April 30, 2011

Sometimes, everything goes wrong . . .  a virus infects your computer, or you; the time invested in errands keeps you from spending some quiet time at home; a trip begins far later than planned. Frustration builds and it is hard not to look for someone or something to blame for your apparent bad luck. That is the time to take a deep breath and really look at the situation and try to discern a pattern or a message in these irritations. Have you been zooming through life and are these momentary impediments being placed in your path to slow you down, to contemplate your actions and reactions, to regroup and rethink? Did the delay in departing on your trip keep you from being a part of an accident or potentially larger delay? Did the computer virus encourage you to run anti-virus software that you had been putting off doing? Did your physical virus force you into an attitude of much needed rest? Did pushing yourself to complete the errands create a larger quiet time later on? When we examine our challenges closely, we can often discern blessings and lessons. Namaste!

April 29, 2011

In holding on past the point we should, we open ourselves to all sorts of frustrations and disappointments. When we continue to go in a direction that no longer holds any possibility of fulfillment or fruition, we waste time and energy. We are like that small creature that holds onto the river rock, fearful of what exists downstream, not realizing that this life is an adventure to savor. When we summon our courage and let go, we find new possibilities, new paths, new ideas that reach out to us like old friends meeting again. We cannot control the outcome, or even the direction of the path that bends and shifts in directions we could not imagine or foresee. When we let go and follow the path of least resistance, the one that carries us gently to the next experience, we find ourselves traveling seamlessly through life with a sense of peaceful purpose. In letting go, we allow ourselves to go with the flow. Namaste!

April 28, 2011

Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” The past and the future are not as important as the moment of now and our relationship to it. Who we are, how we act, and what we think in that moment is informed by our spirit, which, in turn, is informed by the Creative Force, communicating via the energy of love across the interdependent web. On other planes, all of these are as tangible and knowable as the body we inhabit here or the physical objects with which we surround ourselves. Our spirit knows these truths, but our physical minds must become quiet and attentive to share in this knowledge. The more extraneous thoughts we can ease away from our core, the more we are able to open our awareness to the wider reality. In the moment of now, our real selves can join with the All in a communion informed by compassion and love. Namaste!

April 27, 2011

As we examine our lives at this time, in this moment, we can find that we are clinging to ideas and dogmas that are not our own and do not fit comfortably with who we are. This can lead to a disassociation from who we really are and what our spirit really needs to grow in this lifetime for the betterment of our self and for the All. When we allow others to define who we are, what we should do, how we should live, and what we should believe, we leave ourselves open to being controlled by those we are listening to. That control robs us of our personal strength to grow and leaves us open to finding ourselves mired in ideas that are not grown from the fertile garden of love and peace. Often, those trying to control others through dogma use fear and hatred to grow their personal power to the detriment of the All. When we release dogma and embrace our personal beliefs and dreams, we live within the sustaining and informing spirit of the Creative Force. Namaste!

April 26, 2011

Time for spring cleaning is upon us. It is time to sort through your environment and determine what is still useful, what is not, what is reusable by someone else, and what needs to be recycled or, alas, thrown away. It is hard, but ultimately rewarding to clean out our physical environment of physical objects, and enjoy the empty spaces that can now be used for new, more useful, or beautiful items. Now is also the time to examine our old ideas, memories, and dogmas that we cling to because they have inhabited space in our brains for a long time, providing comfort or consternation, pride or guilt, happiness or grief. Do these ideas continue to fulfill us or are they confining us, causing us to continue to act and react out of a sense of conformity or misguided sense of responsibility the need for which really fell away years ago? Are we retaining ideas that sustain our now or do these ideas mire us in a past that we should really let go of? When we spring clean our ideas, we leave space for new, more useful, or beautiful thoughts and dreams. Namaste!

April 25, 2011

We are physically born to parents. Through them, we are made aware of siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. We share a physical lineage with them. Our genetics are handed down from one generation to another. It is fairly easy to trace our physical lineage and many websites exist now to help us do so. At the same time, we have a spiritual lineage, people with whom we incarnate over lifetimes. While this spiritual lineage can include biological family members—a father’s spirit could have been a cousin’s spirit in an earlier incarnation, or a sister could have been a mother—we also are connected to people who are not physically related. Not only could a close friend have been a friend in a previous lifetime, she could also have been a relative. As we travel through our current incarnation, we meet people with whom we have an immediate connection, and some we can’t get away from fast enough. These visceral reactions are indications of previous lifetimes together. Our physical and spiritual lineages inform our current relationships with others. Namaste!