This morning I awoke to a picture and a story a friend has posted on Facebook of a humpback whale. This is what it said:
A female humpback whale had become entangled in a spider web of crab traps and lines. She was weighted down by hundreds of pounds of traps that caused her to struggle to stay afloat. She also had hundreds of yards of line rope wrapped around her body, her tail, her torso, a line tugging in her mouth.
This is her story of giving gratitude.
Read moreThis is one of those phrases most people have heard and may not know where it came from. When I went to seek out the source myself, I was reminded that it came from the New Testament and was a part of a scripture. Here the writer was saying that knowing Jesus would set you free. However, that is not how most people use it today. For example, in one of Oprah Winfrey’s life classes she used this to assist people in talking about how keeping secrets deeply hidden have impacted their life. Don Miguel Ruiz talks about the truth setting you free as the need to stop lying to one’s self and thus ending the suffering we create for ourselves.
Read moreThe other day someone asked me how I see their life. I found this a difficult question to answer. How I see their life is about me and has nothing to do with them. How I write my story is about me and would most likely be very different from how others would write the story of my life. Why? Simple, it is all about perspective. I would write the story of my life based on who I am at this very point in time and the perspective I have of my own life. Come back in 5 minutes or 5 years and the way I tell my story may be quite different. Why? This is because I may or may not have the same perspective.
Read morePerhaps it is that we are in this spiritual season in a number of faith traditions, which has led me to this space of cleansing and decluttering in my life. Perhaps it was a conversation with a friend this afternoon, which helped me tap into a lie still floating around in my heart. I guess it had been there for so long that I did not even realize it was still there. It was then I remembered that the lies could only survive if I believe them to be. The minute I stop believing them, the minute I stop acknowledging their existence, is the minute they cease to exist.
Read moreIt is amazing what I find when I straighten things out, or perhaps I just wasn’t supposed to find them until now. The reality is that I think I always knew they were there, but for some reason did not feel called to look at them or open the box. Today, however, I felt drawn to open them and there was that card staring at me. It said, "Our emotions tell us how we are doing in life." On the back it said, "If we don’t like our emotional reaction, we need to clean up the lies we belief. By following our emotions, we change our beliefs, and our circumstances change."
As I read this card, I found myself laughing inside. Hmm, isn’t that what I had just talked about with my client this afternoon.
Read moreThe first page in the companion guide has a few definitions of integrity. he defined it as “(1) the quality or state of being complete; unbroken; wholeness; entirety; (2) the quality of state of being unimpaired; perfect condition; soundness: (3) the quality or state of being of sound moral principles; uprightness; honesty, and sincerity.” As I read this quote, I had to stop and think about it for a while. If this is what integrity is, it seems as if we spend our entire lives journeying back to a space we were in before we ever came into this world. I guess the word that really got me is honesty. I would like to think that I am a fairly honest person, but if I were being completely honest with myself, I would have to say that there are times that I lie. I probably lie more to myself then I do to anyone else.
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