Monthly Musings

September - October 2007

MONTHLY MUSING SPIRITUAL TOOL BOX - PART 1

“If I only knew then what I know now”! For the better portion of my 45 years I have run into countless numbers of people who have uttered that popular phrase or others just like it, almost as their daily mantra; phrases that hint not so subtly of a growing problem within the world, and more specifically within the Western culture and mind. They smack of regretful souls looking back on their lives with varying degrees of remorse, unfulfilled desires, lost opportunities and left over “issues” from younger years. They are a symptom of one who has a foot firmly stuck in the mud of the past. To be totally honest, many of those very emotions have been a part of my own “reality” and are precisely the reason for my thoughts on the following pages.

“If I only knew then what I know now”! The phrase is so dramatically incomplete, for most commonly it is nonchalantly tossed out, quickly dropped as a passing amusement, and then forgotten, with little explanation or exploration as to the root of the emotions behind the words. This can be a dangerous exercise because once dismissed, the feelings and the words themselves become tinder for a continued cycle of unresolved issues and unrealized dreams that we eventually carry to our deathbed as we dramatically exclaim one last time in a parting soliloquy, “If I only knew then… The words of this trite little adage, usually spoken in less than hallowed conversation, echo for just a passing moment, falling upon the ignorant if not deaf ears of friends and family who are too busy with their own set of regrets to pay much heed to anyone else’s. But left hanging out in the halls of our minds without re-direction or evaluation, they reverberate intensely within the subconscious and easily become an epic movie stuck on perpetual rewind.

In my work as a minister I have witnessed many beautiful, talented and powerful spirits that lived virtually dormant lives, stuck in either the unrealistic expectation of having a better past, or in the desperate need for confirmation of the victim hood of their youth. Souls that forgot to move forward with the tools they had in front of them, opting instead to wallow in the ‘lack of tools’ of their stacked up yesterdays. These people typically find greater solace in handing out verbal snapshots of their difficult past, than they do from standing upright and courageous in the current moment in time.

Each of us has past frustrations, problems, hurts, complications or unrealized expectations of ourselves and others, I get that! We all have a story to tell. Welcome to the human race! But unless we enjoy the view from the rut of rehashing our past, we need to get over it! Move on! Unless we enjoy stagnation we need to find ways to keep the river of our lives flowing toward the ocean of our blessed and abundant future. We can avoid new series of regrets and repeated showings of the same negative film footage if we can only find a way to use the tools, the principles, the truths, the ideas or concepts that are sitting on our desk right now! What will separate the men from the boys and the women from the girls, so to speak, is our ability, or lack thereof, to stop looking back at our past with regrets and to jump out of the perpetual cycles that keep us “stuck”. How do we do this? By noticing the energy/emotion behind these seemingly insignificant words and by picking up and putting to use the spiritual/mental tools that exist only in the present moment.

Some of you may be thinking about now, ‘I have no idea what those tools are’. Stay tuned, next month in my musing I will be sharing many of the tools that have literally “saved my life” and hopefully these principles/truths will spark you to rediscover many of your own. Others of you may know what the tools are but engage instead in an endless search for newer and faster tools to fulfill some chronic need for a spiritual fix. These are the workshop junkies who never fully put into practice the principles they have learned because they are off looking for the next “hit”. In next months musing you will find words/ideas that can serve as reminders of the incredible power and effectiveness of the tools you already have. Others still may just feel tired and lack the energy or motivation to get to work. Whatever the case, I encourage you to keep an open heart to the forthcoming principles that can serve as education, reminder, empowerment and motivation. I invite you to use these simple concepts as you see fit and then put them to their best use by passing them on to those who are right smack dab at the place in life where you were when you wished you knew what you know now. Serving as a channel/teacher for others is not only kind but serves to ground you further in truth.

I will be sharing these tools to speak to the old tapes in my own mind, the “stuck” people in my life and the young souls who are hungry to never be stuck. Whatever the age or circumstances of the reader, these musings are not intended to coddle and pacify you, but to wake you up and help you change the reels playing in your mind. As you can tell already, my words can often be direct. There is no shortage of well meaning rescuers in this world who would love nothing more than to gather around you in support of your story and join you in bemoaning how tough life is and has been. Run as fast as you can away from them. At any point you can turn the computer off and go about collecting your “army of pacifiers” to defend your stagnation and victimhood, but that is not a place of spiritual growth. I know, I was once an expert at that game! But, at any point you are challenged by my words, you can also make the decision, and have the guts to sit in the uncomfortableness, anger or pain it may bring up in you, move forward and know you are on the precipice of a breakthrough. I don’t care much if you like every or any of the ideas thrown at you on this web page, that is not the point of this site. In fact, if my musings don’t occasionally make you squirm or think a little they will probably have very little impact on the landscape of your life. What truly matters is that my words cause you to think, feel and explore “yourself” as you access greater truths that help you examine your life patterns more deeply and challenge you to create new ways of being in this life.

If you have found this page looking for earth shattering concepts that will offer you the magic formula for Nirvana, you might as well hit the delete button now. However, if you are looking for simple and practical tools to help you change your life for the better and gain a greater control of your life experience, you are in the right place. The ideas I will be sharing may not be new but I have found them to be extremely effective when embraced, absorbed and applied. This is my gift to you, to myself, to my closest friends and my grandchildren. Many beloved souls have offered these same gifts to me and I am eternally grateful for the blessings and growth they have allowed me. I look forward to sharing my heart and thoughts in next months musing. Enjoy!

Namaste, Richard