We just had our 23-month old grandson spend the weekend with us. Each time he comes there’s a renewed spirit of wonder as I watch him explore his world and revel in his new creations. He takes such pleasure making sounds with his mouth or pushing the sliding door open and close – open and close. If ever one needed to be reminded of how to be in the present moment, sit with a child for a day and feel what they feel in their sense of wonderment. It’s magical.

It takes me back to when I was a child visiting my grandmother’s. It was the simple things that I remember most – playing marbles or games like kick-the-can. I have still tried to recreate her macaroni and cheese to this day without success. I tell myself it’s because the cheese is processed differently today than it was back then. Still, remembering the sounds and smells of that old creaky house brings a warmth of being home. Just the sound of her “WOOO” from the back part of the house, as she heard us come in, letting us know, “here we are”, we’re home.

I watch my grandson and know that we’re allowing the same space for him to create magic just as we had as children and still have. This world is a magical place as we recapture what we had as children looking at our lives through the eyes of innocence. It’s when we keep our eyes stationed on problems, the next job, or “How am I going to do that?” that dampens the mystical presence of possibilities and the magic.

So, if you’re looking for some magic, look to the simple things: a gentle breeze, the water flowing through your hands as you wash them, the sunlight cascading through the trees. Take note of your breathing, as Andrea Hess of Empowered Soul said in her Aligning with Divine Abundance teleclass, “breathing is natural abundance freely to receive”. This will put you in the present moment and in the present moment is where miracles reside. Enjoy the magic of life – it is a gift.

From the kitchen table – Pat
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I want to share an article with you entitled “Soul Eyes” written by my guest Tom LaRotonda. Tom and I have been friends for several years now from when we first met at a Create Your Best Life Luncheon in Denver, CO.

Tom is the owner of Core Matters LLC, a transformational leadership organization based in Denver. He is a keynote speaker, free-lance writer, life/executive coach, leadership consultant, and seminar facilitator. His life purpose is to inspire his clients to boldly pursue their life dreams by taking the road less traveled. One of the foremost and leading edge speakers on the concept of Inspirational Living, he has addressed audiences around the world. Tom brings passion, excellence and dedication to his calling as a transformational leadership path-finder.

Please help me welcome Tom in the writing of his article, “Soul Eyes”:

CORE REFLECTIONS
Inspirational Messages to Empower Your Life
February 11, 2008 Topic – Soul Eyes

Core Reflections is a weekly message whose primary intention is to provide a thought that inspires vision, purpose, and boldness in your life. My goal is to create a ripple that touches thousands of people. Please help me by sharing these messages with others in your life and encouraging them to become a subscriber. I hope you enjoy this week’s message! – Tom

“For visions come not to polluted eyes.”
– Mary Howitt
Saturday I had the privilege of attending a Habitat for Humanity home dedication for a very a very amazing member of our Core Matters Community, Gail Hamilton. Gail has been blind since the age of 13 and has faced more trials in her life than I would care to take on in many lifetimes. She has been a source of inspiration to me from the moment I met her 5 years ago.

I’ve gained many insights from our professional relationship and evolving friendship. Whenever I begin to question myself in the face of obstacles, all I have to do is remind myself of Gail’s life and my “woe is me” moment fades away. Gail, you are truly a genuine role model for never giving up on your dreams. Time after time she has reminded me that she doesn’t consider herself a disadvantaged blind person. Observing her most recent life journey has convinced me that she is able to see in ways that sighted people could never imagine. She has even gone so far as to suggest that I am the one at a disadvantage, for I rely too much on my human eyes to view the splendor of the world.

She has often said to me that I have not fully developed my “Soul Eyes.” I must admit the first few times I heard her say this, I wondered if this concept was a new twist of some highly creative coping mechanism. But as I experienced, first hand, her grueling yet magical manifestation of her life dreams, I found myself viewing the world in a whole different light. Through her tears, frustration, commitment, and perseverance – through her Soul Eyes – I began to see things in my life that I had never seen before.

