Standing On The Shoulders of Giants

So much of what I teach comes from Ernest Holmes and the books teaching the Science of Mind and Spirit, my teachers in New Thought, and those who have counseled me, been in class with me, or indirectly taught me or inspired me in other ways and from other fields of study. It all adds up and continues my growth and what I can bring to you. It also reminds me that though I may put a spin on something, make it my own, even inspire people with it, I am standing on the shoulder of giants. And even behind that, it is more about my openness to the open-source of all wisdom that comes to me from the Divine Source.

Like software for which the original source code is made freely available, and may be redistributed and modified, the wisdom of the ages and the intuitable creativity and imagination of the Universe is an open-source venue ...for everyone. Even Newton’s “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants,” wasn’t entirely original...

In the 12th century - John of Salisbury, who described himself as Johannes Parvus, was an English author, philosopher, diplomat and bishop of Chartres said, "We are like dwarfs sitting on the shoulders of giants. We see more, and things that are more distant, than they did, not because our sight is superior or because we are taller than they, but because they raise us up, and by their great stature add to ours."

I look at my library and I see all these ideas that interested me, were suggested to me or required for me to read, and some I don't remember why I was inspired to have them. Many are stalwarts in our teaching, but all of them created by standing on the shoulders of giants from ancient times to the last couple of centuries, or from each other.

It’s not where you take things from—it’s where you take them to.  ~Jean-Luc Godard

An everyday example is found in the book,  Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder, where Nassim Taleb describes an evening of a dinner out...

I realized I was going to a place the likes of which have been around for at least 2,500 years, in shoes similar to those worn at least 5,300 yrs ago, to use silverware designed by the Mesopotamians and drinking wine based on a 6K year-old recipe, from glasses invented 2,900 years ago, while eating cheese unchanged through the centuries (in fact, the older the better – right? wine too) while awaiting a dinner prepared with one of our oldest tools - fire, using utensils much like those the Romans developed.

2021 is not a New Year, New You. It is a New Year, NEWER you. As singer/songwriter Peter Allen wrote, “Everything old is new again.”

January's theme, in our year of AWAKENING, was Believe It. What we believe is the ground floor of our awakening. What we believe is the basis with which we experience a fabulous life and a fabulous life is a creative series of connecting the dots of wisdom throughout the ages, ancient to modern to today into our thoughts, feelings, and actions. Here's an example of connecting the dots wisely. It is about creating something you probably have in front of you right now:

1. The first touchscreen was developed by E.A. Johnson for air traffic control almost 50 years earlier than this thing

a. by 1975 other engineers built upon Johnson's work, developed and patented usable models

b. around the same time, the University of Illinois was developing touchscreen terminals for students

c. the first commercial touchscreen computer came out in 1983, soon followed by graphics boards, tablets, watches, and video game consoles

d. Casio released a touchscreen pocket computer in 1987 (20 years before iPhone)

2. Likewise, Kane Kramer (23 yrs old) designed a small portable hand-held touchscreen digital music player called the IXI

a. 1979 invention inspired by the Sony Walkman

b. held only 3.5 minutes of music

c. Kramer pitched it with the potential for immediate delivery, digital inventory, taped live performances, digital storage, and the promotion of new artists and micro-transactions.

Sound familiar? All that got us to the iPhone. Similarly, the technology for a fabulous life is already present and ready to have the dots connected. We can stand on the shoulders of giants right now to make these ideas our own; from Ernest Holmes, the Vedas, James Allen, Meister Eckhart, Wayne Dyer, Florence Scovil Shin, and hundreds of others. Even Shakespeare, drew heavily upon prior works to observe and create from (some may say, plagiarize)

• Hamlet took inspiration from a play based on Gesta Danorum, a twelfth-century work
• Holinshed's Chronicles was a comprehensive history of Britain originally published in 1577 - a source for Macbeth, King Lear, and Cymbeline. 
• Parts of Antony and Cleopatra are copied verbatim from Plutarch’s Life of Mark Anthony. 
• Arthur Brooke’s 1562 poem The Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet brought us Romeo and Juliet. And that poem came from a 1559 poem by Pierre Boaistuau, who in turn drew from a 1554 story by Matteo Bandello, who in turn was inspired by a 1530 work by Luigi da Porto.

In 2015, John Maxwell wrote a short primer on how to stand on the shoulder of giants. He said:

Stand on the lessons of history.

His example was through Norman Cousins, who wrote, “History is a vast early warning system,” teaching us to learn by mistakes. I say we learn by successes instead.

Stand on the lessons of others.

Throughout my life, starting when I was a very young man, I’ve made it a practice to spend time with people ahead of me on the journey. Observe and ask questions of people you respect, and you’ll gain incredible lessons that you can apply to your own life.

Stand on the lessons of experience.

When you learn from others first, you gain skills in evaluating experience in order to grow. I’ve often said that experience is not the best teacher; evaluated experience is. Use what you learn from others’ experience to evaluate your own, and you’ll go farther, faster, than you would have otherwise.

With your mentors, ally's, and life itself ... what is your history, your lessons, your experience? What do you believe? Whether you are new to this teaching or have been involved with this philosophy for a while, what are you doing with your beliefs?

The words are nice to hear and read - I know, but the belief and its integration, the awakening and embodying of it is essential to the transforming and transcending or for just having a happy life

You must be willing to incarnate your theology and illuminate the world around you … that devotion will give you the will to follow through on all you are guided to do, say, and become in this life. ~Carolyn Myss, Entering the Castle

We don't have to reinvent the wheel for a prosperous life.
We don't have to hold ourselves back or have misery in our lives to learn and grow.

When it comes to the ideas of:

• Divine Love always within and available
• Using the Law of Cause and Effect to reveal all  good in your life
• The One Mind and Unity of Spirit in all life
• Limitless Power of the Universe is available to us at all times

...our belief in them is proved by our use of these ideas, conscious or unconscious.

Take it all in. Don't lose the wisdom from the ancients because it's old and maybe abused. Don't lose the wisdom of the recent as just the latest fad or what those other people believe

Look at it, smell it, listen to it, touch it. Is it loving? is it constructive? Does it support:

• Divine Love always within and available
• Using the Law of Cause and Effect to reveal all  good in your life
• The One Mind and Unity of Spirit in all life
• Limitless Power of the Universe is available to us at all times

If so, add it in, make it your own, make it work for you.

Awaken your spirit to adventure; hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk; soon you will be home in a new rhythm, for your soul senses the world that awaits you.   ~John O’Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings

Believe it, risk with it, love it, be it. Always remember that behind (and above!) it all is God, the biggest giant with the widest and strongest shoulders. 

As we advance through our year of awakening and continue allowing the evolutionary impulse of Spirit to work through us, let us remember and commit to an upward journey of Divine Unfoldment. Mary Shelley wrote in a preface for Frankenstein: “Invention, it must be humbly admitted, does not consist in creating out of void but out of chaos.”

Not the chaos of confusion, disarray, disorder, and mayhem, but the chaos of the cosmos, of the Divine, of the wisdom of the ages - an open-source of information, inspiration, and transformation.

You won’t be able to say, ‘Here it is!’ or ‘It’s over there!’ For the Kingdom of God is already among you. ~Luke 17:21

Stand on the shoulders of my words and the words my words were inspired from, and the fruits where those were burgeoned and on and on till you get it, believe it, awaken to it; till you see further than ever before …and thrive!

