someone say, "Oh don't worry he was just a catalyst for you to get where you are today."? What doe that really mean? I play it over in my head and think maybe I need to define the word catalyst.

cat·a·lyst nounA person or thing that precipitates an event or change.

So if a catalyst is a person or thing that precipitates an event or change wouldn't that be what we are constantly doing to one another. Every action causes an equal and opposite reaction. Change. With change being the only thing we can truly depend on in the world I would clearly say we invoke constant change within one another. On that note if we are constantly invoking change upon one another how can any one thing be right and any one thing be wrong? Even if we provoke a change we did not intend we still provoked it and it changed. Is that wrong? Whenever I bring up the theory there is no such thing as right and wrong I always get someone saying to me something like, "Ok then. Say someone brutally murdered your entire family. You are telling me that was not wrong?". I am telling you that it is an awful thing that will probably traumatize me but that it happened because it was inevitable. It was not wrong but it feels wrong because I love my family and it must have been a horrific last moment in their life. It hurts, it tears me apart, I will never forget it. All those emotions are reactions to the change the murder imposed upon me. That person was a catalyst. 
It's a challenging perspective to swallow but it was an incident that caused an equal and opposite reaction. Change. It was going to happen therefore it was supposed to happen. How can I say it was going to happen? It was going to happen because there was a uncountable number of series of events that played out prior to the horrific murder. All the things that transpired prior to the moment the person went insane lead up to it happening and it was inevitable.
So how are we supposed to go about life knowing that everything is inevitable? Why even try? Why even make a decision? What's the point of living? Because the choices you make are all part of the plan. In the plan I mean you are part of the chain reactions that play out in front of you. Without you numerous things would not happen as they should. Or let's just say you give up and you choose to leave this world and not be a part of this plan. Once again you were a catalyst and you choosing to leave this world because you do not like the way it works only created a series of events that would go on without you here. Personally I'd rather just stay here and make a difference. If my actions are going to go on and on I need to become aware of what they are. WHAT? Wait, I need to become aware of what they are. I need to become aware. I need to wake up! Now I know why I need to wake up! All my unconscious actions, all my unconscious reactions, all my sleepy moments caused things to happen and I wasn't even aware of it! Now that is something to seriously reflect over! I think I am going to go and wake up so that when I am of the world I will be a little more aware of how I am affecting it. Oh but wait! I just thought of something! If I am aware of what my actions are wouldn't I be a catalyst for positive change? Wouldn't my actions be a small ripple into making the world a peaceful better place? Wait! Does that mean I really can save the world?!
YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Emptiness In My Hand...

On my own personal path to self transformation I came across a very enlightening story of a nun who she herself became enlightened. Here is the short story of Chiyono the nun.

The nun Chiyono studied for years, but was unable to find enlightenment. One night, she was carrying an old pail filled with water. As she was walking along, she was watching the full moon reflected in the pail of water. Suddenly, the bamboo strips that held the pail together broke, and the pail fell apart. The water rushed out; the moon's reflection disappeared--and Chiyono became enlightened. She wrote this verse:  
This way and that way I tried to keep the pail together, hoping the weak bamboo would never break. Suddenly the bottom fell out. No more water; no more moon in the water--emptiness in my hand. 

Enlightenment is not really that hard to reach. Life is not really complicated. Our problems are not hard to solve and life does not have to be stricken with pain. We choose for it to be hard, complicated, and stricken with pain because we live from the mind and the ego. Why did Chiyono become enlightened when her pail of water broke? Shouldn't she be angered that now she has to go all the way back home with no water and who knows how challenging it will be for her to get a new pail. Maybe she will go days without water! Honestly Chiyono did not seem to really worry about all that.

Chiyono realized when her pail broke that she had did everything in her power to keep her pail from breaking yet it was inevitable that it was going to break. What she is realizing is that bad things are going to happen. Change is inevitable and we can not fight against it. We must live in the flow of life. We must look at the obvious and then we must realize there is nothing we can do about it but except it and have faith. 

More than likely most people will not attain the same level of enlightenment that Chiyono did but that is only because they are not open to it. Chiyono gave up a life as a princess. She was very beautiful but she refused to marry anybody. She went to be a nun but none of the monks would except her because she was too beautiful and they feared she would lead the other monks into temptation. So what did she do she burned her face and went back and because she was unrecognizable only then was she able to become a nun. Now I am not saying go out and distort yourself in order to give your life to enlightenment, but what I am saying is Chiyono did what she needed to in search of it. She allowed herself to be open to it and she made a conscious effort to lead a life in search of it. So on that note most will not reach the same level of enlightenment merely because they have not made the conscious decision to do so. More than likely people are comfortable in their misery and only understand how to learn in life from pain. But I will say it one last time. 

"Enlightenment is not really that hard to reach. Life is not really complicated. Our problems are not hard to solve and life does not have to be stricken with pain. We choose for it to be hard, complicated, and stricken with pain because we live from the mind and the ego."

