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Recharged
The afternoon knows what the morning never suspected. Swedish Proverb
As the long lazy days of summer fade into memories and the sun fights with the winds of change, there is a lingering of what is to fortify you for what lies ahead. You returned from vacation recharged with the energy of newfound excitement for your daily doings. You found a truth within you greater than all that is in the outer world. With this realization has come a newfound freedom that is yours as a guest of this world.
As a guest of life, all has been provided for you including your food, clothes, and relationships. What you owe in return is to be the best conduit for life to flow through. In order to dwell harmoniously, an occasional adjustment to consciousness is necessary, and taking a break from the routine of the day is an ideal way to get your timing back in place. First adjust your consciousness, and then watch your conditions change naturally. The entire world doesn’t need to be transformed; the illumined consciousness of just one person who returns recharged and renewed to his daily world will make a significant difference. And you are that person.
Spiritual Contemplation: How has the thought of the drudgery of returning to your daily activity robbed your recharge? How can the newfound energy excite you about what you do?
Affirmation: My spiritual recharge is lasting!
Walk the Path
No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path. Buddha
Sometimes I wonder if I walk the path of my own heart, or am following someone else’s road? I love reading new books. I love hearing about new authors and new spiritual places and new techniques for spiritual and personal healing. There is great inspiration in learning about other people’s walk and how they got where they are in their spiritual development. Sometimes however, it seems like spirituality becomes a fad, and we have to get on the bandwagon of the next great idea. Occasionally I even feel judged if I don’t take the same supplement, go to the same “healer,” or do a certain type of practice.
To walk the path of enlightenment is to follow your own inner truth. What I’ve noticed is that it’s easy to be influenced by someone else’s way of living a spiritual life. It’s easy to think if you do it just the way “they” did, you’ll reach enlightenment. But your path is your own. You cannot walk someone else’s. The Universe is so infinite and so creative that there are countless paths to the Divine. Allow your own revelations to provide direction and inspiration. This is Spirit’s illumination in your life. TRUST your own Divine Intuition. Walk the path that is yours to walk.
Spiritual Contemplation: Where are you following a spiritual fad? What does your inner guidance show you as your primary spiritual path?
Affirmation: I walk my own Spiritual Path with God. I invite inspiration from others and my own inner light to illuminate my way.
Your Life Is Your Masterpiece
What would it be like if you lived each day, each breath, as a work of art in progress? Imagine that you are a Masterpiece unfolding, every second of every day, a work of art taking form with every breath. Thomas Crum
Don’t quit! Don’t take no for an answer. Don’t let yourself get sidetracked because the first or second thing didn’t work out. Stay focused on your destination, even if it takes time. Stay focused on creating the life of your dreams. Stay focused on the spiritual principles and practices that move you into a deeply connected and creative life.
Step out in faith, with determination and persistence. Keep trying new colors and textures as you paint on the canvas of your life. Listen to the song that is singing in your veins and the tune that is whispering on your breath. Trust that the Universe is rearranging everything in your favor, no matter how long it takes! Your life is your masterpiece. Get lost in the process and enjoy being with yourself.
Spiritual Contemplation: if I live my life as a masterpiece, a work of art I’m creating every day, how might I do and be differently?
Affirmation: I am creating a work of art with my life. It is my gift to God.
Here, Now is Already There
The grass is always greener on the other side. Proverb
A young man once came across a mighty river as he journeyed home. Stunned at its expanse, he stood on its banks and looked across with focused contemplation as to how to cross it. For half of a day he wandered up and down the riverbank attempting to find a way across. Just as he was about to give up, he saw a wise-looking man sitting quietly on the other side. In haste, he shouted, “Oh wise one, can you tell me how to get to the other side of the river?” The wise one contemplated his knotted hands for a while before looking up and down the riverbank and responding. “My child, you are on the other side.”
Perspective is a powerful spiritual tool. What if you are already on the other side of your issue but you just don’t realize it? Are you one who paces the banks of consciousness ruminating endlessly on your perplexing issue until you’ve exhausted yourself, only to find that when you give up the battle of the anxiety, the concern has dissolved? What side of the matter do you want to be on—the one of struggle or the one of ease? The perspective is yours for the choosing.
Spiritual Contemplation: Are there any wide and expansive crossings you are looking at? What if you were on the other side already—what would that mean to your issue at hand?
Affirmation: I realize I am where I need to be!
