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A Feather a Day! Intuition of Support – Signs of Spirit
By intuition we already know that we are One with the Infinite. We must come to recognize the Universal Spirit, with which we commune and in which we live and move and have our being, as a constant source of inspiration and of guidance. Ernest Holmes
One year I took a three-month sabbatical in Europe and spent most of the time on my own, following my intuition on where to go, exploring the countryside, small towns, and delicious cafes. It was a time to rediscover myself and the joy I have in my own company, although I also made amazing connections with people, saw incredible art, and walked through the pages of history. Every day felt like magic and I lived in gratitude for the blessing of this experience.
My sabbatical stretched me in many different ways, like having to come to grips with my fear of traveling alone. But I met each hurdle with a profound belief that Spirit would lend me the wings to fly and that I would soar through this experience with great joy! Every day I trusted that magic would happen and that I would be completely supported in every way.
When I returned to the U.S. after this wondrous journey, I brought with me almost sixty feathers I’d collected along the way. Almost every day I’d find one somewhere. It didn’t matter if I was walking through a town or through the woods, feathers were everywhere, and everyone I picked up reminded me that Spirit was present, supporting me every step of the way.
Spiritual Contemplation: How do you know Spirit is supporting you? Are you noticing or seeing Spirit’s signs (link to ) ? What signs does Spirit leave in your path so that you will know that Spirit is present?
Affirmation: I see Spirit’s support everywhere I look. Spirit’s signs of love and abundance are present every day!
Tune into Abundance
Abundance is not something we acquire. It is something we tune into. Wayne Dyer
Everyone shows up differently—in the ways they love and speak, and the things they value. Deep spiritual living allows us to see and celebrate all people’s precious uniqueness without requiring them to be like us. We may decide their way doesn’t suit us, so we choose not to hang out together or work together. Look carefully at that person who irritates you, pushes your buttons, or simply seems to be running through life on a very different track from you. Remember, everyone is here to give and receive love. Seek to tune into their way and you will see them blossom before your very eyes.
This is just as true with the things we decide are important to us or create an abundant life. Every one of us does this differently. Decide what you think is your abundant life. It may be traveling around the world for years and living with the local people on money you earn washing dishes. It may be creating jobs for thousands by developing a new business or patenting a new invention. It may be spending hours with your paints or with your children. There is no “right” way to be abundant—there’s only your way. Take the time to tune into yourself.
Spiritual Contemplation: What makes you feel really luxurious and abundant? What allows you to feel like you are really living your dream and making your contribution?
Affirmation: I am deciding to be abundant my way. I seek only those things that add value and meaning to my life. I am not fooled by other people’s ideas of how my life should look.
The Discipline of Deciding Means Declaring Only Abundance!
Talent without discipline is like an octopus on roller skates. There’s plenty of movement, but you never know if it’s going to be forward, backwards, or sideways. H. Jackson Brown Jr.
Discipline, deciding, and declaring—three really strong words that invite us to take charge of our own lives so that the Universe has a clear and open channel into which to pour Its Love and Abundance!
Discipline means that we train our minds, like a puppy, to go only when and where we tell it, and not to make messes in our beautiful abundant home(life). Discipline doesn’t have to be mean or harsh. It’s constant, consistent, and loving redirection, just like you would give to that cute little bundle of fur.
Deciding is exercising our power of choice. Yes, Life and Love are moving through us, but Spirit can become for us only what we choose. Deciding means that we are willing to say “I choose this!” I choose Abundance rather than lack. I choose Joy rather than unhappiness. This means we are deciding the kind of life we want to have.
Declaration is effortless when we have the discipline to decide. Because we consistently choose our greater good, we speak about that, rather than continuing to affirm its opposite. Declaring our good also means that we are actively engaged in focusing on it.
Spiritual Contemplation: Am I disciplining my mind to pay attention to what I choose? Am I choosing my life or waiting for Spirit to somehow lay it on me? What am I declaring in the casual conversations in my mind and with my friends?
