Hitchcock's Guide to the Galaxy, or Ferdinand the Lonely Bull?

Today I attended an awesome 6 1/2 hour seminar presented by the Institute of Continuing Legal Education, on property settlements. We learned some great information on dividing pensions that 90% of divorce lawyers don't know, among other things.

I'm actually quite good at what I do (i.e., family law), even admitting to the world that I'm an "S." (As in Rich Dad Robert Kiyosaki's Cashflow Quadrant: The "S" is self-employed, aka smart, aka solo (as in Lone Ranger and "Nobody does it better"), etc.) Yes, I'm the type who is up at 2 a.m., preparing judgments, or working on appellate briefs. The kind who will spend 2 hours answering client emails at the end of the day and preparing the "to do" list for tomorrow.

But when I write on my blog, it's all about Bruce Lee, or the latest spiritual book I've been reading, etc. Don't I know that a business blog is supposed to let my current (and prospective) clients know what a great lawyer I am???

I guess not. Because right now, despite all the phenomenal things I learned today (and thoroughly enjoyed), I don't want to talk about that. I want to talk about how incredibly joyful life if when I focus on "being love" in every situation.

This, of course, is far different than "being loving," which you can fake. Being love takes every situation to a whole new level.

In past blogs, I talked about an exercise called "Love's Pathway." (See "The Secret Secret Behind the Secret" blogpost.) In it, you begin by taking 4 deep breaths and saying "I am the full expression of God's love. Just as God is love, so am I. I am love."

Next, you focus on someone for whom you have strong feelings of love (child, spouse, friend, Mother Earth). Imagine yourself embracing that person (a bit tough with Mother Earth, stick with people at first), and saying "I love you." Let that feeling of love flow through you.

Then you say, "I feel love." Then, "I feel God." Then, "Thank you," and imagine that love radiating from you to the whole world and beyond.

Anyway, one night, filled with the love I felt for my person of choice, tears of gratitude and appreciation fell down my cheeks. I thought to myself, "If this is what love feels like, and this is what God feels like, does that mean God loves me like this?" And the answer came "Yes, I do." Wow.

When you are loved like that by the creator of everything (and you are, you know), then being love comes naturally. So does being honest about who I am, even if some observers may think I'm flaky. I'm not claiming to walk on water or anything. I am just noticing how much more often throughout the day I feel light-hearted and happy, and free to be myself. How cool is that?

When I think about it, that's even more useful than sharing with my readers information on accrued coverture vs. prospective coverture. Don't you agree?

Death: A Preview

This is taken from Emmanuel's Book II: A Choice for Love.

"What happens in sudden death?

To the soul, it is bliss. You are driving along in a car doing battle with your life as usual, when all of a sudden you are not. You find yourself unexpectedly light, and you wonder what miracle has taken place. Have you become enlightened that you are no longer immersed in the issues of your day? You look around to realize that the car, which was so important, is now just a heap of rubble and you really don't care at all. Then you see a physical body which looks familiar to you, something you have worn for some years. Yet you are glad to be out of it. You are free."

"What is the process of dying-exactly?

Exactly, dying is a very inexact process...The soul ultimately decides, "I've done all I can with this particular circumstance. From here on in it will be unfruitful in some manner and will not serve Perfect Love. So I choose to come Home.

Well, the decision to come Home is the start of what has been termed "Mysterious terminal illness," "accidental death," or whatever it may be. It can even be murder. But once the soul has made that choice, then the body and the life comply."

And so it seems that Michael must have decided he had done all that he could do with this particular incarnation, and made the decision to go Home. We will miss him, yet how happy he must be now!

To Michael Jackson, who transformed our lives with music

Like most of us, I imagine, I feel an ache in my heart as I watch all the Michael Jackson videos from four decades of music, and listen to his incredible voice. Fascinated, I click on one news story after another about his life, his spending, his music.

Some at this time are inspired to ask: "What will people say about you when you are gone? Are you doing things that will make them praise you at your funeral?" To me, I don't care what people say about me when I'm gone.

