Rainy Days and Feeling Good

What’s so bad about feeling bad was the topic of a couple of my blogs this year. Today, I am contemplating what’s so bad about feeling good? For instance, you notice people at a funeral who are smiling and laughing – do you judge them as uncaring, uncompassionate? After a hurricane, you expect the survivors on the TV news to be morose and devastated – what would you think if they were laughing and joking?

I was thinking about what the future might hold for this earth, some of the possibilities being that the landscape and the weather may change quite significantly. Oh no, you cry, do not go there! You will attract the end of the world! But wait, I am not “feeling” the energy of judgments, such as awful, devastating, fearful, woeful, panic, anger, etc. There is no energy behind my thoughts whatsoever.

We are told by many that we attract to us what we think. I don’t believe this is entirely complete in the teaching. I think it is the energy behind the thought that activates the magnet, drawing that which we have energy on to show up in our lives. If I am in a neutral, contemplative state, then it makes sense to me that the Universe will also be in that state. Only until I add energy and emotion, and of course action, that the Universe starts to move. Does this make sense? It is becoming clearer to me, but then again, it’s my mind and my reality.

So, let’s look at feeling good and possibilities of the future and feeling good in that moment which is the next now. Definitely, I know that I want to focus on the moment of now and feeling good in the now. While in the now, I can think about the future in a very neutral place. To get clearer, I read and listen, go to classes and participate in discussions. I decide what makes sense and what doesn’t, what rings true for me and what I choose not to pay the slightest bit of attention to. Then, I assimilate that information into my now.

Now, sitting in the now and knowing in the now that I want to feel good in this now and the next now, I decide how to be and what actions I will take to be that and feel good in the now and in the next now. For instance, today I decide to BE strong. So I will focus on making my mind, body and spirit strong through exercises of meditating, reading, walking, yoga, etc. As I become stronger and stronger, I am supported in being strong in the next now, and supported in feeling good in the next now.

In the next now which becomes the present now, let’s say that the rains come. Did I create the rain? Me and millions of others, in present and past lifetimes, before we woke up, unless we didn’t, but we are talking hypothetically today. Through my present moment exercises, I am stronger, and I am grateful for that, and this supports me in feeling good in this place of a very, very rainy present now. It is okay to feel good, even though others may be adding mournful tears to the waters.

We get in our own way sometimes, over thinking, over guessing, over fearing. In my present now, as I BE strong, I also help others to BE strong…or BE compassionate, or BE wise – we can BE many ways in one present now. That is my mission and the mission of the Higher Self Bookstore – as it is the mission of many individuals, groups, and establishments. To support you in your personal and spiritual growth, to offer opportunities for knowledge and clarity.

For me, I choose to be in the present moment, focused on feeling good, and in preparation for the next now moment of feeling good, no matter what.

"I Know Your Mama Taught You Better"

I stepped in gum in the parking lot. It was the second time this summer. Instead of reflecting on the esoteric symbolism of these events in my life, my thought was immediate: "I know your mama taught you better than this!" I mean, really - what mother would teach her child to spit out gum in a parking lot?

It reminded me of a time, years ago, when I lived in Port Huron, Michigan, on my way north to a destination I can't recall. I was in the car behind a convertible with two young men sitting in it. As we were waiting for the light to change, the passenger dude reached out and dropped a large bag of Burger King waste on the ground! I had the opportunity to pull up next to him and said, "I know your mama taught you better than that!" He laughed, said something about mothers, and they drove on. We were heading in the same direction and I followed them for miles, strategizing how I would teach them a lesson (I didn't know about karma then).

They eventually pulled into a party store/gas station. Here was my chance! I would go dump one of the trash cans right into their convertible! Yes, that would teach'em!

No, I chickened out. My fear of legal repercussions, or respect for convertibles, won out but I have regretted not taking that action ever since.

Did their mothers not teach them about littering? Of course they did! As did the schools and anyone else who had their attention for a split second. Then why do we so quickly want to blame a parent for a person's misbehavior? More importantly, why do we blame ourselves as parents for the misbehavior of our own children?

If I recall correctly, I did teach my child to only spit gum into a waste receptacle (or my hand) and not to litter, and explained that it was inconsiderate to others and the environment. She did it anyway and reaped my wrath if I happened to catch her at it). Did she stop doing these things through fear of my anger? Or, did she step in gum and have an AHA moment? I can't know for sure.

I know I am not alone in my private thoughts as a mother: Did I do it right? Did I do it wrong? Could I have done it differently? The answer will always be yes, so I don't waste as much time on these particular meditations as I used to. I did my best, and I do better all the time. The kid will truly learn her lessons her way, no matter how much I'd like it to be my way.

So, to the gum-spitters, because I love you, "May you step in gum until you don't anymore."