Thoughts Become Things - The BIG Picture

The philosophers in today’s world teach us that “thoughts become things”.  From Deepak Chopra to Eckhart Tolle, from Marianne Williamson to Mike Dooley, from Esther Hicks to Oprah Winfrey, from the pages of “The Secret” to hundreds of books, programs, CD’s, DVD’s, and all manner of internet media, the message is ringing out loud and clear:  you create what you think about.  If you think about lack, you experience lack.  If you think about abundance, you experience abundance.  If your focus is love, peace, and happiness, you find yourself enjoying love, peace, and happiness.  Each of these modern day philosophers has a unique manner of presenting this information to us.  They are all basically saying the same thing, “thoughts become things”, and the variety of presentations allows for people of all diversities to hear and understand.

To prove this declaration of “thoughts become things”, we only have to look back at our history.  There we find the proof.  Haven’t you ever wondered how we have progressed from cave men and women to the modern techies we are today?  Allow me to explain further.

According to history, at one time we were a race of hunter/gatherers.  We lived in caves, no doubt, and followed food (animals) in hopes of filling our bellies.  It was all about survival.  And that set us to thinking:  “what if we could grow our food and have a community?”  That idea spread and in a few thousand years or so, agriculture and communities were formed.

Fast forward to the 1400’s: People desired books, bibles, and other materials that had to be scribed by hand.  Along comes Gutenberg and suddenly we have a printing press!  Before Galileo, men started becoming fascinated with the heavens.  Next thing you know there is a telescope!  The examples are endless!  

It is said that hindsight is 20/20, and looking back it seems obvious.  Just the thought “how nice it would be to be able to use the toilet indoors, and not have to empty a chamber pot” turned into our modern day bathrooms.  “I wish there were a way to provide consistent heat for the family” became the lovely heating systems we rely on today.  “I’d love to be able to communicate quickly with someone” turned into the telephone. 

Now, let’s come into life today.  What were the thoughts that have brought us to our amazing technological world?  When I was a child, our entertainment was basically enjoyed in three technologies:  a black and white TV, a radio (AM stations only), and the record player with records.  Someone started thinking, “I wish this TV show was in color!” and the color TV was invented.  Someone thought it would be grand to have a small radio that could be carried around with them.  The idea caught on, and the transistor was born, along with everything since, including our modern day iPods!  What used to take an entire room to store can now be carried in the palm of our hands!

We had a phone on the wall in the kitchen and on a desk in the hallway.  When I became a teenager, I thought it would be so cool to have privacy and to talk to all my friends as I pleased.  Soon, call waiting was invented.  And now we have phones that we carry with us to allow us to always be in touch!  That was my teenaged dream!

Do you see the BIG picture of how thoughts become things?  Each generation collectively thinks forward to the next generation’s big invention.  And, somehow, it keeps moving faster and faster!  So, have I convinced you that thoughts become things, whether on a personal scale or on a collective scale?  If so, wouldn’t you like to take this knowledge and create a more positive world?  For example, by thinking about and envisioning peace, love, justice, and happiness, we could create a new way of life for all people.  You can create these things both for yourself on a personal level, and for our world as a whole.  It can happen.  It has before.  Join in this process.  Live a life of peace, and create a world of peace for our next generation.   Your children’s children’s children are counting on us.

“You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one….Imagine.”  (John Lennon)

(Photo courtesy of one-vision.com)                                                                                                                                                                

What's Wrong is What's Right

We have been told since the day we made our entrance into this world all the things that are right with us and the things that are wrong with us.  Even before we had the knowledge of language, our parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and others were expressing that we were “just like our Mother” or “just like our Father” and often they were not talking solely about looks.  We picked up their energies as they approved and, especially, disapproved of our behaviors.  As we grew older, certain traits emerged to the forefront of whom we were…or who we thought we were. 

