Live What You Know

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!

7 Comments

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!

5 Comments

February 6, 2014

Problems vs. Peace

We choose which we will bring to this world — problems or peace. Which one will we bring with us wherever we go today?

Finding problems is the easiest thing in the world. There is no shortage of them. It can always appear as if something has gone wrong, we made a mistake, something is happening that shouldn’t be happening, someone has wronged or offended us, something is annoying us, we can’t be happy until something else happens, etc. Living in a world of labeling, comparing and judging all things mixed all the while with the struggle to survive without awakened presence makes it feel impossible to see anything but problems…they just roll in…one problem after another. There is another way to live. We don’t have to see things as problems, we can turn toward peace instead. We decide.

As we come to realize that we want more peace in our lives, we have to find ways to practice peace that work for us in our current life situation. Observing how we see things and how we allow them to come through us is a great practice. As Life gives us things to work with, big and small, we can choose how we will let them come through us. Will we find a problem and stay stuck in our head as we resist it, find faults with it, label it, judge it and spend out time trying to convince others to see it as a problem as well? Or, will we put some space around it and let it be what it is (Life) without the label, content in not knowing whether it is good or bad while trusting that all thing are happening as they are meant to? It is as simple as that — each little thing…label, think, cause suffering about it or let it be and live in peace.

I have the good fortune of practicing with children. They are at the beginning stages of labeling all things. In many ways they must learn countless labels as they grow, figure things out and strive for a great education. Still, we make an effort in our house to understand the difference and dance between the labels that help us learn and the ones that aren’t necessary. It is an intense practice with them, because they are so open with their labels and judgements, they don’t hide them secretly in their head and fester, they just blurt them out or have a melt-down and present their problems. We always have a lot to talk about and practice with. It is my practice and it works for me…most of the time. Of course, I don’t have it mastered. I start the days saying things like, “okay, let’s not look for problems, let’s find peace”… I always tell them that problem-finding is just too easy, we could find a bunch at any time…but what we really want is peace…let’s find that. Then it takes helping them do that while keeping my peace in tact…a delicate balance. By the end of the day, it gets a little harder for me to stay with the peace. The more tired I am, the easier it is to judge things as problems. It becomes harder to put space around my reactions and choose peace. This week I began adding some quiet time with a clear-minded meditation for me in the afternoons to gather my energy and keep with my peace in an effort to start fresh even late in the day. Always something to work on.

Life isn’t trying to annoy us, it’s trying to wake us up. We choose again and again whether we will create problems or peace. We create with Everything. We can feel apart of everything and flow with it or get stuck slugging it out with the smaller stuff and trying to bend things our way. We can thrive in the ride of not knowing and truly living or we can think we know best and struggle through it all. We never really know when things are good or bad. We have all lived through thinking things were one way and finding out we labeled it wrong. Real Life is lived in the not knowing.

Just this morning after writing the above, I stumbled into this lovely poem that works so well here. I want to share it with you.

Repeatedly We Are Asked

to embody or consume;
to be in kinship with everything larger
or to order and manage everything smaller.

We are asked, every day, to align or separate;
to coordinate our will with everything living
or to impose our will on everything we meet.

And not choosing is a choice. Acquiescence
is different from patience or surrender.

All this leaves us needing to know:
whether to better the song through practice
or to better ourselves through singing.

–Mark Nepo

I want to better the song. Today I pray to answer well when asked again and again if I want problems or peace. I also pray for those that aren’t yet aware that they too want more peace. I pray that they may be blessed with a little bit of peace today so that they may learn to search for it and practice it. I add my gratitude for the practice to the song. Life is a great practice. It really is. Peace and blessing are all around and I am so grateful!

Sending you joy, love and peace today and always.

9 Comments

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!

10 Comments

January 30, 2014

Love Everything…It Makes Everything Loveable

Meet Mouska The Duck!

Mouska has taught our family many lessons about love. I want to share some of what we have learned here. The picture above shows what Mouska looked like the day he came into our lives. We were on a family vacation and we told the kids they could pick out a souvenir in the hotel gift shop. George spotted a little duck on the top shelf in the back corner beyond our reach, we had to ask for assistance to get him down. Once in Georgie’s sweet little hands, he was immediately hugged and named Mouska.

