MASTERFUL LIVING

Tadpole Or A Frog: A Wish Or A Command

                                                                           

There is a world within – a world of thought and feeling and power; of light and life and beauty and, although invisible, its forces are mighty.  Charles Haanel

Often we speak our desires with little more strength than a wish. When our wishes don’t happen we wonder why. Well let me tell you what I have discovered in my own experience. In the past I have made statements and affirmations about what I wanted to have, do or be and they sounded like tingling brass, something that was shallow and void.

When we express a desire and an intention, we must do it with conviction. That means attaching much faith, conviction, will and expectation to it. In other words, feel it in the depth of our souls. Anything in the invisible soul is sure to be a reality and will be enjoyed or detested according to our positive or nrgative thoughts. In my own experience that which I merely wished for seldom came about.

I have always had this vision of my real desires having a flair of certainty as opposed to a wish which I would affirm but it didn’t go anywhere. Like a balloon without helium, it just wouldn’t go up at all. It was like there was a trailer on my affirmation with a tail of wishing that would not fly. The affirmation was a good one but it had a tail of wish rather than a command.

When I was a young boy my friend “Bubba” Hiller and I would go to this pond and sit for periods of time just studying the tadpoles. We simply thought that a tadpole was just that, a tadpole; a small fish with a tail.

Then one day this old man passed by as we were watching the many tadpoles flurrying along and he asked us what we were watching. We responded by telling him that we were just watching the tadpoles swim. He posed a question to us that we could not answer. He asked, “ Do you know what those tadpoles are gonna be?” Our innocent reply was: “Naw suh.” “Someday they’re become Frogs”, he said. We were amazed because we had seen frogs jumping around at night all over the place. That was a big “Wow” for us.

From that day on, “Bubba” and I developed a prophecy about the tadpoles. As we watched them swim in the past, we noticed that some tadpoles swam with much grace and strength, while others were less graceful and appeared weaker as they wiggled their tails and moved through the water. From that observation we developed a boyhood prophesy that the ones that seemed weaker and lacking in the power of wagging their tails would not make it to be frogs. The wagging of their tails was too weak and so we made this prophesy, unscientific of course, but in our young minds anything was possible. So at night we expected to see the frogs who had wagged their tails with power and grace.

Yes, a silly boyhood story, but it occurred to me recently that some of my desires had weak tails on them just like the tadpoles that we predicted would never become frogs. They were great desires but they had only weak tails like some of the tadpoles. They swam, but in our judgment they were too weak to be frogs.

Ask yourself are your desires swimming with a tail of wishes or are they strong like the tadpoles who swam with power? Be assured that a desire with a tail of weakness we call wishing will never bring you to the point of realizing your desire. Attach power, will and commands to your desires and you will, like our prediction about the tadpoles, become what you desire, have what you want and live the life you want. Just remove the weak tail of wishing from your desire and you will become the real thing.

Wishing doesn’t build strong people and, in the prophesy of Bubba and me, it doesn’t make tadpoles into frogs.

Posted at 01:07 PM | Permalink

There is a world within – a world of thought and feeling and power; of light and life and beauty and, although invisible, its forces are mighty.  Charles Haanel

Often we speak our desires with little more strength than a wish. When our wishes don’t happen we wonder why. Well let me tell you what I have discovered in my own experience. In the past I have made statements and affirmations about what I wanted to have, do or be and they sounded like tingling brass, something that was shallow and void.

When we express a desire and an intention, we must do it with conviction. That means attaching much faith, conviction, will and expectation to it. In other words, feel it in the depth of our souls. Anything in the invisible soul is sure to be a reality and will be enjoyed or detested according to our positive or nrgative thoughts. In my own experience that which I merely wished for seldom came about.

I have always had this vision of my real desires having a flair of certainty as opposed to a wish which I would affirm but it didn’t go anywhere. Like a balloon without helium, it just wouldn’t go up at all. It was like there was a trailer on my affirmation with a tail of wishing that would not fly. The affirmation was a good one but it had a tail of wish rather than a command.

When I was a young boy my friend “Bubba” Hiller and I would go to this pond and sit for periods of time just studying the tadpoles. We simply thought that a tadpole was just that, a tadpole; a small fish with a tail.

