Spiritual Art Blog - *Ed P

Paths to God

Recent work has gone into the clouds and trying to get them to look right and at the same time show the shapes of the eagles flying within them. The eagles have almost disappeared but there are 12 within the clouds. Can you find them all?

How to find the Soul within

Thought for the week

Each of us is a happy, loving, caring Soul within who is trying to work its way through the layers of opinions and attitudes which we have built up as a result of our past experiences.

It is like we are going through life in a car. As we travel the roads of life we get splashed with dirt from the road and other vehicles. This dirt builds up over time and can completely obscure some of the windows of our vehicle. Provided our windscreen wipers are working correctly, we will be able to see where to go. Sometimes there is so much wind, rain and muck being splashed on to us, that it is almost impossible to see where we are going.

A friend explained to me recently that the experiences, the challenges and the traumas we’ve undergone in life all come together to form the personality we use to get through life. We base how we approach the world and life on what happened in our past experiences. Our experiences have smeared the window through which we view life.

We are often so busy trying to get where we want to go or fighting for our survival that we don’t get to see much beyond our attitudes and opinions or the layers of dust and dirt on the windows through which we see life. This collection of opinions, approaches and attitudes to life, are like layers protecting the sweet soft loving Soul within us, the driver of our car. The tough times have left many dents, scratches and scars on our car.

Brighten the world
We sometimes get to a sunny area where we are warmed by the love of life or of another Soul. This light brightens our world and is able to penetrate the layers of grime built up on our windows. We are now in a brighter place which is easy to see and move around.

We too have the ability to brighten the world outside ourselves by turning on our lights and letting our love flow to those around us. Love is the light we can shine on the world to see things brighter. Using love is like turning on the headlights of our car.

How do we see the Soul within ourselves?
When we finish driving for the day we leave our car as we go to sleep and enter our dreams. We may give our windscreen a wipe as we contemplate on our day and drift off to sleep. This occasional wipe of our windows is really not a thorough cleaning. We all need a good car wash now and then. At times we may take a break, go on holiday or find a place to relax and rejuvenate. This works well if we can take the time to do this but how can we keep our windows clean on an ongoing basis?

We can clean off the daily dirt and splashes by doing a spiritual exercise. If we can spend a little time everyday cleaning our vehicle by doing a contemplation or meditation exercise, we will begin to see life more clearly. We will be able to see where the muck and stains came from and then be able to avoid them when we are on the same road again. A daily contemplation helps us get an overview of our lives and reconnect with our Soul within. It is like getting out of our car and spending time cleaning it so we can proceed along the road of life in a more comfortable and easy manner.

With this view from outside our car or our physical life, we not only see the dirt but other areas which may lead to problems in the future, if we don’t attended to them. Things like soft tyres, a leaking engine and a noisy exhaust on our car, cold be a soft or easy going attitude to things, the leaking of private information to others and our noisy talk as we drown out our friends in conversation.

Daily cleaning or contemplation
A regular daily cleaning or contemplation will help us clean off the grim on our windows bit by bit. If we keep up this regular exercise we will continue to clean our vehicle little by little until we get to the point where we have a sparkling bright and comfortable way of getting through life. It also helps us see the driver of our vehicle or the Soul within.

The HU Song is like a quick hose down of our vehicle and an easy way to get a clearer view of our life and the road ahead. Just sit quietly with your eyes closed and sing HUuuu on your outgoing breath. Do this for up to twenty minutes a day. It’ll help you clean off some of the dirt life can splash on you.

Wishing you a bright and loving journey through life.

*Ed Parkinson

You’ll find more insights about Soul within the Spiritual Writings page by clicking here.

