Welcome to my Journey

Hello, and welcome to my Journey. Over the last few years I have been learning more about my personal journey, my Path and my Soul Purpose. The further I travel, the easier I find it to share my journey with others, and to learn from their journeys as well. The most recent evolution has caused me to expand my Universe and allow more people access to my travels, as well as allowing me access to more people, their travels and what they have learned as they walk their own paths. Feel free to share your journey here as we all have much to learn in our lives as Divine Beings having a Human experience.

Love and Light.

Thursday, May 24, 2012

May 24, 2012 Musings on Patience

While driving to work today, my mind was doing its usual meandering and the path it chose to take caused me to consider the fact that my patience has been sorely tried over the last few weeks.  This led me to ponder the fact that patience is probably one of my weakest qualities so what better way to strengthen a muscle than to use it on heavier and heavier tasks?  At this point, I experienced one of those "aha moments" I've come to think of as Universal head slaps.  Clearly, it's important for me to learn to be more patient so I'm being given many opportunities to practice the art.  So if I don't want the challenges to get more difficult, it would behoove me to start absorbing the lesson being set before me!  Sadly, the day degenerated into one gigantic challenge until the working portion of it ended.  I guess, in my defense, I did manage to accomplish the necessary tasks without strangling anyone or doing other bodily harm in the process, and I am even more grateful that I have a four day weekend ahead of me in which to recover some of the patience I lost this week!

Love and light.

Monday, May 14, 2012

May 14, 2012 I thank the Universe for lessons in unexpected places

Today I was once again treated to a co-worker's verbal abuse, but I am very grateful because she gave me the opportunity to practice addressing her rude, belligerent, abusive behaviour calmly and to put a stop to it in no uncertain terms.  She also gave me the opportunity to realize that not only can we treat people respectfully, allowing them to return the favor, we can also treat people disrespectfully, and can expect some to respond in kind as well.   Even more, she gave me an incredible appreciation for the self-love I've found over the last decade or so.  I realize that when I treat people rudely, it is truly a reflection of something in myself I am finding unpleasant. 

One area which continues to puzzle me is people with a sense of entitlement.  I cannot conceive of having expectations of the Universe or any of its inhabitants without a willingness, a desire, a need to give back!  But this sense of entitlement, of deserving everything for nothing has really become viral in recent years!  Have parents spent so much time tippy toeing around their poor little darlings' feelings that lessons like discipline, responsibility and consequences have gone by the wayside?  I see too many people in their 30's still acting like irresponsible college kids, going out and getting drunk, dragging into work and taking issue with expectations that they actually put in 8 hours work for 8 hours' pay!   Or they expect their boss to keep them happy.  As if an honest day's pay wasn't sufficient?  They have to only give them work that they like to do as well?  Excuse me, but it's called "work" for a reason.   Besides, if everything we did in life was enjoyable and made us feel good, we'd have nothing to compare it against, and frankly, we'd soon become dissatisfied!

And so, I am grateful to the Entitled for showing me how very fortunate I am to have been brought up expecting to be responsible, to take pride in my work and to treat the people I work for with respect.  I certainly don't always agree with how they choose to run things, but it is their company so I can offer them the expertise for which they hired me, but if their decisions do not coincide with my perception of the right course, graceful acceptance is far more attractive than pouting or belligerence any day of the week!

But the Entitled have to understand that they do not have the right to walk on the rest of us either.  I am constantly learning how best to draw my line in the sand.  In some cases, my lines are crooked and keep getting washed away by the tides, but in others, they're starting to gain a substance of their own and are able to adjust to the ebbs and flows quite admirably.  I am realistic enough to know that I won't change anyone's beliefs, but idealistic enough to hope that some will start seeing past themselves because of the examples set by the rest of us.

Every day, I meditate on Love, Acceptance, Forgiveness and Kindness.  Some days, it's more difficult to focus than others, and those days are the ones for which attaining that focus is the most rewarding!  Loving, accepting and forgiving those who would try to make a doormat of others is truly a challenge, and requires a great deal of squelching of knee jerk reactions.

I have learned that expressing anger at a person or situation only gives them power over me, and adds energy with which to perpetuate their undesirable behaviour.  Thus, my focus is on turning those negative feelings into something useful and positive, like Gratitude!  

