Mastering the Manifestation Process

Inspired Action is the result of what happens when Creative Source Energy, Spirit, is in alignment with our thoughts, feelings and actions. It is through our actions that we actualize our thoughts and feelings into reality. The manifesting process is always active. Our thoughts, feelings and actions are manifesting reality in every moment of our daily lives. When Spirit is the guiding force of these creative powers our daily lives become an experience of Inspired Action.

The Law of Attraction teaches us that part of the manifestation process is that you attract into your life whatever you think about. Simply put, your dominant thoughts will find a way to manifest into the physical reality of your daily life. So, we called upon the creative powers of the mind, our thoughts and feelings, to focus attention on the highest vision it could possibly conceive. Thereby we attract into our lives the vibrational energy needed to manifest that highest vision.

However, thought alone does not actualize into reality although it does effectively participate in the manifestation process. Along with the creative powers of our mind we must also call upon the creative powers of our physical body, our labors and efforts. It is through labor and effort that we manifest in this reality as our thoughts and feelings align us with Source Energy.

We are in action all the time. Our labors and efforts are manifesting our thoughts, beliefs, attitudes and feelings to reality whether we are aware of it or not. As the LOA encourages us to align our minds with the desire for a higher vision for our lives so to must we align our action with that same desire. When this alignment happens we are now living our lives through Inspired Action.

Often we find ourselves doubting our actions as they have proven to be untrustworthy in the past. Inspired Action is cultivated through the art of allowing. One must learn to allow their actions to be guided by the inspirations of Source Energy, or Spirit. This can be a tricky process.

The physical body is generally pre-occupied with using its creative powers to manifest survival. Might I say here that it is very good at it. It can also be very challenging to get its attention or to get it to lift its head up. The physical body knows what it needs in order to survive and it has the creative power to manifest it.

If that is not challenging enough for you, your mind is processing through a myriad of thoughts and feelings in every moment.  Metaphysical manifesting brings our thoughts and feelings together and channels them as the Source Energy that fuels the manifestation process. Cultivating the power of the mind focuses our thoughts and opens us up to the Divine communication between Ego and Spirit.

So, how does one know if the action they are about to take has been inspired by Spirit and will result in the desired manifestation?  Sometimes what we thought was a gentle “nudge” from Spirit turned out to be a hard shove down a flight of stairs. Knowing, or trusting, that you are taking inspired action comes with practice over time. It requires being aware of the Source Energy behind the actions that worked and the ones that failed to produce the desired result.

As we align ourselves with Spirit, through trial and error the Universe guides us, although at times not so gently, down the path necessary to manifest of our deepest desires and highest vision. At first, as we set out to master the manifestation process, like infants we stumble and fall. Here, patience and perseverance are our allies; never letting go of the vision until ultimate manifestation. Each failure inspiring a deeper alignment with Spirit.

Allowing one’s actions to be inspired by Spirit or Divine inspiration is a result of a deep cultivation of the Ego-Spirit relationship and a blending of the Physical and Metaphysical manifesting processes. This is where it all comes together; now our conscious thoughts, beliefs, attitudes and feelings are manifesting themselves into reality through our actions. These Inspired Actions are happening as the result of a clear and steady communication with Spirit as it freely manifests through us ~ “Spirit In Action”.

As Inspired Action brings a harmony to the manifestation process a conscious partnership develops between the creative power of our minds and the creative power of our bodies. After a period of time the two begin to work as one and there is no longer any separation between the Spiritual world and the Physical world. Your life has now become an expression of spirit in action as your highest vision manifests itself right before your very eyes.

It is through Inspired Action that we actualize the union of opposites, the Divine marriage of masculine and feminine, the Yin and the Yang, the Above and the Below and Spirit becoming flesh. Spirit has integrated itself into our physical lives.

Too many of our Brothers and Sisters have died in the cause of human arrogance and ignorance throughout time all over our planet. Too many!

