Stuff I Believe

     I read an article about writers needing to write from their belief system.  I decided I'd work on clarifying my own belief system by coming up with my own personal manifesto.  

     Knowing myself, as I do, I figured this would take the form of a snarky little list where I mentioned that I believe "God didn't make little green apples, and it don't rain in Indianapolis in the summer time", "I believe in music, oh I...believe in love", "I believe for every drop of rain that falls a flower grows", I believe paper cuts hurt.  I believe in empty threats.  I believe in having my cake and eating it too...
   
     Stuff like that; you know...obnoxious stuff.

     But I sat down at the keyboard and the following list materialized on my screen.  I guess I also believe in surprising myself.

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I Believe...

that Enthusiasm is a gift.

I believe it's easier to stay mired in sadness than it is to rise above it.

I believe rising above sadness is a way to live life fully.  

I believe without sadness there is no 

Brave Choosing of Happiness.

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I believe Love Heals.

I believe Love takes Bravery, too.

I believe it's important to

Be Brave and stand up for ourselves and each other.

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I believe anger fuels our fire, that it's right to rebel against injustice.

I also believe that anger can burn us up...char our souls. 

I believe we have to alchemize anger into Love and Acceptance and Peace. 

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I believe Focusing On, and Appreciating, what
Turns Out Right
is the way to begin this alchemizing process.

I believe the more we focus on what turns out right, the more things Turn Out Right.

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I believe Humor is the way to transcend both sadness and anger. 

I believe that Laughter washes the world clean and allows us to start again.

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I believe the moment to start again is always Right Now. 

...or, if you're really tired, then definitely, First Thing In The Morning.

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I believe that Joy and Love and Happiness are our birthright.  

I believe Life Experience can act as a jealous sibling trying to steal our birthright from us.

I believe we can win.

I believe it's Our Job Here to win this battle.

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I believe Jesus was saying this.  

I believe lots of teachers have said this. 

I believe we can use our teachers as paths to Heaven, or paths to Hell.

I believe the only real Hell is when we separate ourselves from God.  I believe God is Love and Truth and Joy and Humor and Each Other. 

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I believe in Original Innocence.

I believe we're all always Doing the Best We Can.  I believe it's easier to see this within ourselves than in others.

I believe sometimes we can't even see it in ourselves.

I believe we all yearn for Love and Joy and Belonging.

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I believe Stillness is the answer to the noise of the world.

I believe we should Seek out quiet Stillness and Meditation and Communion.

I also believe that gathering a big brass band, and shouting our Joy to the Heavens sometimes helps too.

I believe the world is hungry for transcendence.

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I also believe the world is hungry for Pie.

I believe we long for Sweetness and Goodness and Acceptance and Pure Pleasure. 

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I believe in Staying Home.

I believe I wouldn't love Staying Home so much if I didn't also hear the constant siren song calling me to Exploration and Adventure.

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I believe in trying to see life from Someone Else's Point of View, but I believe  

that by honoring my own point of view I honor and encourage others.

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I believe we are all different.

I believe we are all Supposed to be different.

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I believe in Chocolate...lots of chocolate.

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Which is probably why I believe...

 the muscles of both our brains and our bodies are meant to be Exercised Regularly.

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I believe it can seem easier to Procrastinate than to do our work.  But it is the harder path in the long run.

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I believe that there's not so much love in the world that we can afford to judge any form it takes.  I believe we are hear to learn to Accept - both ourselves and each other.

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I believe in taking naps.

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I believe in the Fun of Life.

I believe in Doing the Work of Life, too.

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I believe in Transformation.

I believe in Creating Beauty from Ugliness, Order from Chaos, Laughter from Pain.

I believe writing is always about transcending pain and moving toward Joy.

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I believe I have a Purpose in the world.

I believe We All Do.

I believe we know what our job is by the thing that we would do no matter what, the thing we do in our 'time off', the thing we work on even though no one is watching, the thing we hardly realize we're doing because it's so much A Part of Who We Are.

I believe it can also be the thing we're most terrified to Share.

I believe it takes great Courage to pursue that thing we feel called to.

I believe when We All Start Doing what we Came Here To Do we will live in a state of constant Grace.

I believe that Constant Grace is not just some Blissed-Out place.  I believe it is a place of Ongoing Growth and Expansion and Love.

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I believe, our Biggest Blessing, and our most Exciting Triumphant Moment is Always in the process of Arriving.

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(Ruth Buzzy raspberry.)
"...and that's all I have to say about that."-Forest Gump
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Otm4RusESNU

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What do you believe?