From The Beginning... sort of

Living Joyously: My New "Religion"

Date written: 8/4/08

I was filling out a great online profile once where choices were given for what My religious affiliation was and I chose, "I am a religion" from their drop-down menu! At the time, I thought it was very insightful of the website's creator and now, I see that truly, there are no accidents.

Several events have occurred over the past few weeks that have prompted Me to make a new commitment to Living Joyously:

1. My Epiphany of 2021 ~ What If?;

2. I won (another) prestigious award in My vanilla life for techniques that I have developed and am not thrilled about it at all due to the organization's prejudice against how I use My Work in the Fetish Arts (see My upcoming blog); and

3. I have embarked on My life of Responsibly Living for Pleasure, also known as My New Religion, "Spiritual Hedonism" (hey, L. Ron Hubbard did it, so have I!). In the past few weeks, there have been quite a few people who have not appreciated My Gracious Goddessness and because I do believe in the Greater Good, I have ~ as always ~ taken the High Road when dealing with them -- but I was NOT enjoying it! It is very hard to take the High Road with people with low-life behavior. It's even hard to take the High Road when people don't mean to be offensive, but invade Your space anyway. Resisting the temptation to slap down the twits completely takes away from My enjoyment of being a Sadist!

So, what did I do? I found a new experience of pleasure through My choice to be Responsible to the Greater Good. This is not easy, but totally worth it. We can grow through joy as well as through pain and We all know that there is such a deliciously, fine line between the two! My experience of the Greater Good is the recognition of the beauty of life expressed in all its glorious ways to allow Us to evolve into being the best that We can be.

So, this is My gift to you today: choose Joy and be responsible to the source of your joy and the Greater Good. Every time We are confronted with something that appears to block Our joy, it is a gift from The Universe and from your Highest Self for you to actually connect with your power and see how powerful you are. With power comes responsibility to be an asset to the Whole of Life because everything you do affects others in some way. So, start from a place of contributing to the Greater Good and you will see that riding the waves of Joy is just a matter of practice and strengthening your skills (like learning to surf!).

One sure way to strengthen your tools for choosing to Live Joyously is to focus on all that you have. All spiritual and religious teachings tell you in one way or another to "count your blessings" and blessings are something that all of Us who have the ability to read this right now have so many more of than the vast majority of the people on this planet. So, instead of whining about how you need a new car, or you're fat, or you don't have enough money to take another vacation, remember that you have so much to be thankful for. For example, you have:

• food to eat when there are people starving to death - literally;
• a home with running water, electricity, the internet, a computer, etc. - hey, you have a home when there are thousands of homeless people right in your country, even in your city;
• you have clothes, Fetish attire and otherwise, when the majority of people in the world don't even have shoes;
• you woke up this morning able to see the beauty that surrounds you, if you care to take the time to look...

Start your day by listing 10 things to be thankful for. You will be amazed at how in no time at all, things get better, including your ability to deal with stress and distress. And this will boost you on your way to Living Joyously!

One point of interest of Spiritual Hedonism that revolves around Responsibility is My concept and practice of Responsible Sadism. I am writing about these things further in My New Blog, and I will let you know when I've published it.

In the meantime, take a moment to think of 10 things you have to be thankful for right NOW and strengthen your ability to Live Joyously!

My Epiphany of 2012 ~ What If?

Epiphany: 2012 ~ What If?

I am repeating this entry from My Newsletter to accommodate My writings on Living Joyously.

I am going to make a long story short. A few weeks ago, I went away to complete a Domina 101 Course and have a mini-vacation. I was walking My little dog along the beautiful cliff overlooking the gorgeous beach and saw a flutter of white fabric billowing in the breeze. As We came up to the top of the hill, there was a woman in a wedding dress standing at the edge preparing to jump. I immediately went into "channel the Universal Good" mode and said, "Well, turn around and let Me see that beautiful dress before you make a mess of it."

Obviously, she wasn't expecting that and before she could protest anything, I started talking about what a jerk the groom-to-not-be was and that if she jumped, he would have something else to use as leverage to excuse his cowardly behavior for standing her up at the altar and sucker in fools to have sympathy for him! Not once did I tell her not to jump because that is the worst thing to do with a person whose emotional state is so wrecked that suicide is a consideration. It sets you up for trying to come up with good reasons for them not to die, which can be frustrating depending upon the circumstances, and can actually make things look worse to them.

After talking about all kinds of things -- like convincing her to let Me see her shoes (of course!) -- I felt Divine Guidance take over and was able to actually hear what was coming through Me for her. I heard Myself say, "WHAT IF the Mayans were right? Let's just say that the end of the cycle on December 21, 2012 is in some way the end of the world. That means We only have 3 1/2 years left of partying! That's not a lot of time and killing yourself now would suck because you would have nothing to lose by living a life committed to having a good time and being as happy as you could outrageously be!" Well, that clicked for her and it clicked for Me. I don't know exactly how long I stood there talking to her, but as night began to fall, I saw flashing lights behind us and realized that a very smart sheriff knew not to interfere and allowed Me to bring her to the car to take her to safety. So, now I'm a heroine to the town and she is doing better every day.

It took about a week before it all "came to a head" in My mind. True, that was a harrowing experience that I hope never to have again, but it gave Me a new perspective on how I want to live My life from now on. Yes, I have always been a hedonist, but now, WHAT IF? is My mantra. I now commit to living My life with unadulterated joy in the pursuit of My happiness and have as much fun as I possibly can from this moment on.

I know that to begin each day with gratitude, consciously counting at least 10 things to be thankful for, is a powerful way to increase positivity in your life. I will do more to improve My ability to tolerate the intolerable for My benefit and create ways not to be bothered with the bothersome. My focus is on My joy because joy is infectious and those around Me will become joyous, too, and so on and so on...

Now, people can say, "And how will you feel when you wake up on December 22, 2012 and the world didn't end?" My answer is that I will feel fantastic because I partied and enjoyed life all the way up to 12/21/012 and now, I'm going to have a party to celebrate that the world didn't end! It's a win-win situation.

As I continue to put My focus on My joy, I expect that I will create all kinds of interesting ways to enjoy being a part of Our Community! I look forward to delighting in the energies of those who participate in the creation of a Life of Joy with Me!

So, when things get you down, try thinking of WHAT IF? Truly, you have nothing to lose and nothing to fear. If nothing else, you will find ways to discover, experience, and enhance your joy. Sounds fantastic to Me!