Sack Lunch - Random Acts of Kindness

This story is making the email rounds, so you may have already read it, but I think it’s worth sharing.

I like this story, something so simple that touched a lot of people.

As I read it I also thought this same idea would apply to watching families and others who are traveling, and maybe passing on that same kindness to someone who seems down on their luck, or just down.

It's surprising how much a kindness and a smile can go to bring some light into someone's life.

We can continue to make a difference one action, one thought, one person at a time.

The Sack Lunch Story

I put my carry-on in the luggage compartment and sat down in my assigned seat. It was going to be a long flight.

'I'm glad I have a good book to read. Perhaps I will get a short nap,' I thought.

Just before take-off, a line of soldiers came down the aisle and filled all the vacant seats, totally surrounding me. I decided to start a conversation. 'Where are you headed?' I asked the soldier seated nearest to me.

'Petawawa. We'll be there for two weeks for special training, and then we're being deployed to Afghanistan

After flying for about an hour, an announcement was made that sack lunches were available for five dollars. It would be several hours before we reached the east, and I quickly decided a lunch would help pass the time.

As I reached for my wallet, I overheard soldier ask his buddy if he planned to buy lunch..


'No, that seems like a lot of money for just a sack lunch. Probably wouldn't be worth five bucks. I'll wait till we get to base'

His friend agreed.

I looked around at the other soldiers. None were buying lunch. I walked to the back of the plane and handed the flight attendant a fifty dollar bill. 'Take a lunch to all those soldiers.' She grabbed my arms and squeezed tightly. Her eyes wet with tears, she thanked me. 'My son was a soldier in Iraq; it's almost like you are doing it for him.'

Picking up ten sacks, she headed up the aisle to where the soldiers were seated. She stopped at my seat and asked, 'Which do you like best - beef or chicken?'

'Chicken,' I replied, wondering why she asked.
She turned and went to the front of plane, returning a minute later with a dinner plate from first class. 'This is your thanks.'

After we finished eating, I went again to the back of the plane, heading for the rest room. A man stopped me. 'I saw what you did. I want to be part of it.

Here, take this.' He handed me twenty-five dollars.

Soon after I returned to my seat, I saw the Flight Captain coming down the aisle, looking at the aisle numbers as he walked, I hoped he was not looking for me, but noticed he was looking at the numbers only on my side of the plane. When he got to my row he stopped, smiled, held out his hand, and said, I want to shake your hand..'

Quickly unfastening my seatbelt I stood and took the Captain's hand.

With a booming voice he said, 'I was a soldier and I was a military pilot. Once, someone bought me a lunch. It was an act of kindness I never forgot.' I was embarrassed when applause was heard from all of the passengers.

Later I walked to the front of the plane so I could stretch my legs. A man who was seated about six rows in front of me reached out his hand, wanting to shake mine.

He left another twenty-five dollars in my palm.

When we landed I gathered my belongings and started to deplane. Waiting just inside the airplane door was a man who stopped me, put something in my shirt pocket, turned, and walked away without saying a word. Another twenty-five dollars!

Upon entering the terminal, I saw the soldiers gathering for their trip to the base. I walked over to them and handed them seventy-five dollars..'

It will take you some time to reach the base. It will be about time for a sandwich. God Bless You.'

Ten young men left that flight feeling the love and respect of their fellow travelers. As I walked briskly to my car, I whispered a prayer for their safe return. These soldiers were giving their all for our country. I could only give them a couple of meals.

It seemed so little...

A veteran is someone who, at one point in his life, wrote a blank check made payable to ' United States of America ' for an amount of up to and including my life.'

That is Honor, and there are way too many people in this country who no longer understand it.'

If you want to share this story, here's a PDF version

WHATEVER THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE THE WILL CAN ACHIEVE.

A New Years Essay from Heather Roderick My friends and family know I am a non-fiction junkie and have spent countless hours reading “self help books” from Freud to Anthony Robbins. I am not really sure if it has made me a better person but all that research was meant to be shared. I have cobbled it all together (shamelessly plagiarizing) to be my solstice gift to you all – with love. Virginia Bonta Brown, BioElectric Shield

WHATEVER THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE THE WILL CAN ACHIEVE.

