Here are some of the articles I'm writing while the leaf blower whirs outside:
We're currently bombarded with doom and gloom. So what do we do? Many people grasped onto the movie "The Secret" and became disillusioned if or when they didn't experience immediate success with their dreams.
Truth is, The Secret was never a secret. Science of Mind has used those techniques for a hundred years. It's been my experience that they work when you work them and not when you don't. And they don't give you complete control over the universe. For me, it often seemed to take around two years to see results.
Since my circumstances were desperate, I had nothing to lose by affirming my dreams, visualizing them, praying and taking action. There's a saying, "Don't leave before you see the miracles."
My friend, Chellie Campbell, author of The Wealthy Spirit, says God answers all prayers: yes, not yet and I have something better for you. Have you ever noticed that some things seem to happen so easily, and some of our other desires don't?
If we accept the idea that there is a force in the universe/God/Spirit/the Creative, then can we say that force is either everything or nothing? I feel that force is not only everything but working on my behalf.
Human sight, no matter how psychic, is still limited. When Gloria Vanderbilt's son killed himself, she thought, this should not happen to me, and then she thought, why not me? What's so special about me?
Robert Frost said: We dance round in a ring and suppose but the secret sits in the middle and knows.
Every true psychic has witnessed client tantrums. And we understand, life can be tough. Most of us have been through great difficulties and survived. As intelligent readers, we look at reasons around something, what can be changed within that can penetrate the outside circumstances.
"Pain is part of life but suffering is optional," I was told many years ago, and that knowledge changed me. I also learned that in screenwriting you can create more connection with a suffering character by having them underplay the scene.
Edgar Cayce counseled clients to be "long suffering." We wouldn't dare say that today. But we could say that we're on the hero's journey.
The hero generally turns out to be the least likely person for the job. Moses told God, You got the wrong guy. I have a stutter. But God tells him he's been being trained and he has a brother who can also speak for him. We don't have to do this alone.
In fairy tales, it's the youngest son, the one no one believed in, who ultimately succeeds at the quest. And it it a quest, a series of adventures. Perhaps he has the freedom of the fool?
Sometimes when I'm reading for someone I wonder how I can describe what I see for them. Some things aren't even invented yet. The intuitive mind goes through so much range and dimension and it doesn't necessarily look like a filled out black and white photo. Often, not at all.
So how much do you say and how do you phrase it? The hardest reads for me are people who think they already know everything or who try to control what and how I see.
They're especially difficult because they're blind to their intrusion. It becomes projected outward, and in a reading my experience becomes like watching a cat chase its tale, only the person energetically forces you into the game with them.
In those instances, my rational mind know there is no way I can please. We may be both speaking English but the inner language has changed. We're looking at life from different dimensions.
And psychically, we hold a lot of dimensions at once.
The I-Ching (ancient Chinese oracle) reminds us that nature takes a zig zag path to its goal. And there are always miracles open to signs along the path and pray for the willingness to be guided..And I can be happy no matter what...or pray for the willingness to be happy no matter what.
I can pray for the willingness to be creative, innovative, and kind.You know that uncomfortable place where you may feel envy, dissatisfaction, frustration about what you "should" have or how it "should" be? A friend of mind labeled that "Where's mine?" When I was in that trap, I had to focus not only on what I did have but that if well being was possible I learned a lot during the most desperate times in my life. No, I wouldn't want to go back there again! But I do value what I took from it and still use the skills I developed when basically, I had nothing to lose. How about you? What are you learning today? Where are you and what dreams do you have?
Friday, August 14, 2009
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Roses
You love the roses - so do I. I wish
The sky would rain down roses, as they rain
From off the shaken bush. Why will it not?
Then all the valley would be pink and white
And soft to tread on. They would fall as light
As feathers, smelling sweet; and it would be
Like sleeping and like waking, all at once!
George Eliot 1819-1880
You love the roses - so do I. I wish
The sky would rain down roses, as they rain
From off the shaken bush. Why will it not?
Then all the valley would be pink and white
And soft to tread on. They would fall as light
As feathers, smelling sweet; and it would be
Like sleeping and like waking, all at once!