As adults, most of us know what is “wrong” with us.  We know that we are procrastinators, that we drink too much or have other addictions, that we lie to protect ourselves, that we are insensitive to others, that we can’t sustain relationships….the list is endless.  Yet, have you ever considered that what is “wrong” with you is actually what is “right” with you?  Yes, that deep dark thing that is your constant companion is actually your salvation!  That “thing” that you shun, ignore, flee from, that revolts you about yourself simply needs another perspective.  Look at it instead as your dear friend, a constant companion that is seeking your love and your attention. 

When you look at your challenges as something that is here to assist you in your life, you bring about a change in yourself.  This new perspective can then be used to benefit yourself and others.  For example, if it is addiction, know that this addiction is being used by you to learn something very valuable and something you could, in time, share with others.  Love and embrace it and ask it what it has to teach you.  Ask what is missing in your life that it is trying to fill.  In time, you will clearly see its role in your life and be able to lay it aside.  Then you can show others how to do the same.

If you are overly stubborn and will listen to no one about anything, the process is the same.  Love and embrace this stubbornness and ask what it has to teach you.  What purpose does it serve?  What is it fulfilling in you?  Maybe it is simply a mode you developed to protect yourself as a child.  The positive side of stubbornness is tenacity and tenacity is a trait that can serve us very well.

You may be more in touch with the spiritual world than most people.  No one ever believed you so you squashed this part of yourself to protect yourself from being ridiculed.  Perhaps you felt a great responsibility in giving others information from the spiritual world.  Yet, you know you could help others with your gift.  Embrace this part of yourself and ask what purpose it can serve. 

Deep inside each of us is a child.  As children, we become imprinted with the environment around us.  It is not your fault that you are the way you are but, it is your privilege to change that part of you if you want to.  We do not have to be victimized by our environments.  Love and embrace whatever it was as a child you received that you consider a fault, a challenge, a secret.  That is your salvation.  That is the thing that is here to teach you something very important.  That is the ticket to your creativity, your joy and your evolution. 

So, stop looking outside of yourself for who you are.  Don’t allow people from you past, present or future to live “rent free” in your head!  Everything you need is within your own self.  Everything you are dwells within.  Seek yourself and your answers there within the depths of your own self. 

Remember:  Everything they ever told you was wrong with you is what is right with you.  Embrace it.  Love it.  Heal it.  Share it with others.  Now, you are free.

All Is Well

She felt a perfect sadness accompanying her through her day.  A non-specific sadness – a sadness without drama nor crying.  Just an old friend attempting to wriggle its way back into her heart.  She allowed it to sit for a while and plead its case.  But she knew this was one old friend that should not – could not – be allowed a real and permanent place inside.  So she observed, knowing eventually she’d ask it to leave and return to her magnificent efforts – her magnificent changes.

We all feel sad or down from time to time.  Don’t fight it….just allow it to move through you as you observe it.  Be with it.  Love it.  Remember you are not alone...your Angels watch over and protect you in all the moments of your life.  And give it a time limit.  If you are like me, long before the time limit is up, you will already be on to your next step.  Be kind to yourself.  Everything is o.k.  All is well.

Shift Happens

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about all the sayings, affirmations and lingo of the Spiritual world today.  The overriding theme is “your thoughts create your life”.  If one will just change their thought patterns and begin to believe that what they want is already theirs, it will be.  Sounds simple enough, doesn’t it?  Yet changing a life time of habitual thinking is the most difficult task before us.

And what if this is not true?  When I was growing up, when my parents grew up, and possibly every generation since the US of A was formed, I was given a different message:  WORK hard and what you want will be yours.  (aka “the American Dream”)  So they worked hard and, for most of them, it paid off.  My parent’s generation bought homes for around 15,000 that are now worth 100,000!  They paid 500 for a car that would now be 10,000!  So how did all this change?

