Live What You Know

Waking up is more than it seems. You KNOW more than you've ever been "taught"! You chose to be here now. Make yourTRUEself proud!

Category: Now

May 31, 2014

Peace IS My Only Goal

Peace is an attribute IN you. You cannot find it outside.
—A Course In Miracles

Nothing outside yourself can save you;
nothing outside yourself can give you peace.
But this also means that nothing outside yourself can hurt you
or disturb your peace or upset you in any way.
—A Course In Miracles

My soul has been patiently waiting for me to return to the nurturing choices that help it thrive.  Life has been so busy lately that I have found myself in more of a survival mode than a truly living all that I know mode.  Many of my goals for daily life and the month of May in general have been set aside to simply get through the days.  The gift of realizing that my only true goal is peace is the lovely side effect of having experienced this undesired pace and various unusual circumstances.  I love having this space in the world to help me listen as my soul speaks and guides me back to all that I am truly meant to BE and helps me remember who I Am and what I Am really here to do.

The month of May has been a bit of a doozy (for lack of a better word); so much going on, so many things on my list, so much to do and so many people needing my energy.  I chose to give my energy and often found myself with almost none left.  I knew it was happening and I was simply trying to stay afloat rather than using all my tools to rejuvenate along the way and soar with my soul.  Sometimes these things happen. We can only do our best at any given time.  I did well in May in many ways as I was able to manage multiple life situations, accept many lovely invitations, help people in need and complete my many functions in life.  But, I completely missed the boat on sailing with my soul throughout all of this, thus missing the opportunity to perform my most essential Life function – letting my soul shine through.  I shared my soul in many ways, but wasn’t really keeping the light shinning from the inside.   The inside is always the answer.  Everything fades from the outside.  My body has let me know that enough is enough and it is time to make time for the soul nurturing and peace that the essential me craves and desires.  The soul uses the body to tell us how we are really doing and when changes are required.

As I have watched myself completely burnout physically over the past few days, I still find myself with a deep peace at my core, and for this I am truly grateful.  Even though I am suffering physically in many ways, I feel as though my soul is intact.  I look around and I know that there are so many things needing my attention and that my health and vitality has completely taken a backseat.  I have so many things I want to do.  I need to get my house in order in so many ways, both physically and metaphorically.  I know I will.  I know that I know how.  I know that I have only now and don’t want to waste any moments of this wonderful Life without peace and compassion for myself and everyone around me.  I don’t have to wait until all of my list is complete or my various goals to get things back on track have happened.  I realize that my only goal is peace and I can have it right now.  Every now.  I only need to choose it again and again.  I know how to do that.  Sometimes I am really good at it and sometimes not so much.  But, the key is, I know that peace is the choice that is always there waiting for me.  I can have it whenever I choose.  What more could I ask for?  Maybe just that you have it too and we share it with each other!  🙂

To have peace, teach peace to learn it.
—A Course In Miracles

We are all so busy, we have so much coming at us and so many things we feel we need to live up to and/or accomplish.   I have figured out that peace is truly my only goal.  This was not an easy realization for me as someone who is constantly preaching about and trying to achieve her personal best.  Even as a little girl, I could only truly enjoy playing in my room if it was completely organized.  Having goals and tools that help us reach those goals is great, but not in sacrifice of peace.  I am so grateful for the many tools I have been shown over the past several years that make staying in the flow of Life easier.  From time to time I completely get off track and cease using all these wonderful tools.  It would be completely counter-productive for me to wait to feel happy until I can check all of these tasks off my list.  Instead, I can just turn towards the peace that lives inside me.  Just as, when anything isn’t going the way I had hoped or people are not behaving just as I would like them to, I can still turn towards peace and realize that changing things won’t bring me peace, but finding it inside me at any given moment, will.  The peace that comes from having things just perfect or just as we would want them, isn’t true peace.  The peace that comes from being in the middle of a mess and allowing joy and a sweet peaceful smile to embrace you is the true peace that we are all meant to dwell in.  We can practice making it more of a normal state for us.  When something is seemingly “disappointing” or “irritating” or difficult to accept, we can simply choose peace in spite of it all as our other option and our only true purpose.

Today I pray to remember the peace that is always available to me at any moment.  I pray to dwell in it more often and feel the utter joy it brings and laughter it allows.  I pray that those around me will be touched by my remembering this peace and that I can help bring it to them as they in turn remind me of it with their receiving it.  I pray that peace expands and touches all of us through our own breath in everything we do today and always.  I pray that when we forget and get stressed out in our daily tasks, we can be kind to ourselves as we remember what we have inside us and return to peace.

Sending you love, joy and peace!  It feels good to be here!  I was only able to post on the first and last day of this month.  I have missed it and my soul is so grateful to share with you here.  I will be back soon!!!!

9 Comments
May 1, 2014

The Frequency of Love

Love will immediately enter into any mind that truly wants it.
(p. 55) —A Course In Miracles

We pick our vibrational frequency.  We decide what we see when we look, what we feel as we experience and what we hear as Life is speaking to us.  We choose our vibration we send out into the world and we pick what vibrational frequency we will receive back.  The only true frequency is the vibrational frequency of Love.  All the rest is noise and reactionary fear-based emotions.  It’s like the fuzzy sound on an old radio as you try to tune into your desired channel.  Love is the desired channel.  All the rest is fuzzy noise, it’s not real.  It’s nothing.  Nothing happened.  Once we can break free from reactions and fear, we can raise our energy vibration and watch it go out before us to transform all that is around us.  We are no longer at the mercy of what levels everyone else is vibrating at.  We can use our energy wisely and bring more love into every encounter, thought or action.

