Goals for 2008

Happy New Year's Eve! Our family plan this year is going to be spending some quality, quiet time at home reflecting on our blessings in 2007. Watching the ball drop on tv in Times Square, having some munchies & a glass or two of Martinellis is my ideal time for spending New Years Eve. Plus-- being in my own bed shortly after 2008 officially arrives!!! :)

I've already made it a mindset that 2008 is going to be GREAT, that even though they'll probably be trials & tribulations that may come our way in the New Year, But.. why waste time over whining & complaining over things that we possibly can't change? God only can change those things. However-- we can change how we perceive things.

Happiness is a personal choice. It just doesnt happen naturally. You have to make it a mindset.

So-- If life gives you lemons-- make lemonade. Every new day in your life is a gift from God-- and why waste precious time, right???

Here are some goals that a friend passed on to me to make 2008 a good one! :)

1. Take a 10-30 minute walk every day. And while you walk, smile. It is the ultimate anti-depressant.

2. Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day. Buy a lock if you have to.

3. Try to get enough sleep.

4. When you wake up in the morning complete the following statement, "My purpose is to____ today."

5. Live with the 3 E's -- Energy, Enthusiasm, and Empathy.

6. Watch more movies, play more games and read more books than you did in 2007.

7. Make time to practice meditation, quietness, and prayer. They provide us with daily fuel for our busy lives.

8. Spend more time with people over the age of 70 and under the age of 6.

9. Dream more while you are awake.

10. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less food that is manufactured in plants.

11. Drink green tea and plenty of water. Eat blueberries, wild Alaskan salmon, broccoli, almonds & walnuts.

12. Try to make at least three people smile each day.

13. Clear your clutter from your house, your car, your desk and let new and flowing energy into your life.

14. Don't waste your precious energy on gossip, issues of the past, negative thoughts or things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in thepositive present moment.

15. Realize that life is a school and you are here to learn. Problems are simply part of the curriculum that appear and fade away like algebra class, but the lessons you learn will last a lifetime.

16. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a college kid with a maxed-out charge card.

17. Smile and laugh more. It will keep the negative energy away.

18. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.

19. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.

20. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.

21. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.

22. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.

23. Don't compare your life to others'. You have no idea what their journey is all about.

24. Burn the candles, use the nice bed sheets. Don't save it for a special occasion. Today is special.

25. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.

26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words: "In five years, will this matter?"

27. Forgive everyone for everything.

28. What other people think of you is none of your business.

29. Time heals almost everything. Give time, time.

30. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.

31. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your family and friends will. Stay in touch.

32. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.

33. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.

34. The best is yet to come.

35. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.

36. Do the right thing!

37. Call your family often. Keep in touch with them.

38. Each night before you go to bed complete the following statements: "I am thankful for ___." Today I accomplished ____.

39. Remember that you are too blessed to be stressed.

40. Enjoy the ride. Remember that this is not Disney World and you certainly don't want a fast pass. You only have one ride through life so make the most of it and enjoy the ride.

HAVE A BLESSED DAY!!!!! May your troubles be less, May your blessings be more. And may nothing but happiness come through your door!

What we need to see more of on the News!

Lord knows there is enough depressing news everytime we turn on our television. They need to broadcast more note worthy stories such as this one instead :)

Brothers hand out Christmas cash at mall
Wed Dec 26, 10:44 AM ET

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071226/od_nm/usa_money_dc;_ylt=AiHbOy.RiGWXJrKUFfyfv_guQE4F

Shoppers got a Christmas Eve surprise on Monday when a pair of brothers handed out $100 bills at a mall on Long Island, New York.
Police responded to a call from security staff at the Sunrise Mall in the town of Massapequa, concerned that the give-away might create a scene or involve counterfeit bills.

Instead, officers found a simple case of Christmas charity where calm prevailed as the businessmen, aged 45 and 41, gave out the money at the entrance to the shopping center, police said.

"These two brothers say they do this every year. They say they've been blessed and just want to give something back," Detective Sergeant Anthony Repalone said.

"They gave it to people who they thought needed it. The people were very appreciative."
Police declined to identify the brothers, respecting their wish to remain anonymous.

The Faith of a Child: Logan, The Sky Angel Cowboy

They played this at our Christmas Eve Candlelight service at church last night & I'm sure it will touch your heart as well :)

(Warning... grab a kleenex!)

Merry CHRISTmas & God bless us all! :)

Happy Birthday Jesus!

