Thursday, June 20, 2013

Happy Fathers Day...Hawaiian Time, that is...

Our Dads only want us to do what makes us happy...

Tonight I am going to write about something else. I was writing when it hit me. I was messing around with my photo editing software, doing some work for my little cousin, Kisha. You see, Kisha is very excited. She is about to embark on the most scary (first time on a big fat roller coaster scary), beautiful (because I saw what she is doing, and I know she is going to make this her work of beauty that is always in progress), thrilling thing in the world.

"My whole life, my Dad has inspired me...even Now." How important right this moment is, and we would not know what these kinds of moments are like without our dads. It is the very truth, as we know these days in our technologically sterile, void of contact that is the truth of us, that we are more inclined to no longer reach out to people, at least the most of us. I say much about the Brennecke Ohana, because they are my family. These people are some of the very most Loving, close knit family of siblings that anyone has ever known. Really. Most recently...okay, not like, recently recently, but the "addition" of the new "baby," of the family, who goes by the name we have always called him...yes...We....the Soares Ohana....the all of us...he's just Drew. When we are talking about families, I am certain that there is not another group of people with whom I am so happy to have grown up with than these people called my cousins. And I adore them and Love them all so very dearly much. The Soares-Brennecke-Petropolous-Dickerson Family has always been my most favorite group of Perfect-together Misfits...the Very All Of Us.

Kisha...The One and Only but Never Lonely Girl of the Brennecke-Petropoulos Bunch

Without Kisha's family...without her brothers....they are not her Step-anything, guys...just like Micah has never been, either...without her older brothers, Jim and Jeff, I have no idea of what real rock music sounds like. The Good Kind, that does not make you want to hurl the moment you hear the first note play and only is "good" to everyone for a whisper silent moment - this is what Jimmy brought, and the idea that I don't have to be bullied by anyone, ever,  always came from Jeff. Then there is my boy...my cousin, Jason, who is more like my brother...and, of course, Drew, my other almost-brother.

And then there is Kisha, the only girl.

Kisha and I are very close, just like sisters. We have always been. I can remember being small kids, running across the street to Booth Park, summertime, to "Summah Fun." Even as I visited my ancestral Home Land as a child as often as did my cousins, it was not always to my grandparents' house in Honolulu. But when it was, even though I cried to come home (I rarely stayed longer than three weeks, tops, without my parents. I missed my parents), I can barely recall having a bad time there. When I went and stayed at Nana and Tutu's house in Pauoa Valley ("Across da Pahk") it was always Kisha who was there. We fought like sisters at times, but at the end of the day, we loved each other still. This still is the truth of the Now. And yes, like she was inspired by her father,  John Brennecke, Ph.D, the guy who everyone knew as "Uncle Jack," I have always been inspired, in some small way, by my dad and his example.

No, not of his words, but of his fire. His drive. These traits I inherited from him, as well as my fierce nature...all from pop. I was asked to tell her story, and it took me a few days - til about an hour ago, while I was creating some things for her to use on her company Facebook Page, before I could see, through her story what I see, too, through my Father's eyes.

Through my Father's eyes I am seen as perfectly imperfect. Yes, I may be a bit to deal with, and sometimes, if the moon is rightly placed for it, I can be downright brooding and moody. I have never ever seen my mother brood, even though I know she does. But Dad? Oh yeah, plenty of times. So, since it is that I have been tasked with this writing, about this wonderful thing that my cousin is finally doing, and also, since I didn't know what to write for Fathers Day, I chose this blog post to say a few things at one time.

I am looking at my cousin through what I imagine her father sees, saw, has always seen...my little cousin is probably one of the most creative, driven individuals I have ever known. No matter how Arien in nature this woman is, and even when she was a little girl caked in mud from head to toe, screaming like a banshee, all the way to the day that she graduated from college, my cousin has always been my Uncle Jack's little Girl. There was no one like her on the planet, just as I know that, for as nutty as I am, and as argumentative as I can be with the man, and no matter how dearly he wants to save me from myself sometimes because I get caked in mud by the slings and arrows that life throws at me, in my father's eyes, there is no other nutcake on the planet who he is sometimes beside himself, usually laughing and shaking his head in disbelief at the thing his baby princess - me - just muttered. I know that my dad knows that I am who I became because in a lot of ways I am like he is, and Kisha and I are like each other in a lot of ways, and we both were inspired by the fathers who raised us..by the guys who we each call "Dad."

It is a father's lot in life to do his best at inspiring his daughter to become the person who she is meant to be, who is the realest version of herself that she can be, because no one likes to be lied to. It is a father's lot in life to show to his daughter what it is like to give respect and receive it as well, because Uncle Jack always told me, at least, that the only thing that anyone needs to actually get is a clue in life...because in order to give respect you have to be able to receive it. It took me a lot of years to figure out what he meant by that, and it was not until most recently that I figured out what he meant by that.