Soul Within Quotes

“You are Soul, a divine spark of God on a journey homeward. Soul wants to experience more of the Voice of God, which can be heard as Sound or seen as Light. This voice often remains an unconscious inner experience of which the outer, or human, side of the individual is not even aware.”
Harold Klemp

“Beauty is but the sensible image of the Infinite. Like truth and justice it lives within us; like virtue and the moral law it is a companion of the soul.”
George Bancroft

"We know only that we are living in these bodies and have a vague idea, because we have heard it, and because our faith tells us so, that we possess souls. As to what good qualities there may be in our souls, or who dwells within them, or how precious they are, those are things which seldom consider and so we trouble little about carefully preserving the soul's beauty.”
St. Teresa of Avila

“May today be peace within. May you trust your highest power that you are exactly where you are meant to be... May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith. May you use those gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you... May you be content knowing you are a child of God... Let this presence settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise, and love. It is there for each and every one of you.”
Mother Theresa

“This soul, or life within us, by no means agrees with the life outside us. If one has the courage to ask her what she thinks, she is always saying the very opposite to what other people say.”
Virginia Woolf

“Words, like nature, half reveal and half conceal the soul within.”
Alfred, Lord Tennyson

“The soul that is within me no man can degrade.”
Frederick Douglass

“The repose of sleep refreshes only the body. It rarely sets the soul at rest. The repose of the night does not belong to us. It is not the possession of our being. Sleep opens within us an inn for phantoms. In the morning we must sweep out the shadows.”
Gaston Bachelard

“The Divine Light of the Infinite Lord, who owns the soul and the breath of life, is deep within the inner being.”
Sri Guru Granth Sahib

“Seek not, my soul, the life of the immortals; but enjoy to the full the resources that are within thy reach.”
Pindar

“Few things in life can spark and radiate strong pleasure, intense feelings, and touch the main nerve of the soul... music is a divine source to those who will let it travel within.”
Ellis Hadlock

“Everything here but the soul of man is a passing shadow. The only enduring substance is within. When shall we awake to the sublime greatness, the perils, the accountableness, and the glorious destinies of the immortal soul?”
William Ellery Channing

“Whether a man lives or dies in vain can be measured only by the way he faces his own problems, by the success or failure of the inner conflict within his own soul.”
James B. Conant

“I want relations which are not purely personal, based on purely personal qualities; but relations based upon some unanimous accord in truth or belief, and a harmony of purpose, rather than of personality. I am weary of personality. Let us be easy and impersonal, not forever fingering over our own souls, and the souls of our acquaintances, but trying to create a new life, a new common life, a new complete tree of life from the roots that are within us.”
D.H. Lawrence

“There is a desire deep within the soul which drives man from the seen to the unseen, to philosophy and to the divine.”
Kahlil Gibran

"What then do you call your soul? What idea have you of it? You cannot of yourselves, without revelation, admit the existence within you of anything but a power unknown to you of feeling and thinking.”
Voltaire

“I believe in the immortality of the soul because I have within me immortal longings”
Helen Keller

If you’d like more quotes to nourish the Soul, click here to go to the Spiritual Inspirations page.

Paths to God

I’ve been working on the clouds, trying to get them to look like birds or maybe it’s the other way around. We’re not there yet, so I’ll have to keep at it.

 

We are not alone

Thought for the week

We are not alone. Deep within us is a friend who is waiting to be invited into our lives. He or she will make an appearance every now and then. Sometimes when we are in a state of relaxation, calmness and acceptance. Other times they appear during a life or death situation, where if we make the wrong choice we could die.

Her inner guide and friend
A friend told this story about his daughter. She was in the city centre at a busy traffic intersection. The traffic had eased for a moment so she stepped out onto the street to get to the other side. Someone grabbed her by the collar and pulled her back onto the footpath. A truck speeded by in front of her. If she had continued crossing the road she would have been killed by the speeding truck. She looked around to see who had saved her but there was no one to be seen. She was alone on this side of the street. She walked up towards the pedestrian crossing to cross in a safer area.

As she approached the crossing on the footpath in front of her, she saw a small cross and picked it up. It had a circle of stones around the centre of the cross. To her the cross is a religious and spiritual symbol. The circle of bright stones reminded her of the bright part within herself. This cross was confirmation to her that her inner guide and friend had been the one who just saved her physical life.

It is reassuring that we have such an inner friend or guardian angel to save us from premature death but how can we get to know this friend? How do we contact them and build some kind of a relationship with them?

Our imagination is a gift which we can use to visit and meet with our inner friend. If we can take time out of our day to establish contact with them we can begin to establish a relationship with them. When we are dealing with our inner spiritual world, we have to take time away from our outer world to venture into our inner world.