An interesting thing about Love — you cannot feel it from outside yourself, no matter how much is coming your way.  Love comes from within.  We cannot experience it outside of us without generating it and sharing it from within.  No matter how someone else loves us, we cannot feel it until we have experienced the love within.  This is how loneliness is possible.  Loneliness is simply the outcome of not generating the love within; it is turning away from the source within and instead trying to find it outside of ourselves.  Love cannot be found outside of us, only within.  Love is our true essence, it is what we are.  Once we can dwell in the frequency of love, we can no longer experience loneliness because we are never without the source of Love within.

Feeling lonely can be a blessing.  It can make us figure out what we have within.  We must feel it and figure out what it is telling us.  If we run from it, it will only worsen.  From the time I was a small child I had what felt like a deep sadness and the only way I could explain it was to call it “the lonely feeling.”  I was tortured by my loneliness and I found it so very difficult to understand at a young age.  I was often surrounded by people who loved me when I was feeling it and it felt like the worst feeling in the world.  To be lonely in the company of others is deadening.  It felt like an overwhelming urge to cry without a known reason why.  Now, I am so grateful I suffered with these feelings because that suffering brought me to seeking for meaning at an early age.  It also brought me to make many mistakes along the way as I tried to ease my loneliness.  Lucky for me, I believe that sometimes mistakes are simply shortcuts to figuring out what we need to learn.  I learned a lot throughout the years, sometimes repeating mistakes and sometimes hearing the messages.  This lonely feeling continued to be my background hole I would sink into in tough times.  Until I was able to understand that it was me choosing and creating it, it plagued me.

Life has been teaching me to turn towards Love and away from the lonely feeling over the years.  Life has shown me that the Love I can turn to is actually the real me.  Life has shown me that I Am much more than I ever dreamed possible and so is everyone else.  Life has shown me that I can’t make that choice for others, they must generate their love from within as well; that way they can meet their real selves. God/Universe designed the perfect love curriculum for us!

There are many types of love.  People like to label the different versions.  I am not really interested in labeling love anymore.  I just want to dwell in it and use my energy to help others do the same.  The key to using  your love energy well is to expect it to work.  We must expect it to go out before us and surround us.  We must be centered, calm, still and sure of our intentions.  We must stay in the frequency of who we are and not sway into reactions over our outer circumstances.  We must expect that we can dwell in love and act from love at all times.  When we feel drained, we must learn to replenish and get back into the frequency of love right away.  We don’t need to waste any more time in the fuzzy noise of life.  Let’s Love.  Let’s Live.

Accessing Love Ideas:

Look deeply in the face of another.
Watch a child play.
Look at flowers in stillness.
Stand by a tree and feel its energy.
Help someone.
Share.
Smile.

Wishing you joy, smiles, laughter and Love for all.  Be you!  Be Love!

13 Comments
April 16, 2014

Knowing vs. Living

To know God
without being God-like
is like trying to swim
without entering water.
—Orest Bedrij

Life is speaking to each of us in a specific way that is perfectly designed so we can hear and understand.  Life chooses the language of experience that will speak to our hearts and bring us toward our truest self as we remember what we are here to do.  Being “God-like” means different things for each one of us and only we know if we are following what it means for us.  Sometimes we may follow easily and stay grounded in the synchronisities of Life’s messages and sometimes we let fear creep in and lead us to distracted meaninglessness or ego based swirling which can only bring suffering.  All of my writing here is my living prayer to live what I know and continue to expand what that means as I strive to help others feel inspired to hear the voice inside them that wants to learn, grow and live what they come to know as well.  We know what we know for a reason and we must follow it home to our God-like selves.  We all have that little spark of God inside us that wants to grow and experience Life.  Living what we know is the way home.

When we can live what we know, our knowing brings us to a peaceful existence.  Knowing without living what we know becomes a burden until we can actually live it.  We each have our own knowing as we navigate what life is showing and saying to us.  No experience is wasted and we are always learning and being shown what we are meant to know and live.  I have experienced the way Life is patient with us for a while as we listen and learn and then Life gives us more and more nudges to move us along towards living more authentically.  The patience life shows us can sometimes wane and the messages can accelerate and become louder and our circumstances more uncomfortable or whatever is necessary to keep us open to evolving as we are meant to.  In some cases, we are too afraid to listen and grow, so life can send us a blow.  I believe that we all know different things and we each find meaning in the perfect things to develop our specific Life path.  There are many different paths to the same essential truths found along all of them.

We all know a lot.  Life has shown us a lot.  Whatever you have read, heard, felt, experienced or seen lately is part of Life speaking to you.  Will you hear it?  Will it change you?  Can you enter the water and swim?  You can!  We all can.  We must.  If we continue to be shown things and do not find ways to live them, Life will turn up the volume on the messages.  We can choose to listen to the whisper that feels like a Universe Hug or we can wait for the nudges, shouts and blows.  Life isn’t trying to annoy us, it’s trying to wake us up.  Let’s wake up with hugs!  We can listen.  We can know.  We can grow and live what we know.

