Alas, September is upon us.
As the hot sunny days dwindle like the wistful dregs in the bottom of a sour cream container and the yard slowly begins to once again resemble Shelob's Lair, I thought it might be an opportune moment to expound on some very simple and profound lessons I learned this summer.
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| Accurate depiction of me going to turn on the water hose. |
The Blueberry Principle
When the blueberries were in full ripeness in June, I would go out in the morning to feed the ducks or get eggs and look at the bushes. "I'll probably need to pick these later today," I'd think. Then later on in the day, I would go to pick the blueberries and there were way more to pick than I thought! The more I searched for the frosty, bulbous spheres, the more I found!
You see, the blueberry principle is that the more you look, the more you see.
Said differently: what you apply your focus to, you become more aware of. This is that same thing as when you're going to buy a certain car, you begin to see them on the roads all the time. They were always there; you just weren't aware until you started paying attention and applying focus.
This is true in many different areas in life, but I just want to touch on a few. (You see that? If I just focus on a few, then you'll see it everywhere. lol)
1) Searching scripture:
- If you're looking for something (theme, concept, wisdom, truth, etc) in scripture, you will start to see it all over the place. I think this is in part related to the whole ask-seek-knock thing because it will really rock your world but only if you're ready for it. Like that time I found out that Yeshua literally said the kingdom of God is within you. Luke 17:20-21. Mind. Blown. And once you see things, you can't un-see them. You gotta keep pickin' the blueberries or you're just leaving them for the squirrels and birds.
I would, however, also pick blueberries for the one bird that eats them out of my hand.
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| Molly bird - also enjoys cilantro |
2) Multiplying feelings:
- If you're feeling anxious, sad, or fearful and you focus on how anxious or sad or afraid you feel, the feelings will amplify. If you change your mind and focus on something else, those feelings dissipate. Similarly, if you realize that you're happy, and you focus on your happiness and just exclaim, "I am so freaking happy right now!" and laugh and really lean into it, man, it's the best feeling and then you keep on vibin'. :D
3) Mind-Muscle Connection:
- If you're lifting weights all sporadic, careless and Pippi Longstocking like jammin' out to We Are the Champions for the 4,097th time, you might benefit from this one. If, instead, when you're lifting, you slow down, concentrate, and focus in on the muscle you're working, you can become aware of so much more and accelerate your gains. I've been working on my arms and shoulders recently, and though it may be kind of embarrassing to just stare back yourself in the mirror at the gym hoisting metal objects up and down, if you can get over yourself and just do it, it really does work. I've had massive gains within just like a week and a half.
When I'm lifting, I concentrate on the feeling of the muscle, how my grip impacts it, what indirect muscles are being used, am I tense?, am I relaxed?, is my neck strained? What range of motion do I have? Can I become more flexible and increase the range?
If I start to feel that good-burning muscle pain (as opposed to that no-good, shrieking, electrical joint pain), I'll zero in on it and try to enjoy the muscle working and feel all of it as much as I can.
More focus = more gainz.
If you don't believe me, there's been many kinesiology studies done on this.
"I don't have any references. Just trust me." - Allie Harshner, 2022
I know there's plenty of more applications of the Blueberry Principle and there are several other terms for it. If you want to leave a comment, feel free to share something you know!
The Peach Principle
Visiting Pearson Farms was on our Summer Fun List, so Mike and I went and bought a bag of peaches in July. Unfortunately, they had been through the chiller and we had to wait a few days for them to ripen. Mike, however, did not wait and bit into a peach that was harder than an apple and suffered all the way as he ate his way through it. This story is irrelevant to the Peach Principle, but it is a true story and still amusing.
Anyway, as the peaches ripened, I'd eat one a day or so. As we week wore on, they started to get dilapidated and wrinkly. There was one in particular that went from ripe to rotten real quick, and it got so dark and wrinkly that it looked like the peach pit!
This phenomenon is so widespread that I even found a time lapse video of it happening:
You see, the peach principle is that whatever is on the inside will eventually be on the outside.
There are many scriptures to back this up because it is such an important truth.
"You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean." - Matthew 23:26
"For nothing is hidden that will not be made manifest, nor is anything secret that will not be known and come to light." - Luke 8:17
"The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks." - Luke 6:45
I think there are concepts in the ancient texts that we have different words for now.
For instance, I think the 'heart' is the subconscious or the seat of emotions in the depths of a person. This is the place that stores the trained and ingrained patterns of thought, behaviors, traumas, and memories in the core of our being.
The 'mind' is the consciousness. It is the "watcher" part that can actively control the thoughts and behaviors.
It is extremely difficult and exhausting to maintain consciousness all the time. Children can do it while they are building their subconscious, which is why everything is exciting to them and why they need so many naps. Their body literally forces them into a state of unconsciousness/subconscious for several hours a day just so the brain can keep up with everything they're experiencing.
It's interesting that Yeshua says that unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. (Matt 18:3) Children are continuously conscious because they're always learning and wondering and discovering because everything is new. Patterns and habits haven't been established yet. There's no time to develop guile or ego or arrogance- they're too busy being conscious of all the fun they're having.