A Simple Process
It’s a pretty simple process. Find somewhere quiet where you can be alone for twenty minutes or so. Close your eyes, say or sing a holy word or the name of your inner friend. You can say within yourself something like this: “I give you permission to take me to a place or to show me something which will be good for me spiritually.” This statement gives permission to our inner friend or guardian angel to enter our inner space.

On the first attempt we may be sceptically, just poking around to see what may happen. It takes time and regular practice to establish a way into our inner world. If we can pick the same time everyday to be alone and do this exercise we may be pleasantly surprised one day to come across our inner friend.

Different forms
Our inner friend, guide, angel or master can appear in a variety of different forms. It will be a form that suits our understanding and our feelings. They can take the form of an angel, a saint, a spiritual leader such as Jesus, Mohammad, Buddha, an Eck master or even a deceased friend or relative. It is really the Holy Spirit taking a form we can understand and interact with.

Our inner guide is there to help us find our way through the inner worlds so that we avoid the pitfalls and errors we could fall into if we explored this vast inner landscape alone. Part of our inner worlds includes our emotions. When we are alone and we feel lonely we can turn to our inner guide for friendship and reassurance.

Lonely times
In the lonely times we can do the spiritual exercise above and see where we are brought to. During our contemplations with our guide we can discover new ways of dealing with the challenges we face, such as, being alone, having financial problems, relationship issues, and any other difficulties we face in our lives. 

Our inner guide is there to help us realise we are not alone and he is there to help us get a better understanding of life and how to live it. Our guide is there to show us the way to happiness and love.

Wishing you enlightening and insightful times with your inner guide.

*Ed Parkinson

Not alone will you find more articles and stories on the Spiritual Writings page, but you’ll gain insights and information there too by clicking here.

Alone Quotes

"You can make your heaven here and now. The more you understand this, the greater your spiritual freedom. Imagine you're locked in a tiny, dark room. Feeling sad and alone, you lie down on the floor. Then you have a dream. In the dream you're visiting with a friendly stranger. His face is pleasant, familiar. He explains you've made this room of problems for yourself. You shut and locked the door when you started pushing against these problems. However, he says you can get to the spiritual root of your problems. The door can be unlocked and opened from the inside - if you know the secret.
"When you awaken, you see he is right. You unlock the door, pull it toward you, and step out... "
Harold Klemp

“Sometimes I think we're alone in the universe, and sometimes I think we're not. In either case the idea is quite staggering.”
Arthur C. Clarke

“I have never found a companion that was so companionable as solitude. We are for the most part more lonely when we go abroad among men than when we stay in our chambers. A man thinking or working is always alone, let him be where he will.”
Henry David Thoreau

“Each must for himself alone decide what is right and what is wrong, and which course is patriotic and which isn't. You cannot shirk this and be a man. To decide against your convictions is to be an unqualified and inexcusable traitor, both to yourself and to your country, let man label you as they may. If you alone of all the nation shall decide one way, and that way be the right way according to your convictions of the right, you have done your duty by yourself and by your country- hold up your head! You have nothing to be ashamed of.”
Mark Twain

“Recommend virtue to your children; it alone, not money, can make them happy. I speak from experience.”
Ludwig van Beethoven

“We're born alone, we live alone, we die alone. Only through our love and friendship can we create the illusion for the moment that we're not alone.”
Orson Welles

“I don't want to be alone, I want to be left alone. I have to be alone very often. I'd be quite happy if I spent from Saturday night until Monday morning alone in my apartment. That's how I refuel.”
Audrey Hepburn

“You cannot be lonely if you like the person you're alone with.”
Wayne Dyer

“Associate with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation; for it is better to be alone than in bad company.”
George Washington

“I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.”
Robert A. Heinlein

“Ah, mon cher, for anyone who is alone, without God and without a master, the weight of days is dreadful.”
Albert Camus

“The soul that sees beauty may sometimes walk alone.”
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be.”
Anne Frank

“If you are lonely when you're alone, you are in bad company.”
Jean-Paul Sartre

“Life could be wonderful if people would leave you alone.”
Charlie Chaplin

Not alone have we got this selection of quotes but you can find lots more on the Spiritual Inspirations page by clicking here.

Paths to God

Compared to last weeks sketch, this is a little brighter. It is still dark but it’s getting brighter all the time. What do you think of the birds and clouds?

