LIVING WITH A FULL HEART

The heart is said to be the most powerful muscle in the body. Energetically, each time it beats thousands of neurons fire, creating an electric pulse, which induces a magnetic pulse that is measurable well beyond the body. These are the strongest E-M fields that the body produces.

But emotionally and energetically we often think of the heart as weak or fragile. It may have been broken and torn in the past, and we fear it may be again in the future, so we are reluctant to really be present in it and experience life in the heart and from the heart. Perhaps the key word above is "think". Our hearts are actually very strong and powerful, a seat of our life energies and our soul. They are the gateway for unconditional love to come into us and into our lives. These energies and aspects are really much larger than the old emotional pain and fear that we may have stored there and use as armoring against future encounters.

One of the reasons that I love nature, is that when it is challenging to open your heart around other humans, nature is simple and clear. She loves us the same way she loves all of life, no judgment or expectations. It is natural for the heart to open in nature. You probably have your places that you like to hang out. Next time consciously invite your heart to open to the trees, or mountains, or water that you love. Letting your heart open, feel it supported by nature, loving you back. The wider it opens the fuller it feels.

Opening your heart outward to nature, and feeling her reply, begin to open it inward. Find that same love of you from the inside. It is there, part of who you are, a natural state of being. Let nature help you as needed. Invoke love from inside your Self, call it up and wait for it. When your heart is open on the inside, to soul, to source, there is an unlimited supply of unconditional love that flows into your heart, until it is bursting.

When your heart is full from the inside, you will find you no longer need armor or protection that you may have now. You are strong, not by being tough, but by being full of love. When you are full of the love that is you, and it is infinite, what can really harm you? You can be present, open, and yet powerful in your certainty and fullness.

This heart is not open in the sense of taking on everyone else's issues, or reaching out to heal the world. It is about being present: full and aware. In this place you know that everything else is also spirit, the world becomes magical and beautiful, and you can assist others as you choose. This heart is open firstly to yourself, and then to the world in terms of connection and awareness.

We are co-creating a world where we can live this way, live all the time in the joy we find in nature or with a beloved. Creating a world where being in our hearts we can create our dreams and our livelihoods from this place rather than figuring them out from our minds. This is a world where we are not afraid to be present with others in a richer way, open to who they are, sharing presence, aware that we are all children of God and full of love that is waiting to burst forth to wash away the fear and loneliness that comes between us too often now.

I hope to see you in this world soon.

(© 12/10)[read the full version @ http://www.wholebeingexplorations.com/archives/liveheart/]

EASY, EFFORTLESS AND GRACEFUL

If you have worked with me you may have heard me invoke the qualities of Ease, Effortlessness, and Grace for your process. I do that in part to remind you, your Self, and Spirit to take things easy when you are making big changes. As spiritual beings we can move very fast (effectively instantaneously) but our physical, emotional, and mental aspects which exist in the manifest world of time and space generally appreciate a gentler approach, allowing them to adjust easily, effortlessly, and gracefully to the powerful changes that your spirit is making.

In spiritual work releasing and clearing old energies and patterns is not the only aspect, perhaps not even the most important. When we move into a new house we clear out all the old things that don't belong to us. We may also sort through our own belongings to see which ones we are done with and which we wish to move with us. The major part, especially if it is a bigger house, is selecting the new things that suit ourselves in our new home.

As you evolve along the spiritual path, however you conceive of it, it is important to be looking forward to where you are going, opening to who you already are. In healing work, or in the mundane world, this involves developing resources that will assist on the journey; cultivating aspects of yourself that have been forgotten, but are always there; deepening into who you know yourself to be; and connecting to spiritual guides and other resources. If you are building a new house you want the best tools, so that it is as easy, effortless and graceful as possible.

Once you have chosen them it is important to learn how to locate and work with your new tools. Amusement is a great example, as "Everything goes better with amusement". You will have heard me invoke amusement whenever I do a reading or healing, because it helps you step out of fear and lubricates the healing processes. In Harry Potter there are creatures called Bogarts that appear to you as your greatest fear. The way to deal with a Bogart is to add something to the picture that makes it ridiculous, which dissipates the fear and the breaks Bogart's power.

Wanting to bring more amusement into your life: you could take the "straight up the cliff" approach by invoking amusement in the situations that are scariest for you. You might find this challenging, especially if you wait to try this until you are actually in that situation. Easy, Effortless, and Graceful, suggests that you can practice and develop your amusement where it comes naturally to you, where you already have it. As your ability to consciously access it in one part of your life increases, you are building muscles and you can call it up in other areas that are more challenging. Over time you will become so familiar with amusement as a state of being that you will be able to move into it any time and any where, no matter how challenging the circumstances.

You are cultivating a state of being and learning to access it without effort. It is actually already a part of you, as are confidence, courage, compassion, abundance, joy, or any other quality that you desire to have more present in your life. Set your intention, find the easiest places, where the quality you want more of is already manifest for you, and practice it before you need it. By starting when and where they are already easy, effortless, and graceful for you, you develop your new qualities and states of being deeply and effectively. Have fun practicing.

(© 12/10)

HOLDING SPACE

If you've ever had a friend call up because they've just had something significant happen in their life and you take the time to listen to them, in their excitement, or joy; sadness or confusion, you've held space for them. Doing this is a great gift, validating their experience of themselves and giving them space to spontaneously shift things that need shifting.

In my training as an energy worker we learned about setting the energy of a space. Something like interior decorating with energy. Different spaces and different activities work best with different energetic backgrounds or tones. Once you have set the space you can maintain it consciously, which is holding space in a formal sense.

When I am doing healing work with you it is important to set and hold space in a way the enhances and facilitates your process. Sometimes these pieces may be set intentionally and formally, or they may simply flow from the energy and intention I bring to the space myself. The quality of presence that one brings to a teaching or healing space is a key part of the whole process.

In studying successful healers it has been found that they all bring a level of compassion; allowing things to be as they are with love and gratitude. The great power of this energy is that until something can be accepted in the present moment, it cannot be changed. Once you can allow something to be present, you can begin to choose to keep it, or change it. As long as it is not accepted it is in the future or past, and thus out of reach.

When I am doing energy work with you, holding space for deep processing or transformation, there is the sense of almost literally holding the space in my hands, using them to invoke levels of energy that will facilitate your process. Until recently I have usually experienced this as holding a specific energetic vibration; of love, compassion, gentle support, or some other positive quality that seems appropriate to the situation.

In the last year a deeper level has shown up to be held. To me it is simply the void. The void is not nothing. It is a vast sea of energy that has not yet come into physical manifestation. I see it as the ground of all possibilities. In holding this energy it is implicit that anything is possible, that you can release whatever is present and reform it in any way that serves you. To do this you have to release all the beliefs, resistances and attachments that have collected around the issue or condition you are working with. Easier said than done, but when this level of energy shows up, it brings these qualities with it, making things simpler and deeper.

The void is inside us all, underneath all of what we think we are, and if you ask it to arise it can become conscious to you as well. When we can allow ourselves to drop into the dark, then we can come through it into the light of the love that is all the possibilities and becomes all the forms. This is really who you are.

We are now collectively learning and releasing what we need to to hold this space for each other and even for ourselves. May you find the courage you already have for this grand adventure.

(© 11/10) [read the full version @ http://www.wholebeingexplorations.com/archives/holdingspace/]

HYPNOSIS AS CO-CREATION

Just about 5 years ago, in a breakout during my Hypnotherapy training, I experienced a deeper trance, letting go more than I ever had before, and the process was just happening for me, to me. I was playing with dolphins in the ocean and then out in space and they were laughing as they always do, finding it so amusing that we had to work at healing, something that for them was natural and playful, just a part of who they are.

