Awakening to the Dance

AWAKENING TO LOVE LIFE

Posted on February 12, 2014 | Leave a comment

“True, we love life, not because we are used to living, but because we are used to loving. There is always some madness in love, but there is always some reason in madness.” Petrarch

Photo by Ralph Daily

Do you love life? Or do you find it a burden filled with negative experiences? What do you do to create a life you can love?

There was a time in my life when nothing I planned seemed to work out. Each project came to an end before it was completed. Each relationship, which in the beginning held such promise, involved obstacles that we couldn’t surmount. I often thought, “If I just had that one true love, life would be a joy. It would be worth living.”

I think that this belief was connected to my mother’s unhappiness. She and my father were opposites, and he was a rather emotionally withdraw person, but she was outgoing and easily showed her warmth and love. But living with a man who couldn’t show his love in the way she needed him to wore her down. She once commented that the reason my grandmother was so happy was because she had always had someone to love her. My grandfather was always a very expressive, loving person.

Love Includes Respect

For years, I tried to find that perfect one. Once I was married and at another time I was in a long distance relationship for eight years. I really tried, but there was always some respect for me that was missing. My ex-husband thought that my passion for modern dance was a childish interest that I would eventually grow tired of. The other man wanted a relationship where he only had to spend ten percent of his time with me and could do whatever he wanted, regardless of how his choices affected me.

Photo by Joel Bombardier

A Spiritual Journey Connects Us to the Divine

Fortunately, as various aspects of my physical life fell apart or refused to materialize, I gave some attention to my spiritual journey. Some of the things I learned as I explored this divine connection helped me see that I did not need to stay attached to the negative feelings created when things didn’t work out the way I planned. I began to sense that I could feel happy about life even when its events didn’t please me.

Positive Energy Helps Us Manifest What We Want

Perhaps pursuing a career in dance was sheer madness, but dancing fed my life with constant joy, just as writing or walking in the forest does now. I began to understand that what I had planned didn’t work out because, sometimes, something better was around the corner. When I decided to complete my memoir and publish it, I had reached the point in my journey where I knew how to use positive energy to manifest what I wanted.

To Be Loved, We Must Love Life

What I had learned over those years was that if I wanted love in my life, I had to love life. I had to always find a moment, a thought, an experience, or a friendship that was uplifting and I had to embrace it with gratitude. Even when things didn’t work out, I could at least feel good that I had the courage to try. I learned how to turn the negative into a learning experience. Instead of seeing myself as a failure, I chose to applaud myself for the attempt.

Photo by coolal2111

Loving life is a decision we make. It is easy when we have all we need, are well-loved, and are doing what we love to do. My own life is so much easier now than it used to be. With some retirement money, I can afford to write, and with a loving partner, it is so much easier to feel and express love in the world, but long before either of these things happened, I had awakened to loving life. It was only after I truly learned to love life that my perfect partner appeared, drawn to me by what I wrote in my memoir and blog.

Loving Life Draws More Love to Us

When we learn to love life every day and be grateful for the good in it, we will draw more love to us. So how do we do this? Learning to meditate will teach us to be in the moment and to go deeper into our emotions to discover what lies at our core and the cause of any fears that are limiting us. Learning to release our psychological fears will free our minds of the blocks the fear creates and allow truly helpful information to come true.

We Love More Easily When We Are Balanced

We also need to learn techniques that balance our energy, such as chakra balancing, Reiki, or Emotional Freedom Technique. These techniques also help heal the body as well as the mind, for true balance includes both. Balancing our energy brings us to a more centered place emotionally so that we can more easily see our wisest choices.

Knowing how to work with our bodies and minds empowers us, and feeling more empowered makes it easier for us to love ourselves. In order to love our lives, we must love ourselves, and thinking positively about the chances we take. Seeing value even in our failures reminds us we are basically worthwhile and good. To love life, we must believe in ourselves.

We Must Love Ourselves In Order To Truly Love Others and Life

No matter how many people love us, if we don’t love ourselves, we are lost. Loving ourselves is the most powerful aspect of life. My mother didn’t love herself; she thought that was selfish. She thought she had value only if she helped others. I rebelled against that because I saw how unhappy she was. At first, my rebellion was very selfish, but as time went by and I discovered that loving and taking care of myself made me a more confident person, I also began to understand how to give to others from a place of love, not obligation.

Loving the sheer wonder of life and reveling in our spiritual connection to it makes life truly worth living. It connects us with All That Is. Please comment.