Affirmative Incantation

Today I am lifted up and carried by the gigantic stature of that undeniable, ever-reliable Loving Intelligence that moves through me, with me, as me, and for me.

 I experience It's love like I do gravity, oxygen, magnetism, and electricity – in the result of Its power and presence in all of life.

I believe in It as I see It expressed in the beauty of nature or the eyes of a puppy or my truest love. I believe It as I hear It ringing in the sounds of the cooing of birds, the laughter of children, and the music that stirs me. I believe in It as It is disclosed in my freedoms of choice, words, thoughts, feelings, and actions. 

I believe that I Am to be guided and enlightened today, centered in the love and support of the Highest in me.

FORWARD...MARCH

 The spiral of life is upward.  Evolution carries us forward.   ~Science of Mind

Like many others, I too was struck weeping and patriotic as we stepped into a new political stance, a new national leadership, and a re-kindling of Light, here in the physical.

I am inspired to declare on this day that we step out of what we thought was a never-ending shade (as Amanda Gorman described)

...the day we step past the loss we carry

This is the day we leave behind the sea we have waded to stand tall on the land of the free and to feel safe in our home of Divine bravery where limitations are sent on their way, fears are held at bay, and peace, health, prosperity, and love are no longer delayed

If we needed a reason, an excuse, some motivation to plan, dream, envision or set our intention to the work of moving forward, one has arrived for both this nation, which Amanda Gorman described as

...striving to forge a union with purpose

To compose a country committed to all cultures, colors, characters and conditions of man & womyn

...and ourselves

I declare this purpose has arrived for each of us to experience where it is that we want to go forward as an individual, a family, a community, a nation, and a world with all the possibilities found in the infinite possibilities of the Universe.

We are bringing forth from beyond the horizon of our self-induced boxes of limitation and past the edges we had put around ourselves, our communities, and our movement; a transcendent growth, yet the dawn is ours before we knew it. She said...

...before we knew it

And yet always there awaiting us to reveal It

Somehow we do it

Somehow we've weathered and witnessed

a nation that isn't broken, but simply unfinished

As it is in this nation, so too is it in our lives - simply unfinished. We are not done, and we shall never be done. We have aligned ourselves with a teaching that emphasizes unity with God and each other, a faith that calls the world, both individually and collectively, to a higher state of consciousness and action for a life where our spiritual principles/practices like affirmative incantations, affirmative prayer, breath, contemplation, imagination, inspiration, and meditation from 20 secs to 20 mins are always available to awaken to, clothe ourselves in, and continuously experience our highest, most divine ideas choosing to think and feel, believe and reveal, declare and experience our best, most vibrant, prosperous, and succulent life.

The Law is on our side – the spiritual Law- to attract, manifest, demonstrate, compensate, mirror, reciprocate, magnetize, harmonize, and boomerang our intention, our focus, our purpose, and our glory to the right here and now.

In this year of awakening, we are called to intensify our Self-awareness, illuminate our alignment with Spirit in all our motivations, inner dialogue, and hidden beliefs; illuminate it with the Light of Divine Intelligence. We are called to awaken our willingness to observe and take responsibility for our thoughts, feelings, and word choices.

Self-awareness is the foundation for conscious choices, the wise imaginative ones from staying open-hearted to Universal wisdom, the Divine choices brought through our communion with this loving intelligence that Ernest Holmes describes in Can We Talk to God like this:

Consider the Spirit as a warm, pulsating, reciprocal thing. It presses against us, It flows through us. It is our intelligence. It is a great universal urge and surge. It is a warm colorful thing. It is a beautiful thing... Know that there is something more than law; an intelligence to which we may come for inspiration, for guidance, for direction; a power responding to us, a Presence pressing against us, an animation flowing through us, a light within us. 

Where do I go when the whirling dervish seems to take over in my head?...HOME

Where do I go when I have lost something, and going cray-cray finding it? ...HOME

Where do I go to keep the motivation of my passions alive when I'm frustrated about manifesting them on time?  Or have doubts, worries, and other junk?

I go Home ...to commune with the power and presence of Creation here in the Divine Matrix, where the wisdom of the One Mind occupies the body in head, heart, and gut – toes, elbows, and spleen. Richard Strozzi-Heckler, a somatic leadership coach says:

When we connect with the core energy [of the body] we contact a vast reservoir of wisdom, compassion, and intelligence that we have neglected, over three billion years of embodied knowledge of survival, adapting, social intelligence, coordinating, intuition, and reciprocity lie largely unused in us.  If we learn to listen to this life energy, and to act from it, there’s much it can teach us about living spiritual values while our feet are firmly on the ground. This somatic intelligence [the living process where neither mind nor body is separate from the other] affirms the truth of our interdependence, interconnectness, and a power that lies beyond the self. 

Though It is a living process, we must choose to get in it and take the ride. While on the ride, we shall turn away from the past, turn away from the conditions that do not serve us. This is not to bypass the conditions, not to ignore our feelings, or stock them away in some attic of the subconscious, pretending they did not happen, but to transcend them

Our teaching can be attractive to those who think they can bypass their emotions using such phrases and mantras as: 

“We are 100% responsible for our experiences” 
“Everything happens for good or for a reason” 
“You are exactly where you are supposed to be”

Though these statements are true, they become heartless platitudes; unhelpful, unsupported, dis-empowering spiritual ideas and practices to sidestep or avoid facing unresolved emotional issues, psychological wounds, and unfinished developmental tasks. As we march forward past the breach of this first month of 2021, let us not deny the complex nature of our lives and of our Universe, let us not deny we played a role in what manifests. 

We all have unconscious patterns and beliefs that we let go wild with our thought choices; they may be unconscious or subconscious, but they are not out of reach. We can face them and...

• process the emotions through our systems
• learn from them and re-calibrate our thinking
• awaken our factory-setting perspective from the depths of our core
• reveal and declare the Truth of who we are by drowning the head voice with the heart, responding instead of reacting, and changing those beliefs that are in our way to the ones that lead the way

…if you want to live a more spiritual life, live a more human life. Be more truly madly deeply human.   ~Jeff Brown, Grounded Spirituality 

I know I have some of that to work to do on myself. Join me and be not afraid! By constantly and consistently expanding our awareness and understanding that too many of us swim in some form of privileged 'you against me' mentality, or victim-hood, systemic racism, sexism, ageism, and other isms perspective, and then communing with the Divine within more often than the brain within, we will be able to step up, lean in, do the mental work in brain, heart, and gut. Here are your marching orders:

This is the...

day ... we step out of the shade,
aflame and unafraid.
The new dawn blooms as we free it
For there is always light,
if only we're brave enough to see it
If only we're brave enough to be it

Be brave enough to be It ... to be the highest you can be and go forward....always forward. You've got the strength of the powers of creation behind you to get through it, get past it, and manifest your best life yet. 

Believe It, Work It, Be It, Live It

I'll be joining you....let's go forward... and march!

Affirmative Incantation

inspired by St. Teresa of Avila

The Divine has a body on earth...mine:

Hands that are mine and feet that are mine.

Eyes of mine from which It looks out,

And ears of mine with which It hears the cry, listens for its meaning, and begins the healing.

With my feet, Divine’s compassion to the world goes about the movement of doing good;

And with my hand to my heart, It blesses as I answer the call of the Divine urge to be in joyous song.

