The Beauty of the Universe is NOW

Every once in a while the universe graces me with the awareness of the many blessings in my life. I believe I am blessed every day, but I am not awake every day. Today was one such day I was. Lately I have been reading the SHACK by Wm Paul Young. It is one of the best books I have read in quite a while. The spirituality in this book is simple but incredibly profound. I am slowly waking up the beauty and magnificence of the universe and the creator behind it. And all I can say it is about time. Kyros, over Chronos. Kyros, God's timing and Chronos, human timing are two completely different things. None-the-less, I am waking up to the goodness of the universe and particulary my own life.

Today was an especially good day, so was yesterday but today is what I am writing about because I don't want to forget the little 'gifties' that were a part of it. This morning I went to work with my dear friend R. R is a brilliant and creative man. He is a blessing in my life and I am grateful to be a part of the birthing of his new business. Our time together working was so fulfilling, I am just grateful for the opportunity to help him in this business venture.

Later in the early afternoon I went down to the dog store to say hello to my other good friend who manages the depot B. He is another blessing in my life. B is a guy who is I am convinced an angel on the earth who goes around giving joy and goodness to all with whom he encounters. While I was in the depot I met a wonderful man who is going blind. He shared with a few of us in the depot some of the most beautiful spiritually inspired lyrics he wrote. His words were so touching that I had to hug him afterward and ask him for a copy of them. They are truly beautiful. I felt as if I was given another gift this morning of meeting this man and receiving his inspiring message.

Life is like this, we receive beautiful little gifties through out our day, but most of the time I get so caught up in 'ought' 'should' 'what ifs' and other wasted monkey mind sort of crap that I usually miss the gifts. Today, I was awake, or at least more awake than I usually am and I was open to receive a day filled with gift. These gifts are not materialistic nor are they powerful in the worldly sense. But to me they are far more than that. They are life giving, and hope filling. God, for the first time, I was awake all of the entire day. Gee, I kind of like that. Living in the actual moment and not worrying or feeling fear filled. My god, what grace that is so abundant.

I literally have spent a life time being asleep in fear. I am not unique or alone in this. 99% of the population lives and functions like that. I for one do not want to live out the rest of my years like that. I want to be awake. Awake means living and moving and having my being totally in the moment; NOW. Echart Tolle, wrote books on practicing the presence of NOW. I read them. But now I am learning to LIVE them, a BIG difference between reading, intellectually taking it in and actually LIVING it. I dared to take a big bite of the banquet of life NOW, and I like it. Tomorrow I think I will take another bite. Hopefully I will continue eating this wonderful banquet.

There is a lot of goodness in our weary, fear filled greed eating world, Like Mack in the book THE SHACK, I am letting go of the Great Sadness of my life and biting into the nourishing banquet of the Divine Creator of the universe. I am so glad and grateful.

Dogs are people too.

Over this past year, I have discovered a wonderful new world. DOGS! I am mostly a cat person but I have to say I have definitely fallen in love with dogs since volunteering at the Guide Dogs of the Desert. Guide Dogs of the desert is a wonderful organization that breeds, raises and trains

dogs to assist the blind. They train, Labradors, golden retrievers, poodles, and labradoodles mostly. They also breed goldbradoodles as well not to mention, and goldbradors too! I learned that poodles are very intelligent. Who'd have thought that? I always thought they were prissy, nose in the air kind of breeds, but oh no! I was dead wrong. Poodles are one of the smartest breeds going. Take note of the picture to the left here. This is Wanda. Wanda is a beauty queen, who is one of the smartest and most beautiful poodles I have ever had the pleasure to know. When she was very young, (heck, she isn't all that old at this writing, just eleven months) but when she was younger prior to going in heat, she was a SPACE CADET, I am talking major air head. But after she went in heat for the first time and got past that period, (pardon the pun) she has emerged as one extremely bright girl. She is as smart as they come. She has a wonderful 'daddy' who is training her to be either a breeder or a guide dog. Wanda is a big poodle as well. Her bones are large and strong, so being a breeder would be ideal and it would give her daddy the opportunity to keep her. See, usually after twenty months puppies are given up by the puppy families who raise them to (if they qualify) to go to guide dog formal training where they are matched with a blind person. The dog and the blind person come together to become acquainted and learn how to work with one another. It is an awesome sight to see; a lovely dog helping a blind person. No one can tell me dogs don't have souls. The process of the dogs' training is a beautiful transformation to observe.