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Tagged #WPLongform, Balancing Mind and Body, Divine Love, Inspirational, Loving Life, Release Fear, Spiritual Journey

DANCING TO LIFE

Posted on February 5, 2014 | 2 comments

“Dance when you’re broken open. Dance if you’ve torn the bandage off. Dance in the middle of the fighting. Dance in your blood. Dance when you’re perfectly free.” Rumi

Photo by Sandy Jones

Does your dance of life include the dirges as well as the waltzes? Can you find some peace or joy in the really challenging parts of life? Are you able to let go when it’s time to let go?

It has been a tough few days. My dear friend Sandy passed on this week although I hoped somehow she would survive cancer. Whenever I think of Sandy, I think of her beautiful photography and her eternal dance with nature. She invited me to join her one day to take pictures and I learned so much. She had a magical eye and each picture she took showed me some aspect of the subject that I would have overlooked without seeing it through her eyes.

Photo: Georganne Spruce

Challenges May Often Change Us For The Better

Sandy was such an inspiration to me as I sometimes took her to chemotherapy. During our rides, we began to talk deeper in ways we never had before. She shared more of her life, and she opened like a blooming red rose. I won’t try to describe the change that took place—I’ll let her speak for herself, so please take a moment to listen to this video, and meet my dear friend.

When I heard a week ago that she would make her transition soon, I began to really feel the loss. I couldn’t bear the thought that we would never dance together again as artists as we had when she created a slide show to match the poetry I read. Our exciting creative collaboration was really the center of our friendship, and it had been a long time since I had created work with another person.

Soon after hearing the news, I walked into my bedroom where one of her photos hung on the wall, a picture of a bridge over part of a stream with dogwood framing the scene. And there she was standing on the bridge waving good-bye to me smiling, and every time in the last week that I have passed that picture, her image was there in my mind’s eye. I felt such peace knowing she was ready.

Photo: Sandy Swanson copied from the original

We Can Always Choose How We Respond To Life

Sandy reminds me that the dance of life is so varied and we can’t always make it be what we want it to be. I am starting a new life with the most loving partner I could ever imagine; Sandy has passed from this life. It doesn’t seem fair. Life—it just is. Someday I’ll be crossing that bridge too—we all will. And it will be my final dance, but in the meantime I’m going to dance to all of life and feel each moment completely.

Dancing to life is about engaging with whatever is happening and feeling it fully. We can kick up our heels joyfully or we can drag our feet remorsefully. We can jump start new projects or we can slowly waltz around them. It’s okay if the dancing hurts sometimes because life isn’t always good to us, but if we learn to cultivate joy, it can lift the quality of life immensely.

We Can Dance With Our Bodies And Minds

There’s no better way to find joy than to dance with our bodies or our minds. When I write I dance with words. Others make preparing food a dance. This week, the Olympic skaters will be dancing on ice. When we hike in the forest, we dance among the trees. A good dinner and conversation with friends is like a dance. When we sleep, we may dance with our dreams.

When I feel sad about Sandy, I remember that she’s now with Oneness and she is well—dancing with the stars, I suspect, and of course taking their pictures.

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Tagged Consciousness, Creativity, Dance of Life, Friendship, Inspirational, Joy, Letting Go, Spirituality

AWAKENING TO LIFE’S GIFTS

Posted on January 29, 2014 | 3 comments

“Life is a gift, and it offers us the privilege, opportunity, and responsibility to give something back by becoming more.” Tony Robbins

Photo: Beverly & Pack

How do you feel about good things that come from a negative experience? What gifts has life given you? How much do you love yourself?

I love the change of seasons. They keep life interesting, even winter with its storms, snow, and extreme chill, for unlike spring when I can hardly stay inside, staying warm inside during winter is a pleasure. I curl up on the couch with a good book or sit at my computer writing for hours totally absorbed with a story and new ideas.

Many Gifts Are Unexpected

For example, I was looking for a file the other day, thinking how I seriously needed to clear out a lot of old folders, when I came across a folder marked “Affirmation Project.” To my surprise, I found a mock-up of a self-made book of affirmations that I had written. A few years ago, I gave it as a gift or was selling it at a bazaar—I honestly don’t remember, but I had forgotten about it.

I read through the book and liked what I had written, and now that I know about independent publishing, it occurred to me that I could easily publish it. I was so excited and immediately thanked Spirit for guiding me to this. “What a gift,” I thought.

Photo: Guido Stein

Only We Can Choose to Live Well

Voltaire said, “God gave us the gift of life; it is up to us to give ourselves the gift of living well.” So what does that mean to live well? I think it means to be the best person we can be: to love ourselves and others, to develop our talents so that we can contribute to the world and give back in response to the gifts that come to us.

Life’s Gifts May Be Hidden Beneath the Surface

Life’s gifts come in many forms, sometimes hiding beneath the surface of an experience that isn’t so positive. We may feel that the experience is dragging us down is certainly not a gift. It is only in retrospect that we can see the chain of events leading to a precious gift or an opportunity to become more.

