Pride & Prejudice Delux Edition (Photo credit: sassattack)

Tonight I find myself watching a movie called Lost in Austin.  I specifically chose to watch this movie tonight because of the subject matter.  It is about a woman who reads the book Pride and Prejudice so much that she finds herself entering into the dimension of the book.  It reminds me of the possibility of being able to go to other realms by way of meditation or dream.  Quite often I will get answers and information from my dreams and dream-like meditations.  And when I have these dreams or experiences in other realms, man do they feel real.

Sometimes I will even choose to have a dream about a particular subject or ask to be given an answer to a particular situation in my dream prior to having it.  I am often shocked at how I am accommodated with a dream that gives me just what I was looking for and often even more than I expected. Watching movies like Lost in Austin always seems to help out the process.  It’s amazing how seeing such things depicted can prepare and open our minds for such possibilities.

Here lately I have decided to watch a different movie each night that reminds me of my spirituality and higher possibilities.  This is just one of several things I am doing to step up my spiritual game.  My question to you is, Do you have anything that you find yourself doing to step things up?  If so, please feel free to share.

Sincerely,

Craig

Meijer at Cascade, featuring Meijer Fresh. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Craig:  Your question to me when I asked you to do the interview was “Why me?’ And my answer was because quite often I look for everyday people who I find to be very positive or doing positive things.  Many people are not able to identify with Oprah Winfrey, Depak Chopra or Joel Osteen.  People will think, “It’s easy for them to be positive, after all they are rich.  That’s what they do for a living, they are experts.”  But when I focus on someone like you, the lady working at Meijer as a cashier, then maybe they can get it. They will see someone more like themselves choosing a positive path, maybe even a new way of living.

Am I the only one noticing how positive you are or do you hear it often?

Karen:  Well actually, I do get it a lot. My nickname from many of the customers is Smiley or Happy Go Lucky.  Most of the time it’s Smiley.  Customers will call in and say, “My cashier Smiley was there and once again she helped us out.”  My director will say “O.K. Karen enough’s enough.”  I will say, “but I am doing my job.”

Craig: I have a small gutter and window cleaning company.  Sometimes customers will come out and say, “You all are having so much fun.  I came out because I want to laugh too.”  Its sounds like that’s how it is with you here at Meijer.

Karen:  One of my coworker’s Cheryl, works my shift and we get along really well. Both of us are quite positive.  If one of us is down the other is going to bring them right back up.  So sometimes people will look at us like “will you shut up.”  Some will say we are too bubbly. It does not matter if it’s 4:00 in the morning or 5:00 at night.

Craig:  Well that’s good.  You all have each other to bounce off of.  I think that’s important to have other positive people to help us along.

Karen:  It helps a lot it really does.

Craig:  Do you have days when you don’t feel like being up beat.  Is it for the job?  What I mean is with my business I tell all my guys we should always speak and be friendly to the customer because we are in their territory.  The least we can do is speak and be upbeat.  So I wonder for you, is it for the customer or is it more natural?

Karen:  For me it is more natural.  I was not always like this.  When my father passed away over 23 years ago I took it real hard and sometimes it is still rough. He was the one who always said don’t sweat the small stuff and it’s all small stuff.   He would always look at me and say Karen there is something positive.  I don’t know what it is.  If God closes the door, he’s opening a window somewhere else. Keep looking.

Craig:  I agree.  Even if something bad happens I always ask what is the hidden opportunity in this?  There is always something good in it.  Even when family members have passed, I try to ask Why now at this particular time?  What am I supposed to get out of this?

So in a way it sounds like the way you live now is a tribute to your father.  Am I right?

Karen:  I believe it is.  He is the one who really pushed me towards this.  And with my health history, I am the oldest of six.  My brother two years younger than me, had a major heart attack two years ago.  He had a triple bypass and he should not have been here today.  A year later to the day my third brother six years younger than him had a heart attack.  He had a triple bypass also.  His doctor said with both of you having it and your dad dying of heart disease, have everyone checked out.

