Happy New Year 2021, Living the Dream

This year instead of external goals such as money, weight, and finding love how about we dare to LIVE THE DREAM we often allude to but rarely chase? Let's make a promise to navigate whatever comes with an internal view to find positive actions within ourselves to create a path to live our dream. When we believe in ourselves we can find a way. When we are confident and at peace with ourselves we find common ground with others. We find a way when it seems there is no way. All life is resilient.

Thankful to know the world of humans can be a peaceful collection of diversity when we look deeper than the external appearances of opposition. Every day people want the same things, self-sovereignty, peace, and freedom, a simple formula to live our dream. Years of self -dissection and discovery I have come to know, external peace is rarely attained collectively but internally we can choose peace thought by thought, moment by moment.  

How to live free? The secret is to exercise self-sovereignty by controlling our thoughts. Peace is achieved by daring to independently think positively against all odds. Freedom is accomplished by making plans mentally to put into action now, if only on paper. Internal peace, no one can take away.  

"Grateful attitudes and positive outlooks always win the moment, the day, the year, and life. We, the people will rise."

"Be careful of your thoughts, for your thoughts become your words. Be careful of your words, for your words become your actions. Be careful of your actions, for your actions become your habits. Be careful of your habits, for your habits become your character. Be careful of your character, for your character becomes your destiny." -- Chinese proverb, author unknown

The Best is Yet To Be

 On January 1, 2020, I dived into the lake's icy waters, 37 degrees, not as cold as I had hoped. Now I am an official member of the Polar Bear Club of Lake George! Little did I know that this year would be as exciting as the cold waters of the lake! As we all know, life is full of surprises, and if you do not want things to change, you are on the wrong planet. To this, we toast to life and change! The wonder of being alive.                                                                                        

As kind, compassionate people who are supportive, closely knit, and self-reliant, we are equipped to navigate together this journey of surprises.  Nothing short of this phenomenon has brought many fathers, mothers, friends, children, young and old, together like the past months.  Friends and families holding on to one another providing safe harbors while finding safety together through these unusual days have been and will continue to be a fantastic thing to witness. Every day people are full of heart and generosity to help each other. The world's people will love one another and stand together as we always do in hard times. We see our love in action every day!        

                                                                                                                      

Eleven Lovely Reasons to be Thankful

Every Thanksgiving, I write "Eleven Lovely Things." This year my focus is what I treasure most as a citizen of the United States of America TODAY.

1) USA is the melting pot of the world, we have always had every nationality of the world here, since the creation of this "government for the people by the people," welcome.

2) USA protects every person's chosen religion to worship peacefully side by side in         this country, harmony.

3) USA has every ethnic food from the world over available prepared by native chefs, delicious. 

4) USA has a U.S. Constitution that gives every citizen here the protection to protest peacefully, a voice.

5) USA allows every person to create personal wealth if you work and seek it, prosperity.

6) USA protects every citizen to live without domestic violence in this country's homes. If you use the law to protect your family, it is here, safety.

7) USA gives women, children, and men protection by law from predators, chivalry.

8) USA  gives citizens, both men and women, the legal right to choose who they love and who to marry; you are respected as an individual.

9) USA allows everyone to choose their lifestyle with protection to live it, and therefore there is no need to impose different opinions on others, personal autonomy.

10) USA gives the people freedom to choose education, vocation, and location to live, individuality.

11) USA is the land of the free since 1776 because of the individual freedom-loving citizens.  The leaders elected with the voices of the people, created The Declaration of Independence and The U.S.Constitution.

That document was created for the people of this land.  It was not designed to rule the world. The people that live here are the protectors of that document. The elected public servants here respect that document and pass laws that serve the people and this country first and foremost as outlined in those documents. So far, it has worked well and given room for improvements as progress would dictate.  

USA is not perfect, it never will be, but we journey on to seek how to promote freedom through individual self-sovereignty. It works; time has proved it works. The free people's evolution means we are united in purpose, live free, and die free.

Life is a gift; to live free is a bonus.

As a country, we , the people are kindhearted and give of our prosperity to the world in need. 

More people come to live in this country every year than any other country in the world to have civility and peaceful self-sovereignty. Stand up, speak up to remain free. Free people have courage and faith. Good always wins if you keep standing for it. 

If you don't know your Declaration of Independence or the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights, you will not recognize it if these are trodden upon or taken from you.       Get a copy of these and study daily. It is your life and country. 

"Your life is a gift to the world." 

What will I give to make it better? If peace is to be, it must begin with me. Kindness and compassion is my responsibility.

Thankful this day and every day for every person on earth.  We all love one another, we just don't know it yet, but it is coming into focus. Every day can be a Thanksgiving Day if we make peace with the past and keep moving forward. There is no other way but forward together. 

 

Two Innate Fears, All Other Fears Are Learned

Science has proven we are born with the fear of loud noises and the fear of falling.  Therefore all other fears are learned. If someone you trust tells you something that triggers your fear response, you react. But how you react is your choice.

