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Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Peace Starts on the Inside

I decided that perhaps my thinking has become slightly negative in recent weeks or perhaps even months. I therefore decided to go to the Self-Realization Center in the Pacific Palisades with my Mom to feel cleansed. I was very glad I went.

I think for the first time, as we went through a brief meditation, I finally started to understand how it worked. Typically my mind is always racing, however today with guidance, I think I managed to harness it a little bit. Although I had been feeling a little bit of anger towards an ex-girlfriend (I just found out she moved in with somebody proving that there had been someone else involved in our break-up), I started letting that go and started feeling good vibes for everyone. I realized that it is not only healthier to love than to hate, but much easier! I left the sermon today feeling more refreshed. Unfortunately, that did not last for long. As I was trying to leave, a few people bumped into me, without making eye contact or apologizing. I felt like pushing back, wondering how these people could be so discourteous. Then I made it to the line for the Friendship Tea for the weekly snack. Again, there were many people, and some people decided to get their food, and just continue to stand in front of it to chat, blocking the line, and blocking others from accessing it. I don't believe they were intentionally being rude, but often people unfortunately do not consider anyone else but themselves. All that mattered to them was that they got what they wanted. Nobody else existed.

To take into account your surroundings, and others around you, seems to have turned into a rare trait amongst peoples, even at a beautiful place of worship. I started feeling anger, and then realized that I had to really work on myself as perhaps in these last few months the crowd of the city and the thoughtlessness of many people within had eroded my new place of peace.
But I can never blame anything on the outside. I believe we must be so peaceful and strong, that nothing, nor no one on the outside can affect us on the inside. Not surprisingly, the Universe told me what I needed to know within minutes of me feeling this trivial and destructive anger. I had picked up a little booklet which contained selections from Gandhi's writing. Upon feeling this anger my eyes fell immediately on these lines:
I am too conscious of the imperfections of the species to which I belong to be irritated against any member thereof. My remedy is to deal with the wrong wherever I see it, not to hurt the wrongdoer; even as I would not like to be hurt for the wrongs I continually do.
No coincidence. I am but a fool to expect perfection from everyone. We cannot hold everyone else up to our own standards otherwise we will go crazy. Just because I'm overly considerate of others doesn't mean anyone else is, nor should I get angry with others for being the way they are. We are an imperfect species. And that's okay. Just accept others and focus on the simple and happy things in your life.

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Like Gravity

I was on my way to a car dealership today to look at a new car. Yes, although not as cool as the BMW 3 series, I decided to go green and consider a Toyota Prius, especially given all of the miles that I sometimes drive, not to mention So.Cal traffic can take a toll on a car. More importantly my ego doesn't need the inflation of a car like that. Perhaps once upon a time, but not now. But something struck me on my way to look at the car: that I hadn't thought about my last relationship in a while. Have no doubt, time heals all wounds. It's funny to think how crappy I felt just a couple of months ago. However when we have a reference that puts everything in perspective for us, it all makes sense about how we have to be like gravity. We have to be like gravity in that we have to gravitate towards the things and people that gravitate towards us. This permeates all levels of life. Allow me to explain.

In our relationships, it is useless for us to convince someone to like us. No doubt, there is sometimes a game we have to play during the courting phase however over the longer term, it is fruitless to convince someone to like us. Our time is far better spent gravitating towards people who like to spend time with us without us having to impress them or convince them to do so. How do we know when we're with the right person or set of friends? Nothing feels forced, we look forward to spending time with them, and we don't have to feel like we're someone we're not. We just exist and are happy in their company. Trust me, take a look at how you are when you're with your best friend and contrast that relationship to other people you're with.
Now let's move on to our "job" or whatever it is that we do for a living. If you're having doubts about your job or are unhappy or perhaps are at a stage in your life where you're still considering what you want to be when you "grow up", then read on. It's probably easier than you think to decide. Think back to what you wanted to be when you were a child - do you still have aspirations to do that? (aside from being a millionaire, which we've all found out, isn't actually a profession!). You may find that you do, and may want to consider pursuing that. Or if you're not sure about your current job, take a look at your life. Do you find yourself tired? Snappy with your loved ones? Getting sick all the time even though you take care of yourself? It may very well be your subconscious trying to give you signals to move on.