Affirmation: I am disciplined in deciding for my good and declaring for my abundance!
Intention or Magical Thinking?
Each decision we make, each action we take, is born out of an intention. Sharon Salzberg
An intention is like buying the ticket for the cruise. We’ve set our mind on something, and we allow that to move us toward it. Without a clear intention, we don’t know where we are going or what we want. I think of a powerful intention as an actual movement in consciousness that activates the Universal Laws in service to our intention.
It’s not enough just to think about something, however. You actually have to act on it for things to happen. Simply saying “Oh, I meant to do that” or “I think about being abundant” isn’t enough. Our intention must lodge so deeply in our consciousness that we begin to act and move from it. Otherwise, we are simply indulging in magical thinking. “If I think about abundance, somehow God will reward me with abundance.” Actually, Life is already all the abundance there is, right here and right now. Intending to behave, speak, and see abundance is a deliberate way of being and seeing that is not fooled by conditions, circumstances, false beliefs, or old feelings. The power of intention is that it moves and changes us. If it doesn’t, it’s merely magical thinking.
Spiritual Contemplation: How am I allowing my intentions to move me? How am I seeing, speaking, and behaving differently because of an intention I have set?
Affirmation: I set powerful intentions for my Abundance. I speak and act in alignment with my intentions.
Decide to Be Happy!
Decision is a sharp knife that cuts clean and straight; indecision, a dull one that hacks and tears and leaves ragged edges behind it. Gordon Graham
Raymond Charles Barker wrote a great book called The Power of Decision in which he states that we are all as happy as we decide to be. So how do we decide to be happy, healthy, wealthy, and fulfilled in our lives? How do we decide to contribute and make a lasting impact on our family and the world?
We decide—by deciding! When something happens that could fluster, upset, or destabilize us, we decide to be happy instead. No complaining, whining, moping, or groaning. Of course, this doesn’t mean when a serious conversation needs to be had, that we don’t have it. Or when something important needs to be looked at we ignore it. But it does mean that we don’t let negative things dictate our overarching attitude.
Mother Teresa was asked how she remained peaceful and joyful in the midst of abject poverty and disease and the constant demands on her time. She shared her secret: every time she got into the elevator or walked up and down the stairs, she would smile. This decision—to smile, to be happy—lifted her whole being and reminded her that she always walked with support and love, no matter what she was facing.
Spiritual Contemplation: Decide to be happy, right now in the midst of whatever is going on. Don’t whine, complain, judge, or feel like a victim. What does it feel like to simply decide to be happy?
Affirmation: Today I decide to be happy. Spirit, as my source, is more than enough to meet every need.
How Long Do You Have To Hang On – Forgive Your Mistakes
You know no one is perfect, but for some reason you don’t feel that applies to you, so you don’t forgive yourself or others. Your standard is higher than human perfection and you berate and beat yourself for anything less. Try making it okay that you are still evolving and getting better and know that Life doesn’t hold anything against you. You’ve been forgiven for any trespasses you may have made, no matter what! So find peace that although you may not be as spiritual as you would like, you are getting there.
After all these years, I am still involved in the process of self-discovery. It’s better to explore life and make mistakes than to play it safe. Mistakes are part of the dues one pays for a full life. Sophia Loren
If your child were to slip into a ravine and yell out for your help, would you check to see if her room had been cleaned and the bed made before you responded? No, you’d run to save your child’s life without any judgment just as Life doesn’t focus on your past gaffes before it responds. There is no desire to make your journey through this world an unhappy one. There is no kind of God who keeps track of all the mistakes you’ve made and bases Its responsiveness on your behavior. There is no God outside of you sitting in judgment. Get rid of that nagging feeling that God is not happy with you and get on with creating your abundant good.
Spiritual Contemplation: Where in your life are you beating yourself up for some past behavior? Life is not holding you hostage anymore, so how about letting it go now?
