Monday, December 22, 2014

Shutting Out Our Emotions

I am reading Gary Zukav’s book, The Seat of the Soul.  He talks about our culture’s admiration for the “hard-nosed” businessman and how we lose our compassion and empathy when we deny our emotions.

I feel that this is one of the turning points approaching our Western culture.  The advantages of lobbyists and insider stock market tips have swayed the benefits of living in our country beyond recognition.  Perpetual warfare and the practice of rewarding corporations through the “business of war” at the expense of all the world’s people including our own are unacceptable.  Secret policies and abusive practices outside of the international rule of law are likewise have no part in how American people want to embrace our place in the world.

Because we all grew up with the ideals of equality and the rule of law, we are stunned as we see our American ideals perverted and eroded.

Now that we are becoming conscious once again of our feelings toward the lives of every American citizen, and the rights and privileges of being able to vote, I think we are looking even beyond those rights of law to the rights within each heart.

Because we are seeing the extreme of corruption through greed, we are becoming empowered through our awareness.

As we feel empathy and compassion toward everyone on the planet and in our country, we will be empowered to take the appropriate steps to ensure the rights to living in harmony and prosperity while removing the access to excessive advantage for a selfish misguided few.

We feel deeply in our hearts what is right and good, and we naturally want it for everyone.

We have even seen the example of South Africa, with its population of fifty-three million,  as it worked through its program of “forgiveness and reconciliation” to dismantle apartheid, one of the most repressive racial practices in the world.

With our population of three hundred thirty million, we can surely emphasize the good examples around us of unselfishness, goodness, caring and sharing.  We can find the leadership which is willing to honor the actions which we take when our hearts are directing us.   We will surely find another way to support all of our citizens and to restore and extend the rights of all to create a truly free and unselfish life for citizens.

Then, our improved practices at home will naturally be expressed to those peoples who live in all the other countries of our common world.


© 2014 Kathryn Hardage

Monday, December 8, 2014

The Greatest Wealth

The greatest wealth is to cause wealth for the greatest number of people.

I am part of that goal.

I have read and studied some of Napoleon Hill’s amazing, moral and freeing works.

He, truly, made more wealthy people than the individual industrial leaders of his time.

And he, too, built quite a wealthy financial legacy.

Our true wealth comes from within.

When we read something or take a workshop which resonates deeply within us, we know we are connecting with a deep truth for ourselves.

We, too, have great wealth, within, waiting for us to recognize and share it.


© 2014 Kathryn Hardage

www.InspiredPractices.com

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

In the Force

In the force of the flow of uplifting ideas and compassion, we are led to join others of like-mind.

The wonderful thing about limited minds and means is that they really do run out.

The beautiful thing about unlimited ideas is that generosity and kindness do not run out.

Since we can always express them under any and all circumstances, they are the real power, the real force.

Focusing our minds and concentrating our efforts on consideration, upliftment unselfishness and productivity redirects effort and sustains us in new ways.

Compassion always ives on and does the beautiful work of which it is capable.

The real force flows within each of us and joins us together to live well, all of us.


© 2014 Kathryn Hardage

www.InspiredPractices.com

Monday, November 10, 2014

J.A.R.

No judgement.

No attachment.

No resistance.

This is the way I understand Eckert Tolle’s description of conscious awareness in his book A New Earthhttp://www.amazon.com/New-Earth-Awakening-Purpose-Selection/dp/0452289963

He describes how this leads to a perception of “Inner Space”.

He compares the distances within our body of atoms to the scale of astronomical distances.

In this “Inner Space” we have not thoughts, only “Presence”.

In meditating on non-judgement, non-attachment and non-resistance, I found myself relieved of a never-ending story regarding an incident of unhappiness grief, and frustration.

The bodily processes that follow it were anything but calm.

I do not enjoy having my body as the battleground between old and new thought-processes.

However, I am glad to be learning how to let my life be shaped and directed in a new way.


© 2014 Kathryn Hardage

www.InspiredPractices.com

Friday, October 31, 2014

Personality

In meeting someone new, it is always interesting to discover the person within.

I was introduced to “Jim” during casual conversation between him and a mutual acquaintance.

Later, as our conversation developed, I learned about his background and approach to life.

Although he is dealing with some of the effects of aging, (he is 74), he is involved in developing his talents (playing the banjo), service to others (helping repair a car), and is unfailingly polite.

His upbeat attitude and humorous approach to life make him an engaging conversationalist.

I would have guessed him to be twenty years younger with his enthusiasm.

It is a lift to talk to him.


© 2014 Kathryn Hardage

www.InspiredPractices.com

Thursday, October 30, 2014

Our New Earth

I am the manifestation of infinite divine power.

I draw all those to me who are ready to do divine work.

All those who are ready to be blessed and to take up the work hear my call.

With willing hands and willing minds and hearts, we begin the transformation.