At school I learned the natural laws of the universe. Like my wonderful new age friends I was predominantly fascinated by the law of attraction. I firmly trust that this law and its energy force guide humans in all their interactions.

The law of attraction states that like is attracted to like, and this includes the images you hold in your mind. This law is obedient and so the world is a slave to your thoughts ~if only you can master them. Free roaming in negative frequencies your thoughts create the environment you live in. With some control and training you can over through the limitations the world would like you to believe you have. The same world has an agenda and often you are coerced into believing things that are simply false. If you see and think them often enough you will them into reality. Your first act of free will must be then to believe in free will.

It is hard to imagine at first that our life is a sum of our intentions and choices. Why did I choose so badly I have to ask? Truth is sometimes it was easier in the short term to settle for very little, perhaps I grew up thinking that was all I deserved. “Life ultimately means taking responsibility to find the right answers to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for us” wrote Victor Frankl during the Holocaust. Truth is many of us create our own personal genocide every time we betray hopes and dreams for the path of least resistance. The mind has paths like a well hiked mountain. If we get used to feeling sad trudging along the time worn path of feelings and thoughts – no one cares if you are miserable so you might as well be happy! Give your mind some fresh paths and suggest there is always hope which is the opposite of despair. It is all about choosing to believe - hope is an emotional state, a powerful belief in a positive outcome in the face of facts.

One fact I am sure of is the law of attraction is a constant ongoing process that takes place on both a conscious and unconscious level. Like a magnet our thoughts attract more of the same because they are most comfortable with similar thoughts not new thoughts that do not fall into the existing pattern or path. Forge a new path but first sit down and get clear. Become clear in our mind about what we want out of life. Make a list - be wild, draw pictures nothing is impossible. Thoughts become actions which become things, which become patterns which become minutes, days and lifetimes.

If we examine how thoughts become things we realize that thoughts have frequency. Scientists can measure your thoughts they carry a charge and that charge creates the experiences we have. Thoughts then have the power to send the parallel back to you. In conclusion “what you think about- you bring about” You cannot have universe without mind, body and spirit shaping it. So what shape is your world? Of all the potential possibilities what experiences do you want for yourself? What material items do you need to get this outcome? Choose your visualization and affirmations and all can be yours – unlimited. It has been proven that an affirmative thought is 100% more powerful than a negative one. To aid you there is a time delay a gap between wish and delivery which often serves to help you to reassess and fine tune what it is you really want. Choose thoughts carefully and you will create a masterpiece in your own eyes.

When you have 60,000 thoughts a day tracking them all is really a challenge. Once you begin to do traffic control of your thoughts you will realize that applying censorship to each of them is a spectacular task. Thinking without awareness is probably the main dilemma of human consciousness. The easier route is to choose your feelings and keep them on track. Examples of off track thoughts can be found in bad vibe frequency varieties like fear, worry, jealousy and revenge. The trick is to replace or pivot these with positive choices like love, joy, excitement, gratitude and celebration. Focus on breeding thoughts of possibility not limitation. Whatever you feel about your world it is true. When you feel your life is made of love, health and prosperity you will be right. Feeling will get you closer to the truth than thinking. When I have a worried thought I think is that true? Can I absolutely prove that is true? Who am I if I believe that? Can I think something else that will be more positive? Sing a song of beauty and truth and the universe will provide the orchestra if you are open. Thoughts and feelings create life shifts that allow you to create the universe as you go along. Fake it till you make it. Just because yesterday didn’t deliver does not mean you get to give up, believe in yourself and bold forces will come to your aid.

When I was ten I got the lead in the school play I was the Genie in the play Aladdin. I remember one of my lines was “Your wish is my command”. Life has always been that way and the only limit that is placed on this is the power of your imagination. Einstien once wrote

“IMAGINATION IS EVERYTHING - IT IS THE PREVIEW OF LIFE’S COMING ATTRACTIONS”

There is however a three step process that aids the process and it looks like this:
ASK speak out loud or write it down in present tense – place your order.

BELIEVE IT IS YOURS and trust the unseen and have unwavering faith it is on its way.

RECEIVE feel it now see a fantasy turning into a fact by virtually test driving your dream. Experience thru your senses the feelings of what you want.