Christ's Love was God's



God said:

Christ was harmonious, and yet he was firm in what he knew. He was not swayed. He ventured forth in a straight line. His God-given mission was to bring others closer to Me. He wanted nothing for himself but to give the gift of love that was given to him and which he had accepted whole-heartedly. A heart full of love can only pour out love, and so love is multiplied. Christ poured out so much love that his love still resounds around the world. The love he gave on My behalf still stirs hearts to beat to the tune of love. Boom, boom, boom-ti-boom, the beat of love.

He gave the only gift there is to give. He did not go shopping and gift-wrap. He was not Santa Claus. Santa Claus serves a different purpose from Christ. The physical giving of gifts is also nice, yet Christ gave not physical gifts. He gave love. That is all he had to give, and he gave it well. He gave love without ribbons. He simply gave love. He radiated it. He did not think about giving love. It would have been impossible for him not to give love. That would have been deprivation.

Christ was the fruit of the vine. A grape, full of juice, is ready to be picked, and juice turns into wine. And so Christ gave as innocently as a grape. Those who knew their thirst drank deeply of My love through Christ. They could not drink enough. They wanted more. They are drinking still.

Christ did not give love from a sense of obligation. He didn't feel that the love which was his to give was owed. He did not think in terms of debt or debtor. He gave as freely as the sun shines My light. Christ was a bright sun on Earth, and he shone. How he shone. He could not do otherwise. Light was his to give, and give he did. He was helpless in that he could not help but to give. He was a singer of love who had to sing. He could not deny himself the burst of song.

He was a fish who had to swim. A fish does not think, "Oh, I must swim today." It is natural for a fish to swim. And so Christ swam in love. He did not travel all over the world, but his love did, and his love travels still. Once set in motion, love stays in motion. Just as the sun is not given instruction to shine every day, so does love continue its revolutions without further ado.

Christ gave, yet he never thought, "I am giving." He never got up in the morning and thought, "Oh, I must give today." Giving was not a thought. Giving was his Being. And yet Christ had no thought that was not about giving love. He was powerless to do anything but give love. And so he had wisdom as well as love, and yet there was no difference between the love and wisdom he gave. His love and wisdom were grapes from the same vine I had planted and given to all My sons.

Do you think you are not from the same vine as Christ? Do you think you are a pretender to the throne I seat you on? Do you think you were given a special dispensation to refuse to accept My love or, once accepted, to refrain from sharing it?

Beloveds, no one is more special to Me than you are, nor is there anyone less special than you. There is no first, and there is no last. May you make every day Christmas for all My beloved sons and daughters. Accept My gifts, and, in the same motion, give them away.



~ Heavenletters ~

If You Want to Experience God In Your Life

If You Want To Experience God In Your Life


... God is love. That is the essential teaching from all the scriptures. If we want to experience God, we should express that love in our life, just as God loves everything and everybody. God loves a rat, a cat, a dog, a donkey, a pig, a sinner, a saint, an idiot, a scholar. The most beautiful and the most ugly. A good dancer. The one who doesn't even know how to walk.

No matter what you are and how you are, you see that unconditional love from God. God never said, "I will love you if only you do this, if only you are like that." No. Loving without limitations is "universal love." And that is God. If you want to experience that God in your life, love everything and everybody as God would love. Unconditionally.

Show the same love to one and all. Let nothing get harmed, hurt, or pained, even by your thought. It is possible to develop a life like that. We want everybody to love us, and we don't want anybody to hate us. In the same way, everybody would want that. Do unto others as you yourself would want it to be done unto you.

Spiritual teaching is very simple. Whether you repeat your mantram or not, whether you practice hatha yoga or not, whether you learn all the scriptures by heart or not, who worries about that? But, do you have unconditional love in your life? If you have that, you have everything.

At least during these beautiful holy days of Hannukah, Christmas, New Year's, and Deepavali, let us reaffirm ourselves to lead a life filled with love. That will take care of everything else.

OM Shanthi, Shanthi, Shanthi



~ Sri Swami Satchidananda ~

Christmas and Materialism

I ran across this article after pondering a commercial on the radio advertising one of our local Malls. Basically, the ad's focus and the theme was playing was "You cant always get what you want" by the Rolling stones--which made me ponder even more that a trip to the local Mall is NOT what Christmas is all about.

Sure, we may not receive exactly what we want at Christmas... but, then again... its not our birthday anyway!

This type of materialism/commercialism annoys me so much that Americans have been desensitized-- that buying your sweetie the latest diamond or Lexus is what Christmas is all about..... to that I say.... "NOT"!!!!!