The three fear responses are fight, flight, or freeze, and all of these are helpful short term for your safety, but to stay in any of these twenty-four-seven will break down your nerves, and stress will set in. Stress creates a compromised immune system, and that is an environment for disease.  Science proves that the ability to control your emotions and calm your nerves is the best medicine to promote healing to the body and make more straightforward decisions.

What remedy you choose to calm down is your choice. Do you go for alcohol, drugs, food, work harder, longer hours? What is your "go-to" to quell your "learned fear?"  Mine is turn off all TV, movie, loud music, turn off social media, and move away from negative attitudes from people around me, and go inside with meditation and gratefulness for everything I have now in my life. I choose what I listen to, who I listen to, and what I feel, not the world outside of me. 

Fear is useful, but I put a time limit on my anxiety. There is a deadline that I choose to stop worrying. If I stop worrying and have no answers, I keep meditating or do an activity that gets my mind in a calmer state. Exercise, walking out in nature, or listening to a teacher's lecture that I admire; Byron Katie Mitchell, Eckhart Tolle, Pema Chodron, Lisa Romano, Jordan Peterson, so many more, all of these have free videos on YouTube. These teachers do not freak out; they do not have panic attacks; they control their emotions. My goal in life is to control my feelings to live a balanced life. How I achieve this is to watch where I focus my thoughts. .

Indeed, you will not get the answers from the media. It is also sure that sitting in front of Netflix and eating pizza all day and night day will NOT help you. YOU have to change your focus mentally and your diet physically. YOU alone.

Recently I was enjoying music and meditating at night, and I fell asleep. I began to dream horrible, disruptive thoughts. Finally, I was so distressed I woke up. When I awakened, I pulled the earphones out of my ears, and the loud arguing was STILL going on in my head. It distressed me terribly. I pulled on my ears and could not shut off the destructive arguing I heard. Then I ACTUALLY woke up. Accidentally the "autoplay" was turned on in my iPhone, and it went to the news without my permission.

If dreams give any message, I supposed it to be this:

"Just because I stopped listening to destructive news, the stress was still in my mind after I turned it off because my mind could not forget the instant replay of negative news."

I could not control my thoughts while plugged into fearful reporting via autoplay in my iPhone.

To remedy this, I now put my meditation CD in my player with earphones. It is good to unhook from the digital internet as much as possible, and we must focus on the things we need to do to be safe during these uncertain times and begin to think of how to create a livelihood. To do this, one must be calm, collected, and open to new ideas.

News channels have to take the negative and rare events to get the public's attention or who would tune in day after day?  Negative news channels prey on your fears. In fact, they count on it. Clicks are money in the pockets for newscasters, and if fear is planted in your thoughts, you're trapped!

Learn to think for yourself with reason and logic. Do your research, get the facts straight. It takes work to learn how to be responsible for your life and detect lies. The good news is you were built to think and choose what is truth. You can do this!

Read books and get off technology as much as possible. Learn to think for yourself. Your mind is the most valuable tool you have, do not let anyone steal your mind away from positive words to keep your brain and body healthy. It is the one thing we all can do, no matter what is going on in the outside world...choose what we think.

Thankful to know this now. It took me years to discover I was responsible for my thoughts and actions. I am in control of me, not my past, not my neighbor, not the media, me. I choose peace. Your life is a gift t the world.

The Flaming Feminist Spoke

As I work at home now, I listen to podcasts of Supreme Court Justices speak about the Rule of Law and how they discuss, dissent, and move to a conclusion over cases that arrive in the highest court of our land. The Supreme Court has the final say when people respect the law. We do.

Justices Scalia, Ginsberg, Breyer, are very different in opinions yet they agree to disagree and remain respectful and even friends. So interesting to learn about this great U.S. Constitution foundation from these educated judges as well as how decisions are accomplished. There is room for evolution in our laws. The writers of the U.S. Constitution created avenues for change in the progress they knew would come.

Ruth Bader Ginsberg said in her day she was referred to as a "Flaming Feminist" because of her stance on women's equality. Women now have a voice in government since women won the right to vote in 1920. 

The Rule of Law is the foundation of civilization and economic prosperity. 

Thankful to be old enough to discover this: Uncontrolled emotions due to inexperience in life will lead you to angry outbursts. It is the way of youthful defiance, it is necessary to become an independent thinker. 

I use to be young, passionate and confused with anger.  I use to blame others until one day I decided to take control of myself. I began to look within me and discovered I could think for myself and discover the truth of most situations. I play a part in every injustice I hate. 

I trusted no one. I read every book on any subject I care about until I released my anger through my understanding. 

Understanding comes from educating yourself. 

If something does not make sense to you, keep reading until it does. The self-discipline to dig deeper until you have the answers takes tenacity.

Once I realized the origin of the problem, I could begin to discover a remedy. (We have a brain, we can think)

We don't need any more angry men or women as leaders of any movement. Anger leads to violence. 

