Flipping Radio Stations

As many of you know, I am a positive thinker. Sure, I acknowledge it when the shit hits the fan and also don't consider myself too kosher to jump right in and clean it up. Yet when it comes to the outlook, my focus zooms immediately into the blue sky no matter whether it is raining or cloudy at the moment. That's what my spiritual journey has taught me. Get a blank piece of paper, sketch out a world you want to live in and it is in your will-power to get the job done - as long as you are willing to pay the price.

Some of you may also know that the lyrics of songs on the radio talk to me. So frequently when either the tune of a song or its lyrics didn't quite feel right, I used to flip channels until I found a better one. However, one fine day my six year old son remarked while we were driving, "Papa, you are switching the songs too often." Wow, these words hit me like a sledge hammer. Sure, I will still switch when the tune of a song doesn't talk to me, but I am now thinking twice before I change a song only because its message is an inconvenient one. After a conversation with my friend Su Zhen I understood what was going on: you can be a positive thinker as much as you want, but unless you acknowledge the negative sentiments that are floating inside of you, the Tao will have to remind you of what's really going on.

Today was an example in that direction. When I left for school with the boys, Miley Cyrus's Wrecking Ball was playing. Normally I would always switch this song even though its tune immediately caught me. To see that beautiful woman sitting naked on a wrecking ball, crashing into walls is just a little too much for me. Yet, immediately when I turned on the car, my son started singing along so there was little I could do about it. After I had dropped off the kids at school the song was playing again and guess what, I turned up the volume and just accepted whatever sentiment there was in me. Get the frictio

Rain or Shine, You Will be Fine

It is a Saturday morning, a child is bored and goes up to his dad and asks whether he can play video games on the IPad. "Well, how can you, I am reading my book on it?," replies the dad. The child gets annoyed and asks whether he can play Wii. "Well my friend you play much too many video games  anyway, do something else." The child cries, is visibly annoyed but after a few minutes goes down into the playroom and builds the most amazing piece of art with his Lego game.

Isn't that an amazing outcome? Yet every parent will know that this story is true. If you give in to every demand of the child that just means that you couldn't be bothered and your child will not thank you for it growing up. In the same vein, if you hit a constraint in your life, if your project at work doesn't quite work out the way you wanted, if you don't get the promotion you aspired to have, or if the partner of your dreams doesn't stay with you, you might be set up by the Tao to try again. You deserve to get what you truly aspire, but like my son on that rainy Saturday, you may have to let your creative juices flow first. Believe me, this outcome is good for everyone.