I realized that all of the guided meditations, and earlier hypnosis experiences had been created by my conscious mind. Listening to the instructions it then produced the appropriate pictures or other experiences to the best of its ability. Playing with the dolphins the experience simply unfolded, happening before I could think it, arising from some place other than my conscious mind.

This to me is the intention of "hypnosis", to allow other aspects of our full self; the subconscious associative memory, or the superconscious higher self, guides or Spirit, to assist in our process and teach us, heal us, create an experience for us. It may be a dialogue with aspects of self, family, friends, or spiritual helpers. It may be a journey, with dreamlike realism, or more abstract symbology. The journey itself may be your process, or just a path along which things happen, or an exploration of your inner world. It might be in present time, or the past or the future even.

Inviting the conscious mind to step out of the loop for a while, allows many other resources to show up to support you, co-create with you, communicate and give to you. Any surrendering in the process is not to the therapist, but to these aspects of Self. The therapist is a facilitator and guide, holder of a safe container, another strand in the co-creation, not a controller or puppet-master fixing you like a broken machine.

Over the years I have noticed that many people expect their experience to be like mine, where everything is happening for/to them, and they sit back for the ride. While this may happen for you, more often you develop a co-creative process where you are also in the picture, interacting, and making choices. If you are imagining a place its form may appear, or you might just feel that it should be a certain way. There are lots of ways that things can show up, and some of them may be as conscious thoughts, feeling, preferences.

It is the part of the mind that operates in shoulds and shouldn'ts, that wants to figure it all out as you go along that we are asking to step aside so your process can unfold. There is great wisdom in the rest of you. Mixed in with the issues and pain there is the wisdom for how to release and complete, so you can move forward and create.

Your waking life is like this also. We may try to figure things out, consciously create what we think is right, or best for us, but when we make space for our intuition, higher self, and the Divine to co-create with us we can relax into their support and find the flow. Co-creation in waking life, as in trance space, however does not mean checking out and expecting it all to just show up. It is a balance of presence and allowing, active and receptive, masculine and feminine which are always necessary for any creative act in this universe.

One of the meta benefits for people working in trance states is realizing this process of co-creation, of letting the different aspects of Self weave together to create a stronger tapestry with less effort, in our inner world, and in our outer world. May you find joy in deepening the awareness and experience of co-creation in your life.

(© 11/10)

MENTAL PROJECTIONS

Take a moment to look at something nearby. A tree out the window, a friend or family member over your shoulder, even a book on a shelf next to your desk. Notice the mind labeling it, "tree", "Julia", "book", whatever the name is. Do you then turn back to this note, or something else, having "seen" that person or thing? Or do you stop, let the mental label pass and really look, feel, experience the person or thing for what it is, right now?

So much of our perception is seeing what ought to be there, what we remember from yesterday, or last month. We are actually projecting outwards as much as we are receiving inwards. Take a moment to notice the leaves on the tree, one by one, to be aware of the complexity of it, the details, how even as you watch it, it is moving and changing. See your friend or loved one, how do they look right now, how do they feel, how do you feel? Even the book; really see the spine, the title, the color and texture.

Yesterday I was out walking and letting my mind go I noticed that my whole being was perceiving. Walking over stone gravel, my being was experiencing stone, both in general and these particular stones, no two alike. Walking over grass, green again with the recent rains, feeling the life and energy of the grass. The blue open sky, the trees in all their phases of fall transformations, each leaf a different shade of green or yellow or brown. Setting the mind and the labels aside I was experiencing, perceiving in a deeper way.

Now shift your attention inwards. Close your eyes, let go your ears, your external feeling, even your sense of smell. What do you experience?

If you know any sort of meditative practice, are you already into that practice? Setting things up in a certain way, running through a routine, or a check list, creating some visualization? Even if you are noticing things along the way, how much is your mind involved in guiding this process?

Let yourself for a moment release all this experience. Give your self space to be in the dark, or the light, inside yourself, and notice what you notice.

Perhaps you have learned this years ago. Great! but the mind will project itself inwards as well as outwards. It will call out well known land marks, name them and check them off; it wants structure and pattern, all the rest. Not that working with the mind on the inside is not productive, but what happens when you just create a space, without conscious mind? what shows up then? Who shows up then?

Just as we walk through the world thinking that we are receiving sensory experience when we are often crafting and shaping and projecting outwards from our minds, how much of our inward experience is of a similar nature?

If we are beings of light and energy, beings with higher/deeper aspects, does the mental effort in meditation help us to connect with these levels of self? or not? Try some time just creating space inside, releasing the projects and inviting your higher self to show up. Perhaps it's that simple?

You may find that other things, other aspects will appear first. As Rumi says, welcome them in the front door and show them out the back. Continue to make space and invite your higher self to show up. Remember that it is always there, always has been, you are just learning to recognize it more for itself, and less for what you think it is.

Just as releasing the mind's external projections and creative efforts shifts your experience into a deeper more direct level of being, and being in touch with the spirit loose in the world, so setting aside the inner mental creations opens more space to experience your spirit and deep self directly, rather than through the forms of the mind. This is the self made of love and joy. Breath in, let go and ENjoy.

(© 10/10)

LOSING YOUR MIND

Sitting on grass, with your back against a tree, a blue sky overhead and a view of nature spread in front of you. Perhaps a grassy field, a mountain backdrop, a lake or the ocean. Relaxing into nature, the tree has your back, your breath comes full and deep, your heart is open and something is singing inside. Your mind drifts like a small cloud far away and you are just present in the world, alive and joyful.

You have lost your mind, It has wandered off, or gone to sleep, leaving you to experience the rest of your being and for the moment you are living from your heart, resting in your soul. .

This seems like a good thing. In fact we may go to some effort for this sort of experience. How much of spiritual practice is about transcending the mind, finding Samadhi, losing the ego? All many ways this has been said.

However to say someone has "lost their mind" has a different feel to it, in fact a different meaning. Language can be confusing. Perhaps this is something that holds us back? Considering this recently, walking in the woods, it came to me that in fact the people who are said to have lost their minds ("gone crazy") were, rather, "lost in their minds". They were lost in hallucinations, delusions, mental constructs and fantasies. They were stuck in emotions, memories, lost in an internal maze.

These people may be said to have too much mind, rather than too little.

How often in everyday life do we have too much mind? Worries of all sorts that we seem to have no choice but to play over and over. Work, relationships, health. We may even tell our friends, "I'm loosing my mind here". But actually it is far from lost, in fact we can't escape it. What we are loosing is our Self.

Sitting against the tree,we stay for a while, before returning to the life in which our mind is engaged for us. You have conversations with loved ones, remember how to fix your favorite food, or how to find a great restaurant.

There are different levels of mind and they can serve us, or enslave us. Learning to "lose your mind" is about developing that choice, to work with the right tool at the right time, to be aware of the levels of awareness that are other than "mental", are of the body or the spirit. It is about learning how to find your Self, to cease to be lost in the maya of your egoic mind. It is about becoming sane, not crazy; free of any old fears and labels.

Cultivating the loss of mind: where do you really need it, and when does it get in the way, or distract you from being present with life? The next time you are worrying, remember the tree and the field or the sea: step out of the maze, experience your Self with a heart full of joy. Lose a little more mind and gain a little more soul.

(© 10/10)

TALKING TO NATURE

All summer long I've been taking time to be in nature. When I'm by a stream, in the mountains, or just lying on the grass near my house; I let the mind quite a bit, open my heart and feel that there is a conversation going on. This is a conversation between my being and nature. Its a conversation without words, or even feelings, though it is through some level of feeling that I know it is happening.