My thoughts on it are that for so many years, so many people believed the same thing…work hard and what you want will be yours.  But, shift happens, and there came a day when this adage could no longer be said with conviction.  People didn’t want to work hard and get what they wanted only to realize that they were too old, too tired or both to enjoy it and basically left it to the next generation to enjoy.  So what was our generation to do?  It was up to us to stop inequality for races, genders, sexual preferences, children, religions and all manner of dividing lines in our world.  We were more dreamers than doers, so we needed a new catch phrase and one that suited our needs.  We didn’t mind working, as long as it was fun and/or for a good cause.  So we stared visualizing what we wanted.  We became optimistic in the face of our country’s ruin.  The cost of our homes, our cars, our groceries and everything we consumed went up but our pay did not, at least not as fast as the cost of living.

Another element that is causing this shift in thought is that new evidence in the scientific community supports the theory of our thoughts creating our reality.  There is a paradigm shift from the body of scientific knowledge that has supported our theories for the past 300 years.  The studies in Noetic Science have now taken Quantum Physics to a new level.  Many studies have proven that a thought can affect reality.  If you are interested in this, simply google Noetic Science, or watch movies such as I AM by director Tom Shadyac or What the Bleep Do We Know.  Both cite many studies in Quantum Physics and the idea that thoughts create or change reality.  Author Lynn McTaggart also discusses this concept in her book “The Field”.  We all know that science changes over time.  For example, the earth is no longer flat, the planets revolve around the sun, and electricity is no longer considered “magic”.

Now, more and more people believe “your thoughts create your life”.  And guess what?  They do.  All it takes for anything to be true is for enough people to believe it.  Shift happens.

Pixie and Funny Nose

I wrote this note on my birthday last year on my facebook page.  I wanted to write something for my birthday this year, but this actually says it all.  I have so enjoyed having Pixie and Funny Nose with me all year…no being packed away for them anymore!!  It has been another challenging year, but one in which I have learned so much.  Most of all, I have learned how to change the way in which I think…and that is no easy thing to learn!  It is still a work in progress, as am I, but I am happier and more content than I’ve ever been in my life.  Again, I wish to thank and honor my dear friends, whether you’ve been with me since day one or we’ve just met!  Maybe you’re on my facebook page and we connect in that way.  Regardless, I’m thankful and blessed to have each of you as a part of me.  Now for the post from last year (this year, I’m 59….really?)!! 

Happy Birthday to ME!!  I am so thankful to have lived through one of the toughest yet!  Yesterday while unpacking Christmas decorations, I came across a box of items which I had misplaced when I moved 2 1/2 years ago!  Oddly enough, they were in a decorative box right in my living room!  Though I couldn't see them, they were with me as they had been for so many years! 

 Among the items was this figurine which was given to me by my Godmother, Ima Murphy (RIP) when I was about 4 years old.  It graced her coffee table and when I visited, as I often did, I would run right to it and hold it and play with it.  I named the two "Pixie and Funny Nose" and felt I knew them from some long ago and far away place where Pixies/Faeries/Magical Beings lived with their various animal friends to whom they could talk.  Eventually, Ima gave me the figurine and I have had it with me ever since.  Of all the items I have had and lost in this life, this is one that has remained.

 Today as I celebrate 58 years of life, I use Pixie and Funny Nose as a symbol of the essence of myself.  I remember the feeling this little duo brought me then and the feeling still arises when I look at them now.  I honor that part of myself and know it is the best part of me. 

 I want to thank everyone who has been with me over my life whether from the beginning or just having joined in.  You are all connected to me and "I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together"!  (Goo goo g'joob!)  I love and honor each of you.

 In keeping with my theme of poems, here is another on of my favs....perfect for this day...enjoy...

Barter

Life has loveliness to sell,

All beautiful and splendid things,

Blue waves whitened on a cliff,

Soaring fire that sways and sings,

And children's faces looking up,

Holding wonder like a cup.

Life has loveliness to sell,

Music like a curve of gold,

Scent of pine trees in the rain,

Eyes that love you, arms that hold,

And for your spirit's still delight,

Holy thoughts that star the night.

