The Garden of Your Mind

We are always thinking. In the garden of your mind, you are the farmer, and as you sow so shall you reap. Your thoughts are your seeds and the garden, the fruits of your thoughts. Whether you are a child just starting life or senior nearing the end you your life, you are always planting new seeds.

What seeds are you sowing? Are they the seeds of love, peace, health, abundance, and gratitude? Some say I choose not to sow; I don’t have time to be aware of my every thought, I have life to live. Like a farmer who leaves his fields unattended only to find them overgrown with weeds, so too will an unattended mind sow the seeds of despair, worry, humiliation, regret, and stress.

What seeds are you sowing? You need only to take an honest look at your life to find out. You are reaping, living, the fruits of your past seedlings. Not to worry. Like the farmer who had enough of his overgrown fields and decided to pull the weeds and plant new seedlings, you too can go to your garden and start pulling weeds and planting the seeds of your future.

Be mindful of your thoughts because the seeds you plant today will be the weeds or flowers of tomorrow. It’s your garden, plant wisely.

No Fears, No Doubts, No Limits!

Life is a Sandbox

What does a sandbox mean to you?

What does it mean to a child? Do they like playing in the sandbox? Yes. Why? Because it’s fun, and they get to get dirty.  How can a box filled with sand be any fun to a child? Because the sandbox is nothing less than unlimited potential.

Where you see sand, a child sees a castle. Where you dislike getting sand in your clothes, a child knows there is treasure buried in the sand and revels in the quest of digging it up. The nondescript sand becomes an unbridled journey of the imagination. That sand can be transformed into anything they want it to be, maybe even the surface of another planet.

In its infinite potential what they can do with that sand is boundless. They hold the power to transform it into whatever their minds, believe it to be. Intuitively, they understand the power of the sandbox; that is why a two-year-old, who has never seen a sandbox, will run straight towards it.

I suggest to you, that if you have not had a sandbox experience, you have not lived your life at its highest potential. Why? Because the sandbox in and of itself becomes a contained place of potential. It is a place where you can go, and be what you want to be, say what you want to say. You can dream and allow your imagination to run to another level.

Why haven't you played in the sandbox?  Well, one of the reasons you probably haven't played is because potential, dreams, and things that you desire have been expunged from your imagination.

It's been beat out of you. It's been conditioned out of you. It's been lied out of you. Your imagination has been taken to such a place that you don't even think about the sand.  when you see the sandbox, even when your children are playing in it, your mind, sees the dirt and the clothes that must cleaned.

You see responsibility where that child sees unlimited potential. I want you to understand something, you're in the biggest sandbox that exist, and God has placed you on it.

Ladies and gentlemen, life is a sandbox. It's a place where you have unlimited potential. It is a place where you can do what you want to do. You dream, and you act. Kids don't just sit in the sandbox fold their arms and imagine. No, they take action. They dig, they move, they create, they play. They don't just sit there; the sandbox allows them to think and act.

You are in the biggest sandbox you've ever seen. It's a place where you can be as dirty and as grimy as you need to be to show who you are as a person and to manifest the potential that God has placed inside of you.

I'd like to invite you to play in the sandbox and join me as I live the potential that God has given me. Listen to these words and know that God has given you the power to imagine, believe, and create to your ultimate potential.

No Fears, No Doubts, No Limits! Be well.

After the Anger

 

The tears welled up in my eyes, as the flood broke the barrier of my lower eyelids, a trickle flowed, then a torrent followed, as I realized my anger. No, I was not angry at the world, I was not angry at God, I was not angry at my parents, I was not angry at my wife, I was not angry at anyone. No one had done me wrong.

My life was foreign to the imaginations of my childhood, my adolescence, my early adulthood. Where was I, this could not be it. I mean yesterday told me that tomorrow would be different. Yet here I was! How? Who did this? The rushing stream of tears were the prelude to the answer. As the realization started to materialize, I grew angrier and angrier, and the tears flowed faster and faster.

Somehow, it appears to help to blame someone, something, some circumstance, or event. This delusion masks the pain associated with the unvarnished reality. However, on this afternoon, I was not able to wear that mask. No, I felt the unmitigated pain of understanding, the knowledge of truly knowing, the full sight of seeing the undiluted truth. My life was exactly what I had made of it. I designed it. I am solely responsible. When this revelation crystalized in my mind, my anger reached its crescendo.

The flowing tears slowly began to cleanse my anger replacing it with a sense of disillusionment and disappointment. It’s not that I let my family down or that I let God down, no it was worse, I had let my true self and purpose down. Now what?

It was time to forgive everyone for their actual transgressions, and for my perception of their transgressions. More importantly, it was time to forgive myself for my reactions to those transgressions and for my own actions. With the weight lifted off my shoulders, and my mind clear of all the clutter, I was open to the inspiration and opportunities surrounding me. With a clean slate, I was in position to not only dream again, but to take action!

In The Waters of Life, Be the Pebble

 

A pebble, dropped into a placid body of water, no matter how small, creates a ripple effect. Like a pebble, an act of love, no matter how small creates a ripple effect. Be the pebble, and you can impact a life. Impact a life, and you can impact a community. Impact a community, and you can impact a country. Impact a country and you can impact the world.

Peek-a-Boo Morning

 

On a Friday morning I played Peek-a-Boo with God. Sitting on a balcony watching the sun rise, I marveled at its majesty. The ever-changing pallet of grays and whites were followed by the pastels of light blues, and shades of orange and yellow. The clouds danced across the sky on different planes, dark gray in the front, light gray or white in the rear, back lit in fluorescent tones of tangerine.