It sounded like "Tita, you only gon' get what you are willing to accept is yours!" and yes, it is the truth.

Kisha accepted that it was her choice to live her life, to be happy and to listen to what her Dad, my Uncle Jack, my dad's good friend and the guy who Kisha loves each and everyday of her life, even now, as he has gone Home to Spirit...she says it all the time....she said it to me today, in fact...

"My whole Life, My Dad Has Inspired Me...even Now..." says Kisha, when talking about the start of her new life as a brand new business owner. She will open Duds and Doodads this month in La verne, California, the very town she grew up in. Every time I talk to her, I can actually hear the sparkle in her eyes. But always, too, I know that she and I both can see her dad smiling right now.

"...you have to learn to receive...," said the Professor...

Yup...my whole life, even and especially through the times that I have not exactly been a gem through...my Dad, he has inspired me...even Now...

Happy Fathers Day...almost a week late, even....to all those dads out there whose daughters will one day look back, think these same thoughts....

I Love You All !
ROX






Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Living a Life Led By The Soul Within Us Each

We are far more than just what meets the eyes

Human Beings ...we are a silly lot. We think that we have to prove to the world that we believe in things outside of ourselves, and never are we more inclined to NOT tell people that we also need this proof. Proof of what? Of the Great Spirit, God, The Goddess, Godde...Love...the real kind which comes from somewhere inside of each of us, that's what. We want to live peacefully, our needs met, everything perfect.

We do not realize that to live the perfect life we must accept that in a human, carbon-based life form way that we are anything but totally perfect. We are perfect in our imperfections, but that does not happen for anyone unless we are willing to accept these things about us and everyone else, too. When you choose to live your life by the seat of your beleaguered Soul is when the meat of things begins to soften, is when where we have been and what we have seen and all that we have ever gone through, while it might no longer matter, very suddenly it makes sense....perfectly imperfect sense, at that.

WE are magical and special and all of those other things that we do not want to believe, and we do not want to believe these things because we were never taught to accept that we are imperfect, but we are also special. We were never taught that we can appreciate who we are and not only to appreciate other people. We were only told that we need to have respect for other people, but rarely were we told or even taught that we each deserve respect ourselves. We were taught, told, shown, some of us had it beaten into us, to respect others, but in that respect, which, for some of us, was not good enough for those who were demanding it, we were not given any. This is the soreness in the Soul, and this is the collective broken heart that together we choose to remain held onto and to suffer through.

And the reality is that we do not have to suffer for anything, anyone, any reason. We will hurt, but we don't have to suffer for the sake of someone else.

Following the Light of our Selves

How about you guys? Have you all had enough of this garbage that calls on us to sacrifice til we can't see straight? Have you had enough of feeling like you do and have you realized yet that someone else's crap is not your own? I am learning this daily, and daily it pains me to see the things that I see and to know what I know and daily, too, I know that this is almost done, that we are ...I am...spinning my wheels for nothing, worried that Spirit does not hear me and does not know what She is doing. She knows what She is doing, and I know this because even when my days start with the energy that makes me want to slink back to bed, and when I am faced with putting gas in the Wonderbucket or buying what I need to for myself I am aware that I am fine. Even though my brain might hurt from all the things that it has taken in and filtered through it as being "bad" and even as I know that there are things that could be better than what I have in front of me right now, they are, in essence, getting better, or at least getting a little more palatable for my Piscean brain to digest.

If there is anything that I needed to learn these last few days it is that I had to return to that place where Spirit is Who leads me, Who Guides and protects me and my great big Soul. It is the Soul within that has never let me down and never for one moment given up on me or given in to the whims of the Ego, and too, it will always be the Spirit Who will help me when I need it the most, because no matter what, Spirit is the thing that my life is lived by, and it will always be that part of me who is in control.

It will always be Spirit which guides me through tears, even if it is sent in the form of a text from a 19 year old boy who calls me 'Mom," and who texted just to know that everything is okay.

It will always be Spirit which guides my words when speaking to a child whose eyes look like mine, whose face is the semblance of my own, and who, for her 15th birthday, only wished for my own happiness.

It will always be Spirit which wraps my own human arms around a little boy for whom monsters in the darkness can be slain by his mother's Love, and it will always be Spirit who will always Love that I Love these three young people so much.

It is the Soul within us which speaks volumes through the actions on our behalf by others that will always also be the proof of Life lived through, with, by Spirit. It is through the eyes and the Love of the Soul of a person who you love more than you know you do that is the guide to all else.

I Love these children far more than I Love anyone, anything, else...

