The Return of the Positive

The current level of negativity in America has reached new highs and I haven't been able to fathom why. We are in an age where we are technologically so advanced that we can connect with each other at nearly the speed of thought. How many times have you updated your status on Facebook and gotten 10 responses in the first few minutes.

We have a president that espouses the audacity of hope and has put together an administration that reflects the broader view of the real America – moreso than any administration in history.

Do you want to be a published writer? Spend 15 dollars and put together a website where you can share your musings with the world. That's where this site sprang up. I have been on a spiritual journey and I wanted to share that with you in the hopes that you or I might gain insight into the search for the Universal Truth.

And yet, the venom from conservative radio talk shows and Fox News is more strident than ever. It's like they're trying to tell you that you shouldn't believe the evidence that things are getting better. Ignore your own experience and listen to only them. Those hosts put everything in ideological or economic terms. “Disagree with me and you hate our country and everything we stand for,” seems to be the cry.

Sadly, there are those that buy into it. They're telling you that the president hasn't kept his campaign promises because the economy didn't get fixed in his first week in office. How dare he tell us that the recovery will be long and hard. It should be quick and easy, like everything in America is supposed to be. Forgot about the fact that the previous administration got us into an endless war, let banks and mortgage companies play fast and loose with money and the truth and didn't do anything to stop it.

But this is the part where we agree. We should make the outcomes move faster and we can, but we're going to need the negativity to cease. Positive thoughts bring positive reactions. Isn't that the Law of Attraction? Isn't that karma? What would happen if more people thought positive things for themselves rather than letting Rush, Beck or O'Reilly do their thinking for them?

The two opposing forces of positivity and negativity would become one might push toward curing the nations ills. Peace could break out, rather than being fought for. Others could see how oxymoronic a statement like that is. How do you “fight” for “peace?”

Would you like to attract peace and prosperity? It's easy. Come to God in gratitude and reshape your world. The Universe will move what it needs to give you what you truly want, as long as you stay grateful and know, really know, what you want.

Stay positive and grateful and get the good things that life has in store for you.

Pulling Us Down

In the last few weeks I have found my positivity being challenged like never before. No matter where I go, the collective negative energy weighs on me, increasing by the day. Are you finding this to be true as well?

My perception? My negative acquaintances now outweigh my positive, light-seeking friends. It's not on purpose. Most of the time, those who are a positive influence are being subjected to the same bad vibes I'm feeling and it put all that dark energy into them. Given a choice, I feel those friends would prefer the light as they had before.

I could tick off the causes

• financial situations
• unemployment
• the politics of the health care debate
• the weather
• workloads

There are more, but you get my point. There is an extraordinary amount of downward pressure being applied to the world at large.

But we still have so much to be thankful for, collectively and individually. You know the things the give you good vibes. For the human community at large, we can be grateful (and express our gratitude) for a multitude of gifts given to us every day:

• arising in the morning
• light
• breath
• children
• the music of human speech

You can add those to the individual things you are grateful for and, by doing so, scatter and dissipate the negative energy in your immediate area. If enough of us do that, we can make it go away and stop affecting the people we care about as well.

Taken Back

My wife took me back in time today.

She was listening to some audio for her French class and all of a sudden, certain parts of the language came back to me. I hadn't had a French class since the early 80s so it was curious that I was able to follow along with the pronunciations. I softly repeated the words and even predicted what might come next.

"Did you take French?" she asked.

I thought she knew that already, but I answered that I had.

"Will I ever be able to take something you haven't?" she pondered. "I'll never be able to measure up."

That was a blow from left field. I hadn't been trying to compare myself to her or my education to hers. I thought I was simply remembering some of the drills. In short order, feelings of dread came over me, the same why they had in 9th grade. Back then I can remember not wanting anyone to know I got good grades. It wasn't hip or cool to achieve. I wish they weren't, but those feelings are still strong. Hide your achievement. Don't let anyone know you might be smart. Brains are for nerds.

Only an hour earlier, I was having a great time helping my son with his homework, telling him how I hope he can overcome some early setbacks and prove to himself that he can do his best all the time. He was there during my time travel, but I hope he didn't come to the same mistaken conclusions I did all those years ago.

When did it become the right thing to do to avoid a good education? Why are people comfortable with just doing okay, when achievement is within their reach? How much more can be done for the good of the individual and the good of the group if we just lived up to our potential? Despite the challenges, I will help my son manifest his greatest potential and maximize his gifts. Maybe it's not hip, but it's the right thing to do.

He could start the next trend. We'll call it brainy cool.

Claiming It

We got a call that a friend of the family was involved in an accident. Turns out, it was more than that. At the hospital, we started getting the details. Our friend is a motorcycle rider and he slammed into a truck who was making a turn but should have yielded the right of way. The driver said that he didn't see him so our friend hit the side of the truck head first.

He wore a helmet, but not a face guard. In this state, helmets are not required so to know that he wore one provided a brief relief for us until we heard the grim circumstances. Since he was not wearing a guard, he fractured many facial bones and has some damage in one eye. The doctors could see some bleeding in the brain and it seemed like his whole body was experiencing swelling. The concern on the faces of his fiance, his family and his friends was palpable.

