Sunday, December 31, 2017

2017 Year in Review




As 2017 is closing I offer a review of this year’s past blogs beginning with the first blog of 2017, Love Resolutions, in it’s entirety,  followed by only subsequent blog titles and their closing What if… question.  

Love Resolutions

As the New Year begins, the anonymously written poem titled “New Year’s Resolutions” came back to me.  The poem reads: 

New Year’s Resolutions

People are unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered.
Love them anyway.
If you do good, people may accuse you of selfish motives.
Do good anyway.
If you are successful, you may win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.
The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.
Honesty and transparency make you vulnerable.
Be honest and transparent anyway.
What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.
People who really want help may attack you if you help them.
Help them anyway.
Give the world the best you have and you may get hurt.
Give the world your best anyway.
The world is full of conflict.
Chose peace of mind anyway.

I keep this poem within my blog under the heading, Comfort Messages, and titled it as a source for Ego Training.   

The beauty of this poem for me lies in knowing love is not dependent on the actions of the other but rather in how I react to others’ actions.  And it implicitly makes forgiveness an integral part of any love resolution. 

The Reverend Charles K. Robison’s describes what Divine forgiveness looks like.  His words can be found in my Comfort Messages Section under my assigned title, Learning Forgiveness.


What if we all saw love resolutions as personal ego training and could emulate Divine forgiveness more often?


What if we could more often reframe spiritual success?


What if we all helped each other remember how to reverence ourselves more often?


What if we, who walk in the skin of privilege, could be overwhelmed with grief for the other more often? 


What if we, with all our flaws, knew the unconditional embrace of love more often?


What if we were grateful more often when our judgments of others are exposed?


What if we could “hello” ourselves into accepting the present moment more often?


What if we each designed our own peace shields as medicine to reconnect us to the land and one another?


What if we all prayed to know our part in repairing the link between Nature and us and ultimately come to realize peace through forgiveness?


What if we were aware more often of the Love that surrounds and exists in you and me and actively pass it on to others? 


What if we all became co-creators by risking loving the world? 


What if we became aware of love’s reciprocal nature more often?


What if we all looked to our struggles for the gifts hidden within more often?


What if we more often had the opportunity to realize a more nourishing real world?


What if we were reminded more often of the power in accepting what is, letting go of past hurts, and knowing our priorities? 


What if the universe could be gentler in telling us what we need to know?  Would we still learn?


What if we could really know what part evil plays in the evolution of love?


What if we more often had the courage to grow up and become whom we really are?


What if our minds, hands, feet and whole body marched in service to others more often? 


What if we each reflected on our use of electronic devices more often? 


What if we could experience the value of loneliness more often?


What if we gifted ourselves with compassion more often?


What if we more often trusted our outrage to eventually lead us to a consciousness of love, forgiveness and healing?


What if we shared more often diversity’s many gifts? 


What if we more often practiced sheer compassion when faced with personal affront?


What if I just accepted all the delays with my writing?  Would they eventually go away? 


What if we all lived closer to nature’s life, death, life cycle?


What if we all felt closer to eternity more often?


What if we all remembered there are many paths to the same Energy, Source, Light and Grace? 


What if we all understood how indebted we are to others for our life’s gains?


What if we all shared our frustrations with our current health care systems?


Happy 2018!  May we resolve to make many of our What ifs happen in 2018!