I Love You All !
ROX







Saturday, June 15, 2013

The Truth Which is Yours

Truth is not a stretch by any means...

Let's get a few things absolutely clear here, okay? Truth is Truth. There is no way around it, and there is no way for it to NOT be the Truth in Fact, and even while whatever is the Truth might not be Your specific Truth, again...Truth is Truth and it cannot be changed.

No matter what, the Truth is the Truth and like the days on a calendar, it can never be changed

Not one of us can change the absoluteness that is Truth. Truth is like water - it just is what it absolutely is, and no matter how many times we try to change ourselves so as to accommodate it and more than that, no matter how many times we try hard to place ourselves into a situation where the Truth becomes the thing that is apparent and immediate, the truth behind The Truth is that there is not a lot that a person can do change the Truth other than to simply live with it and within it.

Living With and Within Your Own Truths

It is not as easy as anyone might think, the thing called Living Within Your Own Truth.

To live within one's own Truth...well, it is like living within your own skin and having no issues with your own self, really. When we think about all the things and ways of being that we have tried on and which did not fit, we find that returning to the truth we thought was ours is comforting, but the truth about that, too, is that while that which comforts us might have been the truth in the past, more and more we also find that we are itching to at least try also forming a new truth about ourselves and what it is that we are willing to know as the Truth which is Our Own.

In my world, the Truth which is my own is the Truth which I can live with that is about myself. You see, for the most part, we are all taught as children to live within our means and never to go outside of it. To live by that which can be seen as the Truth which belongs to someone else is only a measuring stick really, and in that truth are the kernels of Knowing that we often times are told and taught by our well-meaning parents as being the only Truth there is about a thing - that only other people can tell us what is OUR truth. Really, the only Truth that there is about anything at all is the Truth which we are able to deal with on a daily basis and that is also a Truth that is our own. There is nothing wrong with telling people who you are, and there is nothing wrong with being able to live within the confines of what is a Truth that we can deal with. A Truth we can deal with, even if it is a Truth which was formed by others and which rings like our own does, is a Truth that speaks to our Soul, our Egos, our everything, and is a Truth that we are still willing to live by, even as it is a collective Truth.

It all boils down to what it is that we are each willing to live with, what we are willing to see and to know and most of all, to accept as the Truth as it applies to us and our lives. When we are willing to do all of these three things, this is when the Truth of us is easier to deal with. When we are able to accept that maybe we are not everyone's favorite person, and when we can accept that we are not perfect, that we are not always going to be right - this is when we are more able, not only as a human carbon based life form, but also as a Spirit, to live within what is our own Truth.

Our own Truth will not ever look exactly like anyone else's. Our own Truth is one of those things that while we eventually accept and embrace it, we also can never change it. Who we are essentially never changes. The person who is within us is the person who the world does not know. Only people who are of likeness to us will ever know who we really are, and believe it when I say that immediately, and no matter what, it is our Souls which know who it is who has our backs and who are only there to make sure that whatever Lesson it is that the Universe is trying to teach us, we learn. When we can accept who we are, what we are each all about, what we have to offer to ourselves let alone anyone else, this is when life turns out to be the thing that we set out for it to be.

While it is a beautiful thought that who we are will be loved and accepted by ALL those around us we have to remember that this will never be. What will always be, though, is our individual opportunity to be able to learn to Love our very selves, no matter what. We are the highest octave on the string of notes called "Our Individual Life" and we are who makes or breaks us. We can only do so much for other people, but we can do a whole lot for ourselves and for who and what we are and aim to be. It is never anyone else who has to accept us or who we are - that is ours alone. To believe that someone else is who will shoulder the burden of Our Selves is preposterous at best. To think that anyone else is supposed to take the responsibility for how we feel, yes, even after they have been incredibly foolish enough to tell us their truth (and even expected us to just be cool with it...nope...not gonna happen) about who we are.

The Truth which is yours is the Truth that you have created for yourself. If you have a bunch of turmoil in your life, it is time that you stepped back and looked at it all for real and thought to yourself about the Truth that is the fact that you called it all into your life somehow. If you have a bunch of confusion in your life and it is making your head swim with nonsense all the time, dive on in there and ask your Self why it is that you have not bothered to STOP with the looking at the Truth that used to be and START looking at the Truth that is, because the Truth that is IS YOU and was created by You, too. Once we each and all can think this way and more than that, ACCEPT what is the Truth of us we will see the changes. We will notice that while the world around us does not change, our thought about it and our entire way of seeing it as it really is also changes. We start thinking in the manner that is us being able to handle our Truth and our being okay with the idea that while we might not like what we see or what is the fact of the matter at the moment, we also know that like all else, our Truth may never change, but the things that comprise our lives always will.