Affirmation: I now forgive myself for any past mistakes!
Don’t forget to ask!
Ask and it shall be given, seek and it shall be found, knock and it shall be opened. Matthew 7:7
Imagine that upon leaving this world you are brought to a divine storehouse whose halls are lined with endless doors decorated with nameplates. You come to one that has your name brazened across it as if you were a rock star, and although your host encourages you not to look inside, you are insistent. So the door is unlocked, and you are greeted by ceiling-high shelves of unopened, dust-covered, and dated boxes.
Excitedly you tear the lid off one dated from just last week to discover it’s a blessing that you never claimed. From the previous year is that huge break at work that you never asked for. From your youth is the blessing of the ideal person just waiting to share the gifts she has to deliver to your life, but you never asked her out. From childhood is the dream you never dared to dream because it seemed too big and held too much potential for disappointment. Here they sit unopened, box after box from your lifetime filled with blessings you never prayed for, for fear they were too good to be true for you. All this abundance belongs to you but was never delivered, because you failed to ask.
Spiritual Contemplation: When in your life have you not embraced the blessings that were being offered to you—good ideas, prospering good fortune, or the ideal individual who would have enriched your journey? Accept Life’s blessing now—don’t hesitate to open your gift of good that is already waiting for you.
Affirmation: I always remember to embrace my gifts of Spirit!
Hold Please – Reclaiming My Power
Some businesses seem to think that have all the power and that it’s acceptable for us to guess our way through a voicemail labyrinth, only to get lost and have to call back and start the whole process over again. They might save money by denying us human contact, but we lose. We waste valuable time spending all those hours on hold. But don’t be a victim and give your power away to frustration. Find another provider instead of the corporation that strung you up in their bureaucratic business-centric web.
The masses never revolt of their own accord, and they never revolt merely because they are oppressed. Indeed, so long as they are not permitted to have standards of comparison, they never even become aware that they are oppressed. George Orwell
Spiritual principle doesn’t know large or small, so if you allow yourself to be mistreated by a computer system why do you think your responsiveness would be stronger in other matters of your world? How in the world can you power up your faith to reclaim your authority for your body if it’s not well, or your life if it’s out of order? All of life is a reflection of your consciousness, whether it’s mechanical or human. The question is how you handle what’s showing up for you. Does your response come from a victim mentality or from your unshakeable power? We are always at choice—we are never not at choice.
Spiritual Contemplation: Where in your world are you tired of “the system” abusing you because that’s just the way it is? What alternatives do you have to being taken advantage of?
Affirmation: I reclaim my power in all areas of my life!
Letting Go of Good to Welcome In Great!
We cannot let our angels go. We do not see that they only go out, that archangels may come in. Ralph Waldo Emerson
A friend once said to me, “Don’t let your good stand in the way of your great!” What a powerful truth! Often I cling to something I know and settle for that which I have because there’s a little belief back there that says if I let go of this person or relationship that is okay, or even not so great, whatever is on the other side will be worse. Why is that? Why wouldn’t it be better? Why do we think that we won’t have something as good as what we have now?
We live in an abundant, loving, and powerful Universe. As we grow and mature, spiritually deepen and heal, we attract a new life out of our new consciousness. What we attracted before was from the consciousness of what we could accept before. But now as we grow in Spiritual Truth, we expand our consciousness, which will also expand the person, relationship, and love we attract. Clinging to or settling for less simply keeps us from experiencing and expressing the greater Love that we now know we are. Trust that a greater love, more joy, and a fuller, richer life really are waiting on the other side of letting go.
Spiritual Contemplation: Who or what are you clinging to or settling for? What good is standing in the way of your great, in relationships or in life?
Affirmation: I accept my greater good as Spirit flowing into my life. I let go of anything unlike the Love that is Spirit’s presence in my life.