So today, in honor of all the fallen, I offer up on this day a living and walking meditation of Peace. With every breath and step I take today I pray that we as a global people will see clearly to put down our weapons and reach out towards each other with open hands, open arms, open minds and most of all, open hearts.

Let us remember those whom have died in wars by ending this madness and show them that we have learned our lesson by creating a world of Love and Peace. Today is the day my Friends. Now is the time. Never let go from your minds and hearts the glorious joy that Peace brings to ALL mankind and to the Earth herself. Set aside your individual troubles and join in one united heart and share in the sensation of Peace for more then just a moment but for the rest of time.

With every breath you take, with every move you make, with every step you take do it, not just today but everyday, in a state of Peace.

Breathe Peace!

There seems to be a new archetype at play these days. A new God that has been taking form throughout modern time. This entity is known to us today as Chicken Little. Chicken Little has his own mantra that when repeated over and over gives him more strength and power. Some know this mantra all too well and are teaching it to our children and our children’s children. It can be spoken in many different ways and in all languages around the globe. “The sky is falling, the sky is falling!”

I am sure you know this mantra well. If you repeat it enough times, believe it or not, the sky will fall. Chicken Little has become the most powerful Deity of our time. He has the largest following ever recorded in our modern history and one of the largest if not the largest priesthoods ever. You should take a look at the monasteries. They are full of children. Your children are likely attending one of Chicken Little’s monasteries right now. They are all over the world and he leads his teachings with an advertisement of no child left behind.

Chicken Little’s religion of fear is preached every day, throughout the day, via one of the greatest evangelical networks ever created. The mass population is addicted to his message as they wake up to it every morning as they prepare for their day embodying his words as truths and something to live by. Talk about the ultimate in “wake and bake”. Devoted followers repeatedly kneel at the altar of Chicken Little throughout the day as his priests and priestesses are active tending to the temples and serving the flocks.

Beloved Friends, Chicken Little is a false God. His message of fear is a lie. This fear is not real but an illusion designed to encourage you to give your power over to the Church. The sky falling is the greatest hoax ever played on mankind. As a population we have been taught by those who would make you believe that they have our best interests in mind. They want you to believe that if you sacrifice your love and give up your freedoms that they will keep you safe. Don’t believe them.

Fear is a lie! The sky is not falling and will not fall. It is not possible. Your fears are a learned response and have been taught to you. You have been manipulated by false prophets and false teachings specifically designed to distract you from the one true Divine force in our world, Love.

Love is the natural order to all things. The only true religion. You do not need to be taught Love for it is the way of all things. Fear has been designed by mankind for personal gain. Their greatest fear is that you will remember and unleash the Love within you bringing an end to their greed accounts and their power of status.

These false prophets need our Love now more then ever. They are the ones who are afraid for they truly believe in their message of doom and gloom. They need us to unlearn the fear and unleash our Love, to embrace them and to help guide them to the inner truth that is Love.

I want to be clear about the definition of the word Pagan. I am sure that this will get me into trouble with many of my Neo-Pagan friends, but here we go. According to Wikipedia ~

“The term pagan is from the Latin paganus, an adjective originally meaning “rural”, “rustic” or “of the country.” As a noun, paganus was used to mean “country dweller, villager.”

“From its earliest beginnings, Christianity spread much more quickly in major urban areas (like Antioch, Alexandria, Corinth, Rome) than in the countryside (in fact, the early church was almost entirely urban), and soon the word for “country dweller” became synonymous with someone who was “not a Christian,” giving rise to the modern meaning of “Pagan.” This may, in part, have had to do with the closeness to nature of rural people, who may have been more resistant to the new ideas of Christianity than those who lived in major urban centers and were cut off from the cycles of nature and the forms of spirituality associated with them.”

