LINK TO WHERE YOU SHINE

 

“To be a star you must shine your own light, follow your own path, and don’t worry about the darkness for that is when stars shine brightest.” 

This is not only a lesson for life, but it is a lesson for anyone who has ever experienced challenging times.  I am a believer of challenge.  I am a believer of transformation, which evolves from challenge as the greatest gift that you can receive from the Universe.

I am a believer of all of this, because I have walked through the storms, the fire (and yes twirled it) and would not be where I am today without all of these challenges and the constant resurrection for the purpose of something higher, greater and bigger than my own vision.

Shining through the darkness is something we need to remember at every turn.  It is HERE we can be grateful for all that evolves from this and most importantly how we can rise in the process.

While you may have had many challenges in your life, I am here to be the messenger to ask you…

• ·         What have you learned?
• ·         How have you grown?
• ·         In what ways have you evolved?
• ·         Did you define or redefine your life because of your darkness?

The bigger question I ask you now is ARE YOU CHOOSING TO STILL SHINE? 

What we do not realize throughout our life in the great art of learning patience, timing and the constant constellation of the process within our BEING and EVOLVING.

However, it is here, where the most sparkling diamond nuggets of life exist, though most people miss them.  Hence why I am writing this blog – my gift to you, so YOU DO NOT miss them.

The diamond mine is within.  The light that shines exists within.  But it is in our greatest challenging moments we are reminded that we can keep that light shining and burning to enlighten us within, rather than gravitating toward the dark negativity.

IT IS YOUR CHOICE.  Read that again.

Now you may sit there from a place of impatience and say, “But…”

I will gently and kindly shake my head, smile and say…  “Um… there is no but… there just is this beautiful diamond mine within that you must continue to have faith, trust and belief within, in order for you to continue shining your light.

The key here is to not be stingy with your light even if you sit in darkness.

I know, it sounds so gag-worthy, eh?  Sit back, I have a more meaningful way to look at this.

Fishing enthusiasts around the world will always have a fish tale.  Sometimes their tale is about the one that got away, or it is about the largest one they ever caught...  Perhaps they saw Lockness Monster or Big foot while on the lake.  There is the old saying "Give a man a fish; you have fed him for today.  Teach a man to fish; and you have fed him for a lifetime.”  

I have a tale, too.  However, it is not about a fish, it is a tale about a fish tail.  In addition, it is not just a tale of a tail, nor a tale of a whale (dang, that is so Dr. Seussish, eh?), but a tale worth telling which taught me an interesting lesson about life. YES, DEAR SOULS - I AM SHOWING YOU HOW TO FISH FOR YOUR OWN LIGHT by what I learned through mine!

For seven years of my life, I was a baton twirler and marched in parades small (one mile) and large (five and a half miles).  These parades were kind of like the mini-marathons for the baton twirling set.  I was not part of a band.  I was part of a team, which competed for all kinds of championships, trophies, medals, and ribbons. 

The biggest misconception about baton twirlers is that we just spin a baton and make it look easy.  Well, nothing in life is easy.  Moreover, it is not as simple as one might think.  Much like martial arts and those who practice it, there is a fine balance, which must be drawn between the body and the instrument.  While not all martial arts use instruments as part of weaponry, as the body becomes the weapon, baton twirlers in essence do not always use batons solely because bodies become the instrument, doing the work and the baton becomes more of a prop.

Other times there are light saber glow-in-the dark sticks, batons inside of hula hoops which you twirl and try not to get stuck weaving in and out of in contortion, strangling your own neck..  In addition, sometimes there is fire… of course; the object is to try not to be burned.  It does not matter what instrument you use, there must always be a 'centering of the core' to keep the instrument in tune with what the body is doing, and this is particularly so if your body is the instrument. 

Sound masochistic?  Perhaps, but aren’t most sports that we as children play?  I mean, come on….  Dodge ball is brutal.  If you suck at racquetball, you can do some major damage to the frontal lobe of that brain with a ricocheting whammy in your noggin if you are not paying proper attention. 

I was six years old, when I was 'fitted' for my first baton.  Yes, fitted.  Your arm must be held out straight ahead as the baton is rammed uncomfortably into your armpit and the tips of your fingers cannot be 'too under or too over' or the baton is the incorrect size.  As you grow, the baton size must change also, and grow with you.  This is of course, much to the dismay of parents on a budget.  These are not the kind you find in toy stores, but ones you find in music stores or through a main manufacturer/distributor and they are professionally balanced and calibrated. 