Then one day this old man passed by as we were watching the many tadpoles flurrying along and he asked us what we were watching. We responded by telling him that we were just watching the tadpoles swim. He posed a question to us that we could not answer. He asked, “ Do you know what those tadpoles are gonna be?” Our innocent reply was: “Naw suh.” “Someday they’re become Frogs”, he said. We were amazed because we had seen frogs jumping around at night all over the place. That was a big “Wow” for us.

From that day on, “Bubba” and I developed a prophecy about the tadpoles. As we watched them swim in the past, we noticed that some tadpoles swam with much grace and strength, while others were less graceful and appeared weaker as they wiggled their tails and moved through the water. From that observation we developed a boyhood prophesy that the ones that seemed weaker and lacking in the power of wagging their tails would not make it to be frogs. The wagging of their tails was too weak and so we made this prophesy, unscientific of course, but in our young minds anything was possible. So at night we expected to see the frogs who had wagged their tails with power and grace.

Yes, a silly boyhood story, but it occurred to me recently that some of my desires had weak tails on them just like the tadpoles that we predicted would never become frogs. They were great desires but they had only weak tails like some of the tadpoles. They swam, but in our judgment they were too weak to be frogs.

Ask yourself are your desires swimming with a tail of wishes or are they strong like the tadpoles who swam with power? Be assured that a desire with a tail of weakness we call wishing will never bring you to the point of realizing your desire. Attach power, will and commands to your desires and you will, like our prediction about the tadpoles, become what you desire, have what you want and live the life you want. Just remove the weak tail of wishing from your desire and you will become the real thing.

Wishing doesn’t build strong people and, in the prophesy of Bubba and me, it doesn’t make tadpoles into frogs.

Revelation or Revolution

For a number of years I have perceived the American culture had within it certain inconsistencies and misconceptions that were very harmful and, as a result, deserved to be branded a culture of lies. Today it is becoming so clear that the myths we have lived by for so long should require us to repent and really question ourselves in every aspect of our American culture.

I have long observed and personally proven that the color of one’s skin made no difference in the performance of an individual. When I first entered the military as a young officer I was so frightened of having to go to officers’ basic training competing against White officers from some of the major “White colleges.” Why did I feel this way? Because all of my life up to that time I lived in an environment in Columbia, South Carolina that drilled into African-Americans that they were inferior in intelligence and ability. In fact, there were pseudo-scientists who claimed to have evidence of this “fact”

This was so prevalent that I thought my education at a Black College, North Carolina A&T, was inferior to that of the men who I now had to compete against for a position in the military. There were seventy-seven Whites and three Blacks in my officers’ basic class. I must confess that I thought the three of us had no chance. At graduation time I was thoroughly confused when ten white officers failed and were dismissed from the service. The three blacks, including myself, all finished in the top 29.

At my first permanent duty station I commanded a platoon of 22 men, mostly white. After two years in various assignments I received a commendation for excellence in leadership and performance. For the next eleven years I excelled in every assignment. The American lie about the color of one’s skin rendered him or her inferior and lacking in intelligence completely unfolded before my eyes. There can be no greater proof to anyone than his ability to disprove something to himself. America lied to me and tried to enforce it in my early years.

Also, growing up it was a part of our religious culture that women were inferior to men and their places were in the home doing domestic chores and carrying out the commands of the men. My mother was one of the most strong- willed persons I’ve ever known. She never accepted this status and, as a result I feared for her because, to my mind, she would get into trouble. She was very bright, strong willed and she stood her ground at all times in church and in the community. Now, the inferiority and subordinate lie about women is being disproved in every walk of life. Hence, lie number two. Someone should tell the Southern Baptists that women are leading in all walks of life.

Today, the lies are being put to rest right before our eyes in a very explicit and conclusive way. An African American male and a White woman are the front running, very well qualified candidates for the leading position in the world, the presidency of the United States.

Interestingly, the species once considered the superior being among us all, the White male (John Edwards), is lagging far behind. What could be more profound and conclusive than this? If this doesn’t cause us to look closely at ourselves then we are decidedly in a coma.

There is another lie that has been disgracefully perpetrated on the American people that I am disproving and I challenge others to follow me in disproving. That is the lie of uselessness as you age beyond 65. Our entire culture is predicated on this lie. Let’s defy this waste of human capital.

Tragically, each of these lies is interpreted from the Bible. But then I conclude that the Ku Klux Klan justified its existence on the Bible. Apparently the Bible can be used to support any claim.

What we are revealing right before our eyes should bring about a revolution as we search for truth. If not, the coma continues. What will you do?

