Broken Shells

Walking along the beach are the remnants of broken shells. I walk, head bent downward, looking for the perfect shell. But I am drawn towards the colors and patterns, the bits and pieces of shells that have broken apart. So, like my life, I muse.

I return home with a collection of broken pieces, ready to put them into a type of soul collage. One of the things I have finally learned to understand and to actually cherish are the broken pieces in my life—the imperfect shells, the bits and pieces of life’s lessons that make up my life.

Have you ever walked into a store that has shelves lined with shells—all cleaned up and polished—sitting neatly in a row? Funny, but I have never purchased any of these. They just don’t seem real. Sometimes I even find myself wondering if they even came from the ocean.

What I do cherish is the clear, glass vase filled with remnants of shells that I have collected in my walks along the beach. They sit by my bath where I can study the beauty, charm, and tapestry of color that they create when placed together. So I have learned to cherish the bits and pieces, the collection of experiences that have created the beauty of my life.

What I once viewed as broken and marred, I can now see as a part of a greater masterpiece—each thing, each life experience necessary. Every shell a lesson. Every broken piece an important part of breaking me open to a greater reality creating a larger picture of my life.

What shells do we place around are hearts that must break before we open up? What needs to crack open, what rigid structures need to loosen so that we can see who we really are? We hold so many misconceptions and untruths about ourselves. Being broken open is so necessary for us to live an expanded life.

What concepts of God do we hold that limit what we are able to receive? What outdated messages about whom God is and what God’s intentions for our lives are? Without experiences that shatter our preconceived ideas about ourselves, about others, and about God, we remained trapped and unable to grow and change.

What we need is a new paradigm about life. Rather than idealizing the perfect and the polished, we need to embrace life’s experiences and learn to see beauty in a new way. Perhaps true beauty lies in the collective strands of what we have once viewed as failures. What if we were to see our mistakes and hard lessons as the treasures of our life—as the building blocks to authenticity and wisdom?

Wisdom is the feminine aspect of the Divine and She is found by walking the pathway of life. When we open our eyes we begin to realize that She lies along the beaches in the fragments of shells that represent the myriad experiences of humanity as they shed old ways of being, allowing themselves to be broken apart in order to be reborn into something new.

Healing Separation

It seems that one of the roadblocks we continually face on the spiritual path is judgment—judgment towards others and judgment towards ourselves. Have you ever stopped yourself in the middle of a condemning statement just in time to realize that you were right in the middle of judgment?

At the root of judgment is our sense that we are separate. You are out there (object) and I am in here (subject). We not only experience separation with others, we can experience separation within ourselves. For instance, we objectify certain characteristics within ourselves that we find objectionable. Whenever they surface in our lives we pass judgment on them.

You can catch yourself doing this whenever you say something nasty to yourself like, “What an idiot you are!” or “That was stupid!”. We can also catch ourselves in judgment towards others when we say the exact same things! When someone cuts us off on the freeway we can be quick to say, “What an idiot!”.

What if we were to meet judgment at the source of the problem, by looking at separation and our tendency to objectify that which we find uncomfortable to look at? If we were to embrace everything as being a part of ourselves we would remove things from being ‘out there’ to putting them ‘in here’. This would make every thing become one thing.

Whenever we see something in others, it is also in us. This is a hard truth to swallow. We have been raised to see ourselves in comparison to others and to rate our worth on how we measure up in comparison to others. Just remember for a moment those star charts in elementary school and you can realize how early on this tendency towards seeing ourselves as separate from one another started. Of course, it started even earlier than that.

Perhaps we could start integrating all of this disparity and separation by practicing a simple mantra. It goes like this: “I am that also.” The force behind all healing is the power of love. If I am able to draw into myself and embrace that which I find objectionable and love it, I am able to heal it.

For example, when I see a quality or behavior in someone else that I find unkind or un-thoughtful or objectionable in any way, I can first respond by saying, “I am that also.” I can then hold this in my heart and ask that love be there to embrace this quality as I find it in need of healing in myself as well.

We all exist with everything inside us—the good the bad, the positive and the negative. Both polarities of every quality have the ability to manifest within us. What I choose to manifest and what I choose to remain un-manifest is a matter of consciousness. The more aware I am of my choices the more control I have over what shows up in my life.

If I am able to embrace the negative polarity, I can transmute those qualities that I dislike through the power of love. The indwelling Christ power and the presence of the Spirit within me can become a powerful source of transformation. By identifying with the negative polarity and saying, “I am that also”, I am able to hold these qualities in the light of transforming power and transmute them into the positive qualities that I want to see in my life and in the world. This releases me from the negative cycle of perpetual judgment and brings me into alignment with the power of One.

Happy Mother's Day

Mother Earth

Mother, just wanted to take a few moments to express my appreciation for all that you’ve done. You have sustained my life everyday for as long as I can remember. Even when I have completely neglected you or not given you a thought you have been there for me, full of selfless love and support, providing all my meals, shelter, and clothing.

I don’t know of anyone else that would have hung in there for me like you have. At times I have paid careful attention to how I treated you and at other times I have paid no attention at all. You must really wonder how I feel at times! I know it’s been almost 50 years and I’m just starting to understand, but that’s one of the things that I have learned from you, is tolerance and patience.

I wonder what it must be like for you on a day like this, being the mother of so many. You’ll probably have so many cards that you’ll have to sacrifice a whole forest just producing them! Hopefully, they will all be recycled ones. It would be kind of an insult to ask you to sacrifice even more on your special day. But then, I’m sure you’re probably used to it, making sacrifices of yourself so that we can do whatever we want.

Lately, though, I’m sensing a change in attitude from you. You don’t seem as happy as you once were. I’m starting to think that maybe you are not well. In fact, in places, you are not looking so great! I mean, I don’t want to insult you, but frankly, parts of you are looking downright diseased!

I know, I know, perhaps spending your rain forests like there was no tomorrow was probably not the great idea we thought it was, but you know we’re trying to come up with some new bio-fuels, and it seemed like a great idea! Sorry that you’re looking so much worse for the wear. But we know how forgiving you are, so we hope you won’t hold this against us.

Anyway, I don’t want to go into all of this right now anyway, it being Mother’s Day and all. I just wanted to let you know that I really do care. There’s no point in dredging up all the garbage in our relationship! Let’s just focus on the positive part, OK? You know, we have to get along together for quite some time. At least until I don’t need you anymore.

Children? You are asking about my children and grandchildren? Oh, right. Yes, they might still need you also. Have to give that one some thought. But, like I said, just wanting to wish you a Happy Mother’s Day, so don’t start getting all sentimental on me. Just know that you are loved, and that’s what counts! Right? Oh, come one, now you’re getting all teary-eyed on me. You know how I hate that. Just smile for your picture.

Thank You

I was blessed with a lovely blogger award from Jan Lundy at Awake is Good. Thank you Jan for your thoughtful comments and all of the lovely ways that you are serving in the world!

Creating Harmony

"Harmony" from Jim Wanless Voyager

I have been thinking a lot lately about harmony. As a musician, what first comes to mind when the word harmony is mentioned is the idea of notes that sound well together. We think of musical masterpieces that have beautiful harmony. There is the harmony of a barbershop quartet, or the harmony of a Mozart string quartet. This is one familiar notion of harmony.

But there is another type of harmony that comes to mind and that is the harmony between opposites. This would be the idea of harmony between the masculine and feminine, the light and the dark, good and evil, consonance and dissonance, etc. In order for there to be a harmony between opposites, they must be balanced. In other words, one must not be stronger than the other. When they are in balance there is harmony.

Take the human brain, for example. The right side of the brain is usually considered the creative, intuitive, feminine side of the brain. The left side of the brain is the logical, mathematical, and masculine side of the brain. We ideally are using both sides of our brain! When we can use them both effectively and efficiently, we create harmony within ourselves.

This balancing act is not as simple as it sounds. It would be interesting to consider that perhaps much of the disharmony we create in our lives is from being out of balance in the way that we think and use our brains. Our educational system is a good example of this. We currently use a very left-brained approach to education. Although there are some trends to also use creative, kinesthetic methods of instruction, we still, by far, favor the linear, didactic approach to instruction.

The shortfalls in this can be seen in the number of students that fail to thrive in our current educational system. If a child cannot learn to read according to our statistical charts and normative data, we label them as learning disabled and literally sentence them to a life of academic challenges. If, on the other hand, we would utilize a balance of creative and logical approaches in education, we would see the giftedness in every student.

Our religious system is yet another example. Currently, most of the world’s religions favor a patriarchal system that favors the masculine, left-brained approach to knowing God. As a result, we have a very strong bias towards doing and achieving versus the more feminine approach of receptivity and creativity. We could create much more harmony in religion by opening to the right-brained, intuitive, feminine side of knowing God.

On a personal level, we struggle to maintain a balancing of the masculine and feminine sides of the brain. The right side is our listening ability or lunar side. The left side is our acting, doing or solar side. To be in balanced relationship with others we must be able to switch back and forth with ease from one side of the brain to the other. To ascertain how well your brain is balanced you can ask yourself how well you actually listen to others. Too often we are busy formulating a response instead of listening. This creates a disharmony in relationships!

To bring it to a spiritual level, we must be able to listen to our higher self, our soul and spirit to receive direction from Source. If we are unable to listen and be receptive we will be acting from the level of our personality and ego. To be in harmony means that we can remain open and receptive to the prompting of the Spirit and at the same time act in accordance to what the Spirit guides us to do

A Time of Healing

"Jesus, A Great Healer"

The last couple of weeks I have been recovering from surgery. As a result, I have a lot of quiet time. Going through surgery has never been a fun adventure, but it is often a necessary one for many of us. This has given me the opportunity to focus on the theme of healing.

What does healing mean to you? Is healing the removal of discomforting symptoms? Is it merely physical or is there a greater level of healing and perhaps awareness that is available to us? A good definition for me at this point is that healing is coming into a greater state of health.

When I think of health, several different types of wellness come to mind. There is physical health, emotional health, mental health, and spiritual health. You could almost think of this as having different types of bodies—a physical body, an emotional body, a mental body, and a spiritual body, (sometimes called soul).

So, what type of condition are all of your different bodies in and where does disease come from? Very often, disease in the physical body begins in one of the other bodies. Think of times when you have experienced long bouts of emotional stress in your life. I recall at times in my life thinking that if the stress didn’t let up, I was going to develop some type of disease. Indeed, there are many who believe that cancer is strongly correlated to the high stress levels that we currently live with.