                                                                                    ~Lori Marie

(The excerpt in this blog was taken from Osho's story "Chiyono and her bucket of water") 

Are Humans Capable Of Being Authentic?

We struggle through this existence called life and are forced through challenge after challenge only to find ourselves back at the same spot in the maze we were before. So what are we doing wrong as a species? Why are we so barbaric, mean, and selfish? Are humans built capable of being authentic? When you turn on the radio and listen to the lyrics to some of these rap songs kids worship, and then turn on the television and to the local and national news to see constant greed and devastation, or when you walk down your own street scared for your life or your children's lives it really makes you wonder how it is possible for humans to be authentic beings. I'm shaking my head while I am sitting here thinking about the bigger picture but the point is I am sitting here "thinking" about it when instead I should be here doing something about it.
Yes, humans are quite capable of being authentic human beings. Look at your children so young and innocent. Oh! So your thinking of how your children are brats. Ummm they evolved into that roll. Look at what they see on a daily basis, who they interact with, what is on the radio and television. Take that all away and do you still have a brat? Oh wait did you eliminate yourself? As parent's we are often the main reason our children are brats. We live in a society full of brats. So once again the question comes up are humans capable of being authentic. Yes, but it starts with you. You were once a baby so innocent and sweet. Life tainted you just like life taints us all. We need to seriously let go of the conditioning we have went through, that we constantly go through and learn to be our true authentic selves. We need to not care what others think. We need to not care where we fit in with society. We need to not fear. Fear. Wait could that be the root of this all. We are a species that wants to survive but we fear....what? What is it we are really fearing? Well when we narrow it down to the lowest common denominator I think we fear not surviving. We fear death. Babies need nurturing to survive. They may grow and expand but ultimately they will not survive without love. They are born love, they are love, they are divinity in its purest form and all they want to do is be loved. To survive. Adults only want to be loved to survive. Fear. Fear keeps us from being loved. Fear keeps us from surviving. Fear is the culprit. How can we conquer fear? I mean it's everywhere! You can't do anything without it being right in your face! No wonder we have a society on drugs, looking to drugs, and trying to survive on drugs!
So now that we know the problem we can begin to solve it. Wait. You do not need to solve the world's problems. No need to rant and rave and scream and yell to get others to change. You need to change. You need to eliminate the fear. How awful can death really be? We fear death because we do not know how to live without our ego but really it can't be any worse than here. We fear the unknown but if we could embrace it within ourselves and face one small fear a day we are one step closer to being our authentic selves.
If we are to survive we must be responsible for our own survival. We must have compassion for others on their path of survival, compassion meaning a deep awareness of the suffering without the need to relieve it and having an appreciation for its value, and change only ourselves. Magically though, if we change ourselves those around us begin to change. It is inevitable. I mean look at how we are as a species now. We're a wreck! But if one person at a time begins to conquer their own fears than one person at a time others will do the same and grow and heal. Survive. The goal to save the world is to save yourself! Love thyself and heal the world.
The goal for today is to find one fear and let it go. Look at it to the depths of its core and ask yourself what is the worst that can happen. Hmmmmmm death? Peel off the layers of fear and find you. Just for today. And maybe tomorrow you will want to do it again.

God Speaks No Words But You Can Hear Him Clearly

Shhhhhh I can't hear you when you're talking.....

I had a grand epiphany one day while listening to a random radio show interview. It made so much sense. The speaker was basically saying that language is what screws everything up. If we did not have language and we lived with the silence God speaks nothing would be as it is today. Without language we would not have liars, we would not have manipulation, we would not have any form of miscommunication or misunderstandings, we would love our leaders and not feel tricked or cheated ever. How could this be? What is this God language? It's silence.

You know how when you are sitting there and you hear someone say to you that they love you but when turn off your ears you feel they are not telling you the truth. Intentions speak louder than words. Emotions, feeling, vibes, energy, or whatever you want to call it is merely silence the language of God. You can hear much clearer if you were in silence why do you think you can't concentrate when there is chaos all around you? It's the noise that keeps you from thinking clearly. What about all that noise in your head? Where did it come from why is it there? It may have something to do with the television, or the radio, or that fact that you just do not know what to do if there wasn't noise. How many of you can honestly say you can sit in a quiet room with nothing on your mind for more than five minutes? Not very many. But I promise you that if you were to switch from noise to silence everything in life would become crystal clear. Things would just naturally begin to make sense. God speaks so loudly to us when there is no noise. When you are out camping or hiking in nature don't you have a overwhelming peaceful feeling? Why do you think that is? Could it be because nature speaks the language of God? When I am with my infant at home I feel more comfortable sitting with her and not saying anything, not needing to say a word, just sitting with her on my lap knowing she knows exactly what I am trying to say.

If you desire true answers in life with no interruptions, no lies, no manipulations, or miscommunications than try a day in nature or a quiet room. Make it a new habit and watch as you and God, you and silence, you and the divinity within us all begin to connect and you being to have a clarity you never knew was available to you before.

Shhhhh........

Einstein, Carlin, and Rumi all Rolled Into One!!!