George changed the day he got Mouska and the little duck changed as well. George tapped into his loving and nurturing side as he showered this little duck with so much love that continued expanding toward many more things in his life. Mouska ceased being a little ducky made of terry cloth and stuffed with cotton…he came to life for George, and soon after, for our whole family and even many friends. The love Georgie felt for him made him so lovable to the rest of us. We all love this little ducky dearly. He isn’t just a stuffed animal, he is love. He became lovable because he was loved so much. Georgie became more of his natural loving self by having the sweet relationship with his beloved Mouska.

George and Mouska have been together for over four years now. They have been through many things together. That sweet little duck has been all over with us. He even survived being left behind at a Disneyland hotel and getting a “makeover”… George fully understood what it meant that Mouska had gotten a makeover…he felt the loss and embraced the solution. When the new Mouska arrived in the mail all fresh and fluffy again, the love was no less. Mouska’s spirit and all the love and precious memories had moved on and inhabited the “refurbished” version. What a lucky duck and what a lucky ducky family we are. We all love Mouska so much.

Mouska and George’s little family has expanded over the years; they have plenty of love to share. Meet Coco and James. They are a loving little bunch. At first I resisted more and more animals coming to live and sleep in George’s bed…but Mouska and George live the lesson that there is plenty of love to go around…there is no limit. George does a great job sharing the love, leaving no one out, making everyone feel special and creating joyful moments with all his little buddies, no matter how many in number.

The family has continued to grow and much love is always beaming out of the room and lingering around the house. The current gang that lives and sleeps on George’s bed are Mouska the duck, James the Monkey, Coco the big bear, Ben the little bear, Dan the big giraffe, Bob the little giraffe, Snoopy the dog, Eagie the eagle and Jones the jellybean duck.

There are stories of love behind each animal. Many were precious gifts from loved ones, one was George’s first purchase with his own money. I have watched these little love stories and felt more of my own heart along the way. It truly is amazing to see these little spirits come to life just by being loved.

The lessons of Mouska and friends makes me think…What else could be changed just by being loved? The real question is…what wouldn’t be changed by being loved? I love this Emerson quote…

Treat a man as he is, and he will remain as he is. Treat a man as he could be, and he will become what he should be.” –Ralph Waldo Emerson

If Mouska had been treated like terry cloth and cotton, none of this love would have been felt. He was treated like family and filled with love and he gave it back to us. More Mouska lessons show just how much we benefit from giving love. The more love you give, the more love you have to give. We all know all these things of course, but I am so grateful for our little ducky friend and Georgie who live them so clearly for us to witness, allowing us to expand our own love from having seen them.

Some things are easy to love and some are more difficult. We must learn to love it all and spread love wherever we go so there can be more love for everything and everyone to feel. Love is always the answer. No matter what we are going through or who is appearing before us, we can always step back and put some space between the thing or person and our reaction to it. If we can add space and stillness, very soon, we can feel our heart soften and our willingness to act from love expand and fill us. It is always possible and with more and more practice, it becomes much more automatic…we can more easily embrace what we are truly capable of…pure love. We truly can love everything and make everything more lovable. It is a practice, but it is worth it. I pray to get better and better at it each and every day…just a breath, or a moment can help us be our truest self, with plenty of love to give to every circumstance. Some things take a few more breaths or a bit more time, but watching the process can shorten the time between our little reaction and the true one that comes from our heart to add love to the world.

These days Mouska isn’t as fluffy as he used to be. He has lost his hair twice and he is quite worn by love now. Each year at his birthday party (yes, the kids throw him a birthday party each year), it is easy to see he is changing over time and his experiences are showing. But, no matter how flat he becomes or how much fluff he loses, the love for him is still growing. I love to think that all of us aren’t aging, we’re simply showing our experiences and being worn in with love.

Wishing you the space to live from the place of love for all things that transforms how you see the world and how you can BE in the world. Lets leave nothing on the top shelf unloved, lets pull it all down and fill it with love. No matter what it appears to be…love can change it!

Sending you so much love and joy today and always. Happy love spreading!

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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January 18, 2014

The Little Birdie

I sit in my chair, reading my book as I do each morning. I quiet myself and slow myself as I attempt coming into the moment fully. It takes focus of attention, clearing of the mind, breathing in the spirit…it is my practice. Today, I am reading about listening. Sacred listening. Not the listening we do with our ears, but the listening we do with our entire being. The kind of listening I long to give to this world and to receive from this world. I am slowly digesting this book; each sentence is like a poem, uncovering depths of spirit, being and belonging. It is the book that Life picked out for me to read at this time.