Our thoughts and beliefs sometimes cause disorder and distress that eventually wind up affecting our physical body. This is kind of like a trickle down effect. What happens in one body affects every other body. So, it is a good idea to pay attention to what kind of health we are experiencing on every level.

If our emotions are a wreck, you can be certain your health will be affected. If you don’t have peace of mind, a good night’s sleep is pretty hard to come by! If you are disconnected from a spiritual connection to God, you will not experience the vitality that you might otherwise enjoy.

Many factors come into play regarding our health—genetics, past choices, and current life style. Usually by the time disease descends into the physical body, we are left with making choices to help mitigate the results.

The good news, however, is that it is never too late to come into a greater state of well-being. Even if we find that our physical body is not going to last for much longer, we can strengthen our connection with our Creator and find a greater sense of joy and wholeness. Sometimes it is only after we have lost our health that we will open our hearts to a sense of God’s love and wisdom.

For me, all types of healing begin with surrendering to a sense of higher purpose in my life. When I don’t fight against my illness, but rather use it as a teacher to help me learn to come into greater harmony with my life and God, then the disease or physical, emotional, or mental stress helps to give me clarity on where my life may be out of balance and where I need to make needed corrections to make my life more symmetrical and harmonious.

Sometimes the chickens don’t come home to roost for many years. When they do we can get caught up in the drama of wishing that life could be easier. By learning to be in relationship with ourselves and our health in a less combative way we can learn how to cooperate with the laws of good health and help mitigate some of the genetic and lifestyle choices that have descended on us.

Creating Sacred Space--Create A Personal Mythology

"What Do You Dream Of?"

(Note: This is the fourth in a series on creating sacred space.)

Part of creating sacred space involves creating a personal mythology. A personal mythology is a type of personal narrative that when combined with your spiritual practice can help you to understand your unique contributions to the world. By doing this you can begin to understand your own soul covenant.

Briefly, a soul covenant is about answering the questions to why you are here and whom you are here to serve and in what manner. Personal myth making helps to add dimension to your spiritual practice in addition to adding meaning and clarity to your spiritual path.

So what would a personal mythology look like and how might you begin to create one as a part of your sacred space? One way to begin is to start collecting artifacts, pictures, mementos, etc, of those things that you resonant with or persons that you have a strong attraction to. These could be rocks, crystals, shells, things from sacred sites that you have visited, pictures of places you are attracted to, saints, mythological characters, people in your family tree—basically anything or anyone that sparks something inside you and creates resonance.

You can also begin by looking around at what you currently have as collections or pictures. Is there a theme? Do you love things from Ireland? Do you have dozens of calendars from Scotland or the South of France? Do you have a collection of King Arthur lore? You get the idea. Look for areas that you have always been interested in and see how they might relate to your life and your personal callings.

A deep resonance with someone or something indicates that you have similar interests and gifts. By exploring your ancestry and the lives of those who have inspired you, you begin to identify archetypal patterns in your life. In doing this you begin to awaken your own spiritual DNA. This then awakens latent soul gifts waiting to be called into service in your own life.

Your personal mythology should grow and deepen every year. By expressing an interest towards a particular area or gift, you attract those very qualities and gifts and they begin moving towards you. Synergy and synchronous events increase and your soul unfoldment is accelerated. Creating a personal mythology is like constructing a vehicle for your ministry in the world. You build it out and it assists you in your work by helping you develop the gifts and abilities that you need.

Creating Sacred Space-3

Create A Writing Practice

(Note: This is the third in an ongoing series. Scroll down to view the first two posts.)

Another way to create sacred space in your life is through writing. By opening yourself up to Spirit and creating an inner temple you invite God to be with you and speak to you. This results in a process of inspiration. You are inspired with thoughts from the Divine. Your angel can talk to you in this state of quietness and so can the Spirit. Writing is a wonderful way to put to use the inspiration you receive during meditation. This creates a path of expression.

The whole point of creating sacred space in our lives is to bring God down to earth. As we are inspired we then need to express that inspiration. One should always lead to another. Inspiration should lead to expression.

This is reflected in the natural process of breathing that we go through thousands of times a day. In fact, one of the mantras that I sometimes use during meditation is to say, “Spirit in” on the inspiration and “Spirit out” on the expiration. When you are able to be a constant vehicle for Spirit you can say that you are en-spirited.

To use writing as a part of your spiritual practice is to develop your expressive abilities and will make you a mouth piece for God. It keeps the flow of Spirit moving through your life. Think of a river and how it streams down from the top of the mountain, watering plants and animals as it goes and eventually emptying out into the ocean to then cycle back as rain and begin the process all over again. Our lives should be like the river, a vehicle for the refreshment of Spirit to nurture all that we come in contact with.

As your expressive abilities grow, it opens up speaking abilities. In this way, your service in the world grows and the inspiration you receive from Source becomes an inspiration and encouragement to others, as you are able to share with them about the goodness and abundance in the universe. Your words hold power because you are filled with this power from personal experience. So in this way, the sacred space you create in your life becomes pervasive and you begin to have a healing presence and power in the world.

Writing is far more than jotting down a few thoughts. When dedicated as part of your sacred space, writing is a spiritual practice that empowers your ministry.

Creating Sacred Space-2

"Tigger, Enjoying Sacred Space"

(Note: This is the second in an ongoing series. To read the first one, scroll down to the next post.)

Creating sacred space begins by awakening to the Divine in your life. Waking up to the idea of inviting God to live within you opens up the sacred in your life like nothing else can. The next step in creating sacred space is by creating space in your home environment and if you are able to--creating sacred space at work.

I like to have some type of altar. This is a place to hold sacred objects—a place that is set aside to remind me of my inner altar or sanctuary. What you place on your altar is as personal as the space in which you meet your Creator. It could include things that remind you of your connection to God like a picture, the Bible, another sacred book, or perhaps a seashell.

On my altar at home I have an angel sculpture, some stones, a beautiful heart, a couple of journals, a picture or two and a silk cloth that I painted. Another altar that I have at my private office is quite different.

The fact that you are creating a place in your home that holds space for your relationship with God is not as important as what you place on your altar. It is nice to have a chair beside it where you can spend time reading, praying, journaling, and meditating.

There are many ways to have an altar in your home without having a lot of space. You could create an altar in a small box that you keep by a chair. You could create an altar in a cupboard or closet. I have a beautiful altar in a walk-in closet. You could create sacred space in the form of a small altar at work in a desk drawer or locker or even a photograph on your desk.

You could create sacred space in the corner of a room or have a whole room devoted to sacred space. We have a small house that was originally purchased as an office for my husband’s business that we have converted to use as sacred space called The Tree of Life Center. The yard is a meditation garden.

The importance of sacred space is that it holds energy. When I walk into The Tree of Life Center, I can immediately feel the difference of the energy there. It holds the intention of what we are trying to do. It has healing, potentiating qualities in it. Because of this, we can more easily accomplish sacred work there.

It is important that an environment help you achieve your goals. When doing sacred work, it is even more important that you have a space that holds the energy of what you are doing. By using the same space over and over, it will help you to move more quickly away from distractions and focus your attention on the Divine.

It is only when we are able to shut out distractions and become quiet that we can hear that still small voice of Spirit that leads and guides us. Sacred space should do just that—helps us to hear more clearly and see more vividly God’s intention for our lives.

Creating Sacred Space-1

(Note: This will be the first in a series of posts.)

Think of all the spaces you occupy during the course of the day. You have work spaces, eating spaces, dressing and bathing spaces, relaxing spaces, exercising spaces, and hopefully, sacred spaces. Too often we have time for everything but the sacred. It is tempting to think that we will just squeeze in the time for the sacred now and then.

More than ever before, however, we need time for the sacred. I’m going to be sharing a few ideas about ‘creating sacred space’. I would suggest that the first way that we create sacred space is through the use of our time. We need to create space for the sacred in our daily calendar.

The word ‘sacred’ simply means to set something aside or devote to Source. This could be time that is dedicated to deepening your connection with the divine in you. Our very physical bodies can become a sacred space for Spirit to meet in us.

This expands the idea that many have that sacred space is a location, perhaps a church or a sacred site and suggests that we create sacred space by setting aside time and creating an opening by inviting the Spirit to meet with us.

The first sacred space that you can create then is an inner temple. You build this out with your imagination. Where would you like to meet your guides, Source, the Spirit? You could meet in a crystal cathedral, a pastoral setting, a paneled library, a mountaintop—wherever you feel a sense of the sacred and that is meaningful to you.

By using your imagination, you fill in the details of your sacred space. It is here you can go in meditation to invite the presence of the Divine to meet with you. By doing this on a regular basis you create sacred space within yourself that is real and tangible. You can quickly go there during the day to find guidance and refreshment.

Of all the spaces you occupy and create in your life, this is the most powerful one and holds the most potential for radical transformation. When combined with setting aside time in your calendar and occupying it regularly you will find you are living a Spirit-filled life.

All of the other sacred spaces that you build in your life can enhance this first space, but never replace it. It is foundational. Funny, but we usually get this backwards, spending years attending church or looking for God somewhere outside of us. All along, God wants to meet us right where we are.

When it comes to creating sacred space, the first step is to begin where you are.

Keeping Your Balance in an Upside Down World

"Perfect Symmetry"

I have been on a life-long quest for balance. How about you? It seems that the world we live in creates imbalance. Especially right now. To have balance we must consciously create it in our lives. Have you ever noticed that the minute you think you’ve achieved balance that something creeps in to upset that momentary state of bliss?

How would you define balance? Is it the perfect state of being or perhaps being able to manage your to-do list and still have time to relax? For me, balance is about being in right relationship with myself and with the world.

I become more balanced through spiritual practice—especially the practice of meditation. Meditation helps to quiet the mind and emotions and bring the body back into alignment or balance. It is like taking time to pick up the scattered pieces that inevitably get spread around during the day.

By sitting still, going within, inviting God’s Spirit to put me back together and focus my energies, I find that I create an inner balance. This inner balance begins to change my interactions in the world and I start create more balance in my life.

If you neglect your quiet time, you will find that it is more difficult to keep your life in balance. It naturally turns into overdoing and over-committing. Emotionally this is just as important. In the roller coaster times we are living in, it is essential to be balanced emotionally or you will get sucked into the fear and negativity that is circulating in our world right now.

Many of my friends are glued to the news. This pulls them into an emotional imbalance that is difficult to shake. Just as we maintain personal hygiene, it is important to maintain spiritual, mental, and emotional hygiene. If you do not want to be contaminated with fear, you must make choices about how much you will expose yourself to those energies.