I have another question: "Why is it that we shower people with love and appreciation after they're dead, and not while they're here?" Why are people flooding the streets at the Apollo to honor Michael, and buying CD's off the shelves like hot cakes, today? Why not yesterday, when it would have done him some good? (From the stories about his debt, he sure could have used it.)

I know the answer, though. It's human nature. I remember when my own mother died. In her lifetime, she had many qualities that annoyed me, and led me to avoid her. The minute she died, I forgot them all, and just remembered how cool she was. Why couldn't I have looked past my petty grievances in her lifetime, and just told her how cool she was, when she could have enjoyed it? That's what I ask myself now.

I am so moved, as I watch all of the incredible love that people all over the world are showing to Michael Jackson, now that he's dead. How much could he have used it while he was alive? How much did he suffer from the mass rejection he got later in life? You may say, "He deserved it." Yet now, we are all able to overlook it somehow and remember his extraordinary qualities and the joy he brought to our lives. Why did we let the flaws completely overshadow his brilliance?

There is nothing any one of us can do now for Michael Jackson, a lost little boy in a man's body. But there is something we can do for the loved ones that remain. We can forget our judgments and criticism and show them the love and appreciation that we have for them. What are we waiting for? Let's not hold back the good things we want to say to people, for fear that we will sound foolish or "corny."

Then, when your loved ones pass, you can look back and smile, remembering the joy you gave them instead of regretting things that might have been.

The Secret Secret behind "The Secret"

The great thing, and the bad thing, about me is that when I am "into" something, I'm all in. I talk about it, write about it, and probably bore people stiff with my unending enthusiasm. Nevertheless, as Popeye would say, "I yam what I yam."

This is the prelude to my talking about my latest discovery, a wonderful book called The Greatest Manifestation Principle in the World by Carnelian Sage. (Thanks to Perry Penny for giving me the book.)

This is one of those tiny books with a title that seems to promise yet another cure-all for everything you've ever want to cure. Ho-hum, right? That's what I was thinking. As someone who has followed, or at least looked into, every self-help device for success that there is, this sounded like just another one.

On the front it says "The missing secret behind the Law of Attraction that will enable you to finally manifest your desires." Oh, right. The secret Secret to The Secret.

It starts by debunking the theory postulated in The Secret that all you have to do is focus on what you want, instead of what you don't want, and you will get it. If you don't get it, then clearly you are not doing it right and you need to focus even more on what you want. Etc. However, Sage says that the success rate from using The Secret is actually about .1%, which is pretty dismal. (I had wondered, for one thing, how simply by focusing on eternal youth, we could instantly stop the aging process. And chastised myself for not achieving that result, no doubt due to my lack of positive thinking.)

But the problem with the whole Secret thing is that it makes you think there is a cosmic kitchen that you simply order from and it's served up. Voila! I've found that it really doesn't work like that. There is more to a successful life than just satisfying our individual material desires.

I am not going to retell the entire book here, even tiny as it is. But I will reveal that the so-called secret to the secret, is not a secret at all! It is the realization that we are love. Sage says that, when we are being love, we are in the energy field in which all manifestation occurs. She says (and I love this) that God already knows what we want. We don't need to focus until we're cross-eyed on the new sports car that we want, or the prosperity, or the abundant health, like a little kid who tells his parents 5,000 times what he wants for Christmas.

God knows. (God is God, for Heaven's sake!) All we need to do is be in the energy field and what we want (or something even better) will naturally manifest. We do that by being love. There is an exercise in the book called Love's Pathway, in which you take a series of steps that help you focus on feelings of love, which you then expand to the world, and beyond.

We are all in the Field together, although we don't realize it. In each interaction, if we ask, "How can I bring love to this interaction?" we will see miracles. This is not about acting loving. It is about being love. (Think Mother Theresa.) There is a big difference.

My goal here is to write enough to make you curious about the book, so that you will want to get it and see for yourself. I don't pretend to be able to summarize in a few paragraphs what took Sage 130 pages to explain.

I will say that, since I have begun to focus on being love, and realizing that I am love, my days are joyful. And when I begin to worry, or fear, as I inevitably do, I simply say "I surrender my fear to love." And then I repeat the little affirmation that Sage recommends: "I am the full expression of God's love. Just as God is love, so am I. I am love."

