Joy in Small Things

Let me always find joy in small things!  The everyday things that might easily have gone unnoticed are special gifts.

I've never noticed birds a great deal, but lately I'm learning how delightful they are.  Last month when we were backpacking there was a very bold red-headed woodpecker who was quite comfortable right out in the open in our campsite.  He kept an eye on us like the guardian of the forest, and we enjoyed his company.

There's a group of birds that congregate in the mornings to bathe in a big puddle that forms at the edge of the grass outside the window where I work.  What a delight when I'm starting my day to stop for a minute and watch them.  To say that they are bathing is an understatement; it looks more like a raucous dance as they change positions and get completely down into the water and shake for all they're worth.

And what a hoot watching the birds in our backyard, oh my goodness!  We hung a new bird feeder closer to the house, which is suspended by a string and able to spin around freely.  It has six little holes and posts for the birds to perch on as they eat, and it's really funny watching them holding on and spinning around like they're on a thrill ride at the fair.  Centrifugal force pushes some off, but they come back for more.  And there's that one determined soul who's sometimes left spinning around and around by himself like king of the hill.  What beautiful and fun moments, and all I had to do for them was stop and notice.

I'm learning to acknowledge small things, and be grateful for them.  I was looking for an important piece of mail recently and realized that it had probably been taken out by mistake with the recycling.  When I went to check there it was, right where the recycling had been, and it had either slipped out of the pile or had been on the bottom.  Little serendipitous things that seem random or like blind luck are gifts from heaven.

There are so many examples of perfect good at work, a much-needed break in traffic when we're late,  a song on the radio with exactly the lyrics we'd been needing to hear, or a stranger getting to the door at just the same time we do and opening it for us, because our arms are full.

I'm remembering to say thank you now when these things happen.  When we are grateful we make room for more good things in our lives, large and small.

May you always notice the grace in small things, and may this tool be a blessing. . .

Full-Out Loving Life

I had dinner the other night with a dear friend of mine named Jeri.  In the 20 years I've known her, I've always admired and appreciated her loving acceptance, her openness, her unfailing concern, and the bright light she shines in the world.

It's fitting that Jeri forwarded to me the following wonderful quote from Neale Walsch.  We cannot be conscious of something that we ourselves do not possess, so I'm not surprised that this quote spoke to Jeri.  She is God, and love, in expression. 

"It is the full-out loving of life, and all that life presents in every moment, that is the expression of Godliness."

I think I'm maybe just starting to get it, at this time in my life, on the far side of middle age but definitely not old yet, that I can trust God.

It's a tall order, I think, to approach every situation without worry or fear, and trust that perfect good is at work in all things.  I know it in my head, and often feel it in my heart.  I write about it and I believe every word I say.

In a moment, though, my trust is quickly replaced by fear when something happens that feels threatening, or like it should be different.  It happened this morning, reading in the paper about people struggling against oppression and famine, the worldwide economy, and democracies flailing.

I can visualize a world where all people move through the circumstances of their days with an open heart and an abiding love for being there in the middle of all of it.  But we can only do that when we surrender our need to understand and control, and begin to trust a perfection that we have no way of really understanding anyway, while in this physical form.

And so we choose, and choose again.  In each moment, when we notice we are afraid, we affirm, as Unity teaches, that fear has no power over us, and that there really is only one presence and one power, God the Good.

We acknowledge our fear and our resistance and then we choose the truth we will serve in that moment.  There will always be circumstances that shake our truth, but that doesn't change it.  All of the things that flame our fears provide divine and holy opportunities to remember that we create this world according to what we hold as truth.

It's a huge leap of faith, but we can do it. We are doing it.

In the middle of situations that shake our faith to the core, and in the midst of all evidence to the contrary,  we trust, and we choose, perfect Good.  And for me that's the crux of the matter, because when I trust that there is a much larger good at work, even though it can't be understood with my limited human thinking, I can embrace all of it.  I can love life.  And I am brought full-circle, by allowing God, I experience my own Godliness.

May this tool be a blessing. . .

Just Listen

My husband and I recently returned from a wonderful backpacking trip, where I was reminded of the simple tool of just listening.  When we’re backpacking listening is easier, without clocks or cell phones or anything we have to do except be there. 

Sitting quietly surrounded by nature’s beauty is a perfect time to ask of divine intelligence, “What would you have me remember right now?”  We are always answered when we think to stop and ask. 

I have had some wonderful conversations with God sitting on a log overlooking a little alpine lake at 9,000 feet, and although nature does help our connection with the divine, we can stop to listen anytime.

The quiet voice of God within us, while ever present, often goes unnoticed when our minds are too busy with the details of life.  So it’s helpful to cultivate strategies that allow us to stop, and hear the voice of the larger truth that imbues all life experience. 

One thing that helps me hear is to write.  My journal-writing has transitioned over the years into part journal, part letter to God, and part God’s response to me.  My journal entries have begun “Dear God” for awhile now, and as I spill my thoughts and feelings onto paper God’s perspective begins to come through in what I’m writing, as direction or validation or loving acceptance. 

Of course it’s all God.  As I write to God I write to myself, and as God’s responses come through in what I’ve written, I know that God within me has all of the answers that I will ever need.  There is nothing I lack.

Certainly prayer and meditation are important ways to listen to the highest within us, whether we seek to know what our best course of action might be, or just want to hear what God is wanting to say to us in that moment.

We can also just take a minute and stop.  When we pull our awareness back from the racing thoughts of the day, God is there, in the voice of loving wisdom that lives in our hearts.

May this tool be a blessing. . .

Being Peace

Our physical bodies are designed to process spiritual energy.  All thoughts or emotions, every decision, the dynamics in relationships, are at their core vibrations of spiritual energy.  These myriad vibrations of energy are divine consciousness in action, creating all of the experience available to us in remembering that we are God.