We are in charge of what we allow into our lives far more than we realize. We are currently experiencing the effects of being a part of a group that has made some poor choices. As a result, we are part of this collective experience. How we respond to it, however, is a matter of personal choice.

To counteract the negative right now we can make sure that personally we are staying on the positive side of things. Reaching out to help others and trying to make a positive difference in our world is the other piece of creating balance in difficult times.

We cannot be a positive agent for change in the world if we are depressed and fearful ourselves. Regular spiritual practice that includes service to others is a great antidote for fear and depression. It helps to create balance in our lives and get us through some difficult times. I love the statement by Gandhi, “Be the change…”

Gratitude is The Gateway To Growth

"Cherish the Simple Things in Life"

Gratitude is the gateway to growth. Gratitude opens the doors to new opportunities. Being thankful is for more than just one day a year. In order to receive we have to have an awareness and appreciation for what we’ve been given. Too often we look at the shortfall in life instead of the windfall that all of us constantly receive from life.

Don’t think you’ve had a windfall of good fortune lately? What about your breath? Having you been breathing lately? Is your heart beating? Are you still conscious? There is so much that we take for granted. Unfortunately, it is not until we lose something that we notice how blessed we were before.

I broke my leg a few years ago falling from a ladder. I was extremely grateful that I didn’t break my back or neck or kill myself. But I really missed walking on my leg even though it would eventually heal. Just think of the many people that lose numerous limbs serving their country or in accidents all the time. Can you still have a life filled with gratitude even in the midst of loss?

That all depends on the choice you make. We are all familiar with the analogy of people who see the glass half full or the others who see the same glass as half empty. Same circumstances—different perception. Choosing gratitude opens the door to receive many other good things in life.

When I broke my leg, there were times when all I could do was worry and fret over that leg and wonder if I would ever walk normal again. At one point, I realized that regardless of the outcome I had to decide to be grateful that I was progressing as fast as I was able and let go of the rest. I also realized that there were many who faced these choices all the time, with much worse injuries, and went on to be happy, productive, joy-filled people.

What is it about our nature that compels us to be grateful or become bitter? It seems that we have only two choices to make in that regard. Observing the results of gratitude in other people’s lives should inspire us to make the choice for gratitude. When we choose to be grateful we grow past our current problem. We surpass it and it ceases to have power in our lives any more.

We assign meaning to the events in our lives. If we believe something to be tragic and terrible and that it will destroy our lives, we become a self-fulfilling prophet. It doesn’t mean that tragedies don’t happen in this world, it means that our response to them will dictate whether or not we stay trapped in the emotional carnage of that tragedy or whether we transcend it. We can only transcend tragedies by embracing all that we are grateful for and reaching out to Source for a deeper meaning for the events of our lives.

Gratitude has a healing, transcending quality to it. It is a balm that soothes over much of the pain in life. Apply it liberally to any difficulty in your life and see if things don’t feel better soon.

Looking for Hope

"A Promise of Hope"

It has snowed this morning. We have been enjoying signs of Spring and rising temperatures, but Winter has returned. It is not a lot of snow, but a reminder that it is still February. It seems that every year about this time we get a bit of early Spring and every year I fall for it thinking that the cold weather and gray days are over. Wrong!

This year it seems that folks are anxious to see the sun shining and the world happy. We take good times for granted when we are in the midst of them and seldom stop to think that things could be any different. And then a cold spell hits in our lives and it feels as if the gloom will hang over us forever. It seems a cold spell has hit our nation and world right now and people are ready for sunnier times.

How do you handle difficult times? The true test of our character doesn’t come when things are running along smoothly, it comes when things begin to get difficult. How quickly does your faith start to deteriorate into complaining and feeling abandoned by God? It might be helpful if we all had a little meter hanging around our necks that sounded an alarm when we started moaning of worrying. We might be surprised by our own thoughts and actions.

It seems that human nature tends towards complaining. I don’t know why we do this. We just seem to be easily annoyed and put out. We are unhappy if we have to wait in line. We get testy if our food is cold. We take the weather as a personal affront. If someone cuts us off on the freeway we can be ready to verbally, if not literally, take their heads off! And this is in the good times!

For me, there are two antidotes to gloom that I find helpful and that is to practice gratitude and compassion. When I begin to feel negative it can easily spiral downward rather quickly, gaining momentum as it goes. By stopping my thoughts and contemplating what I am most grateful for and by focusing on the positive, the negative loses its foothold and my mood immediately begins to improve.

When I find others around me struggling to act like decent human beings, looking at them through the lens of compassion makes all the difference. Perhaps they were up all night with a sick child. Or maybe a spouse just lost a job. They could be tending a sick parent and totally worn out. Sometimes people are prisoners in their own lives to addiction or mental illness or a list of difficult struggles that we could never imagine.

By viewing others with compassion I am offering the space for them to step into. By not reacting badly to their bad behavior I present another option for them. This provides a space of unconditional love that can be the one thing that gives them hope to keep on going. Isn’t that what I need when I’m having a difficult day? Understanding and compassion?

As we move through some trying times, perhaps we can remember to hold gratitude in our hearts for everything that we are thankful for. At the same time we can reach out with compassion to our fellow travelers. This will make a difficult time far easier for everyone. One person can make all the difference. Let that person be you.

Possibility Is Waiting To Be Born

image by Deborah Koff-Chapin

Have you ever felt that you were pregnant with possibility? Whether you are male or female there are times in life when something is growing inside of you. Maybe it is the excitement of an idea or perhaps it is a sense of an emerging talent. Sometimes we don’t even know what is going on but there is an inner sense of excitement about the future.

There can also be a sense of insecurity and doubt. We are ready to move forward but unsure of where that is or where it will take us. Life is never stagnant. Unless you have stopped breathing on this earth, you are in for change. Change no matter how much we may be ready for it or not matter how much we resist it is a constant. The one thing you can plan on is that the world changes. And we change along with it.

Right now our planet is changing. Have you noticed the different things that are in the air? Fear and excitement both hover as possibilities. The question becomes, “Which one will you focus on?” I am reminded of a Charles Dickens’ quote from “A Tale of Two Cities”. It begins, “It was the best of all times and the worst of all times.” This is true of the times we live in. There has never existed so much potential for change or such potential for disaster.

What do you choose to focus on? What might you bring to the world at this time? What you are pregnant with might just have to do with how you were meant to serve in the world. The world is hungry to hear a message of hope and redemption. Too often we think that to bring something of meaning to the world that we must give a Bible Study or outline a careful theological treatise on salvation or convert someone to our way of thinking.

The need, however, is far simpler than that. What is really needed is for each one of us to show up in the world with the gifts that God has given us and to serve right where we are. Do you have a gift for hospitality? Who do you know that might benefit from your gifts? Do you have a gift for helping? How might you volunteer to help? Do you have a gift for building? How might your talents be used to serve? Do you have a gift for knitting? Who do you know that might need a warm blanket.

Service and ministry are never as complicated as we make them. It is simply about showing up and sharing the gifts that God has given us and allowing these gifts to help those right around us. We don’t have to go across the world or contribute a million dollars, we just need to do what we can, where we can, when we can.

So that exciting sense of possibility might just be about a new way of serving in the world and bringing comfort, hope, and healing to those around you. It is an exciting possibility that may be accompanied by a few birthing pains. But as any good birthing coach will tell you, “Remember to breathe”. Wonderful things are about to happen.

Repose--Resting Into Peace

"In Repose"

Recently we were driving along the Columbia River. It is an amazing river—so unlike the rivers that I grew up near in Colorado. The Columbia is the kind of river that songs are written about. —Like Shenandoah—the kind of river one falls in love with and longs to return to. It is wide and beautiful cutting a large swath through the countryside as it meanders to the ocean.

There are places along the river where it is often windy and so the water is frequently choppy. It makes it a great place for windsurfers and sailors. It was twilight as we were making our way west towards home. Passing an inlet we saw the most beautiful reflection of the pinks and dark blues that were fading into the night sky.

My husband remarked about the stillness of the water and how that in the many years that he had lived in the Northwest he had seldom seen the water so still that it reflected so perfectly. The beauty was exquisite.

How like us, I mused. We are seldom still long enough to perfectly reflect Spirit. We are usually trying too hard or running too fast. But when we become still, ah, then the perfect opportunity to reflect opens before us. We are like a photographic plate in this instance, creating a clear reflection of light, mirroring the pattern that God wants to shine to the world.

This captures the idea of repose. It is the temporary cessation of activity, a rest into peace. The idea captures the essence of the feminine principle. It is when we can put ourselves in this frame of mind that we are best able to reflect. And in the reflecting we get a picture, an image, of what God has in mind for us.

Who would have thought that the road to self-understanding and even to enlightenment was to become still. Our greatest life answers are not found, they are seen and sensed in the quietness. Not only do we see God’s picture for our life reflected in the stillness, we can also sense how we can best be of service to others, not by speaking, but by listening.

Of course there is a time to do, a time to speak, and a time for action. But these are best preceded by times of stillness and repose. Next time you don’t know what to do, you have forgotten who you are, and are overwhelmed, try a little repose. In our busy world, we all need to learn this beautiful art of resting into peace.

Repose, anyone?

In-Between

Perched on a tree limb, alone.
A single bird. Watching. Listening.
Fluttering leaf, Wisp of sunshine. Sound of small branch falling.

Feathers, ruffle in the breeze.
Eyes--half-closed, closing.
Dreaming, perhaps. Wondering.

Overhead, the sound of a jet. In the distance, a mother calls.
The sound of a door closing. A motor starts.
Life hums along.

Perched on a tree limb, alone.
A single bird. Resting. In-between.
Waiting to take flight once again.

Faith Is Greater Than Fear

"One Day At A Time"

Over the last several months I have experienced a lot of neck pain and spasms. In typical fashion, I have ignored them and continued on. Two weeks ago, the neck pain turned into increasing arm pain and numbness in my hand. Well even I know when enough is enough. I am now two days post-op and can once again write without pain and discomfort. Praise be!

Injury or illness always tests our intentions regarding faith versus fear. For me, trust revolves around my relationship with Source and how my life is unfolding. It is not about blindly trusting others, or the church, or those types of issues outside of yourself. It is about trusting that what happens in your life can work together for the greater good.

There is always a tipping point when something happens in our lives, whether it is relational or an incident at work, or perhaps a health issue, where we make a choice about how we are going to respond to it. Fear is a conditioned response. What you want to learn is to have a conditioned response of trust with the process of life. In other words, whatever comes up in your life you have to learn a new way of responding to the unknown. The known way is to be fearful. The new way is one of trusting Source that you will move through whatever difficulty in the appropriate way.