As we spent time in the waiting room, a curious thing happened. I've seen it before, but only now did I pay attention. Everyone wanted to be in the limited space of the trauma suite. The hospital, the largest, best trauma center in the region, explained that the doctors and nurses were working on the patient and that we all had to be in the family waiting room. The night grew busier for the hospital but in that room, two of the fiance's family members talked about how the hospital they worked for wouldn't make them wait and how they didn't appreciate the fact that not everyone was allowed to roam where they wanted. Everyone seemed impatient with the clerk who only tried to explain that they had a lot of cases and that they were doing what they could.

Then the gathered assembly was told that we would have to vacate the family waiting room because the hospital was going to need it as an overflow triage station. The negative energy eventually sent me from the room. I've always felt that my positivity could counteract vibes like that, but the strength of the animosity drove me away. The selfishness already on display grew worse. Weren't we there for our friend?

A pastor visited and said a prayer with the family, but I opted out in favor of my own prayer. When I heard the pastor performing during the prayer, I wanted to take our friends recovery in my own hands. Preaching as if you were in the pulpit didn't feel appropriate so I wanted to claim it for Ronny. What I claimed was speedy, complete recovery. Prayer, Law of Attraction, the label is unimportant. I asked God, Allah, the Universal Spirit for a return to health for our friend.

To say that I couldn't leave the hospital fast enough is to understate the case. By claiming the recovery with grateful thoughts, we can ensure success.

A week later, our friend left the hospital. One side is still a bit weak on one side because it bore the brunt of the impact, but we left under his own power. The swelling continues to recede and he is own his way to the complete recovery we asked for. True, he's doing to hard work, living through the pain and arranging the physical therapy, but we claimed it.

And it is happening.

Pat on the Back

It's employee review time at work and I am grateful to say that my own went very well. Areas in which I was challenged to improve on, I did and my supervisor had great comments. In fact, he considers my downfall that I don't take time off. He is correct that I don't require much time away and I had previously seen that as an asset. The company believes otherwise and, in one of those interesting twists that make this life, well, interesting, I have been ordered to find some time off.

As far as the people I supervise, I have a great staff, so their reviews glowed as well. There is, however, a problem child. Parts of the job he does as well as anyone else and other parts of the job don't seem to mean much to him and he falters there. Reaching him to help him shore up those areas has always been challenging and I had to be honest in my review with him. The report to the big boss did not present him in the most flattering of lights.

In my honesty, he had some great things to speak of. But he also has those areas in which he is not strong and shows no compulsion to get stronger. He is one of the younger members of the staff and I wonder if I was ever like that, coming to the conclusion that in areas where I was weak, I word hard to get strong so I have tried to manage him different ways but nothing seems to get through.

It reminds me of my discovery of The Secret. While much can be argued on both sides regarding the book and movie, something there reads true. You learn about things when you're ready. Perhaps he is not ready.

I just hope he gets there before unemployment becomes new normal.

Eureka

It's Move In Day at my daughter's college, part of the Welcome Weekend celebration. While I would be spending the day fitting all my junk into the small studio apartment she's moving into, she would rather apply time to other pursuits.

Shopping.

She is enamored with the blue and silver color scheme and has been for as long as I can remember. The first time she mentioned it was when she wanted Christmas presents for her room and she wanted everything to be blue and silver. I wondered if this really was an 8 year old saying this with authority. She got what she wanted.

Back to the present. She went on a shopping hunt to get a new bike to make it easier to travel around campus and she needed a blue comforter to fit a full size bed (a luxury in college - I got a twin). The majority of the afternoon was spent at various big box stores trying to get what she wanted, keeping me in the loop with regular updates. That's probably the newness of college. She had already moved out and spent the summer at a dorm/apartment, but this is a real studio apartment of her very own.

At one store she found the comforter she wanted, but it was for a twin bed. On one of her later updates, she called me from the parking lot telling me about the bike she got at the last store she visited. Then she told me she was going to see if this store to see if they had the right comforter. Then she stopped herself and said, "they do have it." I could hear the smile in her voice because she knew that I knew she was manifesting using the Law of Attraction.

She called back a little later. "I got it."

But I already knew she did.

Enlightened Multitasking

Saying that work life is increasingly challenging would be to state the obvious. We see all around us the result of budget cuts, fiscal strain and the stress of our co-workers as they try to cope with their own duties - already a challenge - and then with new responsibilities that they have to absorb as the result of layoffs.

Just today, I am doing my own thing, the new duties recently added, covering for a vacationing co-worker and working with my wife to transfer my son to a school less than a mile away instead of going to the county line as the school system is trying to send him. Add to that, answering e-mails and phone calls from people who complain that they're not getting what they need from me in a timely fashion and they don't understand why while at the same time, slyly questioning my competence.

My solution is simple. When it comes crashing down, banish the ego. Up until now, my ego would have had me lash out and yell at them that they did not understand what I was going through and why am I the only one this is happening to. The burgeoning enlightenment within myself immediately gets present, concentrating on breath so that I am immediately drawn into the moment. When that clarity comes, I see that the reason the pressure is on me, is that it's on everyone else, too.

It is also helpful to take a gratitude break. After all, I am grateful that I work in a career field that I love and after the working hours are over, I am blessed to go home to a family I am grateful to have. Those two things, and so much more, lift my spirits and enable me to redouble my efforts to get the job done. I get to leave the building each day and head for home filled to bursting with gratitude vibes that keep me going.