The Choice to Grow.....

From Walking between the Worlds by Gregg Braden.  “The choice to evolve is determined by you rather than a high panel of regulatory beings....  The primary tool of your journey, however, is your life process.  The choices you make on a daily basis are the components of this tool.... You are doing so (making choices) in this very moment.”
Evolve is often considered a dirty word.    For example human’s evolved from apes, or Teaching evolution is a bad thing.   Evolve, simply and elegantly, means grow, develop, advance, progress, mature. 
The choice to grow, develop, advance, progress, mature is determined by you....
 

Blessing and Gratitude...

Here is a suggestion for building compassion and releasing judgmental and negative thoughts.   First you must learn to recognize when you react in judgement and recognize when you are having negative thoughts.  It is fairly easy to know when you are being judgmental.  Often there are certain types of people, certain behaviors that we notice that trigger these judgements.   Negative thinking in general is more difficult to recognize because we do it so often.   Self criticism is a big one.  “That was stupid”, I’m so dumb sometimes”, or things like... ‘arthritis runs in the family’, “Our family is prone to fits of depression”.?
Practice noticing when you do these things.  Practice till you can recognize when you start to say and think negative things.    Now that you realize you are doing something judgmental or coming up with a negative thought step in to stop it.  Therapists used to have suggestions for thought stopping.  They may still use these.  They would suggest you say out loud a very emphatic “stop”.   Now this might work well for when you are alone but could be a bit embarrassing if you were among a group of people.  Another that they suggested is to wear a rubber band on your wrist and when you realize you are unable to stop thoughts feeding into your mind, you stretch the rubber band and sting yourself with it.  
Try this instead.  If you happen to see someone on the street that you know triggers your judgement make a choice to switch your thought to a blessing.  Under your breath or in your thoughts simply say ‘bless you’.  Using just this you will soon find yourself doing more blessing than judging.  But now combine that blessing with gratitude.   Bless the person your see and add a thank you to the universe.  One thing to avoid in this is saying to yourself “I am grateful I am not like that person”  however you can express your gratitude that you have a home, that its a beautiful day, something on that order.  Try it.  Make a game out of it.  You will find that your attitude will begin to shift.   

A BIG THANK YOU...

Thank you to all who have been reading these posts.  I am grateful for you.  It is often said that we teach what we need to learn and I think that is very much my case.  I have learned a lot and I truly hope you have received something from this.  I found out how to delete old images so I can continue use my nature photos on these posts.   One more time... thank you, thank you, thank you...

The Crows led me to an Owl This Morning...

It appears that I have used up all of the free space on the blog for photos.  Until I can find out how to delete old images or solve this in some other way I want to refer you to the following links where my photography can be seen.
 http://www.redbubble.com/people/richimage
 http://www.facebook.com/richard.allan.79

Now to tonight's blog post.  The crows led me to an owl this morning.  They were making such a fuss that I had to go see what was bothering them and sure enough there was the barred owl I have been trying to get a good look at for some time.  Seeing this owl at this time felt like another synchronistic event so I once more reviewed the messages that the owl spirit can send us. 
Owl is master of the night.  Keen eyesight, very focused hearing, feathers designed for silence enables it to be a very efficient hunter.  Sometimes we are afraid of the night and all of the terrible things that can happen in the darkness.  Owl teaches us to let go of our fear.  It teaches us to become acquainted with the darkness that lurks within us all.  And thus by becoming aware of it we can let go of that also.  Then there is the snowy owl, an owl that hunts in the daytime.  We don’t have to be afraid in the daytime either.  We don't have to be afraid of your light, our goodness, our trying to live up to other people's expectations.  An especially good thing to think about in time of holiday pressure don't you think.  We can use the wisdom of the owl to learn about ourselves and use their power to let go of our fear and and come to terms with the darkness within ourselves.  

I Love How it Works...

Today I experienced an example of synchronicity and a great illustration of just how spiritual synchronicity works.  I had seen on facebook a webinar (a seminar offered on the internet) that sounded interesting.  It was about energy and was free.  It took me a couple of minutes to log on but finally accomplished it.  It was very personal and it turned out, at least to begin with, I was the only person on at that moment.  Others joined and apparently there had been a very successful well attended one earlier in the day.
The person teaching was Kelly Schwegel and she was very good.  I could interact with her by typing responses.  She had a webcam on and I could see her.   Not far into the webinar she used and spoke of the work of Dr. David Hawkins.   A very obvious synchronicity because of all the reading and study I have been doing with Dr. Hawkins material.  She had some very specific ideas for understanding energy and meditation techniques and used another image and explanation that was the work of Peggy Phoenix Dubro.  This was the second synchronicity for me because Peggy Dubro often appears with Lee Carroll and Kryon.  Both are ones I have studied a great deal.   The information was excellent and very useful and there is another webinar coming up that I think I might find very useful.  It is called Banish the Baggage. 
I accessed this webinar originally through the facebook page called Our Ascension.  It feels so good to see how these things come together.   

"Be Miserable, or Motivate Yourself...."

This is a quote from Dr. Wayne Dyer.  It is something we tend to forget, esp. when we are in the throes of some situation.  We do have a choice.  "Be miserable.  Or Motivate yourself.  Whatever has to be done, it's always your choice."   Wayne Dyer

Eternity... is it on Your list of needs?

"Something deep in the human make-up needs and longs for a taste of eternity--at least a momentary release from the relentless pace of time. We don't usually place eternity in our list of needs, but the soul is only half satisfied with the things of this world.”  From Thomas Moore THE SOUL OF SEX.

This longing for eternity as he calls it is why there is religion in the world.  This longing is essentially our search for God.  We aren’t left here in the physical without something that calls to us urging us to find out who we are and where our eternal home is.   But this longing is also the why people turn to addictive behavior whether it be alcohol, sex, drugs or even fundamentalism.  Making the best use of this longing requires choice and intent.   It means making a decision to want to know the truth.  The truth that will set you free.  Also there can be many truths depending on who you are and your level of understanding.  The soul longs for that from whence it came.