A few years ago I decided to backpack through Europe in an attempt to "find" myself. During this 3 month vacation I got to meet tons of cool people, eat (or watch other people eat) enthralling food, see some of the most exquisite sights of the modern world, and figure out that everything I was looking for (love, peace, happiness, and so on) was already within me!! I didn't really need the vacay at all, but I don't regret exploring the liberal side of Amsterdam or buying any of the Venetian glass figurines!!
Traveling from country to country made me realize how different and cultured each country was. For example, although beautiful Amsterdam was avant-garde they were also very environmentally-conscious!! Since most of their country is below sea level and protected by dikes they have made an effort to reduce the number of greenhouse gases by turning the bicycle into something very trendy. The people of Amsterdam bike everywhere and there are cool little bike stands everywhere too!! Dubrovnik, on the other hand, was a stunning Medieval city on the Adriatic sea that was protected by huge walls. The city oozed of culture and I made sure not to step in the cracks along the sides of the shiny cobble-stone streets in order to avoid a life of singledom (a Croatian superstition, but is being single forever really a bad thing? lol). After I arrived at my hotel and asked where the recycling bin was, the friendly hotel owner told me "we aren't cultured and don't have one!!" This made me laugh, because not having a recycling service certainly doesn't make them devoid of culture!!
Fast-forward to December 2011 and I was again given an opportunity to explore tradition!!
This Christmas my Yogi invited me (and 60 of his closest friends) to celebrate a different type of Christmas and I didn't only jump at the chance - I leaped!!
Some of the traditions were the same - caroling, decorating Christmas trees, writing letters to Santa - but some were different too!!
One of the coolest traditions we celebrated that night involved each person writing a positive wish for the people of the world on a coloured-paper ornament. We then placed these ornaments on the tree and sent love to the world!!
I wrote down the first thing that came to mind and then envisioned the earth circled in light!! I literally felt love being given to the whole WIDE world!!
My wish for each person in the world is as follows:
You are PURE, POWERFUL, PEACEFUL, COURAGEOUS, LOVING, ACCEPTING, POSITIVE, CARING, GENEROUS, FORGIVING, PATIENT, WARM-HEARTED, CREATIVE, COMPASSIONATE, HONEST, HUMANITARIAN, SELFLESS, BRAVE, BENEVOLENT, FAITHFUL, and so on.....
and you don't have to travel to Europe to figure that out lol.
The thing is we aren't always AWARE that we have all of these traits within us, and since we aren't aware we don't always act in virtuous ways and even go as far to justify our bad behaviour by saying things like "it's human nature to be greedy, selfish, etc." This is just the way that our ego poisons our mind, but it's very easy to squish the ego and realize your true power!! All you have to do is think of yourself as PURE, POWERFUL, PEACEFUL, COURAGEOUS, LOVING, ACCEPTING, POSITIVE, CARING, GENEROUS, FORGIVING, PATIENT, WARM-HEARTED, CREATIVE, COMPASSIONATE, HONEST, HUMANITARIAN, SELFLESS, BRAVE, BENEVOLENT, FAITHFUL, etc. and NOT listen to anything negative your ego says. He or she will always use language like "can't, don't, won't, etc".
When I look at the world I see many dualities - peace and war, happiness and sadness, greed and generosity, hunger and satisfaction, and so on. This year I hope to send good wishes to the people of the world every day during my meditations and not just on Christmas day!!
