Wherever I am, I AM!

This one heck of a week of events. It is Holy Week for so many in so many ways ... so let me say:

 Happy Spring

Happy Vernal Equinox for those of us in the northern hemisphere, which was last Saturday at 9:30 pm, Pacific Time.

Joyous Autumnal Equinox for those in the southern hemisphere.

BTW, at the equinox, the Sun is directly above equator, so if you step to the north side of that line, it's Spring, if you step to the south side, it's Autumn, and if look up, you'll be blinded.

Happy Maundy Thursday (today, as I write this). That is the celebration of the Last Supper (early compared to Passover this year) and the end of Lent. So you can go back to eating candy, smoking, not exercising, etc., if you want.

Happy Good Friday. Though it wasn't such a happy day for one little Jewish boy from Nazareth 2000 years ago.

I want to wish a Happy Nowruz, which is the new year celebration of renewal for Zoroastrians, B’hai’s, and Persians around the world. And a Happy Sham el-Nissim to those in Egypt. This is a Spring holiday who has a symbol of the colored egg. Sound familiar?




I am also wishing a good journey to the Japanese Buddhists this week on Higan (which translates to “the other shore”). It is the celebration of our journey from suffering to the enlightenment. No that's something to celebrate!

And, of course...

Jokes aside, this week is truly a special one for many religions and philosophies on our planet. It is a week that celebrates and reminds us with a lot of themes and symbols:

Renewal / Rebirth

Healing / Reconnecting 

Blossoming / Burgeoning

Evolution / New Beginnings 

Fertility

Fertility is a major theme during this time. It is the time of the Celebration of Ostara, which honors the fertility goddess Eostre (Germanic for "east” or “dawn” and also the root of “estrogen”). Typically, Eostre is depicted as a young woman surrounded by light and budding trees and flowers. And if Eostre sounds familiar, it is because it is also where the word Easter comes from. The dawning of new life, new possibilities. Other symbols of Eostre are - yes, I'm sure you can guess - eggs & rabbits. Are you seeing a pattern going on here?

Speaking of fertile, this is the time the March Hare comes out. Not for the cotillion or its sexual identity, but because it is usually nocturnal. The female, especially at this time, as if a bunny needs assistance, is what is called super fecund … randy ... horny. She can even conceive a second litter while still pregnant with first. And the males tend to bounce around erratically at this time ... very randy and horny ... Mad as a March Hare, you could say. It reminds me of many of my Spring Breaks!

Now this is not just a second chakra event. It is not only a sexy time, it is also a very sensual time. There are other powerful creative forces at hand:  it is a reminder, a renewal, a blossoming of life, a rebirth of all that was asleep in Wintertime. Some of which is too often so, in each of us

Thus it is a time of healing ... a time of mindfully, intentionally, and consciously connecting to and living from the heart-mind connection. It is a time to reconnect to our Triune nature - that fertile ground for experiences that uses the mind, heart, and intuition/imagination matrix, the Divine Matrix.

Another theme this week is:

Resurrection

Resurrection comes from the Latin verbs resurgō ‎(again I rise) and subrigo (to make straight). Thus the meaning of resurrection is:

AGAIN I RISE TO MAKE STRAIGHT

Again I rise to make straight the descendence into experiencing life from the chaos of the bills, the kids, the news, the traffic, the dis-eases of all sorts in our life. We are reminded to transcend the everyday ...

The symbolic language of the crucifixion is the death of the old paradigm;

resurrection is a leap into a whole new way of thinking.

~Deepak Chopra

Is it really a whole new way of thinking or the way it was meant to be? The way the mystics tried to inspire us to BE.

I want to invite you to step into (or re-step into) that way of thinking - the way it was meant to be - and identify yourself with what I believe is our greatest purpose...

TO BE A JOY WARRIOR

I use the word, warrior, in its definition of one who lives with vigor and courage, with power, yes, but not will power - there is no combat or war or battle ... no push - there doesn't need push with confidence and faith in your Power.

There is a power for good in the universe and you get to use it.

~Ernest Holmes

You are using it … 

                               ...You are It!

If you still don't like the word, warrior, from what definition it usually aspires to, how about this for your greatest purpose ...

TO BE A JOY ACTIVIST

Now, this is nothing new, it is actually just a rediscovering of our birthright of power and beauty...

           ...a re-awakening to what Jesus called, the Kingdom of Heaven within.