We will always be a certain way until we are not. We will always believe certain things until we no longer have to. We will always be the person we each are. We will always Know that what is happening in our lives is the Truth as far as our lives are concerned at any given time and for whatever reason we might have. The Truth is that life changes always, and whether we like it or not or want it to happen or not, it is going to change.

The only question you should ever have is not if you can handle the change, or if you are going to like the changes, but rather and only what your Truth in all of it is.

Think about it...

I Love You All !
ROX




Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Other peoples' time is valuable

When it comes to things that other people offer, no matter what, it pays to value them and their time...

You could sit there thinking to yourself that what you do is very valuable, and it likely is. Yet, there is a huge portion of the population for whom it is nothing at all to take what they will from another person without compensating them for their time, even in a small way. People love to be appreciated. When we appreciate others and are grateful simply for the thought of our helping them get where they need to be we are exchanging Love on a higher level.

An exchange of higher energies

There is nothing quite more deflating OR defeating to another person's Spirit than to undervalue who they are by undervaluing what they do. If anyone does anything at all for another person, a kind word is wonderful, but to be appreciated through that person telling another person of how great a job they think you do is pure bliss. It is wonderful to be recognized for the things that you do. When a person is valued not only as a person but also for the things that they do in relation to other people, regardless if it is in a business sense or otherwise, a person will always know that they are valued because they will want to continue to help others, even when they, themselves, are without a whole lot. I know this animal. I have known this animal my entire life, and most recently was introduced to the idea that sometimes, even though we might be Loved and cared about, even though who we are as a Spirit might be valued, there is nothing at all like being valued for the work that you do.

There is nothing like seeing the smile on a friend's face when they come to you, saying thanks for hooking them up with their last gig. There is no feeling like the overwhelming sense of pride in one's self when they know that they were able to help another person, especially if that other person could really use that help.

We don't realize how important we are to others until it is time for an even trade of energies. This could be anything. An exchange of energies traded for time spent on someone else's dream is the highest form of gratitude that there is, and it is because when we do things for other people, automatically we are doing for ourselves. When we give to others a piece of ourselves so that they can realize what it is that they have always wanted to, we immediately get the gratification of knowing that what we have done for someone else is valuable enough for others to take notice. When other people take notice of what we do for them and they tell another person that we have done anything at all, this is when the compensation of who we are versus what we do comes into play. Even as who we are sometimes melds with what we do, we are no more recompensed for our work than what we expect.

If we expect to be respected in the manner that we care to be, we have to expect that as the reality and without a sense or an inkling of doubt behind the thought. When we doubt something, it will always be that we will get what we need, but the thing is, it won't be as grand as we want it or desire it to be. It will be what we think it is. When we decide that we are valuable beyond even what we want to believe, this is when the fun starts. This is when we start to see that who we are is more valuable than what we do, and at that time what we do becomes that much more noticeable. It becomes more apparent that who we are is shown in the work that we do.

It might be shown in the work that we do, but...

There are always going to be people who believe that somehow, they are owed by us. There are always going to be people who will grace the planet thinking that they can do what we do but why should they bother since we are doing it for them?

Well, with that line of thinking, why would anyone bother to do anything further for anyone else if they were not going to be evenly recompensed for their time? It is an insult, not only to a person's intelligence, but also to their Spirit. It is an insult to believe that the person who does anything for someone else is going to be willing to do more when their time is not valued, and it is going to be an insult to anyone who takes pride in their work and for whom what they do matters. It is an insult beyond anything imaginable when we do something for other people and when our work is not appreciated and more, there is no energetic exchange for the work done. When we choose to believe that what we do is more important than what another person does and that person is helping you with your dreams, and you decide that you do not need to trade energies with them that are positive, MANY things can and do happen. It is at this point that people either take it out on the other person by not only no longer doing what they did for them, or worse - they "undo" the good by chasing it with vengeance.

We create our own Karma when we choose who is doing good by us and who is, by our own definition, doing nothing at all and when we choose to act on it, or not act on it, behaving as though we could do this all on our own. The last thing that anyone wants to believe is that on one hand our work in undervalued, and on the other hand, in the thoughts that would be those in the Karma creator's head, that we can do just fine without their help. And this is not illegal, but it is immoral and unethical. To believe that someone else's time is not valuable just because they happen to be happy doing what they do is WRONG. Lots of people are happy doing what they do because they are doing what they want to do AND being compensated for it. This is what is called an even exchange of energies.

How can anyone POSSIBLY think that to have someone else do them a favor is somehow the joy -to have been asked....?? HOW? That may happen, but it will only happen one time. No one I know likes to work for a pat on the back. Eventually, and no matter what, those who we decide whose work is valuable versus who we think is valuable and can live without compensation...yeah...those are two very different primates...one primate is funny and behaves like it and the other is primal and angry....think about it.