A few years ago, I slipped and fell on ice and broke an elbow and pelvis. I was in the hospital and rehab for an entire month and still needed help after that. It was an awful experience that included a lot of pain. Without family in the area, I was very fortunate to belong to a spiritual community that had just formed a Circle of Care group that became my family and helped and nurtured me. In fact, so many people wanted to help that I had more help than I needed. Their love and attention healed me as surely as the medical care I received.

Among the people who helped was a woman who has since become a very close friend. Her kindness and generosity of spirit always inspire me. In addition, I learned that I could always call on my community in a time of need. That gave me a security I didn’t have before, and I made more room in my life to be active in that community. Recently, when a member I knew had cancer, I gladly drove her to chemotherapy. Again, there was a hidden gift as she revealed more of herself to me and our conversations created a deeper friendship.

Photo: asenat 29

To Live Well, We Must Love Ourselves

Part of living well or giving back requires that we love ourselves enough to value our talents and put them out into the world. I once had a friend who told me she didn’t have any talents. I knew that wasn’t true. She was a teacher, so every day she was giving to her students a gift that was most valuable to them. Sadly, she couldn’t see this value because she just didn’t love herself enough to value her own strengths.

Growing up in a family that saw life in a very concrete way, my desire to live a creative life was treated as frivolous although it was my parents that exposed me to the beauty of all the fine arts. They felt that the arts were inspiring to view, but impractical to do.

Our Greatest Gift Is Being Who We Truly Are

But at a very early age, both dance and writing seemed to be part of who I was. When I wasn’t doing either, I was fantasizing about doing them. At some point, I realized that these talents were spiritual gifts that I could not ignore. I became a dancer first because I needed a young body to do that, and in the process, I healed my weak body and developed a valuable mind/body connection.

Later, when I needed to give up the strenuous physical demands of dance, I turned to my second gift, writing. I realized then that my mother’s insistence that I always speak and write with grammatical correctness had been a gift I could now truly appreciate. Through writing I healed many issues and areas of emotional distress as well as expanding my ability to express myself intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually.

The More We Are Ourselves, The More We Have To Give

There is a beautiful freedom that comes with expressing who we really are. By becoming more of who we are, we have more to give others. And the more we become who we truly are, the more we have to contribute, in a positive way, to the life around us.

Love and Joy Expand Our Energy

My dearest spiritual teacher said that our purpose in this life is to expand our energy by experiencing love and joy. One way we can do that is to develop the spiritual being that we are, to experience gratitude for life’s many gifts, and by appreciating the opportunities that life offers for our growth and awareness. What can you do today to give something back to this life by becoming more?

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Tagged #WPLongform, Friendship, Gratitude, Inspirational, Life's Gifts, Living Well, Love, Spirituality

AWAKENING TO TRUE ENLIGHTENMENT

Posted on January 22, 2014 | Leave a comment

“Enlightenment means merely aligning to the energy of my Source. And genius is only about focusing. The Law of Attraction takes care of anything else. Physical humans often want to make enlightenment about finding some process and moving through the process that has been pre-described. But true enlightenment is moving to the rhythm of the internal inspiration that is coming in response to the individual desire.” Abraham (Channeled by Esther Hicks)

Photo: Vyacheslav Argenberg

Are you often successful at manifesting what you want? Do you find manifesting your desires challenging? How do you deal with the success or failure of your efforts?

I am always surprised and delighted by the way that my desires manifest. Although I have worked with the Law of Attraction for many years and understand that it is based on the laws of energy, I am still often amazed by the manifestation. When I remind myself that it is available to us all through our connection to Source, I am reminded again how important being able to connect with Source is.

To Create, We Must Align With Source

The main question we often ask about this process is why does it work sometimes and not others. In order for the Law of Attraction to manifest what we want, we must first feel aligned with Source. Source is the spirit others refer to as God, Allah, the Universe, or Spirit. This means that we have to have discovered and established this connection, but it doesn’t have to be a part of a particular practice. It is a mystical connection and may come to us simply because we are open to the non-physical energy.

We may feel our connection to Source when we walk in the woods, relate to animals, love another human being, laugh, see the stars blazing at night, or are inspired by the beauty of poetry. When our heart opens, when we sense there is something greater than ourselves, and that we are more than our bodies, we have connected with Source. Anything that inspires us connects us to it.

We Must Connect With the Energy of Our Desire

So, how does this really work? We feel a desire. That creates an energy. The enlightenment to which Abraham refers is the energy we create from this desire. If we feel excited about the possibility of our desire coming true and that is followed by the feeling that we will be able to manifest this desire, we are creating a vibrational frequency that is most likely to manifest what we want.