I take a minute to breathe and sit in stillness as I glance out the window; I love the view from this spot. A little birdie lands on the fence, perfectly positioned in the middle of the stage in my beloved backyard scene. He is listening, with his entire being. I see him naturally belonging to the world and being what he is. He isn’t finishing the other birdies’ sentences or chiming in with his opinions. He doesn’t label all that he sees around him. He isn’t bringing up the past and worrying about the future. He doesn’t take things personally or complain about his circumstances. He isn’t resisting what already is and constantly wishing to change things. He isn’t thinking about what type of bird he should be or how he will live in this world. He listens to everything. He doesn’t just go with the flow, he is the flow. He knows where he should fly, when to spread his wings and when to sit still and watch. He knows when to be with the other birdies and when to go it alone. He is never truly alone because he isn’t out in nature, he is nature. He is this world and the world is him.

Thank you little birdie. As I continue my reading I am overcome with the knowing that it isn’t just about figuring out how to live, it is really about how to spend our time being.

Wishing us all the presence of mind, body and spirit to listen to everything and simply be as we reside comfortably in knowing that our being will take us where we are meant to go and have us live what we are meant to live. Sending you love and joy today and always.

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January 15, 2014

You Are Already There

Time is a bully! Let’s stand up to it!

In our culture, our days are split into segments of time and our moments are given varying degrees of importance. It is kind of crazy how we have allowed time to push us around. We watch the clock, waiting for things to happen…”When will they arrive?”, What time do we need to be there?”, “When should we get ready?”, “How long will the drive take?”, “When will this line get moving?”, “I can’t wait until…”, “I will be so happy when…”, etc. We constantly think the next thing is what we are waiting for. The truth is, we are already there; but, unless we can really feel that, we stay stuck in the world of being pushed around and bullied by time.

We are all at our own perfect place on our path toward self-realization and awareness. We each have varying degrees of presence we are able to access throughout the day. No matter where you are on your path, you can observe how you are treating the moments in your life and find ways to honor them and experience them more fully. Are you using parts of the day that are your least favorite or that you dread as a means to an end? Do you rush through things to get to the next? Do you allow yourself to feel that things will be better when this chore or task is complete? Is there constantly some future moment that seems like it will be a better one that will bring you happiness? Is there some change that would make things much better? Are you distracting yourself from your real life? Are you truly present to the Life you already are (we don’t have life, we are Life)?

Many people live in the state of waiting for the next thing much of the time and don’t even know that they are not present in their life and much of their experiences are passing them by. It is like sleep-walking without knowing it. Your real life is there waiting for you to join in and you’re busy wishing something else was happening and resisting what already is. Our life is made up of a bunch of moments and the one we are in is the only one we can ever actually live; life only comes in the form of now. This crazy relationship we have developed with time is truly a dreadful way to live and sure to bring suffering as we dwell in resisting what is. If we have a certain number of moments while here on Earth in this form, why should standing in line at the pharmacy be any less meaningful and present than attending a party or celebration? Why is the drive to the event something to hurry and get over with? How do we treat any moment as something to throw away? We don’t have to; we can treat all of our moments the same and enjoy Life the way we are meant to.

Here are a few ideas that may help us do this no matter where we are on our path; they should apply in every situation (easy to say, harder to actually do…wishing us all the ability to live these things…with practice, we can do it!):

