THE NIKE WAY

We should be careful not to divide our mental house against itself. Having announced the law of liberty, we must not deny it. When we shall all know the Truth, then ways and means and methods will be found for the freedom of all. The mold of acceptance is the measure of our experience. The Infinite fills all molds and forever flows into new and greater ones. Within us is the unborn possibility of limitless experience. Ours is the privilege of giving birth to it!   ~Science of Mind

Ease, like all of experience, is a choice we birth. It is a frequency in our cosmic collaboration, a state we allow to experience by aligning with it. We decide whether to have discord or harmony, chaos or order, disarray or synchronicity, or difficulty or ease.

“Here you go blaming any unease in my life on me again,” I can hear you say. Well, it's not about blame, it's about responsibility and power - your responsibility to be open to and allowing yourself to change your thinking with the power of choice

With COVID and other crappy things happening around us, it can be hard and you may need to wallow in it some. Go ahead – wallow in it some...I'll wait...a little bit. I get that it seems impossible to get through or past all this, but so was:

• the sub-4-minute mile till Roger Bannister, 1954
• the horse-less buggy or air flight until Karl Benz, 1886 and the Wright Brothers, 1903
• the World Wars, the Depression

Yet, each of these beliefs was proved wrong by someone at one with their purpose and with faith in their ability, willingness to step out of their comfort zone, and deciding that nothing could sway them.

And we can -will- do that too!

What makes life comfortable, relaxed, unembarrassed, reassured ... at ease? Does it take willpower - push, push, push? Or can you choose to be calmly decisive, continually improving / transforming/transcending, being filled with grace and gratitude, and applying yourself with the discipline to focus on the good - on what you want and have control of - you?

When we start thinking things are going to be hard, expecting difficulty, stop signs, and barriers; when we withdraw from activating our power, we get everything we want...difficulty. Instead, use this information to empower you to correct wrong-thinking.

What empowers a life at ease?

When you start thinking things are going to be hard, first - forgive yourself. Allow yourself to start shifting your thoughts in new ways that align with a life of ease and withdraw from thought patterns that don't fit that vision of ease. New patterns of thinking require willingness and allowing, forgiveness, and persistence in your spiritual practice. We must trade the striving with the joy of learning and applying yourself to a new adventure that serves you

Here's a little story to illustrate the point, called "The Navigation Troll" by Adam Oakley

Amanda, Greg, and Richard are looking for the Feasting Tree...

“I’ve read about this something here that can take us wherever we want to go to, to the Feasting Tree, but we have to pay him a price,”  Amanda said. 

“Pay him in what?” Greg said.

“In memories. We have to give him one bad memory from our past, and he turns it into time.”

“He turns it into time?”

“Yes, and he uses the time to take you to where you want to go. The book that Bernard wrote, said that the time he turns it into is equivalent to the amount of time you would have spent dwelling on it if you had kept it inside of yourself.”

“I don’t have any bad memories,” Greg said.

“I bet you do,” said Amanda.

“Well, how do we get in contact with whoever this is?

“He’s the Navigation Troll. We have to walk into an area where we can all be in contact with each other, and each touch a separate tree at the same time. Then we have to give over our bad memories.”

Richard barely heard all this. He was listening to all the birds from above and hopping along the ground telling him that they should not go, that they should keep well away from where the Earthman went. The bird calls were gradually becoming harsher and more screechy.

“Calm the birds down now, will you Rich?” Greg said. But Richard could not hear him.

As they approached and an area with three thin, young trees, all very close to each other, Amanda said, “Hold my hand, Greg.” 

Greg reached out and touched Amanda's had and his heart leaped. Her hand made him feel ignited and alive, and he did not want to let go.

“Richard, join us” she said. Richard walked up, in a slight daze, and held her hand. 

“Now you two hold hands,” she said. Greg gradually raised his arm to grab hold of Richard’s open hand. 

“Now everyone touch a tree with their knee.” The three adjusted their legs to follow Amanda’s orders.

“Now, think of a memory, a bad memory, one that you don’t like to think about, but still lives inside of you. Then say out loud. ‘I give this memory to the Navigation Troll.’”

There was a pause, a silence. Then.... “I give this memory to the Navigation Troll,” Amanda said, with her eyes closed.

“I give this memory to the Navigation Troll,” Richard said, his eyes also still closed.

Greg said nothing, and then the earth began to rumble.

It was like an earthquake, the ground shaking and roaring from the inside like there was something bubbling up from the very depths of the Earth. Then, in the small space in the middle of the three, a long black-haired, fleshy, grumpy-looking face of a troll began to emerge; followed by a short, stocky body covered in a pair of dry, dirty shorts. The figure was shaking with the earth, eyes closed and not moving its limbs at all. Then its eyes opened. 

“You called?” the troll said, pulling out a little notepad and a pen from a pocket in his shorts.

The three of them broke their grip with each other as Amanda said to the troll, “Yes, we want you to take us to wherever the Feasting Tree lives.”

The troll looked up at Amanda with its very large eyes, permanent sneer, and scowling mouth and said, “Hmmm, what you ask is extremely dangerous, and very far indeed. That will cost you, dearly.”

“How much?”

The troll scribbled something on his pad and then said, “Well, by my calculations you just need a bit more.

“A bit more what, asked Amanda?

“Your memory was a good one. And the memory from this lad, here, was ok,” the troll pointed at Richard with his pen. “But I am yet to take either as I only take payment when all terms are agreed. This lad, has offered nothing. I still need a good, dark memory, from him. If he provides one, then I can take you to where you need to be.”

“I have no bad memories,” Greg said.

“Oh, but you do, lad, you do. What about when you were beaten up that time at school?”

Greg’s body stiffened up. “How did you know about that?”

“I can see it. It’s under your skin. It’s always there, isn’t it? It’s always with you.”

“Yeh, but I need it,” Greg said.

“How so?”

“It stops me from getting beat up again.”

“Does it now?”

“Yeh, because of that I started getting my brother to teach me how to fight.”

“Ah” said the troll, writing something down on his notepad. “So what you mean is that the event made you learn to fight and it brought you closer to your brother. Very good, but the memory of it, the darkness of it, the pain that still lives inside you, do you still need that? Do you still need to think about it in the same way? Do you still need to hold on to it? Do you really feel as if you are at peace with it, or does it give you nightmares, terrified of a fight happening again?”

“I’m not terrified,” Greg blurted out. He paused a moment. “But I don’t like it. I don’t like the feeling when it creeps up on me sometimes.”

“Then give it to me.”

“No.”

“Why?”

“Because I don’t want to give it away. I want to keep it.”

“But why? Do you secretly enjoy it?”

Greg thought about it. Perhaps he did. Despite him not liking it, something inside him secretly enjoyed feeling victimized, hard-done-by, hurt, harmed by circumstances beyond his control. It was a strange, sick kind of enjoyment, a self-inflicted suffering that he was strangely addicted, seemed normal for him. “Maybe. Maybe I do like it,” he said defiantly.

“I see. Maybe it gives you a sense of self? Holding on to that memory, makes you feel like you really exist.”

“Yeh.”

“Aha, so do you still want it?”