For example, last year I participated in a bookfest but I didn’t sell many books. I asked the question, “Is this worth doing again?” It was clear to me that doing a presentation as part of the event would introduce me to more people who might want to buy the book. I wanted to speak on a topic that would attract writers and non-writers. Many people write memoirs only for their families, so I thought the topic of “Bringing Your Memoir to Life” would speak to everyone.

As I began writing an email to the person choosing the presenters with the description in it, I became very excited about my topic. I could see and feel myself before an attentive audience. Although I had no idea what the theme of the bookfest was, I felt positive energy bubbling up inside me. I sent the email, releasing it to the Universe, knowing that if it was a good match for me, this opportunity would manifest.

Positive Energy Manifests Positive Results

I was thrilled when I received an email from the person planning the event that my presentation topic fit perfectly with this year’s theme “Telling Our Stories.” I was invited to present and I enthusiastically accepted. The energy around this opportunity felt extremely positive. By surrounding my preparation with positive energy, but not attaching myself to the outcome, I created a vibration that drew to me a very beneficial opportunity.

Enlightenment Is Connected to Inspiration

According to Abraham, true enlightenment is about responding to the vibration of the inspiration we feel when a desire arises. Going against the positive inspirational energy sabotages the manifestation of our desire. We do this all the time. What if I had thought, “I’d like to present at the bookfest, but I’m not well-known enough. I’m sure they wouldn’t pick me,” or I don’t know what the theme is, so why bother.”

Our Passion Energizes Manifestation

This is why following our passion is so important. When we truly have a passion for an activity, the energy of that passion tends to draw to us what we need in order to manifest our desire. Understanding this and following this principle is the basis of enlightenment. It also means that we have to trust ourselves and our feelings about things. Some would call this intuition.

When our energy and feelings toward a person or event feel positive, we need to honor this attraction. It is someone or something that is being drawn to our lives for a reason that may not be obvious, but that may be beneficial. And when positive feelings well up inside us even when, practically, what we desire doesn’t seem possible, it is well worth our time to explore the possibilities. We never know when the impossible may become possible. It’s all up to us and Source.

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Tagged Consciousness, Enlightenment, Inspirational, Law of Attraction, Manifestation, Positive thinking, Source, Spiritual Awakening

AWAKENING TO TRUST LIFE

Posted on January 15, 2014 | 2 comments

“The two hardest tests on the spiritual road are the patience to wait for the right moment and the courage not to be disappointed with what we encounter.” Paulo Coelho

Photo by Mike Baird

How patient are you when things don’t go your way? Are you often disappointed about life or do you find some pleasure in each day?

Lately, it seems that dealing with the mundane in life has become unnecessarily difficult and somewhat bizarre. I spent an hour or more trying to discover why my phone would do nothing but “search” when it had worked fine the day before and the battery was charged. Finally I unplugged the battery to read the numbers on it, thinking that maybe I needed a new one, and when I reconnected it, it worked just fine.

Then there was a problem with the water filter. In order to have filtered water like reverse osmosis, I stack one water filtration dispenser on top of another so that the water from the top dispenser will drip through the second filter. In the last month, the top dispenser has toppled onto the floor twice when a friend of mine walked into the kitchen. At 6 foot 3 inches, he’s a big guy and his steps create a vibration, but he’s been walking into my kitchen frequently for months. Why is this happening now? The second time it happened, the filter shattered.

Lessons May Come From Negative Experiences

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common.” Each moment of each day offers us the opportunity to learn. I’ve learned from experience that when a series of events, mundane or serious, occur I need to pay attention. I need to calm down, go with the flow, and take time to trust that the Universe is trying to tell me something.

In addition to going inside for spiritual guidance, I also look at astrology or numerology to see if any messages resonate. My number for this month is a 36/9 and part of the message is that any losses or endings will free me for the new cycle I am about to enter and that any losses I encounter are only those things I do not need.

Not Being Centered Creates Unnecessary Difficulty

When the phone incident occurred, I was already frustrated about a series of troublesome phone calls with my insurance company, and I wasn’t in a positive frame of mind. I was so disappointed that another problem had arisen that I lacked the patience to solve the problem easily by doing the most obvious thing, checking the battery connection. Instead, I assumed it was more complicated.

Remaining Positive Requires Courage

Paolo Coelho reminds us to have courage and not be disappointed when we encounter difficulties. We have to trust that there is value in these life experiences. When the negative experiences are more serious matters, the challenge to have courage is so much greater. My challenges are nothing compared to the challenge my friend who has cancer faces. She is nearing the end but insists on trying not to take drugs to “numb out.” That’s real courage!

