Today I will....

One of the best ways to make positive changes in your life is to affirm each day what you will do. Some people make lists and post them on their fridge, I simply post them on a few of my websites.
So join me in stating what it is you want out of the last few days of the year. Today I will:
1. Be grateful for all the things in my life
2. Be happy and spread my happiness to those around me.
3. Laugh, love and appreciate.
4. Enjoy every second of this beautiful day.
5. Let any kind of worry run off me like water off a duck's back.
6. Attract happy people into my life today.
So, now it's your turn. What will you do today to make your life better?

Peace and joy,

Phil

My Christmas Angel is 25 today!!!

I want to share my most memorable Christmas ever.

It was December 25th, 1983 and it was about 17 degrees outside and snow was on the ground. It was about 3:00 pm. My wife and I were at my in-laws opening up presents when my wife felt this strange feeling. She took the present she was opening and laid it on the floor and ran to the bathroom only to find that her water had broke. She was huge and we were expecting the baby any day now.

We immediately gathered everything we needed and rushed to the hospital.We arrived and was escorted to the maternity wing of St. Mary's Hospital in St. Louis. We finally saw the doctor and he said we would probably have to induce labor since she wasn't having labor pains yet. So, they proceded to do just that. I'm told that induced labor is the hardest to endure, but my wife was a real trooper.

Slowly through the evening the pains started and got stronger and stronger. In between pains we listened to the Christmas music that the hospital had playing overhead and we also watched TV. Midnight came and went and so did the Christmas music.

In the wee hours of the morning, the doctor came in and checked saying we should go to the delivery room now. I dressed in scrubs for the first time in my life and met them there. As I held her hand and coached her as we had been taught in class, she finally pushed out a beautiful baby girl.

The nurse immediately cleaned her and wrapped her in a cotton blanket and handed her to me. I sat in the chair just beside the hospital bed and held her in my hands. Our eyes locked. She looked at me as if we were long, lost souls that hadn't been together in decades. Maybe that is the case. I could not take my eyes off of her and she was the same. We stared at each other for what seemed like eternity while the doctor finished with her Mother. I will never forget staring into those beautiful blue eyes, counting her fingers and toes and holding this precious angel I had just been given.

We named her Cagney Michelle and she turned 25 today, but I can still remember it like it was yesterday.

The day I was given an angel for Christmas.

Merry Christmas everyone!!

Snow angels...

Remember when you were a kid and it snowed? We couldn't wait to get all bundled up and go sledding. Every kid in town would gather at Meyer's hill and sled all day. Mr. Meyer would build a huge bonfire so we could get warm. We didn't have a care in the world, other than trying to get back up the hill as fast as possible.

One of the best things to do was find a nice, flat, untouched spot of snow and make a snow angel. The key was to fall back flat on the snow, wave your arms and legs and get back up while not disturbing the snow around the angel. I have to say, it is not as easy as it sounds. Every once in a while, you would make the perfect angel. It was a thing of beauty.

Now this was before the time of camera phones or digital cameras, but the pictures in my mind are just as vivid. It is a wonderful memory.

Do yourself a favor, don't forget to be a kid. Be silly, have fun, laugh, have a snowball fight, go sledding and for God's sake, make a snow angel. Life was meant to be fun...don't forget to have fun. You won't regret it.

Merry Christmas everyone!!!!

Phil

Just say "THANK YOU"!!!

When you wake up in the morning and your feet hit the floor...say "thank you". Thank you for another morning and another chance to make a difference is someone's life.

When you are walking to your job, say "thank you". Thank you for my legs, for my job, the money I make, the food it buys and the oppportunity to choose my own career path.

When you are driving home...say "thank you". Thank you for a roof over my head, thank you for a bed to sleep in, running water and time away from work.

I could go on and on, but sometimes we need to be reminded just how fortunate we are. We are very blessed and if we continue to thank God/Universe/Spirit for all these blessings, more will be given to us. I truly believe this.

This is why it is so important to be happy. We attract what we think about. If we think, "God I am blessed...thank you!!", you will attract more reasons to be grateful. Focus on what you do have and you will be blessed even more.

Peace, love and joy to all,

Phil

The Catepillar and the Butterfly...

“What the caterpillar calls the end of the world the Master calls a butterfly.”

-Richard Bach

This quote really doesn't need any explanation. It is so beautiful on its own.

I found this quote and picture in a blog posted by Melody Larson.

For more wonderful quotes, thoughts and ideas...visit her website at http://www.delightingthesoul.com/.

