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Celebrating Earth Day
Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet. Thich Nhat Hanh
Earth Day is a time to pause and remember the blessing this planet brings to us. It’s a day of collaborative demonstrations around the planet to help raise awareness of the dynamics that are shifting the balance of our home. This beautiful blue marble that supports our existence as it floats in an expansive universe is more than just something we can take from, however, and we are now becoming aware of a possible Armageddon scenario. Although many refuse to accept this, others are able to read the planetary facts and use the information to help usher our global family into its next evolutionary expression.
We will figure out how to feed eight billion-plus people on a daily basis, and provide them with power and daily essentials without destroying the planet. We will come to an understanding of how to return more than what we take to the environment. Humans have always taken that leap to the next rung of the evolving spiral and we will do so this time, as well.
There is no going back to how it was in the good old days. But there are bright days ahead. So during this Earth Day celebration, learn what’s happening on the planet; you might find it scary, but don’t forget to explore the volumes of answers that are emerging to support all of us now on this beautiful Earth.
Spiritual Contemplation: What can you do now that can make a difference in living in balance on the planet? What are some of the answers emerging from today’s philanthropists, innovators, and technology that can be a planetary changer? Share your research with some of your friends and watch what happens to the conversation.
Affirmation: I trust the future for the next generation is in good hands today!
Ignoring the Alarm of Climate Change
Climate change is a terrible problem, and it absolutely needs to be solved. It deserves to be a huge priority. Bill Gates
Climate change is our youth’s civil rights movement of this era. Whether you believe the weather is doing something drastically different or not, there is no denying the uprising of the collective voice that is saying enough is enough to the abuse of this planet. We can no longer take, take, take, and trash, trash, trash without destroying the balance of our delicate ecosystem. Ignoring the alarm is no longer an acceptable choice. The snooze button has been hit about as many times as possible.
Rather than submitting to climate despair or taking the gamble of doing nothing, we the people must take the lead in showing and discovering new ways of being on this planet. Alternatives and resolutions are already available, but a new meme must be embraced for behavior to change. It’s obvious that the billions of individuals who share this planet are depleting the common resources at an unsustainable rate—we are at a point where a leap must be made to a new way of being together. The human species has always made that evolutionary leap when it had to, and there is no doubt it will again. But the time is now, and the now generation is leading the way. Lend them your ears, your heart, and your cooperation—for this earth belongs to them and future generations.
Spiritual Contemplation: Take some time exploring what you can do to make less of an impact on the planet. Investigate alternative ways of behavior that are more environmentally friendly, and have some fun and radical conversations with your friends about that.
Affirmation: I hear the climate alarm and awaken to ways of being more harmonious on earth!
Sustainability and Environmental Care is deeply Spiritual
We need to promote development that does not destroy our environment. Wangari Maathai
We will be known forever by the tracks we leave. Native American Proverb
We are now a planet that has been made intimate by our environmental concerns and water, food, and fuel shortages. It’s an altogether different proximity than we have ever experienced before: weapons of mass destruction pointed in all directions, climate changes messing with our planet, financial markets tied together, and technology keeping a virtual eye on everything. Whether you like it or not, we are an interwoven global family being pulled more tightly together. What you do impacts the whole. It’s not very probable that this one human family is reverting back to our days of isolation from one another.
Treat the earth well. It was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children. We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors, we borrow it from our Children. Ancient Native American Proverb
Spiritual Contemplation: What is your contribution to taking care of our planet?
Affirmation: My contribution makes an positive environmental impact because of our connectedness.
