Category: Joy

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Just a Happy Idiot, part 1

“I’m going to be a happy idiot and struggle for the legal tender.”
The Pretender, Jackson Browne

 

What’s wrong with this picture?

jester600Well, first of all, for all the years I’ve listened to and sung along with this song, I’ve sung it wrong according to the excerpt from the lyrics above.

It’s important to note here that I am the kind of person that intentionally makes up my own lyrics to songs, but in this case, I just heard what I wanted to hear here, apparently.

I’ve always jokingly referred to myself as “a jerk of all trades, master of none” even though I’ve managed to excel at most everything I’ve done in my life. Again, this is my own personal opinion, which may differ from someone else’s truth of me. I’ve also had a healthy skepticism of my own and others thoughts, preferring to follow my own discerning nature.

And life has been good. So, you’re saying, “What’s up with this post about these old lyrics?”

Well, the way I’ve always heard and sung this verse of The Pretender through my somewhat unique filter is “I’d rather be a happy idiot, than struggle for the legal tender.” And this blends easily with my philosophy that life shouldn’t be hard, and, if it is, I’m doing something wrong. This really equates for me, “if I do what I love, it’ll never be work.” I’ve followed that exclusively since 1978 and without exception, I have had what I would call a blessed life.

A couple of caveats to this are, I’ve also been my own boss all this time, and while I have never wanted for anything, my success has never been personally measured by my salary, money in the bank or how much my businesses were valued at, but more in the value of the services I gave and the happiness or joy people felt from what I built, sold or shared with them.

So, Yes, I’d rather be a happy idiot, than struggle for the legal tender. I wouldn’t have it any other way. I guess at this point it’s a moot point, but I’m still doing what I love and reaping the rewards of the journey this life has offered me in my soon to be 71 years.

Would I do it differently if I had it all to do over again? Not really. It’s been a great ride. The highs, the lows, the successes and the learning experiences have all shown me that there are always alternatives, new ways and directions one can go to change one’s life experience, if one finds their present path isn’t working for them or leads them to another possibility.

Life is good.

Part 2 coming soon.

revjim

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Make a Joyful Noise

“By following through on conscious choices, we can rewire our responses toward love, trust, and patience. Neuroscience calls this ‘neuroplasticity.’”

~Richard Rohr, The Universal Christ

 

I watched a video by Jane Goodall this morning on YouTube called Mother Earth (https://youtu.be/48mxaQtbUdU) in which she spoke about the interdependency of all life on the planet. She spoke of how we, as a species have single-handedly in the last 100 years (my words) have managed to cause and continue to cause the mass extinction of many species of flora and fauna by not being the good stewards of the earth (again, my words) and have instead allowed or contributed to the destruction by either our direct participation or silence while it was allowed.

She spoke of how we have left a dire legacy to our children and the children of future generations.

Richard Rohr, in “The Universal Christ” speaks of how our brain can be rewired toward Love. It is my hope for the world and for humanity that the mindset of those who have the power in their hands to help all life thrive will come to the realization before it is too late to set aside their myopic views of this world and see beyond their coffers of riches reaped to understand their unconscious contributions to the imminent destruction of the planet, and know that their wildly excessive riches will turn their coffers into their coffins as well. If the planet dies, they die also.

There is no place to hide and without biodiversity, there is no future.

So, how do we change or reverse this trend or tendency? If we could learn too follow the tenets of the master teacher Jesus, the Christ Consciousness which he speaks to in “Love thy neighbor as thyself” could take us from triumphing over those who seem different from us to embracing all persons regardless of color, ethnicity, religion, politics or any other thing external to us. Our heart is the organ that can save us, if we but learn to control our ego, which keeps us separate from all of our good.

In doing so, we can begin to feel our connection with others and recognize the rights of everyone to a good and fruitful life. We must learn to live without the excesses we are used to. We need to stop promoting “Us before Them” and move into an “Us and them” or We’re all in this together” attitude.

Every religion in its purest, mystical form teaches that “Love is the Way.” This is the One commandment of Jesus, the gist of the teachings of Buddha, one of the core commandments of Judaism, and the basis of the teachings of Rumi and the other mystics of Islam. In addition, compassion is the “most fluently occurring word in the Quran.” In fact, at the center of the Muslim beliefs is the principle of “Oneness.”

If all this is really true, and in theory it is, then the only thing holding us back from embracing “LOVE” is “FEAR.” Fear of being less than! But, less than what?