Today I use these hands to take out the trash of my past

Today I use these feet to walk away from the dump of my junk

Today I use these ears to hear the sounds of forgiveness and peace in my mind

Today I use these eyes to see the best in me, the Highest in me....and in all who surround me.

Today I use this mind and heart to know gratitude and grace flows freely within me

And today I use all of the Divine in my body to be the holistic harbinger of prosperity for all parts of my life

I am the ever-evolving living embodiment of Divine Love and Intelligence and I use It every day and spread It around the world in every way.

PEACE IN OUR HEARTS

Today I want to highlight Dr. King's dedication to nonviolent activism; protesting injustice with a call for peace and unity, oneness, and prosperity for all. Influenced by Yeshua, Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. Howard Thurman and others, he knew that the power of peace could move what seemed immovable, teach those who seemed unteachable, bring light where there is darkness, and change this nation and the world.

This morning we will be diving into Peace In Our Hearts. We are bigger than any occurrence or condition or any low vibrational frequencies like division, doubt, fear, or stress. We are in a field of infinite possibilities that react to our thoughts, feelings, and beliefs.  What energy/vibration are you in?  What energy/vibration do you want to be in? 

Our optimal job is to turn away from the reaction of what is not peaceful and step into intention and creation of what is peaceful. Are you ready to let go of the fear, anger, uncertainty, and step into your clarity, understanding, certainty, love, and peace?

We can be the Light in the darkness by switching on the God switch. This is not some religious thing. It is as simple as:

How do you start your day in mind, body, soul,

thoughts, feelings, spiritual practice, and food?

How do you end your day?

Peace out there starts with peace inside you. Through our unity in the One and our awareness and awakening with our Highest Self, we not only bring peace in our hearts but become an example to others, rising the vibration throughout the world.

Let's start with our bodies. 

Being mindful of our bodies is essential to the expression of our attitudes, perspectives, and perceptions, and thus our beliefs and experiences. 

Are you all collapsed...shoulders slumped, spine contracted? 

Are you lifting up, doing your wonder woman pose, and deep breathwork?

Remember the spiritual practice of the breath is a release, refresh, and a reboot to mind and body. It is the precursor to the song in your heart revealing itself, illuminating your God-Light into your world and beyond.

Language and communication is important, so focus on what you want to expand. Self-talk is powerful. Choose yours wisely ...it's not about what you don't want....it's about what you want! As Carl Jung reminds us, “What you resist, persists.” So do not resist the negative, re-frame it to surrender to the positive. Life does not need to just be about the good vs. bad. It's about what you declare you are going to reveal in your life or the life of our nation.

Plug-In To What Nourishes You

Spiritual Practice, Community
Self Care – mentally and physically
Varying the sensory input - music, reading, etc.
Moving your body - motion creates emotion and emotion creates attitude, perception, and perspective. Is yours on strife and fear or peace, health and prosperity.

There is an indefinable mysterious power that pervades everything, I feel it though I do not see it. It is this unseen power which makes itself felt and yet defies all proof, because it is so unlike all that I perceive through my senses. It transcends the senses. But it is possible to reason out the existence of God to a limited extent. Even in ordinary affairs we know that people do not know who rules or why and how [IT] rules and yet they know that there is a power that certainly rules.  ~Gandhi

That ruling power is in you....is you.

INTEGRITY/COURAGE

Dr. King wrote:

Cowardice asks the question, 'Is it safe?' Expediency asks the question, 'Is it politic?' Vanity asks the question, 'Is it popular?' But, conscience asks the question, 'Is it right?' And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but one must take it because one's conscience tells one that it is right.

Courage is the ability to do what is in your heart. 'Courage' comes from the Latin, 'cor,' meaning heart and spirit. We open our heart to trust the inner wisdom. The inner wisdom comes from Spirit, the Universal Intelligence. With integrity to our spiritual practices and courageousness in using the revelations from our spiritual practices, we can stand on the Principle of Love and Law. The unconditional love of the Divine and the Law that provides as we believe. 

BELIEVING

Gandhi asked...

...is this power benevolent or malevolent? I see it as purely benevolent, for I can see that in the midst of death life persists, in the midst of untruth Truth persists, in the midst of darkness light persists. Hence I gather that God is life, truth, light. ...love. ... the supreme Good. ...[not] merely satisf[ying] the intellect ...[but] rul[ing] the heart and transform[ing] it. ...express[ing] ...in every smallest act.... This can only be done through a definite realization, more real than the five senses can ever produce.

Peace is a possibility right now. 

Believing that is step one. Keep peace in mind everywhere you are. Let us embody what St. Francis declared:

I AM an instrument of Divine peace:

     where there is hatred, I shall sow love;

     where there is injury, pardon;

     where there is doubt, faith;

     where there is despair, hope;

     where there is darkness, light;

     where there is sadness, joy.

Divine Love, I now declare

That I shall not so much seek to be consoled as to console,

     to be understood as to understand,

     to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that I receive,

It is in pardoning that I am pardoned,

And so I forgive all

And allow all hate, fear, anger, disappointment, and victim-hood 

To be released from my heart and die from my experience

As I reveal my eternal life of love, peace, honor, justice, respect, kindness, and grace. 

You probably won't be able to curb every idea that enters your head, but by watching your actions, thoughts, character, and habits, you can always decide if you will make a home for it. 

On January 30th, we begin the 64 day Season for Nonviolence, an educational and grassroots campaign dedicated to the legacy of Mahatma Gandhi who believed in the power of truth and possibility — that a person of conscience could awaken others by refusing to go along with existing injustice and by pointing out more just and workable alternatives. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. applied Gandhian principles to the movement for civil rights.

If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration. ~Nikola Tesla 

 Peace begins within and radiates outwardly. Peace in the land starts with the individual. There is no peace in the nation without peace in each of our hearts. 

Get in the wave. Weep, rage, if you must...but then breathe, and sing. Plug-in, nourish, and give peace a chance...

Affirmative Incantation

Today I begin to use the Power within like I have never done before, to experience the Good that God is.

I know who I am – an individualized force of the creative Intelligence of All. I AM empowered by the Light and Wisdom of The Thing Itself...Spirit, Source, Divine Intelligence. I follow that Truth with the awareness that my thought is creative... thoughts are things. And so I sow the seeds of my joyous life with these words today. I move now as an outlet for the Universe to work with me, for me, by me, and through me, to make my life a living demonstration of Its greatest example.

So here I Am, Universe. Here I speak my Word, Spirit. Here I Am using my mind, heart, soul, brain, and gut to talk to you, declare as you, reveal through you a life being lived fully, with succulence, joy, grace, peace, and courage. I surround myself with love, kindness, wisdom, creativity, and vitality; nurturing my body, mind, and soul with goodness, and laughter.

Today I feed my consciousness with the nutrition of Divine Love and sing out with success!

FROM THE GROUND...UP

 

In a very real sense, we are all aliens on a strange planet. We spend most of our lives reaching out and trying to communicate. If during our whole lifetime, we could reach out and really communicate with just two people, we are indeed very fortunate.  ~Gene Roddenberry, visionary & creator of Star Trek

This week I have been thinking about communication -words, intentions, purpose. I also have been thinking about safe harbors, peace of mind, our nation, our democracy, who we are at our most basic, and what that means in the scheme of things.

