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John Cali

This past month or so Joseph and I have received several letters from folks unhappy with the way we write this newsletter. Specifically, with our emphasis on joy, on seeing life as a game and having fun with it. The letters ranged from mildly critical to harshly judgemental.

These letters are not typical of those most of you send us. By far, most of your letters are loving and supportive. But, of course, we also welcome dissent. So, in that spirit, I would like to address this handful of dissenters in this issue of our newsletter.

The dissenters consider our emphasis on joy, fun and games inappropriate at best, and deceitful at worst. Here’s an excerpt from one letter:

". . . what you describe is a very difficult, long and arduous process. Easily said in a sentence, but intensely difficult to do.

"If one lives in a vacuum, then it is easier (to) make of one's circumstances what one will, by expressing joy, being joyful and feeling joy. However, we are living in this reality called earth. This is the one we have to deal with on a daily basis. So if the folks around a person are fearful, are putting themselves down, putting you down, telling you how horrible you are, how horrible the world is, and how horrible their lives are and making constant demands on you, it's VERY difficult to feel joyful.

"It's much easier to feel and be joyful if one lives alone or is surrounded by like-minded joyful folks. But if one is surrounded by a high level of negativity, it is far more difficult. One must then apply every ounce of strength to ferret out a bit of space and a bit of peace in which one may possibly get in touch with some level of joy and hence create it. We are unfortunately not living in a vacuum in which we can create anything we feel at any moment, but rather, we are dealing with the reality of this place called earth and all that this reality is and all that it hands to us."

Here’s part of my response to this writer:

"I agree with you if what you're saying is that for many people the process is, to use your words, ‘very difficult, long and arduous.’ However I disagree with you if you're saying it MUST be ‘very difficult, long and arduous.’

"The reality is life is as hard or as easy, as sad or as joyful as we want to make it. Abe Lincoln once said ‘A man is about as happy as he makes up his mind to be.’ We cannot control others or the world at large, but we are in total control of our thoughts–and, therefore, of the reality we create with those thoughts."

"Coincidentally," as I was preparing to do this newsletter a few days ago, I ran across a piece of Joseph’s from a long time ago. It’s an appropriate piece to resurrect in the context of this newsletter.

For it seems many folks consider a joyful life as "The Impossible Dream." But is it?

Here’s Joseph.

The power of appreciation is vastly underestimated in your modern society. When you are in an appreciation mode, if you will, you are fully connected and powerfully aligned with your higher self and the Universe. There are few states of being which can align and connect you so quickly and so powerfully.

So let us explore, for a few moments, the power of appreciation.

Think about what you’re really doing when you appreciate, whether you’re appreciating a person, a place, yourself, your home, your work, anything at all.

What you are doing is looking at the positives (or what you consider positive) in that person, place, job, etc. You’re seeing the good in them. And, at least for the moment, you see no negatives.

Two benefits, immediate benefits, come to you when you are appreciating.

First, you bring out more of the good you are seeing and appreciating from the "object" of your appreciation. You can see this most clearly when the "object" is another person. When you appreciate someone and say it, he or she will almost always respond warmly. And that person will see himself or herself in the same positive light you do.

Even if this person you’re appreciating is at odds with the entire world, you, by the power of your appreciation, will elicit from her or him a positive aspect no one else has ever seen. And perhaps never will. That is the power of appreciation.

Second, when you are appreciating anything or anyone, you immediately set up powerfully positive vibration. Your higher self and the Universe respond instantly to that high powerful vibration. After all, your higher self and the Universe (or God, Goddess, whatever term you prefer) exist eternally in a state of high vibration, a state of pure joy.

When you’re in a state of appreciating, you’re catapulting yourself, if you will, into the realms of Spirit, where your higher self, the Universe exist.

And so when the Universe responds to your high vibration of appreciation, guess what happens? It brings you more of what you’re appreciating.

Let’s explore a little example of that.

No matter how wonderful or dreadful your life may be, there is always something you can find to appreciate. Let’s say you’re short of cash. But you have at least a little. So you focus on what you do have, and not on what you don’t have. You give thanks for your blessings, in this case, the little cash you have. And you ask for more.

The Universe will respond instantly to your appreciation and to your asking, and more of what you are focusing on is on its way to you immediately.

But what so often happens is once you’ve put out your desire, you start thinking about all the reasons you can’t have what you want. And so you block the Universe from delivering to you what you want, and what it wants you to have.

Nonetheless the Universe has responded instantly to your appreciation and to your asking. And everything and everyone you send appreciation to, near or far, will, on some level, respond instantly and positively.

Such is the power of appreciation. It’s a resource literally at your fingertips. Yet you rarely use it. It would behoove you to appreciate the power of appreciation.

For more of our articles, go here.

This article was originally published here.

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Since 1992, John Cali has been communicating with a non-physical entity called Joseph. In one of his many physical lifetimes, this spirit was incarnated as the legendary Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce tribe in what is now the state of Oregon in the northwestern USA. These messages are a blend of information from Joseph, other spirits in the "Joseph group," and John.

John can be reached by email here or through their website (http://www.greatwesternpublishing.org).
Private readings with Chief Joseph are available here: http://www.greatwesternpublishing.org/readings.html
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Copyright © 2004 by John Cali. All rights reserved.

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