''Sometimes we keep on waiting – with patience, resignation, courage – and still, things around us don’t move.
But since this is the path we chose, it seems impossible that life’s blessings are not working in our favor. It provokes, therefore, a deep reflection about what we call “results:” our destiny is manifesting itself in a way we are not able to fully comprehend .
Jorge Luís Borges wrote a masterly short story about this issue.
He describes the birth of a tiger that spends great part of its life in the African wildness but ends up being captured and taken to a zoo in Italy. From then on, the animal thinks his life has lost sense and there is nothing left to do but wait for the day he dies.
One fine day, poet Dante Alighieri passes by this zoo, looks at the tiger, and the animal inspires a verse – in the midst of thousands of verses – of “The Divine Comedy.”
“The entire battle for survival that tiger went through was only so that it could be at the zoo on that morning and inspire an immortal verse,” says Borges.
Just like this tiger, we all have a reason – a very important reason – to be here, at this moment, this morning.
So relax. And pay attention.''
(by Paulo Coelho)
Action and Effect
''All motive and action affects the cosmos in some way.
The principle of cause and effect is the truth that allows us to change ourselves and the world around us for the better.
However, this same universal law is also at work when change is not at the forefront of our minds.
Our intentions flow forever outward in the form of energy, affecting both the people closest to us and billions of individuals we will likely never meet.
For this reason, we should strive always to speak, think, and behave with great thoughtfulness and compassion.
The virtues we choose to embody can inspire joy and integrity in the lives of countless people, whether we touch their existence directly or not.
The influence we wield is infinite.
In an effort to internalize our conscious understanding of the nature of cause and effect, we can never truly know how our thoughts, emotions, words, or actions will manifest themselves on the larger universal stage because it is likely that the furthest-reaching effects will fall outside the range of our perception.
We can only look to the guidance of our conscience, which will help us determine whether each of our choices is contributing to humanity's illumination or setting the stage for unintended troubles.
When we are in doubt, we need only remember that the cultivation of altruism inevitably leads to a harvest of goodwill and grace.
Motivated by a sincere desire to spread goodness, we will be naturally drawn to those choices that will help us express our commitment to universal well-being.
Nothing you do, however minor or mundane, is ever exempt from the rules of cause and effect.
From the moment of your birth, you have served as an agent of change, setting forces beyond your comprehension into motion across the surface of the earth and beyond.
You can exert conscious control over this transformative energy simply by examining your intentions and endeavoring always to promote peace, positive energy, and passion in your ideas and actions.
While you may never fully comprehend the extent of your purposefully heartfelt influence, you can rest assured that it will be universally felt.
(DailyOm, by Madisyn Taylor)
-Accepting Yourself
''Sometimes we choose or do something that takes us in the opposite direction of the reality we want to create.
There is no such thing as a good person or a bad person.
There are choices and actions that lead us in different directions, and it is through those choices and actions that we create our realities.
Sometimes we choose or do something that takes us in the opposite direction of the reality we want to create for ourselves. When we do this, we feel bad—uneasy, unhappy, unsure.
We might go so far as to label ourselves “bad” when a situation like this arises.
Instead of labeling ourselves, though, we could simply acknowledge that we made a choice that lead us down a particular path, and then let it go, forgiving ourselves and preparing for our next opportunity to choose, and act, in ways that support our best intentions.
Many of us experienced childhoods in which the words good and bad were used as weapons to control us—you were good if you did what you were told and bad if you didn’t.
This kind of discipline undermines a person’s ability to find their own moral center and to trust and be guided by their own inner self.
If you were raised this way, you may find yourself feeling shockwaves of badness when you do something you were taught was wrong, even if now you don’t agree that it’s bad.
Conversely, you may feel good when you do what you learned was right.
Notice how this puts you in something of a straitjacket.
An important part of our spiritual unfolding requires that we grow beyond what we learned and take responsibility for our own liberation in our own terms.