Educate yourself, learn how to form a persuasive opinion without anger that will be considered and we will see you in court to peacefully settle things legally.

Composed men and women will welcome open debates on most any issue. 

Ruth Bader Ginsburg said, "Anger has no place in persuading others to your point of view."

Thankful to live under a peaceful government now to get our freedom back. Vote. 

A Black Armband 1970, A Black Velvet Scarf 2020

Two women, names that began with "J," had an eye-opening effect on me in my life.

In 1970 this fourteen-year-old, dangerously naïve pious girl was sent to a private "Christian" academy against her will. The violence witnessed there from the adults in charge left an impression on her for life.

Pop teen magazines delivered by mail and a radio hidden in a student's room gave news of the outside world. It was against the school rules to have a radio. It was the sixties and seventies, and you would have to be blind and deaf not to know of the movement taking place in America for 'Love and Peace' against a government that pushed for war and drafted young men against their will.

We had rock stars, but this new "ROCK"  star on stage was a woman, holding her own among the greats at Woodstock Music Festival 1969. We played her album secretly at our dorm, her music was powerful, liberating, screeching lyrics, a woman with her own style. She represented a form of wild freedom in a song women had not witnessed, but she lacked the discipline to curtail the wildness in her personal life. The lack of the second destroyed her at a young age because she, like her music, had no limits. To die of lack of self-care is a useless loss of a good life. One casualty was an addiction that killed her.

The radio reported she died, young, 27, by a drug overdose. Those of us who admired this woman decided to wear a black armband for one week in memory of this great woman, and so I did. It was a peaceful remembrance of a great woman to this shy 14 year old girl. Why she had to die so young of an OD would become a study of mine. Addictions.

Fifty years later, this 14-year-old teenager is older and wiser, another woman whose name began with a "J" dies of cancer in her more senior years.

This woman did not stand on a stage and screech a tune for a rebellious generation. This woman went for a longer-lasting effect on many generations to follow.  SHE BECAME EDUCATED, formally, and informally, to serve everyone with her professional talents. She practiced self-care with limits.  A woman of dissent, with controlled emotions and a mighty pen, she preferred the opera to a wild screeching voice.  I like both genres.

The changes this patient lawyer would fight for would give all people, including women, especially women, an equal right to make personal choices. Change takes generations and begins with one note at a time. Peaceful patience turns the key to liberty.

The first woman I wore a black armband for fifty years ago was Janis Joplin. Today I wear a black velvet silk scarf in memory of Joan Ruth Bader. Thankful to have lived in the years to know both great women.

 

 

"We, The People"

“We do not preserve the U.S. Constitution to protect elected public employees; we preserve the U.S.                                      Constitution to protect “We, the individual people” governed.”

Being free is not easy, it is a responsibility that comes with knowing your rights to live free. The U.S. Constitution was voted upon and agreed by the American people and Congress in 1787.  It was established to give the power to “We, The People” to always be governed by ourselves collectively.

The U. S. Constitution was not created to make a profit for elected public servants, nor for elected public servants to use their elected position to make deals in back rooms to gain personal wealth. The U.S. Constitution was created to protect “We, The People.”  Politicians have made themselves “KINGS.”

If any person is angry with American law and traditions, you need not apply to run for any elected public position; you have proven by your angry words and actions that you are not qualified to bring positive change.  You will not move our country forward; instead, your anger will keep our government and country stagnated.  The American people are not violent, angry, or greedy as some bold individuals in the limelight.  “We, the people” want to move forward together.

The peaceful among us do not watch TV twenty-four hours a day, we have a life.

“We, the people,” will not be divided; we respect each other and want harmony in our country.  The U.S. Constitution guarantees this better than any politician. The majority of us that make this nation peaceful are watching just enough to know we need to vote these politicians out.

No wonder the intellectual elites that were elected to govern today want to change the Constitution to suit their master plans. These elected public servants have made themselves demigods of intellect that do not serve the American people anymore.  These grandiose master plans do not support individual freedom and choices as outlined in the U.S. Constitution.

Executive orders are being wielded like a sword by elected public servants in states without running these through the legal channels set up, elected officials are not obeying the decisions of the Supreme Court in the states and the people are told these unilateral decisions, mandated against the people’s will are to be put in motion, because it is the “right thing to do.”  Politicians are bullying each other and us.

A line from the preamble to the Constitution states the following:

“But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them (we, the people) under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”

We don’t need a complete overhaul of our government, we need new public servants that uphold the U.S. Constitution.  Any politician promoting or permitting violence and taking away our law enforcement is forcing our hand to do the work we elected them to do.  Violence is NOT the people’s choice.

Thankful to know more about this extraordinary document because I was “Made in the U.S.A.”

Being free is not easy, it is a responsibility to abide by the U.S. Constitution you have to stand up and vote for it. We will be at the voting places to vote. The U.S. Constitution will stand.