Do you believe in risking all for love

For your dreams

For the joy of being alive?

And should you happen to lose it all,

Can you still believe in yourself, in your dreams,

And the joy that can still be yours!

Do you believe in forgiving yourself and others?

And that there are really no villains or victims

In relationships or life,

There is just you and me learning our lessons!

Do you believe that in every adversity

There is a gift?

And that just as many lessons are learned in

“pain” as there are in “joy”

Maybe more!

Do you believe that courage comes with the human package,

And that we all have as much as we need?

And that courage allows us to sit peacefully and contented

In the middle of the hurricanes in our lives?

Do you believe in the power of play and laughter?

And that both heal us and connect us to each other\and then leads us to a higher road

On the journey we call life!

Do you believe in the act of surrendering

To a higher power?

And that the act of surrendering to this power

Actually frees us to become the

Magnificent beings that we were created to be!

Do you believe in working with and not controlling

Other people, events, and the journey of your life?

And that this is a perfectly safe journey

And much more peaceful once

We let go and cooperate with life!

Do you believe that true contentment can only

Be found within ones self- and that only illusions

Of contentment come from outside

Of one’s self?

And that contented people take time to appreciate and are

Amazed by the wonder and beauty of nature!

And that contented people take time to appreciate and are

Amazed by the wonder and beauty of nature!

And that contended say “wow” a lot!

Do you believe that the dance of your life is directly

Correlated to the dance that

You have with yourself?

And that by dancing with yourself and

Your life you actually influence your own destiny!

Do you believe in magic?

The magic of life?

And that this magic begins with you

And then continues outward from you

To the entire planet-

Yes, even to the entire universe!

The last few nights I have been waking up at 4am and, interestingly enough, feeling sorry for myself…knowing that I wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep anytime soon I headed to my computer and began playing free cell…..a mindless game that usually puts me to sleep within a few minutes……as I play the computer game I try to sort out my thoughts and see what I have been unconsciously munching on……tonight it hit me that I have been having my very own ‘pity party’ the last few nights……the good ole pity party…..what fun!!!………a pity party for those of you who don’t know are lovely parties where we get to feel sorry for ourselves……we focus on what we DON’T have…..we focus on what MIGHT have been…and then we focus on feeling sorry for ourselves….the past few nights I have gotten up at 4am to have my very own pity party……my mind races on wonderful thoughts of…WHY ME?……OR IF ONLY I HAVE……OR IF ONLY I  WOULD HAVE DONE……..OR I WHY CAN’T I BE MORE……..great thoughts that create misery and keep me stuck there…..yep, I have been having good ole skywalker pity parties the past few nights…….for those of you who know me know that I am pretty good at partying…always have been……..but the pity party is a relatively new kind of party for me…..feeling sorry for myself  is something that I just started doing the past few years……..and to be honest it is one party that I don’t enjoy!!… I asked myself, what am I going to do about it? (pretty important question I think as it  allows me the power to know that I can do something about it rather than feel powerless over my very own thoughts – I created these thoughts so I certainly have the power to change them) …… I have decided to play at my pity party…….yep, I began playing with these thoughts of lack……I played the game “poor me!”………I have the same pity party thoughts and added poor me after each one……..I really hammed it up too……and I made my pity party a melodrama!…….like a bad actor I over played my thoughts until I saw how silly they were…….then I replaced those thoughts of ‘lack’ or ‘pity’ with thoughts of gratitude…I sat in front of my computer and gave thanks for what I DID have…….and I might add, it was a pretty long list of things that I have been given and am grateful for……by the end of the activity I actually felt better……so when I get those pity party thoughts again, and I will, I can count on that…….I will do my best to keep my pity party short……I will do my best to enjoy it rather than fear it……..and I will do my best to have a little dance at the end of my party with the knowledge that I have the power to create my thoughts and the power to change my thoughts……….and that thought gives me my ‘happy feet’ back again!……..skywalker