Building a new community, we follow those before us.

Valuing each person, recognizing inner worth, we take the practical steps to provide for all of us.

Community by community all feel welcome, useful, privileged.

Harmoniously, we blend, we exchange, we share, we receive, we overflow.

We sing, we dance, we create art, we celebrate.

We live in a new earth.


© 2014 Kathryn Hardage

www.InspiredPractices.com

Sunday, August 31, 2014

The End of Growth

I have been reading The End of Growth, by Richard Heinberg.  

He has described the physical, political, geographical, industrial world as it has progressed through its historic stages.

The present stage cannot continue the way it has in the past.

As I read his analysis with increasing dismay, I realized that we are actually in transition to a new kind of growth.

As we shift our practice to what is deeply within each of us, we find our true purpose.

Within, are unlimited resources for unlimited spiritual growth.

All the little steps we have taken to help uplift one another point to this kind of growth.

We are entering a new kind of stage, no longer one where we can keep living outward, because those kinds of resources are limited.

The new inner lives we all have the privilege of developing will lead us to different ways of supporting one another.

We will lift each other up by our sense of divine purpose, and we will continue finding the unlimited spiritual resources to do so.

This is only the end of one kind of growth.

We are evolving into another kind.


© 2014 Kathryn Hardage

Sunday, August 17, 2014

No Resistance

My aversion to the way territorial politics and greed are carrying out their actions is complete.

But I will not fuel it with any hatred.

I am incredulous at the immaturity and barbarousness of this present reenactment of historical methods.  

However, I will add the weight of my practice, my thought, my energy to the cultivation of appreciation for individuality, culture, imagination, and innovation.

I love the solutions that I hear about.

I love the participation of new, young innovators.

I love the solid reputations of those who have gone before and who remain steadfast.

Let us celebrate a new practice of respect and value for all and quit feeding the monstrous practices of the past.



© 2014 Kathryn Hardage

Monday, July 14, 2014

Many Roads to Co-Housing

After our children grew up and left the house, we began downsizing in preparation to move to a much smaller house in the country.

We emptied all the upstairs bedrooms of our four bedroom, 2800 square foot house.  We used only one of the bathrooms.

Since I had already stopped teaching music lessons, our living room was no longer in use.  We ate in the kitchen, not the dining room.

I condensed my office full of file cabinets and teaching materials into my computer and a table full of books.  These fit easily into the master bedroom.  My husband used a small cubicle-style desk for his computer.  As usual, around us on every available wall space, were shelves of books.

When he measured how much space we were living in, it came to 650 square feet, including master bedroom, kitchen and bathroom.

When we sold our house, we were much more prepared to move out.

The amount of space available showed me that there was plenty of room for more people to live there.  After all, five of our seven children had lived there with us.

Why not rethink the space for co-housing?

Another example comes to mind.   When our second daughter was in elementary school, one of her friends lived in a house with three families.  These included two grandparents, an uncle, aunt and their child, my daughter’s friend, her brother and their single mother.  It was a large two-story with a pool in an affluent neighborhood.

A third example comes to mind.  I met a woman who needed to care for her aging mother.  She converted a three bedroom house according to city code into a three-person nursing home.  Later, she converted a larger house to accommodate six residents in a family setting.

My husband’s aunt and her husband along with an uncle and his wife shared a two-bedroom apartment after World War II.  They still remember their shared grocery list.

A professional friend lives with four other singles in a six bedroom home in NYC.  The sixth bedroom is their common area.

A married couple rent two rooms from a man with a three-bedroom home in a suburban setting.

When I think about the abundant resources provided by the possibilities offered by co-housing, I am amazed.

Child care, cooking, yard and garden.  All these responsibilities are eased with different aspects of co-housing, utilizing the talents and desires most effectively of the folks who live there.

It is important to be clear about the guidelines and to have a calm way of resolving any discomforts.  Move from strained resources into shared abundance.  Find out who is best suited for the different roles now provided.  Work out the difficulties and the newness.  Give more.  Share more.  Add to the harmony in the neighborhood.  Let it spread.

© 2014 Kathryn Hardage
www.InspiredPractices.com

Thursday, June 19, 2014

Inspiring People

I keep meeting inspiring people.

When I recently visited a cousin in the country in Texas, some of her neighbors dropped by.  The husband had recovered from a strike some time before and still dealt with some of the physical effects.  He had the most positive, upbeat, happy attitude.  He enjoyed visiting with my husband about the possibility of sending his son to our camp some time in the future.

In Missouri, as we were leaving a local Mexican restaurant,, a woman and her husband, who was on crutches, were leaving also.  My husband asked the man if he had lost his leg in Viet Nam.  the man said it had been the result of a bacterial infection and that he counted himself fortunate, most fortunate.