Pagan, country dweller, one who lives close to nature. As opposed to city dweller where one is cut off from the cycles of nature. It is that being cut off from nature that I believe our current social problems stem from. Cities by their very nature need to consume the surrounding natural environment in order to survive. Throughout our civilized history cities have sometimes by force and other times by forfeit consumed the country dwellers themselves.

No one can deny that we are now living in a world of mass civilization. By far more people dwell within the city walls then live rurally or out in the countryside. Most city dwellers have no idea of any other way to live. They have been raised in the city environment for generations. The growing of their own food is too far a reach from going to the grocery store.

However, it is my belief that tucked within the city walls is our world’s salvation.

This is where I get to vindicate myself with all my friends. There is a population of people who have been studying the “old ways”. The understandings of the cycles of nature are not lost to us. I am referring here to those we now call Neo-Pagans. I define Neo-Pagans as city dwellers who understand nature and have made a point in their lives to remain in contact with or re-connect themselves with the natural cycles of the Earth. Those who are not separated from Earth and yet live within the city walls.

I too lived in the city for quite some time and as I studied the cycles of nature my heart desired to break free of those city walls more and more. The way of life I was learning to live was in conflict with where and how I was living. The courage to leave the city and become a country dweller did not come easily. Thankfully I had been studying a Neo-Pagan tradition called Wicca. What Wicca did for me was to re-connect my soul with the cycles of nature. All the years of learning and practicing this Neo-Pagan tradition safely within the city taught me what I needed to know to be a country dweller, a true Pagan.

This brings us to the crux of my point. Our current social situation is in peril. Our ability to maintain civilized city environments is coming to a quick end. The city experiment is failing at a rampant rate. Understand that my rant here is not about doom and gloom because I do not believe in doom and gloom. I do see clearly that what we need is a balance between the old ways, and the new ways found within the new old ways.

Who, one might ask, is going to teach us these new old ways? It is you my friends, the Neo-Pagan population of city dwellers. As thousands of years ago, when the Pagan population left their country dwellings for the comforts of the city, the time has come for us to return to the country that we abandoned so long ago. They say that nobody knows how to live in or with nature anymore, they are wrong. The Neo-Pagans do! You do!

It is time for a great movement, a movement from Neo-Pagan to simply Pagan. It is actually a very short step all in all. Most Neo-Pagans celebrate different Holy Days than Christians. These Holy Days we celebrate are a reminder to us of the cycles of nature. Notice that I used the word celebrate here for the shift from Neo-Pagan to Pagan is simply from celebrating these Holy Days to practically applying them. A Pagan does not spend time observing the cycles of nature, but lives in direct relationship with them.

Beltane is a time when seeds are planted or when some rest from planting the seeds, real actual seeds in the real ground. Samhain is the time when we need to have completed the harvest or the freeze will come and kill the crops. What greater observances could we possibly do to honor nature than to live our lives according to the established cycles going on all around us?

I am afraid that if we do not get out the city and participate with nature, that soon nature will abandon us like we have abandoned her. The ancient egregors are still available to us, but for how much longer?

How much longer do we all have to wait until society has the courage to decide to live in a state of balance with nature? The time is ripe for you beautiful city dwelling Neo-Pagans to put your spirituality into actual practice. The world we live in needs examples of how to live at one with nature now more then ever. And, you are it, we are it. We Pagans are all the world has left to guide its population back into harmony with the source of our existence, the Earth Herself.

~John Lennon

From our childhood we are all encouraged to dream. Think about all the dream questions we toss about our society. We are asked what is our dream job, dream home, dream partner, dream car or dream world just to name a few. Without a doubt we all have dreams. Not only are we all capable of dreaming up new and different realities, we all do. Throughout our lives we spend our time daydreaming as we dream up different and better futures, relationships, jobs and world societies.

However, it takes more then just dreaming. Gandhi said to be the change you want to see. Well, I say to you now to live the dream, to express your dream outwardly and that you must, above all else, Be the Dream.

