Tomorrow is a new day. I want you to think about what that means.

It is a day that has never happened before. And it will never happen again. No matter how hard you might try, you could not have the same day any two days in a row. You will know more tomorrow than you know today. Opportunities will be there tomorrow that do not exist today.

Every day is a new day.

The journey through life is not about controlling the view. But if you were fortunate enough to see what is there for you… well, that would be a journey worth the while.

When things are good for you, you may realize these things. The real challenge in life is to know these things deeply so that even when things are hard, you still know them. That is the nature of truth. It is never a matter of convenience. The truth is always true.

If you find yourself out of synch with the truth, it is time to reset yourself. The key to this act is to do so very forgivingly. Your temptation might be to try to assess how you got off track. This is of no consequence. We all get off track. That is part of the journey. It is experimentation. It is questioning. It is our nature.

But when you are out of synch with the truth, you will know it. It will manifest itself differently in different people. I do not know you well enough to say how it affects you… but you probably already know. Maybe you do not sleep well. Maybe you are anxious for no apparent reason. Or perhaps, your dreams are telling you. However the message is delivered, it is important that you hear it, and take action.

If you are old enough to have ever used a record player, you know, the kind that used a needle… then you can think of this resetting action as lifting the arm and placing the needle back in the groove of the vinyl. You know it when you get it because the song sounds right again, immediately.

Or to use a more modern analogy, you can think of it as rebooting your computer. You are letting go of accumulated junk and refocusing on that which is important, and more so, you doing all of this in the spirit of love and creativity.

The point of this writing is that each and every day presents to you a natural opportunity to reset yourself.

If you find yourself engaging in dysfunctional patterns, the try this exercise.

Pick one of these patterns. Try to pick something that is measurable, something focused. For example, maybe you find that you frequently tell yourself, or someone else, something negative and highly generalized… such as “rich people get all the breaks”, or “you are lazy”, or whatever…. then this is a good test case. Or maybe you find that nearly everyday you engage in some other destructive act… maybe you are overweight, and still eat junk food that you know is bad for you. Whatever the thing, what matters is that you pick something focused and measurable. Maybe journal for a week or so to become even more aware of the thing. All the while, track this from a distance, as an observer. Do not judge yourself during this phase.

So, now you have selected this bothersome thing. And, you have observed it. Next, decide whether or not you want this pattern or cycle to be in your life. The more honest your assessment, the more likely you will say no.

Here you may want to employ some creative act. Sometimes ceremonies help us solidify our conceptual experiences. Sometimes it is important to take an emotional thing and see it and feel it in the “real” world. Here you might want to draw, paint, or even just write this thing down…. and then destroy it. Burn it. Shred it. Whatever you like. Just make real the emotional decision to kill this pattern. Go to sleep, and the next day… just stop. That’s it.

I promise that if you are careful to pick something focused and specific, and if you take your time honestly observing this thing, then if you want to, you can kill it off. You are the source of its energy… and just as you keep it alive from day to day, and year to year, you can also just as easily kill it off.

This can be a powerful experience, so I suggest you start small. Practice this, and it will become a powerful tool for you as you evolve over your lifetime.

Bear in mind, this exercise is aimed at removing dysfunctional behaviors, but such behaviors are always rooted in something deeper. You may certainly benefit from a deeper understanding of the root cause of such things, but what I am saying here is that you can also make the choice to take ownership of your life. You do not need to seek permission to kill off the monsters you have created.

~ ~ ~ ~

Apparently - I wrote this piece in February of 2005. I am not sure who the intended audience was - or if it was me writing to my future self. In any event, I was pleased to stumble across it today, and wanted to share it here!

If you like - please consider voting for it too at high vibe it!

It is a common idea that the Eskimos have a vast array of words that they use to describe snow. It occurs to me recently that we seem to have the same dynamic when it comes to describing Being, though I am not sure everyone would see it that way.

As I contemplate the concept of Unity -  that all is One, and that the variety we see around us is but one dimension of the manifestation of the infinite - one slice of time, one freeze frame snapshot of an infinity that is in constant motion… when I really try to grasp that we are all forms that emerge from the same field of energy… then the words we use to describe the surface representations are not quite as important or as divisive as they once were to me.

I have had this awareness with me all my life. It was greatly challenged when I went to college, and spent years studying philosophy and psychology. In so many of the academic traditions, you are trained to classify, dissect, separate. Little if any questioning or discussion goes on about that which is common to all things, all endeavors, all life as we know it. For some, perhaps it is so obvious that it requires no comment, while I suspect that for others, it is not quite a simple task to see the threads that tie everything together.

