Honesty

Keeping secrets is a foolish attempt to stay safe from the truth.

We tell ourselves we are sparing another person or protecting ourselves, but all too often the secrets that we keep actually keep us.

What one another need from each other in order to make sense of each other is the truth.

When we withhold that truth, we withhold ourselves. We create distance that no one can cross because the way across the divide is the way of honesty.

We cannot make something better by lying, and we cannot be fully understood if we won't give the benefit of the truth.

We can live our lives in webs of lies without ever uttering a falsehood. The web of lies is composed of not just what we say, but the vast amount of honesty that we withhold.

There is a difference between considerate honesty and aggressive frankness. Honesty recognizes the personhood of both people and is an act of trust; whereas agressive frankness borders on mean.

We can choose to see honesty as an act of trust.

The weakness of a soul is proportionate to the number of truths that must be kept from it. ~ Eric Hoffer

Taking vs. Receiving

There is a vast difference between taking and receiving.

There is a way of receiving that is also giving.

When we can receive, we act as willing containers for another person's gift. We validate the giver's act of giving and acknowledge his or her generosity.

This benefits both the giver and the receiver in equal measure, both are enriched and neither overly depleted.

When we take, we do not acknowledge the gift - rather, we put in the purse of our beings that which we want, then snap it shut and go off to take again, hoping that no one notices.

This leaves both parties wanting - the giver feels he/she has been manipulated into giving whether wanting to or not; and the taker - because without receiving a person never really fills up - just continues to feel empty.

We can acknowledge a gift; we can receive.

Developing the muscles of the soul demands no competitive spirit, no killer instinct, although it may erect pain barriers that the spiritual athlete must crash through. ~ Germaine Greer

God in Nature

There are some who have the serene ability to tune into and appreciate nature. They see God behind the illusion of reality.

Though this world may feel as if it is still and concrete, the truth is that it is always in motion.

The world is in a constant state of birth and death, manifestation and destruction.

Just for today; walk through your day and look at the world through soft eyes, eyes that see not only at, but through.

As an exercise in raising our consciousness, remind ourselves throughout the day to tune into a world in motion.

Attempt to see the hand of creation behind all that surrounds us.

When we look at the world, take a deep breath, quiet our minds and know that we are looking at the many manifestations of soul.

The perfumed flowers are our sisters... the juices of the meadows, the body heat of the pony, and man - all belong to the same family. ~ Chief Seattle

Loving Another

When we love someone or when someone loves us, we become a part of one another.

To the extent to which that love carries commitment along with it, we are partners in each other's destiny.

What we do affects the other, a piece of us lives in the heart and mind of that other person.

What piece of us do we want to live on in the mind of another? When they turn inward to find us, who will they find? What will we have left behind us as a legacy of that relationship?

We may have made mistakes or hurt someone without understanding what we were doing, but today be mindful; be honest and try not to harm.

We cannot control how another person acts or feels, but we can be aware of what we put into our relationships.

We can have conscious interactions.

Love is the extra effort we make in our dealings with those whom we do not like and once you understand that, you understand all. This idea that love overtakes you is nonsense. This is but a polite manifestation of sex. To love another you have to undertake some fragment of their destiny. ~ Quentin Crisp

Genuine Health

Do not see a life free of problems as a healthy life. Wanting our lives to look and to be problem-free goes against what is natural and mobilizes our vanity in the struggle to hide anything that we consider "unpleasant."

Problems that we hide don't go away. It is facing adversity and pain in the light of day, sharing it with others - breaking isolation and connecting with those around us - that promotes growth.

When we want our days to be struggle-free, we stop the wheels of life from functioning.

Problems are a part of living well and being alive.

The point that health is not so much the absence of disease as it is the presence of an optimal healing process is crucial for understanding our lives. It is crucial because the principle applies not only to our physical health but also to our mental health and to the health of our organizations and institutions. A healthy organization - whether a marriage, a family, or a business corporation - is not one with an absence of problems, but one that is actively and effectively addressing or healing its problems. ~ M. Scott Peck, M.D.

Inner Depth

Believe in life today, and do not be afraid to admit it. We know what is eternally good in this universe because we experience it daily.

Within our own hearts there is a well of love that we can constantly turn to; within our own souls there is a faith in the universe, in life, that never leaves us.

Occasionally we may leave it, but it is always there when we return, right where we left it, in the stillness of our own beings.

Faith feels natural. Sense that we are alive, see the life that surrounds us. Trust the fundamental goodness of this universe.

Know, in our hearts, that with sincere effort, adversity can be overcome and good will win out over evil. Know that we can allow the best in us to conquer the worst in us - that we can constantly reach toward our higher selves.

A deep man believes that the evil eye can wither, that the heart's blessing can heal and that love can overcome all odds. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Working with Love

The love that we bring to the various tasks and encounters of our day weave that energy into the very fabric of our world.

The world is sewn invisibly together with waves and particles.

The waves and particles emanating from us move in and out of similar fields of those surrounding us.

The energy we send is felt by one another on a deeper level than anything we might say.

It doesn't work to be polite with our words but then to feel hate - people get a double message.

Double messages make people feel crazy and teach those close to us to doubt their own insides.

And what is it to work with love?
It is to weave the cloth with threads drawn from your heart,
even as if your beloved were to wear that cloth.
It is to build a houe with affection, even as if your beloved were to dwell in that house...
It is to charge all things you fashion with a breath of your own spirit. ~ Kahlil Gibran

Admitting Fault

If we look at problems that we are involved with from all angles, we may come to see that we are partially at fault for a miscommunication or a destructive dynamic.

If this happens, we need to have the strength of character to admit our own fault to ourselves rather than blame another.

After we get this far, we may see that a change in our behavior is necessary in order to set the situation in a more positive motion; it will improve our side of the dynamic.

Even if we recognize a conflict as such, we must be willing and able to renounce one of the two contradictory issues. But the capacity for clear and conscious renunciationis rare, because our feelings and beliefs are muddled, and perhaps because in the last analysis most people are not secure and happy enough to renounce anything. Finally, to make a decision presupposes the willingness and capacity to assume responsibility for it. This would include the risk of making a wrong decision and the willingness to bear the consequences without blaming others for them. ~ Karen Horney, M.D