Do as I say, not as I do

Remember when your parents would say to you "do as I say, not as I do"?  Usually this piece of advice would pop up when your parents knew damn well they were doing something that went against everything they were trying to teach you, and they felt it necessary to cover their butts about it.

As children we knew this advice made no sense.

It was clear to us that actions spoke louder than their words because the moment we were out of our parents view we would pretend to smoke a cigarette made from a rolled up piece of paper, or we'd pretend to drink beer and get drunk (and later on maybe you stopped pretending and took on these habits for real?)

Lately, I've been noticing there seems to be an epidemic of "do as I say, not as I do".

I see too many people walking around with their "holier than thou" robes on, preaching to all who come into contact with them about how they 'should' live their lives, love one another, be kind, be compassionate, blah blah blah and then turn around and behave in a way that totally annihilates their message.

They may be fooling some people, but for those of us who have our eyes open, it's a disgusting display of hypocrasy.

I remember a few years ago, approaching a woman who was setting up a display at an event.  She was advertising her psychic skills.  I was interested in her services and what she was offering for the day and began to ask her if I could sign my name somewhere to receive a reading.  She turned to me with a scowl on her face and said "your not supposed to get a reading today, I already have all of my readings written out for the people who will be attending today".

I remember thinking "okay then" and walking back to the spot where my display was set up.  I watched this woman all day long and not one person showed up at her booth to receive her services (the ones she had already apparently written up for her potential clients).  I watched this healer/psychic sit all day long eating chocolate bars and drinking Diet Pepsi.  I watched this healer/psychic speak poorly about people who were coming and going, picking apart their choice of dress, etc.

The more I watched her, the more I couldn't for the life of me figure out how she could possibly have such amazing psychic skills when she did nothing that indicated that she loved herself enough to nurture her unique gifts. 

This encounter was at a time in my life when I was just beginning my Reiki practice, I was not confident in my intuitive abilities and had always admired people who were and who could help others through  challenges using their divine gifts.

If you are someone who wants to affect change in this world through the services that you offer, whether you are a lawyer, doctor, priest, civil servant, etc. you need to know that this 'do as I say, not as I do' attitude creates mistrust in the process and that does everything BUT attract people to your services.

I'm not saying you have to work towards sainthood for goodness sakes.  If you just asked yourself "am I the person I want to be in this world, am I the change I want to see?" every once in a while?  How could that change your life?

FYI:  I slip up ALL the time!  Just ask my hubby!  Like when I am driving my son around and I am fiddling with the radio and drinking a coffee, not paying attention to my driving....  This is one of those times where I catch myself being a poor role model and pulling the 'do as I say not as I do' stuff with him because he is learning how to drive and he is going to use the visual I am giving him as a guideline if I don't get my shit together.

Being authentic is a tough process.  You must work through your fears and blockages and beliefs about who you are in the world, tear them down and trust that your natural self is THE only way to be.

Of course we are all where we need to be right now.  We are all on our own perfect path.

I'm just wondering if maybe we can do a little bit better...


 

Nobody's perfect.....

We hear that all the time don't we?  Nobody's perfect?  It's how we excuse ourselves for mistakes.  Convince ourselves that it's okay to be flawed.

I've said it many times about myself in the past.  In fact one of my favourite lines when I was working out of the house was "I don't remember putting "perfect" down on my resume", when something didn't work out as planned or I had fallen short of a goal.  It was an excuse.  Plain and simple.

My belief now is not that we aren't perfect, but that we absolutely are.

Some would think the things I've done in my life are all mistakes.  All of my decisions the wrong ones.

I suppose it's easy to guess that since most of what I have done and most of the decisions I have made were made because they were the right ones for me and not for someone else.

I don't make excuses for my decisions and mistakes anymore.  I know that all of it is perfect.  It sometimes doesn't look that way on the surface, and it is sometimes confusing for the people around me to experience, but they are perfect.

I had a friend tell me once that she is an "experiential learner".  I believe we are all experiential learners.  This earth is our classroom and we are earning (as another dear friends likes to call it) a Ph.D. in life.

