Soulbyte for Friday March 6, 2015

Before making a decision consider the whole. Consider the outcome of your decisions within the wholeness of your life, your goals, and your dreams. To plot your life according to ideas that may be impractical though daring and even adventurous may not be the best approach. A warrior is always aware of taking full responsibility for the self and so a warrior makes decisions that will not only provide what is necessary but be progressive as well. For a warrior does seek adventure and is open to new experiences, but a warrior also knows what is expected and so a warrior is prepared not only to be fully responsible but also ready to turn and walk in a new direction at a moment’s notice. So a warrior is always prepared for the worst even while also expecting the best. This is how a warrior takes full responsibility for the self and is ready for any adventure and any outcome.

Soulbyte for Thursday March 5, 2015

Just as an owl sees, hears, and hunts in the dark so does a warrior remain alert, aware, and attentive to the world, night and day. A warrior knows, like owl, when it is time to wait and when it is time to strike. A warrior sits quietly, staying hidden when necessary, and a warrior takes action, using the strength and keenness of owl sensibility when the time is right.

To be like owl is to study nature, both in the dark and in the light. For notice how owl disappears at first light, rarely seen except by the keenest eye, by the warrior who knows where to look. And so owl teaches how to be a hunter and how not to be hunted, how to recede into nature when the time is right, blending in with the surroundings, taking respite and rejuvenation.

A warrior studies surrounding nature, the creatures of the night and the day, and learns how to best live in the Tao of it all.

Chuck’s Place: Being In Love

Love comes in many shapes and forms... - Photo by Jan Ketchel
Love comes in many shapes and forms…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

To be a being in love is the ultimate journey. To embody love in all perceptions, in all judgments, in all reflections, and in all actions is the goal. Behind all fear love awaits. Love is full acceptance of all that was and all that is. Love rests upon the truth; it’s all that matters.

Love is not a merchant. It seeks nothing in return; it simply loves. Love is not a pushover. If the truth is that it must kill, it does so with love. This is the lesson of the Gita, a battle guided by Krishna.

Life is hardly the absence of struggle and battle. The challenge is to be a being who comes from the place of love in every role, good or bad. Love has no attachments; love simply is. Can you find it in everything and everyone?

Love seeks not, especially to change another. Love simply accepts the full truth of the other. In full acceptance may lie the truth that it’s not time to meet, that you both need other things. You are in love if you allow for the full acceptance of this truth, as you quietly grant each other the necessary journeys you each must take.

Love with another asks for nothing but the full truth of another, without expectation. This is the place of highest meeting. When two truths align there is meeting. One must give oneself fully to the truth and see what’s there. Meetings can be brief, extended, or not at all, not in this life. But a being in love is always in love. In the fullness of truth one is never alone.

Love is the deepest connection to all that is. One is never alone in love; love encompasses all. Nothing is rejected in love, especially the self, the greatest love of all. This is not narcissism, for a being in love knows the necessity of complete self acceptance, the greatest challenge of all.

Love lets the other go... - Photo by Jan Ketchel
Love lets the other go…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

Love smiles at the phrase, “getting my needs met.” Love admits there is much to be discovered and much to be experienced. But love also knows the folly of asking another to meet a need. True love may need to venture into the vulnerability of such a request, as the journey of love insists we drop all defenses. But love also knows that only true meetings are real. Role playing is play, but true meeting requires no rehearsal, it simply aligns. This is the substance of true meetings, and precious is that substance.

Yet all meetings are meetings of love. To always be in love and ask for nothing is the challenge. To radiate the fullness of love without expectation, in all situations, is the path of heart. Meetings and mergers in love create growing consciousness of the oneness of all “things.” In the patience and steadiness of this growing awareness we consolidate being in love, gently diving deeper into the unfolding adventures of oneness in love.

To be a being in love is to be a warrior of the highest rank!

Love,
Chuck

Soulbyte for Wednesday March 4, 2015

Curative measures abound. Someone always has a cure to offer. Someone seems to have gotten the right answer, the perfect response, just what you’ve been searching for. But alas, there is no true cure for any ill or disturbance that does not already lie within. The perfect cure is always in alignment with the deeper self, with the self that knows the reason for the ill to begin with. All healing begins not with the cure but with the question why. All healing begins with and within the self in accepting the why and working with it.

Sometimes the why is so deeply hidden that it takes many years to discover it, but that does not make the journey any harder, in fact, it makes the search that much richer! Seek within and your journey will be one of deep and lasting healing and in the process you will embark on the journey of a lifetime that will be fulfilling, not only for this lifetime but all to come.

Soulbyte for Tuesday March 3, 2015

How will today compare to yesterday? It is a new day, and yet it is a continuation of life. Everything that happened yesterday still holds value as it guides you into today. Do not forget where you have been, but do not stay behind, stuck in an old place, while life moves forward. Take your lessons into a new day. Turn them over and look at them in a new light. In the freshness of a new dawn notice how different they appear, as if they have suddenly transformed during the night.

Everything changes. Even problems have the capacity to offer you new guidance as you investigate them with new eyes and breathe new life into them. Life is fluid. Stagnancy is only a state of mind. And yet in stagnancy, like in a new day, come the jewels of progress if you care to look upon them as such. Today glistens with promise. Do you see?

Chuck Ketchel, LCSWR