John Cali
The response to last week’s newsletter was, in a word, overwhelming. And I want to thank all of you who wrote for your outpouring of love and support for Spirit and me.
If you did not see last week’s newsletter, and want to before you read any farther, you’ll find ithere.
I know many folks view Spirit and me as your “teachers” or “leaders.” But all of you also teach and lead us. It’s a two-way street. I suspect many of you are unaware of the wisdom within yourselves. But that wisdom is so clear and striking in the letters you write us, and have written us over many years now.
So this week, instead of Spirit and me pontificating in our usual manner, we want to share with all of you some of your own wisdom.
The letters we received in response to last week’s newsletter were deeply moving. You spoke of your challenges in your relationships, in your homes, in your work. Some of you are dealing with life-threatening circumstances. Some of you are literally at death’s doorstep.
But there is one common thread of wisdom running through all you said. That thread is joy. You see the joy in all of life. And you see it in death, which, after all, is simply another stage of life, a new beginning.
Spirit and I thank you all, from our hearts, for your amazing and endless love and support, for your courage and wisdom. This truly is a two-way street. Though I often suspect we gain more from you than you from us.
Without further ado, listen now to your own wisdom.
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There’s no doubt that my old body is wearing out, but let’s celebrate the remarkable way it has supported me through 83-2/3 years!
John, I think you know from our past correspondence how enthusiastically I agree with your take on Joy–and I believe profoundly in our ability and responsibility for creating the mood of each day.
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If you don’t like the people you are around and they make you unhappy with their negativity, get away from them!
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I am a 43-year-old woman and I know the pain the woman who wrote you speaks about. I know the feeling of feeling responsible for everything and everyone as if I am trapped in other people’s stuff and pain. Those false beliefs and behaviors almost took my life 7 years ago. But in one of those moments I did the opposite (of what) I had been doing and my life turned around. I call that moment choice point! I know that every moment is a choice to say yes to life and I have lived that belief quite seriously since then, as I was somehow by the Grace of God given a miracle moment.
The difference in that moment from many before was that my choice came from my heart and not my head alone. I literally felt in my heart the truth of my thoughts and acted on what I was feeling and I got what I asked for very quickly–in that moment it was health in my body . . . . and I continue to have miracles happen.
It is as if the miracles don’t stop. I am so grateful for all I have learned from those who are receiving cosmic truths from guides, angels and Higher Selves. I can only invite your readers to not give up. Keep practicing these new ways of behaving and believe from the heart that things can change.
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NO, the joyful life IS NOT an impossible dream. I can even say this as my wife is exiting this life through an in-house hospice program AND I am employed in a job that has essentially lost much of any meaning. Once found, the path to inner joy is available to anyone and everyone, regardless of denomination or religion.
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Yes, it is difficult to feel joy and happiness when immersed in negativity. But we do have a choice whether we will be drawn down into the mire of negativity or lift ourselves up through our thoughts. Mind is the builder.
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Just a few lines to the folks who perceive that it’s difficult to be joyful. Well, they can’t know that they create their own experience–and that is regardless of who you have around you. The people that you have around you are there, whether by biological or circumstantial reasons, because they are attracted by your pattern . . . . so we are creating everything.
There are many happy people that have healed themselves using this concept . . . for taking your power back through taking responsibility.
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Spirit’s words make it (life–joy) sound easy because he knows it is. It’s many of us who don’t believe/know that it is.
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There are so many paths. We can remove ourselves from the negative surroundings or change them. Some people don’t seem to see themselves as facilitators and take on more of a victim role than a creator role. Spirit’s message about appreciation is a perfect example of facilitating change.
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My search about more “life” in my life took me to Spirit and you, and I’ve learned to see the joy where it is: everywhere! And, really, it is. I do not always see it. Is it because I’m blind or because I don’t want to see it? But anyway, if I want to see it, it’s there. Everywhere.
I’ve had some bad times in my life (recently, a divorce). But if I want it, I can see the joy also in this divorce, and when it is so, then people around me brighten up and things go on in a good way.
With a smile you can break the hardest heart, but in a good way. This heart will know that there’s light in this world. Not only sadness or fear.
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Negative vibrations spawn more negative vibrations. Changing how we choose to perceive another (or finding something in them to appreciate) can change how we act around and toward them, (and) can bring dramatic results.
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It’s so unfortunate that many people like your dissenters are so focused on the negative aspects of the life around them. Seems they get stuck there and can’t quite get beyond. It’s especially unfortunate if they read your material and still cannot figure out how to either get out of or go beyond those circumstances. I think you continuously provide a great guide book.
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We allow ourselves to be frustrated by others when they have no power over us unless we allow it. The more we think about that, the more we bring new frustrations into our lives. Well, personally, I do not choose to create more drama of that sort in my life . . . . Dear Friends, I hope each of you has someone in your lives that can remind you that Love is the power that leads to joy and completeness. Challenges in our lives are only difficult when we oppose them. Otherwise, we simply learn and move on.
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What if I try to facilitate change, modify my perceptions and attitude and the other party or situation just isn’t changing? Why not jump the change to a higher level–i.e. quit that job and look for one that makes me feel more joyful–move–whatever it takes. Chances are it’s the Universe trying to tell one that is what is needed.
