As I watch my 21-month old grandson, I see the purity of a child learning about his new world. He’s learning how to open doors, take things apart, and climb – to him it’s all a wonderment of discovery. It’s fun to watch the growth and the innocence. Somewhere along the way, though, we become conditioned as to what is acceptable and unacceptable behavior. Depending on how this is presented we may lose sight of who we are.

Then, we move along this path and participate in family activities and interact with others outside of family and adjust to the acceptable behavior and we begin to unlearn who we are. We think we can’t have both – expressing “who I am as God’s creation” and living in this world. We compromise to avoid judgment or rejection and we don’t want to disappoint anyone.

As we become teenagers we start to challenge the ideas and beliefs handed to us. It’s the little child in us remembering and we want to express that in a unique way. But so many distractions and more new discoveries become available that in order to explore them further we need to yield our challenge to some extent and comply. At this point we dive into our world and maneuver around enjoying all that life has to offer getting so caught up in the physical distractions that we don’t even take the time to think about Who I Am.

Photo by Altaf Hussein – at www.sxc.hu.home
From there, it seems that life takes over with the tasks and responsibilities and we get glimpses every once in a while of Who I Am but put that off until we have time. Through all the years of conditioning and the “have to’s” we have come so far we don’t know how to get back to the innocence and pure essence of who we were when we first came into this world. That’s not to take away from all of what we’ve learned but to combine it with your whole being.

Ah, but that’s the journey. I believe that’s why you and I come into this existence, “To discover who I am in a new dimension, a new world, and learn how to express it.” I knew it as a newborn but could not tell anyone and I then began the process of adapting to this world. The animals know too Who I Am but they are also committed to silence. Each of us has to relearn this ourselves and by going within we find the answer. In Patricia Singleton’s latest post With Love, Man Is God – Sathya Sai Baba she quotes:

page 24, “I soon learned that in response to his devotees’ many questions, he (Sathya Sai Baba) directs us to look inside ourselves for answers. To the most pressing question, ‘Who are you?’ he answers, ‘How can you know who I am when you don’t even know who you are? When you know who you are, you will know everything.’ When asked if he is God, he gives an extraordinary answer, ‘Yes, and so are you; you are also divine! The difference is that I know it and you do not. Look inside and find your divine nature.’ ”

What Can I Do:

First, get comfortable with quiet and go within – pray, meditate.

Then, start observing how you interact and begin caring about what you think instead of what others think as Andrew discusses in his latest post, Caring What Everyone Thinks. Realize the gift that has been given to you and to me – we are creations in the image of God. I’ll begin with that as a visualization on this journey when I go within to discover Who I Am. It is not an act of selfishness but one of Godliness.

Inspire others to be true to themselves by listening to them with an open mind and heart without placing any demands on them to see it the way you see it.

Accept each others’ truth with the same openness that you desire. Instead of defending our positions, look for a common ground where we can both agree.

Consider this poem taken from Ray Hunt’s site:

The Guy in the Glass – by Dale Wimbrow, (c) 1934

When you get what you want in your struggle for pelf,
And the world makes you King for a day,
Then go to the mirror and look at yourself,
And see what that guy has to say.

For it isn’t your Father, or Mother, or Wife,
Who judgement upon you must pass.
The feller whose verdict counts most in your life
Is the guy staring back from the glass.

He’s the feller to please, never mind all the rest,
For he’s with you clear up to the end,
And you’ve passed your most dangerous, difficult test
If the guy in the glass is your friend.

You may be like Jack Horner and “chisel” a plum,
And think you’re a wonderful guy,
But the man in the glass says you’re only a bum
If you can’t look him straight in the eye.

You can fool the whole world down the pathway of years,
And get pats on the back as you pass,
But your final reward will be heartaches and tears
If you’ve cheated the guy in the glass.

From the kitchen table – Pat
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Here it is barely one week into a new year and I’m needing a sign or clue from the universe as to what to do next. You’ve been there – haven’t you? I’ve done everything I know to do – apply online for jobs (back into the corporate world again? – ugh), write my posts, tweak my blog, write and rewrite my goals, write down and visualize my life in 5 years, meditate, affirm, pray, ask, seek, knock. Still nothing has been showing up – silence. Monthly bills rolling around and coming due again – does panic set in? I can’t go down that road even if all the bells and whistles are going off.

Too many times throughout my life have I been reminded that there’s an intelligence out there that knows who I am, where I’m at and what I need – more than I do. When I choose to put my attention on what good has happened in my life, what doors have been opened in the past, the opportunities that have come my way all at the perfect time, I begin to calm down and feel that peace again. It’s another reminder, another lesson to trust (see a previous post I’ve written Trust – Cutting the Rope and Taking the Leap).