The Guidance of Gifts of Grace – Seeing with Spiritual Vision
There is something in every one of you that waits and listens for the sound of the genuine in yourself. It is the only true guidance you will ever have. And if you cannot hear it, you will all of your life spend your days on the ends of strings that somebody else pulls. Howard Thurman
When we first begin to study metaphysical teachings, we often attempt to have God intervene on our behalf. Isn’t that what we were taught prayer was for? To get God to heal the body or a relationship, or produce the cash to buy that new house or car, or bring peace to the planet. But eventually you’ll come to understand prayer is not about the individual attempting to enlighten God, but rather making yourself available to the abundant guidance of the Divine. Prayer in its highest mystical form is connecting with the Divine realization and being the place of the Divine’s emergence of the truth—opening yourself to the guidance and gifts of grace and losing your desire to inform the Infinite of your desires.
The concept of God saving you belongs in a bygone era because there is nothing to be saved from. If you want to be freed from the pains of this world, you must enter the spiritual realm where you will live from the awareness that it is all Spirit and the issues at hand carry absolutely no weight or power in the realm. There is no disease, lack, or pain in the kingdom of Divine Awareness. This recognition will dissolve all false appearances that might show themselves as real in your human walk through this plane of existence.
Spiritual Contemplation: Where are you giving your power away to the forms of your material world? How can you perceive them as a non-power in the spiritual light? What spiritual guidance are you receiving?
Affirmation: I see as Spirit sees! I listen to the Guidance of Grace!
Increase and Multiplying Abundance
Today, I accept God’s gift of abundance.
Today everything that I AM and have, that is Good,
is increased.
I identify everything I do with success.
I think affirmatively.
And with all my prayers, I accept abundance.
Whatever I need, whenever I need it,
wherever I need it, for as long as I need it,
will always be at hand.
I no longer see negation
or delay
or stagnation
in my undertakings.
Rather, I claim that the action of the Living Spirit
prospers everything I do,
increases every Good I possess
and brings success to me and everyone I meet.
Everything I think about and do
is animated by the Divine Presence,
sustained by the Infinite Power,
and multiplied by the Divine Goodness.
Emmet Fox
Spiritual Contemplation: Take time to notice what you tend to focus on—what’s not working, or what is? What’s stuck, or what’s moving? What areas of your life are you most obsessed with? Are you affirming increase and success in those areas?
Affirmation: I claim that the action of the Living Spirit prospers everything I do, increases every Good I possess, and brings success to me and everyone I meet.
Heaven with Eyes Wide Open – It’s all in Your Perspective
My soul can find no stairway to Heaven unless it be through Earth’s loveliness. Michelangelo
As you develop your meditation skills through regular practice, you get to the point when some steps to a clearer connection are no longer necessary to reach those higher states of awareness. Whereas once you had to close your eyes to shut out distractions, you can now keep your eyes wide open to tap into the awareness beyond form and see as Spirit sees.
Since form follows consciousness and heaven is a state of consciousness, it seems logical that heaven can find its way into your awareness demonstrating as your life now. You don’t have to wait for some far-off distant time or place to be in heaven. Why would you need to close your eyes to enter heaven if you realize you’re already in the midst of it? You can choose to be in heaven or you can choose to point out all the ways you are not. Either way, the choice is yours.
Spiritual Contemplation: Look at all the conversations you have that take you out of the experience of heaven on earth. Where can you shift your perspective to see you are in heaven now?
Affirmation: I am in Heaven now!
Open the Door to Abundance
When we understand the way all things actually exist, rather than how we would wish them to, then the abundance of all the ten directions and the three times, as vast as space, become ours; and anything else pales in comparison. Martin Kovan on Buddhism and Abundance
Craving things, needing stuff, and wanting the latest gadget are not true expressions of abundance. Focusing on what we don’t have makes us work even harder on our abundance. We succumb to false stimulation and desires that are heightened by advertisers playing on our egoic need to compare and our belief that our good comes from buying or owning.
We are meant to live an abundant life that is rich in meaning, purpose, contribution, and joy. This will most certainly include “things” that are means to the end of helping us express and experience our purpose. Other things are ends in themselves, such as the belief that “when I have that boat, then I’ll be happy!” or “when I get that job, or promotion, or check or . . . (fill-in-the-blank), then I’ll be happy.”
