ARROGANCE

     Arrogance screams out to be right sized. It knows everything and is an expert on everything and looks down from above with judgment and scorn. Most things are painfully obvious to arrogance and it has very little, if any, patience, and absolutely no tolerance for those to whom life is not so obvious.
Arrogant people are puffed up, and they shrink everyone they contact. They are guile and slickness and manipulation, with a touch of cruelty. They believe their own lies.
     Let's be loving instead. Love increases value and magnifies beauty and remains sincere. Love is genuine and complimentary. It is inclusive and has no harsh edges. Love is the best answer and always and absolutely the best approach.

I am on the lookout for arrogance, and replace it with love wherever I can.

GREAT LOVE

     Some people, and perhaps men in particular, think of love as something soft and mushy, something Hollywood, something sensitive and unmanly. But the truth is that there is nothing more powerful on earth than the power of love. It is the power of transformation and the power of confidence; the power of the body and the power of the heart. It is joy and peace and gratitude and grace. Love alone can dispel fear, darkness, hopelessness, and sickness. Love is the ultimate light.
     Small love accomplishes small things, but great love changes the world.

Love empowers me and makes me unstoppable.

LEAVING WORK AT WORK

     It's an art to be able to leave work at work when we finish the day. So many of us carry it home with us- all of the problems and struggles and stresses. We carry home upsets with our co-workers, resentments, anger, frustration- you name it.
     What if we walked out the door and were truly and absolutely able to leave, and turn our attention fully to home and family and pets and dinner and relaxation- to the evening- free from worry, and free from care? What if we could really leave the baggage of our hard work at the office? Wouldn't it be grand? What if we were able to be present and content and unburdened wherever we are?
     Let's try it. Let's make an effort to stop carrying our stuff back and forth. Let's leave the office at the office and leave home at home, and not keep mixing them up and confusing all of our issues.

When I leave work, I leave it.

NORMAL?

     What is "normal?" Whatever we're used to, I suppose; whatever we have become conditioned to. We can normalize anything: chaos, clutter, freedom, imprisonment, fear, love, optimism, negativity. Let's consider what strangeness and dysfunction we have normalized in our lives, both historically and in the now. What things do we do simply because we have always done them, without ever asking why? And what do we believe and act out and justify just because? 
     We have honesty at our disposal, and choices. Let's make the decision to choose consciously what's "normal" for us, and with our eye towards ever better and better health.

I consider all of the dysfunction in my life that I have normalized, and I'm willing to make different choices to experience better living.

RUTS

     Once we have mastered something, it loses a bit of its appeal. It is then that we must create new challenge or move on. I believe it's the drive of humanity to continually grow and stretch and reach for new heights. I know that's what drives me. There's always another level, and another step, sometimes along the path we are on, and sometimes striking out on an entirely fresh course.
     To stick in a rut is to miss adventure and intrigue. Ruts are comfortable for a time, but eventually they take us in a direction we no longer want to go.

If I am stuck in a rut, I am willing to climb out and look around. I am willing to try something different for the sake of my own evolution.

SURRENDER

     To surrender is to stop fighting and fretting and battling everything we face. It's freedom from angst and freedom from the fierce and insistant desire to contol outcomes and people. To surrender is to let be what is. It's putting down our guns and ammunition and admitting that we can't win at the crazy game we're playing. No matter how we force our will and muscle and power and agenda, we can't ever make things happen our way absolutely. Life isn't like that. It's all about the unknown and the unforseen and the uncontrollable.

I am willing to stop fighting everything and everybody. I am willing to let be what is.

NO BIG DEAL

     We make our obligations and responsibilities out to be arduous. We consider them to be largely unwanted, but necessary, requiring an extreme effort on our part. They feel like weight on our backs-a burden. We make them big in our minds, and difficult to face. But they need not be. Life is made up of many small happenings far more than it is made up of big deals.
     So much more than we acknowledge is unimportant and non-essential. All we really have to do is show up for life and do the best we can with what's in front of us. And remember that we are not alone, and that there's some kind of beauty in everything, and that it's possible to enjoy the whole ride.

Lots of what I think is a big deal is not. I let go of my agenda and enjoy the ride.