Month: January 2010

Another day almost over…

~ Tim ~ Leave a comment

Are you joining me at this time of night? Or are you reading this in the luxury of the sun-shine and day-time of wherever you are?

It doesn’t matter.

Really. It doesn’t.

WHY?

Because the day is only as old as it looks.

Time wants to give us its set-point deadlines.

But what is it if all smatters after twelve by a bit?

Only by that which we give it.

A day is only that which we give it, indeed.

Give it nothing, and that’s what it is.

Be chained to the definition…and that’s you in Jail!

But go with it, and freedom dwells truly there…

There in the midst of it.

Rain on the window-sill…

All winds a-blowing…

But the fact is, Life is only right here, right now, now at at eleven-forty-five by my clock.

Even no rhyme can come to greet us, for the poetic amongst us.

A shame, because these words could end so well, otherwise.

So for those who have lived to see these words and perhaps another day….

I bid you good night, may sleep give you some deliverance from today.

It can if you let it! Do not dismay!

The rhyme is closer than we all realize…

Like the wind in the willows, it is here right now…

Dare we pause to receive it? To recognize it as such?

Or do we let the day lay, as it is…..as much?

Indeed, let’s let it be just as it is, to all my friends this I pray!

_____________________________________________________________

T.

New Year’s Resolution Follow-up

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Well, its been 13 days since we made our New Year’s resolutions! Most of us have probably broken them already! And in the end, only 1 out of 12 people will actually accomplish them. But do you know what that statistics don’t say? They don’t say anything about the other 3, 4, or 5 people who WILL keep their resolutions SORT-OF. “Sort-of” means that a few more of those 12 people might not totally accomplish their New Year’s goals, but they can and will keep working towards them!

I have a friend who has a serious problem with alcohol—when he’s drinking it! His doctor told him to quit a couple years ago, quit or eventually die from it because it has been catching up with him as he gets older. Well, he did quit—for about a month. A week later, he quit again, for about 3 months! Since then, three months has pretty much been the longest that he’s been able to go without drinking a drop. The other day he told me how much this has frustrated him. He wants so desperately to quit, he said with a sigh, but just can’t pass that 3 month mark.

Now you tell me—has my friend been successful with his desire to quit drinking? Of course he has (sorry AA)!!! I said to my friend, “Friend, you have already WON your battle with the bottle! You have been able to go for as long as 3 MONTHS without taking a drink! And, you’ve been doing that for the past couple of years. If you can keep on doing what you’ve been doing for the rest of your life, you will never have to worry about alcohol eating away your life and killing you!” He looked at me, clearly stunned.  After a few seconds, his eyes lit up  like big, bright stars and then a huge smile arose.  “That’s right!!!” he bellowed excitedly, then stuck his hand out and gave me one of the firmest and most heartfelt handshakes of my life. And then again after a couple minutes, and then again a couple more minutes after that!

Dear readers: Your New Years resolutions might have been broken, but YOU are not. Tomorrow is a NEW DAY, full of so much opportunity to keep on keeping on. Follow the flame in your heart to your own personal greatness, if only one day, one week, one month, three months—at a time. Starting tomorrow you can start again, or you can keep doing whatever you have already started. Just do it. You can do it!

I’m doing my best to do the same. We’re all in this together!

Cheers
T.

Only One

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There is only one YOU in the entire world. Think about it. In the entire history of the human species there has never been anyone just like you. Like a star in the sky on a cool winters night you are a light burning brightly in the world here today. That light is yours and yours alone. No one, and no thing can ever take that distinction, that uniqueness, that pure greatness of who you away from you.

You came into this world with a totally unique set of talents and abilities. No one ever has and no one ever will be just like you. Think about that! Don’t judge yourself, just meditate on the FACT, on what IS. See how unique and therefore how special you are. Yes, you ARE!

Let your light shine. Just do THAT and the rest of your life will be purposeful.

Your purpose is to simply be who and what you are.

Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine!

T.

Every day is a new day!

~ Tim ~ Leave a comment

I have written about this before…about how “Tomorrow” is  a “New Day”. Indeed, it IS, my friend, whether you think so or not!