Years ago when I had chronic fatigue syndrome, I had to change my life style in order to heal naturally. Having to go to bed early and be very strict about what I ate irritated friends and others close to me. The medical profession had not yet accepted this diagnosis as a real one and many people just thought I was being dramatic about my needs. Losing friends and not being respected made my life more difficult. It took courage for me to remain devoted to what I knew was best for me.

Loss May Lead Us To Something Better

In the case of the cracked filter, I was surprised by what happened, but I wasn’t too upset. Maybe the incident was telling me it was time to install a water filter in my water system. As it turned out, the friend whose vibration caused the filter to crash had an extra filter that can be easily installed in my house.

Photo by Lonny Paul

Learning “not to be disappointed by what we encounter” when we experience mundane disappointments prepares us to face the really difficult moments. Staying calm and going with the flow gives us the patience “to wait for the right moment.” We often see this in a relationship when we need to discuss a touchy subject with a partner or a manager at work. If we take the time to consider when and what to say and release our anger or frustration first, we are more likely to communicate in a way so that the other person will hear us.

To Trust Life, We Must Trust Ourselves

We can trust life when we learn to trust ourselves. We create our lives with our thoughts, emotions, and actions, and the more we learn about managing them in a spiritual and loving way, the more likely we are to create positive experiences. In addition to the patience and courage, Coelho suggests, developing a practice of gratitude helps to shift us away from expecting the worst of a situation we don’t like.

Focusing on Gratitude Is A Positive Practice

Gratitude reminds us of all the good in our lives. Even when it’s hard to see the good, it is important to hunt for it and look for a lesson in each experience. My experience with the phone reminded me that I need to focus on the simplicity of life and assume the solution to a problem is simple unless it truly does become more complex. I am thankful for that reminder.

The experience with the water filter offered a better alternative to my “slippery slope” solution and reminded me that when one thing stops working, it is often because there is something better in the future. When we are grateful for the good we have and truly believe that basically life is good, despite the challenges, we are more likely to find our spiritual path filled with light.

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Tagged Consciousness, Courage, Gratitude, Inspirational, Patience, Self-awareness, Spiritual Journey, Trust

AWAKENING TO A PURE MIND

Posted on January 8, 2014 | Leave a comment

“We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves.” Buddha

How do you feel about the New Year? Do you feel anxious or at peace? What creates this feeling that you have? If you don’t like it, what do you do to change it?

After two days of below freezing temperatures and some snow that intensified the light coming into my dining room to the point of almost blinding me, I’m reveling in the easy blend of light and shadow coming through the trees into the room where I work. It is soft and balanced.

Begin the Year With Gratitude

I am beginning this year with much gratitude. I do not live where the worst of the winter storms are occurring although our temperatures have been the lowest since the 1800s. I have a warm house, plenty of food, and love. I am blessed.

I am also grateful for the time I was able to spend with my brother and his family, especially the time with my grand nieces and grand nephew, three of who are two years old, and one who is four. There were also three dogs in attendance on Christmas. It was wild and lovely. Just being with them was a joy. Their excitement was contagious.

How we Think Changes Our Vibration

But after the hustle and bustle of the holidays, a profound quiet and a bit of depression enveloped me. It was time to rebalance and contemplate my plans for the New Year. During the holidays, the joy I felt was created primarily by external circumstances, but now, living hundreds of miles from the rest of my family, I have had to return to my own resources. The joy I felt has slipped away.

As I thought about what I needed to do in the New Year, especially with my writing, I first saw all the things I had hoped to accomplish last year and didn’t. Well, what was done, was done. I reminded myself that I could only change the future, not the past. On the other hand, the new relationship in my life has been a great joy and given me the kind of companionship I haven’t had for years. As I began to focus on the good things in my life, I began to feel my vibration rise.

As my vibration rose, a joy began to well up inside. I was following my greatest passion by writing and just thinking about continuing to do that brought me joy. When I began to clean up my lists of things to do and develop a plan for this year, I let go of the self-judgment that had depressed me and I began to feel more peaceful.

What We Think Affects How We Feel

And that is how it works. What we think determines how we feel. As the Buddha points out, joy comes from a pure heart. So how do we create a pure heart? I know that meditation has always helped or writing in my journal, exploring the meaning behind the events or ideas moving through my life. Doing this regularly clears the emotional and mental clutter that distracts me from a natural peace and joy.

Still, life is full of challenges. Before the holidays, I had signed up for a prescription drug plan. This week I talked to them about covering two custom compounded drugs I take. After two and a half hours of talking with several people who were unable to grasp that one drug consists of a combination of two drugs, they sent a fax to my doctor for approval with the drugs inaccurately named and spelled. I had spelled slowly the names of the drugs several times for two people, but they did not record them accurately. This experience tested my patience to the limit. It seemed ridiculous. I kept taking a lot of deep breaths, reminding myself that getting upset would not help the situation.

