Archive for October, 2011

Who the Heck is Jackson Kiddard? Don’t Know, But Love These 5 Quotes!

Here’s the scoop:  I have a set of really cool quotes for you this week, all allegedly authored by a guy named Jackson Kiddard who died in 1901.

I give you this caveat because while Kiddard is referenced quite often by fellow blogger Mastin Kipp at The Daily Love, thedailylove.com, as an author and polymath, the only other information I can find about Kiddard is he is a French entrepreneur turned philosopher turned yogi.

The former journalist in me quakes a bit at attribution without substantiation, but what the hell, I like the quotes.

Please enjoy and comment if you feel inclined.  Have a great week!

B Well,

Beth

“When you are inspired to manifest anything remember this is your internal GPS (Guidance Provided by Source) telling you the Fact and Truth of your manifestation. Your job is to do nothing but simply follow the directions of your GPS and everyday be ready to do what is required of you that day. You’re never given more than you can handle and your manifestation is guaranteed if you surrender your fearful expectations and let your GPS show you the way. This is what is meant when Lao Tzu said, “The Tao does nothing, yet leaves nothing undone.”

“Here is a very powerful insight: see EVERYTHING that happens in your life as being for your best interest.

Consider this…

Anything that annoys you isfor teaching you patience.
Anyone who abandons you is for teaching you how to stand up on your own two feet.
Anything that angers you is for teaching you forgiveness and compassion.
Anything that has power over you is for teaching you how to take your power back.
Anything you hate is for teaching you unconditional love.
Anything you fear is for teaching you courage to overcome your fear.
Anything you can’t control is for teaching you how to let go and trust the Universe.”

 

“Do not try to change someone, when you do this you deny the Love inside you by choosing to deny what is Now. Love can only exist now, when you try to change someone into an idea of what you want them to be you have decided to be in a relationship with your projection of a possible potential of someone else. You are fooling yourself if you think trying to change someone will make you happy. Instead, change in yourself the things you think the other person should change. This is why you are not happy and fulfilled now.”

 

“If today was it, would you die knowing you did your best?   

If tomorrow never came, would you be proud of the last thing you said to each person you love?

If someday was only now, would you do everything you’ve always put off?

If you knew you had a choice about what kind of life you could be living, would you choose different?

If you knew failure is impossible, what would you do? 

If it were true that everyone you meet is you in another body, how would you treat them? 

If love was the true currency of the Universe and the more you gave away the more you received, how would you spend it?

If fear were the biggest illusion and the greatest lie of all time, how would you choose to live your life? 

If the Universe always supported a life lived towards achieving dreams, how big would you dream?”

 

“I prayed for change, so I changed my mind.

I prayed for guidance and learned to trust myself.

I prayed for happiness and realized I am not my ego.

I prayed for peace and learned to accept others unconditionally.

I prayed for abundance and realized my doubt kept it out.

I prayed for wealth and realized it is my health.

I prayed for a miracle and realized I am the miracle.

I prayed for a soul mate and realized I am the one.

I prayed for love and realized it’s always knocking,

but I have to allow it in.”

 

 

Thoughts on C.J. Wilson, Red Ribbon Week

A few months ago, I hung out for an hour with a major league baseball player.  On his turf.  In his house.  In the ballpark where I could still hear the roar of last year’s World Series crowds.  (Never dreaming that on this ­very day, in my home state, the Texas Rangers could be winning this year’s World Series.)

I expected to be star-struck by the 30-year-old lefty Rangers pitcher.  After all, when we met, C.J. Wilson was only a few days out from absolutely shellacking the Seattle Mariners with 12 strike-outs (tying his career high) in a complete game performance and win. 

I’ve been a baseball fan all my life.

I know that when a pitcher completes a game, it’s akin to running a marathon, or in C.J.’s case, building a racing team (a brand new venture for him).

There we were, my colleague  and me, killing time on the track right in front of the Rangers’ dug-out.  We were setting up for an interview and photo shoot with C.J. for The Partnership at Drugfree.org. 

I heard my colleague introduce herself to Brad, one of the two guys who came out of the tunnel.  I shook Brad’s hand, said, “Hi, I’m Beth,” and then said the same thing to the guy standing next to him as I shook his hand.  “C.J.,” was his reply.

Holy cow. 

Just like that, C.J. Wilson stood before me, black cap on backwards and in a red Ranger’s t-shirt with squiggly writing in the logo. (Turns out it was Japanese, as was his name on the back).

I think I then said something goofy like, “By the way, my last name is Wilson too so we are no doubt related.”  Somebody please save me from myself.

As we chatted with C.J., I was holding a Flip cam in my left hand, my camera in my right and concentrating on recording.  I soon became lost in C.J.’s straightforward, no-nonsense replies. 

Yes, he is drug-free, in fact has never had a drug. 

C.J. made a decision when he was eight years old that he wanted to play professional baseball.  A little league coach told him only two things could keep him from realizing his dream:  getting injured or getting involved with drugs and alcohol.  

Eight-year-old C.J.Wilson, now also a writer, a racing team owner and dude with about 2% body fat, thought to himself, “I can’t control getting injured by playing but I can control whether I allow drugs and alcohol to get in the way of playing baseball.”

He worked hard, studied, read books on technique and hung out with his grandfather who so influenced young C.J. that his name is tattooed on C.J.’s pitching arm.

C.J. is 30 now and surrounds himself with guys like Brad (an old California friend and also his assistant). They are all into giving back to kids, which is why we were there.  C.J. figures if he can influence one kid to choose the path he chose, and stay drug-free no matter what circumstances come up in life, he has done what he’s supposed to do. 

