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Necessity for Love, Compassion, and Tolerance -- Daily Inspirations

Love, compassion, and tolerance are necessities, not luxuries. Without them mankind cannot survive.
Dalai Lama

Love, compassion, and tolerance. Why are these terms so important? Why don’t we hear and see them occurring more often than we do?

Maybe because we are distracted – we are too busy trying to find our way through the wreckages of our past and the confusions of our presents.

Love, compassion and tolerance are not the default settings of human beings – especially in the loud glare of our current culture. It takes consciousness, deliberate intent to be and care, a heightened sense of higher Presence that empowers us to be different – to be changed – to be born – to become our truest deepest selves – to be reprogrammed by our God.

Love, compassion, and tolerance – an intimacy, a conscious connection, a deep reverence for the sacred essence of spirit that exists in every human soul.

The challenge is that mankind suffers from an illness. The floods of details and data, outcomes and demands create a mental and spiritual illness of unconsciousness. The solution is be awakened by our conscious experiences of ourselves, our loving Presence with our God, and by giving ourselves to and our sacred messages with those we will come in touch with today.

It can be and is as simple as a smile, a nod, a touch, a hug, a word of caring and attention. We can change lives and protect our lives – perceptions and reactions – by practicing and then living love, compassion, and unconditional tolerance of others.

We will not survive otherwise? Why would we want to?

Listening for Our Heartsong -- Daily Inspirations

Your heartsong is the voice you hear inside when you truly are.

Mumble from Happy Feet

Each of us has a “heartsong” – a musical flow and rhythm of energy and love that touches others at a level of truth, and transforms us into better and better versions of ourselves. It cannot be thought or understood – only experienced. It cannot be “sung” alone – only with a choir of connected others. Our heartsong is the deepest message we carry within us, And it can only be heard by our hearts.

The material world demands material participation. If we are not careful, this will mean giving up ourselves in order to seemingly belong. But we are and must be ourselves. Connected to our God and to others, we radiate with flowing life sounds – that are uniquely ourselves – and life changing to all.

Healing Negativity with Daily Inspirations

“Did you ever wonder how some people seem to thrive on negativity, when negativity is poison to the soul and mind?”

Patrick Z.

A special friend of mine wrote this question on his Facebook page, and I have given some listening time to his question.

Human beings are frightened most severely by separation and abandonment. It is worse than the fear of death. If a person feels alienated and forsaken enough by others, he or she will actually induce death – kill themselves – in order to avoid consciousness of their abandonment – and resulting shame.

So, human beings fear consciousness as much as they do separation and abandonment and greater than they fear death. The pain and fear and shame of conscious separation from others, ourselves and our God is overwhelming and torturous.

When we become afraid of the possibility of an undesirable outcome – possible impending abandonment – our brains involuntarily constrict our feelings by injecting mass quantities of thought into our emotional experiences. As this constriction tightens, one of the advanced stages of suppression is major resistance to external events and relationships – anger and rage. Our brains will resist and then discharge painful energies as negativity – criticism, judgement, abandonment of others, and ultimately of ourselves.

Negativity is a symptom – not the problem. So, if we try to stop being negative, and try to be positive, we fail – or worse the constricted wounded energy ricochets back inwardly and we bludgeon and mutilate ourselves.

People “thrive”, as Patrick said, because their brains are involuntarily using negative discharges of energy as a means to avoid consciousness – painful separation, abandonment, and shame. Negativity is one of the many “drugs” that the brain uses to give us relief from incredible loneliness and pain. Humans “thrive” on it because it is how we are surviving our disease of humanness.

And Patrick is correct: negativity is “a poison to the soul and mind”. When the brain constricts it destroys. And when we judge or condemn anyone – or anything – we set ourselves up for the same and more conditions – we become “damned”. Now we are abandoning, rejecting, and abusing ourselves without any assistance necessary from others to do so. We are destroying the very flesh of our hearts.