While I don't know what the contents of this conversation are, I know deeply that it is nurturing and helpful to me as a soul living in a human body. I can guess that I am being reminded of how the natural world works, outside of mind and human construction. It is connected, and we are meant to be connected. It is grounded and that is good for us as well. It is fluid and moving, rather than stuck. It is full of innate wisdom and knowing, so that nothing needs to be figured out.

Most of the universe operates without the use of an analytic mind. I am being reminded of this, perhaps invited to remember and bring into awareness ways of navigating life that don't involve planning and analyzing. Not that these don't have their place and usefulness, but too much and you wear yourself out.

Watching the full moon in August rising from the plans of Colorado, hazy pink in the moist evening air, gradually becoming clearer and brighter as it floats into the evening sky. I am in the foothills looking east, surrounded by nature, and suddenly I have a clear sense of the natural matrix, which waits to hold me, orient me, support me. It is a different matrix from the lights and roads I see out on the plains; part of the matrix of the universe, rather than that of the human mind. Remembering this and opening into it is a profoundly joyful experience.

Driving around town as the summer days slowly fade into fall, I notice the trees, the sky, the grass finally brown after a summer of green. I am aware of the cars and what I am doing, but I allow my heart to reach our and connect to nature. Both matrices are here, woven through each other, and I find centering and joy in one, even while I navigate the other. I believe that they do not need to be at odds, but it is clear that as we yearn to bring our higher larger self into awareness, into our life, talking to nature, reconnecting to its universal matrix of spirit, reminds us and teaches us what we need to know.

So allow yourself to find nature around you, even in the cities it is there if you look. Open to it, align with it, and let it talk to you and teach you. Remembering you will find more joy and become more fully human.
(© 9/10)

RELAXING INTO LIFE

It has been said that necessity is the mother of invention. I've often noticed that laziness is another good stimulus for creativity. In other words, if something has to be done why use more energy or effort than necessary to accomplish it?

Working a summer office job in high school I can remember people commenting on something I was doing with a bit of surprise. I can't remember the details now (except that it involved the office copier and 200 pages reports), but I remember responding that the creativity had come from being lazy. Contrary to popular views, this sort of laziness promotes efficiency, something like inventing the washing machine when you are tired of doing the clothes by hand.

A few years later I started practicing Tai Chi. As one early teacher used to say, the whole point is to learn to relax. When asked how you did this he would say, "practice, practice, practice". As in most things in life, being relaxed, rather than tense or nervous, yields better results. It is also physically easier and less tiring. One day I was playing pool with a friend of mine and I thought of my tai chi, dropped my center, relaxed into my legs, and found that my playing flowed effortlessly.

Many years later I had occasion to spend several months digging out the lower level of a house to allow new windows and doors to go in. For a number of reasons I choose to do this by hand. Working again from tai chi I focused on relaxing as much as possible and found that I could release the tension and soreness from my body this way. I also taught myself the easiest and most efficient way to work with a pick and shovel. Over the years I have learned that if you want to learn the most efficient (easiest) way to do something: focus on staying as relaxed as possible while doing it. Your being will naturally find the desired result.

Think about all great athletes, artists, or practitioners of any art. When we wish to express the mastery we see in them, we say that they made it look effortless.

In the energy work that I do the concept of effortlessness is emphasized, though it is really more an attitude or state of being. Anything can be done with, or without effort. It is both easier and usually more efficient to do it without effort. Lack of effort is not at all the same as not paying attention, it is about relaxing while you do something. Find the tension in your body or being and relax it and everything will improve.

I once had a chance to help with a rice harvest in rural Japan, some of which was done by hand. This is indeed tiring work. Harvest time is also the time of year when there are festivals in the villages, including dancing. Watching the dancing one evening I realized that the movements in the dance where the same as in the harvesting and that they also both movements seen in martial arts. Over the millennia people have found the easiest, most efficient motions of the body. This is natural at the end of a day of harvesting, or a long practice session, you have no energy for anything else.

So if you are interested in efficiency, in the optimal way to do something, it will also be the easiest and the most relaxed. Remember to factor in emotional and mental energy as well, then it can be fun as well as efficient. Learning to relax may sound like being lazy, but as long as there is presence, awareness and attention (no limp noodles), there is life and ease and grace.

(© 9/10)

SUNLIGHT REFELCTIONS

Take a moment and remember all the places you've gone swimming. Remember all the swimming you've done out doors, in sunlight, where the water is shallow, clear, and you can see the patterns of sunlight on the bottom. It might be a beach, or a lake, or a swimming pool, but the sunlight is refracted by the surface of the water and collects into ever moving patterns of light. Ribbons of light that intersect in brighter blobs making a network that depends on the patterns of waves above.

When I was in college and studying physics I always had a sense that this was an image of how energy collects to form particles, which move and interact, always changing. I never "worked out" this metaphor in detail, but have often remembered it since. There is a field of energy that exists everywhere, and the particles are just denser places. There is light everywhere on the bottom of a pool, but it's collected, focused by the waves into brighter ribbons and blobs, into forms and particles.

Later I studied yoga and my teacher spoke about how consciousness became denser as it came out from source and into the physical. He spoke as if there were planes, or levels with interfaces which could reflect and refract consciousness as it emerged, helping to give it form. This is what happens at the surface of the water, the interface with the air above, and the light which was uniform is refracted and reflected and takes on form and pattern as it enters the water and shines onto the bottom.

Spirit infuses matter, as the light shines into the water. It projects into matter, but is refracted in ways that produce form. It is denser in some places, bright and noticeable, and less so in others, but never absent, only relatively less present.

When the water becomes still the patterns fade, the light is everywhere the same, until a breeze comes or a swimmer moves, and waves are formed and the pattern of light and dark reappears. Perhaps this it how the mind works, creating patterns, dramas, and dreams; by refracting the light of spirit into brighter and less bright, light and shadow we may call it. When the thoughts and emotions still and the surface calms, spirit can shine evenly into us. The forms disappear, and we may miss the variety, the beauty of the patterns, but the stillness allows peace and an unrefracted experience of the divine.

In your mind's eye, or the next time you go swimming under the sun, notice these patterns and let your being remember how spirit infuses you as the sunlight does the water. Notice what images or metaphors arise for you.

(© 8/10)

DEEPER AFFIRMATIONS

Several weeks ago I was having one of those days where mental focus and clarity about my current spiritual journey was less than optimal. Being reworked by Spirit again, leaving me to trust in my higher Self which knows this business better than I. Fortunately a good friend of mine was available to take a look at things for me and in the course of having a conversation with my higher Self and was told to remind me to make use of affirmations.

My fuzzy mind reacted with an attitude; been there done that, not likely to help. This is in spite of having made use of affirmations, or self-hypnotic suggestions for many years. When I first read about affirmations they were discussed as a way to reprogram the mind. Repeating a well constructed affirmation would stir up counter programing and belief, all the reasons something wasn't possible. Eventually this mental back talk would be cleared out and the new positive belief installed.

When I trained as a hypnotherapist, self-hypnotic suggestions took this a step further. By dropping into a trance state first, conscious mental filtering is by-passed and the suggestions enter directly into the subconscious. This is a process I teach most of my clients and have used extensively and effectively myself.

In spite of the mental brush-off I was inspired to work that week with a new affirmation. As I repeated it to myself as during the following days, I noticed something new. There was a body level response. I was feeling the affirmation. It wasn't just a mental loop of words going over and over and fading into automatic background (not that that's bad). I would think the words to myself and I would feel my being respond with the quality that the words represented.

