Brian Perry: Blog

Time to reference one of my favorite authors again, Marianne Williamson.

I had the distinct honor of seeing her speak last fall. I was in what one may call a difficult transition in my personal life (you know, if one was trying to make a gross understatement). One of the first things Ms. Williamson said is something to the extent of  “Let’s get this faith or no faith question out of the way right away. Everyone has faith. The only question is in what?”

Everyone.  Has.  Faith.  The only question is in what?

Is your faith in the illness or the cure? The fear or the hope? The joy or the struggle? The purpose or the pointless? And, yes, a God or not? Turns out – as in darn near everything else – there is a choice being made. A perception being chosen and with that perception a reality of life being claimed.

In the last couple of days, I’ve found myself telling the story about myself that I’m taking a bit of a “leap of faith” personally and professionally at present. The trick is to keep shifting my focus from the “leap” part of that cliché to the “faith” part instead. In my head, Leap = scary and Faith = certain. Why would I choose the scary when the certain is right there waiting. So there is a deliberate decision to be made and made again and again – not always like ahhhh I totally feel great about that but rather sometimes just as something I do – a choice I make – because I know it’s right. You know, like a sit-up or stretching, or spinach.

Poetically enough, I’m sitting at a mechanic’s shop as I write this and he just let me know that I need new front brakes. My feeling is that you don’t mess around with brakes. So, I came back to the laptop cursing a bit and stressing about money, etc. And then I read what I had been writing and laughed. I mean this is exactly what I’m talking about on a really practical scale. Is my faith in lack or abundance? Poverty or wealth?

No doubt whatever I place my faith in - and by definition my focus on – will absolutely become more and more real in my life. This morning I’ll take a deep breath, pull out the credit card, be grateful well for oh so many things but not the least of which is that I will be able to stop my car when I need to and – when the fear of lack gets into my throat – I will shift my faith into a faith in abundance. That’s my choice. What’s yours?

One more example of this that just popped in my head. A great scene in the film Apollo 13 when the NASA who’s-who’s are discussing how big of a catastrophe this could be and the flight chief interrupts and says, “Excuse me gentlemen but I believe this will be our finest hour.”

I subscribe to an awesome daily email from Mike Dooley. Today’s was:

“In case you didn't know, you couldn't tell, or you haven't heard, if you're reading this right now on a computer, Brian, you're rich. If you have somewhere to go today, you're connected. And if there is anyone, anywhere, who for any reason knows where you are in this moment, you are loved.

Dang, you just keep acing time and space.

Big time,

The Universe”

You have faith. What’s it in?