In some way everything in life is perfect?

Thought for the week

If we can get ourselves to the point where we can see that everything is perfect, we will be in a blessed place. With an attitude like this we are attempting to rise above our normal understanding of life. We are now willing to accept that the seeming chaos, trouble and problems in life around us have a beneficial aspect to them.

Chaos is part of the plan
How can we see that life is perfect when we are in the centre of a chaotic situation? We need to keep in mind that life is a training ground for our true self, Soul. In our lives we are given freedom to do as we wish but what we young Souls don’t yet realise is that everything is balanced in our lives, whether we like it or not. If we inflict harm on another person that harm will come back to us to balance our error and to teach us about how it feels to be subject of that harm. This holds true for the generous and loving acts too. They will return to us to balance our actions.

The chaotic situation we now find ourselves in is probably the return of similar chaos we inflicted on others at another time or in another life. This balancing of our good and bad actions, or karma as it is called, continues through many lifetimes. This chaos is part of the plan and how karma works. Despite what some religions teach, our existence doesn’t end when our physical body dies. We simply move into our inner worlds which we visit daily in our day dreams and at night in our night dreams.

Situations we are all born into
The fact that we maintain our list, of good and bad deeds or karma, into different lives can be seen in the many talents, skills, abilities, challenges, disabilities and situations we are all born into. It helps explain why some of us are born into what seems like a poor and difficult life while other Souls are born into riches and comfort. With a higher overview of our lives we can see that there are lessons to be learned in each set of circumstances. Not only do we need to learn the results of our actions but we are also on a continuous learning programme so that we learn something new from each of our lives.

With this understanding of karma we can begin to see how life is perfect. Each of us is on our own personal quest to realise who and what we are. Some of us are still in the baby classes, some are in the children’s classes, others are in their teenage development and others are adults. There are even some who are wise old Souls who have come through the whole process of discovering themselves and what life is all about. These masters of life can see that life is perfect, everything is exactly as it should be.

How do we get through the difficulties in life?
It can be hard to see the perfection in life when we are going through our own difficulties. Our focus is now on finding a solution to our problem. Our focus of attention is where we are at any particular time and we need to keep this in mind as our attention moves from one subject to another. A short while ago we were able to see how life is perfect, now we are consumed by a challenge which requires all of our attention.

We need to be aware that we move our focus from one subject to another in order to deal with whatever issues come up in our lives. We can also move our focus back to a higher point of view so that we can see the overall picture of what is happening in our lives. With a regular spiritual practice of moving our focus to this higher viewpoint we can begin to see some of the perfection in our lives.

How can we see that life is perfect?
The HU song is an easy way to help us gain this higher viewpoint. It works like this. Take some time to be on our own in a quiet place where we won’t be disturbed. Sit or lie down in a comfortable position. Take a few deep breaths. On the outgoing breath sing the word HU. Pronounced like the word ‘hue’, as in colour. Sing it with a long trailing u sound, like – HhUuuuuuuuuuuuuu. Do that for five or six breaths, take a rest and do it again.

While doing this exercise, during our intake of breath and our rest periods, we can listen for sounds around us and within us. We may hear musical instruments or deep sounds like thunder, jets or engines from within ourselves. We may also see light on our inner screen with our eyes closed. There may be glows, sparkles, stars or flashes. It varies from one person to the next. These sounds and lights are how the Higher Power or the Divine communicates with us. They may combine to create a scene in which we can participate like a dream. In these ‘dreams’ we can often find solutions to the challenges we have in life.

Live a more contented and happy life
Do this spiritual exercise for up to twenty minutes. If you haven’t done contemplation or meditation before, you may only be able to do it for a short time but as you continue over the weeks and months you may notice that you can spend longer at it. Thirty minutes is the maximum amount of time we should spend doing this exercise.

Any exercise which helps us connect with the sound and light of the Divine Higher Power will help us reach the point where we can see that life is perfect. It does take discipline on our part to do this regularly but the insights and awareness we gain from such a spiritual exercise can really help us live a more contented and happy life.

Wishing you a life of light, sound and love.

*Ed Parkinson

To find other ways to see how life is perfect, click here to find other articles in the Spiritual Writings page.

The HU Song can help us see how life is perfect. Click here to learn more.