As we set our intentions to live all that we know, Life shows up and gives us the tools that will help us on our path.  We are never without the tools.  We may set them aside for a bit and forget to use them, but they are always available when we are ready to pick them up and use them to stay on the path.  Today, let’s think about what tools we use and let’s commit to using them to help us become more God-like.  My tools are reading, writing, meditation, prayer, compassion, proper nutrition, exercise and connected conversations.  If I focus on these things rather than other distracted fear based habits, peace is more readily available.  Sometimes I can do these things well and sometimes I am over-scheduled, busy and tired and some of these things fall off.  We all have our own set of tools that have brought us closer to our God-like selves.  They are different for each of us.  Some people may find God in singing, dancing or painting.  Our tools are not to feel guilty about when we forget to use them, they are simply to remember and pick up to bring peace again.  Our tools lead to presence, peace and consciousness.  Ultimately, they lead to Love.  Love is always the answer.  Today I pray to remember to use my tools that lead me to Love for All.  That is what God-like means to me — Love For All.  Love is All.  God is All.  You are All.  I Am All.

Thought for the day — If it doesn’t make you feel good, it isn’t love.  If it isn’t Love, it isn’t real.  The real you can replace any thought or feeling that doesn’t feel good with one that comes from Love.  You have an infinite amount of love inside you.  Love is the only real thing.  Don’t try to push unpleasant thoughts away, they will only grow, just turn towards Love and replace the thoughts and feelings with Love and Compassion.  You pick what you give your attention to, find a Loving thought to replace the unpleasant one and you are on your way.  You pick.  You will amaze yourself at the amount of Love the real you is capable of.  If you are reading this, you are ready to live this.  The Universe sent it to you.  Thank you for reading this!

Sending you Love and wishing you Joy!

8 Comments
April 1, 2014

Self Trust = Faith In All

“Self-trust is the first secret of success.”  ―Ralph Waldo Emerson

The true self is much more than words can express.  I’ll continue attempting to express it anyway.  🙂

We are meant to evolve to completely trust ourselves.  Our true self.  The One that is connected to All.  When we trust our truest self, rather than our ego, we can be sure of how we will handle any situation and circumstance that may arise.  This kind of trust in ourselves isn’t about trusting our little personality that shows up in the world or our bodies and programmed logical perspective on things, it is about much much more.  Self-trust is about knowing who and what we truly are in our deepest essence.  It is Being.  A deep self-trust can take hold and we can shift how we live in the world.  There are many parts to this, of course, but, we can do it.  We can know and live in our being so much that we can be sure and steady in knowing we are rooted in something deeper than the sway of daily events.  This trust in something deeper is an important step in our evolution.  Once we can trust completely in our higher self we open the door to all that we are meant to experience.

Self-trust is the only trust their really is.  Placing your trust in and on others is a precarious endeavor.  It adds expectations and burdens to them.  People are out there doing the best they can and that is all we can truly expect.  We are all evolving along our own path and pace and it is all fine.  We don’t need to go around expecting people to pick up the pace or wait for us.  We can accept and love people just as they are.  We don’t need to trust them.  We only need to love them.  We can support the growth in each other and be authentic in our interactions with them.  This may include helping others see themselves as they truly are or it may be a complete and utter acceptance of where they are at.  We will  know what authentic interaction is called for in each moment.  This comes with the self-trust we can cultivate and share with the world.  This self-trust blesses everything we do and everyone we meet.  It is not a selfish endeavor, it brings peace, love and consciousness to All.

When we no longer feel the need to surround ourselves with people we can “trust” we allow people to simply be who they are and we know deeply that we can handle whatever that may look like.  When we no longer need to have people behave in a certain way that works for us or makes us feel safe, then we can experience more of what life has to offer us and we can give back to life what we are meant to bring to the world.  When we no longer need to control and manipulate situations and circumstances to fit our desires we can just be in the world in whatever way we are meant to.  We open up to life and we open up to more of everything.  We no longer need to limit life to the parts we have labeled as trustworthy or desirable.  We are open-hearted beings.  We have faith in All.

Years ago I was seeking a path to this shift — perhaps even a shortcut.  Over time, moment by moment, I can feel that in my case it is a slow and gradual shift in being that gradually envelops our choices and state of mind so that it feels like a warm embrace from a peace that has been there all along just waiting to welcome us home.  Love is home.  Trusting our higher selves and radiating a light that helps others do the same is the divine glow that lights the path home.

Wishing us all the courage to forgive ourselves when we forget what we are.  Wishing us all the courage to forgive others for everything as we realize there is nothing to forgive.  It is All well.  Sending you love and joy!

 

8 Comments
March 28, 2014

The Soul – Let’s Face It!

“Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul.” —Oscar Wilde

We are much more than our bodies and personalities.  We have infinite depth to us that is always there.  We are all souls.  We are growing, sharing, learning and becoming more of ourselves all the time.  Even if we are stuck in a distracted existence that isn’t aware of this, it is still happening.  We will not remain stuck forever.  Life moves us along with every single experience.  Moment by moment, we evolve.  Joy begins when we experience our soul.  Joy occurs more frequently when we listen and allow ourselves to be guided in our choices by the soul.  Joy becomes constant when we live from our Being on a regular basis.  There are many parts to figuring out how to do this, and even more to remembering to let it happen in each moment.  We are meant to let the soul shine through and see it in others.

Where should we look for the soul?  The face.  It’s in the face.  It’s not the eyes, or certain features found in the faces we see.  It’s in the whole of the face.  It’s in every face.  We can learn to really see each other and our seeing helps others see themselves and live from their higher self.  In return we see ourselves in their faces as well.  We can shift reality to a higher perspective.  My soul has always known this deeply.  I have intuitively done this on countless occasions.  I just didn’t know exactly what I was doing.  I had it spelled out to me recently in my reading and my heart soared at the description.

I’ve been reading through the Celestine Prophecy Insights again.  I read the original book (The Celestine Prophecy, by James Redfield) about seven years ago and loved it.  A fellow blogger reminded me of it recently and I dug it out of a drawer, dusted it off and picked it up again, only to discover that I am now able to understand it on a much deeper level.  I am so grateful the Universe brought it to me years ago and picked now to remind me of it again.  There are three other books in the adventure series and I am enjoying them immensely for the first time.  Here is the excerpt from second book, The Tenth Insight, with the description I am talking about regarding the face:

“If we look closely at another person’s face, we can cut through any facades, or ego defenses, that may be present, and find the individual’s authentic expression, his or her real self.  Ordinarily most people don’t know what to focus on when talking to another.  Should it be the eyes?  It’s hard to focus on both.  So which one?  Or should it be on the feature that most stands out, such as the nose or mouth?”

“In truth, we are called upon to focus on the whole of the face, which with its uniqueness of light and shadow and alignment of features is much like an inkblot.  But within this collection of features, one can find an authentic expression, the soul shining forth.  When we focus in love, love energy is sent to this higher-self aspect of the person, and the person will seem to change before our eyes as his or her greater capabilities shift into place.”

This lovely excerpt is part of a dialogue as insights are being explained along an adventure.  It is a lovely way to digest spiritual truths in a thrilling story as a picture of what living what we know would look like.  It goes on to explain more about sharing energy with people, it is a wonderfully exciting and spiritual read.  This particular part about the face touched me deeply.  I have seen people change before my eyes.  I imagine we all have.

Faces have always meant a lot to me.  The change in people when you really see them and send them loving energy is true to my spirit and deeply meaningful to me.  My soul delights at authentic interaction with others souls.  So does yours!  Over the years I used to get somewhat impatient or irritated with people who wouldn’t look me in the eye.  I understand and have a bit more patience with it these days, but eye contact has always meant a lot to me.  Now I know it is more than just simple good manners or even eye contact in general I was seeking; the face holds the possibility for authentic connection and a window to the soul.  Often, you can feel others’ discomfort with full focused energy.  People look away or down.  Sometimes they can pause and enjoy it and it always leaves both sides feeling more authentically joyful — more of their true selves.  I feel it is so rare that people receive full attention with a complete focus of loving energy that they may even mistake it for other things.  It would be nice if it wasn’t so rare.  I am deeply interested in faces and seeing the real person rather than the representative they often present to the world.  I know that with every interaction I have I can bring more loving energy to everyone around me and increase mine at the same time.  We all can!

As a mom, I have experienced many amazing moments where I look at my child’s face and really see them for the first time in the day.  I wake up from day-to-day stuff and look directly at the soul of my child.  For that moment, I am not the mom and they are not the child, we are just two souls looking deeply at each other.  They really feel seen and they shine.  It can miraculously transform any situation or moment to utter joy.  They usually beam back and giggle with delight.  They aren’t uncomfortable with it yet, they still feel comfortable functioning from the soul because they haven’t been in their body so long that the ego has taken hold completely.  Their willingness to show their soul to me has been the gift of motherhood, it has taught me a lot.

It is great to snap out of our day-to-day roles for brief moments and see the divine being in each other.  We have all felt glimpses of this.  How delightful it would be to function this way more frequently.  We can appreciate the faces of the souls around us and really see them to allow more authentic interaction between souls growing and learning together.  Every moment is an opportunity to allow more of our soul to shine through.  Every moment is an opportunity to remember that all things come from love or fear and we can see past the fear and allow the love to shine through.  We can see more than the personality, we can see the soul.

As we go out into the world today, let’s face the soul in each other and share our soul with the world.  Let’s not look away, let’s send love and awaken the soul in others as we feel more of our own divine being.  Let’s love every face and see the miracle that each of us are.  Each of us is a soul.  Each of us is a miracle.  We are all the same miracle and we can feel and see this on the face of everyone we see.

Thought for the day — What are you reading?  The Universe has something picked out for you now — be open to the signs.  🙂  Happy reading!

Sending you joy and love!