It was like dropping stones in a well and hearing them splash, except I was dropping them into myself and feeling the echo. This was pretty cool. As a ceremonialist I recognized this as a form of invocation. The words were invoking a state. Rather than somehow reprograming myself to be something new, I was calling forth something that was already there. This is what my higher Self had been after. It wanted me to use affirmations to remind myself of what I already was. Calling forth qualities that my higher/deeper Self already knew and could bring forward into the receptive space I created by "listening".

I have been shown over and over in my work that we are already everything we need to be. We are souls that are fully capable and realized. Just not fully conscious. But the places that need to heal have the wisdom for that healing, the Self we want to be is already existing, even if we are not fully aware of it. We are deep, reaching all the way to Source. If we call down into ourselves another part of us will answer.

So when you next work with affirmations, try them with this in mind. Say the words; then pause; listen/feel for the echo from your Self. Create a space to feel them in your body and know that they are already true. Calling your Self into awareness you will be everything you can be.

(© 8/10)

FINDING LOVE WITHIN YOURSELF

I had a teacher who spoke of the difference between being in love with someone and simply being in love.

The egotistical love of self is a emotional/mental affair in which we are focused on the beauty of our personality. As with most egotistical functions it is usually driven by fear and self-doubt, and is not really a true self satisfaction, or a true love.

The great teachers have been aiming at something else, which is why there is no real danger of confusing the Love they advocate with an active ego. Our deep nature, our true Self, is Love. Simple as that. We have the ability to reach inside and find it, to call it forth, to feel ecstatic love welling up inside and overflowing into the world.

In the body it may feel similar to the love that we experience with another human being, and we often believe we need someone else to call it forth. Thus the need to love and be loved.

But when we can feel into our own being and accept what is there, including the fear, the doubt, the anger, and the sorrow, space opens over time, the temple is cleaned, and we open to love. When this happens it is the most powerful embrace you have ever felt, an acceptance of yourself as you would your dearest lover.

Perhaps it is easier to consider this an embrace of the divine, an ecstasy from God, or Goddess, rather than an embrace of self, but this is mental chatter. We are at our root divine, and the divine can come through us as much as it comes through nature, or a lover.

When you feel this you know that it is completely different from selfish ego love, for another or for yourself. There is no possessiveness, in fact the more you share it the more it grows. There is no underlying doubt or fear, though there is room for these in this temple and accepting them they are transformed. Love of Self is a state of being that encompasses the whole body, the whole being, and the ego mind is relaxed and lulled to sleep, though other aspects of mind may open and be crystal clear.

Experiencing yourself as Love is a joy that impels you to raise your voice and sing, that calls for you to lose your small self rather than celebrate it, knowing that it is not needed really, that you can do and relate from a different place. It is never selfish in the way we mean that term, as there is no small self involved. It is however, the Self,

If you are not sure of the difference, invoke the Love that is your Self. Ask with all your heart for it to come to you, and it will. Ask it to teach you and it will. Slowly perhaps, or swiftly, radiantly. With patience and perseverance this Love will deepen and grow, until there is no room for ego love; fear, doubt, loneliness or selfishness. Sing loud and call yourself home.
Blessings and enjoy.

(© 7/10)

THE WEB OF SUNLIGHT

The Colorado foothills are especially beautiful this year. Green and lush from the heavy spring rains they are spotted with the color of wild flowers. The day before the Solstice I was assisting a ceremony in the foothills above Boulder, surrounded by fields and pines vibrant and alive under a blue afternoon sky accentuated with the puffy piles of white that are summer afternoon clouds in over the mountains. The birds were signing and calling, a buck wandered across the opposite hillside. Waiting by a path that was the entrance to the ceremonial site I was smudging the participants as they arrived, letting the smoke clear their space, helping them to ground and release whatever didn't serve them, to be open to the celebration that they had come for.

Between greetings, I let my mind drift, opening my heart to the magnificent manifestation of Spirit and Life around me. I find that at times like these I often notice pattern and detail as much a grand scope. Focused on the grass and flowers near the path I heard a buzzing sound over my shoulder. Looking around I noticed a bee had landed on a flower near my feet. This little guy was busy appreciating the flower in a different way, collecting the sweet nectar that he would return to his hive to contribute to the making of the honey there. Perhaps it was the Solar theme of the Solstice, but in my open state a knowing welled up, taking the form of thought, but coming from a more intuitive level. I was looking at a small step in a chain of solar energy flowing through the world.

The chain expanded out from the bee and the flower to the sun shining its light, received by the leaves of this flower, converted into energy which was used to grow and generate the flower, with its yellow daisy petals, and the nectar that the bee was collecting. In the other direction the nectar would become honey, stored solar energy, to feed young bees, bears, or humans. These bees, bears, or humans having enjoyed the honey would convert its sweetness into movement, or muscle, or store it for the future.

Looking up and out from the bee and its flower I knew that the landscape around me was filled with similar flows, a web of moving, transforming energy, connecting all the visible pieces in ways often invisible to our usual sight. Awareness that the Sun we were about to celebrate is the source of all the energy that flows through this world came through me. The Sun that powers the vast and varied creativity of life on planet Earth. This energy changes into so many forms, is passed back and forth, from plant to animal to plant or human. It lifts the rain that powers the rivers. It falls on the Earth differently at different latitudes and helps to generate the winds. It raises the clouds and creates the lightening. It is stored by the plants, those essential gatherers on the front line of Earthly life, and is passed along as vegetables, grain, fruit, or falls with the leaves and nourishes more plants. In the seas and the swamps it was stored millions of years ago and became coal, or oil, or gas.

This world is literally a web of flowing, transforming, solar energy. I invite you to make some time to go outside, to feel into the clouds, the trees, the bees and the flowers, to open to an appreciation for the rich flow of sunlight in all its forms. Looking with your intuition and feeling from your soul, become aware of the life force flowing everywhere. Appreciate how you are held and supported in this web, and how precious and necessary it is for your life. Find the joy in being consciously alive, and give yourself permission to notice this level of life in the world around you, inside yourself.

Eat some honey, appreciate some amber, be blessed by the Sun in all its forms. Step into the sacred embodied in the world and in yourself.

(© 7/10)

BRINGING IT HOME

When I was growing up there had been a developing sense among younger people that the established western social/economic system was not working very well for the people living in/by/under it. The response was a rejection of "the system", a "dropping out" in some form. Perhaps a trip to India, or work in a developing country, living on a communal farm, substances, meditation, or music.

Over time much was learned in this way, and some of it was brought back to the larger society. Some of it has been incubated in communities, or in the heart. In spite of what people sometimes think, many things have changed. Perhaps not as dramatically as had been envisioned, but slowly and subtly. A conversation that takes place on a topic that would not have happened before, a possibility that is present for young people that wasn't before, a sense of Spirit at large in the world that is taken as given.

My yoga teacher used to say that its great to go find God in a cave in the mountains, but the real challenge is to hold onto Spirit in the middle of the market place. Much of the searching was spiritual, some of this was brought back, but there has still been a feeling that people needed to separate to find it, to get "off the grid" in one way or another. If you came back to the system, you would loose it or "sell out".

These days there is a whole new generation coming of age. A generation that has had the chance to grow up with ideas that were revolutionary "back in the day". More importantly a generation which seems to have a different frame of mind. They are finding Spirit, or it is finding them. They don't worry as much about "inside" and "ouside"; they simply go where they need to be. More and more they are finding their calling inside "the system", and are committed to bringing Spirit "inside". Bringing an ongoing awareness of Spirit into not only the healing arts, but computer programming; not just in teaching our children, but in managing the board room.