You are a human being with every right to be here, learning and exploring.
To label yourself good or bad is to think too small.
What you are is a decision-maker and every moment provides you the opportunity to move in the direction of your higher self or in the direction of stagnation or degradation.
In the end, only you know the difference.
If you find yourself going into self-judgment, try to stop yourself as soon as you can and come back to center.
Know that you are not good or bad, you are simply you.''
(DailyOm, by Madisyn Taylor)
''Families can contain a fascinating grouping of personalities.
Despite the potential for so many to have similar traits, there are many different ways to express them.
As people marry into families and have children, even more personalities enter the picture.
There may be some people that we would not choose to be related to, but that’s what friends are for.
If we trust in a universe that has a higher purpose for everything, then we must believe that family members are in our lives for a good reason.
These reasons may be easy to see and appreciate with some, but others may offer us a challenge.
With those, we can look for something we can learn or perhaps teach. In the modern world where everyone seeks to be individuals, many move far away from their families in an attempt to escape them.
But when we’ve successfully built a world around us that requires no one’s help, our families are the people who are still attached to us.
We can still choose whether or not to honor the family ties, and how to treat each other, but the fact remains that we are energetically tied to our families.
Our families help us see where we have come from so that we may more clearly decide where we’d like to go.
If we can learn to accept our families for who they are, then we go out into the world armed with the ability to deal with anyone.
Some families are better than others at preparing us for the world.
What we learn from our families, even if they are simply blank spots on our family trees, becomes the basis of our identities as individuals.
Rather than denying our connections, we can choose to accept their presence in our lives.
Acceptance does not mean we have to like them; we simply acknowledge that we are connected to them and honor that connection for like it or not, there is a reason.
When we can embrace all that they bring into our experience, we may be grateful for all we have learned from them and have to learn, while we experience everything that comes with family fully and completely.''
(dailyOm,Madisyn Taylor)
''There is beauty and power when we listen to the whisper.
You may have noticed that if you want to speak to someone in a noisy, crowded room, the best thing to do is lean close and whisper.
Yelling in an attempt to be louder than the room’s noise generally only hurts your throat and adds to the chaos.
Similarly, that still, small voice within each of us does not try to compete with the mental chatter on the surface of our minds, nor does it attempt to overpower the volume of the raucous world outside.
If we want to hear it, no matter what is going on around us or even inside us, we can always tune in to that soft voice underneath the surrounding noise.
It is generally true that the more insistent voices in our heads delivering messages that make us feel panicky or afraid are of questionable authority.
They may be voices we internalized from childhood or from the culture, and as such they possess only half-truths.
Their urgency stems from their disconnectedness from the center of our being, and their urgency is what catches our attention.
The other voice that whispers reassurances that everything is fundamentally okay simply delivers its message with quiet confidence.
Once we hear it, we know it speaks the truth.
Generally, once we have heard what it has to say, a powerful sense of calm settles over our entire being, and the other voices and sounds, once so dominant, fade into the background, suddenly seeming small and far away.
We may find that our own communications in the world begin to be influenced by the quiet certainty of this voice.
We may be less inclined to indulge in idle chatter as we become more interested in maintaining our connection to the whisper of truth that broadcasts its message like the sound of the wind shaking the leaves of a tree.
As we align ourselves more with this quiet confidence, we become an extension of the whisper, penetrating the noise of the world and creating more peace, trust, and confidence. ''
(DailyOm, Madisyn Taylor)
''When the world is in chaos, we can still have our own inner peace and maintain a sense of calm in sea of unrest.
People who maintain their sense of calm when things around them are in a state of flux and confusion are always wonderful to be around.
We feel calmer just being near them, as if they have activated our own sense of inner peace.
From them we learn that we can be calm, even when everything around us is in turmoil, because we know that no matter what happens, this inner sense of calm will help us to function well.
Often, times of confusion are the times that enable us to find that part of ourselves that knows how to cope, and how to be a light to others in the storm.