I walked in to have a stress test and I was not even on the treadmill for 5 minutes when they threw me off of it, because I was going into a heart attack.  Right there.

Soon after that my brother had another heart attack and his son gave him CPR and saved his life.  He was in a coma for six weeks.  He and his wife were never supposed to have children according to what the doctors said .  His son is 18 now and once again saved his life.  I said to my brother, this is why you had him.  Something else was going on.

Craig:  It’s funny because I have a theory that positive people have certain philosophies in common.  One you mentioned is this whole idea that things are inter-connected.  That they are not haphazard. Like your brother and your nephew saving his life.  And the thing about not sweating the small stuff.  A lot of positive people seem to feel that same way.

With the inter-connected thing, that’s how I decided for sure to interview you.  One day while I was shopping I told myself I would chant my mantra and soon would have the answer as to what to do next for my blog.   So I shopped and chanted in my head.  I forgot that I told myself this.  Then I ran into you and you asked how I was doing.  Then you said “Is today an easy day?  And it was in the winter, which for me it was my slow time for my business.  So I thought and said “it is an easy day.”  I can do whatever I want to.  Then you said “the easy days are the good days.”  I said “you are right”.  As I walked out I said “she is always upbeat.  I am going to interview her.”  Then I said “that’s the next thing I am going to do with my blog.  That is my answer that came from me chanting my mantra.”  Suddenly, I got this feeling I get when I need to pay attention.  Then I knew for sure.

But the way it all came together seemed interconnected.

Karen:  Everything is interconnected.  My son and daughter had to move back home.  I feel  like I am blessed to have enough room for them to move back.  My son is 33 and does not like having to move back home.  I told him, “honey just be glad that I can do this for you.”  He and his wife totaled both cars and she is not working.  Here recently he came to me and said “I just got approved for food stamps.  Now you don’t have to pay for our food.  Mom I think things are finally starting to look up.”  I said “that’s your first positive.”

Karen:  There is a higher power.  Whether we want to admit it or not.  My husband has had two bouts with melanoma.  It started to spread.  He is now a survivor.  But all these things that are going on, it happened for a reason.  I don’t know why yet.  I don’t agree with it. But it is always to the point that I agree with the fact that God never gives you more than you can handle.  Sometimes I look up and say “I am at my breaking point.  I need a little help here.”  Somehow things calm down and I get into a better frame of mind and I get better with it.

Craig:  That’s good. I agree.  On the health end, Do you feel that being upbeat prolongs your health? Do you think this gives you better health?

Karen:  It’s just a better way of looking at it. I think.  I am not down because I have heart disease.   I am trying to take better care of myself.  Like with my husband.  He has diabetes to the point where he should have been in a coma or dead.  He survived that.  I got down and prayed.  And that’s all there is to it.

Craig:  Do you ever think that your being upbeat changes the environment of the store or people you come in contact with?

Karen:  I don’t think about it, but I know it happens.  When you are waiting in line, its easy to be crabby as heck.  I greet you with a smile, a sincere hello, and that will disarm 99% of them.  At the service desk, I say sorry to keep you waiting can I help you?  I know it does affect others because I can watch older shoppers, you can see if they have been through my line. They will look and be happier.  There are people who will wait in line 5 an 6 deep for me.

Craig:  I have a guy at another Meyers who teases and jokes with me and I will look for his line.

Karen: It makes you feel better and I get as much from them as they get from me.  Most of the customers recognize me by name.

Craig:  I personally feel that when you do your work with sincere care for the work and the customer, your work becomes a ministry by a higher power.

Karen: Yes as a matter of fact, when Christmas came we were supposed to tell everyone Happy Holidays.  I told sincerely told everyone Merry Christmas and if they were Jewish I told them Merry Christmas to me and Happy Hanukkah to you.  No one complained at all.

Craig:  Is there anything you want to share with readers in closing.