Have you ever received an email from a loved one, and felt that love. Energy and Spirit can move through technology along with the electrons. It is all Spirit, there is no division unless we choose to think it.

How do we weave the spiritual into the system and transform it from the inside out? This is already being done, one step at a time, one person at a time. By bringing your full awareness of Spirit and your spiritual self with you in all areas of your life. Many of us have been "in the wilderness", others are finding a more direct path. We are all "bringing it back home", to where we live everyday, weaving it into how we work together, how we use technology, how we do business. Spirit is everywhere, all we need to do is recognize that, every day, all the time. Search it out, bring it into your awareness, out of the background. Recognizing it and appreciating it, especially in each other takes us all "out of the box", creates space for the form to more fully reflect the underlying reality.

Notice how you are carrying your understanding of spirit, of yourself as a spiritual being into your life. Perhaps your light is carried under a basket, perhaps you don't always speak to it in others, or perhaps it is out and shining, reflecting off those around you. Just don't hide it in a closet, or leave it in the wilderness. Create the space to carry it with you, always, and things are changing. Time to find your brothers and sisters and begin the weave.

(© 6/10)

STARTING POINT

We are all familiar with the metaphor of water finding the easiest way downhill. It always seeks the lowest level, flowing naturally to find the fastest route to the sea. When it meets a boulder this means going around it, until through time it wears it away or undermines it until the boulder falls out of the way. It is the nature of our minds, however, to focus on boulders, to be concerned with the things that don't work, that are hard or painful in our lives.

While some of the water in a stream continues wash against the boulder, most of it goes around, where the path is easier, clearing the pebbles and stones on either side. More importantly it maintains its own nature, the flow and play of being water. Where it all to pile up behind the boulder as behind a damn it would become angry and frustrated, or still and depressed. It would be unhealthy and untrue to its nature.

Perhaps its a stretch to think of the emotional tone of water, but emotional tone is important for human beings. The emotional tone we bring to things is a powerful piece of the end result as well as the process. Faced with "problems" we tend to be in turbulent or depressed emotional states. Some amount of this is natural and we can roll with it, but when the focus is constant and not balanced with flow and play, this emotional tone spills over into more and more of our lives.

It is common that some area of our lives is lacking in a quality that we would like to have there. It might be playfulness, at work or love in relationship. It might be a level of confidence, or self-ownership in some area of your life. If we focus on this lack we are like the water pounding on the boulder, we give it attention and loose sigh of the places in our lives where we do have this quality.

Most of us have what we are looking for, but discount it because its not where we want it. We are playful, but not at work. We are confident in one area, but not another. We can open to nature, but not to our partner. If you know how to play with a child or a pet, you know what it is to play. If you can open to a beautiful sunset in the mountains, or at the beach, you know openness and love. If you are confident in any area of your life, you know confidence.

There are areas of life and then there is the emotional state that we experience in those areas. What state are you in when you appreciate a beautiful flower? Bookmark that state, that feeling, and bring it with you into other places where appreciation is more of a challenge. Start where its easy and anchor that resource, then use it where it has been more of a challenge. This is like the water flowing around the boulder, until eventually the boulder also moves, or wears away.

The practical mind may say what is the point of smelling the flowers? The point is that you are in a certain state of happiness, appreciation or joy and if you are really present you can learn to take it with you; into your relationship, into your job, into all the other areas of life. What part of your life won't flow better - be better - with happiness, appreciation and joy?

When you are wanting more of a positive quality in an area of your life, remember places where you have it already. Go there and cultivate it, practice it. Then return with it to the other places you need it. Let all your life have the tone of smelling a rose.

(© 6/10)

NAVIGATION

This spring I took a long cross-country trip with my daughter, which introduced me to the joys of GPS navigation. I've always been a map person. I like to know where I'm headed, where I am now, and what the alternate routes are, so if something comes up I have a context in which to make informed choices.

Driving with GPS was a new experience. Punch in the destination, and it decides how to get there. It also only shows the road you're on and how far to the next intersection/turn/interchange. So driving in places I'd never been before, there was no way to know if the GPS really had an optimal route, or what, if any, alternate choices might be available. I found this really bothered me, brought up old helpless, lost feelings. My daughter, however, seemed fine with the process. She was OK knowing that she was on course, even is she didn't know what state we were in at the moment.

What it came to was that she trusts her GPS and I want the option of double checking it. So I got to practice some letting go, and in spite of a few minor glitches, and some bad temper, the GPS did guide us home safe and sound.

Scroll forward a couple of weeks. I'm doing readings at a fair. At this fair I had several readings where I could see/feel clearly where the client was being guided to go next (either externally or internally), and that they would have clarity when they got there, but not any details of what the content of that clarity was.

Thinking about this I realized there are times when life is like a treasure hunt. You are guided in a certain direction, or to a place, or person. When you get there you find the next clue, which points you to a new destination. Sometimes if you know where you are going three steps out, you might skip one, to save time, or to avoid something challenging. But then when you get those three steps out, you won't be the same, you will have missed something (possibly important) along the way. Often times it is the process of getting to where you are going that gives you the answer. This is especially true of internal journeys. Going into fear, grief, or anger almost always yields a benefit or lesson. Only by going there do you uncover it experientially, so you have the full knowing of it, not just the idea. That process is critical for your journey.

Spirit says: be here now, pay attention to the process, trust me and I'll show you the way as you go along. Something like a GPS eh? Unlike the GPS I'm at least trying to trust Spirit, though its not always easy. Often I do want a map, the bigger picture, knowledge of where I'm going long term. I believe that Spirit knows all the options and context, but the mind that had such an issue with the GPS is still learning to trust this: still learning to listen to my heart, my spiritual GPS.

This is so important, because unlike a physical GPS where we punch in our destination, spiritually we don't really know it ahead of time. Often we only know when we've gotten to where we are going because we feel it. Only in the moment, feeling into it with your own heart will you know when you are really on track, and when you have arrived. So spiritually we have to learn to navigate with the GPS of our heart, and to do that we often have to let go of the mind's discomfort with partial information. We slowly learn that we will know what we need to know, when we need to know it, not in mind, but in the heart.

And we do that by practicing, taking time to ask our heart how it feels and listen to what is there.

with gratitude to my daughter for a useful, if frustrating lesson.

(© 5/10)

EMBODYING SPIRIT

It used to be that I might occasionally visit my higher Self, or it might drop round for tea. These days my higher self is knocking at the door, and wants to move in. Perhaps you've noticed this as well, it seems to be a general phenomenon.

There have been times when I wanted to "beem up" to some other place or planet; when I felt disconnected and alone, a "stranger in a strange land", out of sync with the world around me. You probably know what I mean. These days, however, I am focused more deeply on making space for Spirit to land.

We are connected spiritual beings, existing at once on all levels between our body and Source. We have all spent time practicing raising our consciousness or awareness to go visiting with "higher" levels of our self. But then we come home again. In Mary Poppins, when they start laughing and float up to the ceiling for a tea party, only to eventually come back to Earth when serious things return, is like this. But that movie is about the ability to bring that good stuff back down with you, into everyday life, even into that most serious of places, a British bank.

Yes we can go visit, but we can also invite our higher aspects to come into the body. This is embodiment, sacred union, heaven on earth. When we have cleaned the temple sufficiently, these "higher" levels will show up. They are really always here, but we are too busy and the static is too loud. Thus many forms of mediation and other practices have developed to quite the noise on the "lower levels", so we can perceive the "higher".