Some people seem not to get It. By It, I mean the Mother/Father/God Source within us. Their hearts are closed and their mind is blocked. But a block can be broken – the core revealed. If I can communicate that there's a power that is within you, that you are not only a child of the Universe but an individualized expression of the Universal Creation Itself. If I can convince just two of you, inspire just two of you in the whole world, then I have done my job. Because two begets four begets sixteen and so on and so forth, exponentially like a constructive virus.

The effects of the events of the U.S. Capital violent unrest reminded me of Andra Day's song from 2015, RISE UP:

You're broken down and tired

Of living life on a merry go round

And you can't find the fighter

But I see it in you so we gonna walk it out 

And move mountains

When we can't find the fighter in ourselves, the fighter that brings us back and makes us feel safe, whole, with a future, we tend to go negative. Or...

When the silence isn't quiet

And it feels like it's getting hard to breathe

And I know you feel like dying 

When those things happen

...it makes you feel like an alien in your own skin

An alien in your own skin. Allow me to remind you who you are. Let us start from the ground...up. 

The Sacred Books of all peoples declare that God is One, a unity from which nothing can be excluded and to which nothing can be added. All people are expressions of the Divine. All people have a connection/unification with Divine Intelligence / Divine Love. This is the most basic tenet of our teaching...and most others:

One God, One Source, One Father/Mother of All, One Mind, One Life

...that is the basics, the ground floor of belief.

When we have long weeks, when we have trauma, when we have negativity that scares the living perfection out of us, we must feel our feelings, take care of whatever needs to be taken care of in the 3D world about it, and most importantly:  start from the ground...up.

What do I mean by that? Lao Tzu, the purported author of the Tao te Ching wrote:

Those who are highly evolved, maintain an undiscriminating perception. Seeing everything, labeling nothing, they maintain their awareness of the Great Oneness. Thus they are supported by it.

Well, we are always supported by the Great Oneness. But how are we using It – communicating it to ourselves and the world? We observe social inequities, racial injustice, and disenfranchisement of people throughout our world, a world that has deeply held beliefs of race superiority, preference, and privilege not consistent with our spiritual and universal principles. So...

What are we to do?

How do we become or teach humanity to live in alignment with spiritual truth?
How do we have a world with less idiotic behavior...less desperation? less fear and chaos?

Some seem not to get it, but that's only because their hearts are closed and their mind is locked. But a lock can be opened. The key is love...the love of our Oneness...that all are created in the likeness of the Creator. It's not philosophy, religion, spirituality, or metaphysics, it's all of them and it's science.

A person experiences life as something separated from the rest - a kind of optical delusion of consciousness. Our task must be to free ourselves from this self-imposed prison, and through compassion, to find the reality of Oneness.  ~Albert Einstein

Conclusion and Call to Action

From the beginning of Creation, this Unity of Life was set in motion.  It is the play of Life upon Itself; the action of a limitless Imagination upon an infinite Law. Through this Unity, this One Mind, any individual has the ability through the power of belief, through our thoughts and feelings, through our word, through our daily spiritual practice to ground the self in the absolute knowing and practice of Oneness, to manifest through from our GodSelf. And when we must, to remember who each of us is.

And to turn to each other, even if it's one or two of us, and say:

But I see it in you [this fighter spirit] 

so we gonna walk it out

And move mountains

And from the ground...up, we shall...

 Rise up...like the day

rise up...unafraid

[we'll] rise up...

High like the waves

[we'll] ...rise up

In spite of the ache

[we'll] ...rise up...

And … do it a thousand times again

In peace and love of self and others, let us fly like the God's we are into any diversity with the strength of our Oneness, the power of the Universe at our back, the Light of our Word manifesting our best, and the unconditional love of Spirit flowing. Let's take off from the ground...up.

Let's Fly!

Affirmative Incantation

I rise up...awake and wiser. I Am forever One with the loving intelligence that supports my body.

I believe in my power. 

I believe in my deserving of a joyous and happy life. 

Today, I declare my good health and feeling vibrant. Today, I take a stand, solid from the ground up and centered in my Divine nature, to think, feel and be in the best health possible. 

My blood sugar, cholesterol levels, blood pressure, body mass, physical activity, and diet improve every moment of every day. My blood is oxygen-rich, my cells round and flexible, my bone density higher, and my organs function optimally.  My brain, nerves and muscles fire up with Divine Intelligence, calm and ease, and strength.

My body shall reflect my belief. And I step boldly and bravely in believing in my great health.

ALWAYS THE WISER

 …you are one with the Creative Genius back of this vast array of ceaseless motion, this original flow of life. You are as much a part of it as the sun, the earth and the air. There is something in you telling you this -- like a voice echoing from some mountain top of inward vision, like a light whose origin no man has seen, like an impulse welling up from an invisible source. ~Ernest Holmes, This Thing Called You

The theme for 2021 is AWAKENING. After working on our perception of how life works, it is time to awaken to these perceptions...solidifying them in all we think, feel, and do.

Each month we will explore the path to our awakening. Themes like:

Loving It
Observing It and Decluttering It
Connecting, Expanding, and Authenticating It

                                                                                              …and much more

January is titled Believe It. Believing the wisdom of The Thing Itself, call It God, the Universe, Spirit, Divine Love, Divine Intelligence, Source...This Thing Called YOU

Our fundamental principles are an ageless amalgamation of many spiritual traditions and mystics that have tapped into the Infinite Eternal Gnosis of Universal Love. We believe in a Divine Intelligence, call It what you will, the Living Spirit Almighty; one, indestructible, absolute and self-existent Cause that manifests Itself in and through all creation.

We believe in the incarnation of that Intelligence in everyone and that all people are incarnations of the One Spirit.

We believe in the eternality, the immortality, and the continuity of the individual soul, forever and ever expanding, empowered by this loving Intelligence within.  Following these principles is a full body experience. It takes the logical mind, the open heart, a faith, an enlightenment through alignment, a willingness to transform and transcend, and an eager awakening to the Truth of how the Universe works. Ernest Holmes said in his 1959 Sermon by the Sea:

Others will arise who will know more than we do; they won’t be better or worse, they will be different and know more than we do. Evolution is forward. ... [a] most direct impartation of Divine Wisdom that ... incorporates the precepts of Jesus and Emerson and Buddha and all the rest of the wise.

It's not just about attending Sunday celebrations, classes and workshops, or reading about the teaching. It's about showing up for and with yourself; using personal responsibility traits like:

Honor and Purpose

We honor the ancestry of our teaching by acknowledging the alchemy of the universal wisdoms to embody and use them in our lives. We are not talking about some dogmatism or any kind of authority generated from some alleged revelations or special information delivered only to the mystics or metaphysicians...there is no secret product or special dispensation of Providence or wisdom. It is wisdom dispensed and available to all who reach out to receive and honor It; to those who welcome the wise, awaken the intuition, and willingly evolve the mind and heart.

Do you have a special quote or text, a “timeless” wisdom you keep near you at most or all times? If not, I ask you to find one that resonates with you. One that causes you to vibrate at the speed of the Divine and honor this powerful Word by awakening to it and using its gnosis (its knowledge) in revealing the Divinity in you.

