Having to Surrender.......

Once a month, I spend time with a group of men in prison and we meditate together.
It's an amazing experience for me.
They are incarcerated for many different reasons I don't really know of and it matters not to me!
I see their beautiful souls and create a space for them to see their own.

Some know of meditation, some have practiced it and some have never heard of it.
They mostly come to have something to do, to pass the time and some really want to feel more peaceful inside.
I share different ways to meditate, sometimes we watch a video, we talk and we practice.
They seem very grateful and are willing to bring this new way of being into their day to day life.
I can see the resistance sometimes, but that is true of most beginners of meditation.

This experience reminds me again of my own beginning practice that felt like torment.  Sitting still, quieting my mind seemed impossible to me many years ago, now I hunger for it.

One of the men made a very powerful statement the other day.
I brought a provocative idea into their midst. We are all imprisoned somehow!  True freedom is found within!
They seemed interested.
At the end of our time together one of the men spoke up very clearly.
He told us that he knows he is in jail, but he also knows that there is a part of him that isn't and he wants to get to that part!
There was a silence, something happened.  I think the others really heard it.

So, all that's next then is to surrender.
Maybe in prison it is easier, there is nothing else to do...............

A Hunger for Silence.........

All of a sudden I thought: MY BLOG!  It's been over 2 months I have posted anything new. OMG!
There is so much to do, see, feel, read, etc. etc. etc.....
Time seems to fly (and maybe it does!)
And what do I have to say?  What do I have to say that anyone wants to read among infinite blogdom? Why bother?
Well, if what I have to say touches one person, then I have served.....
So here it goes!

Live more simply! Life is too sweet to miss any of the joys! And true sorrows!

I have had some amazing experiences in the last two months (it actually feels more like 2 years in some ways) and I have learned so much!
The greatest gift in my learning has been to cherish the moment.  Yes, that one: the cliché!
AND............ not really a cliché!
No one I know has truly mastered living in the moment completely!

If you have, share it with me, please!  I love the blessedness of it!
Living in the moment is not something that is ever complete and can always be experienced more deeply, more intimately.
I, for one, hunger for it.  And I hunger for stillness and silence more and more.  I can tell when I am not getting enough of it.  Like water.....
I get a bit cranky, tired......
Sometimes an hour fills that hunger and sometimes a day or more.
Surrendering to it and allowing myself to not only have that hunger but let it be filled and stilled is the greatest gift I can give myself (and therefore others).

So, during this Holiday weekend, take time to remember that we all need time for silence and stillness!
So, sit still & get quiet and just BE!  Fill up on what is given (Spirit in and as you knows what that is!!)
We need it more now than ever with so much stimulation, so much going on, so much to experience.......

May your roots grow deeper...........

Recently, we had a ferocious three-day rainstorm in our area with very high winds. It kind of came as a surprise to me, since I am not one who watches the news a whole lot.  Right next door to our Center (Center for Spiritual Living Morristown) three to four big trees came down, falling across the street.  I learned after the storm that due to the soft ground and the 8+inches of rain the trees were just plucked out of the ground. Power outages were common all over the tri-state area and flooding was rampant.  It was quite something to witness.  Mother Nature's fury at the cusp of Spring.

Watching the fallen trees everywhere reminded me of how important it is for us to be firmly and deeply rooted in the ground of our essential beingness.  The deeper our roots, the more solid we are standing in the ground of our Being.
So our spiritual practice invites us to go deeper and to be in constant communion with Spirit within.
Then when any "storm" comes, we are not so easily shaken or uprooted.

I invite you to set your intention TODAY to have your spiritual practice be around becoming more deeply rooted in Grace, in Love, in Truth and in Compassion.
Then notice how "high" you stand and how solid your are planted in Truth and how far your "branches" reach..........notice how the fragrance of your being infuses the world around you with love and light.

YOU ARE MAGNIFICENT!

Into the nothingness.........

At times, I feel nothing........ nothingness....I am empty....I am no one....I am not!
This is something that used to scare me, now I welcome it.
It feels free, it feels most open, it feels expansive.
It is like standing before a blank canvas.
It requires being fully present in the moment.
It requires an allowing.

So I welcome this experience and I let Spirit in me fill it.
It is a pregnant pause, that calls to me to surrender.
It invites going deeper, being still so something new can come.
An insight, a new idea, a new & more expansive sense of Self.

I know now that when it used to scare me, I was just afraid of the unknown.....
.......afraid of the vast mystery of it all.
Now I welcome it, for life IS a mystery.

What do we know?
What do we really know?

Nothing, for everything changes all the time.
The only "thing" that remains is our essence.
Our essence is so vast, it can never be fully known.
We can only experience more and more and more of it.

And in the nothingness, in the silence it becomes known, felt & seen.
And it is beyond magnificent.

