A New Beginning Reflection Questions by John Cali
- Do you think New Year’s resolutions have helped or hindered you?
- What can you resolve to do that would bring you more joy and help you live more fully in the present moment?
Well, it’s that time of year when many folks around the world are preparing to hail the dawn of a new year. This is an exciting time to be alive. I believe 2005 will bring many changes and much growth for all of us. (We published this article December 30, 2004.)
For most of my life, I faithfully made my annual list of new year’s resolutions in December. And then about mid-January, my list had faded into the dark recesses of frustration and forgetfulness.… Read more
Wisdom born of experience should tell us that war is obsolete. There may have been a time when war served as a negative good by preventing the spread and growth of an evil force….if we assume that life is worth living, if we assume that mankind has the right to survive, then we must find an alternative to war. ~ Martin Luther King Jr.
Back in the days when I was a young pilot, Charles Schulz’s Peanuts comic strips were at the peak of their popularity.… Read more
Do you worry a lot? Many people do, especially in the ever-changing, challenging climate of our planet today.
The list of things we worry about is huge: disease, war, relationships, fuel prices, food prices, the economy, terrorism, our families, our jobs, our bodies, what people think of us. The dreary litany could go on forever.
The mass consciousness encourages us to worry because it believes life sucks, and then we die.
Many of you know Emmanuel, the wonderful spirit guide channeled by Pat Rodegast.… Read more
As anyone who’s raised a child or been around children knows, kids laugh a lot. Far more than adults.
A statistic I saw recently said adults laugh an average of 15 times a day. Children laugh 400 times a day. That’s not a typo — kids laugh four hundred times a day! Life is still fun for them.
It’s been a long time since I’ve been around little children. But a recent letter from a dear friend of many years back in Virginia reminded me of the days when my son was growing up.… Read more
A Gallup poll I recently read about said 2 out of 3 Americans suffer from low self-esteem. That’s almost a whopping 70 percent of the population!
I’d guess the numbers are about the same for most other countries, though I don’t know for sure.
Other interesting facts about self-esteem:
Self-esteem expert and best-selling author Jack Canfield says the average child hears 432 negative statements every day, but only 32 positive statements.
The California Task Force for Personal and Social Responsibility has this to say:
About 80 percent of humans suffer psychological damage from words.… Read more
As many of you know, two days from now the USA celebrates its yearly Thanksgiving holiday, on Thursday, November 27.
The USA does not have a monopoly on Thanksgiving. Many cultures down through the centuries all over the planet have celebrated their own ways of giving thanks.
There are varying views of the origins and roots of the many thanksgiving celebrations. Some have religious overtones. Some are purely secular. But one thing is clear: It’s all about being grateful for our blessings.… Read more
With the holiday season approaching, I find my thoughts drifting back to my faraway family and old-time friends. And to my many warm memories of long-ago holiday celebrations.
“Home” for me had always been the small farm town in rural western New York State where I grew up. Even though in my younger years I moved around a lot — all over the USA and the world — that was always my home.
I never felt “at home” anywhere except my hometown.… Read more
We don’t often do this, but I thought on this 11th day of the 11th month it might be appropriate to re-publish our first article of 2008.
If you don’t remember our January 2008 article, Eve of Destruction, this might be a good time to review it, given the recent crises shaking the foundations of our society.
That January 2008 article’s focus was environmental issues. But Spirit’s response could easily apply to all the other issues and crises facing our world today.… Read more
Our newsletter readers occasionally tell me they admire my strong connection to Spirit. As if I’m special or unique.
My response is always to say my connection is no stronger than their own. We all have that connection. We are all special and unique.
The problem, as Spirit often says, is we’ve lost our conscious awareness of our connection. The connection did not go away. Only our awareness of it did.
So it’s just a matter of remembering what we already know.… Read more
Spirit is always saying if you can stay in joy most of the time, everything “wrong” with your life will “right” itself. For example, if you’re having problems with your spouse or lover, if you’re having financial or health problems, etc.
Of course, I always say the same thing to people when they come to me for advice. But a couple weeks ago, I had the opportunity to practice what I preach.
I’m in excellent physical shape, and I regularly jog, do yoga, weight-lifting, etc.… Read more
I was standing in line at our little post office last week, and I couldn’t help but hear a conversation between one of the postal clerks and a customer. It was a friendly conversation between the two. But there was a dark undercurrent in their lighthearted chatter.
Spirit and I discussed expectations in an earlier newsletter article, also titled Expectations. But the post office conversation reminded me of how pervasive and debilitating that “dark undercurrent” is.
The customer was paying cash for some stamps, and she came up a penny short.… Read more
Do you believe, to use Spirit’s extreme example, if everyone around you was dying of cancer, you would too?
Whether you answered “Yes” or “No” to the first question, explain why you chose that answer.… Read more