Instead of pondering what "We" want for Christmas, we should be thinking about what to give Jesus (who is the best gift of all, btw) instead. :)

After all-- We can't spell Christmas without CHRIST &; yes its true... we all are in need of a Savior (thus, when we honor the birth of Christ on Christmas & make him Lord over our lives--even the Rolling Stones had it right... "we get what we need"! :)

Merry CHRISTmas Everyone!

Christmas and Materialism
By Dainial MacÀdhaimh

http://www.worldspirituality.org/christmas-materialism.html

"In today's consumer society, this time of the year unfortunately suffers from a sort of commercial 'pollution' that threatens to alter its real spirit."Pope Benedict XVI, December 11th, 2005

Like most of the other pages on this website, this page has a commercial component; there are advertisements at the top of this page, and there are advertisements at the bottom of this page. The ads produce income, and the revenue from them pays for the continued presence of this website on the internet. Whether or not this demonstrates a pro-commercial attitude, such a circumstance certainly argues against any rampant anti-materialistic bias.

And yet, we cannot immediately disagree with Pope Benedict's assertion. Commercialism - at least, the raging hyper-consumerism that is so prevalent in the United States during the Christmas holiday season - does not seem to have anything to do with the spirit of Christmas, or the spirit of Christianity. In fact, such hyper-consumerism appears to be directly opposed to Christ's message.

Christmas presents have, in a sense, existed since the very first Christmas. We read in the second chapter of Matthew that the Magi, "....saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh." But these, of course, were gifts to one regarded as the Savior.

Christianity, as a religion, embraces the idea that we are all brothers and sisters, not only equal to each other, but also responsible for each other's welfare, even the "least and the poorest among us." Numerous examples of this stress on equality and compassion exist in the New Testament, along with clear warnings against vain demonstrations of opulence. We are told in Mark, chapter 10, that " . . . many that are first shall be last; and the last first." The same chapter tells us that, "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God." Both sentiments are repeated virtually word-for-word in Matthew, chapter 19. We are also told that the poor are blessed, and the meek shall inherit the earth.

How, then, can one justify celebrating the birth of the religious figure who taught such lofty ideals with stampeding (and occasionally violent) crowds at Wal-Mart? Where in the New Testament does Jesus command his followers to run up credit card debt at jewelry stores? What does giving a bottle of expensive Scotch have to do with the birth of Christ?

Puritans, who played an incredibly important role in the founding of the United States, felt that Christmas was a celebration tainted by heathenism; they regarded the day as any other workday, and in fact recommended that one should work all the harder on December 25th.

Quakers, another influential group in American history, likewise chose not to regard Christmas as a special holy day, for the simple reason that Quakers regard all days as holy. That these sentiments endured in some history-rich areas of the United States is demonstrated by the fact that Christmas was not publicly celebrated in New England until a point well into the 19th century.

Even if we choose to disagree with Puritans and Quakers - and one must admit that their ideas bear merit, especially given the sorry spectacle we are faced with today - we still ought to try to face the fact that Christmas is a holy day, a spiritual day, and has nothing at all to do with buying things. Indeed, the hyper-consumerism presently associated with Christmas flies in the face of true Christianity!

Want to do something truly "Christmas-like" this season?

Then first, make a pledge to avoid the malls, and the jewelry stores, the Wal-marts and the Targets.

Second, go to church, or to meeting, or stay home and read the Bible. Christmas is about honoring the birth of Christ, isn't it?

Third, purge your heart of all anger, all hatred, and all prejudice toward those who are different from you, be it because of their race, or their religious beliefs, or their political beliefs, or anything else, choosing instead to love your neighbor as yourself.

And finally, fourth, do those other things Jesus clearly instructed us to do; feed the hungry, clothe the naked, heal the sick.

Merry Christmas, and may God bless us all.

Spreading Goodwill that can return to you

"Blessed is he who speaks a kindness; thrice blessed is he who repeats it".- Arabian proverb

This quote can be read in a few ways, and all of them are worth thinking about.

First, complimenting and encouraging others is one of the easiest and most powerful ways to be a positive force in someone's life. As long as you're sincere, repeating that encouragement as often as possible can have effects that far outweigh the effort. Countless people have exceeded their own expectations just because others believed in them.

Second, giving positive feedback works even better if done publicly. Take those kind words and repeat them until everyone knows the great things that this person is doing.

Third, we've all had kindnesses bestowed on us in word and deed. In return for that favor, it's up to us to repeat that generosity for someone else's benefit. However you read this quote, the point is that there's a kindness out there to be performed.

And you're just the person to do it!