I understand that this is a great responsibility and by all means no small task. It is as King Arthur calling forth his Knights of the Round Table and setting them on the great quest for the Holy Grail. By taking on this quest, the responsibility of living your dreams, you become like one of those noble Knights. You are now on the path of becoming a Dream Warrior.

Like with all warrior paths there are phases, or stages the Warrior must pass through in order to successfully achieve his great quest. I lay before you now the three primary stages or actions of a Dream Warrior. Keep in mind that this is but a glimpse of the path, a simple introduction. If you are willing to heed the call, take up the challenge, the rest shall be revealed to you.

The Three Stages of the Dream Warrior

In the first stage the Dream Warrior takes the time to dream. As with all Warrior paths taking time to meditate is imperative before action. The Dream Warrior spends time visualizing and sees the dream clearly. Meditating on the dream brings specific details necessary before action can be taken.

It is during this meditative stage that the Dream Warrior learns the path necessary to take in order to bring the dream into reality and develops the patience that comes before action. The Warrior does not act impulsively, but with a clear and calm mind as he enters into the second stage.

In the second stage the Dream Warrior brings the dream into reality. As meditation and visualization were the tools the Warrior used in the first stage, here in the second stage the Warrior’s gifts are deliberate and effective action. With a clear and calm mind the Dream Warrior embarks on the great quest of manifestation, bringing the dream into reality.

This is likely the longest and most trying of the three stages. Here the Warrior learns perseverance. The path of the Warrior is as sharp as a razors edge and he will surely slip from time to time. Even though the Warrior seems to be defeated he continues on, to the end, with a burning desire to achieve the dream.

In the third stage the Dream Warrior encourages all around him to become Dream Warriors. At this stage the Warrior realizes that it is not possible to create the dreams of others or to create his dreams into the reality that belongs to others. He knows that it is each individual’s responsibility to manifest their own dreams. With this knowledge he embarks on the path of Exemplar. The Dream Warrior now becomes an example for those he comes into contact with who, like him, want to achieve their dreams.

Your Call To Action

My Beloved Friends… It is the call of your King, The Universe, for you to take on the noble challenge and dare to dream. Suit up, go to your sacred houses and dare to dream. And while you are dreaming, alone and at peace in your sacred vigil, illuminate your dream with all the brilliant colors that this world has to offer.

Now, Great Knight, rise to your feet, go forth into the world and with every breath that you take and with every action of your being call forth your dream into existence before your very eyes.

And along your journey on the quest for the holiest of holy, be a radiant example to all whom shall see you and uplift them with the knowledge that they too can be like you, a Dream Warrior.

Let us remember for the moment that wars are not just country against country but also governments against its very own people. There are wars against drugs, wars against poverty, wars against hunger, wars against terrorism and even wars against wars. Fights break out between brothers, fathers and sons, mothers and daughters and employers and employees. Hatred and anger is expressed on the road, in the grocery store and even shopping at Christmas time.

This begs the question, how can we stop fighting across borders when we are unable to stop fighting in our own living rooms? It is important to understand that peace, world peace or the “peace movement” is not just about ending war and global conflicts even though this has been the peace movement’s main “battle” for years.

The “peace movement” has been going on since I can remember. I was born in late 1963; some of my most vivid memories of childhood are from the late sixties during the Vietnam War. My Aunts and Uncles participated in marches, sit-ins and even peace prayers at that time. And still today this goes on as we trade in one conflict for another. None of these tactics seem to work in the long term. Forty years later we are still at war, anger still rages in the streets, parents discipline their children for fighting and shoppers are killing for the best price.

Although it has been scientifically proven that peace prayers do have some affect on the global community, lowered crime rates and unexplained ceasefires, this is yet only a bandage not a cure. Temporary moments of peace are encouraging but we need a longer term plan not short term fixes.

