Declaring control over your life

My inner peace comes first and to find that peace I will examine my life and my thinking daily to control the power and restlessness of the rational mind and to find and take in the positive energies that support my awareness and inner peace. I will examine my life daily to free myself of any single thing that keeps me from complete self-acceptance and reasonable acceptance and compassion for others.

In my daily examination I will find behaviors in my life that are negative energies that force me control feeling within myself and interfere with my peace of mind…… because my inner peace comes first.

In my daily examination I will seek the truth and in that I will recognize negative energies because they lie and to remain active within me, they create illusions of truth.

I am not a pre-programmed machine. I am responsible for my own well-being and positive outlook and in that I will always be open to every chance, even if it is painful to me, that offer’s me the opportunity to become more aware of negative energies within me

The good Lord has provided me with everything I need to be happy and to enjoy the very second of every experience, of the here and now. I will not allow the past nor a future that isn’t here yet or demands and expectations of others, to take that heavenly gift away from me.

I am responsible for my here and now. I am responsible for everything that I experience because I have decided what my actions will be, what will influence me and how I will interact with others. I must be responsible for me in order to grow daily into a higher consciousness.

Although I will strive to have acceptance and compassion for others, that acceptance and compassion must be tempered by reason. I will not allow myself to become entangled in their dilemmas and dramas.

I will always interact with others from a position of wisdom, love and expanded consciousness that comes from being a centered, cognisant human being.

 I will not interact with others when I am upset or emotionally drained. I will understand that everyone, everyone, is a human being in the making searching in their own way for their God given right to higher consciousness.

and I will remember to laugh because it's good for me

Makes sense

“A loving person lives in a loving world. A hostile person lives in a hostile world. Everyone you meet is your mirror.”  Ken Keyes

Do you know about Ken Keyes? 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Keyes,_Jr.

Remember, see positive, be positive............like this guy  

Finding Zen

 Zen: a total state of focus that incorporates a total togetherness of body and mind. Zen is a way of being. It also is a state of mind. Zen involves dropping illusion and seeing things without distortion created by your own thoughts. 

“The only Zen you find on tops of mountains is the Zen you bring there.”  

                                                                                                     Robert M. Pirsig

Is there a reason we don't do this in the US? No, wait, is there a GOOD reason we don't do this in the US?

Want to attend college for free? It can happen if you learn German.

All German universities are now free to Americans and all other international students. The last German state to charge tuition at its universities struck down the fees this week.

Even before Germany abolished college tuition for all students, the price was a steal. Typically semester fees were around $630. What’s more, German students receive many perks including discounts for food, clothing and events, as well as inexpensive or even free transportation.

In explaining why Germany made this move, Dorothee Stapelfeldt, a Hamburg senator, called tuition fees “unjust” and added that “they discourage young people who do not have a traditional academic family background from taking up study. It is a core task of politics to ensure that young women and men can study with a high quality standard free of charge in Germany.”

Actually, German universities were free up until 2006 when they started charging tuition. That triggered such a crush of criticism that German states began phasing out this policy. Lower Saxony was the last holdout.

It’s too bad that politicians in the U.S. don’t feel that a college education is worth supporting appropriately. State aid to the nation’s public universities took a nosedive during the 2008 recession and education funding remains well below those levels. The average state is spending 23 percent less per student than before the recession, according to a report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

Actually, state support has been declining for public universities for a quarter of a century. Using an interactive tool from The Chronicle of Higher Education, you can see how state government subsidies have cratered at individual institutions.

With the average undergrad borrower now leaving school with more than $29,000 in debt, the free ride in Germany can look awfully tempting.

How to handle the language barrier

German is not an easy language to learn. Fortunately, however, there are international language programs in Germany, which have become very popular with international students before they tackle obtaining a degree in a different language.

What’s more, an increasing number of German universities are offering degrees in English. These are often called international studies programs or in some other way have the word international in their title.

I write, what do you do?

Lord, teach me to mind my own damn business.

Autumn

     Autumn is here!

I though this was pretty funny stuff, I wanted to share it with you.

Sometimes the good guys win, sometimes decency triumphs.

Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teen who was attacked by Taliban militants for promoting education for girls, will share the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize with Kailash Satyarthi, an Indian campaigner against exploitation of children.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee says on Nobelprize.org:

"Showing great personal courage, Kailash Satyarthi, maintaining Gandhi’s tradition, has headed various forms of protests and demonstrations, all peaceful, focusing on the grave exploitation of children for financial gain. He has also contributed to the development of important international conventions on children’s rights.

"Despite her youth, Malala Yousafzai has already fought for several years for the right of girls to education, and has shown by example that children and young people, too, can contribute to improving their own situations. This she has done under the most dangerous circumstances. Through her heroic struggle she has become a leading spokesperson for girls’ rights to education."

Always believe that something wonderful is going to happen,

Always believe that something wonderful is going to happen, that it is right around the corner just the way you imagined it to be.

I have always been out of step with the world.

I have always been out of step with the world. I am the uncoolest human being on the planet and that’s by choice and by design because I have figured out that life is difficult under the best of circumstances but it’s even more difficult when we concern ourselves with what everyone else is doing.  It is a choice that includes being mindful, being aware of what is happening to me right now and accepting that and not wising it were different because that takes the power of my life away from me. SO I strive to be in the moment, to enjoy every pleasant thing as it happens with the understanding that it will be gone in a moment’s time. The goal is to understand your life because understanding exceeds knowledge. How many people know you? And now ask, how many people that you know understand you?   The goal is to understand.

Words and actions

One of the goals in my life is to love with actions and not with words. It’s one of the most difficult things to do on a consistent basis. 

At some point in my life

At some point in my life, I don’t recall when or where it was, I decided that I am, you are, we all are, created in the image and likeness of God. Imagine if the entire world believed that and then put that simple belief into action? War and famine would be a nightmare of the past.

 Although I am not a religious man I believe deeply that I am made in the image and likeness of God because as I go through life I met and continue to meet so many people who were absolutely determined to reduce me and everybody else in the human race to some form of intelligent plant life, to the status of an evolutionary mistake. All that does is cheapen the concept of life.        

In that same light , I stopped praying for things. Now I pray to put myself in step, in harmony, with God and if it’s his will that I should or should not have a thing, whatever it is, because it may take us out of step, out of harmony, then so be it.  

This too shall pass.

This too shall pass. When the bad times come always remember that, that this too shall pass. It, no matter what it is and no matter how tremendous and overpowering it may seem at the moment…it is not permanent because life is a fluid thing for me, for you, for all of us. It changes. And when it does, when it passes, you’ll look back and wonder what the big deal was all about, why did you worry about it so much. Troubles always look smaller once they pass.

Seize this day, this gift you have been given.

and while seizing the day, remember to laugh, it's good for you and makes you a better, happier person. Here, watch this and laugh....

 

So in 59 years what have I learned?

            

So in 59 years what have I learned?

A lot, actually but what I was thinking about today is what I fool a made of myself  every now and then, over the years, over some woman now long gone, because I allowed her to manipulate my thinking and control parts of my life….all in the name of love. But that’s not love. Love doesn’t do that. What that is is just old fashioned manipulation and control.

When I stopped allowing that to happen to me, when I learned to walk away from people like that, my world changed for the better.

That’s one of the things I’ve learned it’s just a shame it had to be learned the hard way.   

and remember to laugh, here watch this guy.....................

The past is a pain in the butt,

The past is a pain in the butt, it can’t be changed, Lord knows it can’t forgotten, and you can’t go back and edited out the bad stuff. But here’s what you can do; you can accept it. Try that because you can't have a better tomorrow if you are still in yesterday.

Have integrity.

Have integrity. Be what you are, if you’re smarter than the crowd, so be in. If you don’t fit in with the crowd because you’re smarter, so be it.  Don’t ever, ever, ever dumb yourself down to fit it. That’s what stupid people do. That’s what people with no integrity do.  Be you. 

and remember to laugh, here, here's some funny basketball stuff.......................

Push yourself.

Push yourself. Be better than you are. Even when you are alone and even when there are no battles to be fought.  Push yourself. Be better than you are. Wage war on your self-imposed limitations ....and remember to laugh because its fun and good for you. Here, look at this bear thing, it's pretty funny. (He IS NOT letting go of that ball)

And now we’re apart and

And now we’re apart and

 you’re just some stranger

 who knows all my secrets

 and all my family members 

and all my quirks 

and flaws 

and it doesn’t make sense. 

Gaby Dunn

Halloween special