So, what do we do about this? Some would say, “Just stop being negative!” Which of course is absurdly impossible – not just hard -- impossible --and negative, judgemental, and abandoning. It assumes that we have the ability and power to decide and do this for and by ourselves. This exaggerated sense of individual power and responsibility is essentially the central root of all separation and self-destruction.

The illness (humanness) that causes negativity is a deficiency of conscious contact with God which separates us from others and ultimately from ourselves. In this state, we are powerless – we do not have the ability to decide or choose or change. Disconnected from intimate conscious contact with our God is like a lamp being disconnected from a source of electical current. Everything seems to be there to create light – but without the presence of electricity, there is only darkness.

In my experience, it has been critical to consciously experience this condition of powerless – profoundly – or I will unconsciously try to fix and change myself – continue to poison myself with some form of negative, abandoning, conditional energy.

To the extent I have a conscious experience of my powerless, I am ready to be reconnected to the loving Presence and Care of my God. Acceptance of powerlessness opens my inner constriction enough to begin letting their Presence begin to flow into my wounded abandonments. In their Presence, my constrictions begin to subside, and I can begin to experience a “peace that passes all understanding” – beyond mental thought, and a “joy unspeakable and full of awesomeness” – unexpressable in mental words.

My God’s loving Presence begins to heal my wounded brain – and my thoughts – the fever of human shame – begins to decrease. There – in the increasing contact with my God, with myself, and with others a rebirthing begins to occur, continuing as long as I remain increasingly connected to my God. I become more and more my truest and most original self.


This healing process is relatively simple – but it is not easy. Our brains are programmed to hide possible pain and fear in layers and layers of thought and unconsciousness. In my experience, we need to develop a practice of spiritual maintenance and progressive spiritual enlightenment in order to have a life of soothing love, and unconditional acceptance.

I believe that if you read some of my other articles, you will find suggestions and directions based on my own experience, strength, and hope that will allow you to begin finding your own personal journey and destinations of higher self with God.

Daily Inspirations are about maintaining a constant conscious contact with our God through continuing connections with others’ experience, strength and hope. We are each others’ sacred messengers – angels. We need to learn how to be increasingly conscious of each others’ messages.

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The Need for Spiritual Life Maintenance -- Spiritual Awakening and Spiritual Enlightenment

Be not afraid of growing slowly.
Be afraid of standing still.
Chinese Proverb

Humanness is a chronic disease of separation – ongoing disconnection from others, from ourselves, and from our God. When other problems are added to our humanness -- like alcoholism, mental and physical illness, poverty, etc…, the disease of humanness becomes more and more acute and painful.

There are two basic treatments for humanness – and its subcategory illnesses. Both work effectively. One is the easier, softer way and the treatment used by upward of 95% of all human beings. The other requires conscious effort and life experience. Few people ever find it and live it.

The first and most widely used treatment for humanness is unconsciousness. It is very effective in eliminating conscious discomfort and pain. It involves using things, people, and situations as drugs of distraction to cause the loss of conscious contact with ourselves to the point that there is little to no conscious pain. The pain exists but it is anesthetized into different forms and levels of numbness – unconsciousness.

Drugs and alcohol have an addictive ability to do this for addicts and alcoholics. But drugs and alcohol are by no means the most widely used and effective anesthetizing substances.

Thought, by far, is the most effective and pervasive “agent” of unconsciousness used by human beings.

The primitive involuntary part of our brains possesses ultimate control the actual operation of our brains. It monitors and attempts to control the amount of neural energy – consciousness – we experience at any given time. It has been programmed by past stress and pain of actual and possible separation from others.

It controls by using the rational and thinking part of the brain – the cerebral cortex – to lower and control the level of conscious neural energy being experienced at any given time. It does this by inserting massive quantities of thought into the conscious stream of experience – which slows the brain’s impulses down, and suppresses its overall functioning. Thought can be a depressant or a stimulant – whichever is needed to take the overall brain, and mind away from consciousness of what is. It can be racing thoughts, memory loss, or even overwhelmed and blank thoughts.

Denial is one very effective result of thought. I have experienced that denial means “Don’t Even kNow I Am Lying.” Thought is so effective that a person can be staring at the facts and be unable to consciously see or experience what is. Unconsciousness works.

