Recognition

Never fail to recognize yourself in another person. Regardless of culture, appearance, life choices, or current circumstances. When you recognize yourself in others, you can give and share freely with others. It is why I am always thankful that when I run into a homeless or poor person on the street, I always always always have at least a dollar or more to give to them. When we give to others we give to ourselves. It does not matter what they choose to do with what is given, This life, this world, this experience, is all shared and connected. Help others, help yourself. Forgive others, forgiveness will be given to you. That is my thought for the day. :)

Goodbye 2012

 

A brief, or maybe not so brief, moment of reflection...

Not sure where to start but here goes. It would appear that any and all negativity I may have been harboring or attracting into my life all hit in the last month of this year. Such great lost and on top of all the great losses, I then got extremely sick.

In fact, I am still slightly sick while typing this.

At first glance it would seem that maybe some evil forces are working against me, but at the second one must realize that in order to make room for new and better things, the old things must be lost and die away.

I had not thought on it quite in that manner until I was watching a documentary on the life of Siddhartha or The Buddha. There was one phrase that stood out for me during this journey into the great man and teacher's past.

The phrase was this: "In order to gain anything, you must first lose everything."

It came up in the part of the story where, after the birth of his child Siddhartha had a choice to make. He wanted to truly understand the world especially after all that he had seen beyond his life he knew as a prince with a protected and sheltered life. He wanted to understand suffering, death, aging, and illness, he wanted to understand what the journey was about. He realized in order to understand these things, he must first leave everything he knew behind. To gain that kind of knowledge, he had to lose the life he knew.

So one night as he gazed upon his wife and newborn child he refrained from touching the child. He knew he could not leave if he did this because it would attach his heart to the child further binding him into his cage of ignorance. So he left that world behind.

He lost everything in that moment but he gained a knowledge and level of enlightenment that generations of people in this world could grow and learn from. How different would the world be without the teachings of Buddha?

I will take this moment to say that I am not a Buddhist, I am a practicing Catholic but that does not mean that wisdom cannot be gained from his journey and my faith shares similarities in the story of our savior Jesus. He too had to let go and lose everything in order to gain enlightenment and strength to make the ultimate sacrifice of dying for the salvation of man kind.

I promise this all has a point.

In the spans of a month I have lost quite a bit but I have also gained so much. I have gained a fresh perspective on my life. My car accident this month was a bit of a wake up call. For all intents and purposes, I and my son, should not have been able to walk away from that accident. A truck hitting a car my size at 45 mph should have injured us severely and probably if he had been going faster or had my car been stagnant, my son would not have been enjoying his 7th Christmas and I would not be typing at this precise moment.

I have found my faith again in the most extreme of circumstances, I feel blessed to be here and one way of looking at the loss a car is it makes room for a new car to be gained which was something I needed anyways.

The circumstances also served as a mirror holding up to me the images of negativity I attracted into my life by thoughts and words that were not positive and loving. You receive that which you give out.

So now here it is, the final days of the year, so much has been lost but so much remains to be gained from that loss, a lesson, a perspective, new friendships, relationships, cars, homes, or whatever "gaining" means to you. I for one believe that there is much to be gained and thankful for in 2013 and despite pain and loss in 2012 I bid it a fond farewell because every experience has brought me to this moment right this second and I am grateful for it. I also am thankful for the wonderful moments I had this last year, I had laughs, trips, great friendships, great memories, new opportunities, and I even had sunrises again for a while.

Goodbye 2012, thank you, thank you, thank you, for all that was given and all that was taken out of my path to make room for whatever 2013 promises to bring. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!

:)

Daily Inspiration: The Optimist's Creed by Christian D. Larson

Came across this bit of inspiration today, truly words to live by. I had a feeling I should post this today and perhaps someone else could benefit from it. Have a great day, thank you for viewing my page, and if no one says it to you today, no matter who you are, if I have never met you, held your hand, hugged you, or conversed in person with you know that I believe in you and all you  are capable of, know that I love you!

Have a great day everyone!