The REST is up to You 10.30.15

The REST is up to you story  10.30.15

Any of you who have heard me speak over the last few years

or read my writings will know this.

I have a recurring theme in some of my sharings with you.

Keep an open mind, there are no coincidences and watch for signs.

Those come from a good read and have stayed with me in a significant way.

I love to walk my dogs.

I’m likely to head to Greenway Farms most days to walk in the woods.

It’s nearby, and my dogs love it there.

A couple of weeks ago I headed out the door with that intent.

I just got this feeling “walk local today” or something like that.

So I decided just to take off from my house and walk in the neighborhood.

When I walk, it is often very meditative.

I clear my mind and then see what comes.

The meditations I led recently at church have both have come that way.

The ideas for my messages and writings do too.

This day I was just ambling up a long hill.

When I looked to my left and in this driveway sat a car with a bumper sticker.

The Sabbath:  the REST is up to you!

I thought how wonderful it was and then thought Rev. Christine would love this.

So I texted her about it, and she texted back: “can you take a picture?”

By now I was quite a ways from where I had seen the bumper sticker.

As I read her text, I heard “the car won’t be there.”

In my best affirmation voice I shot back “yes it will!”

As I turned around, it dawned on me that spirit had told me that.

I pondered this as I walked back and saw an empty driveway. 

When I got home, I went to Google Images

and found that phrase has been on:

 bumper stickers, t-shirts, hats, buttons, aprons, you name it.

So I sent Rev. Christine a picture of it on a bumper sticker.

Later I made up the framed version of it that she showed at church

during her last Sabbath spiritual sharing.

My point of all this is back to my three precepts.

Keep an open mind, my mind was clear and open as I saw that.

No monkey mind or thinking of all I was to do after I got home that day

that would have made it an idle glance with no recognition.

Watch for signs.  I knew immediately it reminded me of the series

of Sunday spiritual sharings Rev. Christine was doing on the Sabbath.

There are no coincidences. I also took the time to text her about it,

realizing it was meant to be shared.

Then Rev. Christine incorporated it into her final message on the Sabbath.

So when you feel monkey mind coming on remember:

to keep an open mind, watch for signs, and that there are no coincidences.

I for one believe there are spiritual signs everywhere in our daily lives.

The rest is up to you to notice them.

All My Love Always, Keith

Infinity lies within you...

When you fall into allowing this moment to flow through you,

this moment gives back infinite connectedness.

Edel O'Mahony

See The Beauty

Multi-Verse 12.03.11

MULTI-VERSE     12.03.11

Watched a show last night they talked of two competing theories.

All the scientists, physicists, and mathematicians

jumped on the String Theory bandwagon discounting the other theory.

For over ten years, they tried to prove the String Theory.

It could only be right if they could use it for everything,

including proving the Big Bang, the start of the universe.

Only to find that they had to adopt the concept of the theory

they had discounted years before, once they added that component.

All the equations worked, they could prove it all.

That component was the 11th dimension.

We were raised thinking in 3 dimensions

Now it's eleven?

So rather than adopt its original name from 10 years ago.

They started calling it M-theory.  Then all sorts of things arose.

What's the M stand for?

Me I don't think we'll ever really know.

Humans have an insatiable thirst to know but the more we learn

the more we realize there is yet more to understand.

For the show ended going back in time with the M-theory.

To before the Big Bang, now they've told us for years that was the beginning!

Interesting where is this going?

Then they went on to discount the Universe and started talking about Multi-verses.

Thousands and millions of Universes, that we can't even comprehend.

Where the laws of physics as we understand them don't apply.

I got a call the other night seeking a voice of sanity was what I heard.

Into a discussion that had lots of supporters 

and then my friend who didn't quite see it that way.

I tried to help for I agreed with her.  Don't know that what I said helped much.

But as I've stated before the more I've come to know,

the more aware I've become that there is so much more to learn.

Maybe that's the real answer we're meant to seek, to learn

to gaze in wonder and to try and figure it out to expand our consciousness.

So how many dimensions will you live in today?

All My Love Always, Keith

String theory envisions a multiverse in which our universe is one slice of bread in a big cosmic loaf.  The other slices would be displaced from ours in some extra dimension of space.

Brian Greene

The Soul

A Prayer for John 09.26.15

John is my wife Laura's adopted son.  He transitioned unexpectedly on Thursday.

​

A Prayer for John

We join now with Laura's family and John’s biological family in the silence.

We center ourselves with God and Jesus Christ and

we feel this Divine presence flowing in and through us,

comforting all of them in their time of need.

Together as we hold John and his family in our thoughts and prayers

we trust the eternal welfare of John’s soul into God’s care and keeping,

and we release him now to a greater experience

of life in God’s magnificent kingdom.

