Aligning with Grace

"I am awake." Often, in a dream, I notice I am conscious in it. I know it is a dream. I will say to myself - "I am awake". Sometimes the dream is so vivid it seems more real than my waking state. When we have these kinds of dreams, they are called lucid. Sometimes we are fully present and conscious in life. We totally show up. In our relationships. In our work. In that which gives our lives meaning and in those things we are passionate about. Sometimes we are awake even when life throws us curve balls, or we have to face unspeakable challenges. It is possible to be awake, even then... One of my favorite lines from the movie "Thelma and Louise," occurs near the end when they are circling around the Grand Canyon - having left much tragedy and a host of  insurmountable circumstances in the dust. There really is no viable future left for them. It is then, that one of them says to the other, as they drive through the middle of the night, "I am aw...

Sometimes, a word keeps showing up everywhere you look and everywhere you turn.  Other times it might be an experience. And sometimes, it's both at the same time... The more we practice - particularly meditation - the more we come to inhabit a state of grace. Paramahansa Yogananda in his writings, described how the deeper one meditates, the deeper one can go - the range of depths and experiences can never be plumbed in this life time. We never arrive. There is always so much farther one can go in the practice and in communing with the Divine. I find a certain comfort in that. Both Yogananda, and a gifted therapist I once visited, who was a devotee of Yogananda, asserted that over time, the practice of meditation leads one to inhabit a state of grace, more often than not. In time, the practice can lead to bliss, and eventually bliss will prevail as a state of being. It seems like such an amazing gift to me! Lately, everything I hear, read, or listen to reminds me of the st...

This time of year, many of us attend graduations. Schools end their scholastic year and Memorial Day officially ushers in the summer. Life is full of beginnings and endings. There is a season to everything. And a time as well... There is a time to embrace And a time to let go There is a time to move foward And a time to step back There is a time to step into the light And a time to recede into the shadows There is a time to begin And a time to end There is a time to resolve And a time to bring closure There is a time to engage And a time to let things be There is a time to be active And a time to go within My journey has required in its most recent phase that I: let go step back end experience closure let things be and go within All of these experiences were needed and part of a birthing process I could not see or perceive. There is a time to see And one where sight is taken There is a time to understand And one to live with ambiguity The gift of...

Every once in a while, a day comes and goes, and at the end of your day, as you reflect on it you recognize, that it was not only a day that arrived unbidden and truly brimming over, so full of grace, but it was also undeniably, a perfect day in every way... Every once in a while, a day comes and goes, that is so rich and rewarding and filled with so many blessings, that you could not have planned it any more perfectly. In that moment you realize, it was a perfect day, in every way... Every now and then, you make a wish, and sometimes down the road, perhaps several years later, you receive it as an unexpected gift. And once again, you know in that moment, that day, was perfect, in every way... Every now and then, a day comes, and you are filled with awe at its sheer beauty - the company was perfect - the time spent with loved ones - arrived perhaps as unexpected gift, and once again, you know the day was perfect, in every way... Once in a while, the sky shines and smiles down u...

There are times in our lives when we feel filled... I thought of that this morning when I visited the river for some "Loving-Kindness" practice after my morning prayers and meditation. The river had swollen over its banks and almost up the entire boat ramp area due to the gentle falling rains of the last few days. The rain has been mostly steady, but a couple of days ago when I visited, the river was still pretty calm. But not so today... I could see a lot of debris floating downstream with incredible urgency, as if all the pieces of tree trunks and limbs were late for a date or something. Still, what captivated my thoughts was this image of fullness - of being filled to the brim, like this river that was bursting at the seams and over its banks. Yes, there are times in our lives when we are filled... We may be filled with many things. We may be filled with love, or happiness, or a sense of goodness or well-being - which are not all that different from one another. We...

Sometimes, we see things with new eyes... Sometimes, we feel things with a new heart... Sometimes, everything seems brand new - as if we stepped into a new life... Sometimes, everything makes sense... Sometimes, we can see the interconnections that join and support every living thing... Sometimes, we feel vibrantly alive - and even the colors all around us seem more vivid... Sometimes, time expands and the present moment becomes eternal, as if everything were standing in perfect stillness... Sometimes, these things happen, when we least expect it, and when they do - everything seems to be in entrainment with everything else in our lives, and with nature as well - as if rhythms were simply pulsing together... Sometimes, hearts beat in tandem... Sometimes, we are able to see and perceive everything with incredible clarity... Sometimes, the unity that is in all things is so wonderfully apparent in the diversity of all that surrounds us... Sometimes, the ordinary disc...