Monday, January 26, 2009

Acceptance...

It's Monday, I'm exhausted from our weekend, yet I'm in an awesome mood. I'm looking forward to the week ahead and am actually psyched about it. While we did have a great weekend filled with soccer and friends, I also learned alot about myself in just one instance yesterday.

Our ceiling fan in our bedroom is only about 5-6 months old, but we've been having trouble with the light switch recently. Saturday night the light would not turn off so I ended up sleeping in Tristan's room in his top bunk (I cannot sleep with lights on and Sean was passed out in bed snoring). So yesterday Sean decides to try and fix it. (Keep in mind he is NOT an electrician AND when he first hooked the big, heavy fan up to the ceiling he had help from our neighbor.) Long story short, my fan is now in a million pieces because it was too heavy for him to do this on his own and it fell (nearly hitting me by less then a foot). But my reaction to the whole thing is what surprised me. Normally, this kind of stuff happens all the time with Sean and I get so annoyed. He is a bull in a china shop - an accident waiting to happen whether he trips over his own two feet or breaks things (he just broke Kieran's Nintendo DS game holder for instance).

To my surprise I didn't get that annoying feeling, the blood didn't rush to my head and I did not blame or scream at him. I walked out of the room, got Tristan and his things and left for the soccer fields. And that was that.

Acceptance is something I've been working very hard on this past year. And it's paying off. I honestly feel that if you can accept anything - you're better off. You make yourself miserable when you don't accept - when you fight things. Whether it's accepting you have to do something you really don't want to do, or accepting people for who they are - whatever your situation - if you just "accept", you're fine. (This is all stuff I've learned by reading many books: Way of the Peaceful Warrior by Dan Millman and A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle are some of those books.) I've been doing that with soccer as well. Those who know me know it's been a very trying year soccer wise. I'm learning to accept the fact that you cannot make everyone happy and that some just like to bitch and moan - that's their character. I refuse to let myself get wrapped up in it again and I'm just accepting some people are unhappy. And it seems nothing short of a miracle will make them happy either so I'll let them sit in their own delusions and unhappiness without bringing me down with them. I'm accepting that I cannot fix everything and cannot make everyone happy.

Acceptance is part of the key to joy fullness and happiness. Try to make acceptance a part of your everyday life and I promise you, you WILL notice a difference.

-Kim

Thursday, January 1, 2009

New Year 2009

Last night I was fortunate enough to participate in a Burning Bowl ceremony at my Church. If you aren't familiar with this type of ritual, the short version is this: You write down all the negative happening/feelings associated with the previous year and then you burn the piece of paper in a cauldron type of bowl.

One of the greatest quotes read last night was by, of course, founder Ernest Holmes. It was great for bringing in the New Year, so I wanted to repeat it here:

"Life is a blackboard upon which we consciously or unconsciously write those messages which govern us. We hold the chalk and the eraser in our hand but are ignorant of this fact. What we now experience we need not continue to experience, but the hand which holds the eraser must do its neutralizing work."

This was an amazing experience for me. I've never been one to even notice New Years Eve so attending something was strange enough, but then to experience such an inspiring ceremony was pretty awesome. I left there feeling rejuvenated, powerful, and totally in control. The feeling has managed to continue today, so I have great hope that this year is going to be my year!

For a more in-depth explanation of the Burning Bowl ceremony you can visit this site for more information. Remember, just because the first of the year is over it doesn't mean that you can't still have a burning bowl ceremony of your own.