My Truth, or Just My Story?

We all have a story. This story may or may not accurately reflect our life path, but it is our story none the less. It is how we have come to think of ourselves, and how we choose to present ourselves to the world around us.

Our stories are our beliefs about our lives, about life in general. They are compilations of what we have learned along the way, the experiences that have shaped our minds, how we think, act and present ourselves to the world.

Many people firmly believe that they are their stories. We can become so attached to it that it defines us, and limits our experience of life. We forget that it is our past, not our present. This does not necessarily have to be so. We need not be bound by our past, or defined by our story.

We are what we believe ourselves to be. And we are free to be anything we choose.

I invite you to think about liberation from the story, the possibility that many of the beliefs that we have accumulate along the way are not in fact The Truth. Not our Truth and not God’s Truth. I believe this to be so, and I have spent more time unlearning than I have in accumulating new information. I have stepped out of my story, and into my present.

We each have the power to change our story at any time we choose. We have the choice to release our story completely, to free ourselves from our accumulated ideas of who and what we are, and what we can and cannot do with our lives. The fact is that the present moment represents our Truth much more accurately than our stories ever did, ever could, or ever will.
We are as free as we give ourselves permission to be.

I invite you to look at your story. I ask you to be more honest with yourself than you have ever been in your life. I ask you if your story is your Truth. I invite you to consider letting go of what you were, in order to step into what you are.

What if you were to release old thoughts and beliefs, old patterns and anxieties and fears that have limited your experience of life, indeed that continue to limit your experience of life today? What would it feel like to wake each day with a blank canvas before us, upon which we could create anything we choose? Can you even imagine the possibility?

Our ego likes things just the way they are. Even if we are miserable, there is a certain comfort in the familiar. We know how to be when we are how we have always been.

I invite you to step out of the familiar, to trust yourself and your God, so that you might come to know the real you as you are today, in the present moment, to see yourself apart from your story. This may bring up feelings of fear and resistance. Ego may even now be standing firm in your mind saying, "Of course I know who I am." I invite you to have the courage to look again.
You are, quite probably, different than you have come to believe. Perhaps it is your time to come to know who and what you truly are today. Perhaps it is your time to become liberated, free to be authentic, to embody your Truth, regardless of your story.

We all have a story. There may, however, be a significant difference between our story and our Truth. If you can get past the fear, past the sureness, if you can just for a few minutes ask yourselves if your story, and the old beliefs that go along with it is in any way limiting your experience of life today, the answers you find may surprise you.

We are what we believe ourselves to be. And we are free to be anything we choose.
Jeffrey R. Anderson

Spring

I LOVE spring. It has become my favorite season of the year. The promise of newness, or rebirth, the awakening from a long winter’s nap; all of these things contribute to the excitement and wonder of spring.

It is the unfoldment, the change, the mystery of Life all wrapped up into one glorious season. No two days seem the same.

The daffodils come and go so quickly. One day seemly out of nowhere there is a chorus of a thousand frogs at night by the creek in back of my house. The little green nubs on the trees are nubs one day, leaves the next. The clouds part, the sun warms my skin, green happens and all is well with the world.

Truly, it is the change I see happening before my very eyes that captures my imagination.
There is something within us that seems to know that change is the nature of the Universe. Life, from birth to death, is a constant flow of change. So if change is the nature of the Universe, being a part of the Universe, it must be our own nature as well.

So, if I am so enamored of spring, and of the change that comes with it, why am I wearing a pair of slippers that are literally falling off of my feet when I have a new pair in the closet? Why do I take the exact same route to my office every day? Why do I say “no” to opportunities to do something different, something I have never done or that stretches me beyond my comfort level?

Why do I struggle so hard when it comes to change in my own life?

In Truth, I struggle much less than I used to. Here’s why; We accumulate along the way thoughts, ideas and beliefs about the way our lives should be, at what life should look like. Many of these beliefs are limiting, and keep us much smaller than we were designed to be.

