Bring Love To It!

Bring Love to it sounds easy enough.  BUT, it isn't is it?  The title of the blog suggests this and it is something I express often. But if you pay attention you will notice that I say, "It is more simple than that!"

Simple is not necessarily easy.  Quite often it is the opposite, at least in the beginning.  Starting on a new path is always tricky at first.  At first?  Heck it can be tricky for quite a while down the new path!  We begin to wonder if this is really worth it at all and begin to doubt ourselves, and the person or persons who talked you into the change in the first place.  "What the heck was I thinking!"  "This is pie-in-the-sky, airy-fairy bovine excrement!"   "This is STUPID!"  Well, you get the idea.

Many give up at this point.  Manly because they see no point.  No point in the new path.  No point in the idea of making a change in their lives.  Maybe even no point in their life.  This is very sad.  But there is always hope.  We always have a chance to make a change when we finally make the choice.

This is the key NOTHING WILL HAPPEN until WE make the choice to make the change!

GREAT! NOW WHAT!

Simple, are you ready for it?  Here it comes!

Simply decide to make a change.  Some kind of change.  It doesn't matter at first.  Change creates motion and that means action.  Action is what will start to move you forward.  Or at least in some direction.  THEN you can begin to refine this into a path that you are willing to walk.  A path that will make a change in your life that will help you and all of those around  you.

Pretty profound stuff, huh?  Not really.  Just truth.

Truth is simple.  When truth gets complicated it starts to veer away from itself and then we're off the track.  Remember when I said that it really is simple?  It is.

We really only have two choices in life.  Two.  That's it.  Simple, right?

We can only choose between Love and fear. These are the only choices that we have, that's it.  You may think that it is more complicated than that and that is because YOU are making it so.  Or the people around you are and you are buying into it.

When you start to balance any choice you make on the Love/fear scale you will find that the choices become more simple.  Again, not always easy, rarely really, until the pattern becomes more natural. But, oh so important!  You see, when you start looking at the world (your life) with this scale, then you only have two choices. This or that.  Love or fear.

Simple, but there is more.  As we bring Love to all we do (remember this post is about bringing Love to it) we also are bringing more Love into the world.  The cynic will say, "What good is that for me?" And we say back to him, "EVERYTHING!"

You see, there is no way that we are not connected to everything else in this world.  We may feel like we aren't connected to anything.  (This is may be part of the problem.)  If we are not aware of this connection then we are dragging the rest of the world around with us, only not in a good way, kicking and screaming.  It would be so much better if we could shift our paradigm to "We are all on a lovely walk in the woods."  Some of us get this and seem to go through life with less stress.  Others of us don't get this and send all sorts of negative energy out and this binds us to everyone and everything.

It all changes when we start to bring Love to it.  Bring Love to all you do.  Make every choice from a Love base instead of fear.  The more you do, the better your life will change and things will become less stressful.  More opportunities will come your way.  Your eyes will be open to this new world.  be patient, remember, three steps forward and two steps back is still going forward!

Yes, the world will start to look different!

You might even remark that it is interesting that the world around you is starting to get better.

This is your energy and the energy that you allow to flow through you that makes it happen!

Congratulations!  You are on the road to a better life!

If you don't believe me, you can always go back to the way you've always been.  But really, how's that been working out for ya?

Just bring Love to it!

Donald Hood
Open Faith Ministry

Remembering Frank

Here we are approaching the Easter Holiday (or Holy Day) and many people are preparing for dinner, colored eggs and chocolate.  Some are even celebrating a holy man who walked this earth some two thousand years ago.

One would think that everyone would be full of the Love and Light that this man taught, or tried to teach.  That we would set aside differences and see the Divine in each other and walk the talk that so many profess.  Sadly this is not the case.  Too many people will look like they are following the teachings and yet they practice fear and all of the ugly practices that it manifests.

Why is this the case?  Why does a perfectly wonderful path get so twisted and turn back against itself instead of moving souls forward on a path of peace and enlightenment?

Mankind (we should remember the kind part) has twisted this man's teaching of the Divine in such a way that it has controlled and oppressed whole populations for righteous reasons.  This has gone on for years beyond count.  Each generation feels that because their ancestors were oppressed that it is somehow justified to oppress others.  Again this goes completely against what the Path is all about.

LOVE IS ALL THERE IS, PEOPLE!

That's it.  If we could just understand that this IS the Path, this IS the way to the Divine then maybe, just maybe things could change.  Should we expect this in the near future?  Probably not.  But we should always move forward as if it could happen.

Let it not be you (or me) to be the one who did not choose wisely.  Let us move forward in Love in all we do.  Does this mean that every step will be in Love? Probably not but we need to keep the effort moving forward or we will all be lost.  Each of us has the responsibility to make this happen.  Our right energy does make a difference to the world.

Frank, remember Frank?  He wrote something that I send to some of the people who still don't understand this concept.  People who profess to be followers yet they are still basing all their choices on fear.  Here is a copy of what my teacher, Frank wrote so long ago, please share if you like.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,

Where there is hatred, let me sow love;

Where there is injury, pardon;

Where there is doubt, faith;

Where there is despair, hope;

Where there is darkness, light;

Where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,

grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console;

to be understood, as to understand;

to be loved, as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive.

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.

Amen.

Blessings,
Don
Open Faith Ministry

What about the Elephant?

Sometimes we go through life plodding along thinking everything is going perfectly and then come to a point when life begins to unravel.  How does this happen?  How can life unravel without any warning?  How can it happen when everything was perfect?

Everything was not perfect.  It just seemed perfect because we refused to see the elephant in the corner.  What elephant, you ask?  This is the elephant that is waiting patiently to teach you another lesson about your life.  The elephant is a great teacher.  The elephant will be patient for a while but eventually it wants to be heard, it must be heard.

