By the time you\u2019re reading this, 2021 is well underway. So how are the intentions, resolutions, and plans shaping up?<\/p>\n
In thinking about what to say in this article, I asked Rita what her plans were for the new year. She said she didn\u2019t have any. \u201cI don\u2019t want things to get messed up again,\u201d she said. I laughed because I knew exactly what she meant. So many of my plans and desires for 2020 went unfulfilled. Part of it was due to the pandemic \u2014 I\u2019d planned to travel more. I\u2019d started a travel blog and ended up posting to it a paltry six times over the year.<\/p>\n
And part of it was this kind of amorphous longing in my consciousness for achievement. \u201c2020 will be the year I finally make it all happen!\u201d I didn\u2019t know exactly what \u2018it\u2019 was or how I was going to make \u2018it\u2019 happen, but those two round numbers repeating themselves in the date \u20192020\u2019 just seemed so auspicious. The two zeros like two owl eyes looking straight through me to the awesome potential I would manifest.<\/p>\n
Well, funny thing about plans, desire, and amorphous longing. As that wise old owl could have told me if I\u2019d only stopped to listen, \u201cHoot, hoot! Whooo you are is bigger than all of that!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThanks Mr. Owl,\u201d I would have said. And then I could have refocused on my true intentions, those aspects of manifestation that come from within and that are extensions of who I am in Spirit. Intentions like Love, joy, shine, breathe peace, serve, celebrate, be kind, renew. These intentions may not be as sexy as the short term goals of traveling to Russia or gaining 25 pounds of rippling muscle mass, but as that wise owl knows, they\u2019re even more worthwhile. And, they\u2019re really the necessary foundation for any meaningful achievement in the world. I mean, what good is all that muscle mass if I\u2019m not loving who I am underneath it?<\/p>\n
When I step back from plans and desires, I start to see that I did have some pretty great accomplishments in 2020. I graduated from DSS and despite having the graduation ceremony on Zoom, the power of the Spirit I experienced celebrating me in this achievement was totally off the charts, with John Morton there to anchor it all.<\/p>\n
When I step back from plans and desires, I start appreciating those amazing moments all throughout the year when I remembered to laugh, or sing my heart out, or dance like a maniac, or swim in the ocean, or take in the blessings of a John Morton seminar, or hug my wife, or have breakfast with a friend, or celebrate a birthday on Zoom, or\u2026<\/p>\n
When I step back from plans and desires, I realize that my life is amazing. Not because of anything amazing I have done but because of the wealth of loving, caring, and sharing that I have allowed to fill it.<\/p>\n
And so as I look ahead to 2021 I am very consciously letting go of plans and desires that might get in the way of letting even more blessings in. I\u2019m opening to the simple joys of the moment and the intentions of the spiritual heart. Intentions that will carry me through no matter how long the pandemic lasts or if I ever do attain the sculpted, gorgeous physique that God surely intended for me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By the time you\u2019re reading this, 2021 is well underway. So how are the intentions, resolutions, and plans shaping up? In thinking about what to say in this article, I asked Rita what her plans were for the new year. She said she didn\u2019t have any. \u201cI don\u2019t want things to get messed up again,\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":110310,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[266,257],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-110295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-ndh-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110295\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}