But as we get older, the subconscious begins to take over as we "grow out" of our consciousness. Patterns become engrained as we experience the same surroundings, people, emotions over and over again- whether good or bad. This is why our perception of time speeds up because things that are new and exciting to learn generally become fewer.
At some point you may find yourself completely on autopilot, just making every-day decisions based on what you've already established before that you believe.
That old adage rings true: wherever you go, there you are.
And if because of your background and baggage, you've got a lot of sinful ego-feeding lusts in your heart/subconscious, that is what manifests in your reality leading to suffering and a whole host of problems. Unwilling to change, you become complacent, brown, and wrinkly. At last, what is on the inside has manifested on the outside.
You are a robot controlled by the programming in your subconscious, unless you are conscious enough to change it.
This is where the power of God comes in, and I think Paul had a really good handle on the power of the mind, which may be why he wrote, (emphasis mine):
Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things. - Philippians 4:8
Set your mind on things above, not on earthly things - Colossians 3:2
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is- his good, pleasing and perfect will. - Romans 12:2
This could also be why Paul says in Ephesians 5: Awake O Sleeper! Because when you're asleep, your subconscious is running the show, unless you're in a lucid dream which is a whole other topic. Normally in a dream, it appears you do not choose what you do or what happens to you, but I'm afraid many people live this way in reality.
We are not called to be static products of our environment. We have been given the authority to become children of God (John 1:12). And also in Ephesians 5, Paul says to be imitators of God, as beloved children.
This is huge, guys. We actually have the power to live out our reality as conscious beings which means we are no longer "Oh no, me? I am but a poor, old sinner" victims, but EMPOWERED!
CHILDREN!
OF THE MOST HIGH!
This is why the Sabbath is so important to me. The Creator rested on the seventh day. It was established at the beginning as a permanent reminder to us, the creation, of who we really are.
So following Paul's advice, we consciously train ourselves up in righteousness, godliness (1 Tim 4:7-8), love and good deeds so that becomes the new auto-pilot subconscious part of us otherwise known as the heart change.
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Which can't happen until you repent and "believe" and truly want it, btw, which is actually part and parcel of the good news and gospel of the kingdom of God according to Matthew 4:17 and Luke 4:43. Ok. We're gonna move ahead. Sorry to slow you down.
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But we have to consciously do that. We must consciously make the change. We must consciously choose different and God-like ways to think about the world in order to change our reality.
That is His power working through us that changes us from bearing otherwise wrinkly old peaches to fresh, renewed, fantastic, loving, caring, understanding, compassionate passionfruit.
See what I did there? I changed the fruit.
No, but seriously, Olivia is climbing all over my chair while I'm writing this.
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| Olivia: aka Babycakes, resident fleabag |
Whatever is in your heart, in your subconscious, whether good or bad, will make an appearance one day.
Because God created you in His image, He has given you have the power to change if you don't like being a wrinkly old peach.
The Tree Principle
I was in a dream-like state one night thinking about trees and how much we are like them. Our arms and legs are called "limbs" and the torso is called the "trunk". Trees have vascular systems like we have bloodstreams. We even have family trees that draw connections from one relative to another. It's so cool how the inside of our lungs which we breathe with are shaped like the very things that provide the lungs the stuff to breathe.
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| It is all connected, you see. |
The tree principle is we are just vessels of creation with the ultimate life-force working through us.
If you think about the cross-section of a tree, it has many rings. They say that the rings are years, but I say rather they represent periods of growth.
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| Isn't it cool how God works in circles? I started to write a song called "We Were Trees" but it sounded really reminiscent of Cedar of Lebanon and I didn't want to get too repetitive with the idea. To view the lyrics, go here and lemmeno whatcha think. |
Anyway, the living force in the tree produces the rings year over year as it grows. Rings may be thin during a drought or nice and fat from rain-abundant seasons. But it's growing. That's what it does. That's what it's designed to do. It is just doing the will of God. Otherwise it wouldn't, like, even exist.
Just like trees, we are always growing, and the inside growth looks very different than the outside growth.
Have you ever seen a tree or a flower and considered that the tree or flower doesn't even know how beautiful it is? It doesn't have eyes to see its blooms or a nose to smell its sweet fragrance.
It's just doing its thing. It's just growing. It's the power of God working through it, making it alive.
It takes an outside observer, an outside consciousness, to perceive the beauty that is the result of God's power working through it. Like an artist admiring His artwork. The paints don't know what shapes they're making. The threads don't know the tapestry they're being woven into. The notes don't know the song that is being orchestrated.
So the second part of the tree principle is that we are so much more beautiful than we can even perceive, spiritually speaking. When you have been through some serious growth period and have a major tree ring going on and know that you are now bearing different but more Christ-like fruit than you used to, just know that your Creator is enjoying it way more than you can even imagine.
I love how simple and endless the walk is.
Deep Thoughts by Allie ™
I hope you know I had to look up some HTML code to do that.
But don't worry I just copied and pasted it,
TWS
