The Power Of A Smile

I was a very happy child. More often than not, I greeted the world with a smile on my face. The best part was, that was also how the world greeted me back! I learned very early on that smiling at others almost always brought a smile back to me. The older I got, the more I understood the tremendous power a simple smile holds. There were many occasions where I amazed people around me by eliciting a smile from someone who was known for not smiling!

Our interactions with other people are a form of energy exchange. When we project a positive and cheerful spirit, we most often get that energy back in kind. There are times when we run into people who are not having a good day. A simple smile often has the power to remind them that not everything in the world is gloomy. On those occasions a smile is not reflected back, you have still made the other person question their negative reality. They will ask themselves what it is about you that is different from them!

We could change the entire world in a single day if we all chose to take the time to connect with others in positive ways. Smiles are a great place to start! They indicate acceptance of the energy of others and the desire to care for them unconditionally.

Make the decision to smile at the people you come into contact with today! You might find you change the lives of others in positive ways. Better yet, you may just find your own life will take a turn for the positive!

~CSE

Taking Responsibility For The Inferno

I will be the first person to tell you it is important to dwell on the positive. I am blessed with a relatively sunny disposition, and it has worked out for me more often than not. If there is one thing I have learned though, sometimes optimism is not enough. When one is confronted by a raging inferno, no amount of optimism is going to put the fire out. That requires resources--water or something else big enough to smother the flames. It is time for us to take responsibility for the inferno raging around us and set it right before it consumes everything--including us.

My trip down the rabbit hole has taught me there is great evil in the world--truly mind-blowing evil. This evil controls the vast resources that make up our planet and uses them to suppress the majority of the population. Because they control the media, most people do not even understand what has happened. While the pain from the oppression continues to wake people up to this reality, we tend to watch this raging inferno from the sidelines, convinced the fire department is on its way. Our programming, through religion and even fairytales, convinces us a savior is coming.

We have waited thousands of years for a savior. We will wait for thousands more if we continue to ignore the fire that is right in front of our faces. It is time to acknowledge this simple truth. We are our own saviors. The fire department does not exist outside of ourselves. The fire department resides in our hearts!

It is time to acknowledge the inferno raging before us. It is time to encircle it with our waterbuckets of truth and continue to pour water on the flames until they are extinguished. It is time to round up the fire starters and take the fuel out of their hands. It is time to charge them with arson, try them, and force them to make amends. The fire cannot be put out until we have taken responsibility for its cause and stopped it.

The inferno will continue to rage until we become its keepers. Let's stop this inferno together!

~CSE

  

The Gift Of Brokenness

Brokenness...it is not something we normally desire. The goal in life is to be happy and healthy and productive. When we achieve these things, we believe our lives are in order. When problems occur, we begin to believe we are no longer on our true path.

The thing is, no one's life is perfect. We go through happy and productive times, but there are times when our lives are not so good. We get sick. Loved ones die. We lose jobs and important friendships. Sometimes these things happen all at once and we feel as though our lives are no longer worth living.

It is in our most vulnerable moments the breakthroughs come. At those times, we understand we don't have all the answers and are much more open to new information. New information often brings new ways of doing things and new solutions. It is in brokenness we once again find footing for the journey. It is in brokenness that we find our hope.

As the mystic poet Rumi once said, "The wound is the place the light enters you." Know that your brokenness enables you to be filled with pure light and understanding once again.

~CSE