Having Faith

One of the most difficult things that I have struggled with in the past and that I still struggle with in life is having faith.  Time and time again, life has proven to me in clutch situations that you do not need to worry, the things that you need will always come at just he right time and worrying, stressing and trying to force things, only interfere with you getting the things that you need and cause you to spend life unsettled.  Sometimes when all of the odds seem stacked up against you it seems impossible to look on the bright side and have faith that you are on a perfect journey and the you will be provided the things that you need.

With TV and society telling us all day long, we need this, we need that, the definition of success is this, it can be really difficult to shut off our problem solving minds and just be at peace, but we must find a way to convince ourselves not to worry we will have what we need.  It's not a coincidence that every religion teaches these principles. Every living thing on the Earth is supplied with EXACTLY what it needs to survive and thrive why wouldn't we, as human beings, the most evolved species on the planet be provided with the same benefits. Our biggest enemy is ourselves, our own minds.

Lately I have been focusing on quelling the negative thoughts in my mind.  I have learned in my life's experiences that through meditation, prayer and self hypnosis, I can change my thought patterns and take little steps toward the ultimate goal of trusting in life, trusting in God to provide the things that I need and in this I have found peace.   I try and take a bit of time, every day to sit in silence in nature and allow myself to realize that I am connected to everything that IS.  We are all one unit, scientifically made up of the same things and I am starting to notice the difference in my life.  Appreciate all that IS and be grateful for it all, even the things that suck, because it is all part of a perfect plan that can take you forward to become the best YOU possible.

LIVE!

`Tilly


SOME COOL QUOTES ON FAITH

“I love the recklessness of faith. First you leap, and then you grow wings.” 
― William Sloane Coffin Jr., Credo

“Faith is a knowledge within the heart, beyond the reach of proof.” 
― Kahlil Gibran

“To have faith is to trust yourself to the water. When you swim you don't grab hold of the water, because if you do you will sink and drown. Instead you relax, and float.” 
― Alan Wilson Watts

“It's our faith that activates the power of God.” 
― Joel Osteen, Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential

“If the Sun and Moon should ever doubt, they'd immediately go out.” 
― William Blake


“Faith is realizing that you always get what you need.” 
― Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Celebrating Silence: Excerpts from Five Years of Weekly Knowledge 1995-2000

“Faith is not Desire. Faith is Will. Desires are things that need to be satisfied, whereas Will is a force. Will changes the space around us,...” 
― Paulo Coelho, The Witch Of Portobello


“Faith is the bird that feels the light and sings when the dawn is still dark.”
― Rabindranath Tagore


“You do not need to know precisely what is happening, or exactly where it is all going. What you need is to recognize the possibilities and challenges offered by the present moment, and to embrace them with courage, faith and hope.” 
― Thomas Merton

“Trust and faith bring joy to life and help relationships grow to their maximum potential.” 
― Joyce Meyer, Battlefield of the Mind: Winning the Battle in Your Mind




`Tilly

An Affirmation

If you have ever taken the time to read through my blog over the last few years you definitely get a glimpse into some of the highs and lows of my life, my troubles and my tests.  I enjoy reading back and reminiscing and recalling some of the amazing adventures which I have taken and replaying some of the lessons that I learned and forgot, only to again relearn.

I have come to a point in my life where all of the pieces are finally seeming to fit into place.  It seems that all of the little lessons that I have learned in my experiences are revealing themselves.  All of the little principles which I have adapted in these situations are becoming applicable in the grand scheme of things and rather than reminding myself that "this is the way I should behave or think" things are becoming more automatic.  There have been many steps and fall backs, but I am pretty confident that the work that the goals which I had set to change myself from within have become accomplished and while I am far from perfect and never will be, I believe it is time to reap the harvest of my labor.

I say this all to you, my readers, as sort of an affirmation that I am not looking back.  I have shed myself of the past which had bound me for so long, in so many areas of my life and forgiven myself for the mistakes of my youth (and some adulthood) and am pretty confident in the man that I have become and who I want to be.  The hardest part of all of this is the people who I have had to leave by the wayside, certain people who have had and will always have a piece of my heart but who enabled me to cling to the past, not through their own faults.

I am marking this moment, in writing, forever, as a turning point in the life of "Tilly". This a time for change, my declaration to the end of time that I am not looking back.  I'm truly indebted in life to the people who have walked with me and pushed me to become something from what I was and gave me the courage to stand strong and face myself, to look at myself and cause help me to aspire to be more than just another failure, I thank you.

I hope that someday, someone will find this blog and read it from the beginning and see where I was, where I am at this moment and where I will have gone and it will give them the strength to keep pushing on, to forget about what's outside and grow from within.