The second and rarely used treatment for humanness is consciousness. This treatment involves increasing our conscious contact with God, with ourselves, and with other human beings. Instead of thinking ourselves into an oblivion, we experience our neural perceptions and reactions initially as feelings, which can continue until they become an expansive and flowing conscious experience of ourselves with our God.

This treatment is normally avoided because it will always begin with the conscious experience of pain and fear, which the primitive brain perceives as “life threatening”. The primitive brain will attempt to avoid consciousness in any way possible – at any cost – including physical and mental illness.

Another major barrier to consciousness is that it is not the default setting on our brains, and so our brains instinctively and involuntarily return to this unconscious setting without conscious choice or intent. To remain conscious requires an ongoing process of conscious vigilant experience of ourselves and an ongoing process of conscious contact and reconnecting with the unconditionally loving Presence of our God.

Spirituality is about conscious contact with our personal God, frequently through the means of conscious contact with others. It is possible to have spiritual experiences of heightened consciousness without it becoming an enduring and continuing spiritual state of consciousness.

People can attend church, spiritual support groups, and meetings with other spiritual persons, experience a higher consciousness, and then quickly return back to their unconscious selves.

Frequently consciousness is difficult to maintain because higher spiritual contact with God also increases our conscious contact with ourselves, resulting initially and sometimes persistently in pain and emotional discomfort – a sense of separation and abandonment.

What occurs with spiritual experiences is that the constriction that the primitive brain maintains on neural energy relaxes in conscious Presence with our God. So there is a temporary relief without the numbing constrictions of thought. And then there is a heightened vulnerability to the effects of life events and relationships. So, when we are reexposed to normal life, our primitive brains have to reconstrict the energies to protect our brains from death by abandonment -- the lack of consistent conscious contact with God and others.

To become and remain spiritually conscious and less constricted --- to begin to heal and grow into health and well being -- we have to establish a consistent practice or “life” of ongoing spiritual maintenance – a steady flow of our God’s intimate Presence.

But why bother? Unconsciousness works fine! It’s just not that bad. Don’t fix it if it is not broken.

If it does not consciously hurt “bad enough”, we are hopelessly and helplessly lost within our own unconscious abyss.

If it maybe sometimes hurts “bad enough”, we can begin to develop a steady life practice of experiencing God’s Presence. Who knows?

13 Enter ye in by the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many are they that enter in thereby. 14 For narrow is the gate, and narrowed the way, that leadeth unto life, and few are they that find it.
Matt 7:13-14 (ASV)

Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. 14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.
Matt 7:13-14 (ESV)

Finding Daily Inspirations in the Storms of Life

In the storm, the tree that bends with the wind

is the one that survives to grow tall.
Brenda Scheffer

Most of my life was spent surviving actual and perceived “storms” –inside and out...

For the complete article, click here: Finding Daily Inspiration Within the Storms of Life.

How Do Daily Inspirations Reprogram Our Hearts?

Daily Inspirations:

Love is what we were born with. Fear is what we have learned here. The spiritual journey is the unlearning of fear and the acceptance of love back into our hearts.
Marianne Williamson

Except ye become as a little child, ye shall not enter the kingdom of heaven…The kingdom of heaven is within you.

Jesus

The material world operates based on outcomes. Every interaction with a person, object, or circumstance is ultimately judged as being either good or bad – based on outcomes. And in this system, every moment of human existence within the brain neural network is assigned these same judgments of “good” or “bad”. With every “good”, there is a sense of connection and Presence. With every “bad”, there is an experience of separation and abandonment.


For the complete article, click here: How Daily Inspirations Can Reprogram Our Hearts.

Inspirational Life Quotes for the New Year

A New Year's resolution is something that goes in one year and out the other. ~Author Unknown

Many people look forward to the new year for a new start on old habits. ~Author Unknown

Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new year find you a better man. ~Benjamin Franklin

No one ever regarded the First of January with indifference. It is that from which all date their time, and count upon what is left. It is the nativity of our common Adam. ~Charles Lamb

For more inspirational life quotes regarding the New Year, click here: Inspirational Life Quotes for the New Year.

