mac's Journey to find Herself: Day 171

Why this? Why now?

I have given a great deal of thought to whether or not a blog is right for me. I have been on an amazing journey - some of it very sad, some of it profoundly joyful. Transformation is possible - I know because it is happening with me.

I can't say for sure when it all started, other than it started happening with tremendous regularity upon my 40th birthday. This may be a rather normal occurence - you reach a certain age and start wondering if this is all there is in life. Am I doing what I'm meant to be doing? Are my beliefs real - what are my beliefs exactly?

Here's a smattering of the journey -

I got a divorce and began to discover and explore life from a much different perspective.

I began thinking about my health and researching and reaching out to learn things like: what I should be doing to avoid heart disease. The book, The China Study, changed my life. I am now a vegetarian. This also led me to quit smoking....and finally to stop drinking, too (I don't care what the studies say - just eat the grapes instead).

I have embarked upon an incredible spiritual journey - from a comparative religions class, to studying Ayurvedic living (of which I'm now studying to become an instructor), to learning more about Buddhism, and, as documented here in my blog, an active study of A Course In Miracles.

I am in a place in my life where I finally recognize very consciously that what I put in my mind and in my body is what comes out. As I am reminded most days when listening to Deepak Chopra's soul affirmations, "My body is the garden of my soul."

May I be of vessel of spirit, of loving-compassion.

Yes, I do think a blog is right for me. Thank you for joining me.
Namaste,

mac

Monday, June 20, 2011

Day 171 - Lesson 170

There is no cruelty in God and none in me.

You make what you defend against, and by your own defense against it is it real and inescapable. Lay down your arms, and only then do you perceive it false.

This is one lesson that I so often want to beg the world to pay attention to - stop killing, stop 'defending,' stop harming others. And yet I recognize that I change the world by changing me. I change me down deep - deep inside, what I put in my mind I may as well flop out onto the world. Being more aware of thoughts that don't serve me or anyone else well can be a surprising (and sometimes disappointing) process.

There is this amazing and beautiful book called Nonviolent Communication A Language of Life written by Marshall B. Rosenberg, Ph.D. that speaks so well to this very topic. The forward is written by Arun Gandhi, Founder and President of the M. K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence. The entire forward, certainly the entire book is worth reading (worth living), and this particular paragraph sums up the topic of this lesson for me:

Nonviolence means allowing the positive within you to emerge. Be dominated by love, respect, understanding, appreciation, compassion, and concern for others rather than the self-centered and selfish, greedy, hateful, prejudiced, suspicious, and aggressive attitudes that dominate our thinking. We often hear people say: This world is ruthless, and if you want to survive you must become ruthless too. I humbly disagree with this contention. This world is what we have made of it. If it is ruthless today it is because we have made it ruthless with our attitudes. If we change ourselves we can change the world, and changing ourselves begins with changing our language and methods of communication.

Indeed....it means changing our very thoughts. In the words of Lao Tzu:

“If there is to be peace in the world,

There must be peace in the nations.

If there is to be peace in the nations,

There must be peace in the cities.

If there is to be peace in the cities,

There must be peace between neighbors.

If there is to be peace between neighbors,

There must be peace in the home.

If there is to be peace in the home,

There must be peace in the heart.”