Through it All: Give Thanks

Life can be messy, crazy, difficult, stormy, and chaotic....at times.

Through it all: Give thanks!

Try to sort through each bit and piece of crazy stuff that happens within
the course of the day, and you'll wind up with someone
interpreting your behavior like this:

All jokes aside.

Life can be difficult.

In saying that, I'm aware then that my saying "give thanks" through it all sounds like the craziest thing to recommend you do. 

Do it anyway.

The *chaos is working for your good. The *difficulty is working to get you where you need to be.

Don't believe me? Listen to Rabbi Twerski: "Times Of Stress Are Meant For Times Of Growth."

You may not want to believe me nor the rabbi. Then test it.

Look around you and see the folks who are complacent and living life one joyous step after another. For them to be living that way, there are only a few scenarios that can bring such peace:

1.  They were born that way and have not encountered many of life's stressful moments, so they are "like a child."

2.  They have a solid spiritual foundation and nothing can shake their faith.

3. They have grown through adversity and the truth of Romans 8:28:  

                                     "All Things (do) Work Together for Good."

Stress does not go away, simply by wishing it away.

Chaos does not straighten itself, simply by our need for it to disappear.

We have to be an active participant in getting the challenge, issue, or chaos to go away. 

Our part can take several paths: 


*We become frantic.
*We add more chaos to the chaos.
*We become centered, and we pray.
*We stand still and surrender.

The stillness of a beautiful lake or river offers
tranquility to our Soul.

Living with stress is not healthy, and we must not think that cruel gods came up with this mode of living to torment us.

Once we get that we are indeed stressed and isolate the repeated situation (s) that cause it, we must then just as quickly recognize it for what it is: an aspect of ourselves that is begging us to open up to a new way of being and seeing in life.

The last thing you want to do is to panic. It's simply counterproductive.
Panic destroys any level-headed thinking. Beyond this, panic destroys any potential connection to the greater part of yourself (i.e. your soul), patiently waiting to guide you and show you step by step how to navigate through the madness.

Too many of us are still living from the surface of life, where little things throw us into a frantic mode and off balance. This causes negative situations to magnify because we panicked from the beginning.



Calm down.

Life is here for us. Life is working with us.

Life is inviting us to walk with it, not against it.

Whatever is thrown at us is an invitation to rise a little higher, walk a little **farther along the path than we thought we had to walk. We must go to the edge with it, if it's taking us there. But first, we must trust it, i.e. life, and know that its intentions are for good, despite the surface of things. 

The lack of trusting life is the reason we panic.

The fear of change is the reason we respond in very bad ways to change.


Begin to trust life. Begin to know that change is inevitable, so when it comes, we welcome, not fight, it.

Begin to believe that all of life is here to support you and to help you grow and see more wondrous ways of walking through the world. 

All that is here...is here for you...and for me.

All that is here... is here...for the love of us.

There's no other reason they exist with such majesty.

If we are AWAKE: We should never run out of reasons for being awestruck by life, its beauty and creativity.

This creative piece, those below (and many more) were posted
by Trang Vo on Facebook

Nature...life...will find a way to penetrate even the most cynical mind with another shock of its beauty and creativity:
Somewhere. Sometime. Somehow.

Stay open to life.
Breathe in. Give Thanks! 

 This Thanksgiving, my prayer for us all is that we begin to open up to life in new ways.

Instead of focusing on the things that you we're missing in life, I want us to begin to focus on the things that we do have and so often take for granted.

My prayer is that we begin to look around us and see the wonders of life that were created simply for our pleasure and joy.

Look around.

Yes. They're here only for us.

Give Thanks through the good and bad that may
be happening in your life today...and every day.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Namaste',
Che'  

*NOTE: This type of chaos and difficulty does not negate the fact that there are forces of true evil operating in the world. I do believe that demonic people do exist and can wreak havoc on the world in the places they inhabit. But we must rise above these forces of evil through prayer, and by recognizing and truly believing that the power of Go(o)d is stronger than any evil...any force...any power of darkness directed at us. Folks who harvest envy, jealousy, strife, hatred, egotism can be seen as operating from a dark place, mostly caused by isolation from their "true selves." Through prayer and the power of our intentions "for good," we can overcome these forces, too. 

**Sometimes life can ask us to trust it for many, many barren years. Trust. It's for  your good. Like fine silver: you're being perfected and refined!