Karen:  Yeah.  Always look for the positive and try not to get frustrated.  When I get frustrated I try to take ten minutes to myself and block out my mind.  Everything then seems to calm back down.  I don’t know if it’s meditation, but whatever it is, it’s just my way.  Even when I come home, I need ten minutes to myself, and then I can transform from working woman into Mom.  The kids understand and it works out well.

Two days ago I had some issues going on in my life.  I meditated and during the meditation I got some information in a dreamlike thought telling me to wait one more day.  I decided to do just that.  I would wait one day and see if I get some enlightening information coming my way.

Well the next morning it came.  I was told that my mothers god-daughter, Christy, made her transition.  The news hit me hard.  Probably harder than you would think because I did not know her well.  Although I did not know her well, I thought well of Christy, and always heard good things about her.  She was like a part of my family.  My mother would visit her in Atlanta, and although she was sick she would always seem sweet as we relayed hello back and forth and I heard her in the background.

I thought about how Christy was only 49, just two years older than me.  This reminded me that I have so much to do and express before I leave.  I have been here too long and know too much not to continuously be in my authentic place.  I am often, but not often enough.  I wondered if this was the reason I felt so compelled to watch It’s A Wonderful Life the previous night.  I watch this movie from time to time when I want to be reminded to focus on what’s really important, and make sure I live a certain way before I leave.  As I thought about those things, my other concerns from a day or so ago were all put in perspective.

What’s most important is being all I can be to my kids and the people who depend on me.  It’s also important to let the people who I love know that I do love them, even those who may not understand me.  It’s also important to live the life I feel God and The Universe has revealed to me I should be living, truly express myself in that way, and give as much as I can in the way God wants me to.  My job is to be open and follow God’s signs, no matter how scary that me be at times.  The rest is really not that important to me, so why sweat it?

I really cannot express enough the love and compassion I have for Christy and her entire family.

Craig

In meditation circles there is an incredibly deep term called darshan.  There is both an outer darshan and an inner darshan.  Darshan can mean to embrace or hold and it can mean to behold in vision.  One of the most sought after experiences on the meditation path is to obtain the darshan of the teacher.  Now I am speaking of the inner darshan.  If one can move to the level of having the inner Darshan, being in the presence of the teacher without having to travel in the physical to see him or her, one has made quite an accomplishment.

The same principle is true in all situations for people in all walks of life.   if we can move to this level of reaching the inner darshan of your objective, you have made quite an accomplishment and achieved an objective sought after by many great yogis.  Many meditation students go for years and even a lifetime longing for darshan.  Today I am going to reveal a secret to obtaining it.  This secret is depicted in two of my favorite movies. They are Julie and Julia, and Lost In Austin.

In Julie and Julia the main character Julie is writing a blog based on her experiences she has while cooking a different recipe from Julia Child’s cookbook every day for a year.  During the process, she finds herself thinking about Julia Child and talking to her as if she was right there with her.  Eventually Julia Child starts talking back to her in her mind.  It was like her subconscious talked to Julia Child’s subconscious.  It was incredible, and very much like what happens to the sincere seeker on the meditation path.  He or she becomes so attuned to the teachings and the teacher that the teacher comes to life in the students mind.   He begins to see the teacher and have conversations in dream and meditation.  This is more than just imagination.  There is an inner connection that is developed through such a process.

This also happens with situations.  If we become totally wrapped up in a particular thought or idea, we will start to have inner visions attuning us to it more.  Soon, we may even have the experience of the situation appearing in our life without even knowing how we made it happen.  This is what happens in the movie Lost In Austin.  Amanda thinks about, reads about, fantasizes about, the book and atmosphere of Pride and Prejudice so much that she literally finds herself entering that world.  This is much more than fantasy.  I have seen such things time and time again.  On several occasions I have had situations that I imagined but seemed almost impossible to come to life, actually show up.  This is what happened when I met my teacher Mr. Ambrister.  I believed and lived my life as if a meditation master, or guru was going to magically show up in my world, and help me along my way. Within one week of deciding to do so, I met my teacher.  It was as if unseen forces had arranged circumstances leading up to the encounter.

Sincerely,

Craig Kimbrough