 

6 Comments
March 6, 2014

Living The Questions of Your Life

‘Instead of asking, “What do I want from life?”, a more powerful question is, “What does life want from me?’ —Eckhart Tolle

It is a miracle to be here.  We are all here to do something.  We are all shaped by our experiences.  Every experience is meaningful.  We become who we are meant to be so we may bring what we are meant to bring to this world.  We are connected to Everything; there is no-one and no-thing we are not connected to.  Our choices, intentions, interactions and energies ripple out to others and come back to us.  Once we are aware of all this happening, synchronicities abound that connect us to more of ourselves while enhancing others’ ability to do the same.  The Universe/God works perfectly in assisting all of this, but once we are aware of it, we co-create with Life.  This all happens, not by figuring out the answers to life, but by asking and living the right questions.  We all have specific questions we are working with at any given time to assist us along the way.

To live a question, we must acknowledge and accept that we don’t know the answer.  We are then in the unknown.  The unknown is where we can experience more of life.  We must open to the present and live each experience fully to get from it what we are meant to.  In this way, we embrace the art of not labeling situations and accepting that all things are unfolding as they should no matter what the details appear to be.  We widen our perspective.  We no longer need to declare if things are good or bad.  We just flow with the circumstances and try to hear what life is saying to us and what question it is presenting for us.  We let go of seeking the answers as we flow with the questions.  Seeking answers requires future and creates the illusion that we will be somehow better or more complete once we have them.  This can only create suffering as we long for a moment other than the one we are in.  We receive only the answers we are ready for and they change over time and circumstance.  The Divine joy and love is in the questions and allowing them to flow through you at the perfect time for you.

Once we know how to live the questions, we can dwell in peace that has tinges of fearless excitement within.  We won’t sit idly by and simply watch everything, we will live authentically with clarity and purpose as we ground our actions in our true essence.  Life will show us how to do this if we can only listen.

Watch the synchronicity in your life.  Watch the dots connect.  Notice what you are meant to receive from each person you come into contact with.  Notice what you can give back in return.  Be with nature in a way that fills your energy to assist your higher frequency vibration.  Watch your conversations.  Notice the books that appear at just the right time.  Notice Divine energy assisting you.  Be kind to yourself.  Forget trying to know and embrace living the unknown.  See the beauty all around.  BE nature instead of in nature.  Listen with all your heart.  You can function this way always, you don’t have to return to surviving and struggling all the time.  Peace can envelope you as you live your questions and evolve to the next, never rushing or resisting, just living in the present.

Lean back and look at the whole of your life.  See how it has all connected in meaningful ways to shape you into who you are now.  See all the ways that Life has provided for you.  Let that feeling embrace you.  I call it a Universe hug and I believe that the more you can feel those hugs, the more frequently you receive them.  We all need hugs.  Feel that hug from the Universe and love and embrace who you are now without judging how you got here or where you should be instead.  Just love you now and connect to everything around you as you expand and fill up with peace.

Living the unknown and loving the questions, the “little me” in us quiets down and the larger “I” that is connected to all things Lives.  It is a Divine paradox to realize that the only true knowing is found in living peacefully in the Unknown.  The question IS the knowing.  Living the question is living what you know.

Today I pray to be still and live the question of my heart.  I pray to gratefully and peacefully abide in the joy of connectedness to All.  I pray to remember this message as I live the moments of my day.

I am sending you love!  May you hear your question and feel the joy of living authentically with it.

12 Comments
February 28, 2014

Fresh Eyes

Whatever we look at today, may we see it with fresh eyes.

All too often, we look with the eyes of yesterday.  We allow our past experiences and judgments to drag us through our life and relive themselves again and again.  This isn’t living.  We can’t fully come to the present moment and live our soul’s purpose and essence until we can put down our veil of perception grown in the past and grounded in fear and future.

We can practice looking at the world and everything in it with fresh, clear, new eyes.  When we do, we will experience the flow of life in miraculous ways.  We can shift how we experience everything.  Everything that passes through our vision has our thoughts attached to it as we take it in.  We look and attach a label, draw on past experiences as we assume they will repeat themselves and then react accordingly.  Living this way, we miss the actual moment and what may be possible within it entirely.  We can change the thoughts we attach and open up to the Life we already have waiting for us to experience it fully.

I arrive again and again at the miraculous truth that the unknown is all there really is and it is much better than knowing everything…or at least thinking we do.  We really don’t know what the future holds and we would have much more peace if we didn’t feel the need to know.  As we shift our perceptions and feel what is really going on in the Divine Universe, we can begin to trust that whatever lies in the unknown is far better than anything we can conjure up with our little ideas about how things should go.  Even when things seem to be against us, we usually see the reason it was the perfect for us later.  We can trust it all.  It is so much more meaningful and, in fact, fun, to just go with the flow and see what happens.  My favorite saying lately is simply, “I don’t know, let’s see what happens.”  It is a joyful relief that comforts me so…much better than gripping life too tight and continuously striving for some semblance of control.  That “control” only blocks Life and all its miracles.

We never really know what we are looking at…even the most familiar things.  Once things become familiar to us we no longer see them.  We must make the effort to see them fresh.  It will awaken our soul and we will come alive to Life simply by seeing what is really there in front of us rather than seeing our thoughts attached to it.