Friends, we have a choice to make. We can ask or petition God to bestow peace upon the Earth and simply continue to wait until He/She gets around to it. Or we the can take the matter into our own hands. Every one of us can adopt the personal responsibility of consciously and deliberately creating for ourselves, each other and our children a world where peace is the way. The only way! Right here, right now and within our lifetime.

This task is not as daunting as it might sound. We do not have to create the peace we are looking for as it already exists. Where is it you ask? Take a look inside and there you will find it nestled safely within each and every one of our very own hearts. The peace movement is truly not about making things change outside of ourselves; it is about moving ourselves into that place of peace that already exists within each one of us.

If we stop screaming and fighting so much, take a pause from the chaos of life for a moment, sit down and take in a big resounding breath we will remember that place of love and peace we were all born from. Believe it or not it is still within us all. All of us!

Now that we are all here remembering and standing before this palace of blissful calm and peace, let’s move in. Move yourself into the peace palace with all of your belongings. There is plenty of room for All. This is the peace movement or the moving into peace. We are all now surrounded by peace, it is all around us. We have moved in, taken up house. We are all sharing space in the palace of peace.

Next, take in another one of those resounding breaths and breathe it in. Let us all take in a few more deep breaths and fill ourselves with the peace that surrounds us. Breathe here for a while as we replace, or exchange, our inner air with the breath of peace. Fill yourself up! Now, peace is within us all. The palace of peace dwells with us as we dwell within it.

The peace movement is complete because we have moved into peace as peace has moved into us. Welcome my friends to the New World. Remember to be kind and gentle with yourselves and others fore the path we are now on is as a razors edge. We shall lift each other up as we slip and fall fore we will surely slip and fall.

To adopt a few words from our Beloved President Obama, we must all be vigilant in upholding the values we believe in. Living in this state of peace does not make us weaker it makes us stronger. Go in peace not just in words but in deeds and be an example to all of those who would dare to thwart you from this path.

My Friends, these are extraordinary times we live in. Change is all around us. Vibrational energies are waiting for us to simply align ourselves with them. Peace IS at hand. With our very next breath peace will be realized. Our children’s children will live in world where there will only be memories of hatred and war, silly stories talked about on the playground. As one by one we move into the palace of peace we change the world.

Peace Be With You!

FaceBook appears to be a central online meeting place where like-minded people and friends can keep in touch with each other no matter where they are in the world. I don’t know much about the power of FaceBook but I do know what happened to me, and my family, when I logged on.

After I set up my account I went looking for Brother Draco. He had told me that everybody we knew was on FaceBook so I checked out his huge list of friends. He was so right. Everybody we knew was on FaceBook. So I did it to see what would happen, I added Draco as my first friend. That is when it all began. As I started to invite others as friends people started to ask me to be friends. I couldn’t add them fast enough. My wife and daughter were sitting at the table with me and I started to exclaim how all the people we knew were here on FaceBook. When I started out my wife made comments like I can’t believe you are doing that. We had spent quite some time keeping ourselves away from this type of online stuff.

However, as I started to talk out loud about the people that I was adding as friends and that were adding me as friend she started to get excited about the possibilities that FaceBook might have for her. Next, our 14 year old daughter wanted to participate as well. By the end of the evening we were all adding friends and chatting with our friends online on FaceBook, all across the country. At one time the three of us were all chatting with Draco at the same time.

Remember, we are fairly isolated in our off-grid home on our forty acres. We usually have to travel great distances to be with community. Sometimes we forget how much we miss our tribe and how much our tribe misses us. We also forget how important it is to stay connected with the people you love. Without their loving influence upon you one is ultimately incomplete. You can actually forget who you truly are. I think that has happened to us from time to time. Then we get in our car and drive to a tribal gathering, hang out with beloveds and come back home remembering how huge and beautiful life is.

What is the power of tribe? The power of tribe is uplifting. The power of tribe reminds you of who you are. The power of tribe encourages you to achieve your highest vision and to help you manifest your dreams. The power of tribe includes you in a like minded community that reminds you that you are not alone.