Almost without exception when I try something new, despite my fears or hesitation, I find myself having a good time. Wow, having fun in life! See, even this goes contrary to some of my own old beliefs; that life is hard, it’s a struggle, you have to work hard to succeed, to keep up with the Jones’s. Those old beliefs no longer serve me. They are no longer my Truth.

I am beginning to believe that this process of becoming conscious is much more one of UNlearning than one of learning new things. As I unlearn my old beliefs, the ones that limit my experience of life, I make room in my mind and heart and soul for a bigger Truth to emerge, a Truth that I think we are all born with.

I am beginning to see that perhaps the Universe has a different idea for my life than I have accumulated along the way. In fact, my life looks radically different than I thought it would at this point in the adventure. I am finally ok with that, because I have come to realize that I have two choices; I can learn to go with the flow, to trust the Universe that It knows where it’s going, to follow where I am led, or I can choose to struggle, to fight change, to cling so tightly to my own limited ideas of how things should be that I leave claw marks on everything and everyone along the way, and in the process make myself and everyone around me miserable. I do have that choice.

If the Creator has it together enough to hang the stars in the sky, to create the beauty of Nature, to Gift to us the wonder of love, of Life Itself, maybe It is trying to express Itself in my life in a bigger way than I can conceive.

So today I am consciously paying attention when I feel a cosmic nudge towards change, towards trying something new. Today I remind myself that I am a microcosm of the macrocosm that is the Universe, Nature, God - call It what you will. I exist within It, am created of It, and am here in this planet to express It as fully as I possibly can.

Today I remind myself that spring doesn’t just happen around me, it happens within me. It IS me. I open my mind and heart to the same awe and wonder in my own life that I see in Nature, throwing off all old thoughts of lack and limitation.

Do the trees worry that they will have enough leaves? Do the birds wake in the morning and go on some mind trip about accumulating enough worms? I think not. I think they just are what they are; amazing, beautiful, ever changing embodiments of Divine Life. Just like me.


Jeff Anderson, RScP / SpiritAsJeff@aol.com
Licensed Spiritual Practitioner/Counselor
www.SpiritPathCounseling.com

Loves Patient Blessing

Wherever you go, the love of God goes with you.

It moves with your legs, reaches with your hands, speaks with your voice and sees with your eyes.

Because of you, love goes forth into the world. Without you, it would be invisible.

'The Secret' on CBS News 'Eye To Eye' with Katie Couric

Dr Micheal Beckwith Explains the Law of Attraction.

Visual DNA

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

Castles in the Air

“If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put foundations under them.”
— Henry David Thoreau

“Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.”
— St. Francis of Assisi

“After the final ‘no,’ there comes a ‘yes,’ and on that ‘yes’ the future world depends.”
— Wallace Stevens

"Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen."
Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Anything you really want, you can attain, if you really go after it."
Dr. Wayne W. Dyer

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YOU'VE GOT TO THINK BIG TO BE BIG

High achievement always takes place
in the framework of high expectation.

You'll always hit what you aim for in the long run.

Why not aim high?

If you don't have a dream,
how are you going to make it come true?

Have the courage to follow your dreams.

It's the first step towards attaining your destiny.

Big thinking precedes big achievement.

Be true to yourself

Daily Guru

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"In the final analysis, we count for something only because of the essential we embody, and if we do not embody that, life is wasted."
-- C.G. Jung

Where are you not being true to yourself?

All blocks arise when we’re not being authentic, when we’re not being true to ourselves. We know we’re not being authentic when we feel discomfort of any kind.

When our thoughts, feelings and actions align with our essence, we express the qualities of soul. Always trust that your soul knows what’s best for you.

Believe in yourself and act on your ideas. Give yourself permission to do what you want with your life. Take the initiative to set meaningful goals for yourself and achieve them. Begin to tell yourself why you CAN have what you want!