The first lesson you learn even before twirling is the fine art of the balancing of the baton inside the adductor pollicis muscle.  This is that little cradle spot between the thumb and forefinger.  If you can know the 'center' – you will have a better command of handling the baton.

From figure eights to flat spins, pinwheels, leg tosses, elbow and neck rolls and finger twirls….  The array of movement was never dull.  It was exciting for me to feel the cold smooth steel wand between each finger and when the baton reached the pinky, the flip in the air around the hand, up and over – I felt like I was a superhero, especially when I could catch it behind my back, or do a death drop aerial on one foot.  The baton and floor would never meet when I was on my game.  In addition, when I was not, the baton let me know this was so.

Then… came the fish tail.  What is a fish tail?  Imagine your hand put in the position of telling someone to halt, stop… that little 'seat' on top of your wrist is where you twirl the baton with NO HANDS! 

What?  It is true.  Twirling a baton with NO HANDS…  It was part of what was required to escalate your ranking into the next level.  Pretend your hand is a fish navigating through water or a car swerving with your hand still in the halted position – the baton is supposed to mimic the motion without falling.  No fingers ever touch the baton; neither does the inside of the hand.  It is all in the wrists. 

Fish tails are one of the most difficult tricks to do basically because if you twist your hand too fast or too slow or move it too high or low, your wrist seat changes the position of the baton wand, doomed to fall flat on the ground if you are not ‘balanced.’  If we examine life – the moment we try to 'control it' too much… it gets out of control.  It is like the world – try to control all aspects of it and mistakes are made, power, corruption, greed, bleed in and it gets off kilter. 

The same can be said for fish tails.  The movement of fish tails reflects life itself.  However, I did not realize it at the time…I was six.  To me, it was just twirling.  The only thing I was conscious of then was to 'duck' if I lost control of the baton so it didn't konk me on the head; and steer clear of the twirlers who were all about their costume and tiaras because chances are you will get side-swiped by a flying a baton right in your eye.  POW!

That was essential in championships and competition especially, but there is another issue -- too many are focused on the end result of the win, and not the process, which in itself is the journey and THAT IS THE LARGER VICTORY.  THE PROCESS... THE PATIENCE WITHIN THE PROCESS. 

Here, you are faced to DEFINE what those parameters of winning are, and at the time, the only important thing was to SHINE.  So DEFINE and SHINE is all you can do, when there are hundreds of others competing against you. But your only REAL competition is yourself.  So why not shine?

A true win is when you SHINE ANYWAY...not attached to the win. It is here you shine a light so others can see theirs and that is a win-win.

As a teen and young adult, later going on many looksee-go-sees in modeling and commercial and voice auditions, this DEFINE and SHINE served me well because it is constant rejection day in, day out, sometimes four or five rejections a day.  This sounds like more masochism of ‘why the heck would you put yourself in an hourly or daily rejection’ position, but I think it is a good tool for learning life in many ways.  There is no real rat race unless you choose to participate in it.  

• ·         THE TRUTH IS YOUR OWN PATH IS YOUR OWN PATH
• ·         YOUR OWN LIGHT IS REALLY THE ONLY REAL LIGHT THAT SHINES.
• ·         DARKNESS ALLOWS YOU TO SHINE BRIGHTER, NO MATTER WHAT.

It is the fish tail, which teaches us something unique.  It cannot really be controlled.  It just is. 

There is no real 'why' or 'how' – and you know 'where' it is happening.  You do not know 'when' the fish tail will lose its balance.  However, you definitely know 'who' will pull the tail off course.  It is you.  It is I.  It is anyone who tries to take over the fish tail's beauty of simply being.  If you allow it to flow and develop its own natural rhythm, you can do fish tails until your arm gives out… it will just keep going and going if you stay with the flow of the fish tail's motion.  There are really no tricks to it other than allowing it to be and being steady, staying calm, being and being open to being.  It takes care of itself, it stays in balance, and the movement is beautiful and continuous much like life.  You are not supposed to be 'doing' anything, just be conscious, aware, appreciate, and respect.  The fish tail will keep twirling.

There is great celebration and joy in the free-flowing fish tail.  You can be fascinated by the spectacle of what appears to be a magic trick or appreciate the fine art of letting the natural energy take over and merely just being there to take the cue to guide and maintain. 

Letting go and being free within the freedom of something free-flowing is not only beautiful, but it's one of life's best offerings, when you have faith that everything that happens is part of the natural flow of what you are supposed to experience is for purpose.

We do not often take time to reflect upon timing unless we appear to be late for something, rushed for something or on deadline.  However, we should not really question it either.  Trusting in what the Universe delivers has our best interest at heart in the end.  We just need to be aware and be present for it. 