Greg shyly said, “I feel vulnerable without it.”

“Yes, but do you still want it?”

Feeling agitated, Greg sputtered for a moment before screaming, “No, no I don’t. You have it. I don't want it anymore. I can't stand it anymore. Take it as payment.”

“Fantastic,” said the Troll! “So, that’s three traumatic memories that are yet to be healed, in return for a one-way transport to the home of the Feasting Tree. Correct?”

“Correct,” Amanda said.

“Right,” he said, making more notes. “Now, I can only take you so far, then you must walk the rest. You will be dropped off around six trees’ lengths away from your desired area. Then, I will point you in the right direction. All agreed?”

“Agreed,” they all said.

“Very good. Please place your hands on my hair.” The children were very reluctant to touch the troll's hair; it looked as if it had never been washed. But slowly, they reached out, knowing this was the right path to the Feasting Tree. Strangely, the troll’s hair felt soft and alive.

“Take a deep breath in,” the troll said. All three breathed in. “And let it go.” The three exhaled and began to feel their piece of darkness, which had been cunningly living within them for the longest time, travel out of their bodies and move into the hair of this troll. As the darkness transferred, the troll’s hair began to turn white, and their surroundings became blurred and the air made a high-pitched, whining noise. A moment later, everything around them started to shimmer as if the world was turning into liquids. Soon, the liquids began to evaporate into gases until the color drained out of the world and they were left in semi-darkness.  They became aware of a portal that the Navigation Troll was dragging them through, which seemed to bypass the normal rules of time. He was running, jumping, and panting, and even though it seemed as if they were traveling far, they all knew that the time passing was being condensed into just a few seconds. 

Suddenly, they stopped. It was still very dark at first, but soon light began to shine like the sunrise on a new day. “Here we are,” the troll said, “your destination. It is here you start on a new path. A path of adventure, clear of the memories that held you back. Go forward to the Feasting Tree, save your friend as you have yourself.” And so they did.

This stuff is not about lying on the couch waiting for the doorbell to chime or the phone to ring; fun and possible as it might be to open the door or answer the call and find your soulmate with a bag of money and the keys to your new car and house, It's about being ready for the next thing, which is the original thing - it's about leaning into Creation and trusting your connection and communion with It. The Universe has your back and can guide you. Trust your intuition. Your emotions are indications of how aligned you are and not something to be fixed or afraid of. They are something you can re-tune and to be at-one with the Divine. This is subtle and deep stuff being in at-one-ment with the Divine within. Like Yoga and Pilates, small moves with great form ignite deep and huge improvements, transformation, and transcendence.

You are the tailor of the cloth your wear. You are the chooser and the receiver of the vibration you connect with and amplify. Choose to give attention to what it is you want. Choose loving, constructive ideas and choose to follow your inner positive nudges without second-guessing or telling yourself right away why you can't do what just occurred to you. 

An inner-oriented life is like sitting in the eye of the storm, placing yourself in the low barometric calm for decision making and action taking while moving past trauma, manifesting peace and calm, and waiting out the tempest around you. The more you're in sync with all that you are, the more you allow yourself to connect with things that manifest ease in your life.

What is the Nike way? 

Just do it:

Don't wait till you've got all the steps down or you have the most clever words to say or until it's not noisy or you are centered.

Just do it:

Affirm your good, state your intention, connect with the Power within, bring passion, clarity, heart and soul, and as much game as you got right now. Tell the Universe what you require in your life today.

Just do it:

Be grateful in your prayers, contemplations, meditations, thoughts, feelings, and actions. The Divine Power, Intelligence, Love, Light, Beauty, and Wisdom is within you right here and right now to dance, play, support, and manifest your greatest good!

God does not love us because we are good; God loves us because God is good. Nothing we can do will either decrease or increase God’s eternal and infinite eagerness to love!    ~Richard Rohr

You just need to show up and live the Nike Way.

Just do it....right now!

Affirmative Incantation

Today, I befriend myself: 

I support my purpose and my desires, I look after and protect my inner child, and uphold the integrity, honesty, courage, loyalty, fortitude, kindness, and dignity of a person of great character.

I take the risks I must to clear the cobwebs, let go of the limitations and fears, and step up to my Best Self. Anything that requires cleansing, illumination, or repair, I boldly and bravely do so with ease and grace. I do not criticize, I optimize.

I unabashedly and whole-heartedly declare my dreams manifested with the havingness of having them and surrender to the power in me to bring them to fruition. I sing out “Olly, Olly oxen free” declaring the Divine within to emerge with all its love, Light, beauty, and wisdom; guiding me to be the best friend my life has ever had.

I am grateful for my ease in this task, my peace of mind in this charge, and my assuredness in this mission. Success is ours, my friend!

The Fear of Faith

Are you afraid of being full of faith? Faith equal religion in your mind? or something that has not been proven? or about trust and you just don't have any left? or about the success you aren't ready to have?

Faith and fear are two sides of the same coin. You either have faith or you are had by it. Having faith means you know that there is only One power and all is possible through that One Power within you right now. You know that you are made of God-stuff.

Being had by faith means you are coming from fear, are owned and enslaved by the negative ideas and experiences of your history or the news, are trapped in the idea that your supposed failures are proof of your lack of faith, and it scares you to even try anymore.

When we move from having faith in prayer, having faith in God, or having faith in anything period and upgrade to a way of Being Faith and allowing that Knowingness of our Constitution, our Supreme Laws, to be all that we are, it opens us to experience life in the same way that an MD will jump into action at an emergency while she was out dining. She IS a physician on a 24-hour call. We are Meta-Physicians and our call is also 24 hours a day / 7 days a week / 365 days a year. This knowing and Being our Divine selves, it's our automatic response to our ups and downs.

What Is Faith?

Faith is not bargaining, begging, manipulating or pleading; tempting as it is to do just that in the last 6 months.  It is a calm knowingness that all is well no matter what human condition we might be experiencing.

Faith is not superstition. It doesn’t require rituals, dogma or magic to be achieved - though they can be meaningful and fun. And you don't have to be religious or spiritual to have or be in faith, because “faith is the complete trust or confidence in someone or something.”

Faith is not something we turn on and off. It's like a dimmer switch, we always have the knob in our hands to turn up or down.

Faith is loving the experience we are having, even if we don't like the experience we are having. Understanding that by keeping love active, .no matter the experience or condition, we learn what to avoid or encourage, using logic, feelings, memory, & intuition to heal and prosper.

Faith looks beyond what's in front of us in the 3D world. We are in touch with the multiverse of intuition.

Faith is not static. It is not something we just have and forget about; it requires practice and intentional expansion. It's like peace and justice, constant. We build up our faith muscles through spiritual practices when things are going well in life so that when we hit a crisis, those practices are second nature.

In order to have faith, we must have a conviction that all is well. In order to keep faith, we must allow nothing to enter our thought which will weaken this conviction. Faith is built up from belief, acceptance, and trust. Whenever anything enters our thought which destroys, in any degree, one of these attitudes, to that extent faith is weakened.  ~Science of Mind, p. 158

Faith is the path back to ease from fear and anxiety. You can be anxious and still have faith.