When we value a person but not their work it creates resentment and people get angry.

The Other Side of the Coin

When someone's work is valued and people take notice, we find that in that value is the seed of trust, of Love, of wanting to be part of the bigger energy that is the All That Is. When we choose to recompense that same level of energy to others, that also shows. It shows not only in the work they do for us after we have chosen to not give them their just due, but more, it also shows in the way that they treat themselves. It makes a person feel like they are not valued for the things that they do, and when we expect that they will do it just because we expect them to, this is where the resentment begins.

When we think that who we are is enough to make a person treat us fairly is where the onus begins on our part. There are a whole lot of people for whom I do a whole lot for, and most of those people are grateful and almost all of them somehow compensate me for my time and my talents - and these are talents that not a lot of people can claim to and no, they are not of the Spiritual but of the actual means, meaning that my work with words and pictures is some of the best around, or so I have heard.

Yet, there are those few smaller companies for which I have done a WHOLE LOT for and who think that giving a person no choice in the compensatory energies is somehow okay.

No. No it is not.

.Other peoples' time and talents are valuable to them. People charge real money and expect an even exchange of energies for the good work that they do. When that does not happen, resentment becomes huge and the drive behind the action becomes the dive that the person who needs to be compensated becomes easier to delve into, and that is a very hard place to be for a person. I know this animal, because I am this animal, and it is one thing to be rabidly on fire for the work that we each do...

...yet it is quite another beast to think that what we do on either side of the energy is somehow not as important for the person it was done for as it was for us and more, as it was for us to be finally recognized for it.

I Love You All
ROX




We do ANY kind of wedding ceremony
...even that of the last minute Shotgun variety
(No firearms required)




Thursday, June 6, 2013

The Church of The Individual

Can I get an "amen" and a "TESTIFY!" please?

Why should we not Love ourselves? There are entire populations of people who believe that it is a sin to love the skin you are in. Frankly, I think it is a gift if we can pat ourselves on the back from time to time, right?

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight...

I think that I have had about enough of the idea that really, there are certain people on this planet who seem to believe that we are not allowed to be very dearly happy with EVERYTHING that we each can call our own - all of it, no matter how very little it might seem to a lot of people, that I would be so inclined to be very happy with my broke-down lifestyle, I will tell you now that I am glad for it. I am glad for it because I know how to appreciate things that used to have value for someone else. I can see a person's whole energy just in the way they choose to glorify their Temple. I may not always be the reigning Bell of the Ball, so to speak, but hey - I am DONE with the idea that I have to question people if they really meant what they said. Of COURSE they meant it! Duh - they SAID IT, silly. If what someone says is good, they are probably correct, but I promise, unless it was an action taken by a good person, who probably did not know the depth of their own Shadow, believe them if what is being said is about you - and believe it NO MATTER WHAT ! If they are complimenting you, say "Thank you." Shake their hand or give them a hug. Be on your way. Take the kudos, guys - you earned it.

STOP BEING ASHAMED of being good at what you do. Stop disagreeing with people when they tell you that you did a good job on something, and start telling them how you got inspired to do whatever it was that you did that you KNOW you did good with, that you chose to stick with and to follow. We were brought up in a time when sacrifice was the highest good, but this is not that time anymore. Anymore we are learning what to do with what it is that at one time we saw as sacrifice and are now seeing as opportunities. This is the moment we all have waited for. BE INSPIRED TO TELL PEOPLE WHAT INSPIRES YOU ! This is not bragging, this is called sharing. There is nothing wrong with it. Sharing is a beautiful thing, really, and only now are we starting to do this, a lot, and I know this because if there is anything at all that is a common thing with all the people who I love the very most, it is that we all not only know how to share, but really, we WANT TO SHARE....we want to share what we know with YOU....yeah, it is weird, isn't it?

So, go ahead - take your props - you earned it. Think about it. You got through a lot. I got through a lot. We all, everyone ...all of us - got through a lot! This is the truth. Six weeks ago NOTHING WAS LIKE IT IS RIGHT NOW - THINK ABOUT IT !

Nothing today is the same as it was just a month and a half ago. An entire generation just became adults.

Think about it.

Nothing today is like it was ....three weeks ago...really...think about it....think, too, about all the crap that you have gone through and even though the crap is still crap, you are not in crap mode - you are in "go mode." And really, there is no stopping you, at all, and again...