The world keeps spinning.  So do batons.  The tide still rises and falls.  The stars still shine in the sky.

It is in our GROUNDING and BALANCE we can navigate life.  There are no competitions for trophies, ribbons, and medals.  If you march in your own parade, you will see the only one you are really in competition with is yourself.  So while you are here, CONTINUE TO SHINE YOUR OWN LIGHT.

Nevertheless, life does not require us to spin to keep up so we can live.  It is really quite the opposite. 

We float, we balance.  Twirling will happen on its own in its own time, naturally and organically if we let it unfold, twist, turn, and repeat. 

Life's beauty is here now for us to enjoy if we stop spinning long enough to look at it and simply be in the moment as it is happening.  

The fish tail is in balance.  It is my tale about a tail which everyday people life’s fishing enthusiasts will never understand if they only focus on size, catching, releasing, and the game. 

Sometimes merely appreciating the sport of living in the present provides us more skill to indeed fill our minds, hearts, and souls for a lifetime. 

Moreover, when you SHINE BRIGHTLY ANYWAY, there is great beauty in that because you catch what you are meant to catch to enjoy and flourish within your own journey.

Namaste.

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LINKING TO YOUR WISHES

The Genie.  The Birthday Candle.  The Dandelion.  The Wishing Well.  The Wishbone.  The Fairy Godmother.  The Eyelash.  The Star. 

Humans make many wishes upon on all of these things.

WHY? 

Is it just pure entertainment and fun by way of a little hope and magic?  Is it childhood wonder?  Superstition?  Is this a learned behavior from your family by way of generational transference?  

ON THE OTHER HAND, Is it just social convention? 

Regardless of wishes and why they are made, there is no denying that wishing is part of human existence and it is what drives the human psyche and soul toward something that has meaning.

• What is your wish?
• What do you invest in your wish?
• Is your wish a hope, or a dream or a goal? 
• Is your wish personal, professional, or global?
• The bigger question…. Have your wishes come true?
• Do you still have unfulfilled wishes?
• What is your perspective on wishes?  Do you believe in sending them out into the Universe?

Still, an even bigger question:  

Do your wishes and their outcome affect more than just YOU? 

Deeper still… how do you differentiate a wish for humanity with collective consciousness and a wish that affects you and your own world in terms of intention, control, surrendering, and…OUTCOME?

Let’s take a wide-scope lens look at this for a moment.  We need to acquire some perspective from a higher viewpoint to gain a better understanding of how wishes attach to energy fields in The Universe. 

WISH vs. INTENTION

Okay, as you examine this idea of Wish vs. Intention you may believe you see how one appears passive and one appears active.  But is this actually true? 

Both wishes and intention have energy. 

Wishes themselves may have intention and they can be intertwined, but the key is to understand how they either can work cohesively together in unison or if they are definitely separate in energy based on the specific wish or the specific intention.

YES, that is the key...  BEING SPECIFIC vs. BEING VAGUE.

 

To clarify, write your wish down on paper.  Look at it.  Does writing it down, now make it real?

How vague is it?  How specific is it?  Did you generalize or did you state specifically by target what it is you wish for? 

When you see a wishing well, or a shooting star, or even make a birthday wish as you blow out candles, chances are you do not make wishes as long, detailed, and specific as you would if you wrote them down.  Usually most wishes are vague, unless of course you are an expert at manifesting wishes.

THE POINT:  It is harder to hit a bulls-eye when you are not aiming at anything specific – rather, your arrow can land on the target, but not on the bulls-eye. 

Need an example? 

A soon-to-be graduating college student blows out the candles on his birthday cake as he wishes for success.

The Universe has a question: “Success in what?  That’s so vague.”

The student does not know to provide an answer. 

So the next day, the weekend is here.  He is doing laundry.  He finishes it.  It is the first time his clothes did not fade, shrink, or wrinkle and he did not throw his red T-shirt in with the load of whites to turn everything pink. 

The Universe says, “Okay, you are a success – you did laundry perfectly like you’ve never done it before at the dorm.” 

The student thinks his birthday wish did not come true to get the opportunity to get the dream job he wanted. 

Key moral here… he was not specific with his wish. 

His human will ignore this regular ‘success’ because the initial INTENTION was not to be successful at laundry.  

He also could have had another wish for success with his thesis or being approved for a car loan or anything else.  He may ‘assume’ The Universe knows exactly what success he desired, even if he did not articulate it.  

So let’s say you wish for happiness. 