My point is that life does not have to be a struggle. In fact, the Universe is so abundant with whatever you want that it is fruitless to feel like you are swimming upstream. The path is laid out for you and perhaps more obvious to follow than your mind can comprehend, which is why we spend so much time pursuing things that we are not sure of, because society has conditioned us to take certain paths, which may or may not be our true heart's calling.

Take some time to meditate. Contemplate. What did you want to do for a living as a child? Who are the people that you feel most alive when you're around? When was the last time you got sick - what or who was involved in your life? These are the breadcrumbs that the Universe has laid out for us on our journey of fulfillment. Just follow the simple law of Gravity in everything your heart calls for you to do and you will be amazed by the results.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Kanye West and the Law of Attraction

Since it happens so often, I've decided to start documenting a bit more, my experiences with quantum physics and its more commercialized version, "the law of attraction". Let's start with today.

The VMA Awards were already a month ago. For some reason, I decided to watch a rerun of it the other night on the TV, only to hear the new Kanye West song, "Runaway". I didn't think anything of the song nor was it one of those songs that replayed in my head. I had never heard it on the radio or TV so I figured it didn't go anywhere. Today about about 4:00pm I was working when for some reason the song popped back into my head. I couldn't shake it. I ended up spending about 20 minutes looking for it on youtube and finally found a decent version to listen to. It was a decent song after all!

Two minutes later, I turned on the TV for the first time that day. The TV turned on with the face of Kanye West on the Ellen show. I didn't even have to change the channel - he was right there talking about his new album/song. Within about 15 seconds, they started playing the video for that song that I had just been looking for, but had been having a hard time finding a decent version of on youtube!

Coincidence? Doubt it. Stay tuned.

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Rainbow Bridge

Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge. When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge. There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together. There is plenty of food and water and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable. All the animals who have been ill and old are restored to health and vigour, those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by.

The animals are happy and content, except for one small thing; they miss someone very special to them who had to be left behind. They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance. The bright eyes are intent, the eager body quivers. Suddenly it begins to break away from the group, flying across the green grass, strong legs carrying him faster and faster.

YOU have been spotted and when you and your special pet finally meet, you cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again. The happy kisses rain upon your face, and as your hands caress their beloved head you look once more into the trusting eyes of your pet, so long gone from your life but never absent from your heart. You then cross the Rainbow Bridge together.

Author Unknown

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Going One Step Further

Thank you to ALL and EVERYONE who has ever read this blog. I am writing this to announce a few changes that will be taking place. Don't worry, this isn't an announcement that this blog will be shutting down since I don't have time to write anymore. Quite the opposite. I have decided to put more time and effort into maintaining this. If anyone gets anything out of it, whether a smile, knowledge, or even some help that saves one of their own animal family members, then it would make all of this worth it. Actually, all of this is worth it anyway, because I get to speak (type) from the heart and that alone makes it worthwhile!

SO - a few upcoming changes:

1) A new domain name! I haven't decided on it yet, but will do so soon at which point lovelifeandthelawofattraction.blogspot.com will point to the new domain (you have to admit, the current one is ridiculously long).
2) I am going to work on a slightly new and appealing layout.
3) And the biggest of them all, is that I want to start adding video blogging to this site. I think it will be a new way to spice things up around here.

Have a wonderful weekend and make sure and spend time with everyone you love, animal, human, or plant.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

I love you Mr. T

My beautiful kitten, exactly one year old, died this weekend. I am trying not to look back with regret for not having brought him to the vet sooner. It happened so fast...

It's strange - I miss him dearly, but for some reason feel so surrounded by his presence and his LOVE. I've cried a lot over these last two days. Oddly enough, this is the first death I've really been close to. I've had pets many years ago, but I was a different person then, and their deaths hurt. However, I don't know if I was as close to those animals as this one - Mr. T. He was one of three brothers who was born in my backyard by a stray cat. The mother left them for us, and they were soon coined as "The Klump" or "The Brothers" (nevermind that two of them were female). They have spent the last year together completely inseparable, cleaning each other daily, sleeping, eating, and loving me and my family.