...you've earned it. You have earned the right to stand in your earned and self-righteous-but-for-a-moment pose, and as quickly realizing that as big-in-the-soul as you might be now, and no matter how much you hate the circumstances, if you thought about it in a different way, and in a way that is learning you would also see that you have been here before. You will feel a very vague familiarity that you cannot place. Then one day, usually a few days later, you are snapped into an awareness that draws you to your answers and you recognize it and it feels like home. And you realize that it is not an external feeling but a real one that grabs you by the Soul and shakes you into your own Awareness and you realize that no matter what, whatever it is that is happening, not only in your life, but collectively, you truly are not alone.

Think back to this time last year and you will know that there are new people in your life who share old memories, and with some of them there is an instant bond that is familial in nature and feels from time to time like you were brought to that one moment just for that realization of whatever it is that is bugging your brain these days.If it's in your brain, it is meant to be pondered. If it is nagging at you, you are meant to want to know why and meant to not get the answers just handed to you. There is no magic book with answers because we all have all our own answers. It is not a time for being frivolous with anything. It is time for the changes that are waiting to take place, and if you are not paying attention at least to those things that you need to be paying attention to, then the time is NOW to wake up. WAKE UP GUYS !!

Wake up - you are needed...stop sacrificing so much...start believing that you are no longer sacrificing but rather, you are sharing and being involved, and you are being part of life, and you are learning at a lightning pace, and that no matter what any one of us thinks, even if things suck right now, you are meant to be there. And I really have a good knowledge about how sucky life can be, but I can no longer think of it as a day wasted, as long as I know that if I am somehow Loved by the Universe, and I am still here, and you all are still here, then obviously we are all here and with each other for higher reasons than we have yet to come to realize a THING about...

It really is time to pay attention ! I say it a LOT...'Auhea wale 'ana 'oe....

Pay attention to the patterns, to the people in those patterns of your life, and see there that also, this is you, and they are you, and you are them, or at least, your WERE them and now....nope...

...you are no longer them....you are You....

Okay....you are LEARNING that you are You...You and I...we are the same, really...all of us...we are the same...

Worthy. And To Be Loved...

I Love You All !
ROX


Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Love of the Unconditional Sort

Love is a strange animal...it comes in more than only one form

When I Love, I really, truly Love, for real, for good. And it is not the sort that people think it is. Through heartache and disappointment, I have learned that the way to have Love is to Be Love. It is nice to Be "in Love" with one other person, but the reality of Love in and of itself is so much grander, so much broader than only the one definition of it that seems to be the one that people chase, and the kind that we want to believe is the only sort that there is. The thinking which permeates us all is that in order to be fully present and aware of who we are is to be able to see ourselves in the energy that is that of one other person. This is not giving our Soul much credit. I believe this because in order to be able to truly see another person for who they really are, we have to be able to see through our own garbage to our very core selves. When we see ourselves for who we really are, the truth of us and everyone else in our lives becomes very apparent.

The Apparent Truth

Truth is always apparent. No matter what it is that we want to see in others, what always is there that we will always see is the truth of us that is there by us. This means that whatever it is that we can call on in others is also present in us in one of two ways - we are either the reciprocal answer in opposite to their energy, the yin to someone else's yang, that is, or we are the exactness of their Being - a twin energy, if you will.

The energy that comes back to us is always Love, even if it hurts, it still is Love. Love comes from a place where we have been damaged, where we have been called to come forward in the Light that is our very selves, and because of the hurt there will always be times when we cannot deal with what we think is other than Love. While it is the truth that the Ego is the part of us that reminds us that we are human, it is the Soul within which tells us that we are good now, that will be good always, and that waiting around the corner for us is that nature that we seek, the internal and eternal Being who we are, and when we think about it in terms like that, there is nothing more for us to know than that truly, we are Loved and we ARE Love.

If we were not comprised of the essence that is the very Soul within, and we were not able to see for ourselves the truth that is our love within, we would be in a lot of trouble. Evidence of this being the truth is that for many generations we have opted only to see what our Egos would love and wanted only to have what we thought would  make us look better in a way that is incomprehensible to other people who are not on a mission to find out who they are in relation to the rest of the world. We are who we are, and what we learn is a personal mission for us in each lifetime we make it through. When we recognize the soul of another person and what that soul's frequency is we feel a completion of sorts, almost as though we have somehow found our Soul's home, and it is not in someone else, but is a likeness to that which is within another person. We know hurt because we have lived in it, and it is through the eyes and the Soul and the energy of others that we find out that we are who we are because of us, not someone else. They are the mirror. We are the reality. We each know when it is that the time to evolve has come, because we will feel it in our soul like something is missing, like we have to see what it is that is missing, and when we discover it we feel almost complete.

The reality is that we are already complete. We have been told forever and ever that it is in finding someone else on this planet who will make us complete - that this is what we require, when really, what we require is Love, period, of the unconditional sort, and there is no two other ways about it. There are a whole lot of people on this planet who have no idea that they are comprised of Love, that they were brought here for a specific reason and that it is their mission to at least live in the light that is the light of Love, of Soul and of the Spirit which lives inside of us. It is the God Nature within.