Life is perfect Quotes

"If we give love, we get love. And even in...the most difficult of times, we find there is always a way to get through."  
Harold Klemp

“Life does not have to be perfect to be wonderful.”
Annette Funicello

“When we talk about settling the world's problems, we're barking up the wrong tree. The world is perfect. It's a mess. It has always been a mess. We are not going to change it. Our job is to straighten out our own lives.”
Joseph Campbell

“We may remark in passing that to be blind and beloved may, in this world where nothing is perfect, be among the most strangely exquisite forms of happiness. The supreme happiness in life is the assurance of being loved; of being loved for oneself.”
Victor Hugo

“That perfect tranquillity of life, which is nowhere to be found but in retreat, a faithful friend and a good library.”
Aphra Behn

“The expectations of life depend upon diligence; the mechanic that would perfect his work must first sharpen his tools.”
Confucius

“O great creator of being grant us one more hour to perform our art & perfect our lives.”
Jim Morrison

“A box of new crayons! Now they're all pointy, lined up in order, bright and perfect. Soon they'll be a bunch of ground down, rounded, indistinguishable stumps, missing their wrappers and smudged with other colors. Sometimes life seems unbearably tragic.”

Bill Watterson

“In small proportions we just beauties see; And in short measures, life may perfect be.”
Ben Jonson

“Perfect freedom is reserved for the man who lives by his own work and in that work does what he wants to do.”
Robin G. Collingwood

“Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday.”
John Wayne

“Conscience is the perfect interpreter of life.”
Karl Barth

“The art of life is to live in the present moment, and to make that moment as perfect as we can by the realization that we are the instruments and expression of God Himself.”
Emmet Fox

“Happiness comes of the capacity to feel deeply, to enjoy simply, to think freely, to risk life, to be needed. which give happiness." 
Thomas Jefferson

“Live life fully while you're here. Experience everything. Take care of yourself and your friends. Have fun, be crazy, be weird. Go out and screw up! You're going to anyway, so you might as well enjoy the process. Take the opportunity to learn from your mistakes: find the cause of your problem and eliminate it. Don't try to be perfect; just be an excellent example of being human.”
Anthony Robbins

"Every perfect life is a parable invented by God." 
Simone Weil

"I've always looked for the perfect life to step into. I've taken all the paths to get where I wanted.But no matter where I go, I still come home me." 
Layne Staley

"No one is perfect... that's why pencils have erasers." 
Anon

“Ring the bells that still can ring, Forget your perfect offering. There is a crack in everything, That's how the light gets in.”
Leonard Cohen

“When you aim for perfection, you discover it's a moving target.”
George Fisher

“Once you accept the fact that you're not perfect, then you develop some confidence.”
Rosalynn Carter

You’ll find more perfect quotes in the Spiritual Inspirations page by clicking here.

Paths to God

This is the latest sketch for Paths to God. It is still a work in exploration as I try to find the best way of explaining the way most religions will only bring us so far along the spiritual path. We as individual Souls have to make a jump at some time to find our own wings in our inner spiritual worlds.

 

Find love to find happiness

Thought for the week

If we can focus our attention to find love in our lives we will have a happier and more fulfilling life. By putting our focus on love instead of the usual things like money, food, family, work, problems and the latest media distractions, we move from the negative to the positive. While all these things are a necessary part of our lives, by looking for the love within them or by doing them for love we change the attitude, goal and direction of our lives.

For example, when we go to work we may see it as a means of getting money to get food and shelter so we can survive. If we have a family or friends who we love, we can see our work as a means of looking after them. Our work allows us to give love to them and bring some happiness into their lives.

There is a way to find love
If we see work as a requirement and we do not enjoy our work, possibly because of the people there or the mundane or repetitive nature of the job, there is a way to find love in it. If we see the end result of what we do as being of some assistance to a person and makes their life a little easier we are adding a little love to them. Our task may be something that usually goes unnoticed but if we didn’t do it, there would be a flaw in the end result.

A job of cleaning an area is often unnoticed but if it was left undone, visitors to the area would be a little uncomfortable there. When we are not putting any conditions on the results of what we do and we do not expect any praise or admiration but we do it to help make life a little more pleasant for those around us we are doing it for love, for unconditional love.