“Happiness… okay, I’ll make you happy by turning the traffic light green all the way through your drive today, because I know you always get frustrated getting a string of red lights, so voila’ done…  I am the Universe and I made you happy.”

How we define our ‘wishes’ is key to understanding the root of the wish and what it is that is desired. For some people, happiness actually means inner peace and peace of mind.  For others happiness is freedom. 

Are you getting the picture?  How do you define happiness?   

You can find happiness having a puppy lick your face, or winning a scratcher ticket or finally getting your coffee made correctly by your local barista.  For others happiness is a clean bill of health being cancer-free or finding their soul mate or finding out they are not getting an increase on their property taxes.   

 

Being specific with your wishes prevents vague energy from entering your energy channel of intention to help improve the way energy transcends.  

Is your wish more than just a thought?  

Have you now begun the manifestation process because you wrote it and made it real, more than just a thought, even if you know sometimes thoughts can manifest into reality? 

Our wishes can be dreams, but to make a dream a reality all depends on the dream. 

Everything we do as humans on this planet involves some sort of work or at the very least some sort of participation in the process.  It is not about being passive. 

Goals and dreams both involve action, not just tossing something out into the Universe with you sitting on the couch eating bon bons. 

What we need to understand further is the idea that our participation cannot always go in the extreme either, as it may have limitations.

CONTROL vs. SURRENDERING

Can we control our wishes?  Or must we completely surrender them to chance?

Do we have a say as to if they come true or not?  

When we wish (let us use tossing a coin in a fountain or well for example) – the idea is to ‘surrender’ it and put it out there.  Some people think ‘if it is meant to be, it will happen’ for that is how they perceive wishes.  

The other people who examine it from the perspective of needing to feed more energy into the wish to manifest it have a different take on wishing. 

This perhaps is the most confusing part of a wish, because there is this thing called FREE WILL.

Free will can affect a wish if your wish involves other people.

This gets complicated, particularly if say your wish is for someone to get well, heal, or overcome something, for example.

This is NOT to be confused with prayer.  People are very specific in prayers.  That is a whole other blog… so let us get back to the subject of wishes.

You may put all your energy and highest, greatest intentions in that wish for the best outcome, but your wish does involve someone else’s free will to either align with your wish or if they choose to surrender because they decided to accept what the outcome would be, that’s a different story.  

The reality is that this could happen even if your wish for the highest good and greatest good may come with the most perfect, purest intention of the best outcome. 

Our test as humans is to sometimes accept another human’s free will if that is their choice – However, if they have no knowledge of your wish, then can you honestly say there is choice at all?  

It's like being a benched athlete and wishing the coach would put you in the game, but the coach is not a mind reader and The Universe believes you're just grateful to be on the team, which you are... but if you have other wishes you may need to articulate them clearly.

In this case, wouldn't it be best for the athlete to actually talk with the coach directly?  Therefore, wishes aren't necessary... action is required.

DREAMS vs. GOALS

Where we humans get caught up is in this “Do I do something?” or “Do I not do something” spinning cycle of active vs. passive in the wish vs. intention energy circus.

It is a fine line… and it is not always clear to see whether you do something or do not do something.  

This is where we define whether it is a WISH/DREAM vs. A GOAL. 

GOALS and DREAMS require action.  Wishes only do IF THEY ARE ATTACHED TO A DREAM.

Elementary example:  You are a child in school wishing and hoping your homework will be done vs. you are a child who did their homework wishing for the best outcome for the grade.

Adults somehow believe passivity and letting go means everything will come to them when they wish.  

This is confusing, because of destiny and highest good.  You can wish…. However, if you are tied to a specific outcome, and it does not happen, there is a bigger plan in the works to give you an even better outcome than you could have orchestrated yourself.  

This is the reason for this wide-lens look I am presenting right now, so you can SEE.

GOALS, TASKS, and working toward a DREAM: 

Sometimes, we can do all the things we think we need to do to try to make something happen. 

Nevertheless, this is where you have to get honest with yourself… brutally honest. 

• Have you actually tried every option?  
• Have you put in the work?
• Is there anything else you can do?
• Does any part of your wish involve communication? 
• If so, have you been clear with your communication with your intention, wish or request?  Have you been extremely specific with actual words to be clear?

This is particularly true with global action.  

As Mother Teresa said, “We know only too well that what we are doing is nothing more than a drop in the ocean.  But if the drop were not there, the ocean would be missing something.”

If we take this concept in making your global wish come true… you are contributing toward the greater good, helping the wish along. 

Will you see it in your lifetime?  This remains to be seen, however, you are not just sitting back waiting for things to change. 

