by Hal Manogue
shortsleeves.net
Oh, a trouble's a ton, or a trouble's an ounce,
Or a trouble is what you
make it.
And it isn't the fact that you're hurt
that counts,
But only how you take it.
Edmund Vance Cooke was born in Canada in 1866. He is known as "the poet laureate of childhood." The verse above is from his most famous work "How Did You Die?"
Trouble or contrast as I call it now is one of the main ingredients for being human. Out of the contrast comes growth and expansion and I learn a little more about myself with each episode that challenges my fortitude. It's not easy accepting a situation that creates so much turmoil, but once I understand that it's in my experience because I put it there, a new outlook begins to surface through my thoughts.
Why would I cause myself so much trouble? Why would I put myself in strange situations where the only way out is to go within? It seems that the contrast I create through my thoughts brings me a closer to understanding who I am. From the pain I experience I can move to another place within myself if I accept what is in front of me. If I fight it or try to control it, more of the same comes into my world. I continue to rage a war against myself and blame someone else for the mess I find in my physical life. Day after day I struggle with fear and anxiety hoping that this will be the day that everything goes well. Of course what happens is more contrast, more fear and more heartaches.
Edmund's message is right on the money; a trouble can be a ton or an ounce depending on how I think about it. It is me who can change how I experience pain and suffering; it only takes a thought to do that. My thoughts create my world and how I react to what I have created. By thinking about trouble in a positive way I transform it into a positive. The trouble is the same trouble but my thoughts about it make it a lesson instead of a death sentence.
I have four important tools to use on my journey through time: Freedom, Awareness, Connection and Contrast.
Freedom allows me to use my will and my desires to make thoughts into things. I use it all the time, but don't realize I do. I can think any way I want to think and that is what I experience.
Awareness brings the light of unity into my physical journey. I feel another aspect of myself living within me and it guides me through intuition and emotions when I allow it to function.
Connection is the bond between my ego and other aspects of myself. It is knowing I am always connected to my source of energy no matter what my physical world looks like. I am a whole part of another whole that is complete yet incomplete, perfect yet imperfect joined in a union of love and expansion.
Contrast is the tool that makes me grow; that makes me expand into a grander version of who I am. It is fuel for change and the essence of being human.
Contrast is the vehicle that re-introduces me to the aspects of myself that I have forgotten and a reunion takes place. Without contrast I would stagnate in my own pool of complacency.
With these tools and the ability to use them I travel through this time/space adventure testing myself, remembering different aspects of who I am, and growing from the experience. I am a spirit having a human experience and I can live accepting contrast as my friend rather than my foe. It only takes a thought to make it so. So it is done.
SaturnsLady
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