George Eliot 1819-1880
Lost
Stand still. The trees ahead and
bushes beside you Are not lost.
Wherever you are is called Here,
And you must treat it as a
powerful stranger,
Must ask permission
to know it and
be known. The forest breathes. Listen. It
answers,
I have made this place around you,
If you leave it you may come back
again, saying Here.
No two trees are the same to
Raven.
No two branches are the same to
Wren.
If what a tree or a bush does is
lost on you,
You are surely lost. Stand still. The
forest knows
Where you are.
You must let it find
you.
David Wagoner
Stand still. The trees ahead and
bushes beside you Are not lost.
Wherever you are is called Here,
And you must treat it as a
powerful stranger,
Must ask permission
to know it and
be known. The forest breathes. Listen. It
answers,
I have made this place around you,
If you leave it you may come back
again, saying Here.
No two trees are the same to
Raven.
No two branches are the same to
Wren.
If what a tree or a bush does is
lost on you,
You are surely lost. Stand still. The
forest knows
Where you are.
You must let it find
you.
David Wagoner
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Live the Life You Love: In Ten Easy Step-by-Step Lessons
This is a book by Barbara Sher, also the author of Wishcraft. I particularly like several of her processes, which I've used for years without ever realizing it was a process.
The Wish/Obstacle Solution:
Tell as many people--friends, colleagues, people on the bus--what you wish and what is the obstacle you face.
For example, "I wish to go to the Himalayas (wish) but I need to talk to someone who has been there first."
Her premise is that our minds go into problem-solving, even when we don't plan on it, because we're natural problem-solvers.
Inadvertently, I used this technique years ago when I thought I might have to have hand surgery. I asked everyone who was the best hand surgeon. And a consensus from disparate places began to form.
Later, turned out that this eminent hand surgeon agreed with me (without my ever saying anything). He said the surgery could cause me more harm than good. After that, a number of doctors reversed their diagnoses to match his.
Sher gives several examples, including one where someone stands up in a workshop and declares that it's her dream to dance with Patrick Swayze. Turns out that another woman knew he'd be at his mother's resort on Thursday night, and the woman was able to meet and have that dance.
The Wish/Obstacle Solution:
Tell as many people--friends, colleagues, people on the bus--what you wish and what is the obstacle you face.
For example, "I wish to go to the Himalayas (wish) but I need to talk to someone who has been there first."
Her premise is that our minds go into problem-solving, even when we don't plan on it, because we're natural problem-solvers.
Inadvertently, I used this technique years ago when I thought I might have to have hand surgery. I asked everyone who was the best hand surgeon. And a consensus from disparate places began to form.
Later, turned out that this eminent hand surgeon agreed with me (without my ever saying anything). He said the surgery could cause me more harm than good. After that, a number of doctors reversed their diagnoses to match his.
Sher gives several examples, including one where someone stands up in a workshop and declares that it's her dream to dance with Patrick Swayze. Turns out that another woman knew he'd be at his mother's resort on Thursday night, and the woman was able to meet and have that dance.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Finding Meaning In the Second Half of Life
Finding Meaning in the Second Half of Life by James Hollis, Jungian Analyst
Your life asks you a number of questions. Here are some that I selected from Hollis' long list.
1. What has brought you to this place in your journey? (this moment in your life.)
2. Whose life have you been living?
3. Why do you believe you have to hide so much from others, from yourself?
4. Why have you come to this book...now?
5. Why is the life you are living too small for the soul's desire?
Why is now the time, if it is to happen, for you to answer the summons of the soul, the invitation to the second, larger life?
Finding Meaning:
Question we are more starkly faced with after age 35: What does the soul want?
By this age we've done our best to conform to social and societal needs, family directions and expectations, and now something presses from within.
The soul wants a larger life. We all walk around in shoes too small for us," renowned analyst, Carl Jung said.
From an energy point of view, we could say that the soul does not want to be confined to the limits of the physical body. Typically in the journey of a soul, one will meet up with betrayal of or from the body, a loved one, a job...Generally it is from the area where we've placed our strongest projections.
(I would further define that area to mean the one where we are the most vulnerable.)
"Suffering is the first clue that something [within] is soliciting our attention and seeking," says Hollis.
