This juxtaposition has been on my mind for a while. We all see the difference between both and for sure get the deeper meaning. We are all shaped by life, and by all the influences to which we are exposed in this life until our last breath. And nobody likes it to act against their conviction or personal virtues only to suffice their boss, society, a tradition, or simply some people who take advantage of another person’s helplessness, insecurity, fear, or dependency. Yes, we all know that, but sometimes the line between both is very thin…
View towards the Kurfirsten and Lake Walen in the background.
After almost four years, it was yesterday again that I met a blogger friend of WordPress. Erika and I (this is not a mistake, we both are Erikas) have been following each other for about five years. After a while, we found out that we live almost around the corner from each other. So, yesterday we made it happen. It took me only 25 minutes to reach Erika Laufer of Lauferei.com in her beautiful Swiss village close to Lake Walen.
The first time I heard this song was in the movie “Rain Man” (1988, Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman). It was the reason I bought the record and more or less only listened to that song. Only later did I find out that there have been a lot more versions. Recently, I heard a new one on the radio. When I hear this song, I cannot sit still. It lifts my mood and makes my heart shine. What about you?
Every other week, I am publishing an audio meditation on my website erikakind.com. Usually, I am doing group meditations in person, but due to the Corona situation, I switch to the audio option. However, the topic of this week is bringing clarity, balance, and steadfastness into life. To achieve that, we need to let go of illusions or self-imposed pressure due to the requirements we set ourselves.
For the last day of the 1981 week I am sharing two songs. The first one is a song that goes well along with the inspiration I try to share on my blog. Don’t let anyone or anything stop you from pursuing your dreams, certainly not yourself. There may be interruptions and constructions along the way. But as long as your dream burns in you, it wants to be lived. Maybe you need to adjust the sails or check your GPS as long as you hold them tight. Happy Mother’s Day to everyone who celebrates it!
The following song might be a special treat for my UK friends today because it won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1981. It is also a great song to start the weekend. Enjoy the day and have a great Saturday.
Wow, already Friday. There are still so many hits left. I think it won’t hurt to let 1981 run the week until Sunday. What do you think? But for now, get some extra 80s power from a young blond power woman.
It is Thursday, and I will make it a #ThrowbackThursday this week – at least for me. A few weeks ago, I told you about my teenage crush in the early 80s. There are so many hits of his during those years that I couldn’t resist sharing two songs. I am sure you won’t mind it.
Today’s song takes me back to the summer of 1981. Like every year, we spent most of the summer break in Vienna. I remember this song playing whenever we turned on the radio in the morning. So, this song is always lifiting me up since it reminds me of fun, summer, sun, and unburdened joy.
It is Tuesday, and I am following the romantic path today. You all know Enrique Iglesias. Do you remember his father? Here we go with one of Julio Iglesias’ hits that brought hearts to an instant melting.
It is quite a while ago since I went for the last #HitsByYears week. A lot is going on on all ends lately, and I don’t have much time for posting. So, let’s continue with 1981.
I recently enjoyed a singing bowl treatment. If you’ve never had one, you wouldn’t believe what it can do to your body and soul. Before the treatment, we always talk about whether I have any specific requests regarding the outcome. I usually tell her to just do what she feels is necessary. I want to keep my head out of it and let happen what needs to happen. But last time, I wanted her to consistently follow up on any blocks she finds. I told her that I am so tired of a reflexive resistance arising in me when it comes to things that are ridiculous and that lock me up inside. This automatic resistance keeps me from expanding, and I’m so tired of working against it, which only causes more resistance. I said I wanted to be transparent and permeable. After the treatment (which was very effective), she said, resistance is not necessarily a bad thing but rather an intuitive reaction to not letting it all in. That got me thinking.
A good friend of mine opened her new store this morning. She has already been self-employed as an interior decorator and designer. But now she has a beautiful showroom tastefully decorated with perfectly matching items to welcome clients. This way, she has not only the possibility to inspire them and give an idea of what she can do, but she can also sit together with them right there and work out some first ideas. No more visiting them, then preparing drawings and offers at home, visiting them again, and only working with catalogs instead of a choice of samples. Of course, so much went wrong the closer the date of the opening came, but she is such a power-woman. Like a magician, she switched to alternatives that turned out as a much better option than the original idea or order.
As you can see from the title, I have decided to expand the range of topics for poems on Tuesdays.For the most part, the poems remain romantic, but I am often inspired by other things that I would like to share. Since I can’t find the time to post more often, I choose this option. Ultimately though, it’s always about love anyway, just not always the romantic kind.
I found a lovely cover version of a song originally from John Waite. But still, a legend like Tina Turner makes every cover version a great version of her own.