I love him very much. I see how much I've grown as a person and I see so much of me in each of those kittens, especially Mr. T. He was a very shy and timid kitten, but very kind, quiet, and peaceful. As our discussions on this blog have been clear, the things we receive in life are a reflection of us. This couldn't be more true of these kittens. As my mother pointed out, as I considered how unconditionally and deeply Mr.T loved me, he was just reflecting my own love for him back upon myself. I used to be someone that carried around a lot of regrets about things I could have done better. Not so much this time, hence my growth.

I never let a single day go by without spending a lot of time with my kittens and every single night, even if it was 2 in the morning, sitting down with them outside and telling them how much I loved them. Me and Mr.T used to sit down side by side, with my hand on his back, watching up at the stars. I told him every night just how much I loved him. I felt like he really understood me. He just stood quietly and listened to me always. So docile, so loving.

Despite him no longer physically here, all I feel is love all around me. I keep thinking of the line from Ghost where Patrick Swayze says (while he's going to heaven), "it's amazing, the love, you take it with you...". While the backyard seems very empty and quiet, and I know his two sisters are missing him dearly, grieving in their own way, I feel his ray of sunshine upon my soul.

I realized through Mr.T how silly it is, chasing love. How silly have I been over the years, chasing people that didn't love me back. It is incumbent upon us to be like gravity and gravitate towards those that love us and we love. Never try to convince someone to love you - that is not love.

As humans, we love to talk about love all of the time, however we understand it the least of perhaps all living creatures. Mr.T knew what true love was. He gave it to me and his siblings every day. He didn't do it to get anything in return. He did it simply because he had it to give. Love is being in the presence of someone who you can share your positive energy with, and bask in the glow of one another. Love is sharing your positive energy with someone when they're down and vice-versa. Love is not conditional. It is something you give because you wish to give it. I love you Mr.T and I thank you for loving me. I feel like that beautiful feeling you gave me will never go away. Ever.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Quotation from Eat, Pray, Love

“…I’ve come to believe that there exists in the universe something I call “The Physics of The Quest” – a force of nature governed by laws as real as the laws gravity or momentum. And the rule of Quest Physics maybe goes like this: “If you are brave enough to leave behind everything familiar and comforting (which can be anything from your house to your bitter old resentments) and set out on a truth-seeking journey (either externally or internally), and if you are truly willing to regard everything that happens to you on that journey as a clue, and if you accept everyone you meet along the way as a teacher, and if you are prepared – most of all – to face (and forgive) some very difficult realities about yourself….then truth will not be withheld from you.” Or so I’ve come to believe.”

- Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat Pray Love.

Saturday, August 14, 2010

New Beginnings...Again

Well, who would have thunk it? I first started this blog a few years ago to help me recover from a break-up. I'd like to say it was devastating because it rattled my foundations as a human being. The interesting thing is, it wasn't the relationship that did it, so much as it was how the end of it awoke me to the real me, and the issues I had that were holding me back that perhaps had prevented me from being in a great relationship.

Fast forward and a about a year and a half ago I met a great girl! As you can decipher from the dates on my posts, this blog went dead as my heart soared in ways I did not expect. With this new girl, I was able to do right all the things I had done wrong previously. I didn't hide her - she slept over at my parents place, I introduced her as my girlfriend, I was always available for her and I was generous with my time and love. For the first time, I was able to tell someone in english openly that I loved them and she loved me too!

I'm not sure where things went wrong. The only issue her and I ever had was that after a while I always felt like I was tenth on her list of things to do. Don't get me wrong, we talked and kept in touch all day, however it was rare for me to see her in the day, as though we'd only get to do things in the evenings after she had done all of her other stuff. To me that wasn't a big deal, although the bigger deal was when we would have tentative plans and she would forget all about them, almost twice a week! She was so busy managing her family, job and school, that while I would get frustrated, I was also very patient. I was just happy to have her in my life. Ultimately, this was the only thing I would get frustrated and angry about. Otherwise we got along well.

We finally made our one year anniversary. We enjoyed a fantastic weekend going to the aquarium and being together. She was head over heels and so was I. Then the next day, she became very distant. For the whole week we did not talk much. When I finally managed to get her to answer her phone, she seemed odd. She said she had felt so close to me and dependent that she wanted to see what it would be like to be without me for the week, and she ended up missing me. I, unfortunately, got mad and told her that it seems like she just wants to break up, so let's just break up. Although I regretted it immediately and apologized, she took it and ran. Either way, I had been very patient and nor am I a laboratory animal to experiment on!