Life as a training course
As we look at life around us, what do we see? Do we see challenges, problems and difficulties? If we regularly view the news media it is hard to see life any other way as they seem to present us with a constant stream of negative stories. It is easy to get swallowed up into this negative stream of disasters, failures and troubles. Where do we find love in these matters?

We can only find love if we choose to look for it. If we look at life as a training course for Souls learning how to love ourselves and others we may be able to see a positive sparkle in the difficulties we face. The challenges we have are things we need to learn. It’s like learning how to drive a car. We start of by learning how to switch the engine on. Then we learn how to make it move and how to stop it. Then we learn how to move around streets and understand the traffic rules and laws.

Naturally progress
As we learn one skill we then naturally progress on to the next challenge. It is an ongoing system of learning. The same is happening in our lives. We learn how to deal with one particular issue such as getting along with a certain person. We may have to accept that they are not our favourite person but if we are willing to forgive something, be open to their way of doing things or be willing change our attitude, we may be able to move on. We have given a little love and understanding to them so can both of us are able to become more comfortable together.

Find love in the challenge
Then a new challenge will arrive, probably in a completely different area of our lives, such as finance, work, transport, community, family, ambitions, shelter, food, or any other area you care to think of. If we can find love in the issue we will immediately see a benefit in dealing with it. For example, if the roof of our house begins to leak, we can see that by fixing the leak we will be making the house more comfortable for our family.

If the usual food for the family meal isn’t available we may have to become a little more creative to use the basic foodstuffs that we do have to create a meal for the family. By seeing the benefit the family will have by getting a good meal, we can find love in the challenge.

Find love and we’ll find happiness
By searching for the love in the regular difficulties we face each day, we will begin to see the benefits in dealing with them. So now getting through these difficulties is not as challenging a task as it was before we could find love in the situation. The difficulty has a positive side. It’s not just all pain as we work our way through it, there is a gain we can see. This gain of love makes the whole difficulty a worthwhile challenge. We have changed what looked like a painful difficulty into a worthwhile task.

By focusing on the love we have changed what looked like a hardship into something helpful for both us and the people involved. When we find love in the various parts of our lives, especially the difficulties we will also find a little more happiness.

Find love and we’ll find happiness.

*Ed Parkinson

You’ll find love and inspiration in other articles in the Spiritual Writings page by clicking here.

Find Love Quotations

“God's Love is always working to help Soul find its way back home.”
Harold Klemp

"All good virtues and goodness itself will gradually find their true home in the heart in which love dwells, and all other qualities will wither and die."
Paul Twitchell

“Find the person who will love you because of your differences and not in spite of them and you have found a lover for life.”
Leo F. Buscaglia

“I love you more than I have ever found a way to say to you.”
Ben Folds

“I have found the paradox that if I love until it hurts, then there is no hurt, but only more love.”
Mother Teresa

“Love is the flower of life, and blossoms unexpectedly and without law, and must be plucked where it is found, and enjoyed for the brief hour of its duration.”
D.H. Lawrence

“Some thoughts always find us young, and keep us so. Such a thought is the love of the universal and eternal beauty.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson

“It's the circle of life, and it moves us all, through despair and hope, through faith and love, 'till we find our place, on the path unwinding.”
Elton John

“Find something you love to do and you'll never have to work a day in your life.”
Harvey MacKay

“One might think that the money value of an invention constitutes its reward to the man who loves his work. But... I continue to find my greatest pleasure, and so my reward, in the work that precedes what the world calls success.”
Thomas Alva Edison

“To understand anything is to find in it something which is our own, and it is the discovery of ourselves outside us which makes us glad. This relation of understanding is partial, but the relation of love is complete. In love the sense of difference.”
Rabindranath Tagore

“Love is of the valley, come thou down/ And find him.”
Alfred, Lord Tennyso

“In the harshest place on Earth, ... love finds a way.”
Morgan Freeman

“We come to love not by finding the perfect person, but by learning to see an imperfect person perfectly.”
Angelina Jolie

“Love is always open arms. If you close your arms about love you will find that you are left holding only yourself.”
Leo F. Buscaglia

“It is here, my daughters, that love is to be found / not hidden away in corners but in the midst of occasions of sin. And believe me, although we may more often fail and commit small lapses, our gain will be incomparably the greater.”
St. Teresa of Avila

You'll find love in more of the quotations on the Spiritual Inspirations page by clicking here.

