When I recently wondered about How Big Is The Universe, I mentioned The Ant’s perspective. I wondered if there are beings who perceive humans in the same way we perceive the ant.

What if an ant could expand its awareness so it could see AND understand humans? I wonder if it would try to communicate with us. Or if it would try to become more human-like by taking on our behaviors or values so as to fit into our culture or understand us better.

From our current human perspective, we have speculated that angels exist; some even say they have seen angels. We speculate that they have wings. We talk of having guardian angels, “assigned” to each of us to protect and guide us. Some of the books I’ve read recently discuss certain tasks angels perform like Healing, Teaching, Guiding, Delivering messages from/to God

In my human finite-ness I don’t personally know much about angels yet, but I wonder if the human-angel connection is similar to the ant-human relationship. If it were possible, would I choose to expand my awareness so that I could perceive and understand angels on an everyday basis?

Inquisitively,
David Wine

I receive a weekly eZine in my email that always includes a poll question. Recently the Poll Question was: How many hours of sleep do you average per night?

The multiple choices were:

    [ ] less than five,
    [ ] five,
    [ ] six,
    [ ] seven,
    [ ] eight,
    [ ] nine,
    [ ] ten,
    [ ] more than ten.

A week later, the results of that question were posted and it seems most of us get 6 or 7 hours of sleep every night. No surprise.

There are times when I am a little frustrated with the Poll Question because the multiple-choice answers don’t include my best answer. A few weeks later the Poll Question was: If you could travel through time, would you rather visit the past or the future?

    [ ] Past
    [ ] Future
    [ ] I don’t want to travel through time

My immediate thought was, “I AM already traveling through time,” but this answer was not available.

My next thought was, “I already exist in the past and in the future. Travel through time??” This answer was not available either.

And my third thought was: “Nah…I really want to travel to Now. The Forever Now.”

None of my choices were on the multiple-choice list.

I would have liked the answer choices to be expanded—maybe like this: If you could travel through time, would you rather visit the past or the future?

    [ ] Past
    [ ] Future
    [ ] I don’t want to travel through time
    [ ] I am already traveling through time
    [ ] Time travel? I already exist in the past and in the future.
    [ ] Nah, I prefer to visit the Forever Now
    [ ] I think ‘time’ is an illusion so travelling through ‘time’ is a fantasy
    [ ] ______________________________

I guess I could have chosen to not respond.

Who makes up these questions anyway?

I pray for selfish things.

• When I was 9 years old, after the preacher delivered a guilt-ridden sermon, I prayed: “Dear God, please forgive my sins so I can go to heaven.
• ”In my twenties when I doubted His existence: “God, if you really exist, send me a sign. Seriously, if you want me to believe in you, let the next person I see be a bald man (or something silly like that).”
• When my son was 5 months old, in the hospital and near death: “God, why won’t you PLEASE heal my son? He doesn’t deserve this. PLEASE take this illness away from him!!”
• At the lake when I really wanted to water ski: “I hate this wind. God, please make the wind stop.”
• In my thirties: “I’m late for work and need to leave now! God, please help me find my keys!”

Truth is, I am a self-absorbed supplicator.

As a child I was told that communication with God was done through prayer, but the style of prayer I was taught was not communicating. It was one-way — me asking God for something I wanted at that moment.

Prayer is an interesting exercise. An agnostic might characterize prayer as Positive Thought, as in, “I am quite certain I am a careful driver, therefore I will drive to work safely and without accident.” A monotheist might characterize prayer as true communication with The One Deity, as in “God kept me from being in an accident on my drive to work.”

Here is an intriguing prayer-concept that brought interesting results for me. It’s a story from my brother:

In the mornings while showering, my brother’s normal routine was to pray the “old way” — many supplications and requests (Supplication Style):

God, bring me the next job.
Please give me more money.
Let my children be safe.
Etc…

One particular morning a new idea of expanding consciousness struck him. He changed his routine and rephrased every thought that came to him, turning that thought into an expression of gratitude (Gratitude Method):

Thank you for the job I will get today.
Thank you for the money I have.
Thank you for the safe keeping of my children.
..and so forth…

The result of this experiment was remarkable. The days when he prayed Supplication Style turned out to be more stressful, less happy and less fulfilling. But the days he used the Gratitude Method went more smoothly, with less anxiety and more happiness.

The Gratitude Method is becoming a more common style for me and the results are remarkable, bringing me greater and greater happiness.

My life is more abundant.

I am physically healthier.

I am achieving greater things professionally and personally.

My relationships with friends, coworkers and family are deeper and more fulfilling.

No matter what your religious beliefs, here is my “prayer challenge” for you:

(1) Choose an outcome.
(2) Believe it to be.
(3) Take action. (This is essential!)
(4) Offer gratitude – as if your choice has already begun to manifest. (Most important.)

Tell me how it works for you

Inquisitively,
David Wine

I am a big fan of the concept of “Do The Right Thing.”

One area I see this promoted is envrionmentalism. Those folks ask me to change my behaviors in order to save our planet. Their various pleas include:

• Reduce. Reuse. Recycle.
• Develop alternative energy.
• Turn the lights off when you’re not in the room.

On this blog site, I do not advocate, nor do I ridicule these ideas. This may sound preachy, but I think these themes are really a subset of a greater philosophy like: Live Wisely, or Use Your Common Sense, or Do the Right Thing.

I recently read a compelling rendition of this core value from a company that teaches its employees to:

Always Do the Right Thing. But please don’t restrict “Do the Right Thing” to only you, or to only the company. As an employee, when you do the Right Thing, include yourself, your coworkers, the company, the customer, the vendor… When you act under this set of ideas, the results of your actions to “Do the Right Thing” will respect, honor and bring abundance to both you and the company.

The business leaders of that company believe if all employees follow this code the company will achieve its greatest success.

Is this nirvana or just a load of hooey?

Consider what would happen if every day you did just one Good Thing. Just one. No pressure to live a perfect life, just simply do one Good Thing…

…and then what if you followed that up with a repeat performance the next day?

This concept was popularized recently in the movie Pay It Forward (based on a book by Catharine Hyde). Under the Pay It Forward concept, when each of us performs three good deeds in repayment of a good deed done to us, our society becomes a better place to live.

An older name for this concept is Generalized Reciprocity. Ben Franklin described it in a letter where he said: “I do not pretend to give such a sum; I only lend it to you. When you meet with another honest man in similar distress, you must pay me by lending this sum to him; enjoining him to do the same….”

So when I hear, “Turn off the light, reduce-reuse-recycle, and develop alternative energy,” I say, sure, go ahead. That’s a great start. But don’t stop there. These mantras are smaller pieces of grander ideologies like Generalized Reciprocity, the more colloquial Do The Right Thing, or as I prefer – Simply Live Wisely.

With Warm Regards,
David Wine

Last night I walked through the house, turning off lights as I was heading for bed. In my mind, I prayed a quick prayer asking for blessings and peace to continue filling our home. A moment after the prayer, I happened to glance at the digital clock in the kitchen.

It read 11:11.

At first, I didn’t think much about it, but a few seconds later it hit me. This same thing has already happened to me — three times!

Déjà vu.

I’ve seen a pair of elevens three times in the past couple weeks.

I prayed; I saw 11:11 for the third time; and I’ve read that eleven is a power number.

I wonder what the angels are telling me.