Divine Filters
Who you are speaks so loudly I can’t hear what you’re saying. Ralph Waldo Emerson
One day an old woodworker went to his garage to find his favorite chisel. After some time of being unable to find it, he began to suspect that his neighbor’s kid had swiped it. After all, he was always hanging around and interested in his carvings. After more thought he became certain it was the kid, especially since the kid acted increasingly more uneasy and nervous around the old man. One day, however, the woodworker discovered that the chisel set had somehow been knocked over and had been behind the shop table the whole time. The magical part of this story is that the kid no longer seemed nervous and uneasy after the woodworker realized that his suspicions were unfounded.
Your mind is a powerful filter and all you perceive must go through the filters of your consciousness. Your attitudes and assumptions about the ones you are with are felt long before you open your mouth. Your true attitude about God is reflected beyond what words you prophesize. It is your desire for something more that creates a sense of separation or leads to the thought that you can be satisfied with something other than the divine. Let your only desire be to know God, particularly in situations that are pulling you to less than divine filters of seeing life.
Spiritual Contemplation: How in the past have you allowed your judgments to get in the way of the truth? How did it feel when the truth was revealed to be contrary to what you believed? Where are you now allowing life’s situations to pull you from seeing through Divine Filters?
Affirmation: I am seeing through Divine Filters!
Repeating Your Lessons
When you try to do things, and they will not go the way you want, leave them alone. White Eagle
A bush pilot flew two hunters into the Alaskan wilderness where they each managed to down a big bull moose. As they loaded up the plane, the pilot explained they had room for only one moose if they also wanted to take all their gear. The hunters objected vehemently, saying that their pilot the previous year had let them take two moose on the same size plane. The pilot’s ego got bagged and not wanting to be outdone, he acquiesced. Naturally the little plane couldn’t handle the load and eventually crashed in the desolate forest. Fortunately the three men survived. As the pilot assessed the plane’s damage, one hunter asked the other if he had any idea where they were. “I dunno,” he replied, “but I think we must be pretty close to where we crashed last year, don’t ya think?”
How many times do you need to repeat your lessons before you get them? What aren’t you paying attention to? A higher consciousness requires humility in order to progress. Since Spirit’s thoughts aren’t your thoughts, entering new territory requires taking the next step from where you are. But if you’re busy repeating patterns, you’ll just circle and crash in relatively the same place time and time again. Give up your old thoughts and positions and accept the higher possibilities that are emerging. Then you can apply the guidance into action.
Spiritual Contemplation: What lesson keeps showing up for you with the same disastrous ending? What guidance aren’t you adhering to? What might you do differently and get a different result?
Affirmation: I follow Spirit’s guidance to glorious new results!
Antiquing
Remember that the most valuable antiques are dear old friends. H. Jackson Brown Jr.
When you walk into an old antique store, that’s called antiquing, you can sense stories and histories both rich and sad. As you pick up an item, you can feel your soul’s curiosity as to its history and how it ended up here. If it’s an authentic antique, it carries with it an emerging story and beckons you to be part of its history.
Like an antique shop, your subconscious is a storehouse of all your history, and is just waiting for you to discover the lost treasures of your soul. These rich and worthy memories of blessed times can enrich you with gifts of strength and courage. Dust off those noble aspects of yourself that somehow went by the wayside and now sit dust-covered in a corner. Go on an inner exploratory adventure to unearth the rich aspects of who you are that have long been cast off and forgotten. They are just beneath the surface when you begin to poke around. Remember the stories of times gone by that have blessed who you are in this world and spend some time in memory of your heart with some good old friends. So, go antiquing in your memories and remember how blessed your life has been and how the now reflects your beautiful history.
Spiritual Contemplation: Dust off some memories you haven’t visited in a while and allow your spirit to go on a recollecting journey. Have any of your soul lessons from that time been forgotten? Is it time to remember them now?
Affirmation: I wisely incorporate the gifts and lesson of life!
Strength-Giving Obstacles
Speaking about obstacles: If you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain. Dolly Parton
Without the resistance of air, an airplane couldn’t fly; it would fall out of the sky. It’s the resistance of water on the propeller of the boat that propels a boat. If your life were obstacle-free, would you have any traction for forward movement? Obstacles are opportunities for success. Without the dynamics of circumstances, creative tension wouldn’t be called into action. Without the desire to move fast, we wouldn’t have developed the combustible engine. Without the need for swifter communication, there wouldn’t have been computers. Without exile, the world would not know the spiritual leadership of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. The purpose of the obstacle is to call forth from within you that which is greater than that which is in this world.