TAKE THE FIRST STEP IN FAITH: YOU DO NOT HAVE TO SEE THE WHOLE STAIRCASE JUST THE FIRST STEP.

You provide the feelings and trust that your current reality is about to change because it always does.

Make your thoughts like Gandhi dream the change you want to see in the world.

All that we are is a result of what we have thought. It is a helpful tool to make a list of gratitude because appreciation attracts support.

Write it out in feeling ink using your heart to move your pen.

My top ten list looks like this:

Thank you for a healthy body that supports my adventures

I am grateful for the people that love me…and to have souls to love and grow

I appreciate my horse and all he has done for me.

I have work that I love and look forward to more challenges and money

I have nice clothes and feel beautiful

I have the tools I need to write and the inspiration to make it worth the paper.

Thank you for good ideas and courage to speak them.

I am grateful for positive energy that draws the best to me I am grateful for the unseen powers that guide me to serve the world

I appreciate the power I have in my spirit to make the world a better place.

When I coach riders, I use a visual motor rehearsal to help them give their best performance. I tell them at a halt what we are going to do I get them to make it a movie in their minds and then walk them through it. Just as I have watched professional figure skaters practice their entire performance in their minds flawlessly, then they perform it on dry land, and only then do they put on skates and dresses and hit the ice. Astronauts have hours on a simulator before launch because they train their bodies just like Olympic athletes thro visualization. That is the trick – visualize the outcome you want and watch it materialize. When attached to a scientific gadget it is proven that brainwaves create muscular reactions fired. Descartes discovered “I think therefore I am” which loosely translated means that the mind and body are not separate entities any more that the spirit has a location in the body. Our energy is one holistic system that is all inclusive and all encompassing.

Wrap your hands around the wheel of your life by using mind practice to visualize the end result. In other words put yourself in the feeling place and use the power of joy and happiness to just do it. When we feel loving and abundant we can access the inner seeing to open the doorway of our fullest potential. What this power is I cannot say all that I know is that it exists. How it shows up from your thoughts to the material realm is a beautiful mystery that we do not have to fully understand in order to put it to work in our lives. When we turn over our need to control and understand we open up a dimension that is dazzlingly full of surprises.

Done daily the visualization practice can yield exhilarating results. Make a habit to use the magic that is available to you. Literally HOLD THAT THOUGHT and trust the law of attraction and use it to its full capacity which is limitless. Believe you have already acquired it. Use joy as the measurement of your success.

Try this four step process

• Decide.
• Believe.
• Focus on gratitude.
• Check on personal values that trust you are indeed worthy of every single dream coming true.

Set a goal so big it would blow your mind if you achieved it! Declare it and then act as if it is a true release of intention.

Visualize with minute detail as it has been achieved. By believing in the dream you
set out to make it a reality. It is like a work out for your spirit to soar but I know it can become a habit to be the light you seek from the world. The most fascinating thing I have discovered is that when I close my eyes to visualize all I really want is already mine – love, laughter, joyful moments that outweigh the moments when I want to holler.

The wishes I make are based on some wild morality for example: I am shocked to have the new truck flash on the screen of my mind only to be ruled out by the greater wish to have a healthy planet. The fancy dressage horse would mean less time for the big brown brother Fargo who adores me. On this snowy evening I dream of a renaissance a fresh as falling snow. What the world needs now is people who have come alive, there is no way to tell people they are all walking around shining like the sun but I want to try. Einstein says “The most important human endeavor is the striving for morality in our actions. Our inner balance, and even our very existence depends on it” It’s a wonderful life and yes Virginia there is a Santa Claus and he is in you!

Heather Roderick - Heather lived and worked at Providence Farm on Vancouver Island British Columbia for seven years teaching therapeutic horseback riding to children and adults with disabilities www.providence.bc.ca. During this time she had the opportunity to get a degree in Psychology and English that she hopes to use to serve the world with inspirational words. Currently she works in sports marketing with her eye on witnessing the 2010 Winter Olympics in Whistler where the limits of humanly possible will be redefined.

http://www.bioelectricshield.com/In-the-Media/Mind-Power.html

Discipline can become "Blissipline" says Michael Beckwith Written by Virginia Brown, Bioelectric Shield Company

Discipline can become "Blissipline" says Michael Beckwith
Written by Virginia Brown, BioElectric Shield Company

After I gained some weight, and my pants ceased to fit, I decided it was time to take some action. So I promised myself that I'd exercise on something called the Cellerciser (More Info). Anyway, I started with 5 minutes, three times a week, and over the past few months have worked my way up to 15 minutes each session.

