Habits that bind

Yellow is also the color of the sun and spring...
and brings to mind a warmth that penetrates to my deepest self.
Yellow is light and lovely and vibrant.

Wow...that paragraph is incredible. Thank you for sharing it.

We are programmed by the habits of our family, and ancestors...
but we are not slaves to those habits.
I have been reading several books...
each has the message embedded that despite our habitual nature we can choose...
You can choose to continue the patterns of your family...good or bad...
or you can conceive of new thoughts, words and deeds that will better enable you to thrive.

I am thinking of the 'wisdom of the ancestors'...which is mostly good...but what if there are ideas and intentions within that energy which once served a purpose...but no longer is necessary...
what if we hold on to the wrong things and live our lives tied to stereotypical ideas and opinions that diminish our joy in this lifetime?
How do we step back and examine each idea, each image, each habit...to discern its value to our life?

Keeping family secrets may have served a survival purpose at one time...
but maintaining that habit is slowly killing our family...
at our own hands...
through addictions, depression, suicide...you name it, we do it.
You and I are openly examining these mind habits...memes as they are being called...
and we are developing new habits...intentionally chosen that bring life and joy into our lives.
I pray the others will also find their way to examining their habitual thoughts and actions.

They say that God will mold our heart
And I know that is true
but I believe the choices I make
select the tools he'll use.

If I choose love my heart grows soft
like clay in a sculptor's hands
gently caressed towards perfection
according to his plan

If hate is mine my heart's replaced
by stone so cold and cruel
hammers and chisels carve out the form
to expose reluctant truth.

With this in mind I lift my voice
Dear God, hear my plea
Grant me the grace
create your image in me.

I wrote those lyrics to the melody of Prayer of Saint Frances, but couldn't get permission to use it...
but it is about choices...
about surrendering or remaining imprisoned within the barricade around the heart.
It's about circumcising the heart...removing that wall that life forces us to build...
about being open and vulnerable to the world...
about being truly alive...and joyful.

Love and Light...Keep dancing...
Maggie