Leap Year Bonus! Every Second Counts in the Present Moment
The present moment is filled with joy and happiness. If you are attentive, you will see it. Thich Nhat Hanh
If the Divine deposited 86,400 blessed gifts into your life, but at the end of the day none would carry over and all would be deleted, how would you choose to use them? In each of those moments, your life can be either turned around or thrown away. Are you going to withdraw every second from your deposit? What are you going to do with this present moment in time?
There is no going back in the stream of time. We lose what we fail to use. Too many of us take these seconds for granted by not valuing the gift they are. Ask someone who narrowly avoided a car accident or an athlete who won silver in a race at the Olympics the value of a second. Do you want to tell someone that you love them? Do so now while you have a chance. Is there someone who needs your forgiveness . . . how about giving it this day? This Leap Year Day is a present, an extra gift with many possibilities where the magic and wonder of life can emerge. It’s a gift of 86,400 blessed present moments from the Divine. Why wouldn’t you use every single one of them for your greater good rather than have them vanish at the end of the day unused?
Spiritual Contemplation: The gift of this extra day of the year is very special. You are given an additional day of life every four years. What extraordinary occurrences are you going direct with these 86,400 divine moments?
Affirmation: I live every second of this present moment as a gift from Life!
Seeing with the Eyes of Love
Love is when you look into someone’s eyes and suddenly you go all the way inside their soul and you both know it. Unknown
I had to learn to see with the eyes of Love. My father was my greatest teacher. I struggled with my relationship with my father for years. He drank and smoked and cursed life until the day he died; he always needed to be right and have the last word. He was also generous and smart and funny and could tell a story like no one else. Growing up in his presence was not easy but neither was it without some amazingly wonderful times and experiences. But when I started my spiritual journey I needed distance from my whole growing up, so I didn’t speak to him very often. Instead I kept trying to see him as a child of Life and trying to love him from afar.
Then one day I realized that my father acted and loved in the only way he knew how. I began to understand his struggle as an immigrant to the U.S. and his deep desire to care for his family. I discovered a place of compassion within me that allowed me to see his pain, fear, and deep disconnection—and I found those same places within myself. We weren’t so different.
In that moment when I began to see him with the eyes of Love, I could see the truth of who he was. Did this miraculously change him? No. But it changed me. I no longer needed him to be anyone different. Over time our relationship strengthened and softened. I became grateful for all he’d contributed to my life and the ways he’d tried to love me. When I sat by his deathbed, I knew he was returning to the heart of Love. I’m so grateful that I didn’t miss out on the Love he came here to be.
Spiritual Contemplation: Who would benefit from you seeing them through the eyes of love? Can you see that they were or are doing the best they can?
Affirmation: I see everyone from my past with the Loving eyes of Spirit. I know each person is a unique and precious expression of the One Presence.
It’s All How You Look at It – Expanding my Perspective
It’s always our perspective. We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are. Anais Nin
A story is told of a snail that was mugged by a turtle on the streets of New York while he visited the great city. In the courtroom, the judge asked the snail to describe what happened. The snail’s response was brief: “I don’t know, Your Honor. It all just happened so fast.” Life all depends on one’s perspective. One person’s battles may be another person’s ease. Individuals creating a financial flow of seven or eight figures a year may have difficulty grasping the perspective of the layaway plan others use in department stores. Everyone has their own expansive and constrictive perspectives. Your growth comes when you know where yours are, not judging others for the levels in their lives.
Everyone believes their own perspective is the right and sometimes only one, but why would they be called perspectives if there weren’t more than one? Believing what you see is the absolute truth can lead to trouble if not all-out war in the world. As the Course in Miracles asks, “Do you prefer that you be right or happy?” Love is your willingness to feel differently instead of having to say to another, “You are wrong.”
Spiritual Contemplation: Where in your life are you holding too rigidly to a perspective? Where would it be beneficial for you to shift how you perceive? Ask yourself in that particular situation, do you prefer to be right or happy?