I invite myself and YOU to step away from the surface of life,
Let go of any judging or qualifying and step into the mystery of nothingness, of allowing.
Open to something new being shown to you.
Something new that WANTS to be seen by you!

Savor it, take it all in, let it transform you...........

An Invitation: For Every Hour On The Hour.............

My heart opens wide and deep as I am steeped in the Truth of God being all there is.
God in everyone, everything, everywhere, all the time!
I am called to know this more powerfully today that ever before and I accept the call.
Blessings infuse me as I embody this Truth more and more each moment & each day.
I extend this Truth to all my brothers and sisters in the world that are suffering right now,
today especially to ALL the people of Haiti: those who have transitioned and those who are still with us.
And to those who are serving the recovery process in whatever way!
I step back from the world of appearance, the world of effect and I turn to the world of Cause -that which is changeless, that which is all-powerful, all-knowing, all-healing- and I remember that with God EVERYTHING & ANYTHING  is possible.
Today I am a channel for this Truth and I am guided in my contribution to the transformation at hand, trusting that whatever the guidance is, I am able to fulfill (no matter what it is!)
Gratefully, I stand in and as this Truth and I am at peace with who I am and what I have to give.
AND SO IT IS!!

Angels Unexpected.......

Let me first say that I am not into angels..........never have been!
I just don't get the angel 'thang'!  I know I know, in our Science of Mind teaching we say they are positive thoughts, but even that feels too syrupy sweet to me.

So, here we are, it is the Holiday Season and the materialistic, stressful frenzy, duty & expectation filled energy is in the air and I am so so grateful I don't live there anymore.  I have come to a place in my life where especially during the Holidays I do only what I really want to do, only what feeds my heart and soul.  It has become such a gift.
Now, let me say one more thing (I promise the "good" stuff is coming - hang in there with me).
I do not think of myself as a Christian, so Christmas is not something I celebrate.  I have, however, returned to its roots & the roots of all religious Holidays all over the world right now (and there are MANY) which is all about the returning of the light: its roots being in the Winter Solstice, which came before any and all religions.

So, Angels Unexpected.......

The sweet, sweet people who clean my house bring me an 'interesting' gift each Holiday Season. Almost every year at first look all sorts of judgements go through my mind, but then I sink deeper and tears come to my eyes.
Tears of gratitude, tears of joy, tears of the grace that is within me and around me.
It's all about how blessed I am, how blessed my life is and THEN the angels unexpected come.....
They smile at me, unexpectedly!  They share their heart!  They give a gift I JUST love!  These angels are not just in people, they are in the form of animals, music, color, a great book, SILENCE (my favorite) a movie or tv show or even a commercial!  A really good night sleep, good food, good health, and I could go on and on and on and on.
Could you?
Look for YOUR angels unexpected today and all through the Holiday Season.
For when you look for them, they multiply!!!

Infinite love and blessings for the Holiday Season and the New Year!!

P.S. The picture is of the angel my dear cleaning people Sylvia & Alfredo gave me.
She lights up, fading from color to color : purple, white, yellow, red, green blue.........
They are dear angels in my life!!!

The new "B" Word...........

About five years ago I deleted a word from my vocabulary, for I started feeling that it was the most boring word in the English language.  Someone I love used it so much, it seemed like she felt that she was the only one in the world who was BUSY!
BUSY seems to be the new B word.
Oh, and it is not that I am not busy, it is just that I found it a very boring word and I LOVE words.
I also know that the words I say are VERY powerful and the more I used it, the BUSIER I became.  Thinking about the word allowed me to be more conscious and it allowed me to be more impeccable with my words.
It allowed me to be CREATIVE with my life, making choices about HOW I live my life.  I chose to no longer be lived by my circumstances, by others and mostly by the clock. Time is MY servant!

We all have 24 hours in a day and we all get to choose how we use those hours.  We are responsible for  our own lives and must take good care of ourselves, so that we can live in balance and harmony.

It is amazing to me & it saddens me to see people running around like chickens with their heads cut off, way too stressed out and no room to just be and breathe.  But what is even sadder is that they seem to feel powerless.  The environment we live in now appears to dictate this kind of behavior and it seems to be getting worse.
It is time to stop and look.  Look at what our needs are, look at how we need to create more balance and harmony in our lives and look at what really matters. Listen...listen to your heart, it will tell you!

I have created a life for myself, where it is important to get 8 hours sleep (preferably minimum) and where I need time to do my spiritual practices, time to have a 15 minute rest in the middle of the day- to rest my body and my mind (especially when I work through the evenings).  It is important for me to exercise and to eat healthy, so that my body is fit and fueled.  It is important to have fun and to play.  All that makes for a happier person.  And I don't know about you, but I LOVE to be a happy, healthy and balanced person and I love to be around happy, healthy, balanced people.

So, this Holiday Season, check in with YOURSELF and give yourself the gift of balance and harmony. Find out what that means for you and act on it.

AND KNOW YOU ARE LOVED!