Accept Everything – Yesterday, for example, I woke up with excruciating back pain that was making it hard to breathe and a sore throat that felt like swallowing cement. As I groaned in pain at every move I made, I also felt this wonderful sense of peace in the background. I knew I had all these reasons mounting that would prevent me from doing what I needed to do for the day (or thought I needed to do)…but it really didn’t matter. It slowed my day down and gave me many joyous moments I may not have experienced otherwise. I resisted nothing, adjusted with the details, and in doing so, my throat pain eased up and my back improved dramatically. I had a really peaceful day filled with a lot of sweet moments (even the kids and I cleaning up our third plumbing issue in the past few weeks…we just made it fun). I could have resisted and been frustrated and stayed in all kinds of pain and misery, but in going with the flow, I accessed my inner peace and it was quite lovely. I know from past experience that resistance and worry over things helps them hang around longer. My day didn’t improve because I started feeling better…I was already there in the peace found in the moment and the details came to match the real me…rather than me allowing my circumstances to pretend to be me. The truth is that everything happens as it should and everything passes. So, why resist anything? Just accept it all. Sometimes we face little things like the examples above and sometimes we must face major difficulties and tragedies…practicing on the little things will help us when things really get tough. Accepting every little thing as if you chose it will prepare you for anything and lead you to true inner peace that won’t depend on your outer circumstances.
Label Nothing – Part of accepting everything is learning to label nothing. We have a tendency to label every single thing that happens as good or bad. Truth is, we don’t really know which it is and we’re just guessing or reliving past experiences and assuming they will be the same…the experience is really neither good, nor bad, it just is. By not labeling, we don’t have to draw on the past or take ourselves to the future to project how it will work out. We get to truly experience each thing and each moment and use the energy we would have wasted on labeling it for actually living it. We open ourselves up to all that Life is and expand to more of ourselves and the world around us. We truly grow.
Get Comfortable With Not Knowing – If we already know how this is going to go, then we aren’t really present to it. If we are playing things out in our minds by reliving things and projecting futures that may never happen, we aren’t there, we’re lost in some other experience. Not knowing means we really open up our senses and awareness and see what happens. It is magical. I actually think this is an entire post on its own, so I will try to keep this short. The not knowing is so much better than the knowing…it is amazing. You know how the more you learn, the more you realize that you have so much more to learn…well, it’s kind of like that. It’s like, the more you don’t already know, the more you have to live. I love it!
Slow Down – Just try it. Nothing bad will happen, you can add more space around things, take more breaths before you talk, more quiet before you react, more opportunities to just be. You can build your life to support slowing down, even in today’s world. You can choose your pace and make it stick. You can make little choices and little changes slowly that point you in the direction of taking all the time you need to enjoy all the life you are. You can do it! On time is when you get there because you are already there.
Ritual – Anything can be a ritual. We recently started a tea-time ritual at our home. It’s a work in progress, but we’re trying to have a midpoint in the day that reminds us to slow down and enjoy where we are. We are assigning duties to each family member to put it together and we are formally sitting down to sip tea, talk, enjoy silence together and eat our crudités, fruit and tea cookies in presence. As we prepare it, enjoy it and clean it up, we can bring honor to it by making it a true ritual. This ritual is a new one we are adding midday, we have our morning meditation and prayer, then we have poetry at night. This added reminder in the middle of the day is quite helpful. You could pick anything and make it a ritual worth honoring and as a tool to bring more presence into your life. We recently added meditation bracelets to our morning practice; we put them on to remember the peace we felt on our mat and bring it to whatever moment we are in throughout the day. Pick anything and make it sacred…even sorting the laundry, sweeping the floor or brushing your teeth…it really can be done. Taking the time to honor things and make them sacred is so healing and can add so much peace to your life.
Listen — To everything and everyone. Rush no person and no experience. We are not in this world, we are of this world…everything is speaking to us and telling us something. Manage your relationship with time so that you can hear Everything.
Love — Just had to put it here because it is always the answer and of course, all we ever need. Spread it and receive it well.

These are just a few ideas to help us stand up to time. Your soul already knows which ones will help you most; sometimes we just need the reminder that the time to do it is now. Now is all there ever is. Wishing you presence, peace and freedom found in timelessness. Sending you love and joy today and always!

7 Comments

January 10, 2014

Becoming The Ocean

If you don’t become the ocean, you’ll be seasick every day. –Leonard Cohen

This quote is such a great realization. I came across it in my reading this week and it put all I was feeling into clear, loving and true perspective. To live on the surface of life, where we allow our inner state to depend on our outer circumstances is rocky, stormy and sickening. It does feel like navigating during fluctuating storms that just keep rolling in. It is possible to live from down deep in calm waters and to be fluid as we flow through life with the understanding that the moment is all we have and things are happening just as they should. How do we do it? We use every experience we encounter to build more presence in us, to ground us in our true essence of love and connectedness to all things…which can only be found in the present moment.