Our "task is to ask what the psyche wants, not what the parents want, not what the parent complexes want." We must risk giving ourselves the larger journey. (Hollis uses psychic interchangeably with soul.)
He leads us to Job's realization that being compliant did not obligate God to treat him well. Betrayal, Hollis tells us, breaches our hope that the world might be manageable and predictable.
As children, were were given the message that the world was big and powerful and we were small and dependent. We had to learn ways to deal with that.
Hollis reminds us that "Courage is always demanded of those who wish to live a life with some integrity." He labels most of our guilt-driven or compliant behavior as anxiety management.
In an ideal world, the family would support the growth and freedom of each of its members. It would not be used to serve the narcissistic needs of the parents or any other member. This level of early support would take us far more gracefully into the second half of life.
In the second half of life there is a greater need to live authentically from inner verification rather than submissive behavior constructed to deal with a neurotic culture.
"The soul has no interest in social adaptation," Hollis reminds us.
In the second half of life we experience the overthrow of the ego's understanding of the world. "Nothing from the outside can spare the periodic encounters with confusion, disorientation, boredom, depression, disappointment..."
These difficult states are intended to move us toward healing and wholeness. Hollis reminds us that our suffering can bring wisdom, depth, dignity, and ultimately spiritual enlargement.
Increased understanding of one's self leads to a richer life.
"Only through making the meaning of that suffering and its agenda for spiritual enlargement conscious can we ever emerge from [Dante's] dark wood.
In the second half of life, we're ready. We've learned from history, and our emotional resilience and level of insight are more acute.
Your life asks you a number of questions. Here are some that I selected from Hollis' long list.
1. What has brought you to this place in your journey? (this moment in your life.)
2. Whose life have you been living?
3. Why do you believe you have to hide so much from others, from yourself?
4. Why have you come to this book...now?
5. Why is the life you are living too small for the soul's desire?
Why is now the time, if it is to happen, for you to answer the summons of the soul, the invitation to the second, larger life?
Finding Meaning:
Question we are more starkly faced with after age 35: What does the soul want?
By this age we've done our best to conform to social and societal needs, family directions and expectations, and now something presses from within.
The soul wants a larger life. We all walk around in shoes too small for us," renowned analyst, Carl Jung said.
From an energy point of view, we could say that the soul does not want to be confined to the limits of the physical body. Typically in the journey of a soul, one will meet up with betrayal of or from the body, a loved one, a job...Generally it is from the area where we've placed our strongest projections.
(I would further define that area to mean the one where we are the most vulnerable.)
"Suffering is the first clue that something [within] is soliciting our attention and seeking," says Hollis.
Our "task is to ask what the psyche wants, not what the parents want, not what the parent complexes want." We must risk giving ourselves the larger journey. (Hollis uses psychic interchangeably with soul.)
He leads us to Job's realization that being compliant did not obligate God to treat him well. Betrayal, Hollis tells us, breaches our hope that the world might be manageable and predictable.
As children, were were given the message that the world was big and powerful and we were small and dependent. We had to learn ways to deal with that.
Hollis reminds us that "Courage is always demanded of those who wish to live a life with some integrity." He labels most of our guilt-driven or compliant behavior as anxiety management.
In an ideal world, the family would support the growth and freedom of each of its members. It would not be used to serve the narcissistic needs of the parents or any other member. This level of early support would take us far more gracefully into the second half of life.
In the second half of life there is a greater need to live authentically from inner verification rather than submissive behavior constructed to deal with a neurotic culture.
"The soul has no interest in social adaptation," Hollis reminds us.
In the second half of life we experience the overthrow of the ego's understanding of the world. "Nothing from the outside can spare the periodic encounters with confusion, disorientation, boredom, depression, disappointment..."
These difficult states are intended to move us toward healing and wholeness. Hollis reminds us that our suffering can bring wisdom, depth, dignity, and ultimately spiritual enlargement.
Increased understanding of one's self leads to a richer life.
"Only through making the meaning of that suffering and its agenda for spiritual enlargement conscious can we ever emerge from [Dante's] dark wood.
In the second half of life, we're ready. We've learned from history, and our emotional resilience and level of insight are more acute.
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