Yesterday at the grocery story, I saw my kids beside me with absolutely fresh eyes.  The magical love I felt gave me chills all over.  They looked like little miracles standing there near me.  I felt like the luckiest person alive just to have them hanging out with me.  I watched them for a few moments, one intently looking through items at the counter and one surveying the people all around…it was as if I had never seen them before.  I saw them so clearly and I knew throughout my being that I have been blessed in the most amazing way.   I could have been distractedly handling that grocery line moment that we have been through what seems like millions of times…instead I was there with fresh eyes and filled with the tingle of Life running through my senses.

I cherish John O’Donohue’s words on the unfamiliar…with gratitude I keep his lessons on seeing the unfamiliar in the most familiar things close to my heart.  I love what A Course In Miracles taught me and continues to teach me about perception.  I try to remember these lessons as I go through my days…sometimes with fresh eyes, often a bit blurry with flashes of clarity.  Recently in my reading, Mark Nepo spoke of these ideas as “love at first sight”… it opened up a new understanding in me.  I like the term “love at first sight” used in this way.  That was what happened to me at the grocery store.  I looked at two of the most familiar people in the world to me and my eyes were so fresh that it was indeed Love At First Sight!  Perhaps that is why they say love is all that matters and love is all there is…because when you get your eyes right…love is all you can see and all you can Be.

These ideas are not reserved for easy situations and circumstances.  We can apply them to Everything.  These fresh new eyes are the ones to use even if we have people in our lives that we feel have wronged us or our loved ones or are in conflict with us in some way, we can look at them with fresh eyes and live only what is in the actual moment in our meetings with them.  We don’t have to bring our past experiences with tough people to every interaction with them and we don’t have to replay old movies in our head of how we already know them and what they are all about.  We are never exactly the same in any two moments, we can meet everyone fresh in the moment we are actually in.  If we can do that, we will surely see that things are always much better in the actual moment without brining all the thoughts about it to keep us distracted or reliving past moments.

Everything around us can feel how we are using our eyes and other senses.  Our eyes can bring love or fear.  When we’re fresh and present, everything expands to be more fully and authentically alive…even the flower can stand taller.  We open life up and we live authentically.  The simple choice to use our senses to see things fresh brings the frequency of love that is all there really is to see.

Wishing you countless moments filled with the true and infinite “Love At First Sight” that is always available to us.  May we all have the courage to look at it all anew.  Let’s see it all fresh!

Sending you love and joy!  May the tingle of Life run through your senses!

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February 25, 2014

Sincerity

Given sincerity, there will be enlightenment. —The Doctrine of the Mean, 200 B.C.E.

These words bring me so much comfort.  Since stumbling upon this quote in my reading, I have recalled them throughout my days many times and each time they have brought me peace.  We never really stumble into these things…they are gifts we are given at the precise moment we can receive them.  I am grateful.

Along the path towards truly living what I know and continuously expanding what that means, I sometimes find myself coasting, sometimes walking a steady pace, often crawling, intermittently hobbling along and occasionally standing still.  Lately, I have been standing still and trying to let things come to me as I attempt figuring out Life’s whispers.

There are many helpful habits to support living peaceful presence and yet at the same time, so many things knocking on the door with their seeming need to get done.  The beautiful dance of a balanced Life uses those healthy habits to prepare for whatever may come…but, what to do when there just doesn’t seem to be enough time or energy to get it all in?  While standing still on my path lately, I have been fluctuating between my Life-giving habits that ground me in the peace that is authentically who I am at my essence and the smaller version of me that reacts and gets things done.

Over the past few weeks, I have struggled to find the balance and time to use my favorite habits to help me.  My observations indicate that I am able to live my best Life when I can read, write, exercise, meditate, pray, cook fresh healthy vegan foods so my family can eat well, have soul-to-soul time with my family and great conversations with loved ones on a regular/daily basis.  These are the things my soul craves.  Lately I get into a groove on a few of these habits and then fall as I try to honor another important habit all the while leaving enough time for my real life duties and commitments to others.  I have been trying to restructure, rearrange, reorganize, etc.  It has been rather funny watching me thrive at one or two habits and terribly miss the others as I juggle them around with very little consistency…it’s hard to even call them habits right now.  It will be fine.  It always works out.  It is just time for me to hobble about as I get my footing back.  I feel it coming and I have the deep knowing that all is well.

I can make the choices that support me as I regain my balance of my peace centered habits.  I have done it before and it will happen again.  At this point in my life, the not being able to do it all is actually quite good for me.  It is important to be able to be kind to myself even when I’m not at the top of my game.  I have always been hard on myself.  Over the past few years, I find myself fighting off the personality that won’t do something unless she can do it perfectly; it’s good to grow out of this type of pressure on one’s self.  Life isn’t about doing things perfectly.  There is no such thing as perfect.  There is only Life and striving for perfection keeps us from living it.

The other night, as I sat in the bathtub at the end of a long day, I  started to get down on myself and attempt a personal pep talk about getting up super early the next morning and really going for it with all of my habits…as if getting things done is the secret to peace.  Ha!  Then, I remembered the words from the quote above.  My perception shifted and I started leaning back in my mind and looking at the picture of my life in larger portions.  I quit looking at all the tiny little details and saw the bigger dots connecting throughout my years.  As I looked from a higher position, I saw how I have heard the whisper and wholeheartedly followed it again and again.  These whispers rushed through my head reminding me that no matter what my current status on habits looks like, I can still hear the whisper.  I live for the whisper that my soul’s current provides.  I saw so many beautiful connections that the whisper has provided and felt hugged and loved in the knowing that it is always there.  I returned to the moment.  Always the same answer.