The Three "R's": One of Life's Great Mysteries

In my life time I have had numerous exciting experiences, some with life and death implications and I learned a great deal from them. But one that stands out in my mind as a remarkable experience and mystery happened in 1975. After a "mysterious event" occurs and you stop and reflect on it, it seems simple, but even until this day it is still tough to live by the principle I am about to mention. However, it does wonders.

In that year I had been in business for only three years and money was very tight. In spite of the lack of money, I longed for a nice comfortable home for my wife and four sons. We had been renting and moving around for quite some time and now it was time to settle down and give our sons a good home.

I knew we were out looking at homes prematurely, because we had no money for down payment. I felt it wise to save our money and get my credit rating in order. Each time we went out to look, I observed the agony and disappointment in my wife's face.

One Saturday we went to this brand new housing development to look at the new homes and we came across one that my wife really loved. It grieved me to see the excitement on her face, knowing I had no means of fulfilling her dream of home ownership. I simply could not bear it anymore and on the following Sunday afternoon I made a decision. I said to myself I will not put my wife through this anymore; enough is enough. We will not go looking at homes until we have the money to buy one.

On Monday, before noon the Realtor who had been showing us homes called to inform me that she had observed how badly we wanted a home, so she talked with her boss, the builder, about our situation. This builder had been taking a few homes as trade-ins and the inventory was getting rather large. Her next words floored me as she said,"My builder cannot let you have the new home you have been looking at but we do have an identical home that is only three years old over on another street." She continued with more amazing words: "He says if you can come up with $2500.00 he will carry the mortgage for eighteen months until you can get your affairs in order." I rushed out to see the home being offered and it was immaculate and, indeed, the exact same floor plan.

Even though I knew I was "maxed" out on my line of credit, I rushed to my bank to tell the president the good news and ask for an exception. First he reminded me that I was at the limit but because of my story he would make an exception. By the close of business on that Monday the Builder had received my deposit and all was clear to move into our wonderful home in three weeks.

In three weeks we moved into that home and there we raised our four sons in comfort and style.  Three of the four went off to college from that home as we enjoyed ten glorious years there.

So what is the lesson? In our culture we tend to look in one direction for answers to our problems and our goals. Personally, I thought at the time that money was the answer to nearly every need. I certainly had no idea that builders took homes in trade. Most of us being unaware of the infinite possibilities of our great Universal Mind we tend to seek answers to our goals and problems on a conscious level based on what we know, when, at the same time, our Universal Mind has an infinite number of ways of leading us to achieve our goals and solving our problems. While our conscious minds are rigidly focused on the one way we know, we fail to open ourselves to limitless other possibilities. I refer to them as 360 degree possibilities because they are all around us. Answers are all around us and if we would do three simple things, Relax and Release, we would Receive (The Three "R's). We would experience many more wonders in our lives.

On that Sunday when I thought I was giving up, I was actually relaxing and releasing. The next day I received. I have done this many times since and it works each time I have the presence of mind to let it work. I hasten to point out, however, that it does not always happen as rapidly as on this ocassion. Moreover, there are times when we receive instructions to perform certain acts to achieve what we seek, but even then it works in wondrous ways.

We are awash in an ocean of possibilities, yet we are in that ocean hanging on to an old worn out raft that is no longer useful and is getting us nowhere. My swimming instructor used to tell me to relax and let the water carry me. That was just as difficult but I know it works. Relax in the ocean of possibilities and let the tides of good fortune carry you to your destiny, sometimes stroking and sometimes riding the waves.

My mother often used a biblical quote: "The Lord works in mysterious ways, his wonders to perform." In the current language I would say, Universal Mind has as many wonders for us as we can handle but to most of us it is mysterious. For Universal Mind, its just another day at the office, if we would Relax, Release, we will Receive.

Let's Live The Good News

"If Christians would really live according to the teachings of Christ, as found in the Bible, all of India would be Christian today.” Mahatma Ghandi.

As a young boy I was required to go to church and exhorted to believe the gospel as presented in the bible. For many years I secretly had many questions that were never answered to my satisfaction. I was taught that the meaning of the word gospel as presented in the bible was "good news". To me, there was little good new associated with the lifestyle of our culture.

Because the news didn't seem to be so good to me I studied and restudied the scriptures searching for the good news as presented and nurtured into us by our Christian churches and our American culture as a whole. It appeared that what we were calling good news was replete with guilt, fear, defeat and hope for a better life at another time, in another place.