Spend all you have for loveliness,

Buy it and never count the cost;

For one white singing hour of peace

Count many a year of strife well lost,

And for a breath of ecstasy

Give all you have been, or could be.

-Sara Teasdale (1884-1933)

The Darkling Thrush

I have been an avid poetry lover all of my life.  When I was a student at UNC Greensboro, our textbook, “Sound and Sense” had many poems both familiar and unfamiliar.  I still have the original book to this day and it is a constant companion.  It still bears my maiden name along with my dorm name and room number…”Nancy Mills, 303 Hinshaw”.  The pages are worn and dog eared with notations made in the margins.  I still remember the young professor I had that was actually the older brother of one of my high school friends.  He certainly facilitated unraveling the meaning of some of those poems.  Thank you, Bob Gingrich. 

Now, as winter is closing in, it's time for one of my favorite poems to be read once again, "The Darkling Thrush".  It is by Thomas Hardy and was written in December of 1900.  I like to pretend it was written on my birthday!  It is about hope vs. despair....so many are feeling these emotions at this time.  I dedicate this to my former student, Melissa Martin Glick.

 The Darkling Thrush by Thomas Hardy

 December 1900

I leant upon a coppice gate

 When frost was specter-grey,

And Winter's dregs made desolate

 The weakening eye of day. 

The tangled bine-stems scored the sky

 Like strings of broken lyres,

And all mankind that haunted nigh

 Had sought their household fires.

The land's sharp features seemed to be

 The Century's corpse outleant,

His crypt the cloudy canopy,

 The wind his death lament.

The ancient pulse of germ and birth

 Was shrunken hard and dry,

And every spirit upon earth

 Seemed fervorless as I.

At once a voice arose among

 The bleak twigs overhead

In a full-hearted evensong

 Of joy illimited;

An aged thrush, frail, gaunt, and small,

 In blast beruffled plume,

Had chosen thus to fling his soul

 Upon the growing gloom.

So little cause for carolings

 Of such ecstatic sound

Was written on terrestrial things

 Afar or nigh around.

That I could think there trembled through

 His happy good-night air

Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew

 And I was unaware.

 And no matter how many times I read this poem, at the end, my eyes are always wet.  Thank you Mr. Hardy for being able to stir my soul over and over through the 40 or so years since first I read this poem.

Occupy

Occupy Wall Street.  We are the 99%.  Class war.  No middle class.  Change.  These are the buzzwords circulating today.  I have been thinking about our society, our government, and our world for a long time.  I have wondered if the 1% know they are the 1%.  I wonder if they want change as badly as the rest of us…maybe many of them don’t mind paying higher taxes.  Maybe many of them are using their money to initiate innovations in our world and give large amounts to help others less fortunate.  I know we need change.  I support change and can see this “Occupy” movement is a step.  For the majority of us, “enough is enough”.  Yet, this method is bothering me a bit.  It is creating a separation of “us and them” which I remember from the 60’s and 70’s.  In some ways, it seems to create more separation than unity.

In my opinion, what we need is cooperation.  We need for each one of us to go within ourselves and connect to our deeper selves.  We need to take responsibility for our own thoughts and actions, and always question if what we are doing is for the good of all.  Allow other opinions and points of view.  If they don’t line up with yours, find a space for compromise.  In doing so, true change and peace would be possible.  Rather than being part of the 99% or the 1%, we should strive to be part of the 100%.  So here is my take on “occupy”:

Love 100%

Serve 100%

Cooperate 100%

Inspire 100%

Share 100%

Think positive 100%

Take responsibility 100%

Respect each other 100%

Allow 100%

Occupy your life 100%

I know…”you may say I’m a dreamer (but I’m not the only one)”.  Let it be.

Note:  Thanks to my cousin, Mamie Lewis Potter for sharing a quote from the Daily Om on facebook this morning.  It contained the seeds of inspiration for this blog.