Ultimately I think it is a matter of conscious awareness that you are moving into fear and you catch yourself and say, "Hey, wait a minute, I think I'm just going to trust God on this one and not go into panic mode." The other thing is to remember to ask for help. There is ample help available when we wake up enough to want to head a new direction. We probably won't make it on our own initially, but we are helped through tough situations by Spirit and our guides. Eventually it becomes our practice to trust.

In the past when I have experienced these medical emergencies, I have gone into fear. This time, because of all of those other experiences with working my way out of fear into trust--I just decided that I would picture a successful outcome and proceed without all of the drama and tears.

"Miraculously" I found a wonderful neurosurgeon who did a cervical disk replacement two days ago and resolved the issue, all of this taking place in less than two weeks. It could have lasted longer--which the other issues have, but this time I just refused to entertain fear or self pity and things resolved much quicker.

I know that God has a plan for my life that I can trust in spite of difficulties and hurdles that come along. Grace is always sufficient. I am part of a larger plan. I can trust that what comes my way can be overcome and will work towards fulfilling God's intention for my life.

I hope that something I have said here might be helpful in facing the difficulties that you might be experiencing. We all have these difficult issues to work through and continue to learn to trust in the abundance of God’s goodness. May whatever challenge you are facing today lead you into a greater understanding of God’s purpose for your life and may you feel guided and supported as you journey through difficult times.

You Are A Spark

"What Did God Have In Mind When God Created You?"

What did God have in mind when God created you? If we could understand the answer to this question and live that answer out in our lives, then we would understand what the concept of redemption is really all about.

Do you realize that most of us live and die without knowing the answer to this question? We live our lives as a personality. I am a writer. I am a mother. I am a musician. We define ourselves by our work or by what we do. We then identify with our personality traits. I am outgoing or I am shy. I am talkative or I am quiet. None of these things tells us what God had in mind when God made us.

God creates by thought and intention so another way of saying this is that you are a thought in the mind of God. When God creates a spark or a piece of pure consciousness splits off from God to enliven God’s creation. It is a little piece of spirit that enlivens all of God’s creation. I think of it as “the breath of life”. When God’s breath or spirit or spark unites with matter, the matter becomes alive.

As a human being, God’s spark or intention for my life was attached to an archetypal pattern we call soul, which then attached to a human body through the vehicle of my parents. God’s spirit made me a living soul. My parents gave me a human body.

As we grow, we develop a sense of self, but it a self that reflects our surroundings, our inherited DNA, and our life experiences. Because we were born on a fallen planet, we are cut off from our understanding of our spirit/God’s intention and our soul/archetypal pattern. Redemption is really about connecting us back to God in such a way that we understand who we are so that we can be in relationship with God as our Creator and designer.

The spiritual path is about finding our way to back to God. The personality and ego create many obstructions that prevent us from seeing God clearly. As a result, we do not understand ourselves, we rarely understand others or see God’s intentions for their lives, and we misunderstand God and our relationship with the universe and what we are here to do.

Spiritual practice—meditation, prayer, the study of sacred scriptures, and reaching out in service to others—all help us to clear the obscurations and obstructions that block our view of God’s intention for our lives. It helps us to see where we fit into the bigger picture and it helps us to do the work we are here to do. We can then transcend the concerns of the ego and personality and begin to live out the higher intentions for our life.

Much of what we struggle with in this life is the overcoming of many of our defenses. We struggle with insecurities or conceits. We struggle to maintain a state of serenity bouncing up and down on an emotional roller coaster. We are elated with praise and defeated by criticism.

The beauty of understanding God’s plan for our life is that it allows us to live out our purpose in a new way. When Christ lives within—when the power of God’s Spirit is connected with our spirit/soul—we are enlivened and empowered to be in the world in a new and different way.

These ideas motivate me to persist in connecting with the Spirit every day. I want to understand God’s intention for my life. In addition, I want to grow my capacity for seeing the divine spark in others as well. Imagine a world where we could see that we are each one a precious child of God. Mmmm…that is a world I would like to live in.

Finding Your Authentic Voice

"Speaking From the Depths of the Soul"

Do you ever write or journal and wonder if anyone is listening? Too often we feel that if we don’t have an “audience” that what we have to say is not worthwhile. But just the writing of authentic words from your soul changes not only you, but it makes a difference in the world, even if the words are not published. Speaking your authentic voice always creates change.

What is your authentic voice? To start with, it is genuine and uniquely yours. It is not the voice of someone you are trying to please or imitate. It is the voice of your soul. It is the voice of who you are as archetype—not as personality or ego.

For the most part, we only know ourselves as personality or ego. We are defined by our history, our family, our friends, our job, our social position, our gender, and on and on. And yet, who we are is not any of those things. If they were all stripped away from us as sometimes happens in accident, disasters, and difficult life events, it usually precipitates an identity crisis.

If you take all the trappings of your life away, what is left? This gives us a hint why the thought of death can be so terrifying because this is exactly what happens at death—we are left with only our essence. We take nothing with us. We meet God with nothing but our soul.

This is why finding our authentic voice is so important. I don’t want to live my whole life and never find out who I really am, why I am here, and what I have to contribute to the world that is unique.

Spiritual practice is a vital part of finding your authentic voice. Meditation provides the perfect feedback loop to listen to the voice of Spirit. The Spirit helps to awaken our soul, which lies in quiescence until it is called upon. In quiet we can begin to hear the whispers of our authentic voice.

Writing every day also provides a place for the soul to speak. Many people believe that they can’t write, but I believe we can all write. It is in writing that we help to awaken the soul. We invite its voice to speak to us and then we sit down and take the time to record the thoughts that want to come out.

At first your writing will look like your daily ‘to do’ list for that is usually all that we have ever given space for. It then might begin to look like your gripe list or your burdens and concerns list. It can look like a prayer list or personal therapy.

The secret is to hold no judgment towards your writing but to just keep on writing. In case you just missed it—here’s the secret—hold no judgment towards your writing! Eventually, over the course of weeks, months, and years, the voice of the soul starts to shine through.

It is worth every effort you make to find your authentic voice because it is one-of-a-kind and unique. You have a voice like no one else’s and it is your purpose in life to find it.

The universe misses out if you do not find your authentic voice! You have a ministry and a message like no one else. What is the world missing that you can fill? Keep writing until you find the answer! It is the journey of a lifetime, but worth every step. Keep going!

Write A Brand New Story

"Begin Each Day Like It Was Your First"

The beginning of a New Year always reminds me of the start of a new school year. Remember buying a brand new writing tablet and box of crayons? Everything was fresh and new. Your desk at school was shiny and clean. The workbooks were crisp and unmarked. The floors gleamed with new wax and even the teacher looked rested for a change!

Every New Year presents itself with infinite possibilities. Actually, every day does also, but we tend to forget. The start of a New Year reminds us that we can begin again. The problem we all face is that we get bogged down with our own history. Our own biography can trap us into thinking and living in repetitive ways.

What if you were to wake up tomorrow morning and you had no personal story to tell? There were no bad memories, no self-limiting thoughts, no sorrow, no incessant worries and concerns, but you were able to awaken with a sense of endless possibility? Of course, you can see right off that you would also have no good memories, or a sense of all your accomplishments or the security of relationships that you love and cherish.

How much does our personal story control our lives? Does it help us down the road or does it hold us back? Are we trapped because of our biography or are we liberated? For the most part we get stuck in our own story and have a difficult time moving past some of its more painful segments. It too easily defines who we are.

The key to using our biography as a stepping stone into our future rather than a ball and chain that holds us back comes from the principle of acceptance. What we don’t accept holds us back. We must accept everything that happens in our lives as needful and view our past as divinely directed. Take out even one small piece and your life would crumble. You would not be you any longer.

This doesn’t mean that everything that happened to us was enjoyable and that there aren’t folks who have some answering to do for their actions, this just means that for our part we accept every event as working towards our betterment and we leave the justice and the judging to God.

This is a powerful tool that enables us to free ourselves from the negativity and even the successes of the past. Both the positive and the negative have the ability to either stroke or wound the ego. Either way, the ego remains in control of our lives.

What we are really hoping for on the spiritual path is to have the ego become a willing servant to Spirit. By dwelling on our past, by identifying too closely with our own history and biography, we feed its need to define who we are.

Ideally, our identification comes more and more from Spirit. We become soul-full and Spirit directed. By accepting our past we are free to pay little or no attention to it. It does not use up any of our vital energy. We are free to face each morning, each New Year as a fresh start.

Imagine that when you went to sleep last night, the story reader said, “The End”. You awaken this morning and are asked, “What new story would you like to write today?” Wow, just think of the possibilities. What kind of story are you going to write this year?

To Trust Or Not To Trust?

"Looks Like A Leap of Faith to Me"

Trust is an important antidote to fear. Call it trust, faith, love, or whatever you like; it is the opposite energy of fear. At some time in any given situation there is a tipping point where one has to decide whether they are going to remain in fear or make the leap of faith and live in trust. Usually our problem is that we want to stay in fear and dabble in faith. They are two incompatible energies and ways of being in the world.

I remember a critical turning point in my life. I had experienced living in fear in a deep way through a controlling, hostile relationship. Even after I had the courage to leave the relationship, the fear remained. One day I was reading about fear and faith and it hit me like a truck full of bricks--you can't have them both--you have to choose between one or the other.

By looking at the opposite qualities of love you get a sense of how much fear robs you. It is impossible to live a life of abundance while entertaining fear. If we understand what it takes from us and what we cannot have if we hold onto it, we are more prepared to give it up.

Another area of exploration is understanding what we gain by living in fear. For me, to confront my fears would mean the end of my relationship and that would put me in the uncomfortable, socially unacceptable role in my community of divorced single mom. It was like trading one known fear for another unknown fear.

Until you can see that fear keeps you from the fullness of life, it has the secondary benefit of giving you a sense of false security. This translates to living situations, work situations, church situations, social situations, and relational situations. We will often live a life devoid of joy because we fear the consequences of making needful changes. We hang on to our known misery like a security blanket, cloaked in fear, and frozen in place.

It is never easy to speak about difficult times, and yet it is the journey into darkness and the subsequent journey into the light that gives hope that fear can be overcome and indeed it can. For me, this is what the life of Christ was all about--journeying into the depths of fear and overcoming and creating a path back to the ultimate state of love. It makes my success possible and any continued success I might have. He was the ultimate path maker in my thinking and for that I am eternally grateful. We are also given companions along the path. One is Sophia/Wisdom, the Divine Feminine, who guides each step towards an abundant life. There are many others. We never travel alone.