For Laura and both families and all who knew John,

we cherish the memories we have of him

and know that he will always be with us.

We know that there is a Comforter in our time of loss

and we are now open to God’s transforming love

giving us strength and courage.

God’s grace and comfort are with us now,

lightening, uplifting, and guiding us in this time of need.

We pray this in the name of God and all that is Holy, Amen.

All My Love Always, Keith

Be Kind

Foster 12.06.11

FOSTER  12.06.11

Just got an e-mail from a friend, some mind games just aren’t fun she said.

My response was just to remember you are in control of what you think.

That’s my challenge now, to foster the good, positive, uplifting thoughts

and shoo the others away.

I’m reminded of a passage from Deepak Chopra.

He says if someone insults you, it’s your mind,

you can choose to be insulted or not.

Just because you have a learned response to react as if being insulted,

doesn’t mean it’s not a choice and you can choose not to be.

I’m reminded of a fellow who challenged me verbally one day in a discussion.

This is the way it is!  You’ve got it all wrong!

Rather than be offended and respond that way I just chose to be silent.

For he was free to have his opinion, and I was free to have mine.

A couple of years ago I probably would have at least made an effort to defend my opinion

who knows where it would go from there.

But on this day I chose another way I had stated my case and left it at that.

That’s where it stayed for I didn’t give him anything more to respond to.

It’s OK to disagree, but the ego wants you to step in and defend your position.

They must be brought to understand that you are right, and they are wrong.

The ego wants to fight but if you pause for a second

and realize this is a knee-jerk reaction,

to take offense is a choice and then choose not to respond

or take offense you can find an opportunity to grow, to change.

All My Love Always, Keith

“A resourceful person can see opportunity

when others only see obstacles.”

Garrett Gunderson

I Wish I Could

Be A Lamp

CPO or CRO 12.02.11

CPO or CRO

12.02.11

That course I finished a couple weeks back.

I started listening to the CD's again, from the beginning.

Loaded with insight they are, challenging me with new ideas,

to move my life in a new direction.

She discusses being a CPO, Chief Possibilities Officer,

instead of CRO, Chief Resistance Officer.

I'm reminded of an old cartoon.  You know the one.

Where there's a good you, and there's a bad you, one on each shoulder,

or in the parlance of some of my current reads, an ego self and a spiritual self.

There are conflicts that arise as they vie for your mind's favor.

The thing that keeps on striking me is the thread or the theme.

How this type of thing, a concept as it were, keeps on showing up.

Different strokes for different folks the same concept said in a number of different ways.

So it resonates with a much larger audience.

For if you don't comprehend it, maybe looking at it

from just a slightly different way or angle

will make it ring true for you.

So here I am.  Do I take in new information with resistance,

or a negative bias?

Make it hard or doom it to failure.

Or do I take in new information as a CPO, open to the possibilities?

That hey, maybe I don't know it all, and if I was just willing

to look for a positive, any positive.

I could change.  I could make this work.

So I start this day as a CPO  -  A Chief Possibility Officer.

For in the challenges I face I know there's a seed of hope,

if I nurture the possibility of it growing into something else.

All My Love Always,  Keith

The only limits to the possibilities in your life tomorrow are the buts you use today.

Les Brown

Eventually

3:54 12.01.11

3:54

12.01.11

The cat wakes me up I put him out.

The dogs hear the door now they are up.

I think but it's before 4, I can't get up, I need to sleep!

So back I try to go.

But then I hear the dogs at the door, they don't care the time.

They're ready to go. So up I get.

The old me would have fought to try to sleep.

To get a few more fitful winks, here and there,

through the clamour at the door.

But today I choose to get up.

 I can always take a nap later if need be.

I open the door.  It's 3:54

Clear and cold the ground crunches beneath my feet.

The sky's the show on this day. 
It's so clear, no clouds just full of stars.
The Big Dipper, Cassiopeia the lazy W constellation,
and Orion's belt, the three bright stars in a row.

Try as I might the Little Dipper is too faint,

too elusive, to really truly make out.

Annie gets crazy tearing about running circles around us

prancing and dancing as she goes.

I love my morning walks, a beautiful way to start the day,

to reconnect with the wonder of it all.

I remember last night leaving church and gazing up at the moon.

Just stopping and staring. 

May you find that or sense that today

or feel it in some way the wonder of it all.

Be it in a baby's smile or a thought that crosses your mind

or a bird's flight that catches your eye.

Take the time to reconnect to the wonder of it all.

All My Love Always, Keith

The larger the island of knowledge, the longer the shoreline of wonder.

Ralph W. Sockman

Everyday

We Can Only

The Chill 11.29.11

CHILL  11.29.11

There's a chill in the darkness.  It seeps into my hands.