If we are “LOVE,” we are not less than anything. We are then, what God is, and we have nothing to fear, only Joy to accept.

“Make a joyful noise unto the Lord.” Psalm 100:1 (a bible book common to all 3 major Western religions)

~revjim

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Can Peace be Attained?

I feel obliged to speak a little about Peace as it pertains to today’s world.

So much of the world is polarized right now by the political climate that exists, not only in this country, but around the world. So much so, that there no longer seems to be any common ground from which we can begin to build a lasting peace.

Yes, all that seems crazy, but I believe it is marking a move into a more conscious, compassionate and empathetic world. We are in the throes of change to a higher consciousness and everyone and everything that is unwilling to make the change is revolting. Eventually they will all just fall by the wayside. Patience and prayer are key. Change is the only constant.

I know it’s difficult to watch and read about the unfolding chaos, but whenever there is great change in the offing, there is great turmoil. We have seen great change in the past. It always seemed slow at first, but then it just seemed to explode.

For more than two millennia the only form of travel on the water was by oars or sail. It was only 200 years ago the first steamship sailed forth and now there are ships that travel the oceans at over 60mph.

Again, more than two millennia ago the stories of Daedalus and his son Icarus took flight, but until 100 years ago, manned flight in a powered craft was still only in its infancy. Today we have been to the moon and beyond.

So tonight, let us know that if we are willing to take this high road of non-resistance, the potential for change can be more swift and more dramatic than we ever thought it could.

How can we effect this change?

There is only one way to effect change on a massive scale and that is for everyone to be of one mind. We know the truth of this is that we already are, but until there is a blanket realization of this, all of humanity’s fractured ideas of God — my god, your god and their god being thought of as different — until we can come together and accept that all of our different ideas of God are just a matter of semantics and that God is God is God, we will not be united in a peace that passes all understanding.

As I see it, LOVE is the way, the only way to achieve this lofty goal of bringing heaven to earth. Love is the glue that can binds us together. Love is the only path we can follow to return to the Garden of Eden.

Love is the only way to wash away the mistakes of all our lifetimes, so that we may start anew.

So, let us take this word LOVE and hold it close, and let us meditate for the next ten minutes on LOVE and know that as we begin to know this wholly in ourselves, we know it unfolds in this unified field of connectivity to which we all belong.

So join me in silent recognition for LOVE. Take about 10 minutes, if you have to time and sit in silent prayer for a better world, a “WorldThatWorksforEveryone.

in peace, rev jim

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shared from Rev. Michelle’s Friday Morning Musing

From This Thing Called You, by Ernest Holmes pg. 60

Everything you have ever thought, said, done, seen, learned or experience, has left an imprint upon your subconscious mind. This subconscious also contains memory images of your family life, your ancestral background and the sum total of what the whole world has thought or believed.
These memories are not dead things. Quite the reverse, they are active.

From The Principles of Healing, by H.B. Jeffrey pg. 74

For healing is largely a matter of contagion. We have used that word as though its meaning were appropriate only to disease and undesirable conditions. We have linked it in our minds with pathological states. But contagion is a perfectly legitimate word in relation to good. there was a contagion of peace and joy, happiness and serenity. There is a contagion of the sense of opulence and bounty.

From me. . .

As practitioners, we are here to represent the Science of Mind teaching as a power for good and for change on our planet. We are here to be a contagion for love, healing and possibility. When random people see YOU, do they see someone walking in the light of Truth? In my mind, this is the goal. In order, to support this high calling though, we must stay aware of the influences that surround us and that preceded us into this incarnation. We each carry with us, not only who we have been in this lifetime, but we carry our ancestors. Are we at the mercy of this? – NO, not ever but we are called to be conscious about it and to treat in a focused way. Taking time to release the pain of the old, to practice forgiveness for what was.
STAYING conscious, in this case means using the only tool we use to direct our mind (or the mind of your client) to a place of freeing oneself from what was – and that means that which has been given to us through the ages. As Dr. Holmes said above: “These memories are not dead things. Quite the reverse, they are active.” I REPEAT, we are not at the mercy of what was, but we are called to do our work in consciousness.

Much love to you on this glorious day! Remain Brilliant, the world needs your brilliance.
Michelle

Guest Blogger:
Rev. Michelle Wadleigh
www.michellewadleigh.com
www.cslnj.org
revmichelle2