“The deepest secret is that life is not a process of discovery, but a process of creation. You are not discovering yourself, but creating yourself anew. Seek, therefore, not to find out who you are, seek to determine who you want to be.”
“Every decision you make - every decision - is not a decision about what to do. It's a decision about Who You Are. When you see this, when you understand it, everything changes. You begin to see life in a new way. All events, occurrences, and situations turn into opportunities to do what you came here to do."
In my opinion, this is a big part of this week’s session. Add to the above, the playfulness of children and you have our adventure at Re-Creating. Our momentums for this week our about remembering who we are and who we want to be, and being childlike and having fun doing things like we used to do as a kid.
I’m going to list my affirmation and momentums here and then I’m going to share a very personal example of both that I got to experience this week with some of my Samoan friends.
Affirmation:
I am in High demand, as I Passionately present the Playbook Series with Authenticity from my Heart.
Momentums:
- Go walking by myself on Wednesday, Friday and Monday, next week. I will walk at least an hour and will enjoy pushing while listening to my iPod and smelling the roses.
- Christine and I have declared this Sunday to be Me day. From midnight Sunday morning until midnight Monday morning we will leave our phones home and spend time together and separately feeding our souls.
- During the feeding our souls day we will be staying at one of the Marriott properties and I will take Christine to dinner and she will pick a movie for us to attend (maybe even at full price, although that is pushing a little) and we will share popcorn.
- I will make a serious dent in my Success Book and be prepared to share it with the group on Tuesday so that they know what an incredible family I have and what an incredible life I have had.
- I will create my Passion Board, with pictures representing my purpose in life, my ideal results and my passion. I will also have it ready to share at our next meeting.
I lived in Samoa from early 1966 to mid 1969. My dad taught at the Mormon school there and I got to attend school with Samoans and be a kid (11-14). I came home from school every day and got to decide, ”Do I want to go swimming in fresh water or salt water, or do I want to go play in the plantations of elephant grass and climb the trees.“ Did I mention that we had the best Mango tree on the island in our back yard? Oh, and that I could cut Sugar Cane, or pull a Cocoa Pod as we walked along and enjoy incredible food too?
As cool as that was, I also was surrounded by Samoans that showed me unconditional love, respect and admiration. While some of my American friends who lived in the village with us would sometimes tease or make fun of me, the Samoan kids never did. We always had fun together and they supported a healthy belief in who I was.
During this same time I was going through some internal struggles that were building the foundation for the addiction that was to come. Yet when I finally faced my addiction and came forward with the truth about me, it was my experience with my Samoan peers that gave me the courage to try to do recovery. In case it doesn’t show, I have a very special place in my heart for Samoans and Samoa!
Anyway, I’m attempting to paint a picture of a people who don’t put a lot of stock in the clothes you wear, the money you have, or any other external ‘things.’ Instead, they look for your heart and judge by your willingness to be true to it. The also tend to do a very good job of living in the now. We had a hurricane while we were there and it devastated much land and many of there homes. I remember driving from our home to Apia shortly after the hurricane and seeing grown adult men out ‘playing’ in the several feet of water on their property. I was somewhat surprised that they didn’t seem depressed or upset, until someone explained to me that the water would soon recede, so they wanted to enjoy it while it was there!
All of this leads to my experience of last Wednesday and Friday nights. Many of these Samoan friends were in town in conjunction with the LDS Conference so they had a reunion at Sundance. Christine and I joined them on Wednesday night. We ate a great meal, which was a combination of an American Thanksgiving Dinner and a Samoan Luau. The Thanksgiving meal was okay, but the Samoan food was even better for me.
After the meal, they went through a series of questions, about people married the most years, most kids, etc, etc. There was lots of competition, as they were giving away prizes, but there was absolutely no meanness and tons of laughter. One contest was to see if any of us had a bigger gut than Hans, the host. In a normal American setting, I would have shrunk and hoped that no one noticed me. Instead, I went out in the middle of the room with my friend Vaitu’u and promptly won a wind breaker! There was laughter and support, but no shame or judgment for my size. I even forgot to judge myself while I was up there with my friends!