When one develops Soul Eyes they see, hear, and believe things that others cannot. People with Soul Eyes don’t see obstacles; they see opportunities and potential. People with Soul Eyes don’t hear discouragement and doubt; they hear a voice of confidence beyond the skeptics and critics. People with Soul Eyes don’t believe the world is a scary place; they believe in a world filled with adventure, abundance, and joy. People with Soul Eyes are a delight to be around for their vibration transcends the denseness of the physical plane. This vibration can easily be felt for it sources from happiness, excitement, optimism, and unconditional love. It’s as if they are living in a whole different world and they are. The world they see and experience can only be accessed through Soul Eyes!

One of Gail’s dreams was to stand on the roof of her new home. It was important for her to feel the warmth of the sun penetrating and nurturing her new home. The Habitat for Humanity people did not go to the place of fear, protection, and legal liability. Instead they opened their Soul Eyes and found a way to make it happen – three times! Can you imagine closing your eyes and walking on a slanted roof! Yet Gail overcame any fears that desire brought forth and completely trusted her unique power of vision. Actually, many of the shingles of her home were placed and secured by her very own hands. She saw possibilities that others did not see and through her willingness to encourage others to, “See with their Soul Eyes!” her possibilities became reality and their Soul Eyes were awakened.

This world is filled with such magnificence and beauty. I’m eternally grateful that I have been blessed with my human eyes. And now, by knowing Gail Hamilton, I’ve truly learned to envision a whole new world of extra-sensory awareness. Einstein said that we will never solve our problems from the same level that we created them. Perhaps what he meant to say is that we will never solve our problems relying on our human eyes. We can only solve them through the activation of our Soul Eyes.

My inspiration to you this day is to awaken your Soul Eyes. See what others can’t see. Hear what others ignore. Believe in possibilities others run away from. Close your human eyes and walk confidently on the roof of your fears guided by the sight of a new set of eyes and see the glorious expansive rainbow that few get to see!

PS – Gail Hamilton is a keynote speaker, musical performer, and piano teacher. She is currently working on a book that is her life story. I highly endorse her work and invite you to consider her for any opportunities mentioned above. She can be contacted at wingstoflynow@comcast.net

Till Next Time – May You Empower Your Life,
Tom

I encourage you to share these messages with your friends and family.

You also have my permission to reprint any message in your newsletters, websites and message boards providing you include full authorship, copyright, and subscription information.

I also welcome your comments and feedback.

Subscription Info:
To subscribe to the Core Reflections weekly message simply send an e-mail to tom@corematters.com. You have my commitment that all personal and professional data will be held in the strictest of confidence.

©2008 Tom LaRotonda All Rights Reserved

Tom LaRotonda
Core Matters, LLC
2314 Kipling Street
Lakewood, CO 80211
303-964-0969
tom@corematters.com
www.corematters.com

******
Thank you Tom and thank you Gail for the opportunity to share such an inspiring article with the blogging community.

From the kitchen table – Pat
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On Oprah’s show today, Bill Cosby spoke about our children’s destiny and what we, as parents, need to do to ensure their safety and well being. He co-authored a book with Alvin F. Poussaint, MD, entitled Come On People: On the Path from Victims to Victors. He’s upset with the attitude of some parents and the complacency he sees today and our children are suffering from it.

There are too many young men fathering children and abandoning them and young girls turning their bodies over to prostitution. He is “calling out the dirty laundry” and is fired up and wants others to be just as upset and fired up as he. Where is it leaving the children in all of this? He repeated from another source that, “Hurt people hurt others!”

On this same show, there was a story of a young man named Bill talking about how he overcame the loss of his mother and brother who were shot to death. It was because of the support and love from his grandmother, teachers and friends that enabled him to reach for more than what he had ever known to be possible and to believe in a future and a life for him.

