Birds, Cats, and Dogs!

As I sat out on the deck on the west end of the house this morning the gentle breeze just carried me away. I was so full of gratitude not just because I was getting to enjoy this breeze but because of life.

Life was all around me. There in front of me was one of my cats hiding behind a blade of grass as it watched chickens scratching for bugs. Two purple Martins were teasing the cats from above, swooping down as if they were going to bop them on the heads. And then a beautiful song bird was perched on the hummingbird feeders singing his morning song.

In that very moment I thought, "What keeps man so busy that he can't be like the animals and relax in the moment?" It was then that I realized how I had been so busy "changing" life that I forgot to enjoy it. But what hit me the hardest was how I had spent most of my life changing me. Change is always at some cost!

I thought for a moment why had I done this, why did I seek change for myself, why was I not good enough just the way I was? As stated in "Higher Mind, Lower Mind", there is only your garden to tend to. However we all get so busy making sure that our gardens are picture perfect, but for who?

Can a person really garden without the thought of what their neighbor will think of them? Can a person really enjoy a garden without thinking that their garden is more beautiful than another? Well the answer to that is there are people like that but the majority of you do things for others each and everyday.

We are using the garden as a metaphor so please expand your garden to your life. Your garden could be your job, in which case you might be unwilling to clean toilets for a living because you think it is beneath you. Or you might be unwilling to help one organization over another because you don't believe in what they represent, even if they are helping flood victims. You see you are constantly doing things out of what others might think of you, right down to every thing you will grow in your garden. How do you know that you wouldn't be more happy cleaning toilets for a living and then getting to go home and enjoy your day without wondering if you did good or not?

Many of us feel that our jobs define us, they are what separate us from the have's and have not's. Well I'm here to tell you that scrubbing toilets can be much more meditative than yelling at employees all day, but you also have to learn to appreciate all in your garden.

It is when we have accepted that we are who we are and not resist it that we find true freedom. It is when we are able to sit quietly without seeking change that real change occurs. It is when we are willing to be alert and aware of the things around us that we find ourselves, truly find ourselves; because we are in the sea of our own soul.

Are you happy? If the answer is no then you are seeking to change something about yourself and this will always lead to struggles. Some people tell me, "You are mad, what if everyone lived their life like that? This place would become chaotic." Really? It is only within you that chaos exist to begin with, the separation of who you really are. The only reason the world is mad now is because you are unhappy and are unable to see life as it is and are seeking to change what you do see, within the world and around your world. You think that by conquering a nation you have won because now you get to "change" them in what you think is right.

When the white man came to America he was seeking so much change in his life he brought that madness with him. He was diseased! His disease spread like fire killing beyond what was necessary for his own life. I know because my grandmother lived on an Indian Reservation. The stories are true and sometimes worse than what you could ever imagine. Why were these people treated this way, change! The white man was unhappy with who he was and wanted more control over his environment and his ability to own more and more land and things. He thought that if I have freedom then I'll be happy. But all he did was imprison himself with his own greed in having. There is nothing wrong with having but having stuff doesn't make anyone really happy, they just think it does.

Let them! Let them accept their greed as the Native Americans did, knowing that his brother was sick. Greed cannot be changed but rather transcended. It is through the reflections of our own history I am able to transcend my own greed, but not until it went into lack. Here I was able to see and feel the contrast of my life and realized that all I was doing was going back and forth, back and forth. It seemed the more I attempted NOT to experience lack I did, the more I resisted my greed the more greedy I became. It was not until I accepted the silence of doing nothing, which let me tell you was a struggle at first, that I was able to find balance. Now I am able to do things in silence and experience true happiness.

Some folks say, "Yes,but you have it easy compared to this or that." This may be true and then other people will ask how can I be so happy living where I do and giving so much up. The contrast is there for the person that needs to see such contrast, I am just being. What it means to them is what it means to them not me.

I have learned in my life that you will never please everyone and it's not your job to please everyone. When we separate ourselves in doing what we think what others want us to do, be or say we divide the mind. This division comes at a cost but a valuable lesson as well. I am thankful NOW for all the people that I thought were trying to change me. And I'm thankful for all the people in my life that allowed me to think that I could ever change them, it ain't going to happen.

Now if you want to walk around with an ego bigger than life with this attitude that I'm in it all for me, well go ahead and you'll quickly be brought to your knees. Even though I am saying on one hand you are not to change anyone or anything but rather witness its meaning for you in your life, on the other I'm saying know thyself. It is through this knowing that you are not your ego but rather a Source Being; then you will begin to operate out of this mind that is united instead of divided. You begin to treat people the way you want to be treated because you are treating yourself that way.

Got that? How many people say, "I treat people the way I want to be treated, but they never treat me with the same respect"? That's because you are pretending to treat yourself with respect, pretending to know what you want, pretending to be awake, pretending to know thyself. How can you ever treat someone with honest respect when you are only pretending to love yourself? Loving yourself means loving all parts of who you are, not denying a single part of your existence, attitude, personality, or habits. When you hate where you are in life you are pretending, when you don't like your position in life you are pretending, when you don't like the people in your life you are pretending.

This will give many of you a lot to think about today. So think about where you are pretending in your life and how you are separating yourself from knowing thyself. Think about what you have desired to change in your life and surrender it completely. Want peace for the world, then be the peace you seek. Want love for the world, then be the love you seek. Want companionship in your life, then be the companion. What you will soon discover is that through your need for contrast and to know YOURSELF you created a distraction. The distraction of life and all the things you thought about doing to change it and yourself. But this same life is what allows you to be free as well.

So as I continued to watch the cats playing with the chickens and the birds in the sky playing with the cats I realized that none of these things sought change but rather enjoyed being alive. My garden doesn't seek to change itself or its environment, it grows where it is. My baby chicks don't try to escape from their hen house they enjoy being where they are, in the moment. My dog doesn't seek to change me or anything else around her, but rather enjoys the total relaxation of being a dog, as my cats enjoy being cats.

How many of us need to learn to enjoy being human and understanding the greatest gift of all? Expansion! You see if you look at life around you it's constantly expanding. This doesn't mean having more babies, but rather being the child within and letting it grow and expand. If there is someone in your life that you feel the need to change or would like that person to be different stop and look within your own garden.

Enjoy the moments of your life.