Ultimately the relationship turned into an electronic one - we were broken up, kind of, sort of, but she would only communicate through text. She wanted to meet one day, but then ditched me. It has been a roller coaster these last four months, trying to understand her signs. I have felt every emotion from sadness to anger to overwhelming love for her despite everything. She kept giving signs but ultimately she was always too afraid to express herself fully and perhaps me too, as I had felt that I kept reaching out, and she would just recoil. Yesterday however, I finally gave it one last go, and got the closure I needed...through text message no less.

She repeated what she had said before - she wasn't happy anymore with her life and didn't want to drag me down in the process. Talking wouldn't have changed anything. She said I am better off without her, and that her life is so crazy right now. Whatever her motives are/were, I replied with no games, telling her that I loved her very much and all I had ever wanted previously was to at least talk to say goodbye if nothing more. I sent lots and lots of love her way and told her she is very dear to me.

I could have said nasty things, but what for? She did things the way she knew how and I know she did nothing out of malice. Perhaps she got afraid at the one year mark. And yes, we are at two different points in our lives, that's for sure. I feel so lucky to have been able to carry myself out of the fire two years ago and love again. I did not expect myself to wind up here again...but I know that I do so a much stronger person than before. I am grateful to be surrounded by many projects, many people and great family. And I realized that the real love of my life has to be myself.

Sunday, June 6, 2010

Book Review: Chicken Soup for the Soul: Count Your Blessings


Well it's been awhile, but I thought it was time for another book review. This time, after hearing so much about the series, I finally picked up an edition of Chicken Soup for the Soul: Count Your Blessings. I have seen this book everywhere over the years, and always found the name of it to be a bit odd, but despite that my only excuse for not having picked up one of its many editions is because I never got around to it.

Chicken Soup for the Soul: Count Your Blessings, is a compilation of various short stories of situations people have gone through. They are all real events dealing with everything from people who lost their jobs, to their families, but were able to find a way to stay positive by focusing on the good things that they had in their life instead of dwelling on the lack, or what was missing. People began to realize that all that mattered was their peace of mind and humility.

The book is broken down into several chapters including "expressing gratitude", "silver linings", and "recovering from adversity" to name a few. Each chapter accordingly contains a number of real life stories from average people who were able to find their way and count their blessings, persevering through the tough things that life can bring out.

All in all I really like this book and am already heading to the library to borrow another one on finding love and chance encounters. The great part of this book is that you don't have to read it from front to back. You can read one story here, another there, and it still makes sense since each story stands on its own and is only a few pages long. There are 101 stories and for anyone who is going through a tough time in any regard, I highly encourage you to pick it up and realize that life is abundant!!! While you focus on the things you don't have, you forget the great abundance that you already do have and that is what matters most.

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Speaking It Into Existence

Be careful not only of the thoughts you carry in your head and in your heart, but also what you say. You can speak things into existence by a mere word. Just recently, I had difficulty in a dear relationship. For the whole year, things were blissful, however so good were things in my life I started to say that sooner or later, my great ride was going to come to an end. I don't know why I started saying it, but I did. When shopping for a gift for our one year anniversary, I started planting the seeds of destruction by telling the sales clerks at jewelry stores that it was a word record for me to have achieved a one year relationship.

Within days after our first anniversary, without a word, and for reasons that someone remain a mystery, my relationship began to unravel. For those who have followed this blog, they know the pain I suffered last time, but the great wisdom that arose from that pain. One parallel I found was that we can in fact "jinx" things by thinking the wrong way and speaking the wrong way. Remember, the Universe is always listening.

If this is the demise of another relationship, I take the blame. I spoke it into existence by anticipating an end, and even speaking it. I do hope everything works out and am changing my tune. Nonetheless, I encourage everyone out there reading this to guard not only what you think, but what you say. It will most definitely come true, in one way or another.

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Daily Quotes

Celebrate the successes and victories. Acknowledge and mourn the losses, and allow the energy of disappointment to become the energy of faith and transformation. And always honor the journey.