Intentional imagination, visualizing, and envisioning are spiritual practices. Some of these practices get poo-poohed but research confirms your brain doesn't know the difference between experiencing, witnessing, and imagining. 

...imagination is a neurological reality that can impact our brains and bodies in ways that matter for our wellbeing  ~Tor Wager, director of the Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Laboratory, CU Boulder and co-senior author of a paper published in the journal Neuron

Imagine a barking dog, a furry spider or another perceived threat and your brain and body respond much like they would if you experienced the real thing. 

If you have a memory that is no longer useful for you or is crippling you, you can use imagination to tap into it, change it and re-consolidate it, updating the way you think about and experience something.   ~Marianne Cumella Reddan, Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, CU Boulder 

Faith operates every day. It is a choice we get to dial-up or down.

You would think this month's theme is faith, not ease, but with faith you get the ease.

Conclusion and Call to Action:

 Faith rises and falls like the tides of an invisible sea…You realize, I think, that it is more valuable, more mysterious, altogether more immense than anything you can learn or decide upon in college. ~Flannery O’Connor

When we respond to the world with love and compassion, we are practicing faith.

When we surrender our ego, our need to be right, or our need to fight and allow ourselves to be completely immersed in the Divine. we are practicing faith.

The results are a calm, an ease, a revelation that all can be handled. Even COVID, unemployment, illness, wealth, or any prosperity or success (many people see success as a burden and the rest of their lives reflect that). 

The keywords of this Fall season are...

reflection, harvest, gratitude, balance, and self-love

If one will have faith in [their]self, faith in [one's] fellowmen, in the Universe, and in God, that faith will light the place in which [one] finds [them]self, and by the light of this faith, [you] will be able to see that ALL IS GOOD. And the light shed by this faith will light the way for others. We become conscious of darkness only when we are without faith - for faith is ever the light of our day and the light on our way, making that way clearly visible to us, even when to all others it may be beset with obstacles and the ongoing rough. ~Science of Mind, P 158

As the equinox balances the light and dark, the seasons change, the harvest is honored, and we step into a new cycle of growth; inviting more peace. Yes, you have grown during the pandemic by recognizing what areas of our life need balance, let go, or put on ice.

On the Equinox, everything is in balance. There is no you and me, or this and that, instead there is just one:

One planet, one world, and even one soul

During this autumn season, I invite you to:

• acknowledge your personal growth cycle
• harvest a gratitude list
• ask the Universe what you can do to bring harmony and balance to the soil of your life's garden
• do a fall deep clean
• release that which no longer brings you joy
• change some rhythms and habits that no longer serve

 This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness. ~Dahli Lama 

Make that your religion, your faith...kindness to others, of course, kindness to one's self. That's a faith to never fear.

Affirmative Incantation

I surrender myself into the contagious Loving Grace of the One - knowing I am Divinely guided in everything I think, feel, and do. 

I fall into the arms of the Great Knowing, comforted and supported by It's great Power, Love, and Wisdom. I meet my fear with faith, my dark with Light, my disdain with love, and any dis-ease with ease.

The weather may dry and cool, but I do not crack, snap or lose my warmth. The light may shorten and the dark lengthen, but I do not slow down or hoard for the winter.

I am a magnet for health, well-being, calm, creativity, strength, love and respect. My prosperity in all things is backed by the full faith and credit of the Universe - ever-expanding and ever available to me right now.

LABOR NO MORE

My blog title today is LABOR NO MORE

It's not about pregnancy...

It's about stopping the laborious thoughts of doom and gloom
It's about the ease that faith brings to our psyche/life
It's about unplugging by plugging in
It's about entering the No Toil Zone

We celebrate Labor Day in September. Labor is the exertion of one's powers of body or mind in productive work, striving toward a goal. It may also be an act that is servile or toil for someone. Servile in keeping up with the Jones' or some sociological /familial imprint of how success looks. Do you think a hard life of mental/physical toil adds up to a prosperous life? If you do, then it does. But it doesn't have to be like that.

What do you do for the first hour of your day? email, social media, voicemail, texts? That's not labor, whether you think it is part of your job or not. I get it about emergencies or deadlines, but a large majority of the time, those activities are an act of toiling, being a servant to work. Your checking in with other people's problems or their agendas, needs, or priorities – not yours. Though they may coincide, we want to stop reacting and start acting. 

During that first hour, write out your agenda/needs/priorities for the day - four or five must do things to accomplish or the one thing that will make everything else in the day easier. Similarly with the last hour of your day, get off of the social media, emails, working, etc. whirling dervish. Not even getting into the blue light effects of our electronics, it makes for restless sleep. The brain stays active – synapses still fire - which makes it harder to disengage from the day and slide into much-required rest of mind as well as body.

Take a digital break one hour before sleep

That's part of the no toil zone. You see, where our focus goes so too does our feelings/thoughts/body chemistry. It shows up in our sleep or lack thereof. It's like when you are focused on the car you want, ones just like it start showing up everywhere. 

Where our focus and faith goes, so too goes our thoughts and feelings.

Where our thoughts and feelings go, so too go our beliefs.

Where our beliefs go, so too go that which we create or destroy in life.

It's time for next-level thinking, next level courage, and next-level action – a new perspective. Even in imperfect action, there's perfection in the imperfect action.

Man is the builder, and to him are given all the materials out of which to construct the temple in which he dwells. He builds in wisdom or in ignorance, according to his ... receptivity to the sphere of intelligence within him. ~Charles Fillmore, “Talks on Truth”

How you choose to use this intelligence, reveal it, tap into it, be receptive to it equals  a life full of toil and drudgery, where you sit it in a dark cave, like the witches in Macbeth, honoring the false gods of anxiety, fear, lack, and difficulty; brewing hate-filled, lack-filled energy, screaming:

Double, double toil and trouble;

   Fire burn, and caldron bubble.

But instead of...

Eye of newt, and toe of frog,

Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,

Adder's fork, and blind-worm's sting,

Lizard's leg, and owlet's wing,—

...we throw in:

toe of struggle, nose of pain, 

eye of bad news, 

heart of hopelessness, and wings of worry -

...starting, as Corrie Ten Boom calls it, “a cycle of inefficient thoughts whirling around a center of fear.” This is something William Inge tells us bears “interest paid on trouble before it comes due.

It is a "woe is me" life:

Woe is me – there's too much work

Woe is me – I don't have time

Woe is me – 'fill in the blank'

We all have been in a state of shock with COVID...then frustrated and angry...then sad or even depressed. I know it...I've felt it. The next level is the acceptance mode, accepting this is the way it is and may be for a while or possibly a long while. Yet remembering/reminding/insisting on the Truth that Divinity is constantly revealed and available to you and you are always at choice, especially on how you react to these fears, frustrations, etc. You may need to pivot and shift.

It is not my ability, but my response to God's ability that counts.  ~Corrie Ten Boom, part of a Christian Netherlands family who saved 800 Jewish lives during the Nazi occupation

Living a "wow is me" life is being passionately invested in the greatness and power available to you right now, no matter the circumstance. Seeing yourself as God sees you.

enter the no toil zone

Here's a great tool to keep you in the no toil zone:

Set four alarms everyday with messages similar to these:

1)  Wake up:  “Good morning, today's going to be great, no matter what. I know, I know...just a few more minutes. Don't snooze away your life; get up and read your affirmative incantation and prepare yourself to have a rockin' day!”

