May

Works

It is by your works that you are known, not by
your words.

- John-Roger
[From: Divine Essence (Baraka), 2001 Benjamin Franklin Award Winner]

Nothing stands outside your loving.

You love your mistakes along with your successes.
You love the down times as much as the up times.

In other words, you love yourself through
everything, and your effort goes into loving.

- John-Roger
(From: The Tao of Spirit)

WORDS ARE WINDOWS (OR THEY'RE WALLS)
By Ruth Bebermeyer

I feel so sentenced by your words,
I feel so judged and sent away,
Before I go I've got to know
Is that what you mean to say?

Before I rise to my defense,
Before I speak in hurt and fear,
Before I build that wall of words,
Tell me, did I really hear?

Words are windows, or they're walls,
They sentence us, or set us free.
When I speak and when I hear,
Let the lovelight shine through me.

There are things I need to say,
Things that mean so much to me,
If my words don't make me clear,
Will you help me to be free?

If I seemed to put you down,
If you felt I didn't care,
Try to listen through my words
To the feelings that we share.

20 SECRETS TO HAPPINESS
(Author Unknown)

1. Return everything you borrow.
2. Stop blaming other people.
3. Live within your means and within your seams.
4. Be humble.
5. Listen more; talk less.
6. Every day, do something nice and try not to get caught.
7. Strive for excellence, not perfection.
8. Be on time.
9. Don't criticize anyone for 24 hours.
10. Be kind to other people.
11. Be even kinder to unkind people.
12. Take time to be alone.
13. Admit it when you make a mistake.
14. Understand and accept that life isn't always fair.
15. Let someone cut ahead of you in line.
16. Don't argue.
17. Know when to say something.
18. Know when to keep your mouth shut.
19. Don't make excuses.
20. Don't sweat the small stuff.

Choose one's own way

". . . everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way."

-- Viktor E. Frankl, Man's Search For Meaning

Control

Whenever one person enters into an area where
they are attempting to control the thoughts or
actions of another person, they are, in reality,

practicing a form of black magic.

Whenever you try to exert control over another
person, that control must be returned to you.

But it is important to remember that the only
people who can control you are those you allow to

control you.  It cannot happen unless you allow it.

Do you know that anyone who can hurt you or upset

you or make you angry is controlling you?

- John-Roger
(From: Psychic Protection)

Change

Inside of you is the only place you can change
anything. 

That is where everything lives. 

- John-Roger
(From: Spiritual Warrior, The Art of Spiritual Living)

Unconditional loving

When you are ready, you really can choose the
unconditional loving.

- John Morton
(From: The Blessings Already Are)

Experiences

People have asked me what I do when I am
experiencing a "problem" in this world.  I move
back on the Sound Current into the heart of God
where there are no problems, only various aspects
of experience.

Experiences are a measure of growth, so look
forward to your next experience, and you may learn
more in your awareness of God.

- John-Roger
[From: Divine Essence (Baraka), 2001 Benjamin Franklin Award Winner]

Take Care

Take care of yourself, so you can help take care
of others.

- John-Roger
(From: Loving Each Day, Volume 1}

Don't waste life in doubts and fears

Don't waste life in doubts and fears; spend yourself on the work before you, well assured that the right performance of this hour's duties will be the best preparation for the hours ages that follow it.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

LIFE IS
(Author Unknown)

Life isn't about keeping score.
It's not about how many friends you have.
Or how accepted you are.
Not about if you have plans this weekend or if you're alone.

It isn't about who you're dating, who you used to date, how many people you've dated, or if you haven't been with anyone at all.
It isn't about who you have kissed, it's not about sex.

It isn't about who your family is or how much money they have.
Or what kind of car you drive.
Or where you are sent to school.
It's not about how beautiful or ugly you are.
Or what clothes you wear, what shoes you have on,
Or what kind of music you listen to.
It's not about if your hair is blonde, red, black, or brown.
Or if your skin is too light or too dark.

Not about what grades you get, how smart you are, how smart everybody else thinks you are, or how smart standardized tests say you are.
It's not about what clubs you're in or how good you are at "your" sport.
It's not about representing your whole being on a piece of paper and seeing who will "accept the written you."

LIFE JUST ISN'T.

But, life is about whom you love and whom you hurt.
It's about whom you make happy or unhappy purposefully.
It's about keeping or betraying trust.
It's about friendship, used as a sanctity or a weapon.

It's about what you say and mean, maybe hurtful, maybe heartening.
About starting rumors and contributing to petty gossip.
It's about what judgments you pass and why.
And who your judgments are spread to.

It's about whom you've ignored with full control and intention.
It's about jealousy, fear, ignorance, and revenge.
It's about carrying inner hate and love, letting it grow, and spreading it.

But most of all, it's about using your life to touch or poison other people's hearts in such a way that could have never occurred alone.

Only you choose the way those hearts are affected,
and those choices are what life's all about.

Let your life sparkle

If you treat each person you meet as a precious jewel,
your life will sparkle.