Trust me, there have been many times when I've had great intentions to do something regularly. The first week went great. The second week was ok. By the 3rd week I had a bunch of reasons of why I just didn't have the time to do "it", whatever the "it" was. I justified my actions, but there was a part of me that always felt like I’d really sold out on myself. Enter Michael Beckwith with a new take on keeping promises to yourself, i.e., "personal discipline".

The other morning I was reading Michael Beckwith's book, Spiritual Liberation. You probably remember he was in the DVD, The Secret, and was the pastor of a very cool church in L.A. He really seemed to transcend any picture I had of a pastor. He seems to draw on Buddhism, Quantum Physics, Christ Consciousness and many universal principles that were discussed in "The Secret". As soon as I read it, I wanted to share it with you. I was pretty sure we've all had to deal with doing things we didn't want to, and he has a great take on the perks of "bucking up" and showing up, especially when your mind is trying to take you out.

In his book, Spiritual Liberation., Michael Beckwith suggests that discipline becomes "blissiphine" when we realize that keeping promises to ourselves produces great joy. He says, if you want something to change in your life, consider the power of discipline. Discipline comes from the root "disipere", to comprehend, to discern clearly. Discipline is the mental prowess that supports you in keeping a promise to yourself even when you don't feel like it.

He explains this by saying discipline supports you taking action because it means your soul is "awake". When you are awake, you remember that the goal you created from the wisdom of your Higher Self is worth sweating for. You take the action despite the emotional resistance that will arise during your journey.

After reading his book, exercise changed from a duty to something I get to do for my body. Happily, most of the jeans fit again. The funny thing about this is that I find myself really happy after I finish each 15 minute session. It's not just happy because it's over; what's really great is that I am keeping a promise to myself.

Beckwith says discipline is possible when you have the knowingness that your emotional resistance is simply your mind or ego rebelling against you doing life differently! When you tune into your Higher Mind, you'll be able to see that your goal is part of your spiritual liberation, to be the person you know you can be and WANT to be.

So let's say your goal is to walk 3 times a week. You've already walked twice, but now it's Saturday; it's raining and cold, and your emotional "child" begins the list of reasons of why walking is a VERY bad idea.

Blissiphine takes over. You rise out of bed, get dressed and walk out the door, ignoring the ongoing list of why this is really stupid. As you start to walk, your breathing deepens, your walk gets straighter, and you pick up your pace. You're walking tall because you DID IT - you kept your promise to yourself! How do you think the rest of your day will go? FANTASTIC - because you honored your own promise to yourself. Go for it - get a dose of "blissiphine" today!

Michael Beckwith's book, Spiritual Liberation, is filled with many more wonderful insights similar to this. It's available from Amazon at a great price (used copies too)Follow this link: Spiritual Liberation: Fulfilling Your Soul's Potential

The Stars, the Universe and Everything

Since I was a little girl I’ve loved looking out at the stars. I’m going to give away my age and tell you I remember sitting out in the front yard with the entire neighborhood as we watched Sputnik fly over. That was a mind-boggling experience and just the beginning of my fascination with outer space. One of my favorite paintings? Vincent Van Gogh’s “Starry Starry Night”. I was thrilled to see it in person at MOMA in New York.