At the end of the day, the problem with the insurance company was still not resolved, but at least I had been able to constantly adjust my mind and center myself throughout the experience. I was able to move on to other things and relax that evening knowing that I did all I could do.

Return to Your Spiritual Center for Guidance

Many of our challenges appear because we are living in a time of great change. The political and economic structures we have depended upon are changing. Remaining flexible and centered is the most effective way of dealing with change. Oneness tells us that when our lives seem to “veer off course” and we feel we are “without a compass,” “All that remains, are the clues that begin to emerge from within” (p. 110).

In order to recognize those clues, we must return to our spiritual center and listen to our inner guidance where all answers reside. We must clear the mind of judgment and resistance and reside in peace. As we continue this journey, the way will not always be clear or kind, but it can lead us to a better place. How we experience each event is largely our choice, and when things happen that we don’t like, it is our choice how much we invest in positive or negative thinking about them.

Developing a pure heart by changing our thinking will always take us to a better place where joy becomes a part of who we are.

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Tagged #WPLongform, Gratitude, Inner Peace, Inspirational, Joy, Positive thinking, Pure Heart, Spiritual Journey

AWAKENING TO NEW BEGINNINGS

Posted on January 2, 2014 | Leave a comment

“For last year’s words belong to last year’s language

And next year’s words await another voice.

And to make an end is to make a beginning.”

T. S. Eliot

Photo: Charles Davidson

Are you pleased with the direction your life took in 2013? Do you have any regrets about last year or any hopes for change for the New Year? Will this year be a new beginning in some way?

A peace always falls over me at the beginning of a new year. It’s like stepping through a portal that will provide me with new experiences and broaden my awareness. I know that each year I grow—sometimes from positive experiences and sometimes from negative ones. If I haven’t been pleased with the year, I can choose to let go of my displeasure and reorganize and rethink my life so that in this New Year I will be more of the person I want to be.

Much of what I experienced in 2013 was good. I did book signings, workshops, and sold books. I made new friends. I went on many wonderful hikes. Most important of all, I began a deeply meaningful relationship that I never expected would happen at this time in my life.

But that was last year, and I wonder what voice will emerge from within me and through my writing for this year. I’ve already started putting together a book of poetry, and within my own poems are many voices. I have changed.

There is the voice of isolation that speaks through my poems about winter in Nebraska years ago. There is voice of new found strength and recovery from a previously failed relationship. There is the joy and exhilaration of connecting with nature and the flight of birds, and the mystical, spiritual experiences of deeply relating with others.

Although many voices may appear in my writing, they all emerge from my core, and the journey continues. Last year was last year with its surprises and lessons. It has ended, but now there is a new year and I have to reflect on what I want it to be.

I don’t make resolutions, but I do reflect on some of the things I hope will be a part of next year. I begin to create some plans to make those desires manifest. I envision what succeeding to get what I desire will feel like, and I begin to feel those goals will be reached even when I have no idea of the mechanics that will make them happen.

So I begin to create a year of new beginnings, always with joy at the center, and the ability to accept whatever the New Year brings. I tingle with excitement over what may be possible as I continue to dance this dance of life. And above all, I commit to choreographing a New Year filled with love, peace, and joy.

May this be a joyful year for you all!

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Tagged Awakening, Beginnings, Consciousness, Growth, Inspirational, New Year, Positive thinking, Spiritual Journey

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Posted on December 25, 2013 | Leave a comment

MAY PEACE, LOVE, AND JOY FILL YOUR HEARTS DURING THIS HOLY SEASON!

I AM SO GRATEFUL FOR EACH OF YOU WHO READ MY BLOG – YOU ARE MY INSPIRATION.

BLESSINGS TO ALL,

Georganne Spruce

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AWAKEN TO LOVE THE LIGHT

Posted on December 18, 2013 | 1 comment

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” Martin Luther King

Do you always look outside yourself for something to make you happy? When things you don’t want to happen occur, do you get angry or try to learn from those experiences? Do you take full responsibility for the good in your life?

The popular literature of our time seems to be obsessed with darkness—death, violence, vampires, a future world where life is not humane. The same is true of television programs on the basic channels. The stories are all based on police and detective stories or have main characters that are violent or vengeful even if they are the heroes of the stories. The same is true of many movies that are based on dark stories.

Our Pain Bodies Addict Us To Negative Thoughts and Emotions

Why are we so obsessed with the dark side of life when it is the light of life that brings us joy? The movie and television industry discovered at some point that it is much easier for us to become addicted to these negative influences than to the positive and that they could make money off that. The reason for this is what Eckhart Tolle calls the pain body.