Being always connected, and always present, it is not so much a matter of going or coming, but allowing, listening, integrating. We can raise our consciousness, or expand it. The former implies taking an elevator up; the later is more about becoming aware of more floors at the same time. This is a time of expansion.

It used to be your higher self knocked gently and if you were busy went away again, to wait and come back later. But something is shifting. The knocks are louder and with an insistence. The time is now, your higher self is not really taking no for an answer any more. How many people do you know that are getting the wake up call in some form?

The good news is that its easier than ever to come into a place of expanded awareness, to experience both spirit and body at the same time. We do this not by figuring it out, but by allowing it to happen. The challenges are that this may be a bit disorienting (even if you have been practicing) or that the process often kicks up a bit of dust, but this will pass. And while we may have less choice we are also not as alone.

I have been seeing more people in the last couple months who are really stepping up to integrating their higher Selves into the body. Others are actively exploring how to bring their spiritual awareness into their jobs, and their lives. It is really very exciting! It seems a broad thing, involving all of us, those of us who have been "on a path" for years, and those who are just starting out. We are moving into a time when you won't have to go to a metaphysical fair to connect with other people who are consciously living from spirit, we are everywhere. And I'm talking about Colorado Springs as well as Boulder.

We are learning to relax the analytic mind, so that our souls can connect to our hearts. Asking the mind to open up to translating from the geometry and music of Spirit, to the emotions of the heart. Unlike our conscious minds, our hearts are big enough to embody our souls. It is a beautiful thing when this connection is made and you really come home to yourself. And it is happening for all of us, right now. Whatever the reasons, it is in the air. Karpe Diem, there are more of us than we think, and Spirit has your back.

(© 5/10)

FEED THE BODY BY FEEDING THE SOUL

In Europe in the Middle Ages, or India still today there are people who follow the calling of the Spiritual life, who are supported by their community. Their focus on the Spiritual is considered a service to the community and those that lead worldly lives support this with contributions.

Like many who feel called to the healing or spiritual arts, I have at times felt a tension between wanting to do the work I feel called to, and making a living. In spite of what I have heard and "know" about following my bliss, there is this idea in the back of my mind that they are not something that I can hope to do together. There is a mythology of starving artists and rich business people who have lost their souls and in the mythology you have to choose.

Personally I find that there are times when things seem to flow, when I am surrendered and clients come and I am relaxed and happy (more or less). As long as the flow happens I'm OK. But when it slows or falters, or when I feel I have to pay attention to the financial side for other reasons, the part of me that does that, my inner accountant, seems to always operate from a place of fear and anxiety. He is always saying that if I have X number of clients then he will relax and we can have fun again. However, it is clear on several levels that trying to create and manifest from fear is counter-productive.

Earlier this year it came to me. I love what I do, that's not the problem, when I am working I'm happy, I'm in touch with myself and with others, I come alive. This is where the Love is. And I need clients to be in this place. So I can follow my bliss and call in my clients without engaging the analytic, fearful, financial piece, by focusing on the feeling of the work, the joy of it, the service of it.

If I have enough clients to have a satisfying practice, then I will be "taken care of", not magically, but as a side effect. So in this way I can let go of the part that is concerned with money, not as an act of pure faith, but knowing that by focusing on how I love my work, I will have clients and they will compensate me.

This may seem like a mental distinction, but it is subtly important for me, and perhaps for you. By returning to my heart and the joy of working with others I am in a place of Love, I am connecting to my Self and to Source, and can create from there. I can even do the promotional tasks I sometimes resist from the joy of finding the next partners in the healing dance. I can let go of the (for me) fearful side of counting clients and doing sums, knowing that it won't help me to be in the fear that inevitably comes with it.

You can work to have an abundance of work, not because you "need" work, but because you "love" your work. The tricky part is fully releasing the fear, not just in the mind, but in the heart, so that you are truly full of joy, not simply talking yourself out of fear. Then no shadow comes into the intention and you are really walking towards your passion, focusing so powerfully on the joy that there is no room for the fear, you are pulled into the work.

Finding the bliss, the joy, is finding yourself, is being connected to your soul. This is the place of creative power. Feeding your Soul will feed your body also, but it has to come first and be the focus of your attention. Live in joy to work from joy, let go of working from fear as then you will live in fear.

(© 4/10)

TACHIBA AND RELATIONSHIPS

Even though I don't have much occasion to the use the Japanese I learned when living in Japan, certain words will cycle up in my thoughts because they are particularly appropriate to express something I'm experiencing. Tachiba means literally a "standing place", with connotations of "perspective" and "point of view".

On my recent trip to Florida and back I was reminded of how the world is experienced differently, simply by standing on another part of it. As my yoga teacher used to say, on the manifest level its all relative, time, place, and person. Not only is Florida physically different from Colorado, plants, weather, wildlife, and being by the ocean rather than the mountains, but different people live there with different orientations and interests.

If I had gone back to Japan, or to Europe things would have changed even more. The who, what, where of my life changes just by standing in a different place, because it changes my relationships with places, people, and the planet.

Even before this trip I had been thinking about my internal tachiba, which is key to how I relate especially to other people. Where do we stand in our own being? Are we in our heart or our head? Are we focused on our body or our soul? What aspects of ourselves are we in relationship with, in identification with, or out of touch with?

Having a relationship with someone else is like building a bridge, it needs two ends, the foundations for the span that connects. The closer these foundations are to each other the easier it is to build the bridge. Our personal tachiba is like one of these foundations, it is the place where we stand, and the place we relate from. If you are wanting to relate to someone whose tachiba is their emotions, their second chakra, and your tachiba is your mind, your 6th chakra, then it may be a stretch. Not impossible but more of a stretch than with someone who has their tachiba in the same place as yours.

If you want to cultivate a relationship with someone whose external tachiba is different than yours, you might go on line, or to the bookstore and read about where they live. You might even go there, learn the language, live there for a while.

Similarly if their internal tachiba is in a different part of their being, you can explore that part of yourself, learning how to create a new internal tachiba for yourself, to be comfortable in your emotions, your mind, heart or soul. Or the shift may be one of deepening in the same aspect; deeper in the heart, or the soul. Until we can relate to that part of ourselves, and build a new internal tachiba, our end of the bridge of relationship is loose and shaky.

To relate effectively to someone on a certain level or in a certain aspect we have to explore it and know it for ourself. We have to have a level or aspect of relationship to self before we can stand there and relate to someone else in that way. Otherwise it is all mental illusion and a costume parade.

If I imagine that I'm going to Florida, but am still in Colorado, especially if I've never been there, very little will really have changed. If I go, but only for a few days, it is not the same as taking time and living there. If I go for several months or more, then everything begins to change.

When you do your human homework and learn to stand in those parts of yourself that have been unfamiliar, you change your tachiba and all your relationships to yourself and to others change as well. To find the heart and soul relationships we all want requires us to explore our own hearts and souls, to create new tachibas in those parts of ourself from which to form these relationships.

Enjoy your travels and the new or renewed relationships you create as you go.

(© 4/10)

LOVE AND FEAR

I once spent a summer hanging out at a friend's house where they had a nice pool. I used to like to sit under the water, where it was quite and still. Sometimes I would hold my breath waiting for the impulse to breath to rise up in me, feeling the body tensing and going into fear. Of course all I had to do was stand up, so this was body fear not mental fear, and I would try to relax into the experience, until I choose to stand up and breath.