The origin of the word 'courage' comes from a meaning that denotes the heart as the seat of deep feeling. Fear becomes deeply seated in our hearts. It requires the courage of love--it's opposite and stronger emotion--to remove fear from the heart.

It is only as we come to know love and we develop a relationship of trust with Spirit that we are able to de-throne fear from our lives. It requires an invitation on our part. It is truly transformational where the lead is turned into gold. Spirit is such a better partner to dance with than fear. And, oh the places you can go!

The Shortest Day of the Year

The sky is opaque, filled with snowflakes rushing along, the only thing that seems to be in a hurry. And yet they seem uncertain where they are going, just as content to plop down on my front step as to race along to the tree at the end of the drive. It is quiet and not really light yet. It seems that it doesn’t get much brighter than this Winter Solstice day.

The city has ground to a halt, frantic Christmas shoppers forced to give up their quest, a world already receding, slowing down even further to contemplate what it all means. It is at times like this that one is left with the essence of what is in their life. There is no place to go, nowhere to escape. One is just—well, one just is.

We are often uncomfortable with our “isness”. But it is gifts like today, on the Winter Solstice, which provides us with the opportunity to take an inventory of ourselves. It seems that Mother Earth has conspired to give us time to contemplate some of the more important issues that we are all grappling with.

Closed roads, piles of snow, freezing weather, and for some a loss of power seem to conspire to force us into a somewhat uncomfortable conversation about what it all means. People of all beliefs celebrate the Winter Solstice. Christianity has placed the birth of Christ close to this event. Right at the time when things were the darkest God sent an answer to our desperate prayers for meaning and deliverance. A bridge was built back to God that all peoples of all times of all faiths could make their way back and return to God.

As a Christian, I am saddened that this beautiful imagery of Christ as the bridge builder has been distorted and misunderstood. Once again on a Winter Solstice, there is darkness surrounding what should give every human being on earth hope. As humans so often do, Christians have tried to market Christ, to make his work exclusive, to limit the universal reach of what his life accomplished and saddest of all for me is the critical, judgmental things that are done that hurt and destroy others’ sense of hope and joy and their sense of being loved by God.

As I contemplate what I want more of in my life, I desire to have more love, a greater sense of compassion, and to be able to release judgments in my life—those I hold towards myself and those I hold towards others. I would like to be able to always hold possibility in my heart of what we are each becoming. I would like to hold space for that to happen in my life and in the lives of my family, friends, and fellow travelers on this planet.

For all of the winged and furry creatures and plants and wildlife that surround me, I would like to see them have the opportunity to grow into their greatest potential also. The little chickadee birds have been hanging out on my porch lately, waiting for the next serving of seeds. They seem very grateful and content that someone cares.

This Winter Solstice, maybe we can each ponder a little more than usual just how we can make a difference. In addition, we can celebrate the difference that has been made for us by a God of love and do it in a way that honors the diversity of each person’s isness.

Christmas, A Holiday of Hope for All Faiths

"Hope In A Manger"

The life of Jesus is more than a beautiful story. His life of selfless love and giving built a bridge back to God. It accomplished something amazing for all people, for all time, in all belief systems. It is not exclusively for Christians, but his life gives access to a knowing of God that is possible to all who truly seek to know God. He is Jacob’s ladder. He is the Christ power.

Jesus’ life built a bridge that connects us back to God. There are two stories that help to describe what he accomplished.

The first story is one of deliverance and it speaks pointedly to the condition of humanity. It comes from the Old Testament story of the children of Israel being delivered from slavery in Egypt. Moses was sent to lead the Israelites from captivity into freedom. It speaks of salvation as freedom from slavery. When one is in bondage, it is freedom that is needed

Indeed, when the idea of deliverance from bondage is the basis for the coming of Christ, we can see that His work includes deliverance from our ignorance and attachments to the world. We are easily overcome with materialism and quickly become slaves to acquiring and supporting the constant demands of our ego. If ever there were an important area where we needed help, it is freedom from our bondage to that which does not last.

A second story also comes from the Old Testament and occurs later in the history of the Hebrew people. This is the story of the captivity in Babylon. For 70 years they lived in exile from Jerusalem. The day of return was one of rejoicing and hope. When we view the work of Christ as one of helping us to return, we realize that we are in exile from our divine nature and the true inheritance that God longs to bestow upon us.

The work of Christ was to build a way of return to God, to bring us back into a close, intimate relationship with the Divine. Through the work of the Spirit, Christ can live within the heart and mind and transform the life. This is the path of return from our exile away from God.

The other great ministry of Jesus in the world was one of healing from sickness. There are many things we experience in life that cause sickness, not only physical sickness, but mental and emotional sickness as well. The work of Christ was and still is to bring healing to whatever we are afflicted with.

This is the real message of Christmas to me—that the Christ power is available in my life to bring me freedom from bondage to my ego and materialism, return and restoration from my exile from life without God, and healing for my soul, my emotions, my mind, and my body. The living Christ that lives within is the gift of the babe in a manger that continues to give me peace in my heart and goodwill towards my fellow travelers. May this same gift be yours this Christmas season.

Live in Love

"Live in the Light"

How would you like to live in a land filled with love? Sounds like a great place. Can you imagine living without any negative judgments or feelings towards yourself or others? Can you imagine a world where everyone was seen as a spark of God and all of creation was honored and appreciated?

Actually, it’s hard to even imagine treating yourself in this way! What? No negative judgments? Seeing myself as having a divine origin? Love and appreciate all of my life? Wow, when it comes right down to it, we have a hard time loving ourselves let alone everything else in creation!

How do you even begin to start learning to love in this way—this unconditional, supportive, caring type of love that we think of when we imagine perfect, divine love? For me, learning about love has come from my personal relationship with God.

As my life went up and down through difficult and trying times, I found that when everything else fell away, friends, family, relationships, money, and support—that God was still there for me. In my most desperate moments, God was closer than a prayer away. With my very breath and call for help I could feel a warm comforting presence reassuring me that I was not alone.

This palpable sense of God’s presence brought a sense of peace to my panic-stricken heart and through personal experience I have felt the accepting, non-judgmental love and support to continue on.

Love removes fear from our hearts. Maybe living in a state of love then is learning to trust and embrace love and move away from fear. Fear creates separation. It not only separates us from one another creating suspicions and resentments, it separates us from ourselves, cutting us off from our higher intentions and soul. It cuts us off from our relationship with Spirit.

Love has been said to be a choice and I believe it is a type of choice. It is a choice to be in relationship with God’s Spirit and to remain in alignment with our higher purpose—which of course is to be filled with love and live in love. To be in alignment means that our feelings and our thoughts line up with God’s highest intentions for our lives.

The way then that I can begin to live in love is to recognize when my thoughts and emotions are out of alignment with my higher purpose of living in love. Fear, frustration, negativity, resentment, bitterness, un-forgiveness, and judgment of any kind are brought about by thoughts and feelings that will keep me living in a state other than love.

It is when I am able to give these negative ways of being up by giving them up to God and asking for a new way of thinking and feeling that I begin the alchemical process of turning my leaden thoughts into gold. I do this in meditation and prayer by meeting God’s Spirit in my heart and imagine placing these on the altar of my heart and asking for God’s light to transmute them into something beautiful. I imagine them dissipating into light and then ask to be filled with love in their place.

By doing this whenever I find myself moving into fear, I eventually find myself able to live more and more in love. Too often we feel that we are victims in this life and that we have no control over our choices or how to deal with fear. The good news, literally, is that Christ built a bridge or connection back to God that makes it possible for us to access this amazing power of God’s transforming love at anytime we choose.

Jesus’ words are full of power if we avail ourselves of their wisdom. Understanding his words, “The Kingdom of God is within you.” allows to us begin to live in a world of love today. Imagine living in a world of love. Begin today.

Our Greatest Gift

"Our Greatest Gift, Comes From Above"

What is the greatest gift we possess? Is it our great talents? Is it the bank account that is by now dwindling because of economic meltdowns? Is it our great looks? Or perhaps we are just lucky?

Perhaps our greatest gift is breath. Just think, it is essential to absolutely everything we do. It has nothing to do with our looks, talents, possessions, or status. Everyone has it if they are still moving about on planet Earth. It is an equal opportunity employer.

Breath. In Greek, the word is pneuma, which also translates as spirit.. I like the creation story in Genesis that describes Adam, the clay man, coming to life with the breath of God. Here we are millennia later and we still walk about because of that life-giving breath. There must be something important about it.

How much do I value my breath? Do I take it for granted? Do I appreciate that God-given spirit and soul that makes me the unique creation that I am? Have I become lost, somewhat distracted by what I call my personality and the circumstances of my life?

Too often, we only identify with what we call “self” and all of the accoutrements that we surround ourselves with to support this notion. If I were to remove all of the trappings of my life, I would be reduced to my breath. From this vantage point, I might just be able to get a sense of what God had in mind when God created me.

Meditation provides a quiet sanctuary where I can focus on my breath and quietly go within to an inner temple. It is here that I can inquire of my Maker what I am really here for and who I really am.

It is not an easy task figuring out what life is really about. When I was born, I lost any sense of God’s purpose in my life. Much of what we learn growing up keeps us from the discovery of our soul and it’s calling. We develop our ego and then we spend the rest of our lives maintaining the illusions we have created.

In quietness, however, seated in my inner sanctuary, I can more clearly hear God’s voice in my life. Slowly I receive ideas about what God is trying to do through me.

I invite you to create your own inner temple and make an appointment with God everyday to sit and ponder your breath/spirit/soul. What did God have in mind when God created you? It might be really neat to know what that is.

Creating An Inner Sanctuary

Does God live in your house? Well, now there’s an interesting idea? Are you really sure you want God hanging around all the time? Maybe God could just stop by now and then for a consultation when things are getting a little rough!

Most of us think about the times when Jesus lived and think that those people were really lucky. If only we could have lived when Jesus lived we would have been his best friend. He could have come and stayed at our house. We would welcome him!

But the message of Jesus was that God had come down to earth to dwell with humankind, Immanuel, God with us. His message was that the Kingdom of God is within you. The Apostle Paul later went on to expound on this idea and stated that the risen Christ lives within you.

The Christ that I know is a living Christ. He is just as present today as he was when he taught his disciples hundreds of years ago. In order to meet with him, I have to create a place in my heart and life for his presence to dwell. Not only can I create an altar in my home that reminds me of my desire to have Jesus live within my heart, I can create an inner sanctuary or temple for him to dwell in.