English: Head-shot of Eckhart Tolle from directly in front by Kyle Hoobin. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The pain body is an energy form that lives within all of us, and in order for it to be active, it must be fed. What it feeds on is negative energy, so negative thoughts and emotions trigger it and allow it to take control of our thinking and emotions to the point where we begin to see the negative in every thought or encounter. But unless the pain body is stimulated in this way, it lies dormant.

The Pain Body Feeds On Negativity

It is this aspect of our emotions and psyche that the entertainment industry understands and uses to addict us to the negative stories they produce. One of the things I’ve observed is that people who spend a great deal of time immersed in these stories often have a great deal of fear because, when they choose to expose themselves to this kind of negativity on a regular basis, the pain body gobbles it up and expands.

Just as too much fat and junk food harm our bodies, exposing ourselves to unhealthy thoughts and experiences is harmful. Even the kind of violence present in video games can distort a child’s concept of reality, and with the amount of violence being committed by young people these days, parents need to closely monitor how their children spend their time. In the case of the young people who have entered schools and killed teachers and classmates, it is clear their pain bodies are ravenous for the charge that only violence toward others can give them.

We Create Light and Love Within

As King says, only love and light can drive out the darkness and hate. Only we can change what the entertainment industry insists on giving us by refusing to watch stories that feed us only the dark side of human nature. I’m not suggesting we return to the days of “Leave It To Beaver,” but there are many human stories with positive themes that can be entertaining and uplifting.

Love tree (Photo credit: @Doug88888)

In the coming year, let us commit to supporting only what is positive and learn to shift our negative thoughts to more positive ones. By doing so, we will weaken the pain body and free ourselves from its grip. We all have challenges, but we can choose to live them in the dark or the light. The concept is so simple. On a sunny day, don’t most of us feel more energetic? Even on a dark, rainy day we can choose to have grateful and joyful thoughts so that we feel the light inside us.

Gratitude Expands Our Inner Light

The pain body doesn’t want us to feel good, so a gratitude practice can be a wonderful way to counteract that negative energy. I use breakfast as the time when I express thanks for my food as well as other things in my life. Some people prefer to write a list. Even on the days when it seems everything is going wrong, it is worth hunting to find something positive.

A couple of days ago, I sneezed and one side of my back went into painful spasms. It was bizarre and probably an unexpected reaction to a fall I’d had a few days earlier. Here I was, with Christmas approaching, and I had to be taken to the emergency room with severe pain unable to move. I wanted to rant and rave and feel angry about this awful event, but instead, I just gave in, stayed in the moment, and focused on what I could be thankful for like the careful, kind paramedics who transported me, the doctor who talked with and treated me, and my loving partner who was there every moment, helping in every way possible.

We can always choose to look at the light rather than the darkness. In this case, I knew this happened because there was an underlying problem in my back, and it was better that it came to the surface when I was able to easily get help. I am most grateful that it didn’t happen on my trip to visit family or on Christmas Day.

Saying “thank you” is always a way to create light in our lives. I once knew a woman who didn’t have a lot of money, but every time she wrote a check, even to pay a bill, she wrote “Thank you, God!” at the bottom of the check. It might have been her last dollar, but rather than focusing on the negative, she chose to feel abundant by paying that bill.

Winter Is the Perfect Time to Find Our Inner Light

During this winter season, the hours of light are less, and yet it isn’t the literal light that matters the most; it is the light and love within our minds. We can create light in the darkness. What is more wonderful than snuggling with your loved one by the fire or filling a room with the warmth of friends? What is more wonderful than the generosity we see this time of year when so many people give to organizations that feed, clothe, and warm those in need? And we can create those loving feelings within by focusing on what is good in ourselves and life.

Be the Light of Your Own Life

What gives us warmth and light may be as simple as listening to the birds and their sweet songs each morning as we rise. No matter what challenges may appear throughout the day, we can reflect on the light their song brings us at the beginning of each day, as they remind us to look for the good in every day and every experience. May you warm the darkness within, deplete the power of the pain body, and create the light in your own life. Thank you, Oneness, for this life.

HAPPY HOLIDAY TO YOU ALL!

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Tagged #WPLongform, Eckhart Tolle, Inner Peace, Inspirational, Light, Love, Release Fear, Spirituality

AWAKENING TO OUR CONTRASTS

Posted on December 10, 2013 | Leave a comment

“There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered.” Nelson Mandela

The holidays are a time when we often return to where we grew up or to our parents’ home. It can be a wonderful and joyous occasion or one where we tread lightly around certain topics, but if we have grown over the years and become our own person, it may be a time when we see clearly the contrast between who we were and who we are now.

We All Change with Time

We all grow in some way as the years pass. Even those who ferociously resist change and try to force their ways on others change—usually becoming more angry and brittle. But most of us try to learn from our mistakes and be open to learning new ways of doing things that will benefit us and our families. Besides, when we don’t think our way is the only way, we can connect more easily with those who are different.