Often I notice emotions that don’t feel like they are supposed to be with me. My mind keeps reflexively talking me into tings which I actually know, I don’t even need to listen. However, since the emotions appear reflexive, I can only act once they are already there and provoke me to question their origin again. For some reason, I thought of a post I shared three years ago and felt like posting it again today:
Lately, I have bought a new CD player. The old one had been driving me nuts. So, the new one also has a cassette deck… yay! I dug out all my tapes. Many of them were self-recorded from the weekly chart show on the radio. So many treasures I forgot. Most of all, I immediately turned to some particular cassettes of Shakin’ Stevens. I decorated the walls of my room with posters of him. I had autographs, pillows, T-Shirts, scarfs, flags, buttons and patches all over my jeans jacket, and whatever you can think.
Recently, I wrote a lot about how important it is for healing that we don’t turn away from painful feelings but face them. That, to not push them back again into a drawer but to take them out of that drawer and let them go. The reason they show up is that they are ready to leave, and the triggers in the outside world are only coming to support them surfacing.
For today I decided to pick a card from Dennis Linn’s Gateway Oracle Cards. I love those cards since they are like nailing messages to show the way out of a maze. The card I picked is “Accepting What Is”:
We all have our dark spots, subtle emotions that show up in certain situations, inner resistance, old wounds that reopen, scars that keep us stuck in a past situation. As I said before, we absolutely cannot ignore them and sweep them under the rug. Just because I don’t see them doesn’t mean they aren’t still there. But we must be careful not to look only into the abyss of the soul. That is the same misunderstanding as ignoring them.
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There may be times, when the past catches up with us, and it seems that for a long time, we have only these dark shadows around us. We can’t see the light. But the explanation is actually quite simple. Imagine taking a photo of an object that is in front of the sun. It will appear completely dark because of the backlight. You are actually taking a picture of its shadow. If we focus only on the shadows, we miss the fact that there must be a lot of light behind them. The darker these shadows appear, the brighter the light behind them.
As soon as you realize that you ARE the light, the obstacles you are working through lose their dark color because you shine ON them. Then they are just obstacles to be overcome. With this attitude, you begin to see them as tasks on the journey, but not as obstacles that keep you from your journey. Again, you stop resisting and start accepting. You go from “Why me?” to “Let’s go!”.
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Keep in mind that no matter how many dark potholes you may fall into, you will always be caught by the power of your soul. It knows the way, and its light will let you find the way to get back to the surface, just as you need it. Your life is not meant to be dark, and you are not meant to believe that. It is your strong soul that is determined to resolve as much of the past as possible. Only the strongest are confronted with the darkest shadows. There is so much love in them that keeps them going, that makes them stand up and gives them the courage and determination to go on. And those are the ones who encourage so many others to do the same. Beceause we can!
When you feel like looking into a dark hole then remember that your light must shine the brightest. Continue the journey and know that your light will always attract light to accompany you on the way. I honor you for the wonderful soul you are.
Lately, I am digging into working myself through karma. There is quite a lot in motion in my life that provokes me to look back in my incarnation history. It is so amazing how many links I can draw to relationships, my own attitudes or blockages, and the karmic laws. I know, this is something many are a bit scared of since they are afraid of what they could find when looking into one of the many previous lives. Yes, I was quite a bad guy but a blessing as well. As I wrote about two weeks ago, we are going through all kinds of roles in our different incarnations. We build up karma, and we solve it again. By going through hard times, suffering from repeated disappointments, humiliation, or resentments can be an indicator that we are about to resolve a not that nice part from a past life.
I really hope that you are not tired of Céline Dion yet, but I have been listening to her songs for weeks and can’t get enough. Somehow they really catch my heart lately and inspire me in so many ways. So, more songs on my list to share…
Life is amazing. All life is amazing. All lives in all lives are amazing. Last week I touched on the great field of karma. It forces us to clean out the attic of our soul and leads us to the awareness of who we are. When we understand the principle of karma, it is not even that necessary to know the origin of blocking feelings within us or the burdening circumstances around us. Just perceiving what triggers the feelings over and over again is the clue that we may need to experience what we once did and what we need to balance and resolve by living through the emotions we once may have caused in others. Knowing this helps to accept. Acceptance removes the resistance. We allow the pain to surface, look at it, and then let it go.
Lately, I am sharing quite a lot love songs of Céline Dion, like today again. I just discovered so many that really go to heart and speak to me strongly… and there are some more on my list to be shared in the coming weeks.