It is not difficult or expensive to build an inner temple. All one needs to build an inner sanctuary is to use one’s imagination. This sanctuary becomes just as real as one you can see with your eyes. You can build it anyway you like.

Where would you like to meet Jesus? It could be in a vineyard, an apple grove, by a river, on a mountaintop, in a crystal cathedral, or a sanctuary like the one the Israelites worshiped in. It could look like a library or any other space or structure that you can imagine. The important part is to be able to see your inner temple in your imagination and then have a place for Jesus to sit. Then you can invite him to come and visit with you.

At first it might seem a little silly, hanging out there waiting for Jesus to show up, but through the process of consistent meditation and prayer and envisioning the presence of Christ in your inner temple, it becomes a reality. At some point, you will sense his presence.

Too often in Christianity and in other faith systems too, I suspect, we have postponed the reality of God’s presence in our lives because we believe that we can only be with God in Heaven or after death, or at the resurrection or after enlightenment. The sad part about believing this is that this then becomes our reality.

The life and ministry of Jesus was to show us that there was a path he was making back to Heaven. His presence as Spirit in the world makes it possible for us to walk just as closely with him now as his followers did long ago—in fact, we can probably have a closer walk.

So, what’s stopping you? Sit for a few moments in quietness and picture what kind of sanctuary you would create for God to dwell in. It can become one of your favorite rooms in that mansion you are building. And don’t forget to put in a chair or two!

Building Mansions in Heaven

"How Many Rooms Are In Your House?"

So you’d like to live in a larger home. Does that mean that you will have to move? Probably. But not necessarily out of the house you are living in. If you want to live in a larger home what you really need is a mansion in Heaven. I know a lot of folks that are waiting until they die or until the Lord returns to get their mansion in Heaven, but perhaps there is another way of looking at this. Maybe we can begin living in that mansion now.

One way of translating the reference to Jesus’ remark that there were many mansions in his Father’s home that he was preparing for us is to translate the word mansion as “rooms”. In other words, God has many rooms in God’s Kingdom—there are many things to do, places to go, ways to be, and since all of God’s creation is about service, there are many ways to serve in God’s house.

This idea is a bit different than the one we often hold onto and that is the picture of retiring in Heaven in a large mansion where we live all by ourselves and sit back and do nothing for an eternity or two—or perhaps we take up painting and gardening. The idea that God is preparing a place for us to serve goes along with Jesus’ statement that the Kingdom of God is within us. God is preparing in our hearts and lives new ways of being and serving in the world.

When we move into a larger arena of service, when we open our hearts in love and compassion to our fellow human beings, when we awaken to the needs to care for our planet, our beloved nest, we move into a larger house. Suddenly, we no longer view our lives as only pertaining to our interests and ourselves but we see them as they relate in service for God. This expands our world and our home grows larger. We draw a bigger circle that includes more of God’s creation. We are indeed increasing the size of our home.

We must move from being ego centered to being other centered. It moves us from the broom closet out into the living room. It changes our focus from the notion that God’s Kingdom begins someday to the reality that Jesus taught and that is that the Kingdom begins here and now.

We will never outgrow being of service to the universe. We will always be asked to serve in some way. This is what gives joy and meaning to life. The more our lives of service expand, the more rooms we have in our house. We grow exponentially as we give out from what we receive of the goodness of God.

Imagine Living In A Bigger House

"How Big Is Your House?"

Imagine living in a bigger house. How big is the house you currently live in? One bedroom? Two bedrooms? One story? Three stories? Wouldn’t it be silly if you lived in a big house but only occupied the smallest room at the back of the house! It sounds ridiculous, but do you know how many folks only live in a small part of their house? It is called their reality and they never venture outside the door of one small room.

By now you’ve probably figured out that I’m not talking about a wooden structure that houses people, but about a person themselves, their psyche. Most of us have painted ourselves into one small room we call our personality. We define ourselves by it, by our thoughts, and by our emotions. The idea that we are anything beyond that has never occurred to us!

Just ask someone to change the way they think about something and you’ll quickly see what I mean. “Well, that’s just the way I am”. “That’s just the way I feel”. If we see ourselves as our feelings or our thoughts or our bodies, then we have created a very small, safe, little room in which to live.

This is the function of our ego, to put us into a safe predictable space. Anything that suggests we move too far out of this comfort zone will usually be perceived as a threat by our ego and we will move into fear. “What is outside my safe room?” We are nearly certain that it is the domain of monsters and dragons.

Organizations of all kinds specialize in keeping people in their appropriate rooms. Religion is especially good at this. Just consider for a moment how beliefs function as a way to keep one in only one room of their house. Beliefs are just a set of ideas that we have decided and agreed upon as the “way things are”.

Of course, we don’t really have enough experience from our limited one-room perspective to know how the universe works or the imaginings of God Almighty, but we like to give it a shot. This wouldn’t be such a problem if we weren’t so arrogant and un-teachable on the subject. But we decide we know how things are and then we keep the door closed.

What if you decide that you want to occupy more than one room of your house? It will be a little scary. In truth, most people never decide to do that. Fear keeps us locked behind closed doors.

The current political situation in the United States is such a great example of this. Much of the political rhetoric plays upon people’s fears. “There is only one way to get us out of this mess and it is my way. The other way is scary and will lead us deeper into a dark hole.” This type of narrow thinking divides people and creates mistrust and anxiety.

The good news is that we live in a free-will universe. We are free to open the door and explore God’s creation at anytime. In fact, God would love to give us a tour of our beautiful home but will wait for an invitation to do so. There are new ways of being and seeing that will open up for us when we are willing to set aside our fears and journey with God’s Spirit.

Love is the golden key that opens the door to a greater awareness and consciousness. Spirit is our companion and guide on the journey. What awaits us is an expanded ministry and a more abundant life. By meeting God within, in our inner temple in the quiet of meditation, we can invite God’s presence and guidance into our lives and begin the exciting process of discovery of who we are and why we are here.

Dance With the Divine

"In Repose"

The universe is constantly in motion. Think of the waves of the ocean as they perpetually wash onto the shore and back out into the sea. Picture the movement of the clouds through the sky as they alternate between lazy days of wispy haze floating through the sky to the huge thunderclouds that can roar across an expanse in mere moments. The rotation of the earth and the planets as they orbit the sun create patterns of days, seasons, and years.

We too were designed to be in motion. We can either be in step with nature or out of step. As a wise man once said, “There is a time for everything.” But too often we are out of step with the rhythms of the universe. In our modern, stay busy constantly culture, we have somehow gotten frozen into a constant “on” position.

The value we place on accomplishment, accumulation, and advancement seem to have blinded us to the balancing gifts of playfulness, pause, and peacefulness. Just like the day pauses from being sun-filled and radiant to star-filled and reflective, so our lives were designed to be in balance with a time for doing and a time for resting; a time for working and a time for playing; a time to for determined, purposeful steps, and a time to dance.

The idea of motion is really about energy and how we use it. Ideally, it is about harmony and balance. Our lives feel beautiful and well lived when they have something of all the good things that we can partake of. Think of how different the motion of sleep feels to the energy of work. Imagine what it is like when you do not get to sleep and become worn out and fatigued. We were designed to alternate between resting and working. This is so vital to our health that we become sick when we do not respect these basic physical principles.

Spiritually we can become sick or weak when we do not take time to balance the doing and being aspects in our lives. Creating sacred space in your life is an important part of balancing energies to bring about harmony and joy. Too often our focus is on accumulating material things and we forget the importance of spending time finding out who we are and why we are here.

Days can go by without creating time for sacred activities—meditation, prayer, reading sacred scripture and taking the time to dance with the Divine. When we neglect these activities it is like skipping sleep or forgetting to eat. Our spirit becomes dull and we have a vague hunger for something more.

Next time you are tempted to fill up your life with more busyness, stuff, or doing consider the ocean, the clouds, and the sun and moon. They vary their cycle’s everyday, waxing and waning, rolling into the earth and back out to the sea. We too need to take time to dance, pray often, and listen instead of speak. The more we open ourselves to these possibilities the more beautiful our dance will become.

How Much Is Enough?

"More Than Enough"

There’s a good chance that greed has a lot to do with our current economic crisis. It is easy to blame the “big players" in this picture and think that a few have caused all the problems. But blaming has never gotten me very far personally. I’m inclined to look in the mirror and ask myself “when am I greedy?”

There is a great Stuart Wilde quote about the God Force. He speaks about everything belonging to the God Force, so that when something is stolen or lost, we can simply respond with, “Oh, they’ve come for the…” (To read the quote look at "In the Care of the God Force on the Sept.23rd post)

So, this was put to the test a bit lately. I had purchased a small makeup bag, red in color, and very cute. I hadn’t had it for too long when it disappeared. I searched high and low and couldn’t find it anywhere. I finally checked back at the store where I originally purchased it and found that I could get another one. So, I bought a second one.

I thought if this one disappeared, then I wasn’t supposed to have it. It belonged to the God Force. Well, can you believe it? I didn’t have it for two weeks and it has once again vanished! Back to the God Force and out of my life.

I have been asking myself what the lesson in this is. It doesn’t take brilliance to figure it out. I have enough. Ah, three simple words, and yet so hard for us to say. Try it. “I have enough.” I’ve decided that perhaps standing in front of the mirror a few times a day and repeating it would be a good idea. “I have enough.”

Think of all the ways that we are invited to spend our money. Magazines, commercials, billboards, and even our friends, all encourage us to get what we want. The problem, even up to the top of the corporate ladder, seems to be that we never feel that we have enough. We keep on accumulating way beyond what our true needs and desires are.

We will even go into debt to purchase things that we really don’t need. Now, I remember a time when I didn’t have enough money for necessities and it was difficult to feed and clothe three children without accumulating debt. And yet I wonder if I hadn’t felt we needed so much that even then we could have done with less.

There are times when people have nothing. That’s not what I’m referring to. I’m referring to the fact that most of us continue to buy things that we don’t really need. Imagine a sense of abundance that goes beyond materialism. Imagine that abundance is about an inner contentment and a fullness of God’s presence within your soul.

Joy overflows from a heart filled with this kind of abundance. That is what I want to have more of. Money and possessions will never give me that sense of abundance. It is only the love of our Creator that brings a lasting sense of fullness. Then, in spite of what circumstances are swirling around us, we have enough. I have enough.

We Are One

"Beautiful Golden Strands"

In a world that seems to be unraveling at the seams it is good to know that there is something greater at work than disruption and despair. In the middle of chaos there is a higher purpose and plan. There is hope that we will learn from the financial meltdown and greed and begin to make different choices. Imagine a world where the greater good of all were considered. It is a world where the reality of our connectedness is acknowledged and honored.

