Excerpt

Spring Week 1

Passion

The grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love,
and something to hope for.

-Joseph Addison

The dictionary describes passion as: 1. A powerful emotion such as love or anger. 2. Ardent love or strong sexual desire. 3. Boundless enthusiasm.

Number three is closest to my definition of passion, which is that passion is Gods channel to the earth. It is how each one of us expresses the God or divinity within us. Passion expressed through work is what we love to do, what we dream about, get excited about, would do for free, cant get enough of, makes our eyes light up with joy, and creates a feeling of being totally alive. Passion turns an ordinary, mundane world into a beautiful, exciting world full of opportunities and richness. It is what makes life worth living and brings abundance and joy to our day.

Everybody, and I mean everybody, has something in his or her life that brings about a feeling of boundless enthusiasm. The trick to discovering passion is first discovering what activities bring about this feeling, and then bringing them into your life more and more until passion is your life. Remember not to judge what you are passionate about as not good enough, or just a hobby and to realize that there are as many things to be passionate about as there are people on this earth. Even if your passion seems a little weird, remember somebody has got to love it, so why not you? For example, I know a person who is passionate about concrete and another who is passionate about organizing piles of paper. What is it for you?

If you think you dont know anything about being passionate or leading a passionate life, consider the possibility that you happen to know exactly what a passionate person looks like. Passionate people are the ones whose work is widely admired in their field of choice and who radiate peace, joy and happiness. You want to be around these people and support whatever it is that they are doing. Their passion makes their work seem easy and almost makes you want to do it too, because they make it look so easy and because passionate people can be so inspiring.

Passion in life is so important because any work that is fueled by passion carries within it an inspirational, life-giving energy that seems to create a chain-reaction of inspiration in the receivers soul to seek out the same within themself. So you see how one person leading a passionate life can affect so many.

Exploration:

What are you deeply passionate about? This week make a list of all of the things that you are passionate about; all the things that you love to do, are compelled to do and would do for free and then continue to add to it over time and watch how it grows. A person who once believed they had no passion, now realizes they have many passions.

Fall Week 12

Be the Change

Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.

-Carl Jung

We have all tried it, wished it, and attempted it; the great illusion of trying to change another. Trying to fit someone else into our nice, tidy mold. If only we could see that what we are really attempting is an inner change and the person we are trying to change is simply a mirror to the changes we wish to see in our own consciousness.

It is futile to ask any person or thing to be other than they are. Would you ask a rose to become a lotus, or a pine to become a palm? All you can do is accept, inspire and encourage another person to become the fullest blossoming or expression of who they already inherently are. Other than that, your efforts are in vain.

We must all learn to embody in ourselves first the changes we wish to see in other people and, furthermore, we must also find ways to embody the changes that we wish to see in the world. So if I believe that the world is disconnected, I must find ways to connect. If I believe my friend is too materialistic, then I must find ways to become less materialistic. And if I believe that the world moves too fast, then I must find ways to slow down.

The minute you look outside yourself to create the change that you wish to see, you have lost your true power and begun supporting an illusion that will only lead to pain. Challenge people, yes, hold them accountable to their word, support them in achieving what they want and then, let the rest go. Ultimately, they are who they are and you must accept that in order to truly love them, or leave them.

Exploration:

This week, reflect on the people in your life who you most want to change. On a piece of paper, list their names and next to their names list everything you would change about them. When you are finished, read down the list and become aware of the fact that these people represent mirrors to your own consciousness, they are in your life to teach you something about yourself. Then take your own advice and do the things you want others to do. Learn to embody the qualities in yourself that you wish for others.

You must be the change you wish to see in the world.

-Mahatma Gandhi

If you wish the world to become loving and compassionate, become loving and compassionate yourself.
If you wish to diminish fear in the world, diminish your own. These are the gifts that you can give.

-Gary Zukav