We live off the grid and our home is solar powered. Some who use solar power put their solar array on an automated tracking system so that the panels turn toward the sun on their own. I chose to manually turn our panels every day throughout the day. This daily act over the past eight years has brought me into a direct relationship with the Sun. Throughout the year I have the opportunity to see where on the horizon the Sun rises and sets and how high up above the horizon it moves.

Using and tending to our renewable energy system is part of my spiritual and religious practice. The practice of daily sun salutations, either yoga or resh, has been replaced by the daily ritual of turning the solar array. Equinoxes and Solstices become more important as we experience the changing affects that the different seasons bring with more power in the summer and less in the winter. By the time the Winter Solstice arrives we find ourselves longing for longer days and are filled with excitement as we watch our power increase with each day as the Sun rises earlier and sets later.

It is my belief that our society has simply stopped paying much, if any, attention to the Sun. We have forgotten all the beauty that surrounds us thanks to the Sun. All the sustenance we receive, the food we eat, the water we drink, the transmutation of solar energy that takes place within our own bodies, and let us not forget the warmth of the day. Most important the sun is critical to the photosynthesizing plants where in the plants transmute the carbon dioxide in the air into the oxygen we need to breath.

It seems as though that our days are so filled with the struggles of the mundane that we simply take for granted that the Sun will rise tomorrow. And it will! For now, thankfully, the one thing we can count on is that the Sun rise is a constant.

However, one of the lessons contained in the Arthurian myths is ‘that that which we stop paying attention to goes away’, like the Pagan Gods. Imagine for just a moment where we would all be if the Sun decided to go away. Its endless light and radiance simply stopped shining upon our beautiful Earth. Imagine, if you will, some catastrophic event that we humans have created that hides the Sun from us yet we know it is still there. Where would we all be without the Sun? Dead! No longer in existence!

In ancient times the people actually gave their attention to the Sun. Worshiped it even. They built temples that honored the changing of the seasons. Some very sensibly built their homes and communities in ways that the Sun would shine on them all day long keeping them warm even during the coldest of seasons. Some of humankind’s earliest technologies were solar powered clocks and calendars. Over time religions of the Sun became religions of the One God and his Son or prophets. We lost reverence for the God the Sun in our sky. Yet while spiritual and religious practice has lost its association with the sun, we still know and understand its power.

Scientists say that enough solar energy reaches the surface of the Earth in one day to provide all of us with enough power for a year. One year for one day for all the electricity we humans consume. This even includes the energy needed to produce the technology necessary to convert solar energy into electricity.

With the energy of the Sun, we can power our lights, our homes and even our cars. In the renewable energy industry there is a saying; “priority should always be given to the Sun“. This is more important today then ever before. With the ever increasing population and the endless consumption of natural resources the time has come for us as a species to turn full circle and look up once again towards the Sun.

Today’s Sun worshipers build and use the temples of technology that honor and worship the Sun. Such temples include solar photovoltaic panels, water heaters, thermal collectors and solar ovens. There is nothing tastier then a sweet potato cooked in a solar oven. A solar oven actually infuses the food with solar particals, otherwise known as photons or energy of light, that when eaten are transmuted into the Sun worshipers body.

It seems to me that we are all currently paying attention to the “wrong” things. We spend our days under artificial light. We cook our food using artificial heat and wave forms. We heat our homes and travel about by consuming non-renewable resources. We have even begun to grow our food using these artificial means. We talk environmentalism as a society but we put profitability and economics ahead of everything else.

Maybe I am being too harsh. Maybe it is not the “wrong” things we are paying attention to at all. But I definitely know what we are not paying attention to, and that is the things of the Sun.

Natural light, the warmth of the day, the taste of natural grown and solar cooked food, the feeling of Sun’s light on our skin as we walk through the grasses, trees and wild flowers. Nature and the stuff of nature are in a constant state of co-creation with the Sun for us to enjoy and participate in its endless beauty. And what we have forgotten most of all is that we are a part of this delicate balance, not apart from it.