I don’t think there is anyone who has never faced challenges, whether they were self-imposed or triggered by something or someone outside – actually, they are always self-imposed, but we’ll get to that later. Also, a challenge to me does not equal a challenge to you. If I’ve ordered a meal and it’s only lukewarm when it’s served, I can make a big drama out of it, politely ask for it to be warmed up, or I can just think, “So what.” A problem is only a problem if I call it a problem. It’s subjective. So, when something is triggered in me to create the image of a problem, it always has to do with me.
It has to be a Whitney again today! I forgot about this song but I am happy that I stumbled over it again. Such a beautiful song! Happy Romantic Tuesday, everybody!
What I share here, on my blog, in my books, at my talks, or with anyone I talk to, is my personal truth. It fits who I am, and it fits my progress. I am aware that truth is never final. Each truth is a small stepping stone that leads me to the next particle of truth. It may expand what I have already considered being the truth, or it may put a new face on it. I would never demand anyone believe it because who am I to say what is right or wrong since I believe that truth is subjective. The truth I like to share as part of my inner calling, is a truth that makes me feel good. It strengthens me, broadens my perspective, and keeps my mind curious about what triggers my heart to discover. By sharing it, I hope to trigger something similar in others.
Don’t we all know that love has its own ways of touching our hearts and waking us up to the most beautiful dreams? It just happens… and love doesn’t aske why… Happy Romantic Tuesday!
Most of you may know that I have been a big fan of Dr. Wayne Dyer. The first book of his I read has found me miraculously – not the other way around – and it changed my life. I had read lots of great books before, such as The Law of Attraction, The Power of Now, The Secret, and many others. But just this one book was the central piece of the puzzle that connected all the aspects flying around in my little universe into and fundamental basis for my personal journey to awareness.
In 2008 Dr. Wayne Dyer published the book “Living the Wisdom of the Tao”. It contains the 81 verses of the Tao Te Ching. Wayne Dyer wrote an affirmation to each verse to bring the meaning of it to better awareness. I was fortunate to buy that book the first time I experienced Wayne Dyer live at a lecture, and I even got the book signed by the author himself. Still, it is giving me goosebumps to think back to the moment when I was standing in front of him, handing him the book, and got it signed.
The Rhine valley is well known as a föhn area. Föhn is a warm and strong wind that can turn into devastating storms, mostly due to the heavy impacting squalls. The following is an excerpt of what Wikipedia says:
Imagine you searching for happiness, for love, and although there may be many disappointments on the way, your hope and belief are still glooming. The more overwhelming, in a beautiful way, it is when one day, you turn around and look in the eyes of love, not expecting it at all. A moment, that changes everything. Happy Romantic Tuesday!
“Humans are made up of more than 90 percent stardust. Most of the body’s atoms and molecules were once formed in stars.”
A few weeks ago, I heard this in a movie, and it intrigued me. As a result, I came across some interesting articles on the Internet, for example, one from the Stuttgarter Nachrichten. Here is a short excerpt:
The specific chemical composition turns stardust into a diamond, stone or a plant, a bacterium, insect or a “Homo sapiens”. The cells in our bodies, the oxygen we breathe, the carbon and nitrogen in our tissues, the calcium in our bones – all come from stardust produced many billions of years ago and continuing to be generated.
After the heavy snowfall that gave us record amounts of snow in less than two days, we had the most glorious winter day yesterday. Of course, we had to go for a walk through the closer neighborhood. Most of the paths were impossible to walk. In some places, individual people had already tried to make their way through the high masses of snow. It was still a big challenge to follow in the footsteps of the others and to stay stable. The snow cover reached almost to my waist. When walking through the snow, I sank in partly far above my knees. It was fun!
From Thursday night on, winter wanted to show us that it still has power over the season. It snowed heavily. For the first hours, we had some ugly winds too. On Thursday afternoon, I was shoveling the driveway three times. Later, my son took over, thank God. But once it was done, we could have started over again. It snowed for almost two days. Liechtenstein and parts of Switzerland, Austria, and Germany were concerned with complete traffic chaos, blocked streets (also because of broken trees and branches), and avalanche alerts. Here are some expressions from the last days:
Happy first romantic Tuesday on my blog for this year! Here we go with a song that is one of my favorites when it comes to uplifting, motivating, looking up, spreading the wings, and flying. It may not seem like a love song at first. But it is since it can be seen in so many ways, for different relationships, or just for oneself. I thought it was a good first song to start this year!
A few weeks ago, I saw this quote on Carol Anne’s blog. It came at just the right time. I was questioning my emotional reaction to other people’s actions. I thought I was more detached already due to the awareness regarding the quote above. But life showed me that I still have certain expectations I have not worked out yet.