Why did I come to this conclusion? There are numerous answers that could fill several books but I will address only one here.

We live in a culture that is supposedly based on the bible, yet there is a generally accepted pattern of life which denigrates us. We proclaims ourselves to be a Christian nation ( questionable) based, in part on the "good news" as stated in the gospels of the bible.

The common scenario of life in this culture is that we are reared to go to school and get an education, get a job, work for thirty or forty years in a job that, heretofore the majority of us have hated; retire and enjoy a few years of retirement, if we can afford it. If we can't afford it we scratch for a mere existence.

Further, at a certain age, again if we can afford it, we go to a nursing facility or some such home, destined to sit and stare at walls, being useless until we die. What is the good news in this scenario? Yet, that is the general scenario that describes the fate of the majority of the people in the American society. 

Clearly, if this is all there is, by our proclamation we have a culture that is truly denigrating. This is far removed from gospel as taught by Jesus Christ.

Will someone please explain to me what is good news about becoming helpless and infirm at a certain age; about being here on earth with all of our divine potential and capabilities waiting 2000+ years for the return of a man, much like ourselves--Jesus-- to save us from ourselves and empower us. If he was as great as we proclaim, why could he not do it the first time. In my view he did.

Jesus was a great teacher and not only did he teach, but he demonstrated to us our capabilities. Our culture has instilled in us such fear and guilt that we fail to actualize the great power that is in each of us. Jesus performed his purpose very well but most of us are self-proclaimed poor students. To my knowledge, he claimed that we could do what he did and even greater. If we must wait 2000 or more years for him to return to teach us again, our fate is pathetic. For many of us, it is clear we will never learn.

I am excited to join the Baby Boomers in their tenacity and courage to change the mind set and landscape of this archaic culture. Here I lay down a challenge to each one in this American, "Christian" culture, to follow the example of Jesus and many other great explorers and leaders throughout history and live now!

Jesus was indeed an example of our capabilities. He taught all we needed to learn. I learned it and now I proclaim myself to be the same as he. If he returns, fine. If he does not return I will, as long as I live, continue in the quest to get the best from life and master it. I have learned that what he taught is sufficient for me to face any challenge, overcome any obstacle, live any way I want-- abundantly.

The Boomers appear to get this message also. And so it is for all.

Accept the challenge to live now. Let me make it clear, I believe that any one of us, regardless of religious persuasion, can live the life Jesus taught. Christians have no monopoly on what our Creator has designed into us. There can be no walls between mankind and the Spirit. As it is written: "I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh." Jesus knew this and so can we. 

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Your Resolution: Myth or Farce

Normally I don’t make resolutions on January 1^st of any year because for me any day I awaken is a new year. If something comes to me that needs attention or a resolution for change I do it on that date or I reject it if I'm not ready to commit; sometimes to my peril. There are many myths and farces in our culture, among them is the new years resolution.

As an example: I have been going to the gym an average of five days per week for the last 28 years. During the first 15 days of each new year it is a problem getting through the crowd. The equipment that I usually exercise on is crowded and thus my workout periods takes twice as much time as a normal day in the year. After experiencing this for all these years I take courage in knowing the crowd will begin to dwindle in seven days and in fourteen days all will be normal again. I will begin to see the regulars who have been lost in the crowd.

Pardon me if I sound a little critical but I have to wonder why resolve if you don’t intend to do it. In my research I find that resolution is a derivative of the word resolve, which is defined as the mental or moral strength to venture, persevere and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty.

Interestingly, resolve is a synonym of courage, mettle, spirit and tenacity. Further, courage implies firmness of mind and will in the face of danger or extreme difficulty.

It is important and, to my mind, a service to each reader of my blogs to ask if you take all of the factors of resolve and courage into account before you make a resolution of any type at any time of the year, regarding any issue?

It should be borne in mind that each time we fail in our resolves, the more we feel as a failure. The more the failure account builds up, the more we brand ourselves, consciously or unconsciously, a failure.

I advise you to think through each resolution and be analytical and decisive before resolving to do it. It is better not to resolve at all than to “resolve” and not follow through.

During the coming blogs I will be addressing numerous other myths of our culture that render us weaker and less productive than we are capable of being. The time is here that we explore life and live as God intended.

MAY YOU RESOLVE TO PROSPER AND RESOLUTELY DO IT DURING THE COMING MONTHS.