You could imagine this type of connectedness as similar to the web of a spider—Its central point is the source of love—our Creator. Out from that galactic center run beautiful golden strands carrying the breath of life that connects each living thing back to Source. Running between every created being are strands so that just like in the spider’s web, when one strand is touched, the movement is felt throughout the whole web.

When souls connect with the purpose of being an instrument or channel or conduit for God’s love, beautiful golden light streams between them and they become a force for good in the world. When souls shut off their hearts from the Source of love, they create a blockage of light and the love and resources of God cannot flow through them to other parts of the web.

At this time in the history of our little planet, we have the opportunity to make choices that will either help to connect each of us in love back to our Creator or to withdraw into fear and darkness and create more separation between us. It’s ironic, isn’t it, that just at a time when we need to press together more than ever before, we are tempted to pull apart and retreat?

Learning community and connectedness is one of our greatest lessons at this time. The god of individualism that has reigned supreme has nearly destroyed us and we need to learn to once again embrace the concept of community and service to one another. Wherever you see people embrace this concept you see healing begin to follow in its wake.

Imagine a beautiful, golden web with light streaming through every strand, so that no matter where you were on the web you were connected with the beautiful healing light of God’s love. If we can begin to see our lives and our world in this way, there will never be a time that we feel alone, disheartened, or discouraged because the image of this beautiful metaphor will remind us that we are all One in God’s Kingdom.

Times, They Are A Changin'

"Shine A Light In the Darkness"

Times they are a changin’! It is amazing the speed at which the world is spinning! Our current economic crisis in the United States is now a global crisis. It is an incredible time of change and upheaval. Do we really live in an abundant universe, or is that just a pie in the sky idea?

Last time I checked in with God to see if there was a shortage in God’s great universe, the answer was a resounding no—absolutely no shortages where God is concerned. The problem, it seems, lies with us. Actually there seems to be a bit of a greed epidemic going on with a few coming out on the supposed top of things while the rest sink to the bottom. This has very little to do with God and a whole lot to do with us.

The ironic thing is that we seem quite disinclined to take responsibility for the mess we’ve made. It reminds me of when I had small children at home. They could make an incredible mess in a fairly short amount of time, but they were not real keen on cleaning things up once the fun was over.

Right about now, God must feel as if a messy, rebellious set of kindergarteners were sitting in the middle of a big mess they had just made but were wondering who had done it and even some suggesting that it was the fault of God. Well, the answer is quite obvious to everyone else in the universe and unfortunately we are only busy pointing fingers.

Accountability and responsibility seem to be two qualities that we are in need of developing. I was reminded of an important question to ask one’s self the other day by a friend I was talking with about a project we are working on. “What am I wiling to be accountable for?”

What an important question to be asking ourselves right now. Here are a few more:

“What am I willing to be accountable for in regards to my time, talents, and gifts?

“Where am I willing to serve?”

“How do I choose to show up on a daily basis and offer myself as an agent for change in the world?”

Rather than feeling helpless, hopeless, and victims of events outside of our control, we can focus on where we actually have the power to make a difference. A victim mentality is a stance of powerlessness. By choosing to be a victim over the choice to be an agent for change we are shirking our responsibility and refusing to be accountable for the gifts and abilities we do have to make a difference.

Ask yourself again, “What am I wiling to be accountable for?” and then put your energy and emotion and efforts into areas that you do have control of and can make a difference in.

If there was ever a time for our gifts to be consecrated in the service of light and God’s kingdom, that time is now. Go ahead, and get off the victim couch and become a victor, serving in the best way you know how. You will be given additional gifts, as you need them so proceed together with God’s Spirit, holding with faith to the strong arm that holds you.

Be A River

In the Care of the God Force--Part Two

Look into your closet and chances are that you have more clothes and stuff in there than you can possibly wear. There is a good chance that you wear only a small percentage of your clothes and yet we hang onto much that we never use. Look into your garage and chances are you will see more than just your car sitting there. The chances are greater still that it is full of things that you haven’t used in years.

Everything we own has a part of our energy attached to it. It would stand to reason then that the more you own the more your energy is spread around. The things that are stacked, stuffed, and hanging around in our lives represent parts of us that are stuck, stacked, or just plain hung up somewhere. When you look at things this way, you realize that maybe ignoring those areas of clutter and accumulation is not such a good idea.

In times of collective fear and scarcity, it is especially important to get your energy and yourself moving. One of the best ways to do this is through sharing of your own abundance. When you think about it, one of the main reasons we have extra stuff around that we aren’t using or wearing is because we are afraid that we might need it some day, or that we spent good money on it, or that we’ll get around to it sometime. This type of thinking is at the root of scarcity—the fear that there is not enough to go around.

The good news is that we live in an abundant universe. There are more than enough resources for everyone. The problem, however, is that collectively and individually we hoard our resources out of fear. We have all been raised to some extent with a scarcity mindset. As a result, we tend to shut down the flow of abundance.

Think of abundance as a river. It is sourced at the mountaintop by the melting snow. It flows down the mountain into the valleys and eventually into the ocean. It condenses up into the clouds as rain and snow and is re-deposited onto the mountain as snow, creating a loop that waters and replenishes the earth in an ongoing process.

We are meant to keep moving like the river allowing resources to flow through us out into the world. When you look at your clutter, extra stuff, clothing, or whatever you want to call it that is stuffed, packed away into corners, just lying about, or neatly organized here and there you realize that perhaps you are creating the equivalent of an energetic logjam in your life.

What would happen if you cleared some of that away, passing on your abundance to those who might need it and allow the abundance of the universe to flow through you? There are exciting possibilities in this idea. Sadly, many of us are too fearful to try it or to let go of our stuff, even when we haven’t used it in years. In fact, if we hang on to it long enough, it often turns into mere garbage.

The antidote to a stagnate life is to keep you and your stuff in circulation attuned to the needs of the universe. We can become a collecting pond or a river. The choice is ours. I like the idea of a clear, vibrant river with the energy of Source coursing through my life. What about you? Find someone today who is in need of some of your abundance. You will both become wealthier as a result.

It's Not About the Stuff

In the Care of the God Force--Part One

Recently my son’s car was stolen. He had parked it outside of his work after lunch and when he went out that evening it was gone. It has been a disappointing ordeal for him. He had invested a lot of time and money into his car in rebuilding it and had just recently primed the whole car getting it ready to paint. It was looking really good and evidently the local chop shop thought so also.

Many folks right now have just lost everything they own through the devastation of hurricanes, flooding, and wind. It is an horrific thing to lose all that you own. You can suddenly feel stripped of your identity and life force. The interesting thing is that we come into the world with nothing and we leave with nothing, but in between we accumulate a lot of stuff.

We are energetically and emotionally attached to our stuff so that when we lose it we feel that we have lost a part of ourselves. We invest a lot of ourselves into what we own. We actually love our possessions!

This idea of how much energy our stuff takes up in our lives is an interesting one. I have recently been working on having less stuff. It is not easy to get rid of our stuff. It seems to be stuck to us, almost like a cord is attached to us, so that we have a hard time parting with our things. They don’t necessarily even have to be nice things.

I ran across a quote from Stuart Wilde from his book, Infinite Self, which offers some sage advice at how we might view our possessions.

Everything you have is in the care of the God Force. If you came home and the stereo is missing, you can say, “Ah, they’ve come for the stereo,” rather than getting uptight about it. It’s just gone back to the God Force. Somebody else has it now. That leaves space for another stereo to come into your life. Or it leaves space for no stereo at all. Now you’ll have the silence to meditate and think about who you are and what you want in this life.

This is a powerful concept that is more easily said than accomplished. But how important that we learn to gain some perspective on our stuff. We are spirit—a spark off the Divine—and not one iota about who we are is about what we own.

Part of our spiritual practice should be about learning to give away what we have on a regular basis. It doesn’t mean that we are supposed to be destitute although many spiritual students have learned to practice “voluntary simplicity”. By learning to keep our possessions in perspective in regards to the whole bigger scheme of life we actually gain freedom to grow, learn, and become a larger version of ourselves. Our possessions can trap us into a smaller reality.

In another post I will share a little more about my exploration of this and in de-cluttering your life and how this facilitates de-cluttering our minds and emotions and can help us along on the spiritual path.

Hope For The Future

The Invitation

I came across this poem the other day that says so much about what we need in our individual lives right now. Imagine asking our politicians and leaders these important questions and only electing individuals who lived with this kind of integrity. Enjoy.

The Invitation

by Oriah Mountain Dreamer

It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living.
I want to know what you ache for
and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.

It doesn’t interest me how old you are.
I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool
for love
for your dream
for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon...
I want to know if you have touched the centre of your own sorrow
if you have been opened by life’s betrayals
or have become shriveled and closed
from fear of further pain.

I want to know if you can sit with pain
mine or your own
without moving to hide it
or fade it
or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy
mine or your own
if you can dance with wildness
and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes
without cautioning us
to be careful
to be realistic
to remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn’t interest me if the story you are telling me
is true.
I want to know if you can
disappoint another
to be true to yourself.
If you can bear the accusation of betrayal
and not betray your own soul.
If you can be faithless
and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see Beauty
even when it is not pretty
every day.
And if you can source your own life
from its presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure
yours and mine
and still stand at the edge of the lake
and shout to the silver of the full moon,
“Yes.”

It doesn’t interest me
to know where you live or how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up
after the night of grief and despair
weary and bruised to the bone
and do what needs to be done
to feed the children.

It doesn’t interest me who you know
or how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand
in the centre of the fire
with me
and not shrink back.

It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom
you have studied.
I want to know what sustains you
from the inside
when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone
with yourself
and if you truly like the company you keep
in the empty moments

Dream Big!

A Castle by the Sea

How would you like to have a castle by the sea—a mystical, beautiful, enchanted place, sitting up on the side of a cliff where you could see for miles and have a sense of perspective that you were safe, you could see what was coming, and you were master of all that you beheld? This special place would be like your gyroscope, a guiding instrument, a place where you could go to find answers, be filled with purpose, and rest back into a sense of knowing that all was well. It would be a place by the sea where you could just breathe, let go and Be.

It sounds too good to be true—something only found in fairytales or only accessible to the very wealthy. But the reality is that we all have a castle by the sea. It is our soul—our essence—the meeting place of Spirit, and the dwelling where we can go to find meaning and direction in our life.