One easy example of how we are cultivated to use our brain-machines to separate and label everything - even ideas, stories, knowledge and wisdom - we are taught from our earliest school years to differentiate between fiction and nonfiction.

I first find it fascinating that the affirmative word describes “not factual”, while the negative term describes “factual”.

According to wikipedia, “the word fiction is derived from the Latin fingo, fingere, finxi, fictum, ‘to form, create’”.

I would argue that both fiction and nonfiction represent acts of creation - and both represent acts of representing some form of truth.

All science is first and foremost a creative act, although I am sure it would be easy to find contrary perspectives.

Many of the greatest scientific discoveries have been described as delivered in a dream or some other sort of revelation. The imagination is the first place that all ideas take form. If children did not first inhabit a world of pure imagination, than this world would have no scientists. And the greater the ability for any given scientist to return to the classroom of intuition and playfulness, then the easier their problem solving becomes, and the greater the fruit of their leaps and bounds through the fog of apparent complexity.

I would take this all one step further and suggest that all nonfiction is first and foremost a work of fiction.

All knowing is an act of forming from thought, an emergence. Some of this knowing craves facts, while other knowing knows, and is self-evident. Likewise, many so-called facts have been revealed as distortions or misperceptions (i.e. the world is flat), just as some self-evident narratives have proven to be distorted.

So what we have in some respects is a clarity of perception versus misperception. We have a knowing that is clear as a bell, some of which is supported by facts. But whether there are facts or not, the ringing of the bell is clear and resonates deeply. Misperception, on the other hand, is a distortion in the field of consciousness - it produces dissonance.

To carry this even one step further - I would argue that it is very much NOT the case that one form of knowing is good and the other is bad. Rather, clarity produces ease and progress, and dissonance produces resistance, and begs for a resolution. Clarity is the sharpness, and dissonance is the sharpening stone.

In other words, both or movements of consciousness, both represent the unfolding evolving consciousness that is US and is emerging through us.

Snow is snow is snow. But then again - H2O is H2O is H2O. This is a simple way of seeing how relatively simple units can combine and interact with the environment in a way that produces a dazzling array of forms - from two hydrogen molecules being combined with one oxygen molecule - we get things like steam powered engines, fog, clouds, dew, downpours of rain, tears from a broken heart, ice bergs, the ebb and flow of the oceans, twisting and winding rivers, and even the perfect endless works of art we see in the snowflake. And this is but a tiny snapshot look at all the amazing forms that water takes.

Imagine now we are talking about a pure stream of consciousness, an energy or awareness, a knowing… and imagine all the forms this can and does take in the world around us.

Why get hung up on the words God, or the Universe, as so many do? Whether are talking about the creative genius of our Inner Child, or the knowing wisdom of our Inner Being… whether we are talking about our Higher Self, the Universe, God, the one Source, or the Force… are we really talking about different things?

I am not so sure.

What I do know is that with words, we can slice and dice any one thing and in so doing, we can easily lose track of how it is like another thing. Language used well is a pointer to the source of the idea, and not a distraction from the source.

Going all the way back to Plato and the allegory of the cave, I feel that we are well served to understand that language can be a way of painting a picture of that which lies beyond the cave, and as such, can help us live there. It can bring our awareness and knowing beyond the cave wall. Or it can bring us only to the cave wall, with the shadows, and leave us believing that we too are mere shadows, coming and going at the will of some other source of light.

After meeting with a great group of people this evening to discuss the Law of Attraction, amongst other things, I came home feeling compelled to write.

This is a fascinating process for me - to listen, to absorb, and to find myself resonating here and there, and then this evening - I hit this place where I felt very stirred up inside.

What is this? Where does this feeling come from?

My studies lately have found me contemplating two concepts.

The first idea is the idea of how we emerge from a state of victim-hood to a state of empowerment. And what is important about this concept is that it does not happen all at once, in one fell swoop… nor does it happen at an intellectual level. Moreso, it happens here and there, and builds upon itself. You realize your power in places in your life, and reflect upon that power, and look for it elsewhere, and lo and behold - it is there also. And with each step, you must also let go of your blame and victim stories… and this is not at all an easy thing to do - especially if you — as most of us have done - if you have attached yourself to a part of that story.

In other words - if you have built a part of your identity around a blame story, then it may turn out to be very difficult for you to release that story, because your ego - your YOU - will want to hold onto every piece of itself.

Many of us do this with some part of our lives - so don’t beat yourself up. I am writing this down here only to acknowledge and recognize that this is a substantial undertaking in some ways, although it is also truly the easiest thing in the world because all you have to do is *LET GO*.