Your difficulties may stop you momentarily but you are the only one who can stop yourself permanently. Who you are is more important than the difficulty at hand. The circumstance may appear bigger or smaller depending on the consciousness of the one experiencing it. It is the magnitude of consciousness that allows some to come through their financial challenges or life-threatening illness while others don’t. There is no large or small in the mind of God.
Spiritual Contemplation: What difficulties are you facing that have you feeling like throwing your hands up and saying, “Forget it”? Go within and find that inner strength that knows it’s greater than anything you are facing and call it into action in your life.
Affirmation: That which is within me is greater than that which is in the world!
May Peace Prevail on Earth!
In honor of those who have given their lives in service,
may we have peace.
In memory of those innocent lives that have been lost,
may we pray peace into reality.
In compassion for those still driven by fear, hate, or greed,
may peace awaken their hearts.
In support of those who work tirelessly for peace and justice,
may our prayers make a difference.
In solidarity with all life, all beings, all people,
may we be people of peace.
May peace prevail on earth, and may it begin with me.
Petra Weldes
YOU are an agent of peace. Your words, actions, and presence make a difference. Every time you do not react but stand in peace and act as a benevolent presence in the midst of chaos or turmoil—you are an agent of peace. Let us join together and BE the change we want to see in the world!
Spiritual Contemplation: How are you participating in bringing about more peace in the world?
Affirmation: I am peace. I live peace. I bring peace into every situation.
9/11
No day shall erase you from the memory of time. Virgil
9/11 changed America. The new cultural meme that was cast united the hearts of the country in compassion and divided our minds as to what a rational response looks like. Life was never again the same. We were aligned in shock, but rather than terror and fear prevailing because of that day, love awakened. For a moment there was a planetary outpouring of caring that was felt globally and can never be forgotten. Sometimes when a tragedy hits, it’s easy to forget there is a choice as to how to perceive the circumstances other than what the majority is feeding you.
If you can move beyond the initial knee-jerk response that attempts to understand why this happened, you will realize that a greater possibility beyond the pain is possible. Life will do what is necessary to get your attention. Often similar, but louder events will repeat their pounding until the message is understood and embraced. Whether individually or planetarily, a balance will return. So, as you remember the happenings of 9/11 and all of the lives lost, may insightful gifts of higher understanding beyond a one-sided perspective emerge in your awareness.
Spiritual Contemplation: If two separate symbolic towers in your life had to collapse in order for a single new expression to emerge from the ashes, what two distinctive and separate positions in your life would come down in order for something greater to appear? An example would be like the distinction between the spiritual and the physical being. They are both distinctively separate yet both positions give way to the understanding that spirit and form are one.
Affirmation: I move beyond my single-sided position to embrace a more inclusive perspective!
Do You Need It All Right Before It’s All Right?
If you want a happy ending, that depends, of course, on where you stop your story. Orson Welles
Tired of playing it safe? Here’s an inside tip: Everything you do will give you valuable insight to activate the personal power within you. Honoring the creative urge will open you to so much more than staying closed for protection. If you want to be creative, you’ve got be willing to explore beyond where you’ve been. Experiencing what you’ve got and how it plays out in the world is the best teacher you will ever have. You might flub up and fall down but you’ll get up, dust off, and learn how to take off for the sky.
Having it all right before it’s all right will just keep you grounded. You’ll find reasons for not wanting to proceed, but you’ll transcend them only when you’re in the sky and not on the ground. Every time you allow the creative urge to emerge, it will take you where you need to go. You have to launch from where you are rather than from where you wish you were because you’re not there yet—but that’s where you’re headed. Can you surrender what you hold to be true and choose a newer truth that will set you soaring? The question comes down to whether you’re willing to stop playing it safe and instead bring forth your creative urge without self-judgment.
Spiritual Contemplation: How do you need to have it all perfect before you proceed? What action can you launch now that might move you in a direction that honors your creative urge to express?
Affirmation: I trust life enough to proceed before I know the outcome!
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Trust Is a Choice
All I have seen teaches me to trust the creator for all I have not seen. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Living in trust is much easier than distrust. Believing that the world is for you is a lot simpler than thinking it’s conspiring against you. Trust can be difficult, or it can be comforting. It can feel like you’re in midair clutching desperately onto a trapeze, or it can feel like you’re lying in a hammock that cradles your body softly and securely as you swing above the ground. You can rest in your trust, or you can struggle to hold on to it. Either way, trust is not about being unwise—as it’s said, “Trust everyone, but cut the cards.” Keeping your eyes wide open doesn’t make you any more or less trusting. It just makes you more observant of what is going on around you.