2)  11 am:  “What are you focusing on right now?”

3)  3 pm:  “Look around at all your blessings.”

4)  Last hour before sleep:  “Reflect on the good that happened today, no matter how small, read your affirmative incantation and have a beautiful, restful sleep. Pleasant dreams!”

These no toil zone tools are simple, easy, and...POWERFUL.

We may have to do some labor every day, but we never have to toil or be servile to our job, employer, customers, clients, etc. If it looks you are, even a little bit - STOP IT. Your mind will thank you, your body will thank you, your family will thank you, and because you will be more efficient in time, attitude, and body, your job people will thank you.

A.I.

Today I affirm that I live a life of ease and blessing, no matter the conditions in front of me. I remember at all times that all the power, expertise, and strength, anything that I am required to know, do or be, is already flowing within; waiting to be tapped, revealed, opened and surrendered to, inspired and empowered from, and gratefully used to fulfill my life's purpose. 

I see my declarations as already done in Mind and I am lovingly lead down the perfect path with the best action steps necessary to accomplish all my goals. 

From this moment, on, I step into my “wow is me” life; totally immersed in Spirit and harmoniously balancing the Being of my life with the doing in my life.

Dedicate and Lubricate

To manifest stuff into our lives, we dedicate our thoughts and feelings about our desires into the Universe and then we lubricate the movement of these thoughts and feelings from desire to acquire, by using the energy of faith and belief. This energy is found in the holistic use of the Divine Matrix, the bio-electric mechanics and connection of the brain, heart, and gut.

Thoughts cause biochemical reactions in your brain that release chemical signals which make your body feel a certain way depending on your thoughts, and those feelings cause you to generate more thoughts that produce the same feelings and thus the same bodily reactions. 

      ~Dr. Joe Dispenza

And simultaneously makes the mental equivalent, which is the frequency the Universe reads to bring it into form. The energy centers of the body including the heart and gut come into play; stimulating the endocrine system (a collection of glands that produce hormones to regulate metabolism, sleep, mood, etc.).

This month talking about living a consecrated life. A life which prepares us to lock into the frequency Einstein and Tesla speak about to manifest, by:

1) Communing with nature and the Divine Presence

God is the Source of all that is and is all that is. Everything in the Universe is made of God-stuff, making each of us a unique, individualized expression of It. In this Oneness, this community, we each share our time, talent and treasure.

2) Taking heed to the constant call of the Divine urge

We do so by listening and watching for the subtle Universal cues and using the constructive versus destructive query to determine if it's from the ego, fear, or the higher self. Hint - we want to listen only to those which are constructive and coming from our higher self.

3) You dedicate your most sacred self to living the highest life

...the ultimate goal of life is complete emancipation from all discord of every nature.    ~Ernest Holmes

You can do so by:

                    a) nourishing yourself with healthful food, positive/loving/prosperous ideas, thoughts, and feelings

                    b) taking wise, bold, and optimized strategies of action

c) quieting the chattering mind with thankful attention, questioning push-back, and self-parenting

d) laughing and loving in general

e) clearing the corrosion of the mind & healing the ego-driven thoughts in the mind with meditation

f) activating the flow of Universal Abundance  through affirmative prayer or spiritual mind treatment

g) filling your consciousness with healthy and wise readings or being here 

h) practicing radical forgiveness to all, for all – especially yourself – in other words, “get over it Blanche”

i) getting your butt in nature, getting your toes in the sand, and your bare feet touching Mother Earth

Now you may come back to me with, “But what about all that's going on now or during other times of crisis, stress or trauma; something that turns my world upside down like a cyclone?” Good question!

As human beings, we have free will and can choose how we relate to what we experience, whether it be positive or negative. The same Principle that brings us freedom, prosperity, and joy also allows us to experience bondage, lack, or misery, according to our consciousness. ~Science of Mind

Free will, volition, choice in what we think and do. Makes you want to sing that great old hymn:

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me

Remember, this is not about claiming to be a wretched person, but a person with wretched thoughts around wretched conditions making wretched choices and actions.

Even on special occasions, like now, living the high life is essential. We are to never compromise the Divine Principle of life:  the Divine is within and the power of creation is shared by our perspective on life and beliefs in ourselves, no matter the circumstances. As the Tom Waits song says:

That diamond, based on a Buddhist principle, is described by Mila Diamond (she has a diamond in her mind and name):

We all have a seed of diamond mind ... a state of heightened clarity, alertness and complete congruity. When you are in that state, you find yourself in the right place at the right time, with the right people, noticing the right opportunities and finding genius solutions. The right path unfolds before you. You feel empowered. … Like a perfectly cut diamond, it is luminous and strong. 

As co-creators with the Universe, what we deeply believe and what we claim for ourselves and for the world has an impact. An impact on our minds, actions, thoughts, feelings and experiences.

It seems to me that it is only as we view all life, everything from what we call great to what we call small, important or unimportant—it is only as we view the whole thing as “one stupendous whole, whose body nature is with God the soul” that we shall really enter into communion, into sympathetic oneness and rapport, with the reality of all that is about us.                               ~Ernest Holmes 

Every time we face adversity or are enjoying the riches of life, remember your own worth and value. Steel your mind against the onslaught no matter how dire the circumstance and treasure this thing called life by always having a diamond in your mind.

Without inner change there can be no outer change. Without collective change, no change matters.  ~angel Kyodo williams, Zen Priest

Conclusion and Call to Action: 

To lubricate the way to revealing our Divinity, vibrating at the speed of the Divine and busting through to soar and zoom into the best time of our lives, no matter the condition; let us have a baptism of words and feelings and take vows of consecration. These promises, and the words and rituals that surround them, speak to a perfect aligning with the Universe. Those who are baptized may still have doubts and those who have taken Buddhist-like vows must still resist suffering. These are not usually "one and done" magic tricks or miracles that once acted on never need to be thought of again; they are meant to be returned to as a way of life. 

Anyone can ask and anyone can bless, whether anyone has authorized you to do it or not. All I am saying is that the world needs you to do this, because there is a real shortage of people willing to kneel wherever they are and recognize the holiness; holding its sometimes bony, often tender, always life-giving hand above their heads. That we are able to bless one another at all is evidence that we have been blessed, whether we can remember when or not. That we are willing to bless one another is miracle enough to stagger the very stars.  ~Barbara Brown Taylor, Episcopal priest, professor, author, theologian, and a 2014 TIME magazine 100 list of most influential people in the world

There is always a glimmer of light available. Fill up your spiritual bank with constant highest-self deposits. When you dedicate your thoughts and feelings to that which you desire and then lubricate the movement of these thoughts and feelings from desire to acquire, by using the energy of faith and belief; when you remember who you are, you always having a diamond in your mind. That makes your mind full of faith, with the highest hardness and thermal-powered manifesting conductivity of any material, with an unsurpassed cutting in of optimized beliefs and the polishing of those beliefs into a beacon of attraction.