We spoke with a woman who owns a lettering shop and works with troubled teens and horses.  She is working on a grant to expand her facilities for them.

While waiting for my husband, I started to close the door of our truck in order to make room for another man in the parking lot of the hardware store.

He asked me about the camp sign on our truck.  He expressed agreement about providing boys with experiences in nature.  Then he shared his experiences in business, raising kids, the importance of dressing well, manners, and the fact that he had fostered a large number of children and put them through college.  Although he said he was lucky, I told him it sounded as though he made his own luck by being a giver.

I am so privileged to keep meeting inspiring people.

© 2014 Kathryn Hardage

www.InspiredPractices.com

Saturday, May 31, 2014

Measurements

Dollars and good will.

Which currency do you trade in?

Which do you have more of?

Which do you use most generously?

How can you increase your supply?

Use it.

Invest in it.

Whatever you use will multiply and return to you many times over.

Which one has the most possibilities?

That is where you should spend your time and effort.

You have the ability to live generously.

Do so.


© 2014 Kathryn Hardage

www.InspiredPractices.com

Friday, March 28, 2014

Old impressions give way

This old impression of who I am 
is giving way to the person I want to be.

I replace the old impression consistently.
It sets up a new vocabulary of attraction immediately.

The old words to the old songs
become a distant discordant melody.

the new world I am creating with new words and songs
surrounds, uplifts, embraces me repeatedly.

Old pains are released, I feel my freedom tingling.
Exhort, affirm and celebrate my entrance into the Kingdom.

I do not have to fix the old or anything from the past.

Once I no linger live there, there is no receiving address.

My ever-growing recognition of my freedom permeates
my mind, then body, all surroundings, people, places, things.

I live anew in a new world.  I see through different eyes.
I understand through different thoughts.  I’m valuable and prized.

If you see me in my new form, you are a friend indeed.
You, too, have walked a growing path, you, too, have sensed the needs.

A few are called, yet more and more reach out the this new message.
That we are One.  With new Resources, we’ll see what life now presages.


© 2014 Kathryn Hardage

www.InspiredPractices.com

Thursday, February 27, 2014

Young Masters

Last night, I attended an art exhibit of “Young Masters” sponsored by the Dallas Museum of Art.  http://www.dma.org/art/exhibitions/young-masters-2014

 My husband, a high school engineering teacher, was invited by one of his students who is one of the artists chosen to exhibit.

I was astounded at the creativity and technique and imagination and expression of the work of fifty high school age artists.

I was deeply moved by the emotion and passion of their work.

There was painting, drawing, collage, sculpture, mixed media.  Each work had a thoughtful individual artist statement.

There is no limit to the individuality in all of us, as shown by these fifty young artists.

Their talents have been developed by their individual desires bringing them into contact with wonderful teachers, support from parents providing them with materials and time and lessons.

Let there be more art!

Let us welcome the creativity and individuality of all of us, young and old, in all the ways we can possibly express ourselves.

Make art!


© 2014 Kathryn Hardage

www.InspiredPractices.com





















Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Persuasion vs. Coercion

The purpose of the media all the way back to the first handwritten and copied treatises has been to inform and to persuade.

Coercion has been widely practiced by physical and economic force all through history.

Today, we see the media deviating substantially from its intended purpose.

It is now being used to coerce.

When the FCC or other directed bodies find their original and true intended way once again, and separate the purpose of the media from its current use, we will be able to experience responsible journalism and advertising.

I expect this to happen, because the current situation actually performs no service.

A tool of coercion has no place in any society.

Let America move forward to serve all of its people along its originally intended lines.



© 2014 Kathryn Hardage
www.InspiredPractices.com

Thursday, February 13, 2014

The Growing Awareness

I am so appreciative of the growing awareness of issues which join all of us together.

Perhaps it has taken all the developments of technology and communication to help build this.

Perhaps it has taken all the local injustices together to correct the bigger misconceptions of how we are all related.

I am seeing a desire for more compassion everywhere I go.

There isn’t a topic that is not devoted to spreading the power of compassion for all our peoples in many countries, caring for the earth and celebrating the businesses that manage to run successfully while doing this, too.

The connections are all there.

It is we who are beginning to see them.

All this power of connection is presenting a whole new way of relating to one another.

It is a principle of good relationship, good stewardship which is replacing greed.

Defining the balance between efficiency and resilience is an embracing new concept.

The innovations in money systems as practiced by local currencies, BitCoin and by Complementary Currency Circuits (C3) in several countries, demonstrates the power and freedom and prosperity available on small and large scales.

The freedom and compassion of individuals is expanding to include everyone on earth.

The good feeling and desire for good for everyone is supported by every system known on earth and is being implemented in innovative and practical ways.


© 2014 Kathryn Hardage
www.InspiredPractices.com


Friday, January 31, 2014

Good Contacts

I am in contact with so many sources of good ideas, good motives, unselfish services.