How can we show our children the possibilities of this world not only in successes and goals but in the spiritual truths? How can we teach them to believe in themselves and to respect one another’s right to have different ideas? These children are the future generations and we need to show them how to dream, how to have high expectations for themselves and the world and what it means to be a caretaker of our environment. Dr. Wayne Dyer in Wisdom of the Ages talks about our children, our future generations, when he quotes from Oren Lyons, known as the Onondaga Faithkeeper:

“In our way of life, in our government, with every decision we make, we always keep in mind the Seventh Generation to come. It’s our job to see that the people coming ahead,the generations still unborn, have a world no worse than ours – and hopefully better. When we walk upon Mother Earth we always plant our feet carefully because we know the faces of our future generations are looking up at us from beneath the ground. We never forget them.”

Whatever expectations we set for our children and ourselves that is only what will be achieved. Dr. Wayne Dyer in Wisdom of the Ages quoted from Michelangelo saying:

“The greater danger
for most of us
is not that our aim is
too high
and we miss it,
but that it is
too low
and we reach it.”

In today’s environment with cell phones and ipods how do we really reconnect with our children? Is it too late? Never-say-never. Our children want to be wanted by us. They want to know they can count on us and that they’re important enough to come before job, phone calls, e-mails, bills to pay. Most of them don’t know about any of those responsibilities yet.

From today’s Rocky Mountain News there’s an article written by Tina Griego about an award winning teacher in Montbello, Colorado, Linda Alston, who believes in children and it shows in her classrooms. Her expectations are high and the children always respond to it because she believes in herself and has faith in the children and the students know it. She is a teacher making a difference with young children early in their lives.

In her kindergarten classroom, all the children have jobs: a meteorologist reads the weather report, an accountant does the head count, historian marks the date, day and year, and the afternoon receptionist answers the phone. People can say and think they believe in children and have high expectations but when it comes to having the faith in them to allow them to demonstrate it they pull back.

Tina Griego in her article gives an example of this when she talks about taking you into Linda Alston’s classroom where there are plants on the children’s tables and fine china and the children are serving the guests tea. Would others have that much belief and faith in the children to allow a tea party without worrying about them making a mess? “Alston says she believes all children, not only those who are poor, not just minorities, suffer from this lack of adult faith in their capacity to learn.” If you want to read more from Linda Alston, you can check out her book entitled Why We Teach: Learning, Laughter, Love and the Power to Transform Lives.

Bottom line – that is all our children are really wanting from us – our faith and belief in them! How can we not respond and answer the call showing them all the possibilities that are available to them. All we have to do is point them to the stars and have faith in them.

From the kitchen table – Pat
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We got 4 inches of snow overnight and when my husband came out of work to get in his truck to come home, someone had shoveled a path beside his truck making it easier to get to. This certainly was an act of kindness that didn’t go unnoticed. Others in our community at times have left extra money for coffee for the next person or plowed neighbor’s driveways – all spreading kindness around.

Suzie, blogger of The Abundance Highway, wrote a post a couple of days ago on random acts of kindness when she talked about picking up litter from the beach. We could take that to our own home towns and pick up litter on playgrounds or parks. It made me think of other acts of kindness my community has received and experienced in the past year and a half.

On Sept 27, 2006, our Rocky Mountain community changed when a gunman entered our high school holding 7 girls hostage and killing Emily Keyes making national headlines. Her last words text messaged to her Dad were, “I Love U Guys”. As a result of this horrendous incident, the community rallied around the family and law enforcement and came together for healing with support showing random acts of kindness in honor of Emily. Instead of bitterness and hate came love and it was not only demonstrated by businesses, neighbors, and teachers but more importantly by the students.

We saw people planting flowers for others and students cleaning up yards, $20 was left at a café to buy sodas for the next 20 customers, people showing up volunteering and helping with food for law enforcement officers during their investigation. Healing comes from reaching out to others in love and kindness. There is kindness within us and is being offered everyday around the world. We don’t need a tragedy to remind us how important life is to be valued and what part we can play to make it a better world. It starts in our homes and communities and can spread.