"A true knowledge of ourselves is knowledge of our power."
-- Mark Rutherford

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These quotes are supplied courtesy of Higher Awareness
THE DAILY GURU

Plenty Seven

Today is my Birthday and here is something about me.

Happy Birthday!
10 March 1950

Your date of conception was on or about 17 June 1949 which was a Friday.

You were born on a Friday
under the astrological sign Pisces.
Your Life path number is 1.

Life Path Compatibility:
You are most compatible with those with the Life Path numbers 1, 5 & 7.
You should get along well with those with the Life Path numbers 3 & 9.
You may or may not get along well with those with the Life Path number 8.
You are least compatible with those with the Life Path numbers 2, 4, 6, 11 & 22.

The Julian calendar date of your birth is 2433350.5.
The golden number for 1950 is 13.
The epact number for 1950 is 11.
The year 1950 was not a leap year.

Your birthday falls into the Chinese year beginning 2/17/1950 and ending 2/5/1951.
You were born in the Chinese year of the Tiger.

Your Native American Zodiac sign is Wolf; your plant is Plantain.

You were born in the Egyptian month of Pachons, the first month of the season of Shomu (Harvest).

Your date of birth on the Hebrew calendar is 22 AdarI 5710.
Or if you were born after sundown then the date is 23 AdarI 5710.

The Mayan Calendar long count date of your birthday is 12.16.16.5.6 which is
12 baktun 16 katun 16 tun 5 uinal 6 kin

The Hijra (Islamic Calendar) date of your birth is Friday, 20 Jumadiyu'l-Avval 1369 (1369-5-20).

The date of Easter on your birth year was Sunday, 9 April 1950.
The date of Orthodox Easter on your birth year was Sunday, 9 April 1950.
The date of Ash Wednesday (the first day of Lent) on your birth year was Wednesday 22 February 1950.
The date of Whitsun (Pentecost Sunday) in the year of your birth was Sunday 28 May 1950.
The date of Whisuntide in the year of your birth was Sunday 4 June 1950.
The date of Rosh Hashanah in the year of your birth was Tuesday, 12 September 1950.
The date of Passover in the year of your birth was Sunday, 2 April 1950.
The date of Mardi Gras on your birth year was Tuesday 21 February 1950.

As of 3/10/2007 10:50:56 PM EST
You are 57 years old.
You are 684 months old.
You are 2,974 weeks old.
You are 20,819 days old.
You are 499,678 hours old.
You are 29,980,730 minutes old.
You are 1,798,843,856 seconds old.

Celebrities who share your birthday:
Carrie Underwood (1983) Shannon Miller (1977) Prince Edward (1964)
Jasmine Guy (1964) Sharon Stone (1958) Osama bin Laden (1957)
Kim Campbell (1947) Bob Greene (1947) Chuck Norris (1940)
James Earl Ray (1928) Pamela Mason (1918) Bix Beiderbecke (1903)

Top songs of 1950
The Tennessee Waltz by Patti Page Goodnight, Irene by Weavers with Gordon Jenkins
The Third Man Theme by Anton Karas (also Guy Lombardo) If I Knew You Were Comin' I'd've Baked a Cake by Eileen Barton
Chattanoogie Shoe Shine Boy by Red Foley Mona Lisa by Nat King Cole
All My Love by Patti Page I Can Dream, Can't I? by Andrews Sisters
The Thing by Phil Harris Harbor Lights by Sammy Kaye

Your age is the equivalent of a dog that is 8.14833659491194 years old. (You old hound dog, you!)

There are 366 days till your next birthday
on which your cake will have 58 candles.

Those 58 candles produce 58 BTUs,
or 14,616 calories of heat (that's only 14.6160 food Calories!) .
You can boil 6.63 US ounces of water with that many candles.

In 1950 there were approximately 3.6 million births in the US.
In 1950 the US population was approximately 150,697,361 people, 50.7 persons per square mile.
In 1950 in the US there were approximately 1,667,231 marriages (11.1%) and 385,144 divorces (2.6%)
In 1950 in the US there were approximately 1,452,000 deaths (9.6 per 1000)
In the US a new person is born approximately every 8 seconds.
In the US one person dies approximately every 12 seconds.