You will find yourself living a consecrated, happy, joyous, prosperous, healthy, creative, and loving life...no matter the circumstances!

Affirmative Incantation

I Am part of a community that celebrates diversity in the world, fosters the inclusion of everyone, champions the inner work and journey of anybody, and creates space for brave, vulnerable conversations. Honoring the unique emanation of Divinity that each person embodies, I advocate for human rights and dignity for all.

Understanding that Oneness is not about Sameness or Otherness, I know it is revealed when we love each other well, get into good trouble when we must together, and consecrate this Beloved Community at all times with peace, prosperity and ease. I remain an active learner and a listener so that we can all grow together. I bless all people in their holy journey to bust through, soar and zoom into their greatest life. 

Like all, I am a unique expression of Spirit:  consecrated, educated, dedicated, and oxygenated to create a life the way I want it right here and now!

A Matrix of Divinity

Sometimes it can seem like nothing matters

To how you feel and the way that things are.

Uptight, anxious and a little scattered;

Dreams that once felt near, now seem so far               ~Steve Apperson

Dreams, wishes, hopes, fantasies, desires, revelations, declarations - we all have them. How do we materialize them? bring them into form – the 3D world? It's one of the big questions for us all. We have the spiritual tools, however, do we really believe in them?

Saturday was Tooth Fairy Day. Remember the tooth fairy?

Children cannot tell fantasy from reality until age 7 or 8. That is why they so easily believe in the Tooth Fairy, Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny.  ~Jean Piaget, child psychologist

And psychotherapist/parent coach Patti Ashley would add:

I would say keep the imagination going as long as it lasts!

However, Elaine Rose Glickman, author of “Your Kid’s a Brat and It’s All Your Fault: Nip the Attitude in the Bud - From Toddler to Tween,” thinks parents shouldn’t let their kids believe in the “Tooth Fairy:”

It sets your children up to look like a fool upon realizing they’ve been duped. They’ll feel gullible and stupid. Saying that these gifts are from some pretend creature takes away from your relationship. It teaches your kid not to trust you.

Your child could question if you’re also lying about, say, the importance of vegetables or the existence of God. And if you double down on the lie when she voices uncertainty, you’re also teaching her to doubt her own instincts about what is worthy of her belief and what should be questioned.

It begs the question:

Are Spiritual Mind Treatment, affirmative prayer 

and other practices just an adult Tooth Fairy?

Are we being duped by these ideas of “as if?”

Are these just lies we are telling ourselves while we wait 

for fate to take its hand or the law of averages 

to do its dirty work?

Well, the answer is no. When we embody ourselves in thoughts of pure logic and fact, we separate ourselves from that which prepares the mind and body to receive the good. Our perception and attitudes about life affect our body, mind, spirit, and what shows up in our experiences. Sounds like a very subtle thing, but what's in the subtlety is very powerful and its the lack of appreciating this subtlety that is the foundation of most of our troubles.

Without spiritual practice, whether it's with daily affirmative incantation work, prayer, visioning, gratitude, radical forgiveness, or just being with an open heart in meditation, we are consciously and soon unconsciously separating ourselves and tuning out from our good by tuning out of the Light, the Presence...God (or whatever you want to call It).

Everything is energy and that’s all there is to it. Match the frequency of the reality you want and you cannot help but get that reality. It can be no other way. This is not philosophy. This is physics. ~Albert Einstein

Sometimes this frequency needs to build itself up to be equal to that reality you want:

Wire rope begins with a single steel wire that's anywhere from .6 to 8 millimeters in diameter. Then several of these small wires are wound together into a strand. The number of wires per strand depends on the job the rope will perform and different applications require different degrees of flexibility and strength. Just as our inclusion of more and different wires strands yields stronger, more versatile/effective wire; so too our inclusion of more and different ideas, images, dreams, feelings, envisions and visioning work creates expanded, stronger, and more effective manifestations. 

Focusing on what we want to reveal in our lives, what we shall declare from the Universe, and how we open ourselves up to be aware and embody Its inspirations is part of the Divine Tapestry of creation. A tapestry is made by weaving the horizontal threads over and under the vertical threads, then squishing those horizontal threads down so they are very close together, thus completely hiding the vertical threads from view. The vertical threads are like the heart-centered work we do, the communion with Divine Intelligence...that which is rarely seen or, many times, even heard about.

Choose to love every facet of yourself unconditionally. You are a complex, multidimensional being and loving yourself requires identifying, accepting and loving all of our seemingly separate parts. This includes your personal self, broader self (other people), balance of the physical world (nature, activities, concepts…) and the collective Universe/God. ~Russell Anthony Gibbs, “The Principle of Oneness”

Spiritually speaking, we are all part of one big energetic organism - a tapestry if you will, expressing and experiencing itself, in the seen and the unseen; an intricate matrix of varying vibrations, the lower ones easier to see in form and the higher (most powerful) ones remaining mostly unseen. All energy is commingled like water in the ocean; impossible to determine where one drop begins or ends because there is no true separation of our individualized expressions of this singularity energy and the One Mind. Ralph Waldo Trine wrote in “In Tune with the Infinite:”

Anyone – a fool or an idiot – can be exclusive.  It comes easy.  It takes and it signifies a large nature to be universal, to be inclusive.  Only the man or the woman of a small, personal, self-centered, self-seeking nature is exclusive.  The man or the woman of a large, royal, unself-centered nature never is.  

Conclusion and Call to Action

Ask yourself...

Are you doing without being?

Excluding the spiritual for the logical?

You may accomplish a lot of things in the logical, but are you moving forward? are you fulfilled? I have found I am not....doing, doing and accomplishing, but not Being...not inclusive of Spirit...makes me feel un-whole, unaccomplished. Oh, I get things done and it is fun, from passionate and compassionate intent, goals are met and such, but something is always missing without at least dipping my toes mindfully into the Matrix of Divinity.

The Divine Matrix, your mind, heart and gut, and the energy centers of the body (chakras, if you like), which are circuit boards with their own hormones, frequencies, and brain-like functions are meant to work together as a team:

Idea (brain)

Feeling (heart)

Openness to Source (gut)

All are aligned along the energy centers of the body creating the frequency Einstein was talking about.

When we stay connected to them all, we Be, not just do; we easily weave the tapestry and wire the steel rope of our lives with a powerful energy that intentionally connects to where the Universe listens and takes Its instruction from, and that which speaks to us through inspiration and intuition from that Universal tapestry.

I began with a question:

Dreams, wishes, hopes, fantasies, desires, revelations, declarations - we all have them, but how do we materialize them? bring them into form – into the 3D world?

By opening our hearts to receiving and allowing, even inviting the Divine Intelligence in, as well as opening our mouths and mind to express our declarations to It, we set a powerful energy in motion.

Say it to claim it

Feel it to be it

And be open to receive it, to see it

Allow the Universe to inform you how to be more than a doer....and be the Be-er of life.

If I had an hour to solve a problem, I'd spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and five minutes thinking about solutions. …. We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them. 

Be like Albert Einstein, spend less of your time doing, and add more of your time being. Open your Divine Feminine aspects and put your order in to have the Universe provide the who and what of your desires - it will let the doing count more!