If we allow ourselves to be thrown off balance by every piece of disturbing news that comes our way, we may be relying too much on our emotions.
On the other hand, our thoughts may also be unreliable at times like these, as they chatter on endlessly about what might happen next.
If our feelings and thoughts activate one another in a hectic way, then we become caught up in the confusion that surrounds us.
However, if we can locate the stillness at the center of our hearts, we can find composure in almost any situation.
In addition, we provide a safe place for our friends and family, who are also prone to taking on the confusion of a world in flux.
It helps to remember that we don’t need to completely understand what’s happening right now, nor do we need to be able to predict the future.
Most of us just want to find our way to being at peace with whatever happens, and we can find this peace inside.
Cultivating our inner clarity with meditation, journaling, and reading words that inspire us, will lead us to that place inside us that’s already there, just waiting. ''
(DailyOm, Madisyn Taylor)
''Taking one step at a time makes life much easier to navigate rather than always looking at the big picture.
The years of our life do not arrive all at once; they greet us day by day.
With the descent of each setting sun, we are able to rest our heads and let the world take care of itself for a while.
We may rest assured throughout the night, knowing that the dawn will bring with it a chance to meet our lives anew, donning fresh perspectives and dream-inspired hopes.
The hours that follow, before we return to sleep once more, are for us to decide how we want to live and learn, laugh and grow.
Our lives are sweeter and more manageable because we must experience them this way: one day at a time.
Imagine the future stretching out before you and try to notice if you feel any tension or overwhelm at the prospect of the journey still to come.
Perhaps you have recently made a lifestyle change, like beginning a new diet or quitting smoking, and the idea of continuing this healthy new behavior for years seems daunting.
Maybe you have started a new job or are newly married and can feel an undercurrent of anxiety about your ability to succeed.
If you can shift your focus from what may happen years down the line and return it to the day that is before you right now, you may find a measure of calm and renewed confidence in your capabilities.
You may also discover an inner faith that the future will take care of itself.
The way we show up for our lives today and tomorrow has an enormous affect on who we will be and what we will be experiencing years from now.
If we can remain fully engaged in the day at hand, enjoying all it has to offer and putting our energy into making the most of it, we will find that we are perfectly ready and capable to handle any future when it arrives. ''
(DailyOm ,Madisyn Taylor)
''It is a great act of love to leave the earth a better place when we leave than which we found her.
We inherit this great planet from our parents and from the generations that came before.
Then, in concert with the surrounding culture, our elders teach us how to care for the land and the sea, ourselves and each other.
They model ways of being in relationship with every other expression of life on earth.
But whether they act with care or carelessness, compassion or cruelty, generosity or greed, we have the ability to choose our own individual way of relating with the planet and her inhabitants.
From our first breath here to our very last, we will find infinite opportunities to influence our environment for the better.
We can decide now to act with intention in order to leave this amazing planet brighter and more beautiful than when we arrived.
If we enjoy environmental activism, we might feel moved to clean up beaches or to plant trees.
But, we need not feel limited in our ability to contribute positively.
There are many ways to leave a legacy of love.
We might begin by radiating affirmative thoughts and feelings about how magnificent the earth truly is.
We might create and tend a special garden, one that provides an abundance of food and herbs for ourselves and our loved ones.
Or we might create a garden filled with sweet smelling flowers to uplift our hearts.
We might even honor the earth simply by trying to be the best person we can be while we are here.
Such good will can have a domino effect, inspiring others to contribute in their own way as well.
We spend our lifetimes being nourished and enlivened by the rain, sun, soil and wind.
Our experience is blessed by other living beings, from plants to insects to birds and humans.
We receive so much; giving back just naturally feels good.
When we live our lives with intention of leaving this temporary home a better place for generations to come, we are perhaps leaving behind the best gift of all. ''
(Daily Om, Madisyn Taylor )