Nothing, however, prepared me for the stunning beauty of seeing the night sky without the dimming effects of city lights. When I moved to Montana in ’94 I was stunned and awed at the majesty of the far-flung star systems. It was even possible to see the Milky Way. Then there was the aurora borealis…although we never saw it in color, it was still an amazing light show as white bands undulated across the sky. It was absolutely worth spending hours wrapped in blankets lying on our backs in the fields so we could watch the show.
I was so taken with the stars that I even decorated my house with fabrics that had prints of the universe and stars. Okay, so I went a little overboard. But it was just so wonderful to live among the stars…even though they were far removed from the real thing I still would get a momentary feeling of that grand and expanded feeling I got when looking at the stars.
I left the country in Montana to move back to the city and its lights (I also wanted a grocery store that wasn’t 30 miles away, Starbucks, just to name a few). But I still kept my bedroom decorated with stars and moons. When I met my husband, he thought it was a little over the top. One of our agreements when we got married was that they wouldn’t appear again in our shared bedroom. I still have that memory though and it’s something that will never leave me.
A few years ago I was back in Montana for a workshop. It was August which is when there are incredible meteor showers. I was sharing the yurt (a huge tent on a wooden platform) with a city boy from Boston. In the middle of the night we both headed for the outhouse. I stopped him and told him to turn off his flashlight and just look up. We stood there for at least ten minutes watching the meteors and looking at the beauty of the Milky Way. I looked over and he had tears running down his face. He’d actually never in his 40+ years actually “seen” the night sky and the Milky Way. Every once in a while I get an email from him in which he tells me again of how he felt as we stood there…as if he was part of the Universe and All That Is.
There is a part of the movie “What the Bleep” that has a view of the stars. I was in a packed theater and I literally felt the energy as people connected with that amazing expanded energy. If you haven’t seen the movie, I highly recommend it. LOOK UP AMAZON LINK
Some people report looking out at the stars and feeling small and dwarfed. If you’re one of them, try going someplace where there are no lights and no distractions and letting yourself truly blend with the stars. I think you’ll find that if you allow your heart to expand, it will grow to encompass the entire Universe. What an amazing, unforgettable experience. Afterwards you’ll never be able to feel alone and separate for long.
That brings me to another topic….are we alone? Haha I’ll let you ponder that one until next time.
Here are some incredible photos from the Hubble Telescope and some links to even more of them. After looking at these I can’t imagine that anyone can doubt that there are amazing places and adventures awaiting us all.

Enjoy.
http://hubblesite.org/gallery/album/
http://heritage.stsci.edu/gallery/galindex.html
The Hubble Space Telescope was launched in 1990, and after an initial problem with the lens was corrected, the floating astro-observatory began to relay back to Earth incredible snapshots of the 'final frontier' it was exploring.
The following are images chosen by astronomers as outstanding in 2006, from the first 16 years of the Hubble's travels in space. At the time, reporter Michael Hanlon commented in the Daily Mail that the photos "illustrate that our universe is not only deeply strange, but also almost impossibly beautiful."

The Sombrero Galaxy, 28 million light years from Earth, was voted best picture taken by the Hubble telescope.The dimensions of the galaxy, officially called M104, are as spectacular as its appearance. It has 800 billion suns and is 50,000 light-years across.

The Ant Nebula, a cloud of dust and gas whose technical name is Mz3, resembles an ant when observed using ground-based telescopes. The nebula lies within our galaxy, between 3000 and 6000 light-years from Earth.
C 2392, called 'Eskimo' because it looks like a face surrounded by a furry hood. The hood is in fact a ring of comet-shaped objects flying away from a dying star. Eskimo is 5000 light-years from Earth.

Fourth, the Cat's Eye Nebula, about 3300 light-years from Earth.

The Hourglass Nebula, 8000 light-years away, has a 'pinched-in-the-middle' look because the winds that shape it are weaker at the centre.

In sixth place is the Cone Nebula. That part pictured here is 2.5 light-years in length, the equivalent of 23 million return trips to the Moon.

The Perfect Storm, a small region in the Swan Nebula, 5500 light-years away, is described as 'a bubbly ocean of hydrogen and small amounts of oxygen, sulfur and other elements.'

Starry Night, so named because it reminded astronomers of the Van Gogh painting. It is a halo of light around a star in the Milky Way. For more info about Starry Starry Night http://www.vangoghgallery.com/painting/starryindex.html
The glowering eyes from 114 million light years away are the swirling cores of two merging galaxies called NGC 2207 and IC 2163 in the distant Canis Major constellation.

The Trifid Nebula, a 'stellar nursery' 9000 light-years from here, is where new stars are being born.

IS IT REALITY OR IS IT FEAR? - PART 2

IS IT REALITY OR IS IT FEAR? - PART 2
I woke up this morning thinking about last month's article and suddenly worried that you might think I meant not to pay attention to any hype or news. On the contrary, pay attention, but always apply your own "reality filter" or more crudely put your "BS meter". What is a reality filter? It's simply using your intuition and inner knowing to discern what the truth is for you.