Years later I read stories of spiritual teachers, who, in answer to student's inquiries about enlightenment had led them to water and held them under. When the student was released and burst to the surface gasping for air wanting to know why this had been done, the answer was: when you have as great a desire for the divine as you have just had now for air, you will be close to your goal.

Is the drive to breathe a love of air or a fear of death?

You may say what's the difference? and perhaps you are right. I suspect, however, that in the case of spiritual pursuits there is a big difference. Are we on a spiritual path because we have a passionate desire to know the divine aspects of ourselves or the universe, or because we are afraid of aspects of the human experience? We may think that we are choosing Love over Fear, but often we are simply seeking a release from Fear.

When we move towards Love not out of Love, but running from Fear this may be a good starting point, but it is probably not the ending point. Can we really merge into a state of unconditional love, when we are still afraid of our fear?

This is why we need to face our fears, to come to terms with them so that we are no longer afraid of them. This is not about being completely fearless, as that is physically impossible. As human beings we have fear built in, as we do hunger. But it is only when we are fearful of hunger, or fear, or anything else that it runs our existence. When we are familiar with fear, cultivate a relationship with it, come to know it almost as a friend, it is simply a state of our physical/emotional being that can serve us. When we no longer identify with it, and we can consciously choose the Light and Love for their own sake, drawing towards them through Love itself, rather than because we are running from Fear.

"Love is the Answer", is about Love as a goal, but more deeply about Love as a Way, as a process that carries us to that goal.

This is why its so important to do what you love, or love what you do. Not just because it will make you happy, or to be successful, but because then you are cultivating the state of Love, of connection, and this allows you to naturally move your attention from fear, to clear and cleanse the denser bodies and open space for our subtler aspects. It is how we learn who we deeply are and how we connect to our internal source of oxygen.
Then happiness and success will naturally follow.

So no matter how simple, small, or "trivial" it is, find places in your life to explore and practice what you love, just because you love it, knowing that you are practicing Love itself and inviting it into your life on all levels, big as well as small. Becoming as little children, connect to the Love inside yourself. It is like having an internal air supply, there is no longer a need to be afraid of being under the water.

(© 3/10)

INITIATIONS

Many years ago I was living in the Bay Area. There was a yoga teacher who had been cropping up in my life for a while. Finally I was going to a weekend program. I actually had the classic problems getting there. My car wouldn't work. I had to take a train, a bus, walk across a shady part of town after dark to get to where I was going to stay. The teacher wasn't there in person, but it was a great weekend and I felt like I had started on a path, said yes to Spirit, that in spite of the challenges I was willing to keep moving forward.

Over the years there have been other teachers, other initiations, other times when I have said yes to Spirit. Some of these times have been formal, with a physical person from whom I was about to receive instruction. Many more of them have been between me and Spirit, when in myself I said yes, knowing that I need to keep walking towards Spirit and not give up.

Probably you have said yes in various forms, yes to Spirit, yes to connection and relationship, yes to self, to Self, to following your heart. And perhaps you have wondered, like me, "so haven't I done that already? why do I keep getting "tested"? why do I keep having to say yes so many times? Will it ever end?

Reflecting back I know I was always on "my path", even before I knew what that meant, and Spirit was always with me, even when I felt out of touch. But over and over there have been times to say yes. To go to another level, to come back to a relationship one more time, to open to the divine, to take the job that your heart wants rather than one that pays more. To face fear and say yes to love, in so many forms, so many "initiations".

Recently the thought came to me: Perhaps this is free will? that we have the chance to say yes with every breath, not once and its over like signing a contract, but choosing in every moment, every action to remember that we are connected to Source and to act from that place, rather than from feeling disconnected. Every moment the universe unfolds anew, and we choose again, to love, to be connected, to face towards Spirit.

All the little places where we say yes to relationship, with ourselves, our Self, with others or with the divine, in spite of the busy-ness and the pressures. Rather than being frustrated with this, is this not a joy? to be asked to remember each moment, that we are part of creation; we are a manifestation of divinity, no matter how cranky we are before morning coffee.

"Saying yes" is not a mental action, figuring out the right answer is not how it happens, it is a feeling in the heart and in your being. There is a joy; when we know and affirm that we are connected to source, source affirms us back, and that we experience as some level of bliss. I invite you to find ways of saying yes to yourself and to Spirit, to joy and love, by making room for them in your life, moment by moment, and remembering always that you are part of the Divine experiencing itself. Let your heart and soul guide you in this. Know that you know how to do this.

(© 3/10)[read the full version @ http://www.wholebeingexplorations.com/spirit/writings.html ]

SPIRIT AS TOURGUIDE

When I was still in college I started doing massage on my friends. I would use my fingers to "look" for places that were tight and then work on them. I came to think of this work as leading my friend on a tour through their body. As I touched them it would bring their awareness to that part of their body. When I found some tension, it was like saying, "hey, do you remember this? are you ready to let go of it?" then some "massage" would help create a context for them to release it. Over the years I have experienced physical healers who were leading me on a tour of my body, bringing my attention to a place, and I would follow, open and release.
A conversation with a friend recently helped me connect this old experience with other experiences in pure energy healing. I was explaining that often it is the simple attention of the "healer" on something that allows it to shift.
I remembered one night in a class when someone was reading things in my space. She spoke about an old energy I had worked with for many years. This night she read it and then immediately observed that I had just released it. All she did was look at it, and speak to it, and my being released it.
Energetically there is a more direct "viewing", no fingers in the middle, but it is still letting your attention tour through a person's space, and as you speak what you see the other person's attention follows. As you come to things and you say, "hey, do you remember this? are you ready to let go of it?" If they are ready it moves instantly. In other cases a bit of energetic "massage" is necessary to help it release.

Taking it one step further; this is how spirit works with us all the time. It's often called karma. When we are holding something that's incomplete, or stuck, the universe creates situations that mirror, poke, or activate this energy. The universe is asking "hey, do you remember this? are you ready to let go of it?"
Whatever you call it, Life, the Universe, Spirit, God/Goddess, personal mirrors, the things that happen to us are the universe's way of giving us a massage, asking us if we are ready to let go of whatever is stuck. They are a stop on Life's tour through our being.
In traditional t'ai chi training a teacher will throw their student against a wall over and over, each time using a tension in the student's body as a handle, asking the body, "hey, do you remember this? are you ready to let go of it?" When you can let go of it, there is no more handle to be thrown with.
So the next time something in life throws you, ask yourself "hey, what am I remembering here? am I ready to let go of it?" Give yourself permission to make that choice, no judgement. But if the answer is no, you might want to work on it before the next time the universe comes around and asks again.
May all your "tour guides" be gentle, and may you have the courage to be listening the first time.

(© 2/10)[read the full version @ http://www.wholebeingexplorations.com/spirit/writings.html ]

REFLECTIONS OF BEAUTY

Remembering beauty. A vision of nature, a sky, an animal, vast mountains or a few snow flakes. A work of art that you saw, or heard, or felt. A dance or sport that you lost yourself in. A child or partner. Let that experience of beauty well up in you, filling your heart and your body.

Who are you now as you experience beauty? Gently float that question on the lake of your being and receive the answer in whatever form it comes. You know it already, allow it to come to you. Breathe gently.

For most of us, when we experience beauty in this way, we say it moves something in us, inspires us. It is a way to come closer to divinity, expressed through the beauty in front of us. We cultivate these experiences, each in our own way, seeking works of art, places in nature, people or things that are beautiful, as if they are separate from us.

Focus now on that part of you which was "moved", that part of you that was able to experience the beauty outside. Perception is a resonance effect. The eye can absorb a shade of light because there is atomic resonance. The heart can feel and be moved because it has these states within itself. You recognize and are affected by beauty in the world because you have it already inside yourself.