I truly believe that if every one on the planet begun doing the Love's Pathway exercise, our current maladies would transform into something wonderful beyond what we can imagine. And even if all we "got" was a lot more joy and fun in our day, wouldn't it be worth it?

With Sincere Appreciation

...to my friends, Terry and Perry Penny. They shared their beautiful home/guest house with me this past weekend. Even better, they shared a multitude of awesome quotes, great information (like Misa Hopkins' sound healing), and fantastic books. I sped-read Russell Simmons' "Do You" on Sunday, by reading the 12 laws and quotes at the start and end of the book. First rate stuff, which I will revisit to read the entire book. I love this quote by Simmons: "Understand that giving is just receiving, inside out."

Another book my friends shared that has really rocked my world today is a tiny tome called The Greatest Manifestation Principle in the World, by Carnelian Sage. (No doubt a pseudonym.) The book talks about the movie The Secret, and the Law of Attraction, and says that something is missing from both which has lead to a dismal .1% success rate for people who use it. (I always wondered why all that positive thinking didn't create the kind of results I wanted.)

Being a fan of The Secret and the Law of Attraction myself, I was a bit skeptical at first. But I started reading it on the plane ride home and, as predicted by Perry, finished it before I landed. It is right on, and I have been using this principle all day, with amazing results. Of course, I am not claiming a great "one day" is enough to inspire anyone but the recipient of that day (me!). I'm just saying that I am convinced.

I encourage you all to read this incredible book. And to hopefully pique your curiosity, I will just say this, with the greatest feeling: I am the full expression of God's love. Just as God is love, so am I. I am love.

And so are you.

Greetings from Sunny Arizona!

I've been offline for a few days. I'm visiting friends in Arizona, where the sun starts shining at 6 a.m. and works up to a veritable furnace of heat before noon. My friends said that out here, people have garage sales that start at 7 a.m. and end by 10 a.m... because no one can stand the heat after that. I believe it!

My friends are Terry and Perry Penny, real estate hall of famers from Russ Whitney's Wealth Building system, and true entrepreneurs. I'm staying in their guest house at their beautiful home, where they are planning a pool party in my honor this afternoon. They have 4 gorgeous sons, all very active, and I really don't know how they manage to accomplish all that they do!

Being an inveterate water drinker, I soon ran out of the "stash" I'd brought with me, so I asked my friends for more. They gave me some water from a case of plastic bottles they'd purchased at their church. Turns out their pastor is an entrepreneur as well, and a friend of Robert Kiyosaki (one of my heroes, and author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad), who sometimes speaks at their church. Based on research from pioneers like Dr. Masuri Emoto (from "What the Bleep Do We Know?" fame), http://masaru-emoto.net/, their pastor has labels with a biblical quotation and positive affirmations all over them! It says things like "renewed like an eagle, blessed, problem solver, youthful, resourceful, courageous, happiness, fearless."

I love this idea! If you go to Dr. Emoto's site and see the difference love, prayer, and positive affirmations can make on water molecules, just think what it can do for our bodies! I insisted on joining my friends at church tomorrow, and am looking forward to meeting this outstanding pastor who is teeming traditional religion with newly discovered spiritual principles. I'm sure I'll learn a lot from the visit.

In the meantime, however, I invite everyone to share some of this power energy with themselves, by blessing your body with love, and thanking it for serving you so well and faithfully every day.

Please help a budding author!

Hey everyone, I've just finished my second eBook! While my first was a longer, personal growth book (JIGSAW: Putting the Pieces Together After Divorce), this one is all business. It's designed for people who are served with a divorce complaint, and either can't afford to or don't want to hire a lawyer. (There are various reasons for this, including not wanting to escalate things, believing there's nothing to fight over, and a desire to reconcile.)

However, no one wants to be in default! This short little book provides simple, step-by-step instructions on how to answer a divorce complaint without a lawyer. It keeps you out of default, and buys time while you decide what you want to do next. At $4.95, it's a steal. We charge ten times that much just to draft an answer for people, without ever "officially" entering the case.

Please check out the preview (see the link on the right side, below), and let me know what you think! All comments are welcome.