Also, I highly recommend reading, "Illusions" by Richard Bach

What's in a song...

What's in a song...

Here's a songwriter's perspective.

I guess you could say that a song is made up of lyrics, chords, melody, vocals, harmony. Those are the basics that make up a song, but what is really in a song.

Someone's entire life can be in a song. As a songwriter, it seems like I am letting everybody read my diary. Even though my songs are not necessarily about my life, they come from feelings and emotions I have had at one time or another.

Some songs are written in five minutes and some take years to complete. I think it depends on my intentions for the song and how it comes to me. A song takes on a life of its own from conception of the idea to maturation to the finished product...if there is such a thing. I have read that great songs aren't written, they are re-written. I think of them as a gift from somewhere out there in the Universe.
So, what's really in a song? Emotion, passion, love and feelings, because when you hear a great song, you feel those things.

The struggle within...

“Heed the injustices of the events in the world around you as you watch the news, read the paper, listen to all that is said of the goings on around you. Contemplate this for a moment. Reflect on how this makes you feel, and how you have felt in the past about such news.

“Now I ask you to look deeper inside yourself, to know that these worries of the world’s struggles are also your own struggles, simply because these same wars, these same struggles, go on inside you, daily. They are simply struggles of a different nature as your mind argues with your heart. The mind constantly goes to battle and conducts war against the true wants and desires of the heart. You fight against yourself, just as the world fights against itself.

“When you think of world peace, how calming and wonderful that would be, know too, that you can have this peace within when you stop the raging war against yourself. There is a great need to accept and understand that the inner battle is only prolonged when you continue to dislike or even hate yourself for all your perceived faults.

Know that there are no faults within you. There is a purpose to everything within your experiences; that you be continuously guided to find the truth within, to the path that is your journey -- one of constant pleasure, not of pain.

Author unknown

Great Rivers of Gratitude by James O'Dea

Your body loves gratitude!

Not a superficial "oh gee, thanks" but a deep, heart-connected appreciation that carries love and acceptance from a place of higher consciousness and well-being.

Your body loves it because it washes away the biochemistry of stress and insufficiency and replaces it with the alchemy of flow and emotional warmth. The resonance from gratefulness warms both the giver and receiver; it generates a field of appreciation sometimes referred to as limbic resonance. In the field of appreciation, we create a healing and reviving antidote to psycho-toxins such as "I don't have time," "I don't have enough," or "I am drained."

Each trickle of gratitude blesses us with its affirmation that we have all we need in consciousness itself to gather our strength and honor life. Each stream of gratitude clears out the corrosive toxins of stress and anxiety in your body and becomes a gift to yourself and to others.

Now visualize great rivers of gratitude coming together as we turn collectively to face the hour in which we live. "With all of its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world," wrote Max Ehrmann. Even in the face of war, violence, and severe climate imbalance, Christopher Fry declared, "Thank God that our time is now, when wrong comes up to meet us everywhere." We can be grateful that we are here in this time of earth challenges with an unquenchable sense of hope and with a steadfast belief in our human capacity to heal, to renew and even to go beyond what seemed our most persistent limitations.

So I say let the gratitude flow. We are ready for the challenges that exist now and that lie ahead. Let these great rivers of our deepest intention flow towards a polarized and distracted world and cleanse it with the power of love. We come from all races, all creeds, all socio-political backgrounds with one unifying feeling of gratitude for life, for consciousness, and for a new evolutionary path forward. We come with gratitude for every being that came before us. We have been given an epic moment in the journey of life on earth to bring our greatest scientific knowledge together with our deepest spiritual insight to change the course of history. If you ever thought you were insignificant, consider how you are now needed in this great shift. And be grateful that you were given such a role and such a time to live in.

Thank you, thank you for what each one of you does to step up and to raise the consciousness of the citizens of this world. Thank you for feeding these great rivers, even in the face of wounding and denial. Thank you for being you.

Thank you to my Niece Karmen for sending this to me!

Bless you all,

Phil

A look back...

Back in the early 1970's, my Dad was preaching at a small Methodist church in Missouri. My Mom played piano and either me or one of my two brothers collected the offering.

Once in a while, my parents, my brothers and I would sing a song during the service. We got invited to sing at a few local churches and revivals. Over the next few years, we got to travel all over the Midwest singing at revivals, family functions and other functions.

Read more about the Bennett Family and listen to the Bennett Family Gospel Album by clicking on the link on the right.

Peace, love and joy to all,

Phil