PositiveThinking

I sincerely thank whoever discovered the muffin.

There is something really irresistible about a muffin – all kinds of muffins.

Others may love their croissant, but I love my muffin.

Right away, I think of muffins wrapped in red and white checked gingham in a honey-colored wicker basket. I think of New England or charming European villages with fresh baked breads. I think of the open hearth, with a log fire, at the center of a home.

It’s so primal – food – eating – our daily bread.

Introduction

John:

I’m here today with Matt Del Rosario. Matt, I met you at the Newtown Senior Center. Unexpected, unannounced. I was there for something totally different, and you walked in, and invited a group of us to join you in a class. Could you please tell us about that class. It was the most amazing moment experienced in about a thousand years.

Matt speaks:

Thank you so much. So the class that you got experience is called Hula Noho, which is a seated Hula class, or a Hawaiian form of storytelling through dance and music.

Thank you for allowing me meaningful work.

Work I believe in, work I am interested in.

Work that is like play for me.

I appreciate my current job, my current situation.

Let me see it in a different way.

Please bless my frustration. Show me how to relax.

I know you hear my longing for better work,

More suited to my temperament, my gifts, my interests.

I feel good about this, knowing you are arranging my right livelihood.

Beyond my awareness, people and events are happening,

Whenever I paint something: the walls of a room, a piece of furniture, an oil painting – I really look forward to seeing it again when it is dry. It’s like God, time, something unseen needs to intervene to finish it.

It’s not done until it’s really all done.

The same with gluing something together – next day, all those pieces are one whole thing again. The same with waiting for the scrapbook page to dry or waiting for pottery to bake.

Now, some people would rather wait for some muffins to bake far more than some pottery to bake. I understand this well.

Artwork by Bruce Zboray www.bruce-zboray.artistwebsites.com


I love stone walls.

I live in New England and pass many stone walls on my daily walk.

Some are very neat, crafted with an artistic eye and fitted very precisely in beautiful patterns, like big rock, little rock, little rock, big rock. They’re cemented together.

Artwork by Bruce Zboray    www.bruce-zboray.artistwebsites.com


I am peace on earth.

It's amazing how easily peace spreads.
My thoughts declare a peaceful world.
All read my thoughts even if they don't realize it.
All decisions are better because I send illumination.

Today is a very good day.
The past is passed.
A new breath now.
A dove visits each person today, perhaps unseen.
I feel the peace growing.

Sometimes knowing you have a choice isn’t obvious. Sort of, “What, I can choose?”

I do not read the newspapers, nor watch the news.

I choose my reality.

I sometimes imagine myself in a place of turmoil like Jerusalem. I stand there, eyes closed, with ripples of “illumination” going out from me, as if a pebble were tossed in a pond. Every second, going out hundreds of miles.

Then, at the same time, I picture myself in the center of China, doing the same.

Many years ago, there was a day when I wanted my two young children to pick up sticks and branches in the yard.

They didn’t want to do it. They saw it as work - my work.

So I told them the branches are really lambs, and we need to bring them together over there in a pile. That worked wonders. They were very happy to bring all these stray lambs together. A little “baaaa’ing” helped too.

My wife lost her glasses. They were missing for over 3 weeks. Each of the four of us in this home tried looking for them several times over – we just could not find them.

Then I tried something different. Instead of telling the universe, “Oh my, the glasses are missing.” I said out loud, “Thank you for showing me the glasses.” I hopped into the future with the end result being the glasses were in my hand, and being thankful for that too.

I was thinking in my life I wasn’t receiving things.

And I felt stuck.

And one day, a good friend of mine called me on the phone, and as we were talking, she said, “You’re not stuck. Try this. It worked for me, and I think it will work for you too. Try saying, ‘I am always receiving.’” I thought about it, and said, “What the heck, I’ll try it and see if it works.”

So the very next day when I woke up, the very first thing I said was, “I’m always receiving.”