 

Paths to God

In this sketch I’ve ditched the hexagonal pyramids in favour of using a natural feel for the mountains. I’m beginning to think a natural feel might be more suitable for the picture. It is interesting to watch how the Life-force or Holy Spirit guides the development of the picture. The eagle is an unexpected arrival but one that fits nicely into the concept replacing the ‘star souls’ in the previous sketches.

How to be Happy Now

Thought for the week

When creating this picture, Happy Now, I wanted to show how we can only be happy in this moment. It doesn’t matter how rocky our road has been or will be, it is something we have little control over. We can plan for the future and learn from the past but neither are with us now. Let’s explore how we can be happy.

We can only be happy now. Happiness is not something we can collect, put into storage and take out whenever we decide we want to be happy. Happiness is with us in the moment. If we look around at the people we know in life we will see that there are a few people who are usually happy. They are generally content with their lives. There are others who are mostly discontented with their lives. Very often the level of happiness has little to do with their physical circumstances. We all know people who have lots of money and very little joy in their lives and there are many examples of the opposite.

We can get little pieces of happiness from a few well worn sources;
Memories:
We can get some happiness from our memories. When we recall an event where we were happy, some of the joy returns with the memory.
Locations:
If going to a particular place lightens our spirit then we can have some control of our happiness by going there.
Jokes:
Funny stories and jokes can bring a smile to our faces but these are generally short lived events.
Food and drink:
Food and drink are another source of merriment. We eat and drink daily which is a requirement if we want our bodies to remain healthy. A good meal, well prepared can bring a lot of satisfaction to those who taste it.

Taking our eating, drinking or any other activity to excess is really an attempt to find the satisfaction we once felt when we enjoyed the experience in the past. We may have no other source of contentment and can only feel something of it when we repeat it. What we consume helps deaden the pain we feel within, for a while. If we consume a lot of alcohol it can help us escape for several hours from the pain in our life but the damage it does to our health and body system can put us in pain for a lot longer than the time spent in a stupor.

Decide to be sad or happy now
When we look around our lives and our situation and observe our circumstance, we can now decide to be happy or sad about them. It is our decision. For example recently a friend told me about his trip to see a friend of his about 20 miles away. As he drove there in his ageing car he noticed a change in the gear and clutch mechanism. Something wasn’t working correctly. The clutch wasn’t holding the gears. At this point he was out in the middle of the country so he tried to coax the car up the hills and free wheeled down them. This continued for the second half of his journey until he came to the town where his friend was. When he stopped in the town, the car refused to move any further. With some help from passers by he was able to push the car into a nearby parking space. Eventually he met his friend who dropped him home after arranging with a local mechanic to repair the car.

How would you feel?
So if that happened to you how would you feel? What would your attitude be to the event and how would you deal with it? It could be seen as a misfortune. It was very inconvenient because he couldn’t get to his friend at their agreed meeting place and he was now stranded away from home. It was also likely to be costly as fixing a clutch requires the skills of a mechanic. A pretty unhappy situation if we take the standard view of the event.

However my friend didn’t take the standard view. When the car eventually came to a halt he noticed that there was a parking space just beside him. When people passing by saw his difficulty, they happily responded by helping him get the car into the parking place. A police man passing by offered to get the local mechanic to come down and help get it sorted out. Within minutes of the problem surfacing there were solutions appearing.

The place where he stopped was opposite a restaurant called ‘The Blue Haven’. He looked on it as his blue heaven. He was able to guide his friend there and they had a pleasant meal in this heavenly spot. Afterwards his friend gladly brought him home. It was a gift of love from someone who was willing to do a little extra for a friend.

What should have been a regular meeting with a friend turned into the meeting of several people who were willing to help him out of his difficulties. This warmed his heart as he recognised that in this situation he was in his own blue heaven. There were many blessing given to him that day.

The key to his happiness was his attitude. He was grateful for the fact that he was able to get the car to the town, then find a parking place and the assistance of others to help in sort it out.