It is a leaving behind the mistakes and missteps we might have had, without shame, blame or guilt. we do this by knowing and living as the I am that I AM. You don’t need to physically die or spend time on your version of a cross to accomplish this. There is no point system. There is no suffering required. It is merely a choice to remember...  It is merely a choice to connect to the Divine … to nature ... A choice to live in joy … no matter the experience! 

Good, bad, or indifferent ... no matter the experience! You may ask ...

Is there a need for transformation? - maybe

Is there a need for a metamorphosis from the norm? - probably

Is there a need for a scary ordeal? – not necessary!

Like a caterpillar rearranging itself into a butterfly all the parts are there and we are only to choose and allow to become that butterfly. In 1972, Trina Paulus wrote a magical tale called, HOPE FOR THE FLOWERS. As she puts it, on the cover:

a tale - 

partly about life

partly about revolution

and lots about hope

for adults and others

(including caterpillars who

can read)

Hear is some beautiful dialogue from Trina's book:

Tell me, sir, what is a butterfly?

It's what you are meant to become. It flies with beautiful wings and joins the earth to heaven. It drinks only nectar from the flowers and carries the seeds of love from one flower to another. Without butterflies, the world would soon have few flowers.

How does one become a butterfly?

They have to want to learn to fly so much that you are willing to give up being a caterpillar.

I say it is time to free ourselves ... heal from the captivity of our past mistakes, our beliefs in lack, our various “not good enough's,” and sit in the present as and presence of who we were born to be. It is time to stop crawling like a worm and fly like a butterfly. It is time to renew our intentions and our conscious use of our God-given talents and Powers.

You may cry out ...

How?

Novelist Anne Lamott's gives us a great example:

I am going to try to pay attention to the spring. I am going to look around at all the flowers, and look up at the hectic trees. I am going to close my eyes and listen.

Another great tool is expressed in the following, by Estelle Frankel, a Berkeley psychotherapist & teacher of Jewish mysticism:

...if I take the time….to sit down, close my eyes, say a prayer, open myself to Spirit, then my identity begins to expand, and I remember that I’m not just Estelle, the personality, that I’m a soul, that I’m an embodiment of the Divine, and I move from what Jewish mystics say is ‘small mind’ to ‘big mind’ (also, the Buddha said that). And in that other state, the bonds of the self, the small identity that limits us and dictates who we think we are, it frees up - - it’s sort of like a zooming out that you would do with a camera, but it’s zooming out all the way to infinity, all the way to eternity, beyond time, beyond space. And in that moment of deep meditation, or prayer, anything becomes possible, because you are rising above the workings of time. You transcend and resurrect.

You transcend the Winter thoughts and resurrect a life knowing you are backed by the Universe. You are backed by the full energy of beauty, peace, life, light, joy, love, and wisdom that conspires to manifest your beliefs.

The title of this blog is Wherever I am I AM

Paying attention to the capitalization, realize I am meaning the "I am" to mean the microcosm, the individual, in the "I AM", the macrocosm - the Absolute. And like the drop in the wave is also the wave in the drop, the individual and Absolute are One.

Of late, I have been watching a show called THE ARROW. It is a show about a twenty-something trust-fund billionaire named Oliver Queen - snarky, priveleged, and randy - who gets stuck on a remote Pacific island for five years, which transforms him, on his return, into this vigilante, protecting the citizens of Starling City.

From the episode, SACRIFICE, story by Greg Belanti and teleplay by Marc Guggenheim & Andrew Kreisberg:

Oliver:  I never told you what happened to me on the island.
Laurel: You didn’t have to. I can see that it changed you.
Oliver: That’s the thing, Laurel. It didn’t. Those five years didn’t change me, they just scraped away all the things that I wasn’t and revealed the person I always was, which is the person, who you always saw. And I don’t know how you saw it, but you did.

Well I see it, to!  I see it in you. Yes, I don't actually see you, individually. But, if I did, I would see that Power … I would see the Light, Love, Power, Joy, and Beauty … I would see the Divine, the Spirit, the Big Bang, the Divine Intelligence … the God, that is YOU!

Join me in accepting yourself as your personal savior! 

The healing is in you...

The rebirth is in you...

The resurrection is in you...

It IS you!

Resurrect mindfully, consciously, and intentionally who you really are!

Know the I AM within!

Live from the I AM within!

Think as the I AM within!

Experience all there is through the I AM within!

BE the I AM within.... 

BE A JOY ACTIVIST!

And live life as it was intended:  vibrant, prosperous and with love and happiness!

Blessings!