As we participate in our daily lives let us all remember the new mantra given to us by today’s Neo-Sun Worshipers; “Priority should always be given to the Sun“. Let us remember that without this great and wonderful power we do not exist. Let us live our lives, daily, accepting and practicing this as truth.

It is time that we all bring our attention back to the Sun.

I grew up in a military household with an alcoholic father who was very angry and unhappy with his life. He was not physically abusive per say, but he was emotionally abusive. Fear was always the emotion of the day. Being a military family we moved about every three years or so. My Mom was a loving person but as a Catholic she was unable to consider divorce as an option. She was also afraid.

I couldn’t wait to leave home. My older brother left home six weeks before he was to finish high school; he had been using drugs and between his drug use and my dad’s alcohol abuse, life for him and everyone else at home had become unbearable.

I had been playing trombone in the school band and had found a certain type of refuge in playing music. Band had actually become my life and I planned for it to be my life. Towards the end of my junior year of high school my dad received transfer orders. This was an every three year process for us and for the most part I was used to it, but this time was the worst of all. I had been selected to perform first chair in the All Europe Band but we were scheduled to leave Germany two weeks before the concert. I had also been working as my band director’s aide having opportunities to conduct the band during concerts and performing with numerous choirs as well.

When I arrived at my new school here in the States the positions that I had held in the band in Germany were, needless to say, already taken. The frustration and anger that overtook me was unbearable. I blamed my dad for everything that was happening to me. I lost my musical refuge and life simply sucked. Life at home sucked and there was hardly any reason anymore to care about the music. By Thanksgiving of my senior year I attempted suicide, the following spring I ran away from home briefly. My brother talked me into going home again so I wouldn’t leave my mom alone with dad. Two days after graduation I was gone.

As far as I was concerned I had had a horrible childhood. I would tell people how bad I had it. Woundology was the language at hand. I was attracting people into my life that also had horrible stories to tell about their childhood. It was a time of “poor pitiful me”. The first few years of my adult life were filled with the struggle of trying to really be free of my dad. I went off to college and my band director there became my dad all over again. So I quit school and went to work and my bosses became my dad.

Didn’t I leave you at home? I could have sworn that I had left home and left dad there. But everywhere I went, there he was.

After a few years of running away from the voice in my head I actually started to listen to the stories of the wounded childhoods that my friends were telling me. I didn’t know what it was on that day that got me to realize that my childhood wasn’t anywhere near as horrible as most of the stories I had been hearing. When they would say to me after my story, “well you think that was bad…” my inner attitude started to change. Actually no, comparatively speaking it wasn’t that bad. Not at all. There are people I know who grew up in the darkest of darks.

I started to see that although my childhood wasn’t as full of light as some it was also not as full of dark as some. It was actually fairly gray. I started to see into the light side of my life little by little. I had a mother who showed me a form of caring love that is still with me today. I had the opportunity to travel around the world as a child and see things and places most Americans will never see. I was given an opportunity to spend time with people from other cultures and be influenced by their ways of life. Most importantly of all, my dad taught me what it was like to live in sadness. That lesson helped to lead me out of my personal darkness and to decide the one most important rule of my life today; no matter what always be happy and love what you do.

When I was about twenty I went back home for a visit. I came across my father staring out the living room window with tears in his eyes. He was crying. I had never seen my dad cry before. I went and stood next to him, asked him what was wrong. What he said to me that day brought all the work I had done to revise my childhood story to an ultimate climax. My dad looked me in the eye and said to me, and I quote, “I have not been a very good father, have I?” I was blown away. This man actually had emotion!

I had never been as proud of myself as I was on that day for how I responded to him. I could have taken that opportunity to unleash an unholy hell and fury upon him about how terrible he was, but I didn’t. If this had happened a few years earlier I am sure that I would have.

