Simply Living: Who looks inside, awakens.

“There is no such thing as a 'self-made' man. We are made up of thousands of others. Everyone who has ever done a kind deed for us, or spoken one word of encouragement to us, has entered into the make-up of our character and of our thoughts, as well as our success.” - George Burton Adams Driving to work one morning this week, the sunlight was so bright that I could hardly see three feet out of the windshield. The moisture from the night blanketed my car and reflected the almost blinding sun all throughout the interior. I felt my eyes shift to the vehicle in front of me, using it for guidance. I watched its patterns, motion, speed, and I mimicked it. I felt a sudden connection come over me, as I began to realize that the line of traffic ahead of me awaiting to pull onto the highway, all did the same as myself. Each car seemed aligned to the other; relying on each other to get them where they needed to be safely.  Inside of our vehicles we feel isolated, like it'

"Happiness is a journey, not a destination; happiness is to be found along the way not at the end of the road, for then the journey is over and it's too late. The time for happiness is today not tomorrow." ~ Quoted by Paul H Dunn We often find ourselves searching for happiness-- like it's a bus stop we can just get off at, concluding our travels through daily turmoils. But when we're too busy waiting for the bus to stop to get off, we miss everything along our journey. And what I've began to realize lately is to not only appreciate the beauty and the scenery I witness out of the window, but also the destruction or the bumps in the road. Too often we're always searching for the happiness we feel can be reached and kept, like the happy endings we watch in movies. We don't see what happens after the movie is over; all we're left with is the final scene of the happy, smiling couple or the disputing family finally reconciling their differences. That'

Recently there has been a multitude of changes in my life. There was a point where my positivity went running and dove into hiding, no where to be found, leaving me feeling completely unbalanced. I've always uncovered the light in any dark situation, but could not for the life of me find the "on" switch.. for weeks, maybe even months. But in searching for what I couldn't regain, I found something I would have never discovered about myself if I had not been put into the recent situations-- I found enlightenment; enlightenment I hadn't experienced before. It wasn't that previously I always found the positive in every situation, it was that I just subconsciously chose to ignore the negatives. For years, and even through my father's death, I pushed away anything that caused me to feel badly. In my mind, I was looking at the bright side by not letting it effect me, but truly all I was doing was preserving it for a later time. And with each ignored feeling, I

Frequently we find ourselves going through life on what could be considered autopilot. We become too consumed in our own thoughts, not that focusing on ourself is negative, but we tend to engulf ourselves in our own conundrums and internal conflicts. This causes us to pull the blinds down over others which are also faced with the same worries and thoughts. We forget that others have the same emotions, and no matter the severity, we should treat them with the same tenderness we treat ourselves. Every person is and feels differently than the next, meaning some may handle their emotions differently, taking what may seem minuet to you a bit more personally and on a different level of consciousness.  Some could argue, "we should never take anything personally." But what about those of us who are still working on that trait? Personally, I have read and scanned through The Four Agreements  multiple times, the second agreement being, ' Don't Take Anything Personally .&#