NOVEMBER

Peace is always available.

When you're not against anything or anyone, you
start to feel peace's presence.

- John-Roger
(From: Loving Each Day for Peacemakers, Choosing Peace Every Day)

One of the most difficult fixations is the expectation of what other people should do for you. 

It's called judging; sometimes it's called prejudice or pre-judging.  If you burn your hand on the stove and hate all stoves from that point on, that's prejudice.  Silly?  Yes, but people apply that same logic to interpersonal relationships.  The process is just as invalid, regardless of what it's applied to. 

If you enter into an evaluation of the situation, you may decide that putting your hand on the stove allows it to get burned.  It doesn't make the stove "bad" or "against you."  It's just an evaluation of what is, and you can work with that.  If you move into fear, expectation or fixation, you're going to have some difficulty.

- John-Roger
(From: The Way Out Book)

Peace is the cessation of againstness.

More than just fighting, this includes any form of againstness in your thoughts, feelings, imagination or actions.

- John-Roger
(From: Loving Each Day for Peacemakers, Choosing Peace Every Day)

MONTHLY ZEN

Human nature is developed
By profound serenity and lightness;
Virtue is developed
By harmonious joy
And open selflessness.
When externals do not
Confuse you inwardly,
Your nature finds the condition
That suits it;
When your nature does not
Disturb harmony,
Virtue rests in its place.

- Huai-nan-tzu

Peace

When you find that the source of your happiness and joy is
inside of you, you will also find peace.

- John-Roger
(From: Loving Each Day for Peacemakers, Choosing Peace Every Day)

WORDS TO LIVE BY
(Author Unknown)

Anger is a condition in which the tongue works faster than the mind.

You can't change the past, but you can ruin the present by worrying over the future.

Love ... and you shall be loved.

All people smile in the same language.

A hug is a great gift . . . one size fits all. It can be given for any
occasion and it's easy to exchange.

Everyone needs to be loved . . . especially when they do not deserve it.

Everything has beauty but not everyone sees it.

It's important for parents to live the same things they teach.

If you fill your heart with regrets of yesterday and the worries of tomorrow, you have no today to be thankful for.

Happy memories never wear out . . . relive them as often as you want.

The choice you make today will usually affect tomorrow.

If anyone speaks badly of you, live so no one can believe it.

Patience is the ability to idle your motor when you feel like stripping your gears.

Love is strengthened by working through conflicts together.

The best thing parents can do for their children is to love each other.

Harsh words break no bones but they do break hearts.

To get out of a difficulty, one usually must go through it.

We take for granted the things that we should be giving thanks for.

Love is the only thing that can be divided without being diminished.

Happiness is enhanced by others but does not depend upon others.

You are richer today if you have laughed, given or forgiven.

For every minute you are angry with someone, you lose 60 seconds of happiness that you can never get back.

Do what you can, for who you can, with what you have, and where you are.

NORMAL DAY
(c) Mary Jean Iron

Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are.

Let me learn from you, love you, bless you before you depart.

Let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow.

Let me hold you while I may, for it may not always be so.

One day I shall dig my nails into the earth,
or bury my face in the pillow,
or stretch myself taut,
or raise my hands to the sky and want, more than all the world,
your return.

POWER IN NUMBERS

Tiny drops of rainwater are soft as they fall on your face. They yield to the slightest breeze. Yet if you gather enough of those raindrops together, and get all that water flowing in the same direction, it can destroy anything in its path.

Brief, tiny moments come and go all day long. Each of them seems quite trivial and powerless. Yet when you point enough of them in the same direction, by focusing your efforts on a clear and specific goal over a period of time, those moments can add up to a powerful, unstoppable force.

Are you tapping in to the awesome power which you receive one moment at a time? It is constantly available to you, yet you must use it as it comes.
It does not linger around and wait for you.

Each moment comes, and then it is gone. It is up to you to use it, to forge it together with the other moments in your life so that you can build, create, accomplish and achieve. Waste your moments, and they'll seem numbingly trivial. Harness them together and there's no limit to what you can achieve.

