“Carry your own weather inside.”
Some people love the spring; it’s their favorite season. Some
think summer or fall is what brings them the most comfort and pleasure. There
may even be a few winter lovers out there (heaven forbid)! Some people
love a good thunderstorm, and others are frightened by them. But no matter
what the weather is like outside, we all have the ability to choose our own
weather on the inside.
The judgments we make inside will overcome whatever is
coming to us from the outside. As human beings, we have the power to
create. We can take almost any substance, be it matter or thought, and
make of it what we will. I saw a video of an area of Africa on the
southern coast. Because of the strange currents of the oceans the garbage
of most of the western side of Africa washes up on their beaches. Their
beaches are a veritable junk yard. Is this good, or bad? Some of them
have decided to turn that junk into their business and a way to make a
living. They have taken the huge numbers of flip flops that wash up on
their beaches, and carve them into pony tail holders that are now being sold on
the streets in NY City. One person’s junk is another person’s treasure,
completely based on a willingness to be creative. We can create anything we
want, based on natural law: as long as we follow laws, we can create, become,
learn, develop, realize, and mature into that which we yearn for inside.
Is it bright and sunny inside your skin? Or is it
freezing inside? It may be so hot and humid you can’t breath. If it is,
just change it.
How do we do that? Kind of like changing channels on a
TV program. You have the remote control in your mind. Keep looking at
possible perspectives until you come up with one you like. My wife can’t
watch TV with me. (Like we hardly ever have time!) I like channel surfing. I
watch a program for a few minutes until I figure out what is going on, and when
it gets boring to me, I slide to the next channel. The problem arises, in
that she hasn’t processed it to the same place as I have. She isn’t bored
yet, or hasn’t figured out yet what is going on to the point that she is
willing to leave it behind. But when I hit the next channel, she is left
unsatisfied. So she just gets up and goes to a different room, to find a
TV so she can change the channels as she wants to.
So what are the laws of creating your own weather
inside? How do we do that? Is there a system of a way that is
reproducible and predictable? This is where our power is manifest. The
first step is to take responsibility for your own feelings, which inevitably
create your weather. Realize you are not a victim of life. No one is
making you think what you are thinking. The old poem says, “Two men looked
out prison bars, one saw mud, the other saw stars.” We decide what to
focus on. By being personally responsible for your feelings, you take the
first step to creating your own weather.
The second step is to realize that we create the fabric of our
life through our judgment. If you are unhappy with your life as it is, remember
that it is because of your judgment that your life is what you think it is—your
judgment creates your reality.
How can you choose to see your life differently than you now
see it? We see everything outside through our inner lens, so start by seeing
yourself in a kinder way. Christ taught to “love your neighbor as
yourself.” We must begin inside to love. Start this journey through
kind self-talk. Then accept objective criticism without it being an
accusation. And finally, open up the communion with the heavens:
Pray. We can only love ourselves when we know we are living our life at
the level of virtue that we are capable of.