This past summer i got the honor of sitting with my monsters all summer long…..i didn’t try to hide from them……i didn’t try to numb them up with drugs……i didn’t even try to fight them…i just sat with them and felt the fear, the pain, and the grief that they brought with them….funny thing, they didn’t leave, but after a while they didn’t scare me to death either…….they were just part of my summer….they actually became manageable……i am not sure, but i don’t think our monsters ever totally leave us……..they just seem to come and go and if we are in touch with who we are we can greet them when they come and wave goodbye when they leave for a while…..i think the key is to find out what works for us in making our monsters manageable……i have a good friend who just emailed me what she did to manage her monsters yesterday……she had to attend a funeral and she knew the ex love of her life was going to be there……..she hadn’t seen him in years and even the thought of seeing him again terrified her…..those monsters can really paralyze us at times…..she almost called off the trip several times but she remembered that someone had told her that ‘she rocked, that she was in fact a rock star!”…….no matter what she thought of herself, she was created to be that rock star!……..she told herself to put on her big girl panties and go to this funeral and face these monsters……then madness hit!!!!………she took a pair of her panties and with magic markers put stars all over them….she giggled the whole time she was putting on the stars……then yesterday she drove to the funeral armed with her ‘rock star panties!’…….and guess what?……..she was the rock star all day long…how could she not be with those star panties on?..she smiled knowing that she had a secret advantage-it was her ‘rock star panties!’…..very funny story, but what a lesson for all of us……we just need to manage our monsters…allow them to be, and also allow us to be……i sat with my monsters……she played with her monsters…….what can you do with your monsters?

Several months ago my buddy, Slim, got on my case again…I was getting sucked into my own seriousness and trying to get ‘holy’  when Slim asked me what the hell I was trying to do……I told him I was trying my best to become a better person through my personal thoughts, actions, and by raising my level of consciousness….he then reminded me of our first meeting when we were watching the movie, BROTHER SUN, SISTER MOON… the story of St. Francis of Assisi when I began crying and saying, “I will never be able to live up to him” and Slim responded, “what, you are sobbing because you can’t live up to a movie?”…..we have been friends ever since…….and he continues to remind me that trying to be ‘holy’ just does not work for me……..he says it makes me feel unworthy, incomplete, and leaves me being a whimp……..and I wasn’t created to be a whimp……..he also reminded me that my heroes are the three stooges, road runner, and soupy sales……even my spiritual heroes are Chad O’Shea and Ram Das simply because they are lighthearted…..Chad is a minsiter in the Ashville, NC area and after each and every joke he tells in church he looks up and says with a twinkle in his eyes, “forgive us father for we have grinned!’……..he also remined me that the only picture I have of  Jesus in my house is titled “Jesus Laughing”……. it is a large picture of Jesus cracking up like he just heard a geat joke…..he reminded me of my favorite quote by Voltaire which is “God is a comedian working to an audience too afraid to laugh:”……….finally Slim continued, “and now you think being seriously  ‘holy’ is going to work for you?”…after a quick but gentle slap to my head he said, “even when you began to experience the light within yourself it was through finding the humor in what was happening to you……it was through your giggles and being silly about life…..it wasn’t through a serious reflection of your level of counsiousness…whatever that is?”….Ok, Slim you nailed me!……..you once again reminded me what works for me and what doesn’t work for me…..once again I needed the reminder that I am human and I need to express human emotions to my life…..even when my wife was killed my first reaction was to try to be ‘holy’…..I tried to be calm, forgiving, and brave in a ‘holy’ way……..it wasn’t until I finally allowed myself to get really pissed and tore up half my house that I began to release the rage that was in me………I looked up at how I distroyed my house and how exhausted I was from my battle with the furnature, which I won by the way, and I began to laugh at the distruction and how good it felt to finally admit my rage and to finally let it out……..I once read that you will finally know the truth about a situation when you can laugh at it………….I was finally allowing myself to be human….the next night I jumped into a burnt pile of leaves (the fire was out) and rolled around in them until I was covered with ashes and looked like a scene from ACOPOLYSE NOW……once again I laughed and danced with delight……my point is not that I need to make a fool out of myself, but i need to be human and feel and express my feelings to get them out so i can eventually giggle with them (but making a fool out of myself does work for me too!)……….and finally, stop gulping  down my human emotions in an attempt to be ‘holy’………..’holy’ might, and probably does, work for some…but not for me…….and not for my buddy Slim……….

Life is a dance – anyway you look at – all of life is a dance

So:

Dance with the joy of who you are.

Dance with the love that is all around you.

Dance with the love that is within you.

Dance with children and old people.

Dance with your guardian angel.

Dance with your successes and

Dance with your failures.

Dance with your dreams.

Dance with the stars above and

Dance with the beach below.

Dance with the present moment.

Dance with your monsters.

Dance with your gifts and

Dance with your shortcomings-they are both blessings.

Dance with your dog.

Dance with your friends and

Dance with your enemies.

Dance with your daily bread.

Dance with your own unique music that originates from

Your heart and then

Dance with the freedom that your music brings to your soul.

Dance with your Creator and Higher Power.

Dance with yourself.

Finally,

Dance with your own magnificence!

So Dance!!!