Meaning of Life

"People say that what we're all seeking is the meaning of life. I think that what we're really seeking is the experience of being alive."
-- Joseph Campbell

Satisfaction

Not everything that shines brightly is a real source of
Light and satisfaction.  As you discover that within you is
a real source of Light, then you will naturally attune to
that Light and experience more satisfaction.

- John Morton

Becoming Aware

You are the Light.  You are divine.  You are in a state of
becoming aware of what you already are.

- John-Roger
(From: "Innerphasing for Multidimensional Consciousness", an audiotape, #7694)

Alone

You may be alone physically, but you are never alone
spiritually.

When you reach into the higher levels of consciousness, into
the positive areas of Spirit, you have knowledge of your
oneness with everything and everyone. There is no
separation.

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

Freedom

Living here and now is freedom.

- John-Roger
(From: The Way Out Book)

Growth

Before the rain stops we hear a bird.
Even under the heavy snow
we see snowdrops and some new growth.
--Shunryu Suzuki

The signals that new growth is
underway are often very small at first.
It's sometimes discouraging when
we are trying to remake our lives
and all we can see for our efforts
is minor growth. That is how the
natural world works, and we are
part of this world. When the little
sprouts of growth first develop
under the snow in spring, we don't even
see them unless we search. Yet,
they signal the beginnings of a total
transformation. Time will bring vast
changes, but only little signs are
showing first.

Today, we may search for signs
of progress in our lives. The little
things we see may signal bigger
transformations yet to come. To be
true to them in the long run we
must accept them -- even welcome
them -- as they are today.

 From the book "Touchstones" by Anonymous

Peace starts first with you

Heart-to-heart healing is the goodness of one heart moving
and touching another heart, which can remove hurts, regrets
and envies. This other heart will then come forward and
touch back to the first heart, and these hearts will start
to heal each other.

That is why I say, peace starts first with you. Then it
becomes contagious.

- John-Roger
(From: Loving Each Day for Peacemakers, Choosing Peace Every Day)

Love

Children learn best through love. 

- John-Roger
(From: Loving Each Day for Moms & Dads)

The Question

"Cowardice asks the question - is it safe?
Expediency asks the question - is it politic?
Vanity asks the question - is it popular?
But conscience asks the question - is it right?
And there comes a time when one must take
a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular;
but one must take it BECAUSE it is right

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr

You can release yourself from past actions through laughter.

Even in your daily life, if you can laugh instead of taking
umbrage at some of the things that people say or do, then
you are already free at that moment and the situation can't
hang on you.

- John-Roger
(From: Dream Voyages)

Peace

Individual peace is the prelude to world peace.

Individual peace starts with you, regardless of what anybody
else does.

- John-Roger
(From: Loving Each Day for Peacemakers, Choosing Peace Every Day)

Come into the Moment

One way to come into the moment is to move into meditation
or prayer and hold your consciousness very, very steady. 

That enables you to move past the dominion of your fixations
into freedom.  Your prayer might be just counting to one
hundred.  If you are doing that as a tool to hold your mind
and attention steady, it can work for you.  If you tune
inward to your Self as you count, you may discover many
levels within yourself where you can break through many
fixations.

- John-Roger
(From: The Way Out Book)

Laugh

Don't forget to love yourself and laugh at yourself.

In the midst of the most terrible, wrenching, insidious
thing inside you, laugh. That's the time you need it the
most. You have to get something to counterbalance the
tremendous terrible thing, and laughter starts to bring it
out so it can balance out.

If you don't feel like laughing, that's the time to laugh.
If you've been practicing it, you can get it going.
 
- John-Roger
(From:  Forgiveness, The Key to the Kingdom)

Explain

Take the time to explain to your child what you are doing
and why.

- John-Roger
(From: Loving Each Day for Moms & Dads)

Knowledge

Information can't come to a master because they've already
claimed that they know.  Someone who's ordinary, however,
will acknowledge ignorance. Not knowing is being open to
receive the information. Once you receive it, there's a good
chance that you can do something with it. If you don't
receive the information, you can't do anything with it, and
you won't know which way to turn to make something happen.


Letting go, asking inside, and a willingness to just be open
will help a great deal.

- John-Roger
(From: Dream Voyages)