Hi All
I start this week’s message with a beautiful Read from Jalaluddin Rumi – a Sufi Mystic poet from the 13th Century. Some nuances got lost in translation – reference to God or Lord could also be interpreted as The Great Spirit, Energy, Greater Power, Consciousness……..
Subject: Soul
Soul does not like or dislike – soul does not react – soul is a center of peace in us. It is the peace that is felt by getting rid of all the worldly matters of life. Even though peace is there for us all the time, it is not seen or felt by 99% of people because we engage ourselves too much in this materialistic world. Meditation, prayers, kindness and love will bring us to this peace which is our inheritance.
Life is a short passage of our journey towards eternity. It is a gift that is given to us by God. Compassion and kindness towards the human race and peace and love for humanity is the greatest grace and gift of our Lord to us and is our clear way to eternity.
Love all – as our Lord loves all and He cannot have a seat in a heart that is not full of love for He is love. Be joyful and you will become joy. Even though you feel you are not happy, think about things that make you happy and be happy – happiness is our right.
God is happiness – we have to be happy to be one with God who is kind – kindness is God. Show kindness to humans, to animals, kindness to trees and kindness to whatever exists in this world – as it is all creation of the Lord, we have to be kind to be one with God. Compassion is God – compassion for all living and non-living things in life, compassion and action to help those in need. Faith in action is love – joy, happiness, kindness, laughter, compassion – that is faith in action.
Rumi said beautifully.
“Give up your drop and become part of the ocean”.
When you give up your ego self and become one with the world around you, you will find life to be a beautiful experience, a very happy experience.
Regarding suffering, Rumi powerfully said, “I lost everything I had, but in the process I found myself, when I found myself, I found God when I found God, I did not need anything else – even in the loosing of everything there was something deeper I gained.”
As you ponder on this I invite you to think of today as your first step to the rest of your life. Some of you joined me last year on this ‘Goal Setting and Goal Getting’ journey – others are new to it. This week’s step is the most important step because it helps you to define what is really important to you and your loved ones and it helps you to take appropriate steps so that you can live a life of ‘no regrets’
Get yourself a nice binder, pages, dividers and a 4 color Bic pen.
Label the first Divider – 6 months to live
If you were told you only had 6 months to live what are the most important things to be, see, have, do etc
For example:
I would take the family on a nice holiday
I would spend more time with my family
I would hug more and tell my family I love them as often as I can
I would forgive …….
I would arrange financial security for my family
I would update my will / living will
I would get in touch with my inner spirituality etc
I would have an up-to-date all encompassing binder with all my information in one place – for example Financial information, Insurance, Funeral arrangements, business secession plan, bill payment information, names and phone numbers of people to contact – professional and family, location of current will, and anything else you can think of.
Add to this list over a few days as new ideas come up. Maybe discuss it with your spouse or a close friend to get feedback.
Once you have a concrete list start acting on it right away. Some things you can do right away, others may take a bit of work, but do it anyway – even a few steps in the right direction is progress.
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