As we grow our presence and ability to live from the quiet place inside us, we still have to navigate the circumstances and people around us. As we get better at this, the opportunities to practice it seem to mount. We all have loved ones we hold dear and often those very relationships are the ones that allow us to grow the most. I spend a lot of time with my two precious little ones. They bring so much joy, laughter and moments of love, but, they also bring many many opportunities to practice all of the things I have learned about presence and consciousness. If I didn’t have the day-to-day challenges with the kids, I would probably have myself convinced that I have evolved to a much higher level of consciousness. I have little encounters with them all the time that remind me of what I can work on and just where I am at. It is a gift to have these two to work with as I try to stay in the deep waters for longer periods of time and teach them to do the same.

Here’s the thing, the kids are constantly trying to pull me into feeling whatever they are feeling and as they grow and encounter new challenges and responsibilities, their emotions are all over the place. Sometimes it feels like living with little emotional bandits, taking me on a ride over getting their jacket, tackling a math problem, clearing the table or tying their shoes, etc. They are little, vulnerable and highly identified with me. If they are stressed or upset about something, they want me in the same state. I think they feel that if I am feeling the same stress, they will feel better or get help; its like they feel that if I’m upset too, they won’t be alone in it. I can feel the pull between the three of us of how they want company in their emotions. I am always trying to live from a place of non-reaction by putting more space around my choices. It is kind of funny to hang out with people who really really want to get a reaction out of you when you so badly want to stop reacting to everything that comes your way. There is a kind of perfection in it that allows me to feel just how connected I am to everything and how God/Life lines up the perfect circumstances to grow you to be more of your essential self.

You can be sure that whatever circumstances you are working with, they are the exact, perfect ones made just for you that will deliver you to all that you are meant to experience on the path leading in the direction of becoming more of who you really are. Whenever I hit a bump or fall flat on my face by forgetting everything I know, I can feel the meaning in the experience and be grateful for whatever the details looked like. Me and my little emotional bandits get up and forgive each other pretty quickly and jump back into the joy of life. We talk openly about all these things, so they are learning right alongside me. They teach me so much in such a pure way.

Let’s have a moment of get-real perspective here; perception is always a great teacher, it is usually a good idea to flip things around and see how they look from the other side. As I was thinking about the “emotional bandits” part of things, I realized that I am an emotional bandit as well. I have heard myself say, “Why can’t we just be in the moment?”, “Let’s get into the flow of life.”, “Joy is waiting for you whenever you’re ready.”, and many more such statements. It would seem that I, too, am guilty of resisting the emotions others are experiencing and trying to get them to feel something I want to feel. Even if I am trying to get them to feel “good” things, it is still me trying to get those around me to feel and act the way I want them to, so that it can come more easily to me as well. To be honest, I have seen myself in bad times trying to get others to feel bad with me too. It is a hard thing to admit, but as I look at things from this perspective, I cringe at some of the times I was down, stressed or overwhelmed and my husband was happily buzzing around and I dragged him through my emotions just to have some company. Fear makes us do all kinds of weird things. Thank goodness we have always come out of it pretty quickly and we know where it all comes from. The yuckie stuff is always fear and the lovely stuff is love…no exception.

So, we all do it…we all try to bring our loved ones with us on our little emotional trips. As we ride the waves in a storm, it is lonely to do it alone…we seek company and we drag them into our boat because we are afraid of making the trip alone. Once we can learn to live from a more spacious place that allows others to have their feelings and express what they’re going through without it affecting our state of mind, we can be free of the seasickness and truly taste the freedom of acceptance, present moment living and inner peace. Next time you notice an emotional bandit trying to take you for a ride, just give them love and let it pass through you. Try comforting them by intense listening that allows them to be heard without resistance from you that would cause them to try to convince you and pull you into their emotional boat. If you notice yourself trying to take others for your emotional ride, turn towards love and remember that everything passes, things are always as they should be and even though it feels like it would be lonely to go it alone…it isn’t. Sometimes we just need to feel our feelings deeply and pass through them alone to let them lose their power over us. We can grow and become more of who we really are by swimming deeper, feeling more stillness and realizing that we aren’t ever truly alone…we are connected to all that is around us…what we can see and what we cannot.

Picture it, if you are living at the surface of life, riding the waves, you need that little boat and you constantly seek company in there to endure all the seasickness and storms. If you are the ocean, you don’t need the boat. You don’t need to get in the boat with others and you don’t need to drag others into yours. You can just be the ocean and heal yourself and others as you spread love and stay calm and peaceful in the moment.

Sending you love, calm, peace, joy and presence.

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