Take a Deep Breath

All too often, each of us is confronted with stressful situations, feelings of guilt, health problems, work hassles, nasty-rude people, fear, political conflict and the odd and assorted financial problem. We tend to take this personally, feeling victimized and put upon. Although the problem is ultimately that we are suffering the consequences of previous decisions we made.

We usually hate to admit that we create our own reality but we do whether we intend to or not. The fact is we do create our own reality and the present is our point of power. Once the present is past our leverage evaporates. When we focus on past decisions with regret we guilt ourselves. When we worry about the future we experience fear. But all we can control is the present. Guilt is useless. Fear is the mind killer. When we choose to remain in the present we experience peace.

So why not take a deep breath, slow down and think about the choices we are making each day as we make them. Actually, we are either typically obsessive in our guilt about the past or fear of the future. Tragically, we choose to feel guilt over the consequences of our choices after the fact, hopelessly attempting to clean up the debris. Or, we fearfully obsess about the future, helplessly anticipating the worst.

The alternative is to live in the present and be at peace.

The Rainmaker believes it is better to think about the choices we make as we are making them in the present. The alternative is to wander through life in an oblivious fog; alternating our focus between guilt and fear, while dealing with an endless stream of unintended consequences.

Expect a Miracle

Too often we expect the worst and that's exactly what we experience. A business deal doesn't go right. We lose faith and patience. Our trust in the transaction is lost. Then, a partner says let's give it one more chance. There is no need to rush to litigation according to our partner. Against our better judgment we wait just a little longer.

Then out of the blue the unexpected happens. The other party to the transaction actually performs as mandated by the contract. And, rather than spending the next 18 months and who knows how much in legal fees pursuing inadequate remedies, the deal works.

So the lesson is have a little faith, have a lot of patience and choose to expect a miracle. Sometimes the outcome is positive.

How much time and energy to we waste day to day choosing to expect the worst?

Why not choose to expect to be pleasantly surprised. Why not expect a miracle?

What really do we have to lose?

We Get What We Ask For

An alternative title for this blog is Visualize World Peace. Many of us hate war, poverty, hunger, waste, paper money and taxes. Depending on our particular emphasis we pick one or more of these to actively oppose. We become anti war or anti poverty or tax resisters. Most of us probably wonder why if we want peace we still have war. Especially when most people agree with us. There is a clear majority in America for peace. There is a clear majority in the American Congress for peace. Around the world there is a consensus that peace is better than war. Yet war persists. American defense expenditures are more than the all rest of the world collectively spends. What's wrong with this picture?

The same can be said for the other issues listed above as well.

The reason is that by being anti war or anti tax we buy into the reality of war and the reality of tax. Being opposed to something locks us into the reality in which that which is opposed must necessarily continue to exist to facilitate the opposition.

Thus neither the War on Poverty nor the War on Drugs can ever be won. When bad economic policies precipitate a crash, it makes no sense to repeat those policies with even more money to alleviate the crash, yet that is what has happened in the past few weeks.

To attain world peace or anything else we must move beyond war. Resistance is futile. If we want change we must, as Gandhi said, "Be the change."

This is why The Rainmaker boldly predicted that regardless of the outcome of the upcoming election, nothing much will really change.

Choices

It has been said often: "All politics is local."

But that's wrong. In fact, I believe that really, "All politics is personal."

Consider that most of us support a politician or a policy or a program because we think the candidate or the policy or the program is best for us and our family.

For example most folks know Social Security and Medicare are bankrupt and believe those programs need to be fixed, just so long as it doesn't interfere with our monthly check. When the money is gone "they" will think of something.

We choose to vote for people running for office based on their perceived ability to "bring home the bacon." Although we tend to be highly critical of politicians we appreciate the new road, the new post office, the prescription drug benefit and the defense contract for our town.

We are all concerned about global warming but we bought the SUV and drove to work alone in spite of Al Gore's scare mongering until the price of gas made us believe it's too expensive to drive that SUV. Now we are eager to authorize more drilling not because we think we can drill our way out of the energy crises in the long run but rather because we want those gas prices to come down in the short run.

We all make choices we believe to be in our enlightened self interest and we tend to ignore the consequences of those choices.

The politicians, the manufacturers, the media, the retailers and the service industry all respect our choices and do their best to cater to those choices. So, we get the government, business, media and service we ask for each time we make a choice. Although we hate to admit it we get exactly what we deserve.

But the consequences of our collective choices are piling up and at some point rather sooner than we all expect or hope, the bill will come due.