Healthy habits are helpful and important and they can keep me centered in peace.  I will always strive to honor them well, but I must balance that desire and keep them as a sacred practice rather than allowing them to escalate to disappointment when not achieved.  Peace is not always found in achievement.  The peace that comes from knowing I have been listening to and living from the whisper brings me back to the moment where now is the only thing that matters and Life is living me well.

One thing I am never lacking is sincerity.  There will be enlightenment.  I can peacefully breathe and join in the connectedness I Am to all things.  Whether I am fulfilling all my desired habits or not, the moment is always there and love is all that truly matters.  Whew.

Wishing you peaceful presence today and always!  May you be blessed with the perception to see how life is whispering to you and the courage to follow it towards the joy it encompasses.  Life is whispering to us all.  Happy listening!

Sending you love and joy!

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February 4, 2014

Nothing Happened

“Seek not to change the world, but choose to change your mind about the world.”  –A Course In Miracles

Life IS and nothing happened.  Sometimes it seems like something either good or bad has happened and we swirl in the aftermath of either label we chose to put on it.  It really seems like something has happened; we’re quite sure of it.  What if it didn’t truly happen?  What if it is just our thoughts about it that make it seem like it happened?  Aren’t someone else’s thoughts about that same occurrence possibly quite different from ours?  In the after-current of seeming events, we often try to pull others into knowing what has happened by telling them our version of it and keeping the thing alive by continuously naming it and discussing how it feels and what may happen next.  We then add all sorts of projected future scenarios on top of the thing that may or may not have happened.  Our mind quickly begins living out future things that haven’t happened either.  It is all a messy emotional surge that isn’t good for our bodies, minds or souls.  It all takes us away from the only thing we can truly live…the moment we are actually in.

We get to choose how we see the world and everything in it.  Often, we barely see anything before us as we rush through familiar surroundings and assume our way through our days.  If we do encounter the unfamiliar, we label it right away and attached a bunch of thoughts to it.  It is so easy to spend our moments assuming we already know how things will go and labeling anything surprising.  Assuming and labeling isn’t Living, it’s viewing things through our skewed perception.  We can easily see our version of things, but there is so much we are missing by living this way.  We don’t want to view things, we want to Live them.  We can open our hearts to the exact moment we are in and feel more of the life and peace that surrounds us waiting for us to tap into it.  We can become open to the idea that it is just our thoughts about things keeping them alive.  We can let go of the suffering we cause ourselves and others by staying stuck in these thoughts.  We must practice letting the thoughts pass and opening up more stillness and silence to live how we are meant to…in peace.

Something I find quite comforting is the fact that there is ever only one answer to all of the questions we may have about the suffering we encounter or the journey to more peace…just come fully into the present moment…you can handle anything you encounter by fully experiencing it now.  Not the now in your mind with all the thoughts about it, but, the now that just is and brings peace.

I have heard Eckhart Tolle answer hundreds of questions live on his website…sometimes after a lovely answer to exactly the question presented and formed in stillness exactly the way it needed to be heard, he gives a chuckle and says, “always the same answer”… so true.  I love that he always patiently hears the questions and allows the answers to come through in stillness…of course, always the same essential answer with different words around it…but it is quite comforting to watch him reach the same conclusion again and again in peace and ever patient and present stillness.  Watching what presence looks like brings more presence and makes all these things seem possible.

We all have sacrificed so many precious moments to be caught up in some other thing that we think happened to us.  We hold on to other moments and give them so much more power than the one we are in.  We turn away from love when we do this.  I know and pray to live the truth that love is always accessible and we can live from love found in the moment rather than the chaos of a mind that isn’t free of the swirl of reactive thoughts.  Whatever we give our attention to expands.  Today, let’s let those thoughts pass through without our attention as we awaken fully to the life we have available to us now…each now that comes.

Today I pray for presence.  This is my prayer.  I pray to Live a lot rather than see, label and assume a lot, which leads to living a little.  I pray for the only answer…living fulling in the moment.  I pray to remember that each breath is a death of the prior moment and we constantly have a fresh moment to enter.  I pray that I may bring presence and peace around me and help it spread, giving joy to others.  I pray to live what I know.

Sending you love, joy and presence.  Your visit sends me those things in return.  Thank you!

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January 26, 2014

Words

Words have always meant a lot to me.  They are much more than just communication tools; when treated with honor and respect, they become much more.  The words we string together to express ourselves and the ones we choose to give our attention to as we gather information make up the fabric of who we are.  Words are our bridge to the soul.  They come from somewhere else, they come through us and they can reach out to another and bring them to us.  They can be used well and allow us to be more of ourselves and they can be mistreated and keep us stuck in destructive patterns that take us off our true path.  Words are the dots and our job in life is to get better and better at connecting the dots.