Happiness sneaks up on us
For a lot of us happiness is a fleeting moment. It often arrives unexpectedly and is gone before we know it. Happiness sneaks up on us sometimes. If we go out seeking it, it avoids us. If we go out trying to give it to others it surrounds us. When we reflect on the moment so happiness we will often see that we were involved with people, sharing, giving, supporting and working with them.

So what is the secret of being happy now?
There is a happy loving part deep within us. It is the part which we are constantly trying to reconnect with. This part is called Soul. It is in a heavenly place with God’s love flowing around It. If we can reconnect with Soul we can let that love flow into our lives. Love is the key to being happy now.

If we can give a little love to those around us, it will touch us too. It will reflect some of the happiness we give back to us. By being a channel for this love and giving happiness to others we also receive happiness.

Another technique we can use to maintain an ongoing state of contentment and happiness, is living in the Now, being present in the moment. Making the most of here and now can help us be balanced and centered in our lives. We are not trying to anticipate the future or undo the past. If we can focus on the here and now, whatever we are doing will be good. We will do it to the best of our ability and do it with love, so that whatever we do will benefit others. We are now putting our attention on where we are at this moment. We can be happy now.

Wishing you happiness now… and now… and now… and…

*Ed Parkinson

If you are happy now after reading this article, you’ll find more in the Spiritual Writings pgae by clicking here.

Happiness Quotes

“The secret is this: You make your own happiness. And that begins with the company you keep.”
Harold Klemp

"Happy the man, and happy he alone, He who can call today his own; He who, secure within, can say, Tomorrow, do thy worst, for I have lived today." 
John Dryden

"The happy man is not he who seems thus to others, but who seems thus to himself."
Publilius Syrus

"Happy men are grave. They carry their happiness cautiously, as they would a glass filled to the brim which the slightest movement could cause to spill over, or break."
Jules Barbey

“If you want to be happy, be.”
Leo Tolstoy

“The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up.”
Mark Twain

“Happiness is always a by-product. It is probably a matter of temperament, and for anything I know it may be glandular. But it is not something that can be demanded from life, and if you are not happy you had better stop worrying about it and see what treasures you can pluck from your own brand of unhappiness.”
Robertson Davies

“The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance; the wise grows it under his feet.”
James Openheim

“Happiness is a form of courage.”
Holbrook Jackson

“We tend to forget that happiness doesn't come as a result of getting something we don't have, but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have.”
Frederick Keonig

“It's never too late to have a happy childhood.”
Berke Breathed

“Happiness? That's nothing more than health and a poor memory.”
Albert Schweitzer

“Happiness is not a goal; it is a by-product.”
Eleanor Roosevelt

“Happiness is a direction, not a place.”
Sydney J. Harris

“If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.”
Dalai Lama

“There is no cosmetic for beauty like happiness.”
Lady Blessington

“Happiness is not an ideal of reason, but of imagination.”
Immanuel Kant

“Man must search for what is right, and let happiness come on its own.”
Johann Pestalozzi

“Cheerfulness is what greases the axles of the world. Don't go through life creaking.”
H.W. Byles

“My crown is called content, a crown that seldom kings enjoy.”
William Shakespeare

“How simple it is to see that we can only be happy now, and there will never be a time when it is not now.”
Gerald Jampolsky

“Jumping for joy is good exercise.”
Anon

“Happiness is a by-product of an effort to make someone else happy.”
Gretta Brooker Palmer

“You cannot always have happiness, but you can always give happiness.”
Anon

“One filled with joy preaches without preaching.”
Mother Teresa

“My advice to you is not to inquire why or whither, but just enjoy your ice cream while it's on your plate.”
Thornton Wilder

“Be happy. It's one way of being wise.”
Colette

“People don't notice whether it's winter or summer when they're happy.”
Anton Chekhov

“If you are not happy here and now, you never will be.”
Taisen Deshimaru

“Happiness is a function of accepting what is.”
Werner Erhard

“Pleasure is very seldom found where it is sought. Our brightest blazes are commonly kindled by unexpected sparks.”
Samuel Johnson

“Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.”
Robert Brault,

“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”
Mahatma Gandhi

“Happiness cannot be travelled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace and gratitude.”
Denis Waitley

If you enjoyed these nuggets of happiness you’ll find more on the Spiritual Inspirations page by clicking here.