Begin with who you are, why you are here, and what you have to share. Claim that everything you need to express your purpose and share your gifts is already manifesting itself for you, easily and effortlessly. Notice how your abundant life grows and expands in ways that are truly amazing!
Spiritual Contemplation: Are there things you want out of an ego need or sense of lack or less than? Begin to focus on things that are required for you to express and experience your true purpose. What will bring an abundance of joy?
Affirmation: I release any sense of comparison or “less-than” thinking. My life fully supports my true purpose, bring abundance into my life.
Tax Time – Celebrate with Gratitude & Abundance!
I don’t blame or complain about things, like the economy, the government, taxes, employees, gas prices, or any of the external things that I don’t have control over. The only thing I have control over is my response to these things. Jack Canfield
Taxes—you can let them depress you as you fill in every calculation with agony—or you can get to work with excited expectation in the discovery of what you created in the previous year. Allow tax time to be an insightful and fun way to observe where you sent your dollars, which are, after all, a reflection of your current energy exchange.
As the saying goes, render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s—do your taxes and get back to your life’s work. You are here to be a creative expression of Spirit. Unless your call at this time is to be a changer of policies and expenditure plans, do not make trouble out of life’s situations. Deal with what is, without creating any additional emotional issues. Let any tension, stress, or thoughts of scarcity fade into the nothingness from which they came. Know that your reality is based upon the abundance of the universe. Any behavior patterns of lack that distort the plentiful circulation of Spirit as your life, need no longer affect your inspired awareness. Knowing that Spirit is your source, find joy in contributing to the common well-being of the nation, which continues to create a safe world in which you prosper. Recognize the abundant flow of good as your life now, and you’ll find yourself in paradise with a sustained consciousness of God’s grace as your sufficiency.
Spiritual Contemplation: Take a look at your energy around paying taxes. What can shift in you to make it a more positive experience?
Affirmation: I am grateful to live in an abundant world and share from my bounty!
Growing Abundance through the Joy of Circulation
A true story about growing abundance where that appears impossible: I was invited to be interim minister of a Spiritual Community that had been reduced to twenty people and was over $50,000 in debt. In six month’s we had grown and were completely out of debt. What was our strategy? We started tithing. Immediately on Monday morning we gave away 10 percent of every Sunday’s offering. Every week! Within a year I had helped them hire a full-time minister. She served for almost three years, but when she left, the community again numbered twenty people and was $30,000 in debt. Once again I was asked to be the interim minister, and once again we started tithing, every week. We were out of debt in four months.
The kabbalists of Tzfat connect the primal urgings toward abundance with the date of tithing fruit because they saw that God’s shefa, abundance, would keep flowing only if a portion of it were returned to God, the Owner of all land and all abundance. Rabbi Arthur O. Waskow
Tithing is the training wheels we put on to grow our abundance. Tithing teaches us to use the Law of Circulation. It reminds us that all of life is in the form of cycles and circulation—whether it’s the weather, water, eco-systems, or the seasons. Everything moves in circles, even our breath. Spirit is forever showering us with Life, with abundance. We have to move with the circulation to keep it flowing and growing. “Give and it shall be given to you, pressed down, shaken together, and running over!”
Spiritual Contemplation: Where in your life do you effortless participate in the flow of circulation? In what areas do you cling or hoard?
Affirmation: Everything is sourced from the One and belongs to the whole. I am a good steward of the abundance in my possession. I neither hoard nor cling. I allow it to freely circulate!
There is Enough! You Are Enough!