How Do Daily Inspirations Reprogram Our Hearts?

Daily Inspirations:

Love is what we were born with. Fear is what we have learned here. The spiritual journey is the unlearning of fear and the acceptance of love back into our hearts.
Marianne Williamson

Except ye become as a little child, ye shall not enter the kingdom of heaven…The kingdom of heaven is within you.

Jesus

The material world operates based on outcomes. Every interaction with a person, object, or circumstance is ultimately judged as being either good or bad – based on outcomes. And in this system, every moment of human existence within the brain neural network is assigned these same judgments of “good” or “bad”. With every “good”, there is a sense of connection and Presence. With every “bad”, there is an experience of separation and abandonment.


For the complete article, click here: How Daily Inspirations Can Reprogram Our Hearts.

Stopping the Pain -- Through Daily Inspirations

I have found the paradox,

that if you love until it hurts,

there can be no more hurt,

only more love.

Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa devoted her life to the dying and abandoned of Calcutta, India. What she sacrificed to be who she was had to have hurt tremendously on a human level. Yet what her words describe as her experience, strength, and hope, is that there is an overriding payoff for caring about others. I hear in her voice the impression that what active love and caring offers cannot be found any other way.


For the complete article, click here Stopping the Pain -- Through Daily Inspirations.

Life Can Be MORE Through Daily Inspirations

Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden

when the flowers are dead. The consciousness of loving and being loved brings a warmth and richness to life that nothing else can bring.

Oscar Wilde

For the article, click here: Life Can Be More Through Daily Inspirations.

WASS/THOMAS FAMILY HOLIDAY/CHRISTMAS CARD

I (Will) took this picture at the opening to the beach at Fort Lauderdale, after we came back from the cruise. I had set the light too high, and everything, including the white wall Kathy was sitting on disappeared. I didn't have a chance to delete it. And later when I downloaded it, it reminded me of the Presence of God -- often hidden in the sensory details of normal life.

Kathy and our granddaughter, Becca.

Kathy and our granddaughter Ally.

Kathy and her mom.

One of Kathy's Christmas outfits. She begins wearing them at Thanksgiving

and wears a different one every day until January 4th.

It's fun to watch people smile when they see her outfit.

Kathy's Dad at Thanksgiving.

Kathy "managing" gifts and fun at a birthday.

The new house: historic, over 100 years old in Clifton.

Kathy playing the Easter Bunny.

Designer Easter Baskets: granddaughters, Eva and Mandy.

Kathy and Will's Dad at Cracker Barrel in Rocky Mount, NC.

Internal Medicine Board Review in Atlanta.

Barbie Convention in Washington, DC: Barbie turned 50.

Thanksgiving at Kathy's sister's - Joyce. Another Christmas outfit.

Kathy's cats: Sweet Pea and Hopscotch

Sammy giving Billy "five".

Kathy on our cruise -- Carnival Miracle.

Kathy and Will on Cruise.

On cruise, matching tropicals.

Grandkids at Easter parade: Luke, Mandy, Eva, Jake, Levi.

Family at Easter Parade.

Will holding granddaughter, Ally.

Will with granddaughters, Eva, Mandy, and Becca.

Billy and Mandy -- Sunday bunch at Galt House for birthdays.

Dana reading Becca a book.

Billy with Becca at Mall.

Billy, Dana, Mandy, Eva at Spring Mill for Pioneer Days.

Granddaughters, Becca, Mandy, and Eva in matching Christmas PJs.

Chris and Debra were married in January on the beach.


Chris and Debra's children -- our grandchildren -- Luke, Levi, Jake, and Ally.

Ally with dad, Chris -- trampoline kiss.

Granddaughter, Ally, with Chris's wife, Debra.

Granddaughter, Ally, enjoying the "sacred orb' of the Halloween season.

Will started his blog in August: Finding Daily Inspirations.....

And Kathy learned to walk on water.

MORE PICTURES TO COME....