Follow your heart,
~tilly

It's difficult sometimes to be positive in a time where we see violence on the television every day, were there are natural disasters and wars flashing before our eyes and where "doom & gloom" seem to be on everyone's minds.  I don't know about you, but I don't want "doom & gloom" in my life, so I try to look at the things that are going on right NOW, that make life pretty darn good, the things to be thankful for.

There are a lot of things going on right NOW which would lead some people to believe that these are the WORST times in history, I disagree.  I am pretty grateful that I didn't have to go to war and I was able to live past my 30th Birthday, there are other times in history where that was common practice for  MOST men, luckily, it's only a small percentage now.   I'm pretty happy that statistics show that if I eat right and take my vitamins, I should live to exactly 69.7 years old.  Not so bad since if it was the year 1900 it would be a mere 46.

I'm thankful that even if I am classified as "poor"  I probably have a cell phone with access to the internet wherever I am and if I am lucky and can send a message instantly to anyone in the world.  If I do have family far away, I can push a button and see there face in real time or I can chat with them throughout the day, no matter what I am doing via text.  I have access to every song, to every book that was ever written, with the push of a button.  Wonder what they would've thought about that in the dark ages?

I'm grateful that I can choose what I want for dinner, without having to go out and kill it for my family.  Not only do I get to choose between 10's of 1000's of choices of what to eat or what not to eat, but I don't have to cook it if I don't want to, I can sit down at my laptop and push a few buttons and Sushi, hand rolled by a man from Japan arrives at my door in 20 minutes.  I imagine that's a little better than say, Lamb stew and bread every day.

I'm thankful for travel and the ease in which we travel pretty freely throughout our country and the world and space for that matter, I hear Justin Bieber is going there. For about a $150, if plan properly, I can leave my doorstep and be in the lights of the Vegas strip, or New York and enjoy a great show.  I don't have to walk to work or ride a horse, I can be there in 20 minutes.  If I want to move away from my town, it won't take six months, I can probably pack a truck and be somewhere new in a few hours.

I'm thankful for schools and education.  I know it's not perfect and it's expensive, but everyone has access to texts books and tutorials and while we might not all be able to receive the same fancy degree from the same fancy schools, we have libraries and text available on-line and if we are driven all have access to the same knowledge, if we are willing to work for it.

I'm thankful for air-conditioning and heat, for freedom of religion and press, for refrigerators and sidewalks, hospitals and ambulances, internet games and baseball, for my family and friends.  There are plenty of things to be thankful for if we look at things the right way.  Contrary to popular belief, we are living in some of the most amazing times in the History of the world.  We are lucky to be here today, people throughout the history of time would die for just a week in our shoes and did give their lives so that we could be here, right NOW.

1 love 

~tilly

Let Ameirica be America Again

This Monday morning I have been reading a lot of poetry.  I am inspired by poetry and again have been inspired by my favorite poet, "Langston Hughes", a true lyricist.  Enjoy! ~tilly

Let America be America Again

Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.

(America never was America to me.)

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed--
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.

(It never was America to me.)

O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.

(There's never been equality for me,
Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.")

Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?

I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek--
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.

I am the young man, full of strength and hope,
Tangled in that ancient endless chain
Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!
Of work the men! Of take the pay!
Of owning everything for one's own greed!

I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.
I am the worker sold to the machine.
I am the Negro, servant to you all.
I am the people, humble, hungry, mean--
Hungry yet today despite the dream.
Beaten yet today--O, Pioneers!
I am the man who never got ahead,
The poorest worker bartered through the years.

Yet I'm the one who dreamt our basic dream
In the Old World while still a serf of kings,
Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,
That even yet its mighty daring sings
In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned
That's made America the land it has become.
O, I'm the man who sailed those early seas
In search of what I meant to be my home--
For I'm the one who left dark Ireland's shore,
And Poland's plain, and England's grassy lea,
And torn from Black Africa's strand I came
To build a "homeland of the free."

The free?

Who said the free? Not me?
Surely not me? The millions on relief today?
The millions shot down when we strike?
The millions who have nothing for our pay?
For all the dreams we've dreamed
And all the songs we've sung
And all the hopes we've held
And all the flags we've hung,
The millions who have nothing for our pay--
Except the dream that's almost dead today.

O, let America be America again--
The land that never has been yet--
And yet must be--the land where every man is free.
The land that's mine--the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's, ME--
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.

Sure, call me any ugly name you choose--
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people's lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!

O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath--
America will be!

Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain--
All, all the stretch of these great green states--
And make America again!