In 1950 the population of Australia was approximately 8,307,481.
In 1950 there were approximately 190,591 births in Australia.
In 1950 in Australia there were approximately 75,599 marriages and 7,358 divorces.
In 1950 in Australia there were approximately 78,187 deaths.


Your birthstone is Aquamarine

The Mystical properties of Aquamarine

Aquamarine is often used to experience love and mercy. It is said to help ease depression and grief.

Some lists consider these stones to be your birthstone. (Birthstone lists come from Jewelers, Tibet, Ayurvedic Indian medicine, and other sources)

Jade, Rock Crystal, Bloodstone


Your birth tree is

Weeping Willow, the Melancholy

Beautiful but full of melancholy, attractive, very empathic, loves anything beautiful and tasteful, loves to travel, dreamer, restless, capricious, honest, can be influenced but is not easy to live with, demanding, good intuition, suffers in love but finds sometimes an anchoring partner.


There are 290 days till Christmas 2007!
There are 303 days till Orthodox Christmas!

The moon's phase on the day you were
born was waning gibbous.

Who Are You?

"Most of you feel resistance and think it's normal, and we want you to
know it's not - it's not normal.

It's ABNORMAL.

It is not anything like who you are.

What is normal to you is enthusiasm!

What is normal to you is laughing a lot - many many times a day!

What is normal to you is feeling strong and secure!

What is normal to you is feeling so much self-confidence, so sure about who you are that when you look at others you're always in a position to uplift them.

What is normal to you is to have so much energy that at the end of the day you're still looking for things to do!

What is normal to you is to have such a passion for life that you're eager to get together with other people to hear about what they're doing to see if it's anything you might want to turn a little of your attention to.

What is normal to you is to have so much energy at the end of the day that you're already eagerly planning tomorrow.

What is normal to you is feeling disappointed that the sun goes down and enthusiastic that the sun comes up.

What is normal is a zest for life beyond anything that most of you over 8 have remembered or felt in a long long time.

THAT'S what's normal!"

Abraham-Hicks G-7-6-95

House cleaning

Last Week I threw out Worrying,
It was getting old and in the way.
It kept me from being me;
I couldn't do things my way.

I threw out those Inhibitions;
They were just crowding me out.
Made room for my New Growth,
Got rid of my old dreams and doubts.

I threw out a book on MY PAST
(didn't have time to read it anyway).
Replaced it with New Goals,
Started reading it today.
I threw out childhood toys
(remember how I treasured them so)?

Got me a NEW PHILOSOPHY too,
Threw out the one from long ago.
Bought in some new books too,
Called I CAN, I WILL, and I MUST.
Threw out I might, I think and I ought.
WOW, You should've seen the dust.

I picked up this special thing
And placed it at the front door.
I FOUND IT - its called PEACE.
Nothing gets me down anymore.

Yes, I've got my house looking nice.
Looks good around the place.
For things like Worry and Trouble
There just isn't any place.

Its good to do a little house cleaning,
Get rid of the old things on the shelf.
It sure makes things brighter;
Maybe you should TRY IT YOURSELF.

Photo; Hermit's Retreat @ Grand Canyon

Sweet Spot

Picture from my Window
Timber Porch under Snow
A Man's Priority, the Pole Barn
View from Back Yard
Great Place to Eat
We had a snow storm move thru eastern Minnesota and left a blanket of white covering the landscape. This is the biggest storm in 8 years, and since I love being outside in storms, the evening blowing snow was a pleasure. The views are various shots of the property with the last one being a great place to stop and grab a burger, a bottomless root beer float, pie and coffee. We were in the "sweet spot" of the storm as wave after wave of snow bursts move thru. The new snowblower that was purchased three years ago had its really 1st use this week and was a treat to play with.