Daily Inspiration 3-3-19

"It is one thing to hear a concept

and feel the resonance of it when you hear it,

and it's another thing altogether

to practice it until you own it, to be it."

-- Abraham, Esther Hicks 

[Classic post from 4-19-18]

It is so easy and goes down so smoothly to read or hear about unconditional love and feel good about the idea of that, and yet, it is a whole other thing to actually practice it in our lives. We get it. The idea of it resonates with us because it is truly in alignment with our inner knowing, our God within. Actually living that is another thing altogether.

This is true with a lot of learning perhaps even the majority of the things that we learn in concept, speak of, write of. So many things we can discuss in a lot of detail, but when it comes to actually living it, well, we become forgetful.

Abraham, Esther Hicks is famous for saying, "words do not teach. It is experience that teaches." Of course, that is true. And so, I continue to choose to engage in practice so that it becomes my experience. Victor Hugo is famous for saying, "There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come." And, as powerful as that is, it is anemic in comparison to executing that idea through action and thereby becoming experience. We learn by doing more than we learn by thinking or receiving information.

Anyone who has read these Daily Inspirations for any length of time knows that I write about love more than anything else and though I write of it that often, I am more famous for practicing it. I learn about love by loving. I learn about unconditional love by loving without condition. I don't simply share platitudes, but ideas and thoughts that when they become active in our lives change our lives for the better.

This is where practice comes in. With our historical perspective, and seeing popular movies, video games, television shows, and watching people in real life around us, it is easy to see the need for practice and it is easy to see that there isn't much going on in the way of practice but a continuing repetition of the past, adjusted perhaps, but not really different. Jim Rohn is famous for saying, "for things to change, you must change." I prefer to put that in the first person and say, for things to change, I must change, and change will require practice, especially considering my habitual patterns from history and viewing the history in action that I see all around me.

It is said that practice makes perfect and that is a great truism, yet practice is simply turning an idea into action. As we look around, we can see the manifestation of ideas turned into action and much of that action is based on ideas that were meant to control us and not serve us. The idea of right and wrong, good and bad, sinful and saintly, falling in and out of love, and more. It can be quite a challenge to find a movie that is not about killing or falling in and out of love, broken relationships, greed, revenge, etc. Uplifting movies is not the norm, but what if they were? Loving without condition is not even seen in movies generally, but what if it was?

Yesterday I mentioned a quote from the Paul Selig books that we are not independent of our environment. What that means to me is that whatever environment that I want, I must choose it. I must practice it. If I want to see more unconditional love in the world, then I must learn to practice loving without condition. Mahatma Gandhi is famous for saying, "you must be the change you wish to see in the world." Again, to put it in the first person and accept the idea, I must be the change I wish to see in the world. Accepting the idea is fine, but for the change to come about, I must practice being the change.


I Am Not Independent Of My Environment. I Am My Environment.

Spread Some Joy Today--by deciding to practice what you want to see in the world.