I was reminded of a situation that happened in the early 90s. There was a man named Peter coming to Milwaukee several times a year teaching classes on healing, meditation and various information about his view about the world, how and why it was created and a variety of other things. I was very impressed with a lot of what he had to share and started helping to set up and promote his workshops in Milwaukee and a few other places. When he wasn't in town his students and their friends began meeting on a monthly basis and sharing healing, meditating, sharing and laughing. I wrote and sent out a newsletter to about 180 people. Doesn't seem like much now, but that that was before everyone had email, so I actually printed 4-8 pages and mailed them out each month.

I'm getting to the point, that was just a little background. Peter was a great teacher, engaging, interesting, slightly charismatic, and he had a great laugh. I always have my own truth or BS meter engaged and I was pretty clear that approximately 70% of what he taught was true and valuable. He had a couple of areas in which he had some serious blind spots and or was choosing to believe something that just didn't feel true. One of those things was that we were all going to ascend that summer. If you're not familiar with the idea - there are two different explanations of the same term. Peter's understanding was that we will leave our physical bodies and ascend into the heaven and would no longer have to go through the cycle of birth and rebirth. I was more inclined to believe the alternate explanation that ascension is a movement upward in consciousness. You do not "go" anywhere. You do not "leave" anywhere. But your perspective, your perception, is radically altered. You begin to see through the maya, or the illusion of this world.

The two explanations are quite different, Peter's seemed unlikely to me. I simply shrugged it off and didn't let it cloud my judgment of what he shared that was good.

One day we were having our monthly meeting and Ginger, a 70 year old retired school teacher, (not her name) told me that she had just spent her life savings on a trip to Egypt and a variety of other things. Her reasoning was that since we were all ascending there was no point in hanging on to the money. When I told her I didn't think that was happening. She was shocked and replied that she figured that since I was helping to promote Peter then obviously I believed 100% of what he said. That was my turn to be shocked and dismayed. It never occurred to me that anyone would rely totally on what they perceived as the beliefs and judgments of someone else. I hadn't realized that perhaps it wasn't enough for me to be clear on what I believed, but should have been sharing my viewpoint all along. I stopped writing the newsletter then and there. My final article was one in which I encouraged everyone to fully utilize their own BS meters.

When I first started studying spiritual teachings I read a book by Stuart Wilde and his very first paragraph said basically "use your own judgment. If it works for you, great. If it doesn't set it aside, you don't necessarily have to throw it all out because of a few concepts. Take in what feels right, set the rest on a shelf to reexamine at a later date." That made a huge impression on me. It honestly made it easier for me to read and absorb his information because I felt like I wasn't being asked to believe it all or not, but that I could take in what resonated with me.

This concept should be applied to everything in your life. Pay attention when you listen to the news, read a newspaper, read a book, listen to someone talk, whatever you're doing should be filtered through your own intuitive sense of knowing. If you're not sure...then set it aside. Let it sit for a while and come back to it and see if it fits or not.

Use this sense even when you're reading fiction. Novels can and often do carry incredible truths. This is one way that a writer can share something that is fundamentally true, but which may not be able to be completely historically proven. Novels also allow us to read and absorb information without that sense that this is either true or false and that we need to believe or discard. There are times I've been reading something and really enjoying the story, only to realize about half way through the book that the basic story line feels incredibly true, sometimes even a part of our history or past that has been forgotten or even purposely obscured.

What if you're not sure of your own judgment or intuition? I have a simple method that has helped me a lot. Sit quietly and feel how your body and mind feel, are you tense, in pain, feeling good, etc? Then think about the differing ideas or concepts that you're concerned about. How do you feel now? Do you feel lighter, encouraged, happy, secure, centered, determined? If so, then you probably are feeling the truth in this concept. If, on the other hand, you feel stressed, tense, tired, experiencing a heaviness or pain that wasn't there before, then I would definitely set this concept aside as one that isn't true for you at the moment. Yes, I said at the moment, there are times that things shift and what wasn't true or correct at one time, may be at another. Just keep your radar up and ask questions or other people and yourself. You might be surprised by how much easier it is for you to make decisions on just about everything