I’m reminded of the powerful and moving 2000 movie Pay It Forward where a junior high school boy takes a challenge seriously of an assignment from his social studies teacher in making a difference in the world. He decides to help 3 people without anything in return except for them to pay the kindness forward to 3 other people. His thinking was that if we all took our part this would spread exponentially around the world.

In an interview with the author of Pay It Forward, Catherine Ryan Hyde, she describes where this idea for the book came. Her car broke down one night and caught on fire and 2 men came to her rescue helping her and putting out the fire. She wanted to repay them but she was told, “Don’t pay it back to me.” “Pay it forward to someone else”. She goes onto say in the interview, “Then I spent the next 20 years wondering what kind of world it would be like if an idea like that caught fire.”

Imagine what kind of world it would be like if we each, like Suzie at Abundance Highway, our mountain community, or Trevor the junior high student, found a way to spread kindness. Maybe, we could leave extra change for the next person coming through a toll line or scrape off the windows of the car next to yours when you scrape off your windows. Help an elderly person living in the neighborhood by offering to get their groceries once a week to name a few.

It’s not just when the need arises that kindness is important it’s when it comes unexpectedly and unprompted. It touches your heart and makes you feel that maybe the world isn’t so bad after all. Most times, little does the person know that what they did may have not only saved your day but saved your life?

“Changing the world. One kindness at a time.”

From the kitchen table – Pat
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This post was hard to write, and yet important, as I wanted to be sure I was writing it clearly. I’m still processing this myself so please be patient with my explanations. This quote, “Strictly speaking, you don’t think: Thinking happens to you.” struck me as I read it in Eckhart Tolle’s book, A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose (Oprah’s Book Club, Selection 61)(Paperback). It was something that jumped out at me and got my attention. He says:

“The statement “I think” implies volition. It implies that you have a say in the matter, that there is choice involved on your part. For most people, this is not yet the case.”

But, in fact, Tolle says: ““I think” is just as false a statement as “I digest” or “I circulate my blood.” Digestion happens, circulation happens, thinking happens.”

This was a different idea that I had to consider. The choice comes when you’re conscious of your thoughts and if they have purpose, not just fear or judgment – something that the ego would use for its empowerment.

In my last post, Developing Awareness – What’s Going On Behind the Eyeballs?, I give some ideas on how to develop awareness to awaken to our true lives releasing the grip of the ego and our thoughts play an important role in that. It’s a different perspective to consider that our thoughts are processing automatically because they seem so personal. This is because I had identified with my thoughts as being who I am.

When we identify with thoughts that is when we have made a choice to respond, react or judge instead of just observing them and letting them go. Identifying with our thoughts does not mean defining them it means giving them our identity. We then own whatever our thoughts present to us when we don’t distinguish them. Letting them go detaches you from the outcome and the influence of the ego. I had heard and read many times that “you are not your thoughts” but I really didn’t understand what that meant until now.

I always felt responsible for the thoughts that I had and felt they were a reflection of me. I’m only responsible for them if I identify with them. That is the key. They are just there and they come from our conditioning in the past and influences going on in our environment but I should in no way feel responsible for the thoughts themselves. This sheds a whole new light on my approach to developing my own awareness.

As I learn, I will be paying closer attention to the thoughts that pass through and I’ll forget sometimes, more at first, until I become more proficient at observing rather than identifying. What about you? Have you ever noticed your thoughts and considered them operating just as your heart and blood circulation? Why do we add “I” to thinking? It’s something worth considering in order to be a part in the awakening of humanity and put us back on track to saving us and our planet.

***Oprah Winfrey is having a free 10-week teleclass on Eckhart Tolle’s book A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose (Oprah’s Book Club, Selection 61)(Paperback) that started last Monday, March 3rd. You can still get in on it if you’re interested in reading this book and participating in this class.

From the kitchen table – Pat
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