Filling Up the Tank

“Emotions are the fuel to really move you along - that's the only way you can create music. If you don't feel any emotions, it's not going to happen.” ~ Jan Hammer


In one of her comments to one of my posts, friend and fellow writer Alice Grist described how hearing of the success a childhood friend experienced in her career, motivated her to stir her own creative juices and start writing professionally.

Although their friendship had ended many years before while still children, their mothers were still occasionally in contact and shared information about their respective daughters; when Alice heard that her friend had become a writer and journalist -- something she had always wanted as well and never pursued -- she was overcome by jealousy.

Jealousy, envy, anger and all other emotions customarily considered negative ones are usually seen as a deterrent to success and personal growth, but in Alice’s case, jealousy and a sense of competition were the main ingredients of a fuel that propelled her toward tapping into her hidden talent and developing a career in writing.

Born from the ego, emotions are often confused with feelings from the heart. It is very common to hear people talking about amorous jealousy being connected to true love, while in reality the two are as different from one another as day and night – the feeling of love knows no jealousy because love is all-encompassing and well-wishing; we love our children and wish them to be happy with the right person; by no mean we would want our love for them to become a prison, because true love doesn’t need to own anything or anyone. Jealousy is instead connected to fear, the opposite of love.

Generally speaking, emotions are a cursed lot we don’t need to call upon, unless, of course, we can channel their fire in a creative way.

When one of my friends found out her husband was determined to dissolve their marriage, she was crushed. When he left, she became angry. At the time, her anger served a purpose, and it allowed her to pump steel into her spine while she tried to pick up the pieces of her life. Anger held her up from the impulse of drowning into self-pity, and gave her strength in the early days of the separation.

In Alice’s situation, the feeling of dissatisfaction with the self which resulted from comparing her stalling writing success to her friend’s prolific venture, led her to shake off the invisible chains that held her back from reaching her own true potential. Today, Alice Grist is a highly-respected author and a very creative businesswoman.

My mother always explained it best – no matter what it flows through, or what it feeds, electricity is still electricity. The energy invested in the charge connected to specific emotions is still energy; channeled through our intent but neutral in nature. So, if energy can begin in a neutral state and be transformed into a negative or positive charge through our choice of thoughts, certainly the reverse process can happen as well, and we can use the directing power of our thoughts to channel a negative charge and transform it into a positive one.

If we can concentrate on shifting our focus whenever we feel a negative charge rise up in response to something unpleasant, and direct the fire of our emotions toward positive mental images, we can now pour fuel into a plane which will take us where we desire to be.

We can’t always choose what happens around us, but we have the power to choose what we will do with it. If someone offered you free gasoline for your car, you would never dream of turning down the offer; wasting the opportunity to employ free, good mental fuel is not too smart either.

A Season for Everything

“Some closing of the gates is inevitable after thirty, if the mind is to become a creative power.”~ E.M. Forster

This past weekend, one of my close friends went on a spiritual retreat she attends several times a year, and decided to share the trip with another friend who occasionally travels with her. During this particular trip, she had a surprise –another friend she had not seen in years decided to ride along.

Once she got past the initial shock, she was happy this opportunity had opened for her to find resolution to a personal conflict. Four years ago, she and this friend had come to a halt in their relationship for no apparent reason, and she never could figure out exactly what happened that drove her friend away.

The drive was for the most part uneventful, the soft rhythmic rumble of the engine interrupted only by the voices of the other two women excitedly chatting away and catching up. Focused on driving, and not much interested in the daily dramas being discussed, my friend avoided large part of the conversation and listened instead.

From the time their ways parted, their lives had evolved in such different directions that it was almost impossible to find anything left in common. During the trip, finally, my friend found the resolution she had waited several years for – nothing drastic had occurred when their friendship ended, no one had argued over anything, and no harsh words had come in between them; their friendship had simply run its course, and had come to an end.

It happens, sometimes, that relationships fall apart without an apparent reason, leaving one or more of the people involved fishing for answers, or wondering if they are at fault in the dissolution.

Some people are in our lives to stay, and their role is often one of mutual support, while some others only briefly cross paths with us to facilitate the learning of a specific lesson. When the lesson is assimilated – whether that milestone is integrated into our conscious perception or not – the person walks away and our paths diverge once again; they were never meant to run together, but only to merge for a short while.

Some of the ‘temporary people’ in our lives can enter the stage at the most unexpected moments, and their arrival and brief stay – as well as their often dramatic exit - have the power to upset the natural order of things, or to trigger a change by initially turning our lives upside down.

In my friend’s case, when the former friend walked out, curiosity surrounding the fallout was the main reason for her leaving the door ajar all this time. When she met the other woman again, she realized she had no hard feelings for her at all; in fact, she wished her well on her way. Nothing was ever really wrong; they were only two very different people whose lives briefly connected for reasons to them unknown. Their time together was over many years before, and finally my friend was able to lay the matter to rest. With that door finally closing she allowed herself to free up her perception while waiting for new things to take the place of something that no longer served her in the present.

Anatomy of a Gift

Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.” ~ Proverb of origin unknown

Although this wise, old proverb hints at the fact that we shouldn’t judge a gift by its monetary value, a few days ago I couldn’t help but come up with a slightly different interpretation for it.

A week ago, I woke up to a terrible head cold – sore throat, stuffy nose, body aches, and all the necessary garnishes to make me feel utterly miserable. Not being a fan of medications unless absolutely necessary, I decided to treat myself to some of our old family recipes, enriched this time by the suggestion of an herbalist friend. I drank ginger tea throughout the day in addition to several teaspoons of homemade Four Thieves vinegar – for those who don’t know what it is, Four thieves vinegar is non-pasteurized vinegar in which certain herbs known for their anti-bacterial and anti-viral properties have been allowed to steep for six weeks.

True to my beliefs that a well-aligned spirit is meant to live in a healthy body, I also dedicated a little extra time to meditation, visualizing health and vigor even if I felt like death. I focused on illness being the illusion, and good health being my birth right.

Something worked. Although I’ve had good results with all the above mentioned methods I the past, I don’t think I’ve ever been able to fully heal from a nasty cold in twenty-four hours until now. When I first got out of bed the next day, I was slightly surprised that my body was not aching and the chills were gone, but as the day progressed, and all other symptoms began to completely subside by lunch time, I questioned what had happened.

Old lore tells that a cold takes three days to come on, three days to stay, and three days to go; this cold, however, took the express train out of town. What killed it? Was it the vinegar, or the ginger, or, maybe, the meditations? Really, it could be any of those things or none of them at all, but what mattered is that I was no longer sick.

That’s when the proverb of the gift horse flashed through my mind. One of our greatest blessings and curses is our never-ending necessity to question everything. We feel the compelling need to qualify and quantify everything, often looking for flaws that can confirm our doubts.

When we receive a blessing, we can’t just accept it for what it is; we need to find out who did what, why they did it, and how it happened; by doing so, we dilute our gratitude for the blessing received. If we ask for help getting out of a flood, it doesn’t matter if God Himself lowers His hand to pick us up, a neighbor comes with his fishing boat, or a large log happens to float by us at the right moment; what counts is that we are safe and should use our energy to send out vibes of gratitude rather than worrying about the technicalities leading to the gift.

I quickly wiped my own thoughts away, and thanked Spirit for the help, elated to feel healthy and inspired. Once again, believing truly saved the day.