Our Journey to Balance

As he made his way home he looked to the moon and whispered an almost inaudible ‘I love you’. Upon arriving at his destination, he noticed the moon had followed him and wondered if she had done so in anticipation of what he would say next. Journey to Balance

Happiness is a Choice …

Once you’ve decided to be or become unhappy, there is nothing you can do but to be unhappy. Likewise, nothing and no one person can strip away your happiness once you’ve decided to actively work towards and pursue happiness. Either way, happiness is a conscious and deliberate choice.

Often times however, we put off our happiness until tomorrow when I have more money, or a better job, or a more suitable partner. In waiting for things to be just right, to be perfect, a joyful life continues to elude us. Tomorrow never comes.

What we fail to realize is that right now, at the present time, life is already rewarding us with plenty to feel happy about. However, in order to see what is right in front of us, we must do two things. First let go of the failures and disappointments of the past. Secondly, we must stop worrying about the future while we wait for conditions to be perfect.

Our daily challenge should be to purposely seek out those experiences that bring about joy. Whether it be working towards a goal, pursuing a passion or hobby, or fostering and growing important relationships. Let us seek out life affirming experiences. Lets give ourselves every possible chance to move forward rather than to self sabotage what is rightfully ours…a full life. Reflections. Journey to Balance

Do not be afraid when your path appears to end. There is always another way to get to your intended destination. Sometimes the path you travel ends for a reason. You may not know why but if you listen to your inner voice, you will soon find the course you were meant to be on. Blessings, Journey to Balance

You are not here to impress anyone. You are here to improve yourself. You are not here to grab all you can, but to give all you are. You are not your regrets. You are not your worries, or your feelings of uncertainty in times of despair. You are here to live with all the fullness and richness …. You are what you can imagine. Peace & Blessings, Journey to Balance …

Feel good

You can feel whatever way you choose to feel, so choose to feel good. Feel good about yourself, your world, your possibilities and your life.

You don’t have to ignore or deny the difficult realities in order to feel good. You can be fully aware and involved with life’s realities and still choose to feel good.

You can endure pain and disappointment and still choose to feel good. For

there is a beautiful part of you that can always rise above the most painful and burdensome difficulties.

Choose to feel good, and you put yourself in a position of power and effectiveness. Feel good, and feel the genuine strength of your true purpose.

Feel good, and open yourself to the best possibilities. Feel good, and generate new positive energy for moving forward.

Whatever the situation, feel good about yourself and about what you can do. Feel good about life, and let those feelings create a positive reality. Daily Motivator. Journey to Balance

If it is important enough to you, you will find a way. If it is not, you will find an excuse.

Difficult circumstances can challenge you but they cannot stop you. Only you can stop you. Others can give encouragement, can teach you and help you, or they can conspire against you to hold you back. Yet you can decide what to do with it all, and what to make out of what you’ve been handed.

There are some roads that lead to success and others that lead to despair. The road you are on depends entirely on the road you have chosen. Whether you see a life filled with beauty and positive possibilities or whether you see no hope at all, your assessment will most certainly prove to be true. Daily Motivator. Journey to Balance

I believe we are born with certain God ordained gifts. Some of us never effectively utilize these gifts. Those who do, do so because they inherently know that as much as they have chosen a path, the path has chosen them.

A writer for instance, doesn’t write because of a need to communicate with an audience or express ideas. A writer writes because he or she has a natural compulsion to do so. It takes over their life and it becomes no longer an option. They must do it.

We are all born with a specific mission. We owe it to ourselves and to coming generations to find out what that is. We take responsibility for that mission by developing a clear sense of self and by following our internal compass. To embark on this critical course of change takes courage, and I am here to let you know it is possible. Good Morning <3 Journey to Balance (Maritza)

TO FIND BALANCE WE MUST RECONCILE WITH THE IMBALANCE OF LIFE: LESSONS IN LOSS: COMMENTARY ON THE EVENTS SURROUNDING 9/11/2012

As I am a storyteller at heart, please allow me to recount a story that hopefully will help to illustrate how in terms of faith, we must realize there is this grand design of which we are all part.