The pace of the heavenly show was as mesmerizing as the beauty of the choreography. Then, at the appointed time, the star of the show slowly made its entrance, a celestial chromatic orangish ball. The light of the world.

Yes, indeed it felt as if God was saying good morning! Suddenly, it disappeared behind some clouds, yet, like fingers reaching out to me, a few rays exploded through the darkness. As I caught my breath, the clouds quickly moved on and the full brilliance of the sun was shining bright. So much so, that it appeared to shine a path on the sea heading directly to me.

Quickly enough it hid again amongst the clouds. Then, Peek-a-Boo, I see you! It seems that God was playing with his children. Thank you, Lord, for letting me see your majesty in the morning, for letting me fell your warmth, for inspiring my creativity, and for letting me imagine our game of Peek-a-Boo.

To Life

To life, to life, l'chaim. L'chaim, l'chaim, to life. This is a Hebrew toast. When drinking wine, they’ll toast to life. What does “to life” mean? I was just looking and researching this song from Fiddler on the Roof, that popped into my head while I was praying this morning. More than the song itself, the toast l'chaim.

L'chaim means to life. What is life? In the translations from Hebrew to English, from what I was able to understand, life can mean the Torah, or it can mean God. To say to life or l'chaim is to say to God, for God is life. Some say that the translation is not really “to life”, that it is actually “to lives.” Life cannot be enjoyed in solitude; life is to be shared.

Let’s go back to the meaning of true life and understand that God is life. Consequently, our true life is that part of God that lives in each of us. In a poem that I wrote, "Awakening", it says:

Awakening
Cocooned within our mother's womb,
Through breath of God our soul did bloom,
And now upon our dawn’s first day,
On borrowed time we here shall stay.

Cocooned within our mother's room through breath of God our soul did bloom. We were created in the image and likeness of God, not in body, but in Spirit. Through breath of God our soul did bloom. Therefore, God gives life because he is life.

The toast, L'chaim, To Life, is a toast to God celebrating the very life that He has given us. So today I say to you, "To Life". May your day be full of life. May you take a moment from the mundane from the repetitive tasks of everyday living to enjoy the life that God has given you. Stop getting lost in the perceived act of living and actually live!  Stop and smell the roses, no you don't have to go to a rose bush and smell it. Take in the breath of life that is around you. Look at the sun shimmering off a body of water, a lake, a river, or the ocean. Look up and see the clouds floating by in the sky. Watch a bird and enjoy its flight. See the tree branches gently swaying in the breeze as you feel its caress on your neck. Look around you, and listen to the laughter of children playing. Understand how simple yet powerful, oh so powerful a smile can be. Take in the breath God today!

Though I'm not toasting you with wine, I will say L'chaim, To Life!  

A Voice From the Journey

Do you hear voices? I do! Our lives are full of noise, fear, worries, and these disconnect and block our mind and body from hearing them. 

Are you even aware that you cannot hear?

Carlos has done lost his mind, I hear perfectly well. What is he talking about?

Hm, let's explore that. Most people listen to the dysfunctional noise that surrounds them, and thanks to technology, the world. Yet, they cannot hear. Others have lost some or all of their physical ability to hear, and a few never had any. Amazingly, some with no hearing, hear the the voices clearly and understand that you can be in a crowded room, a concert, a stadium, at the races, or any place else that has raucous noise, yet still hear clearly what has been spoken to you.

You see true hearing does not come from your physical ears and their inner workings. No, true hearing comes from tuning into the Spirit that lives within each one of us. The connection to God, the universe, the I Am, whatever you want to call our creator. He is in all of us and want's to talk with you.

Unfortunately, we allow situations and others to clutter our minds to such a deafening crescendo of disjointed and dysfunctional screeching, that we are unable to realize that indeed we cannot hear.

First you must become aware that you are drowning in noise. Then, make the conscious choice to tell the mind to "Shut Up!" Command it to be quiet, then deliberately focus on the silence; talk to your Father and listen.

You may be out of practice or you never truly learned to communicate. It does not matter, be consistent: tune out the world daily and have a conversation. The voice is there, it might just take a little practice to hear it.

Tune Out, Tune In, and Listen! You will hear voices too.

I am Perfect by Design but Flawed by Interpretation

 

I am Perfect by Design but Flawed by Interpretation

 

I am Perfect by Design but Flawed by Interpretation. Some my hear or read this and say “Indeed, I am Flawed!” However, the wisest among us will understand that all of life is a journey. It is the process that molds us, that shapes us, that defines us. Conversely, our choices influence our path. The choices on the path direct the process that ultimately defines us. At any given moment in time, we are either moving closer to or further away from our design. It is a symbiotic relationship.

Deep, I know. Let’s look at the example of a car. It may have the ideal, perfect design. With the perfect design in place, it must go to engineering where each component must be engineered to exacting specifications. The engineers or the programmers, who program the software and or the algorithms use by the engineers, are human and, by definition, make mistakes. From there the car must go into production to be manufactured by more flawed humans and humanly programed robots. Again, mistakes will be made. No matter how perfect the design, a perfect automobile has yet to roll off the production floor.

Once in full production and use, these cars start to show flaws in materials, in their software, in the quality of their parts. Therefore, maintenance issues arise, and recalls happen. The design may have been perfect, but the interpretation of that design by the engineers, the execution by the production staff, and even the use by the owner/driver is not. These issues should then fall into a pattern of Awareness, Acceptance, and then Refinement. For this is the only way this car model can improve and remain viable.

Thus, I am Perfect by Design but Flawed by Interpretation, and I strive daily to make manifest that perfect design. With the full understanding that while I am flawed and will never reach that perfection, staying loyal to the quest brings me inline with God’s perfect design.