Ripple Effect...

I spent a couple hours yesterday morning with my daughter watching the 2008 movie, "The Ripple Effect". The movie follows a fashion designer who struggles with life, and the karmic impact a 15 year old accident may be having on his current moments. I recommend watching this one when your mind and the house is quiet. It sent my thoughts tumbling. There were so many wonderful lessons in this movie. A day later, I would be hard pressed to remember them all- thus my never-ending mantra, Journal Please!!! I thought I would share what truly stuck with me.

As this man's life became difficult, he was looking back to an event 15 years ago as the possible cause of his current "bad luck". As the impact of his thoughts and actions unfolded, the movie seemed to focus on creating a positive energy by admitting his wrong-doings. Although a great story line and plot followed, I couldn't help but see the "blaming" of his past as a significant problem. If the man had sat still and continued to place the "bad luck, bad karma" card on his current misfortunes the story would not have ended as it did.

Looking into our past and finding those times when we or others acted in a way that hurt, whether intended or not, we must remember to accept or place responsibility, learn from our experience, and make every possible attempt to offer or accept forgiveness. If we only use the experience as a anchor, a place where we can "dump" all blame, we have not learned or forgiven anything. Even if we make amends, we can not move forward if we continue to blame our or someone else's past actions for our current state.

Whether good or bad, our past is littered with our experiences. A balanced life is not about collecting our good and bad moments, emotions, or such and seeing that we have obtained a pretty close score. A balanced and healthy life is found when we live each moment, gather and store the fruits of those moments, and utilize those experiences to be a more positive, loving person in our present and future moments. We do this by knowing how we feel about these experiences, make peace with those we interacted with, and apply the lessons learned in the NOW.

Finding yourself in the same situation, or in the same relationship over and over again... is a reflection of NOT applying the past lesson in the moment. Source will surely keep sending us the same old same until we "get it" and apply it. Its that simple.

Before I start rambling about positive attitude, actions, etc "rippling" into larger positive experiences, I will push the post button... Like I wrote above, this movie had a multitude of lessons in it. The Ripple Effect is much much more than simply a ripple...