The problem for many, however, is that they have no idea where to find their soul, how to hear it’s lovely voice, or how to enter into the quiescent land of their castle by the sea. Without the guidance of our soul, we are wanderers, seeking to find direction and pulled in many ways by many voices. Sometimes—no, oftentimes led by the voices of others rather than the voice of our own soul.

The voice of the soul remains quiet until called upon. The ego is the vehicle we have always used to live in the world and it is usually the director of our lives. Until we call upon the guidance of our soul and diligently seek to find our castle by the sea, we will be led by the needs of the ego.

It is the soul that links to Spirit. It is here that the voice of God speaks to us. To learn to hear this voice we have to actively invite and seek the guidance of our soul and ask to hear the lovely whispers of Spirit’s voice.

The good news is that there is a tried and true way, a well-trod path that shows us how to find our castle by the sea. The scriptures tell us that if we ask, we will receive; if we seek, we will find; if we knock, the door will be opened to us. Many seekers have found this to be true through spiritual practice—the daily activity of making time for hearing the voice of Spirit in your life.

Through meditation and prayer and the contemplation of sacred texts we start to build a bridge from our soul to our mind. This doesn’t happen overnight or over the course of a few days. If we put in a little time here and there, the building is slow. If we commit to the path, the link is created sooner.

Once a link is established with our soul, it becomes the master of our life instead of our ego. We respond to the promptings of Spirit instead of the needs of our lower self. The guidance from our soul and Spirit assist us in fulfilling our place in the world.

From our castle by the sea we have a perspective and guidance that we can never have living in the valley. From here we have a view of the abundance that God has in mind for us. The vastness of creation opens up before us and we realize that we are truly sons and daughters of God.

Celebrating Success!

Graduate: To Commence To Begin

This June I had two children graduate from college—on the same day—in two different locations—at two different times—in two different cities! Fortunately, we were able to make it to both and celebrate the successes of both children. You can tell by their smiling faces that they too are thrilled with their accomplishments!

Commencement is a fitting word for a graduation. When one is young, you hardly know what this means. All you can see is the finish line and the completion of many years of hard work. The word of course means, “to commence”—to begin. Indeed it is because of the hard work and completion that you are now able to begin something new.

Many graduates feel a little lost after graduation because of the time and energy spent towards completing their goal. Even years later, far into adulthood, we too often feel a little at loose ends at the completion of some long-worked for goal. Perhaps we have attained a promotion, or built a house, or launched children off into the world on their own. Whatever the magnitude of our accomplishment, there can be a sense of lack of direction and ennui at the end of it. Where we expected a continued elation, we can find a new lack of direction.

On the spiritual path, we often work towards goals sometimes overcoming bad habits, reigning in a bad temper, releasing old baggage, and maintaining a higher emotional state of being. We celebrate these successes for we recognize that they are the result of a deepening relationship with Spirit. They are, on the other hand, behaviors that have to continue to be realized in our lives.

Graduation is recognition of something accomplished. After this comes the realization of it in our lives—making it our own, growing into the fullness of what God has in mind for us. Daily we are called to realize the potential of our soul’s calling and high purpose. One success, or ten makes no difference for the path only ends when we return to Source.

Each day we have the opportunity to realize something new in our lives and in our ministry to others. Certainly we must celebrate our successes, but at the same time we must hold equally in mind the idea of a continuous new beginning of our walk with Spirit. Daily spiritual practice is the key to forward movement in our lives. I invite you to begin again each day.

One Day At A Time

My Grace Is Sufficient

Pain has been my companion for the last few months. I’m thinking it has overstayed its welcome. Hmm…I’m hoping to make it to 50 years old before completely coming unglued. I recently had an MRI to see if we could discover what was causing my lower back pain, but the only answer that came back was that, “you’re getting older.” Well, duh. Aren’t we all?

I’m bordering on complaining here and alas, I believe that everything can be our teacher if we allow it to. So what have I been learning? For one thing I am learning that I am no longer 20 years old and capable of doing anything I feel like physically and not set off a corresponding set of sore muscles and aches and pains.

I’m also learning to ask for help. Maybe I don’t need to heave that 50-pound bale of shavings around by myself or shovel a dump truck load of sand by hand, or bounce around on the tractor mowing for three hours. Perhaps I’m even learning that moderation in all things is a good idea.

I’m learning that many folks struggle with chronic pain on a continual basis and they learn to handle it with grace and without complaint. I am not my aches and pains. I am not my body. I am not my feelings about my body or my pain.

The list could go on, but I think you get the idea. The real challenge on the spiritual path is whether or not that we believe that God’s grace is sufficient for our needs. We frequently want grace that is sufficient for the rest of our lives—a whole backyard full of grace just so we can feel comfortable that there will be enough for every eventuality. But, of course, grace comes measured out in just sufficient amounts to deal with our need of the moment.

Isn’t that just the way of Spirit? Always present. In the now. For the moment. Just like our breath. We fill our lungs with air—to capacity—and then we breathe out. Grace is just like our breath. The Spirit moves in with our breath—fills us—and then we breathe again. It is a dance, really, a graceful, ever-present dance with the Divine.

God’s goodness and sufficiency and ever-sustaining breath filling us, moment by moment, giving us the strength—the grace—to cope with the now. When we focus on the breath, we find the secret for being filled with grace that is sufficient.

Wake Up and Make A Difference!

Are you a blessing counter or a worrywart? Have you ever noticed that you can’t be focused on the positive and still be anxious at the same time? In order to see all of the good things around us we have to turn our eyes and attention away from the negative.

From what I can observe it seems that to be employed in mass media communications you have to be on the lookout for the negative and ever-vigilant to make sure that not one iota of negative possibility is overlooked. Of course that is what people are interested in learning about and so that is exactly the atmosphere of reporting we have created.

But what would happen if we decided to focus on our blessings instead? It wouldn’t mean that we wouldn’t address issues that need changing, but they could be presented as such and a call to others to help remediate an imbalance.

It is possible that we could choose to also report the amazing breakthroughs in science, students that are excelling in school, and changes that are being made in the world. What if the news hour and the talk shows and the entertainment talking heads used their time and influence to give us an update on where we are making progress with our challenges.

Rather than reporting events that people feel they have no control over we could focus our attentions on how we could make a difference in the world. We are all connected and yet our current style of reporting puts us into a disconnected, victim type mentality.

Of course that would require a mindset that most of us have not learned to master. So I’d guess you could say our current evening news reflects the mindset of the majority. Or does it? We can talk ourselves in or out of a recession, just by what is reported. We can become collectively depressed or elated, just by the tenor of the news.

There is a universal principle in effect here and it is about the law of proximity—we become like those things we are most around. It is similar to the principle “that by beholding we become changed.” So it seems that the best way to change the world is to begin by changing myself.

I choose to look around the world and count the blessings and beauty in the people that I see. I have turned off the negativity of the news and instead pray for a more connected humanity and hold space for a world filled with hope where we love and honor one another and respond to the needs of those who have less than we do.

I know that I am not alone in my desire for a more positive world. Change is in the air. There has never been a better time to work for positive change. You can start today right in your own heart.

May We All Be One

Healing Separation

Separation is one of the major problems on our planet right now. A sense of separateness from one another, from the planet that we call home, and a feeling of separation from God or Source keep us feeling isolated and alone. An important part of our spiritual growth and healing is recognizing the connectedness of All That Is.

From the Christian perspective, Jesus’ prayer in John 17 sums up the healing that our Creator has in mind for us—that we may be One—as Christ was One with the Father—as we may be One with Him—and that we may be One with one another. This reality requires nothing short of a miracle as what we call “sin” has created a great rift of separation between us all.

As I have explored some of the reasons for my own feelings of separateness I have discovered that many of them come from my wounds.. My sense of self, my ego has been damaged along the way and has caused me to see myself as different and separate from others. Until my sense of identity is founded upon something other than my own history and my wounds, I will continue to see myself as cut off from others.

True spiritual healing involves releasing my past and my wounds. It is letting the “old self” die off. I choose to no longer place my identity in the past or in what has happened to me. Instead, I embrace a new identity. The Apostle Paul calls it “putting on the mind of Christ” or “becoming a new creation in Christ”.

This is a process of allowing the Christ power to live in me. This is accomplished through a mutual agreement between the Spirit and myself. I come to God every day with a desire to be a new creature and ask that instead of living from my lower wounded self (ego) I instead be filled with the power of the indwelling Christ (higher self). By giving Source permission to work in my life in this way, I am on the road to transformation.

When Christ lives in me or when I am filled with the Spirit, my sense of separateness from others and from God starts to diminish. I am enabled to see a spark of the Divine in others, I see all of creation as coming from the hand of a loving Creator, and I recognize that I too, am a child of God. With this recognition, healing comes into my heart and life. The prayer of Jesus regarding Oneness begins to be realized in me and the great rift of sin on our planet begins to heal.

Enjoy the Journey

Lighten Up!

Do you realize that you have the freedom to do whatever you want with your life? Of course, there are the basic laws of the universe that we are subject to like the law of reaping and sowing, the law of gravity, etc., but by in large we are free to create our lives with the materials we have been given. So the big question becomes, “Do you like the life you have created? Does it feel like a life of freedom and opportunity?”

We create rules and limitations in our minds in order to feel safe and secure. We were indoctrinated as children into different belief systems. This was necessary and important for us to develop and mature. The problem, however, is that we often don’t develop past limiting beliefs.

Take for instance the belief that you are not a creative person. The reality is that we are all creative people, that is the way God designed us. But many folks were told at a young age that they should not waste their time trying to be an artist because they were definitely behind the door when God passed that talent out! So, they go through their whole lives believing that they cannot create anything and so they don’t. Their lives are flat and colorless. They live with a limiting belief structure that keeps them trapped.

Translate this idea into anything else that you can imagine—any talent, structure, or belief that you hold as a given reality. If you are honest, brave, and willing to do a little hard work, you can discover the root of many of your beliefs. Some of them are very poorly founded indeed! With a little excavation in your psyche you might even be able to unearth some real treasures! Some of these relics have no current value in your life at all and in fact can keep you living a very mundane, dull existence.

No one can tell you which beliefs need to go, which ones no longer serve you, which ones keep you trapped. This is your personal and important work. At some point, any belief can keep you stuck, but that is usually a long ways down the road from where we are now. For now, it might be a good idea to see if you can just let go of some of the more burdensome ones.

Once you lighten up a little and discover that perhaps you don’t need quite so much baggage, you might feel free to release a few more of your personal treasures. The road to freedom is littered with a lot of stuff folks have let go of. The journey is to be enjoyed. Lighten up!

To Forgive is Divine