JohnA Passaro's Blog, page 10
August 30, 2020
Soul Redirection
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I hate when the Universe flashes red lights as a warning that I am going in the wrong direction when I’m handling a difficult problem, especially when I’m dead set on going in that direction.
I hate it until I love it.
Sometimes your soul will whisper.
When you hear the whisper and dismiss it, your soul will shout.
When you blatantly ignore the shout the Universe will send a storm that will sweep you off of your feet, spin you around, and by the time your feet hit the ground, you will again be miraculously facing in the right direction.
Most times not even understanding what just happened.
Until you’ve experienced it a few times.
After experiencing this a few times you learn to appreciate the magnitude of its wisdom.
I now trust every storm that is sent my way to be a redirection of my soul.
Constant realignment.
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August 29, 2020
My Wish For You YouTube Video
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August 26, 2020
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August 23, 2020
Thumper
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We’ve got to tell everybody.
We’ve got to remind them.
We’ve got to remind them how good it is.
People have forgotten what life is all about.
They’ve forgotten what it is to be alive.
They need to be reminded
Of what they have and what they can lose.
What I feel is the joy of life,
The gift of life,
The freedom of life,
The wonderment of life!
Leonard Lowe
Awakenings
2014
A few years ago our neighbors that lived across the street foreclosed on their home, they upped and left in the middle of the night leaving everything they owned behind, including their two cats.
Those two cats soon became four cats, then eight cats, and then sixteen.
I have found healing qualities by writing.
My wife BettyJane has found healing qualities by nurturing these cats back to life, feeding them and sheltering them from harsh winters and eventually finding permanent homes for them.
She is very good at it; she cares a great deal for them and has had some miraculous saves.
I can recall more than a few kittens she hand fed with a baby’s bottle because their own mother abandoned them; kittens who were only hours away from death that she invigorated and nurtured back to life.
It is a bittersweet feeling for her when she hands over a kitten to their new family.
Even with finding homes for over forty-four cats, there is one cat she could never give away.
That was Thumper.
The sun comes up and I walk into my kitchen for a drink of water.
There, somewhere equidistant between the floor and the ceiling, hanging on to the screen on my screen door with his claws is Thumper.
A smile immediately forms on my face.
That’s what Thumper does, every time you see him, he makes you smile.
He makes you smile while he is doing absolutely nothing.
He is sort of the Seinfeld of cats.
I can watch him all day chase his shadow, play with a ball, roll in the grass or lie on his back taking in the sun.
He exudes awe and wonderment in everything he does.
Nothing is ordinary to him.
Thumper is lying on the porch.
My initial reaction is that he is sun bathing again.
He is not.
He is dead.
Lying beside Thumper is a half eaten mouse.
A mouse that recently ate the poison that a neighbor put down to end his existence.
The mouse ate the poison; Thumper ate the mouse.
Thumper is gone.
Why did the Universe take a soul who provided such happiness to the world?
I don’t have access to those parts of the Universe’s plan, but I believe a better question is, “Why did the Universe put Thumper in our lives?”
And that question I can answer.
The Universe put Thumper in our lives for us to learn to have an enthusiasm for life, to find awe in our life, to cherish life’s most ordinary moments.
I do know there are Thumpers throughout all of our lives, people who come into our life at the exact moment we need them.
They do their job and then they move on.
Thumper showed a zeal for life.
He made ordinary, extraordinary.
That is exactly what my life needed to see.
Thank you, Universe.
Thumper is a chapter from
Your Soul Knows
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August 22, 2020
The Pursuit
For the longest time I got it wrong…
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It Is Going to Take More Than One Effort
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You may have to fight a battle
More than once, to win it.
Margaret Thatcher
If you want to beat an average wrestler, shoot once.
If you want to beat an above average wrestler, put two shots together.
If you want to beat an elite wrestler, you will need a relentless offensive attack without hesitation.
Having a relentless offensive attack without hesitation puts your opponent off balance, unguarded, it wears down his defense where you can then take advantage of his vulnerability.
The key to scoring is to get through your opponent’s defense.
One effort is easy for your opponent to defend.
It doesn’t cause him to get too much out of position, and it allows him the time to reset and get back into a good defensive position before your next shot.
Two attempts will make your opponent more vulnerable on the second attempt, force him to have less balance.
And if the second attempt is made immediately, before he has a chance to reset, he will be unable to stop your attack.
Great wrestlers have quickness, great balance, and mobility.
Great wrestlers are quick enough, with enough balance and mobility to stop two shots in succession.
That is why they are great.
There reaches a point though, maybe 3, 4, 5 attempts in, where your relentless pursuit without hesitation will prove much for even an elite wrestler to defend.
Your relentless pursuit without hesitation will get them to be off-balance, fatigued, and vulnerable.
Life is the same way.
Many times in life, a person will have one attack in the pursuit of their goal.
Life has enough experience to stop one isolated attack.
Sometimes it is experienced enough to stop two continuous attempts.
