Remember to Enjoy the Ride

Remember to Enjoy the Ride

I remember watching the movie, Father of the Bride, in which, Steve Martin, who played the father was in a tizzy because his child’s play was falling apart in front of the audience’s eyes. The children forgot or said the wrong line, they were in the wrong spot and the set was falling down. He couldn’t handle the chaos.

On the other hand his wife sitting next to him was smiling and laughing along with all the other parents. They were enjoying the children being who they were - kids, kids who make mistakes and do silly things.

What a difference in perception! One person is visibly upset while the other is having the time of her life. A lot of things are like that. How we react to them is a matter of our own perception.

As a parent I can get very frustrated, stressed out and exhausted from raising a child but at the same time I wouldn’t change a thing.  There are just too many positives from watching her grow up, the funny questions and remarks make me laugh. Actually just watching her be herself makes me smile inside. Her ups and downs have brought excited jumping to crying on my shoulder.  It’s been a rollercoaster ride of emotions. And let’s not forget the heart-felt hugs that have melted my heart. It’s been quite a ride so far. I hope I can hold on although I do have a fondness for roller coasters. I think this has been the best and longest ride yet.

I’m enjoying the ride.

How about you? Do you have ups and downs in your life too? Sure you do.  The thing to remember is that you always get through them, don’t you? Each one has given you a new experience to put under your belt. A slap on the back is in order because you made it. It’s taught you something and hopefully made you wiser.

What I find interesting is that most people who’ve been through a lot of what I’d call down times say they wouldn’t change a thing about their past because it’s made them who they are today. They wouldn’t have met the people they did or learned a lesson from the experiences they had if it had been different.

What message does that send? To me it tells us to enjoy the ride.

Weeeee……..

Paying Taxes? Good! You’re Making Money

Paying Taxes? Good! You’re Making Money

The first time I heard that phrase I was a little taken aback. Who wants to pay more taxes? If anything, people want to pay less. In fact, most people look for ways to get out of paying as much taxes as they can.  They look forward to receiving a refund and plan on how they’ll spend it.  I use to be one of them.

But then I realized the statement was true.  If you’re paying taxes you’re making money and the more taxes you’re paying the more money you’re making. They go together like milk and cookies. Therefore, if you want to be rich you have to get into the mindset of paying a lot in taxes.

To expect to be rich and get a refund does not compute. To believe that you can be rich and still receive a refund goes against the law of the universe, give and receive.  In order to get something you have to give something in equal or greater value. It’s like playing the stock market, the greater the risk the greater the reward. It’s also like the executive who gets paid a lot of money, she has the greater risk and responsibility therefore she gets the larger paycheck. If she doesn’t do her job then the whole company could go under which affects all the other employees.

Ever notice that the people who pay the least amount in taxes also are the poorest? Of course you have. If you’re poor and you’re not paying hardly anything in taxes, then it would stand to reason that you would be able to dig yourself out of that state of affairs. However, that’s not how it plays out.

According to the Universe they remain poor because they unknowingly choose it. They don’t know they have the power to change their situation. They’re looking for what they can get and not looking at what they can give. It’s the old saying, what goes around comes around. In the Bible it’s referred to “You reap what you sow”. And just for the record all the main religions of the world have some form of that same saying.

Now the Universe isn’t particular on the giving part.  The giving could be something of value or your expertise or helping others in their pursuit. What it does want is for you to be very clear on what you want, believe it will happen, start taking the steps to make it happen and when bits of it start to arrive, accept in with gratitude.

If you have the mindset that you’ll always be poor then guess what, you will be. You’ve already decided that’s how it’ll be. The people who have risen from poverty BELIEVED that they would.  If you’re always looking for a program or society to bail you out then you’re not willing to do the giving part. Some people have even adopted an entitlement mentality, as if to say, the government (you and I) have to take care of them.

They don’t realize they have the power to change their reality.  Some people even afraid to work more hours or take a promotion because it’ll mean they’ll pay more taxes.  They’re not looking at it for a broader perspective.  You may just have to do that for awhile in order to get to the next level.

As for me, I want to pay lots and lots of taxes.

You Should Never Grow Up

Why, because kids get it. They love themselves. You can’t love others unless you love yourself and kids instinctively know this but sadly something happens as they grow up.  It could be a well meaning adult who pops their bubble; a parent, teacher, friend or relative who puts their viewpoint ahead of the child’s enthusiasm and zest for life.   Instead of encouraging their outlook they counter with the glass is half empty scenario.  They mean well in that they don’t want the child to get hurt so they give them a reality check with maybe a hint of sarcasm or throw in a cut down which most likely dampens their dream.

Take the little girl who states she draws the best flowers. The adult may comment that it is nice but she could do better or comment that she’s being a bit arrogant which gives the child a different perspective and now it affects her outlook and self-esteem.  She’s just been given a reason NOT to love herself.  People may see her as too self absorbed and they won’t like her for it.  If this continues to happen with drawing or any other endeavor, she’ll begin to doubt herself and grow up squelching her self-love.  Of course this doesn’t happen overnight or with one event.  It keeps getting played out over and over in different situations until she doesn’t have a good grasp on what there is to love about her. Sadly it takes years, if at all, to reverse the damage that’s been done.

My daughter recently was looking in the mirror and commented on how she thought she had really big eyes and nice eyebrows.  She thought they were her best feature.  I saw her self-love for what God gave her shine through so I agreed, plus it’s the truth. 

I’m going to ask you to take a moment and think back to when you were a child. Was there anything that you really liked about yourself? You may have to go back quite a way if nothing immediately pops in your head.  Chances are its still true today.  That’s you loving yourself.  Remember that.

Too Much Structured Play is Ruining Our Children – Let Them Play

Talk to any parent and they can recall a time when they bought their child something but the child had more fun playing with the packaging than the toy. Or, the child could have made up a story regarding a set up of Tupperware, pots and pans, sand, blocks, you name it.  If there aren’t toys or games around give it time and your child will think up something to do.  It’s their imagination running wild.  Our brains are very creative and they can’t stay still for long.

Imagination is where dreams are created and realized. It all begins in the mind. First you have to have the thought to even begin to figure out how you’re going to make something happen, which brings me to structured play.  Structured play is well and good to teach our youngsters how to interact fairly with each other, however, in this effort to effectively socialize our youngsters, their active imagination gets squelched. There gets to be so many rules and regulation to follow that the children aren‘t given ample space to develop their imagination. It sometimes becomes a control issue for the adult population as if they constantly have to entertain their children.  That is nonsense.

It’s actually in the quiet self play when a child or an adult for that matter connects with who they really are. They begin to hear what their guides are telling them. They listen to the inner voice inside that tells them what advice or direction to take. 

It can happen to you to if you listen.  However, as an adult you can get so busy doing this or that you aren’t listening until something happens and you hear yourself say something like, “I knew I should have (blank) instead of (blank).” It’s when your thoughts start to wander that you’re starting to connect to your inner self.  Listen up.  Sometimes it happens when you’re doing the most mundane things like cleaning, driving or walking.  You’re mind isn’t actively engaged and therefore it’s free to wander when you’re doing a routine task.  This happens quite a lot for some people but then there are others who really want to connect so they meditate by focusing on their breathing. 

The point is when you set your mind free from active thought your imagination can really take off. Some of the best ideas come to you when you stop concentrating on what you want to create.  Children do this naturally but as we mature we tend to forget to just play. Let’s play.

"Imagination is more important than knowledge. For while knowledge defines all we currently know and understand, imagination points to all we might yet discover and create."

~ Albert Einstein