Affirmative Incantation

I embrace the entire community of Creation, expressing Its Divinity on Earth. Stocked with a myriad of infinite opportunities, I give my full attention to the beauty and wisdom of life, gratefully standing with calm and ease no matter what faces me. 

I know I will be informed with the perfect explanations and clarifications. 

I know I will be inspired to express the thoughts, feelings, and beliefs that lead me to the best results. And I know I am taking the best direction, moving down the best path, and operating through an optimized course of decision and action. 

The source and substance of my supply, whether in my money, knowledge, healing, or love, lies in the Power and Presence that I commune with right now with joyous consecration. I claim my clarity and understanding and nothing will divert me from this community of appreciation, devotion, and peace. 

With this Divine Wisdom flowing through my entire energized body temple, I live an opulent life....a luscious life....a life that is blessed.

COLORING OUTSIDE THE LINES

 In the far reaches of an infinite cosmos, there’s a galaxy that looks just like the Milky Way, with a solar system that’s the spitting image of ours, with a planet that’s a dead ringer for earth, with a house that’s indistinguishable from yours, inhabited by someone who looks just like you, who is right now reading this very book and imagining you, in a distant galaxy, just reaching the end of this sentence. And there’s not just one such copy. In an infinite universe, there are infinitely many. In some, your doppelgänger is now reading this sentence, along with you. In others, he or she has skipped ahead, or feels in need of a snack and has put the book down. In others still, he or she has, well, a less than felicitous disposition and is someone you’d rather not meet in a dark alley.   ~Brian Greene, "The Hidden Reality"

Explosive idea, eh? Makes my head spin. That's some coloring outside the lines of imagination. However, this is where science is taking us.

When we were very young, usually before 1st grade, we all colored outside the lines; it's a part of childhood development - the scribbling. Then seemingly overnight, the master of scribbling hands the parent a piece of artwork that shows she’s tried to color inside the lines. It’s a big moment when one will do the proud parent dance as they tape the picture to the fridge.

That switch in coloring skills is a milestone for children because it shows that their motor skills and cognitive skills are developing.  ~Rachel Annunziato, Ph.D., assoc prof of psychology, Fordham University

And Denise Bodman, Ph.D., a principal lecturer at the T. Denny Sanford School of Social & Family Dynamics of Arizona State University tell us:

As children become aware of boundaries, they start thinking and planning around them. Soon, she may color with an understanding of spatial vocabulary such as “above,” “below,” and “between.” When children start coloring inside the lines, they’re learning about cause and effect.

Coloring within the lines is tapping into self-control and confidence with a level of focus and concentration that helps us master many other tasks, fostering confidence.

All that is great in the development of a child or as a newbie to a skill, industry, practice, or purpose. Staying within the lines, following a systematic regimen and order has its value, of course, but it shouldn't be the only message a person gets. It's time to allow thinking beyond the boundaries – without the restraints. To think creatively, behave in an unconventional manner, and to not follow the rules.

Don't get me wrong, you can create some imaginative things within the lines. However, expanding beyond them is like exploring the multi-verse of your mind. Where would computers / the internet be without non-linear thinkers:

• Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace, an 1800's English mathematician, worked on the Analytical Engine, and considered a computer programmer, even before computers were a thing
• Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak of Apple
• Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn – fathers of the internet

Imagine science without...

• Einstein, Newton, Nikola Tesla, Galileo
• Marie Curie and her work with radium
• Rosalind Franklin's work in describing and assisting the discovery of  DNA’s double-helix structure

Where would philosophy be without...

• Plato and Aristotle
• Conscious, the Buddha and Lao Tzu (Tao Te Ching)
• John Locke, who inspired our Founding Fathers with the ideas of a social contract
• Ralph Waldo Emerson and Ernest Holmes

Where would entertainment and literature be without “outside of the lines color-ers” like...

• Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph of Netflix
• Walt Disney and Stan Lee
• Marlon Brando, Uta Hagen, or Stanislavsky in the acting field
• Emily Dickinson, Edgar Allan Poe (who many consider the first sci-fi author) or Shakespeare

How about innovations in the painting world without

• Picasso's "Guernica" in 1937
• Manet or Monet or Van Gogh
• Jackson Pollacks "Blue Holes Number 11" in 1952
• DaVinci's "Mona Lisa" in 1503
• Salvador Dali, Warhol, Klimt, Vermeer, Kahlo

Innovations in music without...

• Bach's harmonics
• Debussy's creation of mood and imagery
• Gershwin's pop music mix of orchestral and jazz
• Hildegard Von Bingen, Beethoven, the Beatles

Or the working space culture of Google and Zappos; their employee perks of free food, complementary wellness services, basketball courts, bring your dog to work, and other things changed the idea of creativity and work.

What did they all see outside the lines? Opportunities, innovation, change, the infinite... and love!!!!

Here's a "think outside the box question" some of you might have gotten at a job interview:

You are driving along in your car on a wild, stormy night, it's raining heavily.

You pass by a bus stop and you see three people waiting for a bus:

The perfect partner you have been dreaming about.

An old friend who once saved your life.

An old lady who looks as if she is about to die.

You have only one seat in your car. Which one would you choose to offer a ride to?

Do you pick up the old lady, because she is going to die, and thus you should save her first?

Or do you take the old friend because he once saved your life, and this would be the perfect chance to pay him back?

However, if you do all that, you may never be able to find your perfect mate again.

Think about it. It's a moral and ethical dilemma, but a decision must be made. Save a life? make a repayment for your saved life? or get that perfect partner?

The usual clever, imaginative, thinking out of the box answer is:

I would give the car keys to my old friend and let him take the lady to the hospital.

And I would stay behind and wait for the bus with the partner of my dreams.

There's no best answer...you could use your cell phone to call for help. But, it's designed to make you think, and that's what all this is about - what you think and how you think it.

The only way of finding the limits of the possible is by going beyond them into the impossible. ~Arthur C. Clarke

It's the what if? Envisioning...strengthens the mind, strengthens the intention, and strengthens our relation to any condition as one that will be overcome, changed, adapted, or healed.

Dr. Joe Dispenza reminds us that the brain doesn't know the difference between a real-life event and imagining it, so keeping it up will prepare the perception nodule, like a software program in the hardware - brain. 

You are the programmer, the language is your imagination, thoughts, and feelings, and practice and commitment change your relation to conditions. It's an energy that colors you outside the lines of all that stuff that gets in our way.

Our whole endeavor is to personalize the impersonal, that is, to individualize the Creative Spirit. While we cannot think of God as an infinite person, that is, as a being with any limitation whatsoever, we should think of the Creative Spirit as that Infinite Being in whom all personality is rooted. Thus, each is continuously individualizing God, and thus, also, each is individually using the Law of Cause and Effect. ~Ernest Holmes, "Lessons in Spiritual Mind Healing"

Following the steps or those "twice a day" suggestions are good, but eventually, you must make it your own in order for it to take hold in your subconscious and belief system.

You may cry our, “I'm not clever or imaginative or creative or..." But I would say back to you, "uh-uh, that's a bunch of bull, we all are!"