This then could be considered as a wish WITH a goal working together in unison.

Humans additionally become stuck when it comes to context of wishes, dreams, and goals.  You can say to The Universe, “I wish for my dreams to come true.”   

The Universe is saying, “Oh yeah?  Which ones…the ones you wanted when you were five years-old or the ones you have now?”  

Laugh.  I know someone who said as a child that she wanted an iguana.  She never got the iguana as a child, but as an adult, when she opened her front door one day to take out the trash, there was an iguana on her doorstep.

At this point, she is just glad she did not wish for a lion, rhino, or grizzly bear. 

We need to identify whether your dreams are goals.  There is a difference. Here is where there is also a fine-line dance of passive vs. active, and control vs. surrendering.

When it comes to life goals, you are not the only participant even if you are acting alone.

This is where it gets more complicated. 

There is the catalyst position.  You may or may not be able to actually achieve something specific, because it is not up to you, but it is up to you to merely show up or participate, not necessarily be the one to take action.  

You could be the inspirational catalyst; you can be the nudge, connector, or supporter to help others.  So by way of ‘being part’ of something bigger than yourself, even in your small role, you have a role in the larger picture…. i.e. back to Mother Teresa’s drop in the ocean quote.

Some dreams and/or goals involve luck, timing, being open, opportunity, participating in the process or not participating in the process (choices we make here too, affect bigger picture of the Divine which is a plan larger than we are). 

Granted all situations require effort… even if the effort is being. 

This may be toughest to digest for doers, movers and shakers, because it means surrendering control.  For example, you can create something and work like crazy to make something successful, and do everything possible, but if it was not designed for that purpose, you do not have control over this.  Sometimes your attempt or effort will spur something else and that was either a practice run, to prepare you for the higher outcome of your wish. 

YOUR TIME vs. THE UNIVERSE’S TIME

Well, you keep hearing me say time is not real.  The above ‘Your Time vs. The Universe’s Time’ is proof of that statement, much like the iguana on the doorstep.  There was no concept of time in delivering the iguana wish.  The iguana showed up on The Universe’s timeline, not by that of the one wishing for the iguana. Heck, maybe the iguana did not even want to have any part of the wish and had wished to be in Tahiti rather than on the doorstep in a residential area. 

This is not to say that now that you are forty, you will be an astronaut or some superhero – though you could introduce the idea of space to a group of students or be a superhero at a charity volunteering or something.  Context of the original wish may be altered.

The context of wishes WITHIN the “concept of time” plays a lot with the idea of wishes coming true, just as much as specific communication, work, control or surrendering.

Other people can and may present opportunities; while others may simply play a role in the bigger picture of said wishes.  

If your wishes are narrowed down to something more personal in relation only to you and your life and personal world, and not the whole world, sometimes you don’t have much control over that either.  In this case, all you can do is show up to do what you can.  From here, you surrender the rest like a wish.  This could apply family situations, friendships or relationships where you need resolve or repair, or communicative evolution for transformation and change.  Many families deal with stubborn relatives who will not go to a doctor for instance, or deal with confrontation on an issue. 

Wishes in this realm are nice in context, but this falls into the category of pro-active communication and work with some hope and open windows.  Here, you hope the resistant ones will step into and go through for the desired outcome… particularly for choices, which are part of a bigger picture for their own greater good.  Though it is important to remember now, wishes here step into the free will zone involving other people.

As for you, the person, the human … you have control over your mind, heart, and soul and your desire to have goals, aspirations, dreams, and wishes. 

How you attach yourself to either the manifestation of the above or the surrendering to destiny depends on your personal point of view with what you want to put out there.

When we honor who we are from the core value place at the start, we then get to exercise our own free will to take a chance with proactive energy, actions taken, persistence to try to make a conscious move toward what we seek. 

We also can surrender, have hope, faith, and belief in something bigger than who we are to take hold at bringing the divine plan for our life into shape regardless of what we do or do not do. 

How we look at life depends on our lens.  My hope is that I’ve provided a wide enough of a view for you to see what you need to see as you put your purest heart and intention in what it is YOU want and choose to do.

In closing, I will specifically say that I wish for you to find peace in your heart; however, YOU define that to be.  I wish you the kind of success based on your personal definition of what that means.  I wish you the kind of happiness from your scope of daily optimism, so you can find joy in whatever you encounter, to feel empowered by positive, productive, and proactive thoughts and feelings.  I wish for you to share this blog with your family, friends, co-workers, and your followers on whichever social network that got you here to read it in the first place, so others can join you AS YOU… MAKE A (specific) WISH.

Namaste.

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