In my experience, rarely is life skilled enough to stop a relentless pursuit of your goal without hesitation.
That’s how you score in life.
With sustained multiple efforts, without hesitation.
By being relentless.
THIS IS A CHAPTER EXCERPT FROM
WRESTLING RULES FOR LIFE
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August 21, 2020
What Do You Do If You Just Experienced a Life-Changing Event?
You defend your 51% of your love for life like you would if the enemy jumped the moat and was storming the castle.
[image error]Photo by Ray Bilcliff from Pexels
What do you do if you just experienced a life-changing event?
The first thing you need to do is buckle up because it is going to hurt like hell.
You may not want to hear it, but the sad truth is that the hurt will never subside.
It will never go away.
No matter what anyone says to you or how much time passes – it will always hurt.
And it will hurt badly.
Forever.
That is the honest truth.
And the sooner that you understand this the better prepared you will be to beat it.
Every “I’m sorry” that you hear people say to you will burn up inside of you faster than a bead of cold water dropped on a hot skillet.
Every well intended, “I know how it feels” you hear will aggravate you to no end.
Get used to it.
It will never hurt less.
For that is a tribute to how much you care.
So what do you do?
The second thing you need to do is to cap it.
Cap the hurt to 49% and then elevate everything good in your life to fill the remaining 51%.
Your 51%.
Put borders around the 51%.
Impenetrable borders.
Create a space where the hurt can never enter.
I call it the “Andy Dufresne space”.
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Remember the scene where Andy locked himself in the warden’s office as he played music over the loudspeaker to all the inmates
No matter what was going on outside the office, Andy’s soul was impenetrable for a time being.
That is the key, to have a portion of you to be impenetrable for a period of time that you control.
By doing so, you never allow the event to be able to control you.
And it will attempt to.
Often.
Like, every day.
When the hurt attacks trying to capture more than its fair share of 49%, you defend your 51% stake in your love of life like you would if the enemy jumped the moat and was storming the castle.
You fight to the death to defend the 51%.
Then you fill the 51% with MORE.
More care.
More belief.
More work.
More hope.
More Dreams.
You never stop dreaming.
For it is dreams that make you alive.
I understand that your dream is no longer possible to obtain.
But you keep your dream alive by parlaying it into another dream.
A bigger dream.
You fill the 51% with your belief system.
Recommit to your beliefs even after the injustice.
Believe in hope.
Believe in justice.
Believe that hard work wins.
Double down on discipline.
Make the injustice cringe when it looks at you when it watches you.
Act like “The Who’s” in Whoville when the Grinch stole their presents on Christmas Eve.
Sing aloud as they did – Fahoo Fores, Dahoo Dores.
Make the Grinch scratch his chin in bewilderment.
For when you do – when you become unbreakable,
You win.
The third thing you need to do is to replace it.
Don’t allow yourself to be known by this event.
Set out to do something greater.
Exchange events in people’s memories for which you will be known.
It is sad, but a fact of life that there will be things that happen to you that can never be justified by the saying, “Everything happens for a reason.“
No reason will ever seem equitable to what you lost.
It just won’t.
Don’t let it make you callous, though.
Feel more.
Do more.
Want more.
Be yourself more.
Give more.
What the injustice wants to do is to beat you every day of your life.
Don’t let it.
You are a fighter.
You are a winner.
It may have beaten you on one given day.
That is okay.
The way you win in the end is when you beat it in the many days to come.
The many months to come.
The many years to come.
The many generations to come.
Over a lifetime.
You win when you use this event to make you better.
No, the pain from the incident will never go away.
But if you use it to improve the remaining 51% in your life, you win.
51% to 49%.
Just look to improve your position each day.
Make the Grinch scratch his chin in disbelief.
Fahoo Fores, Dahoo Dores.
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August 20, 2020
It Is Better to be Vulnerable Than Right
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It is better to trust someone and have them violate that trust than it is to live in a world without trust.
It is better to love someone and have your heart broken than it is to have never experienced love.
It is better to believe in someone and have them disappoint you than it is to live in a world without belief.
To trust, to love, and to believe is opening oneself to being vulnerable.
There will be times when you are burned by doing so.
Trust, believe, and love, anyway.
Overall, the world is a much better place when you do.
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August 19, 2020
Noticing Tears In the Rain
Pain perception is a gift
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Photo by Saneej Kallingal on Unsplash
When you become part of the secret club, the life-changing events club, you develop empathy for other human beings.
Your perception becomes so astute that you could see the tears of pain on someone walking in the rain.
And you literally hurt.
Some see it as a curse to see and feel such pain.
I believe it is a gift.
To be that in tune with the world is a blessing.
To be that in sync within our lives is amazing, as it is the goal of every human to feel, to experience, to share, to soothe.
Sharing pain with another is akin to sharing love.
Seeing tears in the rain is experiencing life through someone else’s eyes.
Seeing tears in the rain is easily missed, often overlooked but never by a life-changing events club member.
As they possess and are blessed with this pain radar.
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