Author and Buddhist nun Jakucho Setouchi

Listen

If God is going to be called forth, you sit and listen.

If you get nothing and it's still, you must
realize that underneath the stillness is the
Creator, who is holding the stillness.

So, in everything you do, whether failure or
success, you must realize that God is containing
and holding all of that.

- John-Roger
(From: The Tao of Spirit)

Loving and caring

Spiritual Warriors have the Sword of their Heart
in front of them.

They use awareness as their primary weapon, and
their armor is their intention.

If your intention is to be loving and caring, that
means you cannot let anything that is not loving
or not caring come in.

- John-Roger
(From: Spiritual Warrior, The Art of Spiritual Living)

Dreams

Before you go to sleep, you might ask that any
information that is beneficial for you to know be
given in a form that you can easily understand.
You may also ask that you only remember those
dreams that are beneficial for you to remember.

You don't necessarily need to remember everything.
Many times the Mystical Traveler, or your own
consciousness, does not allow you memory of things
that have been cleared because that would not be
for your upliftment.

- John-Roger
(From: Dream Voyages)

JUST SIX INCHES AWAY...

He wandered in through my partially open window a few hours earlier.  Of course, I didn't really know if it was a "he"
or not...how does one tell with a black wasp?  Anyway, "he"
came in, obviously without intention, only to figure (in a
fairly short period) that this was a place he really didn't
want to be.  And so his dilemma: What to do?

Wings buzzing frantically, he tried with all his might to fly
back toward the sunlight.  I suppose it hurt- hurling himself
like that against the window.  He didn't do it for long.  After
a couple-dozen-or-so 'bounces' against the glass, he stood still
upon the lower pane, contemplating his situation.  Rubbing first
his front legs, then back legs together, he puzzled.  Antennae
twitching, he crawled backward and forward, then upward then downward, all the while wanting nothing more than to return to the outside...to "undo" his mistake.

It got me to thinking...

Life can be like that sometimes: happy and carefree one moment... catastrophe the next.  And blessed as we are to be given total freedom of choice, so are we equally accountable for the consequences of what we choose.  As I observed the wasp, I recognized that while sometimes awful things happen without any sense or conscious reason, most of our 'low points' result from either poor choices or limited perspective. 

I left my desk for awhile, and upon my return discovered that the frantic wrestling with present circumstances had taken its toll upon the wasp.  Energy spent, he had stopped altogether, motionless upon the leading.  Head down and wings tucked, he clearly didn't have a clue.  He longed for the outside, yet now seemed resigned to a final fate upon the sill.  He'd forgotten how easy it was to get into this mess.  Dejected and demoralized, he couldn't conceive that a simple change in focus...a difference in perspective...would provide him his freedom.  And yet the opening in the window... everything he
longed for...was just six inches away.

Ever been in such a mess?  You know...one where it seems like there's absolutely no way out? 

Well, if it's behind you, congratulations.  If you're in the
middle of it, take heart.  For it's in such low points that deep
emotional cleansing takes place.  It's in such places and times
that you discover what's really important; like who you really
are, the stuff you're made of...and your true and honest
priorities.  And though much of the process might be anything
but pleasant, if you listen to your heart, keep your head up
and your mind right, you learn...and you grow.

The wasp; however, had clearly given up.  I couldn't take it any longer, so I grabbed a magazine... and  prompted him toward the bottom of the window.  Once aware of his opportunity, the wasp launched himself through the opening without reservation and was gone.  A gift of life for the wasp.  A lesson in life for me.

You see, there's never a time to contemplate a 'fate upon
the sill'.  No matter what's going on, there is always an
answer...always.  All you need do is seek it.  Seek it and
hang in there until it comes.  And come it will...exactly
upon that wonderful moment when, in the 'blink of an eye',
your vision becomes crystal clear.  At that instant, it is
as if an Invisible Hand takes hold of you, and leads you to
your open window.  All then that is left for you to do, is
spread your wings...and fly.

Until next time,

PERCEPTION

Perception is strong and sight weak. In strategy it
is important to see distant things as if they were
close and to take a distanced view of close things.

Miyamoto Musashi



When the doors of perception are cleansed, man will
see things as they truly are, infinite.

William Blake



Only in quiet waters things mirror themselves undistorted.
Only in a quiet mind is adequate perception of the world.

Hans Margolius

Prayer

We sometimes pray, "God, take away this.  God,
take away that.  God, give me this."

But we never really pray the prayer that will
truly be answered to glorify God, and that is to
say, "God give me the strength to overcome all of
these things and to reach into your glory and your
kingdom."

That's the prayer we need to make.

- John-Roger
(From:  Forgiveness, The Key to the Kingdom)

LIVE, LAUGH, LOVE AND BE HAPPY                

1. For the next 24 hours, deliberately speak and think positive thoughts about people and events.. If a negative thought enters your mind, visualize it leaving and replace it with a more positive one.