The God Nature Within

We are all born with it, the Soul within, also called The God Nature. It is this part of us that will not allow us to do more for others than we are also willing to do for us. When we do for others and it is from an egotistical desire, we know that it is fleeting, that it is not the essence that is the God Nature within us, that we are not meant to feel like we have to do more just to have it. If this is the way that you feel - that you have to work for Love - let me clue you into something now.

Never in your life have you ever had to work for someone else to love you. If you have had to beg for someone - for anyone...parents, siblings, spouse, children...ANYONE...to love you and appreciate you and not judge you, you are working only toward more disappointment. NO ONE has to work for what is so readily available to all of us.

The God Nature within would never call on us to prove that we are worthy of the Love of the Soul, because it is at the soul level that we are able to accept the insecurities, that we are able to look at, through the eyes of the Soul, the perfect nature that is Spirit. It is this part of us that knows, always, that we are lovable, that we are deserved of the greater goodness that is Love of Spirit, that we are good enough to be with ourselves and great in the eyes of Spirit. We are meant for a specific purpose in this lifetime, and if we choose to engulf ourselves with the permeating nature that is anger, resentment and hurt, the only things we will receive from that knowing is the idea that we are only good enough for those things, and those things are the only things that we will ever experience.

If we choose to see things in the manner that they are, and we accept the Shadow with the Light, we find that there comes a sweet balance to our lives and one that is not matched by much of anything else in this lifetime. When we can see with eyes which are the gauge by which the Soul's measure is known, we also see the imperfections in ourselves, can see the thing that allows us the human ability to hurt and to be whole through that hurt. We find the saving nature that is heartache, and we find the burning white hot pain that is anger, and at that moment we can know for sure that it is all good, all meant, and that indeed there was much Love there to begin with.

Love -The Uncondition

It is not a lot to do for us to Love. We think that Love involves the arms of another person around us, in happy god-like matrimony that is mandated by the Ego and performed by someone who pairs us forever with one other person. We should already know that the one person who is crazy about us IS us, that we are whole in the manner that is "The Soul," and that more than much else, while it is nice to have one person other than us who is nuts about us, all we really ever need is to believe that we are good enough for us to Love ourselves. Once we can Love us, there is nothing saying at that point that we are not good enough for the Love that is within us because the Love that is within us is the real kind and the kind that never fades.

When we can Love without restraint, and can give of ourselves to others in the manner that is Aloha, this is when we have discovered that all along, we were Loved, because we chose to be that Love we thought was outside of us.

It was never outside of us.
It was always right where it is right now.

Within...

I LOVE YOU ALL !
ROX




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Monday, June 3, 2013

From Rock Bottom to Rock Solid

A new way to think about hitting "Rock Bottom"

"...a Wise One builds their house upon rock, and when the rains fall, and floods roar, and when the winds come howling through and beat against the house, it will not fall for it is built upon a rock foundation. However, if a person reads these words and does not follow them, it is like a charlatan and a fool who chooses to build their house upon sand. When the rain falls, and the floods roar, and when the winds come beating against the house, it will fall and be destroyed for it was built upon a shaky foundation of sand..." (Matthew 7:24-27, N.A.V.)

Many people at this time in our history are both victim and witness to the terribleness that is the economy at the moment. I can sit here and blame a whole lot on the economic climate of the world right now, but I won't. I won't because there is already too many of us thinking that we cannot get out of this without someone else or some entity being the target of our blame, and for what, I have no idea. Since when was it always someone else's fault or even their problem for how we feel about anything? To think that somehow our foundation that is already shaky because we chose to built it through the demands of the Ego is one truth, but to believe that somehow we are not who needs to take up the kuleana, the Soul's responsibility and learn to not only take our lessons when they come to us but more - take it on the chin when it applies...that screams VOLUMES about a person.

Most of all...it tells us all about how we each handle having hit that place called "Rock Bottom."

Screaming volumes about your shaky foundation in Spirit

I know the shakiness that is the unsure Soul. I know it because it was me not too many years ago. Before I embraced the Soul within me, I had to learn to embrace the fact that I was not always right, that I was playing more from what my Ego wanted instead of what my Soul needed. Once it was that I stopped with the "okay...everyone bow to me and my gifts" thinking and once it was that I began to see the importance, not only of building a solid foundation built upon the Rock that is the Soul within us each, but more, of adopting and adapting the idea that no matter what I did, tried, said...nothing was going to make things different for me if what I believed was not in right line with what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. I knew a long time ago that what I was doing was not what I was meant to do. I mean, yes, I loved teaching hula, and yes, the money was really, really good, but all the while my thoughts were that of "how can I do this and still get my message across and not have to worry about charging people for this beautiful thing that I know?" and ALWAYS was the thought there with that first thought that there was no way that I would be able to do anything for free unless and until I had something else that would make up for the lost income.

