Friday, April 17, 2009

Good, Better, Best

Good, better, best. I think it is better to think things this way to slowly eliminate the negative thoughts that accumulate in our minds. Whenever something unlikely happens let us just consider it as good and aim for a better result next time. For if we consider it as something negative then it is difficult to eliminate from our system something that we keep on fighting. We should be thankful instead that we are still given the opportunity to improve things. Every situation is an opportunity either for growth or destruction; the choice is ours. And if we are to improve ourselves then let us start with a positive attitude coupled with a positive outlook until the good becomes better and the better becomes best.
As much as possible we will ignore negative people and focus only on our growth; they do not share our mission anyway. Let us just do our thing and follow what the Spirit within us compels us to do. Even Jesus in his own time did not condemn the Pharisees, the High Priest Caiphas, nor Pontius Pilate who allowed him to be crucified. He just focused on his mission-on what the Father ordered him to do. He was born for that mission.
Similarly, we have different missions. Let us stop joining the club of condemners. If you feel you have the heart of a peacemaker then start the work now. We could not be peacemakers by counterattacking troublemakers with their own tactics. God already know what to do with them. Let us begin our mission by using God's weapons of love and understanding. True love casts out fear. This we must never forget. And we must always remember, God's power is greater than any power on earth if He choose to show it. As long as we believe that miracles happen it will really happen.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

What We Can Do In The Darkness Around Us

There are as many nights as days, and the one is just as long as the other in the year’s course. Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word “happiness” would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness. It is far better to take things as they come along with patience and equanimity.

Carl Gustav Jung

The world is full of violence and hatred as we see it. What we failed to see is, these things are what make us search for peace and happiness. There is no guarantee that this world can give us what we crave for deeply. The only thing that can give us the tranquility we aim for is the Higher power within us. This power is the voice within us that is not at rest by the state of our world. This voice is what made us complain for the darkness that we see.

The darkness that we see outside of us and which is only created by us brings us only one message: to seek the righteousness inside ourselves. Violence in this world would not stop as long as each of us keep blaming anyone. It may be true that other people realistically made us suffer; but if we go on with this game of blaming, it would be just like the question of which comes out first, the egg or the chicken? There would be no end to this violence if you and I continue to pass this game from our generation to the next. In order to minimize if not eliminate totally this violence let us start the change in ourselves so that this change will be passed on to our children and to our children's children until a community of changed people would emerge from us as the root.

Let us accept the world as it is. Let us not fight it. Let us just start the change and sow the seed of positivity wherever and to whomever. The good thing is, if we do this, the first to benefit from this is no one other than ourselves.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Objective: Happiness

It was probably a mistake to pursue happiness; much better to create happiness; still better to create happiness for others. The more happiness you created for others the more would be yours—a solid satisfaction that no one could ever take away from you.

Lloyd Douglas


When I was younger I only had one and foremost ambition: to become a saint. Unusual and unbelievable is it not? But I am telling the truth. I grew up envying the saints and believed in all my innocence that there is no other kind of life more satisfying and gratifying than becoming a saint. I would imagine myself being a saint helping people who would pray for me, being so holy with a halo above my head. I believed saints were so loving and did not know any feelings of anger or hatred. Consequently, I was praised by neighbors and almost all people who came to know me. I was an obedient and nice child as they knew. I was even chosen as the "Most Behaved Senior" during our Juniors-Seniors Prom in high school.
So much so that when I was in college I stopped schooling for the purpose of entering the nunnery; hoping it was the right way to fulfilling my ambition of becoming a saint. However, I was faced with a reality as hard as the diamond. What I was believing all along was so false. It were all untrue. And the more shocking truth for me was knowing that what made saints was not a smooth flowing life; rather it was the life full of sacrifices and pain.
It made my dream crumbled. Coupled with my own fears and shortcomings I stopped the pursuit and chose to end life in the nunnery. I went out and continued living a normal life. But then the call of the spirit was one voice I could not ignore. For the second time I tried to enter the same nunnery; this time as a working person who will live a life of single-blessedness. Again my fears and confusion lead me aimless. And again I went out and followed my own way.
The dream of becoming a saint was already out of my sight. I made ghastly mistakes in life. I failed the people around me. I failed my family. What's worse I failed myself.
Now I am on my feet again. The dream? I have let it go. What I am up to now is becoming happy: not only as a long term goal but as a daily objective. I could choose anything whatever resides in my mind that can support me in this objective. Some say whatever you think, you attract. I believe this is the call of the spirit within me - that I may be happy to make others happy. I need not focus on myself but on helping the people around me because it is only through this that I will find real happiness.

Monday, April 13, 2009

Guilt: Barrier to Happiness

I think so many of us are too hard on ourselves for what we didn’t accomplish or what we should have done. The first step is to forgive yourself for all the things you didn’t do that you should have and all the things that you did do that you shouldn’t have. Get rid of the guilt. Negative feelings don’t do you much good. The way to deal with them is to forgive yourself and forgive others. . . .

Forgiveness helps you come to terms with the past. I've learned how to forgive myself, and this has helped me no longer feel deep regrets or sadness about my past.

Morrie Schwartz


Morrie Schwartz has been one of my mentors. His outlook on life was so profound that dying to him was no more than returning back to the Father's loving arms. He died of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The book written by Mitch Albom about him entitled "Tuesdays With Morrie" was one bestseller. In that book we could take a glimpse of Morrie's positive outlook in life and how to live our life to the fullest.
His insight about guilt is so true. Unless we unburden the guilt inside of us we could never be happy. It is not that to become happy is conditional, it is only that what prevents us from becoming happy are the things which we unconsciously accumulated since birth. Guilt is one of those things.
When we were young we were taught by people around us, our family included, to feel guilty of the little things that we failed to do even if it is not within our responsibility to do so. Like, we are made to feel guilty when others are unhappy with our actions. Sure, we do commit mistakes but the fact that one's happiness does not depend on other people's actions should not make us feel guilty.
So in order to be happy let us forgive ourselves for the things we failed to do and the things we are to do but did not. Let us face the guilt. Let us talk to it and come to terms with it. Let us forgive ourselves, for there is no one who would stick to us through thick and thin other than ourselves. This way it is easier to pass along happiness' highway with a lighter load.

Sunday, April 12, 2009

THE QUEST FOR HAPPINESS

Even when we are young the quest for happiness is already in us. As babies we crave for a toy, and when it is given to us we become happy. It also makes our parents happy to see us happy and contented.
As we grow older our unconscious definition of happiness becomes complicated. Our environment influences us in our choices. What is new and acceptable becomes our basis to becoming happy. Soon we equate happiness with materialism. We become a slave of the thought that unless we get what we crave for we could never be happy; or unless something happen according to how we want it to happen we could never be happy.
Our wise heavenly Father already foresee that we would one day arrive to this kind of situation. He knows this imperfection in our nature, which would lead us to forget Him, that He would no longer matter to us. We still do pray. But our prayers is only for the protection of our possessions or for the achievements of our selfish desires.
Yet, no matter how much we squander the wealth God has given to us; no matter how we abuse the free will that has been bestowed upon us, He still leave the choice to us and condemned us not. For, what makes us unhappy is the very fact that we are made in His own image and likeness. This image and likeness of God is what keep us from straying away from Him. This is what urge us to find the true happiness which could only be found in God.
The way to finding this happiness is never easy when we are to be realistic. But it is achievable when it is worked upon on a day to day basis; for with God nothing is impossible.

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