Affirmation: My perspective is forever expanding!
Bad Boys and Sassy Girls – Great Spiritual Teachers & Masters
You’ve got your warm, fuzzy spiritual teachers who are kind, and caring and will love you along the path. And then you’ve got your bad boy or sassy girl spiritual teacher who are annoying, mischievous, and even offensive as they disturb and frighten you into your spiritual realization. They don’t give you syrupy platitudes or sugarcoat their expressions. They’ll scare you to death because the old must die for the new to be born, and sometimes a startling shock is the only thing that can shatter the egoic defense.
A student wanting to impress his Zen Master said, “Everything is empty. I am nothing; there is nothing to be done.” Suddenly the Master hit him on the head with his stick. Angry and about to hit the Master back he asked, “Why did you hit me?” The Master answered, “If everything is empty, nothing . . . so where is your anger coming from?” The student was perplexed and had no answer. The Master laughed and went away. Zen Story
Waking up is not always a comfortable experience. Sometimes the truth hurts and the consequences can be startling. Sacred cows can’t be slaughtered by niceties, and your very belief system must be challenged. The teacher who wants your praise more than your grief is not the one who is going to push you over the edge. The greater emergence of spirit in your life cannot fit into old familiar patterns of behavior, and sometimes it just might take a bad boy or sassy girl to knock you into Infinity.
Spiritual Contemplation: When have you had a rough teacher shock you into greater awareness? Could you have ever gotten that understanding through sweetness?
Affirmation: I trust the perfect teachers of my spiritual path!
The Trance of Error – the Awareness of Limitation
Each of us literally chooses, by his way of attending to things (having awareness), what sort of universe he shall appear to himself to inhabit. William James
Error is a tricky little bugger because it doesn’t arrive with a bell ringing around its neck. There is no “Ta-Da, here I am! Watch out for me, because I’m about to create some doubt in your life.” Alert spiritual practitioners, however, will always catch error appearing as a person, place, thing, or condition because they know that error is never actually any of those things. When you embrace the reality that Spirit is Infinite and is all there is, you know that there’s no ultimate reality to disease, lack, or whatever error is showing up.
You choose which reality you want to live in. If you believe that Spirit is the substance of all, then you must agree that error is an illusion. No doubt every day you face strong materialistic beliefs defended by the world of form. But when you are one with the spiritual consciousness of Spirit, the hypnotic nature of error is irrelevant. Never believe the suggestion of an illusion that has lodged itself in your human consciousness. Instead, go straight to Spiritual consciousness and wake up there knowing you are in full integrity with your truth.
Spiritual Contemplation: What trances of limitation are you caught in? How has erroneous thinking left you believing the challenge in your life is a person, place, thing, or condition? What new awareness do you need to have?
Affirmation: I awaken from the trance of error into the consciousness of Oneness!
Memories – Honoring the Past and the Path of Life
No memory is ever alone; it’s at the end of a trail of memories, a dozen trails that each have their own associations. Louis L’Amour
Driving through any rural American landscape you can still find barns with a beauty that comes from having weathered decades of seasons. They’re part of our cultural landscape and heritage and remind us of a time of self-sufficiency, family enterprise, and resiliency. But as family farms disappear and new owners sell off the barn wood for decorative furniture, new buildings made of steel take their place
The landscape of your world will also evolve over a lifetime, with only memories to linger to tell of a time that has passed. What you do with them is your choice. Will they drift into the unkempt realms of decay through forgetfulness or will they be restored through your attention? Will they be abandoned and replaced by the modernization of what seems like better experiences? Or is there a way to preserve your history, honor your past, have it beautified, and make you more intriguing while you continue to progress into the evolving new era?
Spiritual Contemplation: Is there a valuable piece of your past, your memories, no longer honored and that you are leaving behind? What can you do to have it be part of your landscape rather than letting it fade away?
Affirmation: I honor my past and my path to where I am now!