I am reading Jan Phillips’ book, The Art of Original Thinking, with its breadth of documented good practices by businesses, individuals and organizations.

I just read the newest offer from Darn Good Yarn, which connects the producers in poorer parts of the world with crafters in affluent parts of the world.

And I got enjoy today’s creative idea from The Inbox Jaunt, a virtual Friday Sewing Circle, plus great machine quilting tutorials during the rest of the week.

I subscribe to many other upbeat and positive-turning blogs.

These are people who are looking at the problems and offering solutions.

As we all get under way with our solutions and connect with each other to continue uplifting our own lives, we touch many more lives in the process.

We are approaching a tipping point.

Do what it takes to keep yourself upbeat.

Keep adding to your opportunities for service.

Do not get dragged down.

I am so uplifted today by the action and inspiration of so many people who are sharing their ideas with the general public.

I am inspired to do so, too.


 © 2014 Kathryn Hardage

www.InspiredPractices.com

Saturday, January 25, 2014

World Views

Listening to the news, I hear one type of view presented.

Watching a movie, (Finding Happiness), about the Ananda community presents a different view.

Thinking about how I raised my children presents a third view.

Each view represents a philosophy which leads to certain practices.

The basis of each viewpoint is highly significant.

Who is important in the world, in the community, in the family?

Are there some who are more important than others?

Are there some whose needs are more significant than others?

Each country and organization operates according to how it thinks about its members.

When I was teaching music to three hundred pre-schoolers each week, I came to the conclusion that everyone is precious.

We grow up from being precious pre-schoolers to being precious adults.

We are precious at all the stages in between.

Since then, I have adopted the viewpoint of, how do I treat everyone as precious?

How do I show that I value them?

My expanding view sounds something like this:  What if we treated everyone as precious all the way from their earliest moments all the way throughout their lives?

What new policies would result?

What kinds of training and evaluations would be possible?

What new innovations would we see from really happy, secure and respected populations throughout our communities all over the world?

As I practice my view of the people around me, they feel it.

From time to time, I read about companies and organizations which operate from this basis and enjoy better business practices and better profits.

I am certainly looking forward to seeing this idea become the deep reason for all civic and business practices.

What an amazing world we live in where this is an actual possibility.


© 2014 Kathryn Hardage

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

When We Stop Using Money...

When We Stop Using Money...


as a measure

as a definition

as a rating system

as an evaluation

as a way of judging


and we start using...

compassion

thoughtfulness

generosity of spirit

humor

intelligence

service


as a way of relating to each other,

we will truly change our society.

In fact, just trying it out for myself is resulting in an entirely different kind of life experience I never expected, right now.


© 2014 Kathryn Hardage

www.InspiredPractices.com

Sunday, January 5, 2014

Eye and Light

Either word could be used to describe something “beloved or admired” to the preclassical Greeks, according to Leonard Shlain in his book, Art and Physics.

To me, the preclassical definition is wonderful!

Eye, beloved.

Light, admired.

Every time we see something with the eye, we are seeing it as beloved or admiring it.

Every time something comes to light, we are cherishing it as beloved and admiring it.

As I convert more of my conscious thoughts to positive energy, I find this concept very empowering.

I like the idea of directing my thought to admiration and love.

The old negative habits of criticism have found a much more uplifting replacement.

As I change a larger and larger proportion of what I see to be taken in as beloved and admired, I feel my entire being shift direction and receive uplifting energy.

I am just imagining the effects of more and more of us doing that.

Watch the world reach the tipping point of care and compassion, love and admiration, for every one and every thing we see.

I am glad to be participating in this new step of consciousness that has come to me.

© 2014 Kathryn Hardage
www.InspiredPractices.com


Friday, January 3, 2014

Worthwhile Success

I have a new book to teach me how to draw flowers.  

While thinking about them, I had the urge to look up the history of the Native Plants Society of Texas.

As usual, it was started by one man with a dream.

Carroll Abbott was called in by the president of TWU, Dr. Huey, to help with a 1930’s wildflower garden at TWU, which later received a Historical Marker from the State Historical Commission.

The Native Plant Society of Texas was established at TWU with the organizational skills of Dr. Huey and her students at TWU in 1980.

Carroll Abbott worked on his passion for years, while  serving as a political writer and campaign manager, which finally culminated in his acquaintance with Ladybird Johnson.

She, of course, established the National Wildflower Research Center, using seeds from Abbott’s company, Green Horizons.

In the course of reading about the efforts required to lobby for wildflowers, educate legislators, sell seeds, start a company, support a family, sell calendars, do whatever was required, I realized that here is one more life story of a worthwhile cause.

That is our gift.

To find a worthwhile cause that truly defines our nature and to follow it to its success.

That is all.


© 2014 Kathryn Hardage

www.InspiredPractices.com