Dogs are wonderful when trained well. They are like children, they can be trained to be angels on this earth or holy terrors. Thank God, I have been and continue to be exposed to canine angels. The breeds of dog mentioned above, are some of the most wonderful gentle breeds going. They are real healers. They have an energy for the most part that is gentle and healing just to be around them. These dogs are trained to sense the needs of a blind person from helping them know when to cross a busy street to navigating people around obstacles of furniture in their homes. The trust that develops between a blind person and their guide dog is very inspirational.

While these dogs are taught how to help people, dogs have a lot to teach people as well. Things like devotion, UNCONDITIONAL love, and loyalty are just a few traits people could learn from dogs. I never knew I could feel this way about the canine world, but volunteering at Guide Dogs of the Desert has totally converted me. I don't think I will love pit bull dogs but I have to say, I definitely have had a change of heart with the dogs I see. They are truly God's creatures. It does make a difference when either dogs or children or any creature is trained in life with love and purpose. God bless DOGS!

There are NO bullies in Heaven

With all that is going on in the world today, one can't help but wonder if there is a heaven or a hell . I think that heaven and hell are not places rather states of mind. One's state of mind clearly dictates one's actions. Many people create hell for themselves as well as for other people. I am here to say that bullies, are not in heaven. That isn't to say they cannot ever get to a state of heaven. But while they are in bully role, they are clearly not in heaven, nor are they creating heaven around them.
I have been on line for about ten years, and have experienced many personalities on line. Virtual life is no different from regular life, in that people hide behind various masks and display both good and bad behavior. Like in our actual life, on line, we either create heaven or hell. One of the characteristics people display that creates hell is the act of being a bully. We don't always find them in the school yard. We can encounter them at the work place, in our families and sitting right in our own home facing a computer screen. An interesting fact about bullies is that they have their day in sun, but sooner or later they implode and go into hiding. That is exactly what happened with one such bully on line. I watched a transformation of being 'respected' and liked, to literally withdrawing 'publically' on line because of her bullying and negativity.
The act of bullying while it is active for a while, will ALWAYS eventually come and kick the bully right in her/his own butt. It took almost 10 years, but it has happened and when I think about it, what did this person accomplish? In the beginning there might have been some goodness, sharing information. But all too soon the fear in the soul of this person bubbled up slowly like Mt. St. Helen's. The bully in this person, reared it's head with the manipulation of others who shared this person's interest, to taking a critical view on the subject matter of her interest. Just recently over the past six months, this person has virtually crawled into a cave and has withdrew publically, claiming that other people have been either verbal or lurking where she was not comfortable. That is another thing about bullies, they can dish it out but they have a lot of trouble taking the same behavior they thrust on others. What is very sad about this person and other bullies like her, is that hell is created for the victims of their prey, as well as the hell they have created for themselves. When you think about it, this is pathetic. It is a lose/lose situation. No one wins. What is even more sad, is that bullies are taught their behavior during their childhood. Many bullies are bullied by parents or siblings, or other school yard bullies. So the behavior is learned and then passed on.
Do bullies get to go to heaven? That is a hard one as I am not God, but I can say that the bully karma they send out DOES come back and bites them in their butt. The energy we put out comes back to us and sooner or later, we experience our own behavior coming back, be it good or painful. I look at this particular bully who is about four years older than I am and I think to myself, at my age, I want to work hard to embrace the behavior of compassion. It is easy to feel compassion for the victims of bullies, or kind hearted people. But one of the real hard lessons in life is to have compassion for the bullies too. This is NOT easy for me, but then again, that is a major lesson of life. I think Jesus said forgive your enemies. That is a challenge and an ongoing goal of mine. I know that to have compassion for the bullies is a key to creating heaven.
Creating heaven, requires hard work and surrendering to the fact that holding on to hate and animosity toward the bullies of the world only creates hell, the very opposite of heaven itself. So while, I don't miss seeing this particular bully on line, part of me feels sorry for her, because she lives in the hell of her creation. But then she is no different than most of us in that sense. We create our own heaven and or hell.
I would like to spend the rest of my life creating heaven. And with the help of God, I will accomplish my goal.