Every day in our life is a day that we DID, that we now have done…whatever it is that we did yesterday, that we can let go of, that we can ERASE from our past…because when wake up tomorrow…it will be a NEW DAY.

Life, the Universe, God, what-have-you, gives YOU and ME this gift each and every day. It is OUR CHOICE to accept it or to reject it.

Accept it, and I promise you that your life will change…in ways that you cannot imagine.

Join ME tomorrow morning…with a “New Day”, will you?

I hope to see you there!

“Blessings”

Tim

Gentle Rain…

~ Tim ~ Leave a comment

Gently falling, calling to the sea

The raindrops quicken, passing me

It’s rain that washes away the dirt

If only it could erase the hurt

But what hurt there is will sweetly go

As the passing of another day does show

That times arrow beckons and goes past true

Tomorrow will be another day, clean, fresh and new.

—————————————————————————————-

I hope you all have a wonderful night and day.
As my dear friend Bill says with such purity of heart…

”Blessings”

T.

Love

~ Tim ~ Leave a comment

  • The Christian religion describes love as this:

“Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things; believes all things; hopes all things; endures all things” (1 Corinthians 13) and “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12: 31, Lev.19:18)

  • The Islamic religion describes love as this:

"No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself. " (Sunnah)

"Not one of you is a believer until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself." (Islam. Forty Hadith of an-Nawawi 13)

Mohammed is said to have said:

"Seek for mankind that of which you are desirous for yourself, that you may be a believer; treat well as a neighbor the one who lives near you, that you may be a Muslim [one who submits to God]." and "That which you want for yourself, seek for mankind."

  • The Buddhist religion(s) describe love as this:


    Buddhism involves the complete renunciation of oneself in order to take on the burden of a suffering world. The strongest motivation one has in order to take the path of the Bodhisattva is the idea of salvation within unselfish, altruistic love for all sentient beings.

These are just a few of the many religions around the work, but I think it is safe to say that the ideal of most religions is the propagation of love—to show compassion and tender care towards others. Even Humanisms “Manifesto” states:

Humanism…affirms…the greater good of humanity…(is) inspired by compassion…values in human welfare…(is) committed to treating each person as having inherent worth and dignity…(is) concerned for the well being of all.

Simply reading these passages my stir ones heart to feel love and compassion towards others. Those ideas resonate with something inside our hearts and minds that is real—we just know that it is, and that it is a good and wonderful thing…and that it is something we want to do, to act upon, to reach out to touch the hearts and minds of our fellow human beings…for about 5 minutes a week—and that’s if we go to church every week! The rest of us think that way about 5 minutes a MONTH, if that! The rest of the time we go around killing each other, figuratively or literally.

Why is that!? Perhaps it’s not our true nature to love people that way? Perhaps our nature is mostly selfish? Perhaps that’s what we really are in essence? Does that give us an excuse, then, for not acting in a loving way towards other people? In fact, it DOES!

It does, but is that ok? Of course not! As Hal David wrote in a famous Burt Bacharach song, “

“What the world needs now
Is love, sweet love.
It’s the only thing
That there’s just too little of.
What the world needs now
Is love, sweet love-
No, not just for some
But for everyone…”

And so how do we DO that? How do we love our neighbours? Indeed. What is needed is a fundamental transformation from deep within our psyche. How do we achieve that? We cannot in a million years achieve it. Effort is futile. It can only be seen, realized, comprehended. We already have it! It’s already there. How do we see it? In some sense, that is a gift. I think the key is simply to be open to receiving it—by opening our hearts and minds to the possibility. Do that, and it will come. This is something like Buddhist “Enlightenment”, Christian “Christ Consciousness” or New Age “Cosmic Consciousness”. Once achieved (although it cannot be “achieved”) a profound, selfless love for others ensues.

The statement creates questions, raises objections, demands clarity. Let’s address those my friend. Join me.

T.

Another, another day…

~ Tim ~ Leave a comment

Like the other night…the day might be over, but I’m still up.

Yesterdays theme about Synchronicity is still with me. I had two people, totally unrelated, tell me today that THEIR New Years resolution is to keep a “Dream-Journal”…documenting their dreams for this year.

Again, another amazing coincidence.