I’m hunting for warm pockets today.

Alternating the cold away, one hand in and one hand out.

Darkness everywhere.

I enjoy the time just before the dawn.

Expectations of a new day.

Knowing Sunrise is on the way.

I know not what it will bring.

I enjoy just the feeling of being alive.

A deep breath of crisp fresh air.  

The chill of it fills my lungs.

Moving through it as if through a cold blanket, 
the feeling drapes coolness on my cheeks.

It just seeps and creeps into you.

Annie starts to play.

Skeeter, the cat, toys with the dogs.

Makes them chase her,

knowing full well limited they are by their leashes.

She sprints away to just out of reach.

Tugged and pulled I get.

For they are enjoying the day in their own way.

May you find that today.

A way to just enjoy the day.

Be it as simple as a deep breath.

A pet who wants to play.

Or a chill that just make you feel so alive.

All My Love Always, Keith

Stay close to anything that makes you feel alive.

Hafiz

Perhaps

Jane E. 09.16.15

Jane E.

09.16.15

Five years ago on this day we said goodbye.

Not that we ever said it out loud we never had the chance.

We never saw what was coming.

I think of you so very often and talk to you all the time.

I know you watch over all of us of that I am so very sure.

So today I say thank you for being with us.

Thank you for everything you did.

But most of all just thank you for being who you were

a bright light in all our lives.

And I thank you for still being with us

in thoughts, memories, and most of all in Spirit.

All MY Love Always Jane E.,  Keith 

Getting Over

Pack Of Six 11.28.11

Pack Of Six

11.28.11

Six of us show up to ride away.

A brief introduction we have then we're off.

Off we go along the river riding for downtown past the herons.

The sun breaks out and warms our way,

as our effort warms us.

We take a break shed a layer.

For now we're warmer than when we started.

Through the marsh past the bamboo

then up the hill and down into town.

Across the Walnut St. Bridge, Crowded it is.

Winding through Coolidge Park

and on till we stop for a rest.

Refreshed we turn back to head for home.

They way we came with a few minor variations.

Back at the dam where we started

we make plans for another ride on another day.

Shared some fun, some exercise and laughs

on a beautiful day.

May you find that today

some fun and some laughs on a beautiful day!

For every day is a beautiful day,

if you chose to look at it, that way.

All My Love Always, Keith

Your destiny is to fulfill those things upon which you focus most intently.

So choose to keep your focus on that which is

truly magnificent, beautiful, uplifting and joyful.

Your life is always moving toward something.

Ralph Marston

Pursue Some Path

Let Yourself

Rushing 11.27.11

Rushing

11.27.11  

Back from golf.

An e-mail, ride at 2, where to meet is my reply.

So off I rush to ride with a group.

I question my rush when I arrive.

A call I make only to find if I had read on

Saturday, not Friday is the day.

So off I go alone for it is a beautiful day.

The sun's shining surprised I am

by how few are out.

But then again it's Black Friday

and the shopping season has begun.

So take advantage of a situation

that on the surface made you think was a mistake.

For even though I showed up rushing and a full day early

I chose to make the most of it,

and had a wonderful ride on a beautiful day.

All My Love Always, Keith

Make the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happens.

Epictetus

As Knowledge Increases

Five Minutes 09.09.15

Take Five Minutes

09.09.15

Can you spare yourself five minutes a day?

Over the last few year's my spiritual practices have grown

to include meditation, Qigong, and Yoga.

The more I delve into these practices, the more I realize
all of them focus on the breath.

As I breathe slowly and rhythmically I often use affirmations such as:

I am completely healed, totally healed;

Divine healing energy flows in and through every cell in my body, mind, and soul.

Or as I breathe I breathe in - infinite, unconditional love,

and as I breathe out - I release any and all energies that no longer serve me.

As I read the many posts and comments about the passing of Wayne Dyer

I was struck by this one and his comments about affirmations:

"Take the last five minutes of your day,"
Dyer told CBS Sunday Morning's Tracy Smith,

"and put your attention on everything that you would like to attract into your life:

'I am well. I am healed. I am in perfect health. I am abundant. I am happy.'

Say those things to yourself.

Then you'll marinate for eight hours,

and you'll awaken, and you'll begin to attract the things
that are in your subconscious mind."

I just love this!

Set your highest intentions for yourself, your well-being 

by mentally telling them to yourself before you retire for the day.

Then let them “marinate” in your subconscious as you sleep.

So if you find yourself looking for something to calm you down

before you drift off to sleep, try this.

It sure can’t hurt.

Then see what happens in the coming days and weeks

after setting such wonderful intentions before retiring every evening.

All My Love Always, Keith