At the end of the drawings they took the last several gifts and walked around the group making sure that every one had something! No one was to go home empty-handed. The first Samoan potluck that Christine went to with me was at my friend Selena’s house. Christine brought a casserole dish. As we were leaving Christine noticed that they were scooping our food out of the dish. She was a little surprised until she noticed that they were placing some of all the other food in her casserole dish, and then she was really surprised. Again, they wanted to make sure that everyone got some of everything!
After the drawings, we had a group prayer and they started a Siva (dance). Everyone got up and danced. I’m generally very nervous about dancing because I just know that when I step on the floor everyone is going to stop dancing and look at and laugh at me! That thought has never entered the mind of any Samoan! They are born to dance and sing and just assume that everyone is. As a result most of them have great voices and great rhythm! Everyone, including Christine and I, got up and danced. It didn’t even matter if you had a partner. If you were there, you were dancing!
After a couple of minutes dancing someone pulled out a camera and instead of running away from it everyone ran to it. They were laughing and totally present. These were adults my age (in their fifties), but no one told them that. They laughed and had joy and jumped in and out of pictures with abandon.
As Christine and I left the reunion, I turned to her and said, ”For our American friends to have that kind of fun and be that in the now, they would have to be drunk!“ These Samoan friends of mine had had nothing stronger than water and a little Coco Samoa to drink. They don’t need to loosen up. They take life serious, but they don’t take themselves too serious. They live in the now and are incredibly childlike.
I truly believe that one of the gifts God gave me to help through the rough years and through my addiction was three and a half years living among some of the most God-like people I have ever met. I have spent much of my adult life emulating what I have learned from them. I am truly grateful for the lessons that I’ve learned from my Samoan brothers and sisters. I will be using those lessons this week as I commit to Re-Create and Recreate. Things to my experience with Samoans there is hope that Michael Gifford will succeed this week!
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One morning, a young man came to his Master saying, “Master, I wish to understand my path on Earth better. I wish to know why it is that I seem to carry my past and re-live it again and again. Why is it that I cannot get past…my past?
The Master smiled at the young man and said, “Go forward into the Maze in the garden. But carry this pack on your back as you walk the Maze. It will help you stay focused and balanced. Be careful for it is quite heavy.”
The young man took the pack from the Master who handed it over quite easily. But when the young man had it firmly in his grasp he was astonished at how heavy it really was!
Placing the shoulder straps over his arm, and bending over from the sheer weight of it, he strode toward the Maze. He was surprised to see it was not a garden maze, but was built of nearly translucent silk panels.
The young man paused before entering the Maze and then walked into it. Immediately he found himself facing a solid wall of silk. However, he could see just enough through the silk to other areas of the maze… he could make out others were there also. He could see them and hear them but they were not part of his path.
The weight on his shoulders reminded him of why he was there, so he put thoughts of the others out of his head. Walking forward, he found himself hopelessly trapped. It seemed that no matter which direction he walked there was no way to proceed forward.
Baffled, the young man finally sat down and pondered the situation.
The Master told me to walk the maze but it seems un-doable, but others are ahead of me. They must have figured out a way to get through this section. How did they do that? Are they smarter than I? Did they cheat? Did they crawl under the silk--that would be a simple matter--and no one would ever know.
The young man weighed his options and then rose to go on, deciding not to sneak under the silk. As he stood and turned, an opening appeared before him, as though by magic, and he quickly moved forward through it.
Soon he faced another series of solid silk panels and could see no openings or direction to walk, other than the one he had just come through. Again he sat down and thought of his situation.
He had gotten through the first test, he felt, by reflecting upon his options and then choosing to take one that was for his highest good. Stating again his affirmation that he desired to walk the maze, but only with positive intent, he stood, ready to find an opening. But none was there to be seen.