Words are always working with us; our relationship with them is how we grow and change.  I have seen my relationship with words evolve drastically over time and I can feel the pull to a deeper connection with them now.  Ever a crafty communicator, I remember in my younger years using my words carelessly at times.  I was a bit of a people pleaser and could easily tell people what they wanted to hear or say things that might make people more comfortable, etc.  During adolescence, honesty wasn’t really at the tip-top of my list either, words were more of a navigation tool to try to get what I wanted or seem like something I was trying to be.  All these things were part of a natural progression through awkward years I suppose.  I am so grateful to have passed through that time and to have it to look back on now to know the difference.  I now know that compromising my own truth and absolute honesty is like cutting myself off from life and love and completely unnecessary in any and every situation.  I can still make others feel comfortable, but compromising my words or using them carelessly is never ever part of that anymore.

Words have been everything to me on my path.  I have watched them connect to each other to lead me to the next book, the next conversation, the next experience, the next challenge, life lesson, goal, etc… They have guided me, comforted me, confronted me, pushed me, loved me and helped me put pieces of my soul together as I journey toward aligning my personality with my soul to live in authenticity.  They whisper and shout, they figure out how we hear them best and they never stop trying to get our attention, wake us up, lead us where we are meant to go to show up as exactly who we are and with what we are meant to bring to this world.  Words are everywhere and they reach us through the perfect means for us…Life sends us a book, someone says something to us, a poem touches us, a loved one shares with us, we see a sign, watch a movie, receive a letter, hear them in silence, hear ourselves say them aloud, we spontaneously feel something deeply and try to put it into words…they are everywhere.

The first of the four agreements in Don Miguel Ruiz’s book, The Four Agreements is — Be Impeccable With Your Word.  He calls this agreement the most important and he is so right.  This may seem straightforward and easily obvious at first, but it is much more than just telling the truth.  It means really honoring your word and truly expressing your intentions and fullest expression of yourself in every situation and every moment.  It means knowing that the words come from the source that creates your life.  As you use your words, you create your life.  Your inner peace is directly tied to how you are using your words in your life.  By saying exactly what you mean, meaning what you say,  using your words wisely and carefully towards and about others, selecting carefully which words you give your attention to, setting your intention clearly in all you do, not making compromises with your words to please others or make them more comfortable, etc., you bring honor to all the words in life and they start speaking to you more clearly.  When you can hear the words more clearly, you can live more deeply…you can tap into the flow of Life.

I have never ever been accused of being a woman of few words.  In fact, sometimes here in my writing I try to keep it short and sweet and it just doesn’t work for me.  It doesn’t come naturally.  I have always been pretty good at explaining things and communicating somewhat effectively, but doing so in just a few words has never been my strong point.  I have been through many phases with words in my life and I feel myself entering a new phase with them in my daily life now…I deeply desire uttering less of them.  It feels a bit strange for someone who thrives on good conversation and cherishes words so very much, but it is definitely what I am feeling drawn to.  Here are some possible reasons saying fewer words may be so appealing to me at this point:

  • Perhaps I am getting more words out in my writing and I feel less of a need for over-communicating as my soul takes comfort in having expressed what is most meaningful to me.  (It truly is a comfort to have somewhere to express all of these things!)
  • Perhaps I finally understand how many of the words we utter are wasted on labeling things and judging situations, which takes us from the joy of living.
  • Perhaps the prayer and meditation I am attempting to get better at is seeping into my daily life and calling to me there.
  • Perhaps my great love and deep gratitude for words and all they have done for me has made me want to honor them more.  I do love words!
  • Perhaps, it’s because I am a sometimes tired Mommy who finds herself repeating the same things over and over and over again to the little ones, and I’m just tired of hearing myself.
  • Perhaps I am ready to give my energy towards being instead of saying.
  • Perhaps I have learned from the great sages that much wisdom can be said with very little to no words.
  • Perhaps I have figured out that the joy lies in stillness which can easily be covered over with unnecessary distractions and interruptions and I am finding more ways to live in the joy of the actual moment rather than talking about another moment.
  • Perhaps my being is growing and knows that it is okay to set the personality aside.
  • Perhaps I’m frustrated and wish I could live all that I know more and feel like quieting down to do it better and more consistently…
  • Perhaps its just human nature and we evolve toward it naturally… my beautiful Granny doesn’t say a whole lot, but when she does, its worth hearing.  She says a lot more with her lovely spirit, always positive attitude and loving demeanor.  Just to sit in her company is like having a great conversation.

Who knows why I want to say fewer words at this point in life…maybe it is a bit of all of these things.  I just feel like saying fewer words as I honor each one of them more.  As I try to listen and honor what I am feeling, its been a bit of a struggle so far…those around me seem to be used to me saying a lot…so they aren’t quite comfortable with it yet.  Or, maybe its me who is adjusting to more quiet and letting things be as I allow more stillness and try to quiet the noise.  It feels exhausting and disappointing when I revert back to too many words as I break this habit…it will come though I am sure.  It’s a work in progress.  I’ll keep you posted.  It is a nice calming shift when I can do it and I am grateful for it…it has been interesting to feel the work of words inside me and to watch the relationship with words evolve.  Love is always the answer I am sure…I can love myself and those around me through the process of growth and change.  Love is.

Wishing us all the courage and wisdom to really look at what we are saying, how we are listening, what we are reading, watching, thinking, allowing in and sharing with others.  Wishing us the joy of deep listening and the miracle of connecting the little dots called words.

Sending you joy and love (and lots of words) today and always!

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