One of those times I’m reminded of was back in 1985 when God answered in a tender and supernatural way. My mother had just died suddenly in her sleep and my father, naturally, was distraught and lost. It was late at night when I flew into Philadelphia from Denver and my sister picked me up to go right over to the house to help Dad. When we got there, every light in the house was on which was unusual for my parents – always keeping a low profile. I never saw my Dad in this condition. He was always so controlled with his emotions. He was worried and didn’t know what to do as Mom always handled the money – every penny. Now, the funeral home was needing a decision on how to prepare her remains and it came with a cost – $600. They had no funeral preparations, no will – hell, they never had a checking or savings account. They had lived in the Depression era and paid for everything by cash or money order. Dad couldn’t find her wallet for her identification and money. He looked everywhere in the house and came up empty and was drained not only from grief but worry of what to do. We calmed him down and my sister and I started looking. I found my mother’s wallet in the back bedroom at arm’s length between the mattresses. Next, as we looked further, we found three $100 bills in between the Sunday paper coupons on the bedroom dresser. All in all, we came up with the exact amount that was needed to put our mother to rest. It was an emotional time and a blessed time to witness first-hand the miracles that transpired those few days.

Reminders are all around us to not give up. As I wrote in an earlier post, Happy New Year!,I felt a definite shift when the clock stroked midnight and the old year diminished. When I’m tempted to look at what appears to not be happening, I’m encouraged to say like Patricia Singleton in her posting, This Is The Year That My Dreams Come True!, “It’s a reality I choose to create”. I know there’s an invisible, sweet and loving force that is ALL and knows ALL and I choose to turn my sites on that and trust. It’s there for you too; you just have to look for it. It has never left.

From the kitchen table – Pat
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As I’ve been talking about in the last 2 posts (see Happy New Year! and Ideal Scene and Goal Setting), I’ve been working on my ideal scene and outlining and writing my goals for what I want my life to look like in 5 years. In writing my goals I’ve added the phrase, “In an easy and relaxed manner, in a healthy and positive way…” as Marc Allen suggested, in his book The Greatest Secret of All – Moving Beyond Abundance to a Life of True Fulfillment and from his source, Catherine Ponder. I’ve printed it out so I can now edit and rewrite it until I get it the way I want it. In addition to what I’ve been doing with envisioning my ideal scene and writing goals, I thought I would give you a progress report on Plain Talk and Ordinary Wisdom. I have only been writing this blog a little over a month (began Nov 26th ’07) and I wanted not only to give you content by writing a post 5 days a week but quality posts by sharing a piece of me as well. So, here goes. As of today, I’ve had a total of 171 visitors, 332 page views and 9 RSS feed subscribers. It’s a start and it may be a small beginning but I’m encouraged with these stats and have all of you to thank for the support and comments.

I can’t tell you how much I’ve learned not only about myself but how great a community of people is out there interested in what I have to say. I’ve been following Andrew on his project weight loss at Personal Hack and watching all the support he’s receiving. I’ve been reading all the blog carnivals and the vast amount of postings on so many interesting topics. I can’t begin to list them all (I have a blog roll on my site if you want to check out some of these carnivals). My head is swimming with all the techno info and the “how to’s”. I love Patricia Singleton’s posts on Spiritual Journey of a Lightworker and Karen Lynch has just put out her Live the Power Unlimited II – Vol 11 Carnival edition which includes a posting by Dr. Martin Russell on “Self Help Sleeping Pills – The Campaign” that I’m sure will help a lot of people having that problem. But what strikes me with all of this is that I’m discovering a whole new world of incredible people sharing their stories and assisting with the knowledge they have learned. In the olden days you used to see this kind of help when there was a barn building. Everyone in the community would help in some way to be a part of that project. The energy was so contagious and compassionate.

I remember a story from my grandparents that express the feeling I’m trying to convey for this new found community. My grandparents lived in Virginia on the Eastern Shore near the Chesapeake Bay and there was fishing all the time. As the story goes, a long time ago fishermen went out to the shore early in the morning to lay out their nets. In the evening, they would go back out and haul in their seine (nets) bringing in whatever fish they caught. One evening, when they went out to the shore and began hauling in the seine, it was loaded down with fish. There were so many fish it was hard to contain. So, as they hauled at sunset they started singing spiritual songs and word got around to the people in town of what was happening. So, almost everyone came down to the shoreline to watch. Can you imagine the scene with hundreds of people sitting on the banks of the shoreline, the sun going down and watching and listening to the singing of those southern spirituals as the fisherman hauled in their catch? To me, it was similar to biblical times when Jesus walked the shores of Galilee and fished with the disciples.

Thank you everyone out there – internet community – for viewing and commenting and putting my posts on your carnivals and for bookmarking and stumbling my blog. I feel a sense of unity and community from you and it encourages me to learn more and contribute back to you something that maybe in some small way can be as helpful to you as it has been to me.

From the kitchen table – Pat
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