But before I forget - let me comment on the second idea I have been contemplating quite a bit lately - and that is the idea of Unity - as in… the idea that we are truly ALL ONE… that God is ONE infinite source of energy that is expressing itself through us so that it can witness itself - the idea that there is truly NO boundary separating me from you… that we are both an emanation of God, and a part of the great ONENESS that is God.

And so - when the discussion this evening turned to the idea that organized religion has somehow hurt and controlled vast numbers of humans over the centuries - I found myself in a unique place. On the one hand, I had my blame story inside me, ready to roll. I am a recovering catholic. I know all too well what all that guilt and all that dogma can do to a young person.

And at the same time - I have this awareness with me now… this feeling that NO - We Do What We Choose… we are powerful beings - each and every one of us.

There are no stupid masses, as I have often feared. There are no poor victims of power and authority. There are all sorts of people with all sorts of motivations - yes. There are things that happen every minute of every day that I detest, as there also many more things that happen that I find beautiful… but BOTH of these are JUDGEMENTS that I am placing upon the actions I learn about through my reading or observing - and nothing that I can do can truly make me aware of the inner experience of the participants - so why should I be investing any of my energy into trying to figure any of it out? It is not really my business.

What I am coming to see is that if you are learning to recognize your own power in life, and learning to take full responsibility for this amazing creation that is YOUR LIFE… then I believe we should see this as an emanation - as a ripple effect of GOD living its life through us. I believe we are all ONE SPIRIT - connected in ways that we cannot easily understand at an ego level. I believe that we are all an expression of - an instance of the one source of all that is… we are an indivisible part of the ALL-ness of the Universe, and as such - we can and do tap into that ALL-ness all of the time. We are divine - and we are base. We are indeed “extra-ordinary”, if you will.

As such, we are powerful beyond our own understanding. And despite appearances - this powerfulness can come in any shape and size. Where one of us may look and judge and see a sad, victim story — there in that very drama, there may be a powerful soul at work - learning an amazing lesson.

Where some of us may look upon entire epochs of time and see whole masses of victims of environmental or political forces - there in that place, there may be mass groups of souls undergoing training and learning that we are not able to comprehend.

This is not a rationalization on my part.

This is a realization.

This is a realization that I have lived through what could easily be perceived as a “difficult time”… that things have happened in my life recently that could cause some to feel pity - but what they would be missing is that in reality - I have undergone the most amazing training and learning experience that I could ever imagine.

Where some might see “loss” in my life, I see liberation.

Where some might look upon my life and see that I have taken blow after blow from fate - I see that on a soul level, I have brought about a change in my life that would leave me absolutely no choice but to change, and to drop the tapestry of illusion that I have so carefully crafted over the years, and to finally bare my soul to the unflinching unemotional reality of what my *real* life is all about.

I am no victim to the events of my life. I am the beneficiary.

But I have to say - the difference between the two lies in choice. It was my choice to make, and I am please to share that I feel that I have made the right choice.

It is the choice each one of us is presented with time and again in life. Each and every time that life presents us with a challenge - we can choose the dis-empowered path of blaming someone or something for our pain, or we can decide that life is what we make of it, and we will make the best of what is handed to us - no matter what.

And I only say this now - with all the love in my heart - because I have made the victim choice plenty of times in my life… and I know full well that this is not a linear set of hurdles that we clear, safely knowing that we will be forever free of these same challenges in the future. No. These challenges come to us in different areas of our lives at different times, and we are always, always, always learning.

What I would like to close with is this - that we are all One. I want to say to you that when you fall victim to someone else’s behavior or intentions - it is an illusion. We are all one. As such, no one else’s spirit can actually do you any harm - as their spirit is your spirit.

Likewise - when you make the empowered choice, and see that you are a divine and empowered being with full access to all of what the Universe has to offer… when you bring this awareness into your life - you are benefiting EVERYONE around you, and EVERYONE on this planet. You may not see it with your eyes - but trust me - it is happening all around us, now — every single day.

This is why I felt so stirred up during the discussion at tonight’s event - I was with these amazing people who are learning all about their own individual power, and yet I felt that they were blaming some abstract force for contsraining groups of individuals… and all I wanted to say was NO - it was their choice, and there is no POWER outside of each and every one of us — AND — we are in no place to judge the inner experience of others…

We are all one, and as such, we are all growing and learning together. So even when I consider the group of people I was chatting with this evening — it is not that I am right and they are wrong, of course, but moreso that our different perspectives can blend and inform us of many different ways of looking at things.