C.J. and I have that in common, in addition to sharing a last name.  One of my passions is educating parents and kids about the abuse of alcohol and drugs; it’s also the primary reason I’ve worked at The Partnership at Drugfree.org for nearly seven years.

Talking about maintaining a drug-free lifestyle is especially appropriate today.

We’re in the middle of Red Ribbon Week, the nation’s oldest and largest drug prevention program.

During this week, kids all over the country are participating in community anti-drug events and pledging to live a drug-free life.  Red Ribbon Week activities have been in place since 1988 and serve as a living memorial to Enrique “Kiki” Camerena, a DEA agent who was murdered by Mexican drug traffickers in 1985.

No, C.J. is not pitching in tonight’s Game Six of the 2011 World Series.  What he is pitching today, and every day, is even bigger than the biggest title in professional baseball.  Whether the Texas Rangers win or lose in St. Louis, C.J.’s pledge to remain drug-free is a complete and perfect game.

World Series Fever!

I find that October is the most breath-holding, nail-biting, voice-losing month of the year, as least from a sports perspective.

The boys of summer–if you are lucky enough to live in a winning baseball town like I do (both this year and last!)–become the heroes of fall.

Thanks to tremendous connections, I was fortunate enough to attend three World Series games last year, two American League Championship games this year and now, as the only other team in history next to the New York Yankees, to go to back-to-back World Series, my adopted baseball team, The Texas Rangers, is glory bound.

You know (picture me starting to wax philosophic), baseball is a great analogy for life.

But we won’t go there!  What we will do, is treat you to five groovy baseball/life quotes for your Mindful Monday.  I sincerely hope you find them useful in your weekly lineup.   Oh, and GO RANGERS!

When they start the game, they don’t yell, “Work ball.” They say, “Play ball.”

~Willie Stargell

Progress always involves risks. You can’t steal second base and keep your foot on first.

~Frederick B. Wilcox

Baseball is an allegorical play about America, a poetic, complex, and subtle play of courage, fear, good luck, mistakes, patience about fate, and sober self-esteem.

~Saul Steinberg

Life will always throw you curves, just keep fouling them off… the right pitch will come, but when it does, be prepared to run the bases.

~Rick Maksian

And of course:

It ain’t over till it’s over.

~Yogi Berra

What Keeps Your Mental Boat Afloat?

I’m convinced that God doesn’t want us to be subservient.

Yes, we must play roles in our day-to-day living and yes, there are rules, suggestions and agreements–spoken and unspoken–that should be followed if we are to be satisfied living among people.

But roles and regulations need not define us,  should not define us.

They cannot make us feel less than the incredible be-ings we are born to be.

I don’t know about you, but there are plenty of days when I watch, seemingly helplessly, as my incredible being-ness gets tidal-waved by insecurity and fear.  The “what-if’s” rise up and bite my you-know-what.

This is why starting the day with a centering practice is so vital.  

It keeps the I’m-not-good-enough and the what-else-can-go-wrong syndromes at bay.

I sure know the difference–when I jump out of bed and straight into my work, I usually run aground at some point.  Oh, it might not happen with the first encounter with irritability.  It might not happen when I run across a rude individual or even when there is a depressing email that crosses my desk.

But the chances are good that at some point in that day, my ship will stop sailing.

On the other hand, if I slip out of bed and into my mindful self, when I am tempted to go to shore during the day, I turn back instead to the buoyant, free-floating water that sustains me.

Buoyancy is my nature and my nurture since the cells of my body began to form.

I can reconstruct and maintain that easy sense of flotation. 

Here’s what I do:  I close my eyes and imagine my body swaying weightlessly in a beautiful body of water.  I go to the salt waters of Turks & Caicos where I clearly see and feel the gentle turquoise waves as they lap around me.

Gently bobbing in the water, the sun warms my skin while the sea birds lull me into a meditative trance.  It is here I fully connect with the God of my understanding.  This place is where I mentally return time and time again so that when I’m not here I can still remain at peace and trust that no matter the drama of my day, I remain an incredible be-ing.

What is the centering practice that sustains you and do you find that when you skip it, your day is susceptible to “going aground?”

How to Avoid Emotional Fur Balls

I coughed up some emotional fur balls with last week’s Thursday Thread but feel better for it!

I think part of my struggle with finding my voice lies in believing it is silent simply because I might not hear it right now.  But maybe others do.

There is such a cacophony of noise in my life that sometimes I can’t hear myself think, let alone speak.  But that doesn’t mean my voice is silent–it is just speaking quietly.

It is also possible that I’m assuming that just because I can’t hear my voice, no one else can.  But that isn’t true either.  Just this morning, there was a comment on this site from Arvind, a fellow seeker who lives in the UK.

Like all of us, I must remind myself of my purpose which is to create open channels for peace, love and joy.

Yes, there is a ton of negativity and uncertainty out there. I think that’s just life.  Living life on life’s terms need not block me from serving my purpose; it need not cause emotional fur balls to scratch at my throat.

How to best avoid those fur balls?  By asking myself these five questions:

1. Can I observe without judging?
2. Can I listen to others’ conversations without being drawn into chaos?
3. Can I feel the current of change without being swept away?
4. Can I touch another’s emotions without making them my own?
5. Can I taste the bitterness in the outer world without distorting my inner flavor?

These five questions are the sensory tests that keep my voice alive and well.

I’m reminded of the words of Rudyard Kipling in his poem, “If.”  I love the entire verse but perhaps my favorite line is this one:

“If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue”

To see the poem in its entirety, click here: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/175772

Have a Magnificent Mindful Monday!

B Well & Present,

Beth