Openness Is Our Mission

Grounding, centering, and communing with Mother Earth and the energies of the Cosmos opens us up to the Divine impulses and urges of wisdom that is always calling us inward to the deeper part of ourselves. We prepare ourselves by cultivating the consciousness of humility, letting go of our spiritual arrogance and bloated nothingness out of the path, and perceive beyond our current perspective. And to be open to the “new thing” God is doing in, as, and through us and all beings. In this openness, we bust through, soar and zoom out of the old perceptions and perspectives that held us back and leave it burned in a ceremonial bowl of release and renewal. 

Visioning a Vision to Envision and Live A Great Life

Here's a different take on the caterpillar to butterfly metamorphosis and its relation to inner wisdom, transformation and transcending. From Norie Huddle's book, “Butterfly” she writes:

The caterpillar’s new cells are called "imaginal cells". They resonate at a different frequency. They are so totally different from the caterpillar cells that his immune system thinks they are enemies . . . and gobbles them up - Chomp! Gulp! But these new imaginal cells continue to appear. More and more of them! Pretty soon, the caterpillar's immune system cannot destroy them fast enough. More and more of the imaginal cells survive. And then an amazing thing happens! The little, tiny, lonely imaginal cells start to clump together, into friendly little groups. They all resonate together at the same frequency, passing information from one to another. Then, after a while, another amazing thing happens! The clumps of imaginal cells start to cluster together! . . . A long string of clumping and clustering imaginal cells, all resonating at the same frequency, all passing information from one to another there inside the chrysalis.

A wave of Good News travels throughout the system - Lurches and heaves . . . but not yet a butterfly.

Then at some point, the entire long string of imaginal cells suddenly realizes all together that it is Something Different from the caterpillar. Something New! Something Wonderful!! . . . And in that realization is the shout of the birth of the butterfly!

Since the butterfly now "knows" that it is a butterfly, the little tiny imaginal cells no longer have to do all those things individual cells have to do. Now they are part of a multi-celled organism - A FAMILY who can share the work. Each new butterfly cell can take on a different job. There is something for everyone to do. And everyone is important. And each cell begins to do just that very thing it is most drawn to do. And every other cell encourages it to do just that.

Have a conversation with the wisdom you hear, read, and learn. Cultivate this Field of Consciousness into your thoughts, feelings, and beliefs and let these wisdoms impress and inform, inspire, and evolve your life. When we know that we know what we know and put it in our lives as a practice, setting our previous ideas aside and becoming aware and conscious of the impress of Universal Spirit and Infinite Possibilities, our access to infinite wisdom and intelligence turns into a readiness for It to flow through us, as us, and with us.

One who comprehends truth is wise, one who loves it - good, one who orders his life in accordance with it - happy. ~John of Salisbury

When I want to learn something, I use the mental powers in my brain-mind. When I want to embody something or heal myself, I use the spiritual and emotional powers in my heart-mind. All are guided by the enteric-mind (the intuitive). The gut is where wisdom enters, the brain is where wisdom computes, and the heart is where wisdom lives and expresses.

The spiral of life is upward. Evolution carries us forward, not backward. Eternal and progressive expansion is its law and there are no breaks in its continuity. It seems to me that our evolution is the result of the unfolding consciousness of that which already is, and need but to be realized to become a fact of everyday life.  ~Ernest Holmes, Words That Heal Today

Let us not use 2020 as a headwind, holding us back. Let us use it as a tailwind, pushing us forward. 

When our purpose is strong and meaningful, 

we will be always the wiser.

 

When we have a mission that is bold and brave, 

we will be always the wiser. 

And when our vision is clear and forward moving, 

we will be ever the wiser.

Affirmative Incantation

Steeped in the wisdom of the ages, I humbly awaken to the inspiration. The greatest ideas of my life are now downloading into me:

When ancient mystics tell me I Am One with the Divine, I believe it.

When the modern mystics lay out the tools and practices to rise up to my best, I believe it.

When the Universe lets me know Its power lies within me ready to be used to manifest health, freedom, love, prosperity, peace, and tranquility, I believe It.

In this new year, I hereby resolve to evolve! I hereby provoke to become woke. I hereby breakthrough into the new.

Roused, revived, enlivened, and energized, I awaken to the wisdom of the ages and shape my world and my experiences with power and grace

NOT A LOOK BACK

Photo by Elia Pellegrinia on Unsplash.com

Our theme for 2020 has been Perception...

What is our impression of life and us in it?

What do we grasp, acknowledge, understand, believe, recognize, and reveal?

Amid the pandemic, the fires, and other conditions, we brought you answers, tools, and more questions in order to upgrade your perception about how your life works. 

This may be the final blog post of 2020, but it is not a look back. I am sure many would like to forget 2020...the lockdown, work, and school on Zoom, toilet paper shortages. If 2020 was a person, I'd sue him for pain and suffering. If 2020 got an Amazon or Yelp review, it would get one star – not recommended. I did get to read a lot of books and, I don't know about you, but I finished all of Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, and Disney+ by July.

2020 was much like an episode of Twilight Zone...it made Tiger King seem normal. And for me, sweats were the predominant pant for 2020 – I'm wearing some right now. And social distancing? I never thought “I wouldn’t touch them with a six-foot pole” would become a national policy. Oh, and remember singing “Happy Birthday” -twice- while washing your hands? For a while there, every time I went to the bathroom, kids expected me to walk out with a cake.

This morning I want to review our year of Perception. But not to look back … to move forward

We see the world, not as it is, but as we are. ~Talmud

We started our year learning about perception through the elements ...air, earth, water, fire. The air taught us to have ventilation through revelation:

To clear the air of conditions
And breathe the air of Truth

To keep away the fear, the despair of the news, the climate, or the idiots in government we grounded ourselves to Mother Earth, gaining strength from her profound power. And to live at our fullest, we learned to become the lake; flushing out the negative with overflowing positive by filling our minds and hearts with the best words, the loftiest ideas, the most loving thoughts. All this to give us a base, empowered by Truth to endure, optimize, be smart, be centered, and have vitality, joy, wisdom,and love on high.

All the power and intelligence of the Universe is already within, waiting to be utilized. The Divine Spark must be fanned into a blaze of the living Fire of your own divinity.  ~Ernest Holmes, Creative Mind and Success

We all have heard that seeing is believing, however...

Believing creates the seeing!

  ...and seeing God in everything creates harmony. When we remove the obstructions in our perceptions and our histories, we have a vision of infinite possibilities.

But don't squint to try to focus on that vision...to change, update, upgrade, or transform/transcend. It leads to double vision and a false sense of clarity.

Don't squint -you don't have to- open your eyes wide, the ones in your head and in your heart. Open them to the luminescence of Divine Wisdom and It will reflect in everything you think, feel, and do.

As we perceive through the Divine Feminine in us all, we tap into our foresight and creative wisdom; nurturing the nature of our inherent spiritual perfection, and thus suiting up for constant success. Walt Whitman wrote:

The moment you stand up and claim your divinity,

Christ is reborn within your heart, Buddha rejoices,

Mohammed dances upon the mountaintop,

Lao Tzu winks approvingly

And the Promise of the Tree of Life is Fulfilled.

And I know that the hand of God is the promise of my own,

And I know that the spirit of God is the brother of my own

And that all the men ever born are also my brothers,

And the women my sisters...

Perception and Focus go hand-in-hand. Remember this story?

A small boy was wandering in the woods and saw a monk sitting on a rock. He went up to the monk and asked him to impart a bit of wisdom.

The monk looked at the small boy and said, “My child, be a Lion, not a dog.”