What does it want to teach you?  You must listen.  You must pay attention to its needs.  The elephant wants to teach us patience, wisdom, and peace.  It also wants to teach us to stand up for ourselves and be strong.  Speak up when necessary and have a thick enough skin to not be broken down by others who may seem to shout louder.

Take the lessons from the elephant and bring your life into a place of empowerment.  Bring your life into a place of wisdom, peace and Love.

Exerpt from my book about the breath!

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“Today we are going to learn the ‘ABC’s of Life,’” he said.

“ABC’s?” I asked.

“Yes, without these, we would die,” he stated in his all knowing tone.

“Okay, what are they?” I asked this knowing that it would be something pretty obvious once he explained it to me. He always started out simple and then got more complicated be­fore we came back to simple again.

“Always Breathe Continuously,” he said with a sweeping gesture as if to make it more important.

“That’s it? That can’t be it. Don’t we just do it all the time anyway?” I thought he must have been joking.

“Wait a minute. Let’s do this first.” He touched my head, and we were in the middle of the expressway! Not in a car- just standing in the middle on the line. I started to scream out, and he stopped me. My heart was racing and I felt sweat rolling down my body. He told me to calm down; we were not going to get hurt. With the cars were whizzing past so closely, I knew we were doomed. He squeezed my head and in a flash, we were back at the library! I was covered in sweat, but I was safe.

“Whew! That was a close one! Why did you do that, are you crazy?”

“Why did you stop breathing when we were out on the expressway?” was all he asked.

“Stop breathing? I didn’t stop

breathing! That was crazy! You never know what those drivers will do when you’re in a car, but to be out in the middle of the road like that means that you are just a target!” I was all but shouting at him, and I was breathing hard.

“Why are you breathing so hard now?” he asked.

“Because I am upset! That’s why. That was the most reckless thing you have ever done with me!”

“You’re upset.”

“Damn right I’m upset! I don’t think this whole teacher/student thing is going to work out.” I felt like I was going to explode.

“Why aren’t you breathing now?” He put his hand on my head; again we floated in some huge body of water. I could not even tell which way was up.

He smiled at me. Now I really felt like I was going to explode. He took my hand and gave it a little jerk up and-flash-we were back in the library.

I gulped in a big breath of air and noticed where we were and that our clothes were already dry. “Oh,” I said. “This whole thing was about the breath, right?”

“So you might think the breath might be important?” he asked. “Of course you could not breathe when you were in the ocean, but why couldn’t you breathe when we were on the expressway?”

“I was afraid,” was all I said.

“So fear kept you from breathing?” he asked, smiling that annoying smile of his.

“Yes, fear! I was afraid that we were going to get creamed out there!” I was showing frustration again.

“But there was air to breathe. Why did you choose not to do so?” Again with that annoying smile.

“I had other things on my mind, okay?” I was shouting again.

“Other things were more important than the breath?” he asked. “What could be more important than the breath?”

He had me there, I thought. I could feel my body tense when I got upset or scared. But what could I do about it?

“Sit!” he said all of a sudden. “I will teach you how to breathe.”

He had me sit down with my back straight and my face looking forward. “Now start counting, at a moderate pace, one… two… three… four… one… two… three… four… and so on.”

I started counting and found by the second set of numbers, I was out of breath. He told me to slow down and breathe in on the one-two count and out on the three-four count. I did and it seemed very comfortable but controlled. I thought breathing was supposed to be natural.

“It is,” he said, reading my mind. “Just keep practicing.”

“Now visualize the breath coming up the back of your spine and down your front. This creates a complete circle and will help your flow of en­ergy.”

I was doing as he instructed and I was feeling better. I felt more awake. My muscles were even beginning to relax; I could feel my shoulders beginning to drop. This was pretty neat stuff, but why count only to four; why not keep going? I thought.

“Because you need to keep your focus on the breath not on the counting.” He had read my mind again. “The count is only to help you maintain the rhythm. You will get to a point where the numbers will just drift away.”

“This sounds a lot like meditation,” I said.

“That’s exactly what it is. Meditation will train you to breathe correctly. You may even find other benefits as well…if you pay attention.”

“But I can’t meditate,” I protested. “I start out like the teachers say, but there is too much noise in my head, and besides, they say that it takes years to do it right. What’s the point?”

“The point is that it is really more simple than that,” he explained. “Many people make things out to be more difficult than necessary. Many ‘teachers’ want to hold onto the ‘secrets’ and make it out to be hard to do. Then there are those who believe that if it is not hard to do, it isn’t worth doing. We don’t see the essence of the practice. The noise in your head, for instance, is going to be coming in no matter what. If you try to keep the door closed to these thoughts, your focus will be on the door and not the meditation. The idea is to let it come in and then go right out. Just like watching a train at the crossing. You’ve zoned out watching the cars go by, so you know what it is like already. Anything that is important will be there when you get done with the meditation. Return to the count, and keep the breath.”

From -- 

It’s Really More Simple Than That!
A Story About Real Life

Copyright © 2002-20010
By
  Donald Hood
Open Faith Ministry
 

What this is about...

This is a place where I will, from time to time, post life notes, bits and pieces of wisdom and other things relating to life and Love.

We tend to drive with the emergency brake on and wonder why life isn't going as we planned.  We must remember to bring Love to all we do and say.  The more that we are able to do this, the better our life becomes and smoother it will feel.

Be gentle on yourself.  Love yourself first.  Let go of the ego and allow the Creator to flow through you.  You are more than worthy because you are part of creation and therefore a creator in yourself. 

Accept the empowerment with each choice you make! Come alive with the joy of creation!


Check out my book on Amazon, it's the same title as the blog!

Peace be with you!
Don