We all have a story.  And isn't that the point?

I believe heartache, tragedy and life experiences are what bring us as human beings together.  To be able to hear someone tell a story that touches your heart because you remember  being in that position at one point, you remember the emotion, the physical feelings of it, you remember it like it was yesterday and so therefore, you can relate and you can send love and support to the other person experiencing the same thing.

The moments when this happens for me confirms my belief in perfection.  Nothing is left for chance in this world.  Every event, everything that has happened and will happen in my life will be perfectly planned to give me the opportunity to learn and to become a better human being. 

It's there for all of us.  If we just take the time to see it.

Spring Awakening

Can you feel it?

The feeling of renewal, rebirth, revival?

This is spring! And it's popping up everywhere these days.

Spring; the time when we open the windows of our homes to bring in the fresh air and let out the stale, dusty stuff we've been breathing in all winter long.

But it is more than just a time to do a thorough house cleaning, it's also a great time to act on those feelings of needing something new in our lives to honor the personal growth and progress we have made over the last few months and align ourselves to it.

When spring begins to peek it's head, I get all excited and giddy. My smile grows wider than it usually is. I get a surge in energy and an almost desperate like feeling of needing to jump into life, learn something new, put on my cloak of courage and take a leap of faith.

The birds begin to gather items to build their nests. What are you building?

They are chanting their love songs. What type of song are you singing?

Insects are coming alive, taking flight. Where are your wings?

Flower bulbs and spring sprouts are pushing up and freeing themselves from their hibernation. What do you need to let go of to free yourself?

Mother Earth is awakening. It's a good time for us to do the same.

Have a little faith

There's a saying that goes something like "you can please some of the people some of the time, and most of the people most of the time, but you can never please all of the people all of the time".

I thought of this saying this morning as I was checking my facebook account. As I was reading a quote from a good friend I noticed someone had placed a message in the comment section that stated how they were appalled at the amount of attention that the people of Haiti are receiving right now. This woman went on to say how it was basically unfair that there are people who are living in our own country who need our assistance as they too are poor, hungry and without homes.

And not long ago I had come across a comment left by someone that had read my blog that stated how he was irritated at the way people living in this country and the US complain about their life situations when there was extreme devastation in Haiti and all of our focus should be on them. He went on to say that the people without food, shelter and money in Western countries are unmotivated to change their situation.

I'm not quite sure that ranting and raving about either of these arguments accomplishes much of anything in the long run. Except that it puts a lot of negative, useless attention on the situations at hand.

I understand the frustration of not being able to help more than offering donations here and there throughout the day. Some people have stepped up and gone over to Haiti to help and some people in our community step up every day to manage programs for the homeless in our cities. And beyond that all that the rest of us can do is offer our prayers and understand that nothing is in vain, that in every thing there is a purpose.

There are many worldly events to be cranked up about, however if we dwell only on what is not being done either here or there, we are only fueling that confusion and as a collective consciousness we send out to the Universe that not enough is being done and so more of that happens.

I don't read a lot of news, I don't watch a lot of tv. And I believe by doing this and limiting the visuals of the devastation I can focus my heart on sending love and not getting over anxious about a situation I can not physically do anything about. I can and do however offer my prayers and healing energy to those circumstances, sending out a ripple effect into the world.

So, let's instead focus our attention on what IS being done in every circumstance.

We are human's learning how to create peace in this world, there was not a manual written to tell us step by step how to go about changing all the things we believe need to be changed. We will stumble, and we will make mistakes so that we can learn more, for the next opportunity will surely come to us to try again.

We just need to breathe and have faith that all that is being done now will one day lead us to a life of heaven on earth.

I spoke to a woman the other night who was so excited about what was being done for Haiti. The television programs that have raised countless millions of dollars to assist in rebuilding what was lost. She thought it was absolutely fabulous all that was being done. Her enthusiasm was infectious.

The devastation in Haiti opened the hearts of millions of people around the world.

Something that might not have otherwise happened.

There's a blessing somewhere in that.