Believe and Keep Faith

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Have you ever been bombarded with these thoughts – “I need to make some money, now!”; “Bills are coming due”; “I’m too old”; “I’ve never done that before”; and on and on? It seems like your brain is on autopilot. The thoughts take over so much so that it feels like you have someone hitting you on the head.

But have you ever noticed that the thoughts invading your peace have no substance or validity only prediction or speculation; or the thoughts are based on something for which you have no control? If I jump on the bandwagon and agree with them, then it produces F-E-A-R which is:

F-alse
E-vidence
A-ppearing
R-eal.

This is worry and it takes us from the present moment. Andrea Hess in her latest posting, “How to Eliminate Worry” gives some powerful advice on what we can do if we’re overwhelmed with fret and concern.

Just recently, I began to feel myself tempted to worry as I talked about in my last post, “My Time to Trust – Again!” It had been so long since I had received guidance or direction in my situation that I began to doubt and this opened the floodgates for the thoughts to pounce. I had been down that worry road so many times before and didn’t like the feeling. This time, I recognized it and didn’t even start down that road. Because I didn’t entertain the worry, it didn’t take long to receive some direction.

I aligned myself to what I wanted and publicly stated my intentions in my post that I was choosing to trust no matter how it appeared. Guess what? I got a call today for a job interview. When I put my attention on what I wanted, that allowed for direction to come. It was there all the time. I was blocking it. I’d heard this teaching so many times in many variations you’d think I’d get it and this time I did.

In whatever situation you may be facing now, I’ll repeat what I said in my last post, “Don’t give up!” The first thing is to recognize when your mind is on autopilot and if your thoughts are of worry and fear then begin to take action in changing your thoughts. Be patient with yourself especially if you’ve allowed your mind to autopilot for awhile. It takes time to recognize what’s happening and to make the change.

Dr. Wayne Dyer in The Power of Intention, says, “Change the way you look at things and the things you look at change.” Do whatever you need to do to get your thoughts off of worry, first, then take action. I have found that when I get my thoughts under control then I can picture what I’m believing and when I hold that picture in my thoughts and bring in the feelings I begin to feel peace. That’s when miracles happen!

“Worry looks around, sorry looks back, Faith looks up.” ~~ author unknown

Believe and Keep Faith

From the kitchen table – Pat

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My Time to Trust – Again!

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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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That Special Someone

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Who in your life was the most influential? Sometimes it’s a member of the family – sometimes it just a best friend. But, whoever it is, they have made the most impression in your life and even today you can think back on them and have warm feelings.

The one who was the most impressionable for me was my grandmother. She had a presence about her that was warm and welcoming. I can remember, when I was younger, teaching her how to add zip codes to an address or how to look up a number to dial on the telephone. Before, their phone did not have a rotary dial and you just picked it up and asked the operator to connect you to who you wanted to talk to. I know it sounds like I’m talking about the Dark Ages but this was only in the late 50’s early 60’s. It was a small town in Virginia and they were not privy to the latest technologies. Grandma only went through the 2nd grade but she could write cursive and add and read. Grandpop on the other hand couldn’t read or write – well, he was taught to write his name but that was all he could write. Whatever they lacked in an opportunity for an education they made up for in values, integrity, work ethic, love and compassion and passed it onto us.

What I loved most about my grandmother was how comfortable she was with herself and because of this you felt accepted and comfortable too. She allowed you to be yourself and she honored it. She didn’t try to change you. When we would talk, I would feel like we talked from soul to soul and genuinely connected. She was the type of person that because she loved you in such a pure way, you never wanted to disappoint her.

In addition to being religious, Grandma was psychic which made for some interesting events. One night after we went to bed my cousin in one of the connecting bedrooms said she heard a clock ticking. It sounded like it was in the wall just above her head. Grandma came in and listened and checked all around the room including under the bed. She went into her bedroom to look out to see if a car was parked with the engine running but no car and no clock. Then, she made one of her usual declarations, when things were just a little out of the ordinary, saying, “Someone is going to die.” Well, again, sure enough we got a phone call early in the morning that someone in the family had passed away. Grandma had a connection and an understanding of those loved ones on the other side. She was quite comfortable with it even though it freaked the rest of us out. Through all these times when things happened that we didn’t understand, she was patient and loving giving us a different view beyond the world of sight. She helped me to see a deeper side of my faith in God and spirituality that may have taken me a long time to accept and for that I am thankful.

Who is that special someone that most impressed you? How have they contributed to who you are today? Are they still alive and can you still get in touch with them and, if not, their memory will always keep their presence fresh by your side as if they never left.

I love you Grandma, wherever you are today! Thank you for influencing my life and being a big part of who I am today!

From the kitchen table – Pat
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Progress Report

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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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Ideal Scene and Goal Setting

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Since I’ve been reading Marc Allen’s book The Greatest Secret of All – Moving Beyond Abundance to a Life of True Fulfillment –
I’m only on the first chapter – (see my previous post Happy New Year!) I’ve been seriously putting something down on paper as to what I ideally want my life to be like in 5 years. It’s taking work to get my mind wrapped around what I truly want and the feelings of what that would be like.

Sometimes, the thought of what I think I would like is hard to imagine and even harder to put a feeling to. I’ve not had the experience or not known anyone who has had what I imagine I could have. So, as you can see, this is a bit of a challenge to me but I’ve started and have taken action and with that it already has been exciting. Marc Allen goes onto say that when you get your Ideal Scene written down, then the goals of how to achieve that start to form and I can see this happening.

To go along with creating an image of your ideal scene in 5 years, I read an article this morning by Steve Pavlina called The Power of Clarity. This is a great source to writing your goals and why it’s important. For me, it’s important first to be clear on what I want my life to look like in 5 years and get that down in writing. Then, I’ll have the feel and vision of it and then write down the goals. Although, I’m finding they go hand in hand. I know I’ve heard the importance of this over and over but this time it has clicked in a way that it feels real.

In the past I’ve shied away from resolutions because I knew I wouldn’t stick to them so I didn’t want to even take the time to go through the process. So, taking these steps is huge for me.

How about you? Have you been clear, really clear, on what you want your life to look like if you could have anything you dare to imagine? Start today, by writing down in detail what you want and don’t hold back anything. It’s your start in the creating process of making it happen and attracting what you need to make it happen.

Then, as you get that completed, set goals – short term and long term. Commit to it and you’ll see the universe work with you in seeing this through. Document the process and keep your ideal life and goals in front of you where you can read them on a daily basis. This keeps the energy and feel of your creation alive. I know I’ll be here doing it with you and we can report our progress together.

From the ‘ol kitchen table – Pat