Puzzled, the boy asked, “What does that mean, be a lion, not a dog?”

“When you throw a ball at a dog,” asked the monk, “what does he do?”

“The dog chases the ball,” the boy replied.

“Yes,” said the monk, “but if you threw it at the Lion, it wouldn't care at all about the ball. Its attention would be on you who threw the ball, not on the object....you. Now think about it:  if someone is throwing balls at a lion, what happens next when the lion turns to look?”

“The person throwing the ball better run away before he gets eaten,” the small boy said.

“Correct, my boy. The Lion stays put, focused on you, waiting to grab hold of you.

Confused, the small boy asked the monk, “that's a scary story, teacher, what am I supposed to learn from that other than don't throw a ball at a lion?”

“Like the lion, my friend, always focus on the source.... not the incidents, not the effects....go to the source.”

And that Source is Spirit....our highest self....with Clear and present certainty, we are free to see It and Live It.

Do you perceive yourself as a maverick of intention?

Do you use imagination and faith, knowing the Universe is your ally to end the war on lack or limitation of any kind?

As we perceive life through the roots of our Nature, we commune with the Power of all Life, consecrating ease, and awareness in our thinking. With the seeds of faith as part of our Divine tapestry, unified in the One, we dedicate our mind and heart to just do the God in us. We may pray and meditate with persistence and gusto (which sometimes is hard), but we no longer toil.

Staying in tune with the Divine gives us the tools to carve out what it is we want, desire, require in our lives.

Perception taught us to give credit where credit is due...right here (in the heart-brain) within you. Each of us is the conduit, the sun, the connection. When we soak in the energy of the Universe and Creation with gratitude, commune and be in tune with the Divine, put foundations under our castles in the air, we can wrap up our greatest manifestations with a bow. As satirist Jonathan Swift reminds us:

Real vision is the ability to see the invisible. 

For even when frustrations arise

We can weep, rage, breathe, then sing, and let Divine Love Light the way to laying down our burdens and shadows. I ask you not to forget 2020, but to learn from it. Not to be pissed about it, but to release the anger and forgive it. I ask you to not look back but to look forward.

Some of 2020 events will follow us into 2021, but our perception of those events, how we relate or react to them doesn't have to. Let's take 2021 with advice ala King Henry from Shakespeare's Henry V:

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;

...imitate the action of the tiger:

Stiffen the sinews, conjure up the blood,

...set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide;

...breathe and bend up every spirit ...to [Its] full height. 

...show us here...the mettle of your pasture:  let us swear that you are worth your

[Divine] breeding; which I doubt not;

… [and] hath … noble lustre in your eyes.

The game's afoot [the year anew]:

Follow your spirit; and upon this charge,

Cry 'God [is] for me! and All the world

...in peace, vitality, joy, prosperity, and love!'

 

Happy New Year...HAPPY NEW YOU!

Affirmative Incantation

I look forward to this new year. 

I look forward to this prosperous year. 

I step into my wealth and soak up my good health. Vitality, vibrancy, and victory are abundant in my life this year of 2021. It shall be state-of-the-art, cutting-edge, advanced, and unspoiled.

I look forward to a creative year full of loving relationships, peace of mind, and good flowing in of inspiration. I acknowledge my Divinity and Its vibration will show through during all of 2021. 

Happy New Year and Happy New Me.

LAYING DOWN YOUR BURDENS

Lyrics from the Melanie song Lay Down (Candles in the Rain) tell us:

We were so close, there was no room

We bled inside each others wounds

We all had caught the same disease

And we all sang the songs of peace 

Part of the “wrapping it up with a bow” theme in December includes wrapping up our past that lingers in the dis-ease of shame, blame, guilt and pain; purging its energy and sending that energy off to the Universe to be used for better purposes, so it does not hold us back or leave some shadow in our belief system of not deserving the best life. We all have wounds from causing wounds, a bit of dis-ease from hurting someone else, as well as hurts we have experienced. However we also have the ability to create a field, a synergy within that can be used to change our consciousness and the beliefs that attract these conditions.

Our spiritual practices create the field...a field of release, healing, and forgiveness.

Wake up! Your word is all powerful. Your consciousness is one with Omnipotence. Your thought is infinite. Your destiny is eternal and your home is everlasting heaven. Realize the truth – I am living in a perfect universe, it always was perfect and always will be perfect.  ~Ernest Holmes

We have the ability to clear our subconscious or subjective mind, to open ourselves up from the tyranny of our past woes, worries, mistakes, and behaviors. It's not to render us not guilty of these transgressions but to free us so we can move from them and step into our potential, manifest our best, and thus give back and be of service to our world at full force. This deep love of self is a transformational intelligence.

When heart connections are made, our neural pathways expand and wise up. We reveal inner peace and thus World Peace because a peace exists in us. If you take a candle into a cave, you light the cave, yet you could also light many candles from the one and increase the light. So too, in giving light by exploring and releasing past pain and guilt/blame/shame can we optimize our manifestations

Melanie's song reminds us to:

Lay down, lay down, let it all down

Let your white birds smile up at the ones who stand and frown

The white bird, the dove in your heart...it's time to release it; to let it smile up all the frowns and habits of our past transgressions.

Release the resistance!

The manifestation work is done immediately by the Universe, however, what it looks like has to do with what you believe and where you stand...

I had a dream I met the Law. I won’t tell you what she looked liked or what she was wearing.

I met the Law and the Law was taking me on a tour. We entered this huge area, infinite, with rows and rows of stuff. We were walking along and all of a sudden I saw my name. 

I said, “hold on, wait; this my stuff?”

She said, “Well you know, whatever you want, whatever you require or declare or are going to require or declare – it’s all here ...waiting for is for you to reveal it in your life. 

So, yeah, it’s your row of stuff.

I looked at it. "Ah, look at that, it just goes on forever, I can have anything, anytime, it just goes on forever. That’s so great." There were boxes and labels of all kinds of things and ideas. And I noticed something I had already received. I said, “I remember getting that, but it didn’t really look as nice as that.

And she said, “Well, that’s because you were standing on the corner.”

“The corner, what are you talking about?

“Well,” she said, “when these things are delivered you have to be on Truth Trail.”

“Truth Trail?”  I asked.

“Yeah,” she said, “when that was being delivered you were standing on the corner of Truth Trail and Fear Avenue, so that was colored by your position at the corner.”

“Huh?”  I continued walking down and soon noticed some great things that were in my life and then I saw there was something that never really happened …so far, something that I have wanted and desired. And I said, “what happened to that? I wanted that, I was standing on Truth Trail, I did Treatment for it and everything else…"

“No……I heard you, the Law heard you. It was being delivered, but you weren’t on Truth Trail, you were on I Don’t Deserve It Drive. If you’re not on Truth Trail, it doesn’t show up.

“Jeez,” I said, “But what about that?” 

She said, “don’t even ask, you were on Lack Lane, buddy. When you are on Lack Lane, everything is tainted.”

I tell you this story because I want you all to join me in digging in, delving deeper into your spiritual Mind practices, to pay forward in mental coin so that the stuff that you require, the attitudes you require, the relationships you require, the peace of mind you have decided to have shown up as you desired it, as you pictured it, as you wanted it.

Let me encourage you to stay on Faith Freeway or Belief Boulevard or Spirit Street if you can’t be on Truth Trail. Because UPS  -the Universal Prosperity Service- they’re going to deliver and you want to be at the right address to get the right and perfect delivery.

