Month: November 2004

To spend your time planning for life means you are using up your time for living. Lord, I choose to make the best of right now, to be joyful right now, and to live with no regrets.

Monday, August 30, 2004 Lessons of life

Every situation is a lesson to be learned. From the most mundane chores to the most complex projects, life is always ready to teach you something.

Life is ready to teach when you are willing to learn. And the more you learn from what life offers, the better life becomes.

The lessons are usually not all that obvious. Yet they are there if you will think to take a look. The lessons are there in every moment, in every dilemma, in every frustration and every joy. They are there in every sadness, every victory, every discomfort and every pleasure.

Each lesson you learn paves the way for a new and even more valuable one. Each lesson you ignore keeps coming back, again and again.

One way or another, life will teach you its lessons. When you’re a willing student, those lessons are pure gold.

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MN:

I love what you say, Jamario! Indeed, "the lessons are not all that obvious." And indeed, though they can be like panning for "gold," with an open mind and a willing heart, they become easier and easier to find.

Hey Michael!

I was just thinking about you this week – wonderin where the heck you are and how you are – ?

The answer to your (rhetorical?) question – Do I have bad Karma?, Do you have bad Karma?  Answer = YES

Bad can’t exist without good – Bad defines Good as Good defines Bad.

Everything that ever is was or will be must have the exact opposite of itself in order for itself to exist – it is all part of IS – this (in part) helps us to deine the indefineable, because everything that ever is was or will be is infinite in its scope – ever collapsing ever expanding with no end in sight always getting better yet can always be worse.

This is defining God in simplest terms – GOD = IS

The Beauty and Love of God rests in the truest freedom of choice (in particular choice as it relates how we view things), just as you suggest – it’s not what happens to us, moreover, it’s how we respond (our view – our choice) to those happenings that allow us to really determine our own Karma.

When things appear to going wrong, or life is imposing a series of difficult issues upon us – the answer to that is – Thank You – Thank You GOD for the opportunities and challenges you have provided me this day for without this difficulty I might not be so aware of how good things can be.  One can’t exist without the other!

Love,

Brother Vince

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MN:

Brother Vince, you beautifully point out the paradox of the universe: Good doesn’t exist without bad, just as light can’t exist without dark.  Indeed, I believe Good Karma is a product of what we positively do with Bad Karma.

I might add, you are one of the very few who has ever said to me "Be thankful for your challenges," who I didn’t want to throttle! On a deep level, I believe you sensed I would eventually do something with those challenges precisely like I’m doing in this newsletter and all the Wealthy Soul productions under way. And it is indeed now a blessing.

Love ya back!
Michael

We all have challenges and it is how we act or react to them.  If we first look to God and look for the answers He gives us the strength to cope with those challenges.  It is through God where we get our strength.

As I look back at different times in my life and when those challenges were there and I looked to God for support He was always there.  He gave me the strength to deal with those challenges.  It was those times that I grew and became stronger.  It was in those times that I shared with others that I was able to help someone else and we grow togheter.

"If God be for us who can be against us?"

Your books came at the right time and I am part way through the 9 Insights of the Wealthy Soul.  What a blessing at the right time in my life!

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MN:

Yes, Chester!  Timing is indeed everything. And how can we have Good Timing without patience? And how can we have patience without, as you say, surrendering to God? (Insights 2, 3 & 4).

And thank you for your kind comments about The 9 Insighs of the Wealthy Soul!

Hi Michael: I read your email with interest and it made me smile. It made me think of all the times I have said, "why me, what have I done to deserve this?" Looking back, however, I realized that the things that have happened have taught me invaluable lessons about life and have made me a better person. Due to these bad/unhappy times I have learned patience, tolerance towards others and have come to firmly believe that nothing happens without a reason. If you can get through the difficult time, you will at some point look back and an understanding will come and you will say, "so that’s why!" I believe that if you do bad things and live in negativity, you create your own bad karma. If you live to the best of your abilities,have a positive attitude and show kindness and compassion towards your fellow creatures of all kinds, good karma will be there. We all make mistakes, we all have bad times/days, we all do things that we feel bad about, but if we learn from these things and do better – that is what counts. Take care and don’t be discouraged. Your "bad karma" gave us an opportunity to write to you today.

