No Day, But Today

No Day, But Today

Photo by: mary a (flickr: emdot)

We have a tendency to make living day-to-day way too complicated, when the essence of happiness, peace, balance, and joy remains - always - in plain view, and it's so simple.

Will you live based on love, or based on fear?                                         

That's what Scripture says, all through the Old and New Testaments.  That's where the central messages of all major religions agree.  That's what wise philosophers and spiritual gurus have held to be true for centuries.

Living a love-based life means accepting yourself and others.  Seeing the good, the positive, the hopeful in every person, every circumstance, every possibility.  It means holding onto a faith in something bigger than yourself, and using that faith as the springboard to a happy life, free from undue, unhelpful, and unnecessary anxiety.  It lets you live each day fresh, with a happy and grateful heart.

Living a life based on fear, naturally, produces the opposite effects.  Fear steals hope, and when there's no hope, there can be no peace.

The movie version of the Broadway hit "Rent" featured a song that conveys these ideas in a powerful way.  Here is a portion of the lyrics:

There's only us, there's only this

Forget regret, or life is yours to miss

No other path, no other way

No day but today

I can't control my destiny

I trust my soul, my only goal is just to be 

There's only now, there's only here

Give in to love or live in fear

No other path, No other way

No day but today  

Make this day all that it can be.  Give in to love, don't live in fear.

Be well,

Eric

Your Words Become Your Reality

Your Words Become Your Reality

  

Center for Victory has made trips to Kenya for the past few years, working with adults and young people there to help them grow spiritually and emotionally as they work to improve the quality of their lives. On our most recent trip, however, we suddenly found ourselves forced to live out the principles we had been discussing - and this test truly tested all of us.

  

 

The hotel where we stayed looked and felt nothing like how it had been advertised. It was less a hotel than a hovel, with poor service and sub-par food. None of our group had been very impressed - not that we expected a five-star resort, but even with moderate expectations, we felt disappointed and perhaps a little apprehensive.

While at breakfast the second morning of our stay, the hotel manager walked over to our group and unceremoniously evicted us from the hotel. He offered no explanation, nor permitted any dialogue with us. He wouldn't even let us pay. It was a matter of "Get out, now, and never come around here again."

Suffice it to say, we were flabbergasted. And not only that, we were suddenly without a place to stay, eat, or conduct our program.

Now, despite all of the ideas and strategies concerning living a life of victory that we had been sharing with our Kenyan friends the day before, when we got kicked out of our hotel, I'm sorry to admit that some of us in the group did not exactly practice what we had been preaching. It became instinctive for all of us to become anxious, frightened, angry, confrontational, and emotional - and it started to affect other members of the group, as well as the guards who were there to protect us.

Clearly, something had to be done to alter the trajectory we had begun to follow. The story had to change. So, I went up to a guard and said, "It's going to be all right," and the anxiety was released.

Our group started praying in the street, singing together, as people from the neighborhood joined the circle. Even a dog joined us. Before long, we learned that a hotel down the street was able to take all of us in - offering ample rooms, a conference center, and much better quality of food than we had been served at the first hotel. The dog followed us to the new facility, too, and became our mascot for the trip. 

  

There was no panic, even though we might have been headed that way. As the leader of this group, the one responsible, and the person others counted on to figure things out and set an example, I refused to become nervous or upset. I just kept saying, "We'll figure it out. It's going to be okay."

And by responding to the situation calmly and speaking positively, not reacting in an emotional or violent way, it did turn out okay. This episode, perhaps more clearly and undeniably than any other in recent memory, proved that what you think - and the language you use to share your thoughts - becomes your reality.

  

Be Well,

Eric Guy