I think God is Einstein, George Carlin, and Rumi all rolled into one! Well not literally because I don't really believe in one supreme being but if I did that is definitely who I'd think him to be! Einstein may have figured out some very important stuff about gravity and what not but his most inspiring wisdom came out in his personal quotes about people and life.

If our parents raised us to look up to Einstein instead of turning on Saturday morning cartoons and shoving candy cereal down our throats we'd be a much less dysfunctional society. And forget needing to go to church when you had guys like George Carlin to look up to. I saw the man perform in Vegas one time. I sat in the back with my friends and we were laughing our asses off all while having mini epiphanies over the stuff he was saying! Yet no one was laughing. I think the republican convention was in town that day! We made sure we laughed and cheered louder so he felt supported. It takes a big man to feel confident enough to get up on stage and speak your truth. If more people had the inner security to speak their truth in the face of adversity we would be a much more authentic society.

Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī, a.k.a. Rumi, now he was one mystic to look up to. Rumi knew just what to say, how to say, and made you think and feel it all at the same time. The first time I read a Rumi poem I read it over and over and suddenly BAM! It hit me! He made poetic sense in the most spiritual romantic loving blunt way a person could.

I could quote Rumi all day long! "Out beyond the field of wrong doing and right doing...there is a field...I will meet you there!" Needless to say if you take the genius common sense wit from Einstein, the sarcastic blunt truth spoken from George Carlin, and the poetic mystical Rumi and rolled them all into one you would have the equivalent of a God! Shoot I'd even vote him for president!

I pray that our future spawns more real, authentic, motivational, inspirational, leaders our children can look up to! If we could strive to find our own inner wisdom like these men we'd have created heaven on earth! Now that is a healthy goal to reach for!

What Is The Cure For Loneliness?

As the winter months approach and the cold weather is upon us there is a natural desire for cozy comfort. It's chilly outside and the fireplace is blazing, you have the coziest blanket in the house wrapped around you, and a nice warm cup of hot cocoa but something is missing. You suddenly feel very lonely. The dreary weather brings you down lower and you decide to indulge in a book. When you tire of the book you realize that you are insanely bored and you feel even lonelier. So you call up some friends and ask them to go out. The evening is eventful you meet a lot of interesting people but when the night ends you head home and again you feel very lonely. Actually when you start thinking about it you were feeling lonely even when you were sitting at the table with your friends. Looking back you realize that you feel lonely all the time it doesn't matter who is around. It's time to suck it up and find a partner. Maybe a blind date or an internet dating site. You search the personals and you go on a few dates and you meet up with someone for coffee.
Wow you click! It's awesome! This person is good looking, has a great job, likes the same music you do, and even seems to care about their health. You decide to go on a few more dates and the honeymoon period begins. Life is Grand! Is this the cure for loneliness? You found someone else who was just as lonely as you and now you have each other and your sitting in front of the fireplace with your warm blanket and hot cup of cocoa and something is missing. You suddenly feel very lonely.
I read a story once about a hunter lost in the forest. He was lost for days and days and was becoming hungry and scared. All the hunter wanted was to find someone. After four days of being lost and having no food the hunter found someone and he became so ecstatic. The other guy asked why he was so excited and he told him that he was lost and all he prayed for was to find someone. Coincidentally the other guy was lost too and was hoping for days to find someone. Hmmmm sounds really familiar doesn't it? On that note I doubt that the cure for loneliness has anything to do with finding the perfect partner.
In truth the only real cure for loneliness is embracing it and realizing that we will always be alone. There is nothing wrong with being alone. When a person is alone they have no one else's drama or issues interfering with their life. A partner may seem to solve the problem but you will never get over loneliness until you are comfortable being alone. It's kind of like saying if you learn to like something it can not hurt you anymore. If you teach yourself how to do math it won't be painful to do it anymore. If you are scared to jump out of a plane and do it you no longer have the fear to jump out of the plane anymore.
Embrace the thing that scares you the most, that causes you the pain and suddenly you have the cure. It works with everything. It all depends on your own personal perspective. If you go into it by saying I am going to get over my issue of eating vegetables with the perspective that you are forcing yourself to do something you just do not want to do than you can pretty much be sure that you will have a life long hatred of vegetables. But if you go into it with the perspective that you wish you really liked vegetables more and you will do your best try a few everyday and not give up more likely you have cured your issue of not eating your veggies. Doesn't hurt to try? At least with the right perspective.
So how do you cure loneliness. Stop being lonely! Love the time you have with yourself. Let the anxiety of being alone go and enjoy it! Believe it or not it really will go away! Actually if you can embrace loneliness it will make being with another person much easier because if it doesn't work out you will not have the fear of being alone.

"Only those people who are capable of being alone are capable of love, of sharing, of going into the deepest core into the other person -- without possessing the other, without becoming dependent on the other, without creating "the other," reducing the other into a thing, and without becoming addicted with the other. They allow the other absolute freedom, because they know if the other leaves, they will be as happy as they are now. Their happiness cannot be taken by the other, because it is not given by the other." ~Osho