It is important to remember that experience can be conscious or unconscious; sometimes we are aware of the vibrations passing through us, and sometimes we are not, but we are still affected by their presence.  There are countless examples of this, but a very common one might be feeling peaceful, and then walking into a room with one or more people and having your mood quickly fall to a lower vibration, such as competition, self-consciousness or contention.  While we would most likely own this lower vibration as something within us that we have created, it is actually us absorbing a vibration moving through that is not us at all.

On a minute-to-minute basis we are being affected by, and responding to, vibrations of spiritual energy.  With awareness, spiritual energy is something that we can manage more consciously.  Not only can we choose to accept, or release what is "going by," we can also "set the energy" in our bodies to any vibration that we prefer.  It is our spiritual birthright, as unlimited creators made in God's image, to design our best life.

There are a number of ways to consciously design our bodies' energy.  Lately I've been choosing to set my body's energy at "peace."  Because we create that which we focus our intention upon, simply choosing peace, owning peace, and remembering and affirming that "I am peace," makes it so.  By doing this we reset the vibration of the body.

An even more powerful technique for setting the vibration in the body is to use the clairvoyant ability that is innate in all of us, which can be found in the mind's eye, and in our imagination.  The idea of peace, and any other thing we can imagine in this lifetime, vibrates at a certain frequency, and that frequency can be seen as a color.  Because we all see color in our own way, there is no right or wrong way to do it.

Today, in my mind's eye, peace is light yellow.  Now I decide, how shall I fill myself with peace?  The simpler the better, so I am back in kindergarten.  I see a big yellow ball of peace above me, and I bring it down into the top of my head and watch, in my imagination, as it moves through me and fills every cell of my body.  Or I "see" the air around me filled with peaceful yellow light, and I breathe deeply.  And now I watch, in my limitless imagination, as I fill a giant pitcher with the color of peace, and pour it out over the top of my head and it washes over me, releasing anything I hold on to that is not peaceful.

I find new joy in coming as a child, as I remember that I am peace.

May your life be a rainbow of colors of your own design, and may this tool be a blessing. . .

Welcoming All

A favorite quote, from Rumi:

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival,
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
Some momentary awareness comes
As an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they're a crowd of sorrows,
Who violently sweep your home
Empty of it's furniture.
Still, treat each guest honorably.

He may be cleaning you out
For some new delight.

May you cherish every moment of your amazing life, and may this tool be a blessing. . .

Caring for the Body

For a very long time, our awareness of God has been of a deity out there somewhere, exerting his influence based on criteria we don’t understand, leaving us always looking outside of ourselves for some philosophy that can help us know what we need to do to earn his favor.

At this point in human evolution many are being guided toward a much broader awareness of God, one that recognizes the very real presence of God right here in this physical realm, in the middle of every part of being human. We are just beginning to consider the magnitude and ramifications of the truth that wherever we are, God is, in every situation, every thought and every emotion we’ve ever had or ever will have.

Most importantly, we are realizing that for this to be possible, God must reside within every one of us. Regardless of how we choose to perceive that mind-boggling notion, the bottom line is that we are living God’s life. God is experiencing her God-self through our own experience.

Most of us have heard the much-known maxim that our bodies are temples of the soul, but I’m not sure we’ve caught up with the utter truth of that enough to care for them as sacred expressions of God’s life. Many of us find joy in following a spiritual path and finding a deeper meaning for our existence, but don’t fully consider the role of the body on that path. We seek spiritual truth “out there” without even realizing that what we’re seeking is right here. We live in it 24 hours a day. In body, mind and spirit there is no separation; it is all God.

I’ve realized that caring for the body is a spiritual practice unto itself. I can sit for an hour of meditation and prayer, and connect with divine intelligence within me. I can also choose to eat a meal of healthy food, and honor and validate that divine intelligence that created me. When I choose to exercise or move my body in some way that is fun and healthy, I celebrate God’s life within me.

When I love my body enough to consider what is best for it, and honor it by following through with its needs, I am the embodiment of the holy trinity; I am the lover, the loved, and love itself.

All acts of self-care are ultimately acts of love. They are our prayers of gratitude for our ability, through these precious temples, to be God’s life.

May you practice random and frequent acts of self-care, and may this tool be a blessing. .

Present Time

Lately I’ve been renewing my love affair with present time.  It’s always been a very one-sided relationship; present time being right here with me, always waiting to be savored, me gallivanting off to who-knows-where in my mind, unable to resist my two-timing obsession with the future or the past.

I’m always amazed by how tough it is to stay centered in the now.  No matter how aware I am of the added quality and depth of my moments when I focus on what’s happening in this moment, the pull to worry or reflect about future or past is often irresistible.  I know it’s all perfect, part of a plan that is divine beyond understanding in helping me remember my truth about being human.  I like to think of it as part of the total entertainment package, the perfectly-orchestrated challenges that allow us to choose our best selves.

Playing with being in present time as much as I can is a wonderfully satisfying and creative endeavor.  When my attention is pulled back from future or past, I can place my full attention on being; now I experience what it is like to be a teacher, as I choose to be fully present in that expression.  Now I delight in being female, as my attention rests in what that feels like and how I express it.  Fixing my hair and choosing jewelry is sure a lot more fun when I’m in present time, with my attention on enjoying my femaleness rather than what I I'll be doing at work later.

As I sit here, present in the now, I find joy in very simple things.  My feelings are a validation of myself, being me.  There is no judgment or resistance, only what is.  I am grateful to be able to experience, period.  

I have hands that type these words, and do countless other amazing things.  In present time having a body is a celebration, not always easy or painless but an unspeakable gift nonetheless.

May you be present in your moments, and may this tool be a blessing. . .