Our belief sets the limit to the quality of our demonstration through a Principle that is limitless and from a Universal warehouse with infinite possibilities ready to fill everything you require. So it is not a question of Its willingness or of Its ability, it is entirely a question of our own receptivity and freedom from shame, blame, guilt, or regret. If you find your thoughts and beliefs flavored with any of that lack junk:  

Keep praying, treating your mind with love, 
backed by knowing your power 
...the Divine power within

It is like holding a glass with dirty water. You start pouring the mental equivalent of the clean, freshwater of prosperity or health or whatever into that glass; with love and gratitude-filled prayer and spiritual practice overflowing. In the Gospel of Thomas, Yeshua is quoted, 

If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.

Look at what beliefs and decisions you inherited from your family or adopted from society. 

  What beliefs and decisions do you have regarding your mind and body?

  What beliefs and decisions do you have about your family or love relationships?

   What beliefs and decisions do you have about friends, money, community, or work?

  What beliefs and decisions do you have about your Higher Self and Source? 

Where do you stand on those things now? In order to relieve the burden, you create gnosis, an understanding that allows you to release them in the revelation process to decide what you are for vs what you are against. 

You are for the forgiveness of all.

You are for the conscious eradication of any evil intentions within.

You are for a forward movement of Divine Love and Intelligence, intentionally activated in your consciousness and physical reality.

Since the explosion of the first atom bomb, we have read about the possibility of a physical chain reaction that might destroy civilization, as we understand it. There is another kind of energy that is even more important. This is the energy of faith, of affirmative prayer and spiritual meditation. There is no reason to doubt that in the field of spiritual consciousness a chain reaction could be created which would bless the world.  ~Ernest Holmes, Living the Science of Mind 

It's not the bills or the kids or the elderly or even the government. It's the burden in our minds. The darkness in our soul that must be revealed, laid down and released.

So raise the candles high

'Cause if you don't we could stay black against the night

Oh, raise them higher again

And if you do we could stay dry against the rain

Lay Down, Lay Down your burdens and celebrate the holidays by freeing ourselves of our burdens and making a stand on Truth Trail.

Affirmative Incantation

Peace in my heart out pictures as peace in my life and in the world. My peace of mind is a reflection of the Christ consciousness I share with all-kind. 

Since my Word affirms this step...and the next step, and the next, I shall speak it full of faith and conviction. I now reveal all that is hidden which has blocked my way. And I declare that all energies that is revealed shall now be reduced, reused, and recycled into the Universe for a greater cause...a greater purpose...a positive light.

I do not ignore, I reveal. I will not forget, I make an apology and forgive. I am not reminding, I am releasing. I detox and declutter, forgiving myself and others for any and all transgressions. I choose to lay down my regrets. I choose to lay down my trespasses. I choose to lay down my arms of negativity. I shall let the rain wash away the hurt and pain and to heal. In this moment, I claim my freedom from any guilt, shame, blame, or “woe is me.” That history no longer holds me from my beautiful, abundant, positive, peaceful, healthy, happy, joyous, and prosperous life. 

I now allow peace of mind, a clear conscience, the Christ Consciousness, and an ease of body to dominate my mind and out-picture in my life. I joyously sing praises and gratitude for the cleansing of my soul and the song of hallelujah that echoes in my heart.

WEEP, RAGE, BREATHE, SING

          When it rains it pours ...

It's hard to breathe when all you know is

The struggle of staying above

The rising water line    ~Kacey Musgraves, RAINBOW

Holidays bring attention to not being able to have in-person celebrations with our loved ones ...it sucks. It brought a friend of mine to write:  "Just wanna have a big cry every day. That's normal, right?"

And a mutual college friend to reply:  "I’m on an every other day schedule, keeps me from dehydration." 

And I replied:  "Normal, healthy, required, and somehow refreshing...the release has opened my heart though increased my Kleenex budget." It's like a cloud, a shadow hanging over us and winter doesn't help.

What do we learn from this shadow? from the dark of winter or shadows cast from our past in any season? is there richness available in the shadow place?

We're taught: 

Perfect God, perfect person, perfect being

God is the Light that dissolves darkness

As the Unity prayer says:

We humans may not be perfect in daily life, however in the spiritual life/being-ness, we are, and thus we hold the potential to move that over to our physical reality. We are taught to look beyond conditions. In fact to spiritually turn away from them, aligning consciousness with the Divine pattern of wholeness, completeness, and perfection. We also understand that sometimes we need healing of the invisible wounds in our soul. Those that show up in the trigger reactions, making trouble with our manifesting abilities. When we edge out God with limiting thoughts, it seats us in the shadow of fears and limited thinking and the subconscious ideas of not-enoughness and not-deserving-ness, victim-hood, and regret.

This lockdown, semi-lockdown, stay-at-home, very limited public gatherings stuff has invited loneliness, boredom, and frustration, and allowed shadow traits to rear their ugly heads.

So what do we do? how do we remember the spiritual truth of who we are?

To start with, we might want to actually welcome the Shadow, the fear, the isolation, and become aware of the feelings called inferior, worthless, unworthy, and the primitive side and feelings of human nature; one’s own dark side. As satirist Jonathan Swift reminds us:

Real vision is the ability to see the invisible. 

Seeing/recognizing/revealing it and its seemingly continuous presence is stepping onto the path of healing / transform it...even ridding ourselves of it.

And...You gotta feel to heal!!!

The 5 stages of grief and loss are:

• Shock and denial
• Anger...and pain and guilt
• Bargaining
• Depression
• Acceptance...and forgiveness and healing

We might want to begin with, as my friend suggested is becoming a constant, to just weep - a good ole cathartic cry. Why?

A. Has a soothing effect, relieves pain, and promotes a sense of well-being, and enhances mood.

B. Releases toxins relieves stress and lowers blood pressure

C. Aids in sleep

D. Fights bacteria and helps to reduce risks presented by bioterror agents if you get near such things.

E. Improves vision. Though don't throw your eyeglasses away.

After a good cry, you might want to rage a bit. Now, rage might not be the best word for it....maybe fury...no...let's say....intense, but controllable anger. Anger is usually about something we feel we have no control over. So...

Find that pillow you don't really like. Maybe it was a gift you felt badly about tossing out. And tear it to pieces. "It was COVID,” you'll say. Don't worry, Aunt Agnes will understand. 

You see, denying these feelings their short but necessary due, denies you the experience of a correction and results in an unconscious inner conflict which can suddenly erupt as aggression. The dark side, whether from past hurts/mind chatter / COVID crap, is a part of that which wants to come out, be said hi to, hugged, forgiven, and released. Recognizing the shadow can be the catalyst towards change and enlightenment - soothing the child in you.

 A shadow is produced when an object blocks light. Whenever we block the light guiding our life, we create a shadow. Only when we are transparent and in alignment with the source of light, as when the sun is directly overhead, does the shadow magically disappear.   ~Jacob Liberman 

When I get defensive or triggered or upset, I quickly take the time to recognize why, and sometimes from where and when:  Why are these feelings/thoughts charged with negative energy? and who is really in charge of them?

Me...You!

And then I apologize and communicate about what the heck was going on; thus putting me on the road or even at the finish line of healing it.

