Spooky Saints

Go look in the mirror. Ignore the voices in your head. As likely as not, they are lying to you. If those voices are telling you that you are a terrible, horrible, no-good person that nobody wants to know, stop listening.

Has it ever occurred to you that those voices lie? When you stop and think about it for a few minutes, do the voices sound like other people? Are they the voices from your childhood playground? A teacher who gently said your answer was wrong, but to you those words were a whip? A boss whom you still let whip you? Even when you haven’t seen them in a decade?

Let it go. No matter how hard it is. Look at how deeply you may have sunk your claws into negativity. It’s okay to let go.

If you still hear the voice of an old teacher, classmate or boss, you are stuck in the past. You deserve better. Not only from yourself, but from all of us. From the whole world.

Try to turn your attention to something much more difficult. Rather than letting your mind pick up a whip and flail on you, drop it.

Clear your head.

Breathe deeply.

Again.

One more time.

If you need to, shake your head to get rid of the old voices.

Breathe one more deep, deep breath. Let this one be happy.

Be a penguin. When penguins stand in a circle, those on the outside become cold. To warm themselves they move to the center. The penguins that they were protecting are moved to they outside. That is where they stand until they, too, become cold and move to the center.

Move to the center.

The false voices we allow ourselves to beat us freeze out love and warmth. It’s okay to focus on the spooky voices in our past and present that say good things about us. Those good things we may find hard to hear. The voices we shut out.

Those voices warm our minds and souls.

We deserve love. We deserve to be warmed by the good words we have heard others say to and about us.

We’re like a horse that’s easily spooked. We can become so used to negativity that we forget anything good or decent in our lives. We forget about those loving people who have told us positive things about us. They see how we are in the world in ways we cannot imagine.

Those people who tell us what wonderful things we do for the world can spook us when we aren’t prepared to hear it.

Maybe you helped them at a time when they needed it. It didn’t mean much to you, but it meant a lot to them. Your smile or nod can mean more to somebody than taking them out for a ten-course dinner. The dinner comes from the restaurant kitchen. The smile comes directly from you.

If you can’t see the goodness in yourself or the world, ask for help. Asking for help is smart. It’s what we do when we go open a door for another person. When we ask somebody to pass us the salt and pepper. When we want to get out of a negative hole and we just can’t find the ladder all on our own.

If we need help climbing out, we’re worth it. The people who can help us will tell us about the happiness we will see when our spiritual eyes open up to light of positivity in our world. As we see the happiness of other people, we have the opportunity for them to lead us to joy.

Joy. That warm feeling inside that seems to last for just a second. Which, if we’re willing, gradually becomes more seconds strung together. Until they become minutes. Who knows how long joy and happiness can last if we’re willing to let them?

If we let those spooky people into our lives who want us to feel happiness and joy?

Around Halloween we expect to see people dressed up in human versions of ghouls and goblins and all sorts of creatures.

There are also good people in this world. There are good people in our lives. It may feel spooky and unsettling at first if we are used to negativity, but letting them into our lives is the best thing we can do.

Spooky saints are good to know.