☮️💜☯️
Namasté Matthew ✌🏼
Day 25 – The 30 Day Personal Growth Challenge
⭐️ Never forget how Amazing ‘YOU’ Really Are ⭐️
✌️💜🎶
Namasté
Matthew
Day 7 – The 30 Day Personal Growth Challenge
Today my nephew and I went on an Adventure!
“Where are we going?” he asked inquisitively…”somewhere magical” I replied.
We got together a few necessities; water, snacks, etc and we were off…
We drove to the river and parked. “We’re here” I said, as he anxiously looked around.
“The river?” he questioned, “I thought we were going on a magical adventure? What’s magical about the river?” he said a bit deflatedly. “I don’t know yet” I replied, “that’s why it’s an ADVENTURE!”.
We got out of the truck and walked toward the river. “The first thing we need” I said, “is a good walking stick!”. We soon both found acceptable walking sticks and the journey began.
As we walked toward the land bridge and across to Bateman Island, I asked my nephew if he had brought his magic wand. “No” he replied, rather surprised by my question. “What?” I exlaimed, “…well we better find one on our way then.”
We continued our journey and a few minutes later, he looked down and exclaimed “I found it! The PERFECT magic wand.” I smiled big and said “great job buddy”, and after a quick high-five, we continued walking; each with our walking sticks and he with our MAGIC wand.
Bateman Island is beautiful. As we walked we saw grasshoppers, dragonflies, ants, and birds. Grass, sand, rocks, plants, trees, and then we came upon some beautiful yellow wildflowers.
We both stopped to admire them and I said “What do you want to make?”. “Make?” he said curiously. “You know, with your magic wand…what do you want to make?”, I said with a grin. He looked at the small stick (magic wand) and then at me. “It’s just a stick Uncle Matt” he says, with a bit of attitude.
I laughed “How do you know? You haven’t even tried to use it yet”. I got an eye roll as he said “I don’t know what to make…”. “Make WHATEVER you want” I replied.
With that, he looked at me; and again at the stick. He smiled, waved this stick in the air and said “I’m going to make some purple flowers”, and with a quick “Abracadabra“, it was done. “And now the adventure begins…” I said as we started walking again; in search of his ‘creation’.
The weather was perfect and the view incredible. We both walked silently for some time. As we rounded a bend in the trail we came across some more flowers. “Not purple!” he states and continues walking. I stop and snap a couple of pics anyway 😜
After a long silence, he looks at me and says “It didn’t work…” and before he could finish his sentence, he looked down and saw HIS flowers.
“Uncle Matt, Uncle Matt…IT WORKED!!!…Look” as he pointed to his right.
Sure enough…purple flowers. He was ecstatic! We stood and admired them for a bit. He was elated that OUR magic wand had actually worked.
This time I didn’t have to ask what he was going to make, because he was using his magic wand non-stop 😊
“I’m making birds now – Abracadabra“
“I’m making trees now – Abracadabra“
“I’m making EVERYTHING now – Abracadabra”
My nephew was HOOKED and our adventure continued; as we rounded each bend, we talked about all of the beautiful things HE had MADE for us to see. “OH WOW, you did a great job on this!…how did you make that?” I said, as he showed ME all the cool stuff HE had made come out of that little stick.
We had a Most Excellent Magical Adventure!
I love that kid💜
I hope YOU had an excellent magical adventure of your own today!
The first 7 days of the challenge have been incredible for me. Some difficult, some scary, but most – FANTABULOUS! I am seeing the world and everything in it differently somehow. I AM CHANGING; and that’s personal growth.
With peace, love, and gratitude,
Namasté
Matthew
I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright no matter how grey the day may appear.
I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun even more.
I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive and everlasting.
I wish you enough pain so that even the smallest of joys in life may appear bigger.
I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting.
I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess.
I wish you enough hellos to get you through the final good-bye.
(Author unknown)
55
“Whoever is filled with Virtue is like a new-born child.
Wasps and scorpions will not sting it; snakes and serpents will not bite it; wild animals will not attack it; birds of prey will not swoop down on it.
Its bones are soft, its muscles weak, and yet its grip is firm.
It does not know of male and female union and yet its organ stirs; its vital energy is at its height.
It cries throughout the day and yet is never hoarse; its harmony is at its height.
To know harmony is to know the eternal.
To know the eternal is to know enlightenment.
To speed the growth of life is an omen of disaster; to control the breath by will-power is to overstrain it; to grow too much is to decay.
All this is against the Dao and whatever is against the Dao soon dies.”
– Translated by Tom Chilcott, 2005, Chapter 55
Photo by Rose McEntire 2015
Do nothing? I’m all over that 👍
Actually, the true meaning of this Taoist philosophy, is to be at peace with yourself and live in the now.
The stresses of daily life; our obligations, our expectations, our attachments, lead us to imbalance and poor health.
In applying this philosophy, you don’t actually ‘do nothing’, but the things that you do, you do with mindful patience.
When you release expectations and attachments to outcomes, things will get done, naturally, as they should.
Think about it this way: when the seed is planted, it doesn’t fight being planted, it does nothing; it’s a seed and it does not fight that.
The seed doesn’t worry about where it was planted, what it should become, if the wind will come and blow it away, or if the sun will shine upon it; it just does what seeds do. In this way, the seed ‘does nothing’, yet everything gets done.
Nature is funny like that. When left untouched, things fall into balance and harmony naturally; ‘without doing’. We can learn a lot from nature.
Happy Wednesday and Namasté