I am a work in progress and my path is neither a direct nor a particularly straight route but then, the journey is far more interesting!  It's a bit like choosing to take I-5 to drive to Northern California.  It's pretty straight and the time it takes to drive the route may be shorter, but its monotonous and a lot less interesting than meandering up the coast, maybe finding someplace unusual to stop along the way or just discovering how amazing the land has become through eons of wear and tear on the part of the weather.

The winds of entitlement may blow and batter me, but my foundation is solid and the wear and tear smooths my rough edges and uncovers some very precious elements.

And who knows what might come to pass as I tumble against other "stones" in the great tumbler of life!

Love and light.

Friday, May 11, 2012

May 11, 2012-Gratitude and lessons

As I continue to work through my reaction to Wednesday's exchange I'm finding new parts of myself to work on and improve.  I realize that part of my adverse reaction lies in the fact that I am confusing admiration of someone's skills with something in myself that still believes I need to emulate what I admire.  Nothing could be further from the truth!  What is easiest to admire in another person is how comfortable they are in their own skin, and to be comfortable in your own skin, you must find and live your own style.  So for me to emulate someone I admire will always be an effort in futility as I try to be someone besides myself!  I have my own strengths as well as limitations which cause me to be better at some things and not as good at others compared with the people I admire.  And how many times did I encourage my daughters to be the "best you you can be".  I seem to have left myself out of that sage piece of advice! 

With my dancing, I know that I have to allow for the fact that I have difficulty moving fluidly as I am, by nature, somewhat on the stiff side.  I do try to work on this, but so far, I'm still more stiff than not.  Granted, I've improved greatly since I became aware, but I'm a long way from the folks who seem to have a boneless quality to their movements as they bend and sway like waves lapping the shore.  My knees, too, have been abused for many years and do not have the strength and flexibility others enjoy.  I continue to do weight work to help counteract the damage, but I can't deny that it limits my movements and how I execute turns. 

So I do make note of the concepts, the basics, if you will, and do my best to execute them in as technically correct a manner as possible, but I won't beat myself up for my imperfections.  In fact, I need to use those imperfections to create my own style.  As that is still evolving, I have no idea where it will lead, but I do know that it will ultimately, wonderfully, amazingly be unique to me, and not an emulation of someone else who causes me to smile when I watch them execute the style which is uniquely, wonderfully, amazingly theirs!

And so, once again, I am reminded to embrace all of the uniqueness the Universe has to offer as both a participant and an observer!

Love and light.

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

May 9, 2012 A lesson a day keeps the doldrums away

Today, when I least expected it, I learned yet another valuable lesson.  It happened while I was dancing.  I happened to remark to a person who's dancing I enjoyed watching that I needed to watch more and learn more moves.  They took my comment, not as a compliment as I'd intended, but as an invitation to pick my own efforts apart.  I listened for awhile, becoming somewhat disheartened, but thankfully, was saved when someone directed my attention to a line dance we knew that had just been called.

I danced a couple of more dances, thinking about the exchange and giving myself a severe talking to about allowing anyone to dim my joy and soon succeeded in depersonalizing the whole thing.  Once I did that, I found myself wondering why someone who is attractive and talented, fun to watch, never lacking for a dance partner and constantly complimented would need to be hypercritical of someone else.  It occurred to me that I was once again faced with an individual who required external validation.  I'm afraid this often blindsides me as I've learned that loving myself is the greatest gift I can give.  I also firmly believe that what other people think of me is none of my business, and, especially when it comes to dancing, do not require anyone's approval or compliments.  I am in my joy because I dance for myself.  On those occasions when someone does pay me a compliment, I am grateful that in finding my own joy, I can bring a little to someone else.  Clearly, someone who seeks out the attention hasn't yet figured that out.  They just need someone to give them strokes by noticing them and finding it pleasing to watch them perform.

So I'm sending love and light and hope that this person will find the joy within but will be surprised if my eyes are drawn to their performance any more as I was, tonight, given a glimpse of the not-so-pretty underside of their chassis.    I have to say that it also explains why I never really felt comfortable around them.  Clearly, we resonate in incompatible keys. 

And so, I continue to dance like nobody's watching and sing like nobody's listening because when I am so filled with joy that it has to come out or it will simply bust out my seams, it really doesn't matter whether my technique is good, my timing is right or I'm on key.  The only thing that matters is the JOY!

Love and Light.