From my studies about Synchronicity…I learned that at certain important times of our lives, when the Universe, or God, or what-have-you, is trying to get our attention…that a number of coincidental events will increase…just like Bananas come in bunches…the same with Synchronous events. And, they come for a purpose…with a message, that if we are lucky enough, we will understand.

As I said yesterday…discovering the meaning of coincidental events is the challenge. However, from what I have gleaned in my studies, with the coincidental events comes the meaning attached. Being “Open” is the key….open to receiving whatever from Life, from the Universe.

The secret is, very simply, to be OPEN to receiving the guidance that the Universe gives to us, in abundance, each and every day.

Join me in this exploration!

Cheers.

T.

Synchronicity

~ Tim ~ Leave a comment

I watched a movie tonight, at home on the TV, continuing to enjoy the balance of my birth-day. As the movie began, a woman was recording a birthday video greeting to her husband. A few minutes later, the date showed up. It was today, January the 7th.  Then with the movie still going, a few minutes later as I remarked to my partner the strange coincidence of that happening I and the actor in the movie said at precisely the same time, “January the Seventh”. Now THAT is what I call an amazing coincidence!

There is another word, not so commonly known that embraces and tries to explain the meaning of coincidence; Synchronicity. That word was coined by the great Swiss psychologist, Carl Gustav Jung. Put simply, Jung described Synchronicity as a meaningful coincidence of events that have no apparent cause. My experience tonight with the movie fits cleanly into that description.

But tonight’s experience of Synchronicity did not end with the movie. Because of what happened tonight with the movie I decided to write tonight’s journal/blog entry about the concept of Synchronicity. So, I sat down at my computer—but of course had to check my email first! I was happy to see an email from a dear friend who was replying to my email wherein I described the reasons behind my New Years Blog resolution regarding my drinking habits. I thought it nicely coincidental that Peter had sent me the email today because it is my birthday and he said a lot of very nice things about me. I don’t think he knew that today was my birthday, but his email certainly came in the form of what I consider to be a most wonderful and coincidental gift.

In the email, Peter also asked me if I have I ever considered going to “AA”, Alcoholics Anonymous… Well, after starting to write tonight’s entry, I knew that Carl Jung had created the description of it Synchronicity, so decided to research more of his description of it online. I found several sites describing it and of Jung online and was astonished to discover that Carl Jung, who lived in Switzerland, had indirectly but strongly influenced (through one of his former patients) the eventual creation of…you guessed it…Alcoholics Anonymous in the United States some years later!

Now, I dare you, my dear readers. Were the events that happened to me tonight not strangely coincidental? The challenge of Synchronicity is discovering the meaning of such events, but that will be the topic of another journal entry. I have been studying the concept of Synchronicity for a number of years and will eventually bring what I have learned about it to here. It’s really quite fascinating. Stay tuned!

Another Day…

~ Tim ~ Leave a comment

Here I am, pompously trying to impress everyone with “Day 6” of my 365 day New Years resolution to post a blog/journal entry. I really would like to have something interesting, profound even, to say that might have some sort of positive impact on your life. That is what I most truly want, to be able to write something here that might impact or affect your life in some way, however small, that gives you something. Something that might inspire you, something that might give you hope for the rest of today and for tomorrow…hope from a day today that might have left you with little or nothing else.

Indeed this is why I am here. I believe that my words, however seemingly trite or insignificant, or however unprofitable…that this “One Man” might write something here of value to you or the rest of the world.

Indeed, if my words here on this website give even one person in this whole wide world something that inspires, or motivates, or entertains, or lightens their heart, mind and spirit…then my purpose for doing all of this will be fulfilled. And that is all that I dream of doing here, my friends, plain and simple.

You take care…my thoughts, my entire purpose in life, are with YOU.

T.

The Root of Terrorism

~ Tim ~ Leave a comment

Christmas days attempted bombing of the Delta Airlines flight brought the beast of terrorism and terrorist activity back into the international spotlight, spreading fear and pandemonium around the world. I doubt that anyone has been comfortable flying since.

I think that the root cause of terrorism is Belief. Terrorists believe in their philosophy or ideology so strongly that they will do almost anything to carry it out, to see the objective of their beliefs fulfilled.

My essay, “On Belief” describes this further. I invite you to read it.

T.