How you approach life impacts your experience. Trust that you’re eternally supported as you bring forth the revelation of your Spiritual Wholeness , your Abundant Good, God as you. Trust that everything you will ever need is already within you. Choose to feel the comfort of knowing you are wrapped in the ever-loving embrace of Spirit, and that your inheritance has already been given to you and contains all you’ll ever need or desire. Then the Divine that appears in your world will provide abundantly in areas near and dear to your heart.
Spiritual Contemplation: Where are you struggling with trust? With whom could a courageous conversation bring the clarity you are looking for so you can rest in the truth? What action needs to be taken in order for the next piece of your unfolding situation to reveal valuable insight? Or do you need to just rest in the nonaction, trusting in God’s action moving in your life?
Affirmation: I trust in God expressing as my life.
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Whose Fiction?
Words are like bullets; if they escape, you can’t catch them again. African Proverb
It’s interesting that the story of the West with its romanticized stereotypes of bad guys and good guys was actually developed back East by the book The Virginian. Even today its western notions form much of the storytelling about the West. Fortunately, however, some folks chronicled the real story in their memoirs. Books like Letters from a Woman Homesteader capture the brutal realities of the western frontier—the loneliness, fear, death, sickness, alcoholism, suicide, psychological struggles, physical abuse, and the brutal removal of the Native Americans from their ancestral land. But not many people wanted to read stories that contradicted the romanticized depiction of the western cowboy, so the true stories became shadows of the fiction that became the reality.
Do you have a reality that isn’t really the truth? Do you romanticize an aspect of your life so you can convince others of the story you want them to see while other unattractive actions lurk in the shadows? You might feel alone and abused by life, but you tell an entirely different story to the world, and your friends embellish and perpetuate this heroic version of your life. While it’s nice to have the mythical story told, your truth is what will touch people’s hearts and make a difference. It’s time for your truth to be told. Tell the truth and be seen as a perfect expression of spirit.
Spiritual Contemplation: What have you romanticized about your life that is covering your true struggle?
Affirmation: I come from my heart in sharing my truth!
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Got to Do Something with It
I have learned over the years that when one’s mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear. Rosa Parks
The pictures in a cookbook may look delicious but they don’t satisfy the hunger. It doesn’t matter if there are five hundred easy-to-follow, step-by-step recipes, unless you actually follow them and cook, you starve. Likewise, you can read all the spiritual books from your local bookstore, quote the hippest philosophers of the day, and be enrolled in the best spiritual classes money can buy, but unless you apply the principles they won’t satisfy the hunger of your soul. Whether it’s a taste-bud-tantalizing picture or an inspirational spirit-rousing message, it doesn’t do you any good unless you do something with the information.
Sometimes it may take a few attempts to get what’s on your plate to look like the picture in the book. And it may take some practice to find the nirvana your teachers or facilitators are pointing to. But don’t quit in frustration before tasting the delights of your recipes for life. What good is it to have drawers full of spices you never use or shelves filled with books that have no relevance? To walk the talk and not just talk the talk, you have to be willing to make a bit of a mess in your exploration to make the potential become real for you.
Spiritual Contemplation: What spiritual principles would you like to take off the shelf and put into greater practice so as to demonstrate a more delicious expression of life?
Affirmation: I am able to manifest the pictures of my consciousness!
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Resistance and Creativity
Resistance is experienced as fear; the degree of fear equates to the strength of Resistance. Therefore the more fear we feel about a specific enterprise, the more certain we can be that that enterprise is important to us and to the growth of our soul. That’s why we feel so much Resistance. If it meant nothing to us, there’d be no Resistance. Steven Pressfield
Resistance is usually based on fear, the need for control, or the belief that our expectations are not going to be met. We can’t believe that we are capable of doing or having what our inner knowing is telling us, so we procrastinate or simply avoid doing what needs to be done. These are all forms of resistance.
The habit of resistance closes you down and shuts off the flow, which means you get more of what you don’t want and less of what you do. Resistance results in less creativity and abundance in your life. But by letting go of your fear and moving through the resistance, you begin to get a different result. Become a martial arts master in your own life and flow with what is, while trusting your inner wisdom to move you in the right direction.
Spiritual Contemplation: What are you in resistance to that which you know is exactly the thing you need to be doing?
Affirmation: I am wiling to allow life to flow and to move through my resistance.
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