Needless to say, it was a few years before my halau just sort of died out, and that is when I knew that what I was doing was not what my Soul needed me to do. While I cannot say that those kids and that halau of mine did not serve me with a whole lot, I will say that if I could have done it differently I would have, and it would have worked just fine. I know this. What I had not yet accepted was the idea that I could have made it if I had just thought more about what else it was that I could have done to implement what it was that I knew then as opposed to the things that I have learned in the interim.

In the Interim

The interim is a funny place. A lot of us think that this is where we cool our heels, and it is, but also that it is our place to just not think about the things that we think all the time. My thought about The Interim is that it is meant as a time of both rest AND reflection, that where we are when we reach The Interim is meant as our being shown to the one place that we need to be at the time and it is meant, too, to show us that we have options, that we can choose any direction we want to go in, that we have to really think about the things that we will lay as our foundation, as the rules of life by which we will choose to live, by the very sense of Integrity within us.

The Interim is that place where all of our life choices, and all of our bad choices, and all of our choices period come fully into play and hop up in our face and make us take notice of the things that we each need to give our attention to and the things that still need to be given closure to. The Interim is not the place where we end up that is also called "Rock Bottom," because the term "Rock Bottom" is all about the foundation about which I am writing. Too many of us want to see this place called "Rock Bottom" as being the end of the road for us, as being the place where losers show up and are granted their loser button. The truth is different, at least for me, that is, in that the play on words and the idea that a foundation made of rock is the strongest one of all, is the one that you would want to build your future and your life upon, let alone your house.

Rock Bottom shows us so many things about ourselves that can be used as a tool and the most of us choose to see this place as nothing more than one more thing that has marred and scarred us, but the truth is that in the minds of the very evolved, Rock Bottom is something to build our lives upon, because Rock Bottom to a few of us rings more like the foundation that we need to rebuild ourselves.

A new way to think about being at "Rock Bottom"

You can think of it as being a brand new piece of paper upon which you will love writing your new story on, and you can think of it as being the thing that cleared away all the stuff that is not needed by you and is not useful in the idea that who we are now is not who we used to be, that what we are doing now is not the same things that we used to do, and that the way that we think about things now is more evolved and that, too, we need everything in our midst to be as evolved.

We can think about Rock Bottom as being a black eye to our ego, or we can think about it as being a new starting place for the Soul. The Soul always is ready to take us to where we need to be, and the Soul is waiting to illuminate all these things that we know is meant as our Now. We know that being at Rock Bottom can be a bad thing in our thoughts, or it can be the thing that we see as our new opportunity.

There are a whole lot of people in my life who are here for the purpose of showing me what they are no longer to me, and what they are now are simply a constant reminder of what was and what was no longer fits. It no longer fits because I have grown and have evolved and now it is my turn to take this Rock Bottom and turn it into the thing that dreams are made of. And the truth is that while it is slow in going, it is, indeed, going the way that it needs to go and it is not disappointing me at all. The things that we wish for require time, and require some effort, because even the Law of Attraction will not work if there is no energy of effort behind it making things happen for us. I know that the energy that I am in the middle of now is fraught with the hurts from the past, and that daily I am shown that those things are falling away, albeit slowly. While I am not one who likes things - at least not a whole lot of things, that is - slowly, I now know that no matter what, all the things that are meant to be, they will just be, and I know, too, that I have proven this to myself over and over again, and that just like everything else, the things that are upon me now were once a thought, were once just a vision in my head.

When our lives give to us the idea that we are at the very bottom of the barrel, it is at that point where we know that the only way to see things is through a new set of peepers, and preferably NOT the kind which wear the infamously famous rose-colored variety glasses. We are meant to see the the things in front of us as they are, and we are meant to see who we are in relation to it all. We are meant to know within ourselves that what we are looking at, no matter how ugly it is, is meant to teach us and that it is our Kuleana to make things right and our job to turn what we see into what we want to see and what lives inside of us and what makes us want to do more for ourselves. When we can do more for ourselves, the entirety of mankind somehow benefits.

When we can stop and look at the things that broke us as being the things that made us be who we are now, this is when we know that while we are still at Rock Bottom, that truly, the only way to look, the only way to go and the only thing that we should know is "up".

And that alone gives new meaning to the term "Rock Bottom," now doesn't it?

Yes.
Yes, it does.

Aloha ! I Love You All !
ROX


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Southern Louisiana

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Southern California





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