January 23, 2013 by IdealisticRebel

Musings on Gratitude and understanding

Understanding promotes peace

We all know that we need to be grateful for our lives. It is easy when everything is going well. When life gets rough, it can be harder. Sometimes it is easy to overlook the blessings because they arrive without fanfare.

I have begun a Gratitude journal. I write down five things every day to be grateful for. I found that some days it was hard. I looked around and saw nothing to be grateful for. Then I realized that the most important things to be grateful for, are the little things. As I broadened my thinking, I realized my life was full of simple gifts and blessings. I had just simply been overlooking them.

I may not always feel loved or understood. I often have health issues and mobility issues .As I began to pull back and see the entire picture of my life, I saw many small blessings that threaded themselves throughout my life. Coming to understand this concept has enriched me and my life. No matter what is happening in life, I can now always see the blessings that fill my life.

Sometimes it is still something for me to work on. What I find though is that the Divine gives us many tiny yet huge blessings to be grateful for.

As I have gone through this experience, I have realized just how rich I am. I saw how much more understanding I can give to others.That brings more understanding from others to me. The ultimate result is peace. Peace in my heart and mind.

It is important to understand how these mental and spiritual exercises adds to the peace in my life and that peace fills me and I can pass it on to the people in my life. They can pass it on to others in their lives. Peace is a daily quest and we need to work on it every day.

Yes, we all know that peace takes action as well as understanding and gratitude. These actions must never be based on hatred and violence. Dialog between all of us and the blogs we write are ways to work toward peace.

I am grateful for all of my readers and the people who have become friends. I am very grateful for you allowing me to experience pieces of your lives. I am grateful for all I have learned from you. I wish many blessings for all my readers around the world.

” We must not, in trying to think about how we can make a big difference, ignore the small daily differences we can make which, over time, add up to big differences that we often cannot force.”
—–Marion Wright Edelman

“You cannot contribute anything to the ideal condition of mind and heart known a Brotherhood (Sisterhood), however much you preach, posture, or agree, unless you live it.”
——-Faith Baldwin

Working for Peace and Harmony in Our Time

August 2, 2012 by IdealisticRebel

Praise

Hibiscus by Stephanie and Photo by Barbara Mattio

” Blessed sister, holy mother, spirit of the fountain,
spirit of the garden,
Suffer us not to mock ourselves with falsehood
Teach us to care and not to care
Teach us to sit still
Even among these rocks.
Our peace in his will
And even among these rocks
Sister, mother,
And spirit of the river, spirit of the sea.
Suffer me not to be separated
And let my cry come unto Thee.”
——–T.S. Eliot

Photo by Barbara Mattio

“Lord, make this world to last as long as possible.”
—-Prayer of an eleven year old child,
on hearing of Sino-Indian border fighting.

May 11, 2012 by IdealisticRebel

Everyone can have Peace

We all want peace in our world. My hope would be that one day every sentient being will live in peace and light. We hope for it and we pray for it. Doesn’t seem enough. You can’t make people be peaceful.

I believe that creating peace in the world begins with each of us. Yes, I know it sounds like a cliche, but it is true none the less. We all have reasons in our lives that cause us not to have peace.

The past is one set of problems. Statistically, 30% of the average persons’ time is spent thinking about the past. What has happened to us, what we feel guilty about that perhaps we can’t fix. We have old tapes that run from the past and create triggers in the present. People push the triggers and our bodies and minds remember. Meditation is a big help and thousands of us are today using meditation as a means of being centered and balanced. The inner landscape also brings us into communion with the Divine. Quantum scientists now tell us that every cell in our bodies carries all of our memories.
That is staggering to me. They also state that with just 1 human cell that they can recreate the entire Universe. Why? We are all within each other. I am in the butterfly and the butterfly is within me. The Beloved is within me and I am within the Beloved. It is recommended that everyday, you make some silence and with intent give your past to the light. To the Universe, God, Goddess, Divine Energy. Whatever you are comfortable calling it. But doing it does loosen the “ties that bind” us to the past and the negativity which is part of why we lack inner peace.
If each sentient being would do this everyday, we would each have peace within our souls. That peace would radiate outward spreading peace to all who come into our own world. As they feel more peace, it will radiate from them to others in their worlds. The pattern happens millions of times over and over and the result is World Peace.
I don’t mean to make this sound like some easy peasy gimmick The first time I gave my past to the light—just having the intention and saying the words, I felt something loosen in my chest. It was a physical response to what my mind was doing. There is no magic formula for world peace, but each day, it can begin with each of us.

“Dear God,
I won’t spend one more day in fear,
Today I will not be limited by negative thoughts,
I will recognize the beauty you have surrounded me with,
Today I will be free of unrealistic expectations of myself and others.
Today I will stay in the present moment and practice gratitude for all
of my blessings, large and microscopic.”
—-Barbara Mattio
.