I am not asking you to change the world, just change the time, place, length, frequency, words in your spiritual practice. Play and find out what works best for you to reveal the Divinity in You, so you can 
vibrate at the speed of the Divine, and bust through, soar and zoom to your best experiences.

Alan Kay (the husband of author Bonnie MacBird) famously said “The best way to predict the future is to invent it.”

Color outside the lines of logic, religion, spirituality, this philosophy, what you've learned about spiritual practice....everything, and make your Universe a multi-verse of possibilities; making the seemingly impossible possible!

Affirmative Incantation
I see wonderfully colorful and mystical variances being uniquely expressed in each of us. And I am no exception. In Nature's great creative diversity, I am a bold, brave, loving, successful and productive example. I am seen, respected and heard by all. I take myself in my very capable hands to share my time, talent and treasures with the world. My intuition guides me to wise, wondrous and mystical ways and I play with an inventive, vibrant and enlightened palate. Whatever happens, I know I can handle it with grace and ease.

Seeds of Faith

 

Do you ever feel like that Billy Preston song:

I've got a song I ain't got no melody

I've got a story ain't got no moral

I've got a dance I ain't got no steps,

Will [I] go around in circles?

Will [I] fly high like a bird up in the sky?

 

Been wondering that lately? I have...

In honor of National Book Lovers Day, I want to start out with a literary quote that describes what's going on in many heads right now.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness; it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity; it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness; it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair; we had everything before us, we had nothing before us; we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.  ~Charles Dickens, A TALE OF TWO CITIES

Today I want to talk to you about the best of times, the worst of times. Whether it is considered heaven or hell...it is merely a state of mind

I have four questions for you:

• What's your state of mind lately?
• Are you holding the high watch for yourself?
• Do you feel your life is sacred?
• Where are you aiming your thoughts, feelings, beliefs and actions toward lately?

Don't be afraid to admit it if the last few weeks/months have taken a toll on your faith. Let me tell you a story:

There once was a man who had nothing for his family to eat. He had an old rickety shotgun, barely staying together, and three shells. So, he decided that he would go out and kill something for dinner.

As he went down the road, he saw a rabbit and he shot at the rabbit and missed it. Then he saw a squirrel and fired a shot at the squirrel and missed it.

As he went further, near the pond, he saw a wild turkey in the tree and he had only one bullet, he had to make this one count. A voice came to him and said "pray first, aim high and stay focused."

Suddenly, he saw a deer which was a better kill. So he brought the gun down and aimed at the deer.  But then he noticed a rattle snake between his legs about to bite him, so he naturally brought the gun down further to shoot the rattle snake.

Then again, the voice rang out, "I said 'pray, aim high and stay focused.' " So, the man decided to listen to the voice. He prayed, then aimed the gun high up in the tree and shot the wild turkey. The bullet struck the turkey, then bounced off a bone, ricocheted and killed the deer. The kickback from the shot caused the handle to fall off the gun and hit the snake in the head, killing it. At the same time, the gun going off knocked him into the pond.

When he stood up out of the water to look around, he had fish in all his pockets, a dead deer and turkey to eat and the snake was dead. All this bounty simply because the man listened to the Divine within and used his power of decision to aim high.

A shot like that may miss the mark in archery, but in life, when you pray first or use any of your spiritual practices, while knowing the unchangeable Truth that the Universe is on your side, aiming high with your goals, taking small steps, if you must, and staying focused on that sacred Truth, showing the Universe which side you are on, these seeds of faith manifest into an abundant life 

...when you discover what faith is, you will find that misguided faith can also cause mountains to fall on you as well. Whatever you have faith in, you create—good or bad. When the principle of faith becomes a conscious activity, your destiny is in your own hands … you go beyond having faith into being faith-full …. Faith isn’t something we have; faith is something we do. Faith is an energy. Faith is the power inherent in what we see or perceive. If faith is the substance of things hoped for, then faith becomes our “seeing” because what we image or see manifests outwardly in form.   ~Walter Starke, It's All God; Flowers and Fertilizer

This seeing that Starke is referencing, may begin or re-start small...

It’s like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is sown in the earth, though it is less than all the seeds that are on the earth, when it is sown, it grows up and becomes greater than all the herbs, and puts out great branches, so that the birds of the sky can lodge in its branches. ~ Mark 4:31

Remember, black mustard seed is very small and very powerful....like our thoughts. However, with nurturing of sun, soil and water, it grows exponentially like our thoughts and feelings. Habitual nurturing makes it grow 9 feet tall like our accumulation of thoughts and feelings into beliefs. And  this 9 foot tall tree is embedded into the ground like our beliefs are nestled in our subconscious, informing the Universe the color and flavor of the experiences to arrive.

How embedded is your faith? can it survive a pandemic?

In THE RAVEN, Edgar Allan Poe grieved a lost love, probably his wife, Virginia, when he wrote:

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,

Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,

While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,

As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.

Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door —

Only this, and nothing more." 

Poe was also mourning his faith in life itself. Indeed lost, he symbolically returned to a faith the size of a mustard seed. But, as the parable per Matthew's gospel continues...

If there is faith in you even as a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, move away from here, and it will move away; and nothing would prevail over you. 

Over so many months have past into this pandemic and it's time to reiterate how to be a conduit to our divine expression, how to return to our faith in life and how to aim high even when everything around you seems to aim low.

1) Stop Complaining, Start Creating

    Reprogram your conscious mind. When you start to lose faith, ask yourself, "what am I thinking?"

    You can always change the story that's going on in your head and focus on what you want. With thoughts and thinking, choosing what you want to think - shift then happens.

2) Reprogram Your Sub-conscious Mind

    Beliefs equals action. When you uncover the crap and release them, direct your attitudes to love, joy, compassion, and kindness; those values then will return to you.

3) Energize

    Commune and unify with the Creative Force of the Universe. We attract into our lives that which honors and supports that unity, dissolving that which doesn't. Our values and integrity are the first cause to the experiences we are having. The word integrity stems from the Latin word ‘integer’ which means 'whole and complete.' Consistent integrity allows your values to inform your words, decisions, choices, actions, intentions, methods and eventually, it will inspire your outcomes and experiences.

4) Elevate Your Vibrational Frequency

    Commit to keeping your eyes focused on the highest values:  love, forgiveness and gratitude. Energize your faith with AI's (Affirmative Incantations) or affirmations.

Hold fast to dreams 

for if dreams die 

life is a broken-winged bird 

that can not fly 

Hold fast to dreams 

for when dreams go 

life is a barren field 

frozen with snow ~Langston Hughes

At the end of “Tale of Two Cities,” Sydney Carlton, to redeem himself and express his love for Lucie, dies in the place of Charles Darnay. A both selfish and selfless act. he famously tells us:

It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known.

It is a good selfish act to grow your faith and rid yourself of limiting thoughts. And it is a selfless act as you grow faith and rid the consciousness of our world the energy of limitation and lack.

Step into your highest watch

Soak in your highest values

Be the mustard seed and grow or regrow your faith nine feet tall

You can … you have the power! 

You are the greatest gardener there ever was or ever will be.