The young man was baffled. He felt that he surely would be rewarded as before for his desire to proceed only for his highest good.
The weight of his pack cut into his shoulders, bringing him sharply back to reality. What was it that weighed so much? What had the Master placed in it to weigh it down? It did not feel hard and lumpy; it felt soft yet very heavy!
What could possibly be so soft and yielding and yet heavy enough weigh him down like this?
Pulling the pack off, he opened it and peeked inside. The Master did not tell him to not look inside, he reasoned. The pack was quite empty! And yet it had weight!
“How could this be?” he wondered. Picking it up, he again felt how heavy it was; too heavy to be empty!
Placing it upon his shoulders he stood. He asked himself what it was he had just learned from this experience. He heard a voice clearly say, “Look inside of you, young man, for the weight lies there.”
As he walked he thought of his life and his path. He thought about his childhood and the friends and the enemies who had caused him harm.
He thought about how stuck he had been because of their feelings for him or their attitudes towards him. He remembered how angry he'd been when experiencing an unmerciful taunting.
The pack became even heavier as the student re-created and re-lived this experience within his mind and heart.
He stopped. “ I carry the weight of that which burdens me. I make the weight!
I therefore have it within me to unburden myself as well.”
The student was joyous with this insight. Just then, he saw and proceeded to walk through an entire series of silken panels.
He thought of how he could unburden himself of the weight of those he still despised and resented for their treatment of him. He knew they were not there with him in the maze, so he could not expect them to say “I’m sorry” and thus lessen the weight and permit him to go forward in ease.
“I forgive you” where ever you are,” he found himself saying to his own surprise. "I forgive you!"
The weight of the pack lifted immediately and he was able to walk without bending forward under its burden.
“Ah-ha!” the young man exclaimed, "Through my intent to forgive I unburdened myself of this weight which hindered my journey! But how can this be? They were the ones who wronged me, yet my forgiving them has removed the weight from me!"
The young one's head swam with the implications. Then, another series of openings appeared before him in the panels of silk. His pack was considerably lighter but heavy enough for his mind to stay focused upon it.
“Oh, Great Spirit, I ask you to help me see what it is that you are showing me here. How do I make my way through this maze? How will I release myself of the full weigh that I carry?”
He suddenly realized that his pack had lightened again with the warmth of the Sun. "What does this mean, God? Why do you lighten my pack with sunlight?"
It was then he found himself remembering a woman that he had kissed. His heart raced with the remembrance of her taste upon his lips and his love for her. His pack lightened considerably this time.
"Thank you, God, for your considerable wisdom. I see how I may unburden myself completely."
His thoughts turned. This freedom comes to me through my loving and forgiving of those who have wronged me previously. It is not their wronging me that hindered me. It is my holding onto that wronging that has been the heaviness stopping me.
As I forgive and bring love within me I make my journey easier. He felt his heart race with joy as his heart recognized the lessons.
The pack weighed nothing now but the young man was still surrounded by solid silk.
He decided not to be alarmed. He sat and breathed his mantra: I am the light and the way. I carry within me all manner of healing and knowing. It is through this healing and knowing that I make my way through this Earthly Maze. I am able to release my entrapments. I alone have the ability to solve this riddle and I ask now to have it done! I am a light body, and I am love!
With this, the young man felt his feet rise slightly above the Earth. He floated above the silk panels and could see all the others within the maze.
Their darkness’s, too, was being carried around in their own packs and this held them stuck. One minute the young man was standing and now he was soaring above the Earth in his lightness! He was outside above the maze!
He learned by thinking it and seeing it. These lessons became his reality. He found forgiving those who had wronged him was the release of his pain. It was his response to their actions that made him hold onto it.
The Master appeared and asked the young man, “How does it feel to be free of the maze?" He began walking away before the young one could reply.
He knew the answer already and he knew it would give the young one more wisdom for his journey, as it should be. . .
------Author unknown
I affirm your momentun to create and live in a new Samoan style realty!!
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