It starts with a ‘chance’ encounter. My boyfriend and I had just spent the morning at a local bakery. Some of the children had come up to us looking for

money but we had decided to feed them instead. A stranger noticed and approached us. We were in our early twenties and traveling. It quickly became obvious to the stranger that we weren’t the average tourists.

He asked what we were doing on ‘that side of town.’ At the time, I assumed he meant to ask, what we were doing away from the expected sights, the museums and pyramids.

I want to see Egypt, I retorted. I want to see what others fail to see. The stranger smiled. I smiled back. The connection was instant. I could feel a mutual understanding between us.

That is how I was introduced to one of the oldest and last remaining Coptic Christian churches in Egypt. While it must have been beautiful and majestic in its day, now the murals had faded and most of what was present were scaffolding, weathered seats, and the smell of incense.

I remember feeling blessed. I remember kneeling and giving thanks, unprompted, to the Blessed Mother. My boyfriend must have been walking about when the old man approached me. Egypt was predominantly Muslim now and the Coptic Christians had been reduced to a marginalized minority, no different from any other minority anywhere I suppose. I noticed a tattoo of a cross imprinted on the inside of his wrist. I let him speak, vent, rant. While he spoke, I remember contemplating, how much pain lies within these walls? How many tears, how much bloodshed have befallen these people throughout the years? I realize quickly that what this man wanted wasn’t advice. The old priest wanted a voice.

In politics as in life, we simply cannot withstand major crisis, catastrophic events, and the uncertainty of change by ourselves. At its core, the message of faith is freedom, tolerance and acceptance. It is in this recognition of another’s point of view, that we solve life’s greatest mystery, because the purpose of life is not our individual success, our economic imprint, or even social status.

Our purpose should be to operate from a place of awareness, to grow our connection with a Higher Source, and see how this freedom manifests itself in our daily lives.

WORKING THROUGH THE HAZE OF RECENT EVENTS

Over the course of the last week, we have been forced to cope with and accept great loss. After all the anger, tears and even death, many of us have been left feeling disappointed. Our faith, security, and well-being have been tested yet again as we struggle to find meaning behind all the suffering. However, there are lessons in senselessness.

We have learned that while change involves risk, said risk must be backed by conviction, integrity and an adherence to a Divine Plan. Caused by years of repression and oppression, and fueled by anger, resentment and fear, we saw a film maker and Coptic Christian use our nation’s First Amendment right to free speech as a platform to spill enough hatred and venom that would consequently unleash a sequence of catastrophic events.

His message was one of freedom. What he failed to understand is that freedom requires courage backed by a humble heart. The Bible talks about “a great peace that surpasses all understanding.” If we are to become a great nation of progressive peoples, our wisdom should reside in compassion and understanding, in the ability to foster relationships, and bridge the gap between the oppressor and the oppressed. We gain this wisdom and collective maturity by learning to see another’s point of view.

We accomplish this goal by first learning to get out of our own way. We must stop trying to control the events of our life, the lives of other people, or even how they choose to respond to us. We must learn how to be offended. The more we connect to a Higher Source, the more we develop a connection to all that is divine, solemn, and pure.

Archaic, separatist, and superstitious beliefs on all fronts must be abandoned in favor of a trust in the process; in the natural order of events. What has happened should not be misconstrued as rotten luck, or God’s punishment. We must resist the urge to fall into the rhetoric of fear and policy simply because it is familiar. There is much change in the horizon. Though it is frightening, we must realize that with tumultuous upheaval comes a promise for renewed progress, and further awareness that we collectively, are fulfilling a Divine Plan. Peace & Blessings, Journey to Balance

The Absurd Logic of Fear …Why we must be the catalyst for change

Remember when we knew who the enemy was? During World War II Americans easily identified them as the Nazis, and the Fascists. The Cold War ushered in a new enemy and we called him the Communist. Society inherited the label during the decade of the 1960’s. Then with the 1970’s, we were catapulted into a new era.