START PLANTING!

Affirmative Incantation

The glory of the Universe resides in me. Within are the highest values, ethics, principles and consciousness of the Most High, the Divine Presence, the Light and Love of the Creative Power. I choose to live in integrity with the highest values of love, honor, peace, kindness, laughter, respect and beauty. I am good enough right now, just as I am, to bloom into realizing my greatest dreams. Wow, I love life!

UNITY IN ONE

I Realize its all inside of me
I Realize there are no walls
In between you and me and this holy word
no walls between you and me and this holy word   ~Laura Berman

The holy word you'd think we are discussing is love, indeed a holy word. Today, however, it is One.

One mind,One source, One-ness

I realize we are united in the One energy

Ancient Mayans have a greeting:  In Lak’ech Ala K’in. 

It means "I am another yourself" or "I am you and you are me." It is a statement of unity - oneness, like Namaste, Wiracocha (Incan) and Mitakuye Oyasin (Lakota). In an LSD inspired moment of clarity and creativity, John Lennon wrote for I AM THE WALRUS on the Sgt. Pepper soundtrack:  

I am he, as you are he, as you are me, and we are all together.

In these greetings we acknowledge & honor that we are all divine beings. Even the a-holes in the world. Our diversity is wide and all are included and connected to the One Source. "Really, even the buttheads?" Yep....look, the planets don't look the same or have the same air. Many are inhabitable, and you wouldn't want to visit, but they are all part of our Milky Way, our Universe, and created by the One Source, the singular energy.

In a social media post, I asked you all to join me with your waffles on the morning I created this post. That day happened to be International Beer Day. So I invite you to have a beer, too...with your waffles. Huh? Beer is one of the oldest drinks in the world and the third most popular overall, after water and tea. It has been mentioned is such ancient texts as The Code of Hammurabi, which included laws regulating beer and beer joints of the time. In The Hymn to Ninkasi, a prayer to the Mesopotamian goddess of beer, the song was used as a method of remembering the recipe for beer. All of these from one of the earliest know societies in our history. You probably know that beer is brewed from cereal grains and many recipes contain fruit. That is why it is a possible good breakfast item. The main reason I bring this up is, like us all of us, beer comes in many unique tastes, blends, colors, formulas, countries, cultures and styles, but they are all still beer.

I realize we are United in the One energy

Inclusion and Diversity is what God is about in its unconditional love. Though people can be pretty ugly in their individualized expressions of It, there's a beauty, even in that. And some go about it in strange and sometimes dangerous ways, but again we don't have to like all the likenesses of Spirit, just love the infinite possibilities of them.

I realize we are United in the One energy

This idea of the Oneness of God is not a philosophy of absorption … we do not become absorbed in the universal Self to the loss of individuality. Quite the opposite. We find ourselves …. immersed in a universality, each one being a unique, individual and different manifestation of that which itself is one, undivided, indivisible and whole. We cannot think of the Spirit as static, but as forever unfolding Its divine nature. … Unity does not mean uniformity.    ~Ernest Holmes 

Oneness does not equal sameness. We are uniquely the same as we are similarly different. We are all vibrant beings living in a vibrant Universe, able to vibrate at the speed of the divine. The Mayans call it huinik’lil ... vibrant beings. It is vibrant beings like like John Lewis who are wayshowers, reminding us of focusing on love, not hate.

All humans are descended from Adam and Eve. There is no superiority of an Arab over a non-Arab, or of a non-Arab over an Arab, and no superiority of a white person over a black person or of a black person over a white person, except on the basis of personal piety and righteousness. ~Prophet Muhammad, last speech at Mecca

Character makes the person and it is man, not mankind, that has lowered their character to cast others as less than. Those folks can be loved out of our lives and voted out of our lives.

This month we are concentrating on consecrating ... declaring and making our lives sacred. That doesn't we leave out the fun, the succulent, the sexy or the relaxed in our experiences. Having grace in life includes health, wealth, love and creativity. Consecration is about living in Truth and seeing that Truth in every individualized expression of the One Mind, even the a-holes. We must begin to realize that we must be inclusive in our diversity. Even as we may bless them to their best (the a-holes), we can bless them to their farthest – out of our lives.

Last month, I shared my New Thought Declaration of Independence (click on the picture for the text). 

August 2nd is the anniversary of the completion of the signing of the Jefferson document in 1776. Benjamin Rush, a signer, wrote about the mood in the room that day being far from celebratory, “It was awful and silent as each member was called up, one after another, to the table of the President of Congress, where they signed what was believed ... at that time to be our own death warrants."  Everyone was aware of what they were undertaking - an act of high treason against the British Crown that could cost each man his life. John Hancock supposedly said that Congress, having signed the Declaration, must now "all hang together", and Benjamin Franklin replied: "Yes, we must indeed all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately."

They were a great example of Unity in One. The one mind of the colonists to declare independence from the crown. And for us, declaring our independence from hate, even of the a-holes. We are all united in the One Mind, the Big Bang, the Universal Presence, the Elohim, the Christ Consciousness, the Divine Intelligence ….God

I realize we are united in the one energy 

Conclusion and Call to Action

• Set our intention to be inclusive, no matter the idiot we are faced with
• Focus on loving even when not liking
• Remember that whoever is speaking is a Divine expression speaking – loving and wise or dumb and dangerous as it may be
• Listen actively and consciously communicate
• Be comfortable with the uncomfortable to speak up, protest, vote
• Know that what each of us resonates, reveals itself back to us – individually and as a culture
• Choose not to hate the haters hating
• Be guided by that loving intelligence to imagine the peace and the calm, so you and us all can live it

The forces of nature are at our grasp in

the power in the in lak'ech al k'in. Here

is a poem by Luis Valdez, a writer, director,

and the father of Chicano theater, called:

IN LAK’ECH 

Tú eres mi otro yo.

     You are my other me.

Si te hago daño a ti,

     If I do harm to you,

Me hago daño a mi mismo.

     I do harm to myself.

Si te amo y respeto,

     If I love and respect you,

Me amo y respeto yo.

     I love and respect myself.

Whether with the greeting Namaste, Wiracocha, In Lak’ech Ala K’in, Aloha (Divine Presence), Shalom, Tashi Delay (Tibetan-I honor the greatness in you) ... you are actively acknowledging the Divine in all of us. Let us not hate the haters … let us love them, and if we must. love them far, far away.

Affirmative Incantation

I am one with Divine Intelligence: empowered by It, loved as It, enlightened through It, experiencing life for It and sitting in joy with It.

I claim harmony, acceptance, and compassion through the Divine diversity in all forms of Its image and likeness. Every male, female, non-binary, mineral, animal, plant and organism represents a life lived as Spirit. This inclusivity is a sacred oath throughout this Universe that all are created equal in the One Mind.   

I am equally able to cross any bridge, bringing me to a higher level of fulfillment. I am equally powerful to manifest my best life. I am equally consecrated to heal any and all that requires freshness and renewal. I am equally fit to love and forgive, freeing my life from hate and fear. I am equally empowered to bring abundance, creativity, kindness and respect around me.

Inclusive, diverse, powerful and successful am I; now and forevermore!