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MN:

Your excellent comments, Llona, remind me of what a friend once rhetorically asked me when I was feeling very time-pressured. He said:

"Have you done all you could do?"

When I realized I indeed had done all I could do, it made me realize there was no use fretting over what I couldn’t do.

And, indeed, your comments and my friend’s question reminds us all that there does indeed seem to be "a season for all things." And isn’t Good Karma, afterall, having the wisdom to understand that, with patience, our season always comes?

Hi Michael,  I ordered your Wealthy Soul a few days ago… Have to wait for them.  I read your email about Bad Karma vs. Good Karma and had to smile. Yes – I am such a person that "suffers" bad karma all her life – it started as a 1yr-old with hearingproblems and continuing middle-ear-inflammations (with lots of pain). Had learning problems, 11 big surgeries, problems with getting pregnant and several miscarriages. My son turned to be an authistic boy with lots of problems (its going better right now, he is 22)and 10 yrs ago I myself got ME/CFS and turned disabled for several years. I am a lot better now, but still not strong enough to work again. Financially we live in a complete mess and my husband is a chronic depressed person (authistic too). In short: bad karma? Sometimes I think so, but every time I climbed out – started over. And still do. I "know" people get just as much as they can handle, so I am a very strong woman that can handle so much. And I’m a fighter, I will survive. I don’t like to see all this what happened as bad karma, but as challenges for growth, for developing strength and – my favorite – for trying to develop our abilities to help other people. I still want to help and I still do. In my own way.

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MN:

You hit on a wonderful point, Annette – the entire meaning of what it is to be a Wealthy Soul:  triumphing over your own challenges, and creating the Good Karma of raising others up with you who may be facing similar challenges.

This, as I describe in "The Vision of the Wealthy Soul," is what distinguishes  Wealthy Souls from Wealthy S.O.B.’s (those Stuck On the Bottom line). Many gain great material wealth in life, but can anyone but a Wealthy Soul know what a truly "sweet" life is?

You’re an inspiration, Annette.

Hi Michael,  Since I acquired your books, I have not written to you although I do enjoy reading your emails.  Your books were enlightening and I enjoyed reading them. Re your email about bad Karma, I really don’t think that anyone has bad Karma and that goes for you too.  However, I do believe that when things go wrong in our lives, it is for a reason.  And when things do go bad, I try to find the good and lesson in it.
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MN:

Great point, Lois – as soon as we find the lesson, we initiate the transformation.

Bad Karma for me is always when I let my thinking go its own way.  And, I can always counteract it by saying something that may sound crazy.  I simply say to myself, "Devil, get away from me." God always wants us to enjoy life and have contentment.  He gave us control over our thinking, but we must use that control.  Just think about what we sometimes allow to happen in our thinking and what we say to ourselves. Imagine this:  "If you had a friend who talked to you like you sometimes talk to yourself, would you continue to hang around with that person?"Michael,  I have often wondered the origin of karma, it’s existance and what did i do so terribly wrong in the past to be continually bombarded by very hurtful things–is it my attitude?  I tried to be a good loving person but lost family and health no matter what i chose—HOW DOES IT TURN AROUND?   BROKEN ANKLES , CHEATING HUSBAND, CANCER, BLOOD CLODDING CONDITION–WHEN DOES IT STOP?  I WAS SO POSITIVE TO CHANGE MY LIFE AROUND –AT 52 I AM STILL WAITING….IS IT MY IMPATIENCE?

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MN:

Dearest Chrissey,

Everyone needs a hand sometimes. You’ve been through so much. Seek out those people who will extend you theirs – they’re sometimes hard to find, but that’s what makes them so golden.  If you can’t find them, become one to others, and those whom you help will feed you with their love.

Find those people, read those books, watch those movies, keep taking a tiny step forward at a time, and think of yourself as a "thriver", not as a "survivor," and most certainly not as a victim. Surround yourself with such life-giving input and your ship will slowly begin to change direction so you again can feel the warmth of the sun.

I believe as you Michael that life presents learning opportunities so we just keep on keeping on.

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MN:

Keep on keeping on . . . sayings become popular for a reason, don’t they, Seth? Thank you.