Tapping the power...tipping the scales

My animal spirit,

My totem,

My base,

My guide

My source

The hawk--

He doesn't play,

It's for keeps,

Kill or be killed...

No worry for peeps.

Designed for war

Ready for action

Release the animal

Tap the Power

Feel the Pain

Bring the rain.

Fight,

Fight,

Fight for your Life,

No reservations,

No hesitations,

No limits.

It's on.

And this is how hawks handle snakes!

(from the internet!)

An old man, a boy & a donkey were going to town.

The boy rode on the donkey & the old man walked.


As they went along they passed some people who
remarked "What a shame the old man is walking
and the boy is riding."


The man and boy thought maybe the critics were right,
so they changed positions.


Later they passed some people who
remarked "What a shame..... he makes that little boy
 walk." So they then decided they'd both walk!


Soon they passed some more people who remarked,
"They're really stupid to walk when they have a
decent donkey to ride." So, they both rode the donkey.


Now they passed some people who shamed them
by saying "How awful to put such a load on a poor
donkey."


The boy and man figured they were probably right,
so they decide to carry the donkey.


As they crossed the bridge, they lost their grip on
the animal and he fell into the river and drowned.


The moral of the story? If you try to please every-
one, you might as well...
Kiss your ass goodbye!

(And the choir said "A-men!,brother!")

untitled, by unknown author

Once there was a man on a long journey

who came to a river.

He said to himself:

"This side of the river is very difficult

and dangerous to walk on,

and the other side seems much easier

and safer, but how shall I get across?"

So he built a raft out of branches and reeds

and safely crossed the river.

Then he thought to himself:

"This raft has been very useful to me

in crossing the river;

I will not abandon it to rot on the bank,

but will carry it along with me."

And thus he voluntarily assumed

an unnecessary burden.

Can this man be called a wise man?

This teaches that even a good thing,

when it becomes an unnecessary burden,

should be thrown away...

A Good Start to the Day

CHANGE THE TAPES

I'm capable, I'm strong, and I'm deserving.

If I want something, I have to work for it;
it isn't magic or rocket science.

Sometimes things work out, sometimes they don't.
It's called life, and nobody gets out alive.

It's all good, very little actually matters,
and trying to figure out or impose meaning in
every instance (or through connecting with a
magic genie) just overcomplicates shit.

So stop all the stressing and straining
and worrying (Yeah, that worry--it's
the most useless of emotions.)

Make a decsion; either you're going to Live,
or you're going to worry about stuff.
There isn't time nor energy for both.

Though none in the world
may have faith in you
or your vision,
have faith in yourself.
Nothing else matters.

Self-support and
self-confidence are sufficient
to make the difference
between success and failure.

If you assume the world
is correct in its dismissal,
you perish.
If you assume yourself correct,
you prosper,
regardless of the outcome
of your path.

It's worth being thought
delusional or a fool
in order to be true to
your own journey.

There is no one else
who will make your life
worthwhile, outside of you.

You'd better stay loyal
and connected. Others are
fickle and unknowable;
Know yourself.
It's the best investment
you can make.

Assumptions

Why is it that I never make any assumptions about my fellow travelers
that are healthy and progressive and positive?


"I haven't heard back from XXXX...I bet she's involved in a meditation
or is helping someone. I'll send some love and light!" Hasn't tended to
happen.


No, most all of our human mind's workings tend towards the negative,
the despairing, the detrimental.


We also bring our own truckload of baggage to everything we 'see' and
interpret; we think we know what is happening because the lie in our head
seems so real and so concerned for our well-being. We perceive reality
through the stained filters of experience, past hurts, expectations,
and pattern. Assumptions.


What if I decided that--short of putting myself in physical danger or signing
away my money--I would decide to fill my heart with love and compassion every
time I did not truly know what someone else was doing. Just assume the best,
not the worst. Err on the side of lovingness. Give the benefit of the doubt.


It doesn't matter what's 'true' or not. We hardly ever know what that is
anyway. But we'd feel better....about ourselves and others. We'd be more open
and trusting and giving. Maybe our continence would bring about a better
reality, too.


What makes me such an expert on another person anyway? I've had 42 years to
figure myself out and haven't made much progress yet. Why is another perfect
complicated mysterious creation somehow able to be summarized into a convenient
soundbite? Doesn't seem fair. Or accurate.


It's merely another example of choosing fear over love when we select a
nefarious assumption of another, or gossip, or roll our eyes to suggest that
something "must be up." Why is it so easy to curse another? Why is our first
instinct not to embrace and love and support...just the way we wish another
would do for us.


Defenses. Fear. Pretense. Selfishness. Competition.


Let me clean up my true bad habits, instead of assuming those of another.

Forgiveness

Forgiveness is bandied about a lot in spiritual and

recovery circles. An easily spoken word, often with
long and trying strides at achieving it. Maybe a
lifetime of efforts even.


Forgiveness as a concept certainly makes sense to me.
Manifesting it is another matter.


Even after many years of fighting, I began to see the
insights that holding resentments solves nothing. That
we only further problems and anxiety by holding tight.
That we hurt ourselves more than the other person.


All of that made sense, but the deeply defiant Self
in me would not allow mellowing. Would not accept that
to let go was not making me more vulnerable. My only
defense against unkndness and hurt had been to make an
identity around it, throwing up roadblocks to ever
allowing it to occur again.


(Not that it was particularly successful ploy, but you
know how brilliant ideas go!)


I shut myself off, seeing that as the only option.
Getting back on the bike seemed like foolishness itself.
Letting down defenses seemed stupidity. But it's what I
had to learn to do.
I was throwing more anger and more hate at situations
that had already produced enough. Situations and people
that had originated from such parasites already.


All I was doing with my rage and remembrance and
indignity and pain was continuing my own suffering.
I was now responsible for my own own lacking, and that
was a hard bitter pill to swallow.


Learning that my jadedness had carried with me--put
a shadow over my dealings with all others, colored all
my thinking, kept people at a distance, kept me from
living free or developing--that was equally difficult
to see and then to admit.


But I did. Because I want to be well. I don't want to
be filled with bitterness and complaint and despair.
I want to recognize my brilliance and perfection and
worthiness. I want to stop living in the past and
move into the possibility of now.

I have as much of a future as I choose to have.


If only I am willing to relinquish my vice grip on
emotions. If I can forgive what was done to me. If
I can forgive myself for continuing it.
I disallow room in my world for contempt and
blame.