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Seeing life as a game to be played is another stretch for some. It’s just a choice to change perception again. I have to wonder if these people, who can’t embrace this idea, believe they really are rich or broke when they play Monopoly.
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The idea of change can evoke a sense of insecurity and fear. So I guess it’s better to stay in a lousy marriage that makes me miserable than to get a divorce? . . . . Or is it easier to stay stuck and complain about it, (to) say life is hard and that’s why I can’t change it?
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I hope your readers who find themselves surrounded by negative situations will keep plugging away at appreciation. I know for a fact that it works. I agree that it is difficult, especially at first.
Several years ago I was also overwhelmed by negative people and negative work situations. I felt trapped and miserable. I was new to the idea of consciously creating and focusing on what you want . . . . I forced myself to list (in writing and mentally) the few things that were positive in my life every morning and every evening, especially while driving to work. I also made the choice to listen to music that made me feel good (as well as inspirational tapes) while driving to work. There were days when I could only think of a pitiful few things, many of which were unrelated to my work situation, like “the weather is clear and the traffic is smooth flowing.” But I kept at it. Within 5 weeks my work situation turned around. I began to enjoy my job and the people who had been so difficult became my allies and friends. I did leave the job a few years later but my reasons for leaving were to follow a truer path, not because I was miserable.
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For some reason many people hate being told they’ve got that joy, joy, joy down in their heart. Those are the same people who also hate that Bobby McFerrin song, “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.” Just like my mother would always say to us, “All for thee, oh Jesus” to get us to do just about whatever we didn’t want to do. Though, you know, now years later, I find it to be a comforting, joyful and unselfish mantra.
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. . . all of them (spirit guides) have said over and over again that we all each create our own reality. Now Seth said often in his dictated books, that if you don’t like doing something, then stop doing it now. Clearly, with those whom I might call sad sacks, who are grumbling about you plugging joy and happiness, etc., a good way to go, in my humble view, (would be to) stop reading your material. I find no fault with it. I have long since found that most channeled entities give useful information and no one of them has the monopoly on all of the good information.
As for your critics, I would suggest that they exercise their freedom of choice and stop reading your material if they are offended by it. It is sad in a way that they do not find Joy in your material. I find it there as I do with all of the channeled material I read. I find Joy in everyday life, in the trees, the plants and the planet and all things. I learned to love myself and, in so doing, found that I love all things.
As Seth said repeatedly, you create your own reality and if you don’t like doing something, then stop doing it now. If you dislike the negativity around you, then move away from it. Simple, really, and not hard to do. Let your light shine and soon enough those who are being negative will see in you something that they want and yearn for. Joy is funny in that it generates more joy . . . .
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. . . if I notice situations around me that are “in my face and unpleasant” I recognize (eventually, after a little complaining) that it is mirroring something back to me that I need to work on. The great thing about this is that I do have the power to change the situation because I have the power to change myself. Or is it to reconnect to my Self?
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The thoughts expressed by the dissenter were those of a victim who has given up, and has a sort of blaming tone. Our minds prefer to blame rather that admit it’s a problem . . . . yet I would say for most of humanity this is common and just a lack of understanding of how things work within this mechanism we call us.
We have to realize quite often the situations we are in are due to our own choices . . . .
If you hang with the angry and hateful ones it can rub off on you if you’re asleep to the situation. This is my whole point though. These people who see life this way are clearly asleep to what is. I hope they wake up someday and stop the nonsense. But meanwhile . . . I choose to live in joy, and refuse anything else . . . .
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As someone who lives with chronic pain, is disabled because of it, who lost a career, an identity, a life, because of it, I feel like I can speak about negativity from experience. One thing that surprised me was that at some point I realized that even with all the dispiriting things about this condition, with the pain and the cognitive dysfunction and the overwhelming fatigue, there was a discernible deep river of joy underlying it all. Surprised the heck out of me, to say the least.
I discovered that there are others with this same condition who, when we really stop and pay attention, not to the unpleasantness but past it, have said the same thing. There’s much to bemoan and wail about all that has been lost for us, because it’s real and it’s lost. But I think that maybe people misconstrue happiness for joy. There’s a difference. Happiness is fleeting and temporary; joy is always. Happiness is shallow, joy is deep.
I think what I’m saying is that happiness is ego/persona-bound, joy is of the soul. But letting go of the ego stuff isn’t easy, at least it wasn’t for me. Interestingly, once I did, to a greater or lesser degree, I found out that once I found and accepted the joy, the happiness is much more evident too. I still have the pain and the cognitive and fatigue problems, but so what? I wish I didn’t but here they are and here I am. Nothing’s changed and everything’s changed.
Viktor Frankl said, “Everything can be taken from a man (except) . . . the last of the human freedoms–to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” If he could realize that in his circumstances, who am I to complain about not having a pleasant life?
(For those who may not know who Victor Frankl is, he was an Austrian psychiatrist who, though he lived in 4 Nazi death camps, including Auschwitz, from 1942 through 1945, survived the Holocaust. He went on to become a world-renowned, best-selling author and psychotherapist. He died at age 92 in 1997.)
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