At this time, the United States turned her attention abroad and witnessed, for example, some of the policies Egyptian President Anwar Sadat instituted which helped to bring forth global change. Russia played an instrumental role in the 1990’s when the term democracy had suddenly come into favor in the lips of Eastern Europe.

It wasn’t long after that when our enemy became more elusive, more intangible; cloaked in the shadow of ambiguity; he became more deadly and more sinister.

We call him Terrorism and we watch in horror as this new foe expands into a worldwide phenomenon. We as individuals are stressed and suspicious. We overreact. We put up walls.

Technology fuels this fear. Instant information is both a blessing and a curse. Violence, death, and horrible atrocities come to our phones, our tablets, stream through our radio waves, flood our desktops and television sets so fast as so overwhelmingly negative that we’re become anesthetized.

In fact, the wreckage left behind by graphic descriptions of our inhumanity has brought about great stress and extreme tension while apathy continues to exert a high toll on all of us. We have become more judgmental, condescending, more condemning and certainly more prejudiced.

We have all been affected and there’s no denying this. We have been left feeling powerless. We are angry and we are most definitely scared, guilty and even ashamed.

This fear is now woven into the fabric of our lives and all of our relationships are being affected as we name-call and finger-point.

Friends, I am here to tell you that you can reclaim you power and I am going to show you how, but first, follow me through a sequence of questions.

No. 1

Suppose two or three black families have moved into your neighborhood. What is your first thought?

No. 2

Now imagine yourself looking for an item at the supermarket. You are a bit confused because now you must contend with an international foods section, a kosher isle, and a vegetarian isle. Are you frustrated? Why?

No. 3

You’ve gotten hurt and are in need of emergency assistance. At the hospital, your male nurse is wearing a turban. Are you suddenly uncomfortable? Why?

My point is simple. Though it is true that hatred, discrimination, and prejudice are evident on a global scale, these feelings begin with all of us and therefore should end with us. Our neighborhoods, communities, and families are but a microcosm of the greater whole.

We are not responsible for the actions of the billions of souls now inhabiting this Earth. Our responsibility is solely to our self and soul development.

If we are to evolve into a consciously aware species, we must take a hard look at how we perceive race, religion, culture and gender.

Let us remember how unjust we were to Vietnamese Americans after the Vietnam War. Or perhaps, let us look to how we treated Japanese Americans after World War II.

The cycle of inhumanity does and will continue until we understand and accept the following:

The Soul Knows No Religion

Religion Does Not Equal Faith

Geography Does Not Generate Position

Dogma Cannot Assure Salvation

Money Cannot Ensure Happiness

Race Cannot Predict Selection

Power Will Never Deliver Control

The Solution …

Our only hope for survival rests in the fostering of relationships. Be kind to your neighbor. Practice tolerance and compassion. Release guilt and suspicion.

Relationships conquer cruelty, build character, eliminate suspicion, foster trust, safeguard one’s dignity, expand joy and spreads hope in a way that is far reaching; exponential.

God Bless us everyone. May we all continue to grow and learn with grace and dignity for we are all a work in progress. Reflections, Journey to Balance

In order to help humanity in its evolution, we must be the catalyst for change. Change is not only inevitable but essential if we are to grow and evolve.

We change our dynamics by addressing how the individual functions within society as an integral part of community.

Humanity evolves when we are willing to recognize, respect and uphold the spark of divinity in every one.

Social change happens when we recognize every individual is entitled to develop his or her potential.

In order to welcome transformation we must be flexible to the chaos, and to unconventional ways of addressing situations and individual perspectives.

Innovative free thinkers must reinvent the future without destroying or compromising society in the process. We must cypher through the past in order to find ways to deliver on the future. Peace & Blessings, Journey to Balance