Mandela Is A Model for Forgiveness

This week we have mourned the death of Nelson Mandela and celebrated his extraordinary life. Living in a country of extreme contrasts, he was able to unite the people by demonstrating that we can choose to forgive our enemies, no matter how horrendous their behavior was, and in doing so, we free ourselves from bitterness and hate. Certainly his life was full of contrasts.

English: Nelson Mandela in Johannesburg, Gauteng, on 13 May 1998 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Contrast Show Us What We Want and What We Don’t Want

In the Law of Attraction literature, contrast is the word that is used to describe negative events, the things that happen that we don’t want to attract. It’s true that life is filled with experiences we like and others we don’t, and each contrast is an opportunity to re-examine what we did to create it. Abraham, channeled by Esther Hicks, states, “When you have lived an experience that helps you understand in an exaggerated way, the very thing you do not want, you also understand in an exaggerated way, what you do want.”

Few of us will ever have the kind of profound influence that Nelson Mandela had on other human beings. But we each, in our own way, may choose to learn from the contrast in our lives, and accept the choices other people make that are different from ours. If we can create just a little peace in our own environment, we are contributing to world peace.

As We Grow, Our Past Is Illuminated

Years after leaving the town where I grew up, I returned to visit and was startled by how small the house was. It seemed spacious to me as a child as I lay on the dining room floor, my books spilling out of the bureau, and read or colored. The external reality was small, but my internal experience was large as I explored life through literature.

Books (Photo credit: henry…)

Let Us Embrace Our Differences

This often happens to us. As our world grows larger, what we used to know seems smaller or more confined. Until I attended college in the 1960s, I had never attended school with any children who were not white. Fortunately, I was reared by a mother who believed that all people were equal and deserved equal rights so that when I did met people of other races I was curious. Despite some initial discomfort, I made a real effort to understand our differences and to relate respectfully.

Over the years, I taught students from many cultures and doing so has enriched my life experience with many contrasts. As a result, I have learned and grown from these experiences. My spiritual journey has also been filled with experiences and practices that differ from my family’s traditional spiritual path. They attend Catholic and Protestant churches, and I attend meetings of a spiritual community that prefers not to be called a “church.” My path seems strange to them, but it brings me peace and happiness, and their path is very meaningful to them. We think differently, but we accept our differences.

When I wrote my memoir Awakening to the Dance: A Journey to Wholeness, I traveled back into time as I read through the journals I’d kept for many years and was able to see all the ways I had changed over the years. Some of it was inspiring and I could feel proud of how I had expanded my thinking, but there were also times when I was appalled by the way I mangled a situation. Still, the contrasts were steps I had to take on my way to become a more peaceful and caring person.

So this holiday, as we visit with family and old friends, let us appreciate the contrasts that appear and let us honor the sometimes challenging spiritual path through life that we each travel.

HOLIDAY GIFT SUGGESTION

If you are looking for an inspiring gift for a friend, please consider my memoir Awakening to the Dance: A Journey to Wholeness. It is available through Amazon.com, Kindle, Nook, and CreateSpace ID#1002950.

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Posted in Inspirational Posts

Tagged Change, Consciousness, Forgiveness, Growth, Inspirational, Law of Attraction, Open-Mindedness, Spirituality

Awakening to the Dance

AWAKENING TO LOVE LIFE

“True, we love life, not because we are used to living, but because we are used to loving. There is always some madness in love, but there is always some reason in madness.” Petrarch

DANCING TO LIFE

“Dance when you’re broken open. Dance if you’ve torn the bandage off. Dance in the middle of the fighting. Dance in your blood. Dance when you’re perfectly free.” Rumi

AWAKENING TO LIFE’S GIFTS

“Life is a gift, and it offers us the privilege, opportunity, and responsibility to give something back by becoming more.” Tony Robbins

AWAKENING TO TRUE ENLIGHTENMENT

AWAKENING TO TRUST LIFE

“The two hardest tests on the spiritual road are the patience to wait for the right moment and the courage not to be disappointed with what we encounter.” Paulo Coelho

AWAKENING TO A PURE MIND

“We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves.” Buddha

AWAKENING TO NEW BEGINNINGS

“For last year’s words belong to last year’s language

And next year’s words await another voice.

And to make an end is to make a beginning.”

T. S. Eliot

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

MAY PEACE, LOVE, AND JOY FILL YOUR HEARTS DURING THIS HOLY SEASON!

AWAKEN TO LOVE THE LIGHT

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” Martin Luther King

AWAKENING TO OUR CONTRASTS

“There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered.” Nelson Mandela