If you could see what I see

You'd be blinded by the colours
Yellow, red and orange and green
And at least a million others
So tie up the boat  

Take off your coat

And take a look around 

~from RAINBOW

The Source and Substance of our supply is the source and substance of our healing.

So now that you have wept and raged, it's time to Breathe; the third of the four stages of our reactions to the shadows that pop up in life.

We can sit in the shade or move into the sunshine. ´Sitting in the shadow, we do not really believe that there is any sunshine. But the sun would be there all the time, and all the time we are in bondage, the real freedom exists. It is there, but we must awake to It. … control the subjective and [do] not let it control us. [Do not] mistake the shadow for the reality; the form for real substance; the hollow voice for revelation and thereby be misled.   ~Ernest Holmes, Science of Mind

A pandemic is a terrible thing to waste. So let's observe where you are defensive! what easily triggers and upsets you. At the same time, let's cultivate the recognition of your divinity and unrestricted self-love!

'Cause the sky has finally opened

The rain and wind stopped blowin' ......

Let go of your umbrella

'Cause, darling, I'm just tryin' to tell ya

That there's always been a rainbow hangin' over your head

[And} It'll all be alright    ~Kacey Mulgraves

I wrote this on Saint Nicholas Day, the inspiration for Santa Claus. In that light, gift yourself the power of weep, rage, breathe and then take the final step to 

SING praises to the Divine in you that is you!

Sing praises to who you are! Through the power of weep, rage, breathe, and sing, you shall call forth the assistance to release the shadow. And with awareness, venting, and affirmative prayer, you shall bring the song of joy, Light, Love, Prosperity, Health, and Peace into your life

Weep, Rage, Breathe, Sing and let Love Light the Way

Affirmative Incantation

I accept where I am right now. I embrace any shadows in my life as something to learn from and step through with intelligence, compassion, forgiveness and courage. With  that I  reclaim  my highest good lighting the way. Divine Light dissolves the darkness and suffering in my life and that of the world with ease and grace. 

As I acknowledge the darkness and shadow which may surround me, I enthusiastically release them  right now. I surgically remove any hate, triggers, negativity, or victim-hood of the past. And I expand the Love, Light, Beauty, Wisdom, Power, and Joy of my Life; empowered by the luminescence and Intelligence of the unconditional Agape of Spirit. 

Love Lights the Way!

Leftovers

Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash

  Listen, listen, listen to my heart's song...I will never forget you, I   will never forsake you...  ~Paramahansa Yogananda

  Deeply embedded in our nature is the knowledge of how to receive. It    is a great and beautiful birthright. And yet, for any number of reasons,    we sometimes do not believe that we can receive good or we believe      that our only value is in giving.

  The Universe is impersonal. It gives alike to all. It is no   respecter of persons. It values each alike. Its nature is to impart,   ours to receive. When we stand in the light, we cast a shadow   across the pathway of our own experience. Emerson advises that   we get our bloated nothingness out of the way of the divine   circuits. ~Ernest Holmes, "The Science of Mind"

 Reality Check:  we’re in an ever-flowing cycle of giving and receiving. It is the literal process of our breath. We receive oxygen at the inhale, “God Is,” and give carbon dioxide, “I Am,” at the exhale; giving other living beings an element of their survival and thriving. In the Law of Circulation - in the flow - God gives to ItSelf (each of us). We live in synchronicity with the world around us and each of us will experience this when we know...

Where I sit is holy; Holy is the ground.

Who I am is holy; Holy are we.

Body, thought, emotion:  Connecting you and me.  ~Shaina Noll

Where do we position ourselves in the ebb and flow of the universe?  in a stance of interconnectivity? in a position to receive good and foster good being received by others?  

We are not bloated nothingness, yet there are aspects of the ego that certainly show up in a “bloated nothingness suit” and can cause us to turn our back towards the warmth that is available to us. We need only pivot ourselves in the direction of that good with our arms wide open, ready to receive the sunlight, moonlight, the intoxicating sound of rain falling, our purpose calling, being swept off our feet with love, compassion, and all the bounty the Universe has to offer.

Who's doing that and how much?

For most of us, it's “sometimes.” Sometimes we’re open to goodness, to receive goodness. Perhaps you live in a space of receptivity every day. If so, congrats on rockin' the joy. But maybe your answer is a resounding, “No.” Your brain screams that the wide arm receptive stance poses too many risks and provokes undesirable feelings. If that is your experience you are not alone. 

Brene Brown discovered that about 15-20% of people live in a full-hearted way where they can easily both give and receive love in the divine synchronistic flow. The findings suggested that what causes the ability to really receive as well as give is whether or not people believe they are lovable at a core truth.

Do we believe we are irrefutably lovable and valuable? That we don’t need any benchmark of success to prove it? 

When we can know our value, we are more in touch with our feelings, both those we label as positive or negative, and that helps us become big-hearted receivers of good and givers of good. Many times we must look in between the spaces:

 

Here we are, and there's a place where I can meet you, in between, and in the spaces in between, the stories that we've made...  Shaina Nol (In Between the Spaces)

What to do with that leftover gratitude?

Gratitude is like those carryover minutes in a mobile or data plan - the leftovers are re-usable. Just like Turkey Day's leftovers. You can make a sandwich of turkey and thankfulness, moistened with gravy and gratitude or a soup of forgiveness, vulnerability, and healing or a casserole of declarations and revelations or even some turkey and affirmation-filled egg rolls, or perhaps wow-is-me waffles topped with cranberry and Divine Intelligence.

What we intentionally welcome into our lives or ingest into our minds has a tremendous impact on how wide our hearts will open and how available we can be to receive the goodness we require from the Universe. We are taught that we should mostly welcome benchmarks of power and strength without much if any, vulnerability and tenderness. Power is worshiped. It projects strength and invulnerability. But isn't vulnerability a courageous thing to embrace? a part of the core of our humanness?

Perhaps being open to this is precisely what makes peace and love and cooperation possible. It is this openness to a vulnerability that allows us to receive and reveal the Divine within us. When we do this, there is much leftover for another day. Brene Brown found in her research:

... people who deeply believed that they were worthy of love and belonging [and] believed this regardless of the circumstances, unlike the majority of us who think: "Okay, I'm worthy of love and belonging a little bit, but I'll be super worthy if I get promoted. Or I'll be super worthy if I lose 20 pounds."  These folks believed that they were lovable and that they had a place in the world, and those beliefs translated into specific choices they made every day. They were aware. They recognized shame, and they knew how to deal with it. They recognized vulnerability, and they were willing to feel it—rather than ignore or numb.

When we can welcome in our own vulnerability and the vulnerability of others we are well on our way to being grateful and cheerful receivers of goodness. Let’s cultivate our tenderness and tune into God’s rhythm.

The ebb and flow of life is just waiting to course through us ...with plenty leftover!           

Affirmative Incantation 

I stand strong with my mind and heart open to the infinite possibilities in front of me. Nothing separates me from the river of prosperity that flows throughout the Universe as I give and receive my time, talent, and treasure. I am always in surplus of the vitality, knowledge, boldness, curiosity, and schedule required to fulfill my life with all the nourishment the mind, body, and spirit requires. 

I am getting me some 'happy.' I am getting me some love. I am getting me some security. I am getting me some adventure and joy on this journey. And I am doing this right now, with many leftovers available for all.

With ease, peace, and gratitude I celebrate today with wild abandon.