What I said to him instead was that, it was true, he had not been a very good father; but he had been an excellent provider. I reminded him that we never went hungry or had to wear second hand clothing or live in a place too small or without heat or cooling. My mother never had to work which gave us the opportunity to grow up with a stay at home mom. I also told my dad not to try to make up for it, to go on from here, that I was “ok” with the way things were and how they are right now.

I had never believed until that day that my father loved me. Now I have a different story that I tell of my childhood.

The facts you read at the beginning of this post were simply just that, facts. They were not the story.

The story is that I grew up in a house of love and opportunities. My parents and childhood have greatly influenced my life and I am truly glad to be the man I am today. I owe this all to them and the path of my childhood. It was actually really cool.

I find that people are attached to their suffering and are even willing to identify or define themselves by their negative moments. The retelling of my childhood has had a positive impact on my every day life. This story leaves room for me to be happy and positive in my adult life, and to remember and recount the good days of growing up. It also reminds me to find the light in every situation throughout my life, to give my attention to those aspect in order to maintain a greater leval of happiness and to attract into my life a more positive and uplifting relationship with the world around me.

The question that I have, is that the way you want your life to be? Is your story of “the way of the world” the way you want the world to be? Simply put, is the story you tell the way you want your “reality” to be or is it the about the “reality” you are in?

I hear from people, in regards to their current daily lives, stories that seem to be mostly about lack. I don’t have enough time. I don’t have enough money. My job or my wife doesn’t appreciate me. I can’t afford this or I can’t afford that. Then, these stories of lack move into their world view. There isn’t enough food. The price of gas is too high. We are always at war and there is no peace. We are in a financial crisis. There are no jobs. There is a global threat of nuclear war. Our children are not safe, we are not safe.

I have a few friends that say to me, “Well Jonathan, I just tell it the way it is.” Or even yet they say, “I’m a realist.” My Dad says, “That is just not how the world is“. Parents tell their children, generation after generation, that they need to live in the “real world”. The “real world” you say. Well I, for one, am done living in the real world.

The world we all live in together is a culmination of the collective stories that we are all telling and believing in. Our individual personal lives are a direct manifestation of what we believe is true about ourselves and our situations. The question comes back around for me again and again, is this the world of which we want to live in, that we want to raise our children in? Isn’t it time to start telling a different story?

Fantasy does become reality!

It is not important, or even relevant, if the story you tell is the truth of reality or not. What is important is that it is about the reality you want. If the reality in your life is what you want then keep on telling that story, but if not, it is time for a change. As you go throughout your daily routines, take time to notice the story you are telling and believing in, for that is the reality you are creating. It has not been created for you, you have conjured it up all on your own through the stories you have been telling.

Here’s the kicker, the story comes before manifestation not after. 99 percent of all creation takes place in the vibration which we align ourselves with before we see any piece of physical manifestation. We do not align ourselves with the vibration of the manifestation; manifestation aligns itself to our vibration. Vibration comes before manifestation. We must first align ourselves to the vibration of the reality we want.

Gandhi said, “Be the change you want to see in the world”. You must first “be the change” before the world will change. If you do not first align yourself with the vibration of the way you want the world to be, there will be no change.

How do you know if you are aligned with the vibration of what it is you want? Be mindful. Ask yourself if the stories you are telling make you feel good. Your feelings are your inner guidance system. Follow your feelings. As Joseph Campbell said, “Follow your bliss”. Wouldn’t you rather live in a world where everyone was following their bliss, where you were following your bliss? Ask yourself over and over again; “how do I feel” and “how does this make me feel”. Then, follow your bliss!

Set out in each moment of your lives to conjure up a new vibration. Summon up, as if by magickal or supernatural powers, a new reality. Evoke, call or bring to mind a new story that will influence or as if by magick effect the change of how you want your world to be. You have the power to change your life simply by telling a different story.