Mikes Blog

Play time
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Young children make massive developmental progress in amazingly short periods of time. And they do it by playing.

Children don’t try to develop their minds, they don’t worry, don’t strive or plot or struggle. They simply ride along on whim and curiosity, and play.

How long has it been since you let yourself play? Maybe today you could find some new insight and inspiration in doing so.

Take a thought, or a task, or a situation, or a problem, and just play with it. Instead of resolving to end up someplace in particular, go where whimsy leads.

Let go of any notion that anything has to be this way or that. Ignore what should be, while you discover all that can be.

Play for a while, just for the delight it brings you. And you’ll discover once again that it brings you a lot more than mere delight.

— Ralph Marston

Once you are certain
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Once you are certain, you stop thinking, stop questioning, stop wondering, stop exploring, stop listening. Is that a good thing?

Once you are locked into certainty, you are no longer able to engage in rich, meaningful exchange. All you’re left with is to express your certainty, which can quickly become tedious and predictable.

Once you are certain, imagination dries up, crumbles, falls away, is prevented from coming back. Is the smug satisfaction you gain from your certainty, worth all that you lose?

It’s good to be certain that there are no cars coming before you cross the highway. Yet once you’re across, it’s best to let go of that certainty, because the situation you’re so certain about, will change.

If your certainty is accurate, truthful, it can be quite helpful. But if it is mistaken, it can lead you headlong into awful places.

Question your certainties, question your assumptions, especially when they’re handed to you by someone else. Make sure that your certainty does not wall you off from the truth.

— Ralph Marston

Choose serenity
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Let go of the tension. Allow serenity to fill your experience.

What will happen, will happen. Do not let your uncertainty about the future drain value from the present.

What you have is now, and you can live it well. What you have is now, and now you have the opportunity to make a difference.

Your frustration is a creature of your own making. You can decide that it does not have to trouble you any longer.

There is much that doesn’t make sense, that seems foolish, that feels wrong. Yet there is a whole lot more that you can love, and find peace and wholeness in experiencing.

Choose serenity, and think, feel, act from a place of peaceful confidence, a place of positive power. Choose serenity now, and give life the highest and best you have.

— Ralph Marston

Simply be thankful
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It doesn’t take any special training, or equipment, or skill. You can simply be thankful.

You can look at the world from a more empowered, enlightened perspective. Simply be thankful.

By yourself, with others, in a brief moment, for an entire lifetime, simply be thankful. And quickly add new richness to where you are, to what you’re doing, to those you’re with.

When you’re not sure what to do, simply be thankful. You’ll soon uncover a positive path forward.

It’s not complicated, it won’t get you into any trouble. It raises your awareness, it fills you with fresh energy.

You can turn your life around, and shine a bright light on the immense abundance in which you’re always immersed. Make the simple choice, make the powerful choice, make the smart and liberating choice, to simply be thankful.

— Ralph Marston