For me, the opposite of scarcity is not abundance. It’s enough. I’m enough. My kids are enough. Brene Brown
The primary synonyms for enough are “sufficiency” and “plenty.” Yet often we want more than enough. We tend to feel that “enough” is barely what is necessary. Yet sufficiency really does mean that all our needs are met and plenty implies that it is not meager, but bountiful. I often equate our insatiable desire for “more” with the fact that so many of us overstuff ourselves at Thanksgiving or at a restaurant with today’s ridiculously large portions. It’s as if we think that if we aren’t stuffed, than it’s not quite good enough. Yet enough, really is enough. Actually at a good meal, we can equate enough with being satisfied.
So really the question isn’t whether it’s enough, but whether we are satisfied. Are we satisfied with the way our needs are being met and the life we have, or are we infected with the disease called “more”? Now clearly we need more if we actually don’t have enough money to pay our bills and save for the future, or enough food for ourselves and our children. That’s clearly “not enough” and we are not required to settle for anything less.
Why do we think that “enough” isn’t adequate or satisfying? Spirit is satisfied expressing through a joyous, happy, and growing life. When we are joyous, happy, and growing, our lives are enough and we are satisfied and fulfilled. That really is enough!
Spiritual Contemplation: How do you relate to the words “enough” and “more” and “satisfied”? What can be learned from this about how you approach your abundance and your life?
Affirmation: Spirit is enough for everything I need. I have enough. I am enough! I am fulfilled and satisfied with my life.
A Stress-free life
Are you creating a stress-free life or are you allowing worry and trying to control overtake your life?
A young archer once approached a master teacher and expertly shot an arrow into the center of the bull’s-eye a great distance off. Swiftly, he followed with another and split the first arrow in two. “Beat that,” the arrogant youngster boasted. Gesturing for the young archer to follow him, the wise one headed up the mountain to a cliff overlooking a deep canyon that was spanned by a weathered gray log. With great composure, the master walked to the center of the log, and in one smooth stroke, pulled an arrow from his quiver and let it fly straight into the trunk of a tree a great distance away. He casually backed off the log and turned to the youth. “Your turn,” he said, without an ounce of ego. The young archer stared into the sprawling cavern below and started to shake uncontrollably. No way was he going to be able to put a foot on that log, let alone take a shot at anything from the middle of it. “You have great control over your bow,” the great teacher said, nodding to the student, “but little over the mind that lets loose the arrow.”
Man stands in his own shadow and wonders why it’s dark. Zen
There is a big difference between learning the principles of truth and applying them in a precarious life situation. Master teachers will help guide you into arena where you must learn to calm your mind in order to call upon your learned skills. Creating a stress-free life isn’t about avoiding challenges, it’s all in how you meet those challenges in your mind and heart.
Spiritual Contemplation: What life situations look very difficult for you to cross? What skills do you have that you know work in calmer situations? Are you ready to calm your mind and step into the middle and take the shot?
Affirmation: I find the calm within as I successfully cross the biggest chasms to my strss-free life!
Celebrating with Others Expands Abundance
Instead, I have an abundance mentality: When people are genuinely happy at the successes of others, the pie gets larger. Stephen Covey
“Why does she always get picked?” This thought ran my life for a number of years. I was envious because I wanted to be chosen, so I trash-talked about her to anyone who would listen. “Well, you know those rich people aren’t really happy” also ran my life for many years. It helped me feel spiritually superior, while I felt inferior in terms of my abundance and wealth. I also realized that when good things happened for me, I was reluctant to share them because all my friends responded in the way I used to respond, with envy or negative talk.
Then I began to live “we are all one in God” so that the way I treat another is the way I treat myself. First I began to give myself what I thought others should be giving me. Then I began to see that people are people—and there are happy rich people as well as poor people, and unhappy poor people as well as rich ones.
I discovered a whole new way to grow my abundance experience—to truly and really celebrate every time someone received good—whether a promotion, money, an unexpected windfall, or just generally more abundance. Genuinely celebrating others’ good actually raised my own ability to accept that this good is possible. Then I realized that if it could happen for another, surely it could happen for me.
