Friday, May 20, 2011

Don't Let This Happen To You

"Life is a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death." - Auntie Mame


"Most people die with their music still in them." - Oliver Wendell Holmes


"In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts: they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty. Great works of art have no more affecting lesson for us than this. They teach us to abide by our spontaneous impression with good-humored inflexibility then most when the whole cry of voices is on the other side. Else, to-morrow a stranger will say with masterly good sense precisely what we have thought and felt all the time, and we shall be forced to take with shame our own opinion from another." - Ralph Waldo Emerson


I'm seeing a theme here. These are just a few quotes I think about a lot as instructions of what not to do. I don't claim to understand what God has in mind for us people but I do know that it has something to do with love: love for ourselves, love for the people in our lives, love for what we do, love for what we create, and love for what we experience. And I'm pretty sure it's also something to do with enjoying the miracle of the human experience. These quotes are not a doomsday oracle or an inevitability but rather a way to remind and urge us to create and live the life we want now. To me, this means reading, listening, learning, exploring, asking a lot of questions, petitioning the universe, setting goals, taking inspired action, and learning to enjoy fear as a glorious reminder of the fact that we're alive and that our hearts are beating. 
I've developed a theory that when we die, we get a chance to review our lives on our way into heaven. A shade is raised and we suddenly see all that we could have done, all that we were meant to enjoy. We see how our fears and doubts, embarrassments and hesitations got in the way of saying what we wanted to, risking what we wanted to, becoming who we most wanted to be. And we see that the fears and doubts were illusions. We are confronted by our own missed opportunities to exercise our inherent freedom, power and limitlessness. We momentarily wince in regret at the forsaken boldness and beauty we were meant to express in our lifetime.
Begin now, today, to see yourself as this free, powerful, limitless being that you undoubtedly are. Consider yourself: your longings, desires, and dreams - and know that these are your road map to the life you are meant to live. If you find yourself a little irritated by this proposition or confused about how to do this, my entries to come will offer many suggestions for instruction from me and those I've been learning from.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Wealth

It's taken me a long time to get to a point where I no longer feel guilty, greedy, or silly for wanting wealth. Here are some reasons why I've made it essential to be on my way to total wealth and financial freedom now:
So I can feel great about myself. So I never have to worry about buying toothpaste or a new pair of jeans. So I can buy presents for loved ones and send them on time and not get anxiety about it. So that I can donate to organizations that improve people's lives and that offer me spiritual inspiration. So that I can free myself once and for all of a poverty/lack mentality and demonstrate to myself that all that I want to be true is true. So I can prove to myself that I am powerful and capable of providing for myself and creating life as I like it. Because I believe in the importance of my physical environments and so I can create enriching, inspired, inspiring and lavish surroundings for myself which support my desire to create. So I can do whatever I want whenever I want wherever I want. So I can feel free and open in the world. So my family and friends won't worry about me. Because if creating wealth is as easy as creating poverty, why wouldn't I choose the first? Because God did not create me and the earth and all resources for me to live in a shack and subsist on beans (unless I want to for fun).  Because I want to partake in the lush bounty of life in all ways: physical, material, emotional, creative, spiritual, and mental. Because as long as I'm living life, why not live the best life, the finest life, the most exalted life? Because I have seen others obtain wealth and understand that whatever it was in them that garnered it exists in me, too. Because I want to dedicate my thought-time to the beautiful, the new, the elevating patterns of life, not to worrying about finances. Because I know I already have within me anything that could produce wealth and I will continue to uncover how the value I offer as an artist and creator translates into financial wealth for me and value to the marketplace. Because I know the talent, gifts and material in me exist now and only require being directed into the right channels in order for them to be received by others; that the joy this brings me is inside me and can be transmuted into actual dollars that go to support, sustain, and enrich me. Because I want a house (three, actually) and I want to travel and I want to feel great and look great and be great. Because I have distinct desires and I know they are a blueprint for how I am meant to live my life and what I am to do. Because God created my heart and my desires for their fulfillment. Because why not? If all is possible to she who believes, why not? Because it's easy to acquire wealth. Because money comes easily to me as support for the beautiful work I was born to do. Because I recognize and am grateful for all the ways I already am rich. Because wealth adds a fluidity, ease, and grace to my whole life and I am allowed this. May you prosper and become as wealthy as me, or more.