2. Look for the good in people. Overlook the bad.

3. Make time to relax your mind and body. Think of a beautiful scene, a sunset, a moonlit night, the ocean etc. Let the scene quiet your mind and relax your body.

4. When tense and uptight about people and situations, take three deep breaths. Visualize the tension leaving your body as you exhale. Recall a happy event and enjoy the feeling.

5. Listen to quiet music and be still. Let it soothe your anxious spirit.

6. Learn to be amused by the weaknesses of yourself and others.    Don't let those weaknesses upset or distract you.

7. Don't take yourself, others, or life too seriously.

8. Remember that good health requires a healthy body and a healthy mind.

9. Health of body, mind and spirit is within your control.

10. Learn to laugh and let laughter heal your spirit. Laughter is
    the best medicine.

11. Love your work and enjoy it. Change your attitude toward your work and the people with whom you come in contact and joy will  return to your life in abundance.

12. Love others as they are, not as you want them to be, and your
    world becomes a much more joyful place.

13. Remember that worry and fear are destructive. They rob you of happiness and joy. Let go of worry and fear and trust in a power greater than you.

14. Count your blessings each day.

15. Live fully, laugh heartily, relax daily, love completely and    enjoy the journey.

Mike Moore

LIFE

Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in
nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience
it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than
outright exposure.  Life is either a daring adventure,
or nothing.

Helen Keller



If more people really pondered how much is enough in their
lives, perhaps there would be a lot more truly satisfied
folks in this world.

Linda S. Anderson



Live a balanced life - Learn some and think some
and draw and paint and sing and dance and play
and work every day some.

Robert Fulghum

BIG MUD PUDDLES AND SUNNY DANDELIONS
(Author Unknown)

When I look at a patch of dandelions, I see a bunch of weeds that are going to take over my yard. My kids see flowers for Mom and blowing white fluff you can wish on.

When I look at an old drunk and he smiles at me, I see a smelly, dirty person who probably wants money and I look away. My kids see someone smiling at them and they smile back.

When I hear music I love, I know I can't carry a tune and don't have much rhythm so I sit self-consciously and listen. My kids feel the beat and move to it. They sing out the words. If they don't know them, they make up their own.

When I feel wind on my face, I brace myself against it. I feel it messing up my hair and pulling me back when I walk. My kids close their eyes, spread their arms and fly with it, until they fall to the ground laughing.

When I pray, I say thee and thou and grant me this, give me that. My kids say, "Hi God! Thanks for my toys and my friends. Please keep the bad dreams away tonight. Sorry, I don't want to go to Heaven yet. I would miss my Mommy and Daddy."

When I see a mud puddle I step around it. I see muddy shoes and dirty carpets. My kids sit in it. They see dams to build, rivers to cross and worms to play with.

I wonder if we are given kids to teach or to learn from?

No wonder God loves the little children!! Enjoy the little things in life, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.

I wish you BIG MUD PUDDLES and SUNNY YELLOW DANDELIONS

BELIEF MAKES EVERYTHING POSSIBLE.
(c) Mentor Max

In order to succeed, you must first believe that you can.
The only thing that stands between you and what you want from life, is the will to try it and the faith to believe that it's possible.

The only true limit to your realization of tomorrow
will be your doubts of today.

The moment you carry the conviction of belief,
in that moment your dream will become reality.

If you think you can, you can.

Suffering

"The truth that many people never understand, until it is too late, is that the more you try to avoid suffering the more you suffer because smaller and more insignificant things begin to torture you in proportion to your fear of being hurt."

--Thomas Merton

Karma

Being born and dying on this planet are never
mistakes. 

They are always part of the divine plan of
learning.  Even premature births and deaths are
part of that plan.  A person may finish 99 percent
of their karma and then die.  When they come back,
they have to finish only 1 percent, and that 1
percent may be accomplished in the mother's womb.
There is no need to go further, so the Soul pulls
back, and the child is part of the still-birth
process.  This may cause a potential mother to
grieve, and that's understandable. 

If you could only get the altitude, however, you
would have joy in your heart, knowing that another
being has completed their karma and has gone back
to God.

- John-Roger (From: Passage Into Spirit)

Loving lessons

When things happen that may seem unfair at first
glance, look for the loving lesson underneath. 

If you can't see it there, put it there yourself
so that you can see everything that happens to you
through the eyes of loving.

- John-Roger (From: The Tao of Spirit)

PEACE

There never was a good war or a bad peace.

Benjamin Franklin



All we are saying is...
Give Peace a chance

John Lennon



Forgiving those who hurt us is the key to personal peace.

G. Weatherly

God

We shut down God by moving into the world,
professing God's greatness out here.

We've lost track that God is inside us in the
greatness.

- John-Roger (From:  Forgiveness, The Key to the Kingdom)

VIOLENCE

Throughout history, man has fought many wars and battles,
yet to this day the wars and battles rage on.  So violence
does not end when one counters violence with violence, no,
the only things that end are more innocent lives

Gary Barnes