You, your soul, that which is divine within you, is stirred, not by absorbing something external, but by the resonance: part of you is awoken within you. It was there all along.

We easily believe, when we see a sad movie and we cry, that it is a part of us reflected on the screen that is crying. We remember our own sadness and release a part of it. But do we accept that when we see something beautiful and we soar, it is also a part of us that flies. Know that it is.

We recognize sadness because we have that within us. And. We are elevated by the sublime, because we have that within us too. Your experience of beauty in the world is an experience of a beautiful part of your Self. The worldly beauty only reflects your own beauty back to you, awakening, reminding.

Settling now into your beauty, let these memories lead you back to yourself, to your soul. Recognize and own your immense soul beauty. Being there, know that it is your Self that you are experiencing and deepen into it. Don't ask how, know that you know, and let it happen.

Now look at your hand, or around the room, or out the window. Bring that state of beauty you have found within to all that you sense, and you will find it beautiful all too. When you are aware of the beauty that is alive in your heart and bring it to your senses it will be alive in everything that you experience. It is simply a choice in awareness; to see from the soul, from connection, from inner beauty. The divine is always experiencing the divine, which is in everything. Practice awareness of this and let the world reflect the beauty that you are.
(© 2/10)

BALANCE IN CREATIVITY

Imagine that you are planting a seed in moist fertile soil. You stick your finger into the ground and make a small hole, you drop in the seed, add a little water and cover it over. The seed is received into the soil, it sprouts upwards and downwards. Roots appear, connecting to nutrients and water. A stem with leaves reaches for the sky and the sun. See it growing, branching, putting out leaves and more roots, it becomes a vine, or a bush, grass or a tree.

Feel into this image of creation and sense the balance of it, the yin and yang of it, the masculine and the feminine, the stretching out and the flowing in. The dance of these polarities are woven through all creation. The insertion of the seed, the reception of the soil. The rooting and skyward reach. The growth so that water and light and minerals can flow into the heart, which fuels more growth.

Imagine the life force flowing through your plant, the dancing of the plus and minus in the atoms, the polarities across cell boundaries, from the leaves of the crown to the deep roots, polarities of charge and concentration, temperature and light. From the forming of the intention to the flowering of the plant, when the next cycle can begin, at all scales and in all things the masculine and feminine are dancing together to create life.

Feel into your being now. Where is the masculine, the aspects that initiate, the seeds, the insertion, the expansion? Where are the impulses, the ideas, the thoughts, the feelings or words that are the seeds; for yourself or for others? Where is the feminine, the receptive, nurturing ground that the seeds are planted in? Where are the spaces, the acceptances, the appreciations, the openings to new possibilities, new ideas, and new growth that receives the seeds and makes space for them to flourish?

Allow your awareness to enter in, and open up, to the marriage of the two, the marriage that is necessary for creation to unfold. Breath: air entering, lungs opening, expansion; air leaving lungs releasing, compression; the pulse of life. Give yourself time to allow the subtler aspect to come into the experience too. The subtle receiving of ourselves that is necessary for our creativity to take root and manifest. The subtle aspect of initiation giving yourself to yourself and others, trusting and moving forward.

Notice any limitations or fears on either the feminine or the masculine. Perhaps you are more conscious of reluctance to initiate, concern about how our seeds will be received in the world? or perhaps you are more aware of the limits on your ability to receive, to open sufficiently that your seeds have the space to flourish? How often are we afraid that our intentions might really grow and things might really change? How often do we allow the fear that they won't to keep us from even trying.

Reach for courage, masculine and feminine. Stepping on a stage, or offering an idea takes a form of courage, of trust in ourself and Spirit. It may feel risky to decide, or to offer forth, but this is the strength of the masculine. The receptivity to growth, change, success, requires a different courage, a different vulnerability. It may feel like walking naked in the world, but it is the great source of feminine power and strength.

When we limit our initiation and our receptivity, we may feel safe, but we are left with a small center ground which lacks creativity and true life force. Opening this ground into a larger space requires both sorts of courage, trusting our creative impulses and also receiving them and the energies that will help manifest them. Work them back and forth, a bit of one, a bit of the other. Leverage your courage and make the space for your creativity.

May you find this balanced courage in abundance, and come into a flourishing creative dance with yourself, Spirit, and your partners and friends. Honoring both your feminine and masculine you join in the co-creation of your world. Set the intention and open to the understanding, it will come clear to you.

(© 1/10)

ESSENTIAL JOY

Over the holiday, with family here, it became clear to me that the essential thing was for us to be connected. After all that is what Christmas, Solstice, Hannukah, and the other year end festivals of Light are about, being connected to the Light, our selves, our family, and our Source.

There are certain traditional activities that our family does together that represent the holiday time for us. We put up a tree and decorate it, we give each other presents, we have a big family dinner. You and your family or friends probably have your own set of elements that "make up" the season. The way we approach these activities is important. It is easy to feel rushed and overwhelmed when faced with snow storms and lists for shopping or things to "do". The pieces of the holiday may become tasks that somehow we need to accomplish to have everything be "OK", but we're happier if others do them. We may feel separated and alone even with so many people around. We are missing the essence, the togetherness. All of this showed up early last week, wanting to feel that connection and the overwhelming sense that it might be missing in spite of all the business.

So I took time in the shower to release the grief and frustration that came up. Slowly others stepped up a bit, I let go a bit, I saw more clearly that all the "elements" are not to be done for their own sake, but to provide a space, an opportunity for us to do something together with our loved ones. That is where the joy comes. When I was young we used to take time to bake cookies and fruit cake, strain cranberry sauce, and spend time in the kitchen. It wasn't a chore to be done as fast as possible, or passed off to someone else, it was a fun time of tastes and smells and being together with family.

The season is like a ceremony, the elements are only important to the extent that they create space and support the intention; fellowship, love, peace and good will. It was still a fast week, speeding by, but I realized that if we couldn't figure out how to have fun with it we were missing the point. Perhaps shifting to an attitude of play would help too. So put on some music and gather round the tree, or in the kitchen, tell jokes, laugh. Let the "task" be a game to do together, something shared, a co-creation. This being together and co-creating is the essence and the point of the season, and what we will remember and cherish long after when we have forgotten the details of the dinner, or what presents we got, or didn't.

Life is to live from the soul and do only that which feeds the soul and nurtures connection, rather than madly rush through a check list. Recognizing the essence, and that the rest are details which are only important to the extent they serve the mood, the intention of coming together to call the Light in and forth. It is in knowing that we do this collectively, this year, in the moment, uniquely co-creating spaces that serve connection, joy and life. In shifting our perspective we can shift our experience. The week was fast, full, but not just busy, there was joy, play, connection and co-creation too.

I hope you also got to feel something of creating with others this year, calling in the Light with family or friends or your guides. I invite you to carry this forward into the New Year, knowing that amidst all the changing externalities your heart tells you what is essential and will guide you in creating spaces for it.
What serves connection? How can we re-create what we are doing so that it becomes a space, a ceremony, a game that is grounded in Spirit and is connected to each other and to Source?

Just like stepping through a screen or veil, appearances are not changed much on the outside, but everything feels different on the inside. Waking up we are more conscious of the under layers, the spiritual fabric flowing through everything. What is essential becomes clear, and in that clarity you know how to honor it and relate to things differently. Intending to be connected rather than disconnected, making that choice over and over, until by habit, persistence, and grace you realize you are connected and things are different. Even though they may look the same, they come alive and are joyful.
Blessed be.

(© 1/10)