Spiritual Contemplation: How do I respond when someone else receives a great good? What needs to shift for me to learn to genuinely celebrate others’ good?
Affirmation: I celebrate the good that others in my life are receiving! I genuinely enjoy the good that is showing up in everyone’s life!
What is Your Purpose? Making a Living or Making a Life?
Having a purpose is the difference between making a living and making a life. Tom Thiss
Making a living may be simply paying the bills and getting by. Or making a living may be going for the big bucks, the successful career, and the name in your field. Making a living may mean you aspire to live in a big house and drive the best car, or it may mean you are free to travel and indulge in your hobbies. Making a living may be all you’ve ever asked for from your work or career.
Making a life, however, is about the sum total of the life you are living. Not just success and work and money, but also relationships, health, creativity, and self-expression. Making a life is living the life you choose and creating the life of your dreams—not purely in form (although it may include form) but more in experience and the quality of every day. In addition, making a life is giving your gift and your contribution to the world. It means you know what fulfills you and what you have to give.
Making a living can become depressing. Making a life is always about expressing Spirit in, through, and as you.
Spiritual Contemplation: What’s the difference between making a living and making a life? How does knowing your purpose make the difference? Which one are you doing?
Affirmation: I am making a life through my choices and activities. I express my purpose and my being through all the ways I contribute to the world.
Mi Casa Es Su Casa – Respect the Earth, Honor Others, We are all in this together!
He who brings a tale takes two away. Irish Proverb
Guests who can take care of themselves while they stay with you are so much easier to have around, aren’t they? There is joy in the hospitality, and the burden of having to be responsible for their good time is lifted. Make yourself at home, mi casa es su casa, my house is your house, and we can share in creating the magic of being together. There is equality in the home and not a burden on the host to produce the pleasure for the guest. It’s not a hotel with room service—it’s a home where we are alike.
As you walk this earth as its guest, take care of it as your own. It’s as if the earth is saying, “My good is your good to enjoy not destroy. Respect it, honor it, and share it.” You wouldn’t take from a friend’s house what is not yours, nor is it appropriate to exploit what the host shares with you. You want to leave a friend’s place with a mutual sense of shared blessings. When your journey through this world is complete, will you leave the place blessed and enhanced by your time? Did you contribute to the conversation of the culture, will the youth who follow you carry the grace from your consciousness, and are your parting gifts of beauty lingering like trees for generations long after your presence has left?
Spiritual Contemplation: What kind of guest are you? Are you needy or are you a gracious contributor?
Affirmation: I am a blessing wherever I go!
Are You a Blessing? Blessed by Abundance
When you focus on being a blessing, God makes sure that you are always blessed in abundance. Joel Osteen
Every time we interact with others, whether at work or at home, we have the choice about our contribution to the interaction. We can choose to be critical or judgmental, closed or reactionary, indifferent or apathetic. Every time we look out at the world, we can curse those who aren’t doing it right, be fearful of people and events, or throw up our hands in “ain’t it awful” thinking. The problem, of course, is that life mirrors back to us what we put out. So imagine all these things now coming back to us, impacting the quality of our life and our abundance.
What if, instead, we decide to enter every interaction as a benevolent presence? Benevolence is defined as the “desire to do good to others; goodwill; charitableness.” Therefore, being a benevolent presence means we have a charitable inclination toward others and seek to have goodwill in our interactions. This changes our impact completely. Even though we might have to tell a difficult truth or draw a boundary with someone, we do so without anger, hostility, or the need to make someone else wrong. We might not agree at all with something that is going on in the world, but when we do something about it, we do so with the desire to be a blessing, not to curse those involved. The energetics is completely different and blesses all those involved. Then we are blessed by abundance in return.
Spiritual Contemplation: How can you be more of a benevolent presence at home? In your workplace? When discussing current events? In participating in transformation and change?
Affirmation: I am a benevolent presence wherever I go. I am a blessing to others and I am blessed by abundance in return!