Aligning with Grace

Advent: Emmanuel - God is With Us (A Repost) This is a time of year when there are songs we only listen to once... I like to pull out old Advent and Christmas classics and new ones as well, and allow their rich melodies to fill all the corners of my heart and soul... A friend recently asked me what kind of music I had on my ipod. I proceeded to describe the wide variety of genres and playlists I had so carefully organized - spanning from folk rock, to classical, to jazz, and to mantras and liturgical music. My friend stopped right there - totally surprised - though in the seventies - when we were in our late teens and early twenties, she and I earned our spending money by playing liturgical music in several parishes... I love classic Advent songs of awaiting like "O Come, O Come Emmanuel," and my favorite rendition is by Mannheim Steamroller. I wait all year to hear this song and enter into the deep longing and stillness it calls me to. I also love an or...

Advent - A Season for Balance (A Repost) This week, my yoga teacher asked us if the holidays had a way of throwing us off balance. At first I shook my head nodding no - and then quickly caught myself, because if truth be told, I have been out of sorts and dealing with some issues on the personal and physical front. The whole sequence of poses steered us - not only in the direction of attaining greater balance - but urged us to simply accept where we were, when we experienced ourselves as out of balance, in a non-judgmental way. My teacher, who is perhaps the most enthusiastic person I have encountered in my life, urged us to banish our inner self-critic - and send him or her packing indefinitely to the local watering hole! I loved that image! I had no idea how timely this class would be... Instead of succumbing to unbalance, my teacher reminded us, that tuning into the breath, and availing ourselves of all the skills that our yoga and meditation practices offered us, c...

The sun rises and unveils a brilliant blue and cloudless sky... The crisp coolness of an early June morning takes my breath away,,, Two cardinals sit on my deck bistro chairs facing each other and I imagine they are chatting happily... It is as if all is well with the world, but I know that it is not... And yet, all is impregnated with the Presence of the Divine... I KNOW it - as all mystics know and feel this in their bones. Thus, I have never - and could never question or doubt what I feel is more real in my life than most things... I walk and pray and pray and walk - open to the insights and messages I receive from my guides on the Other Side of the Veil... They come every time - because I invoke their presence and ask for their guidance. In the words of Yogananda I beseech them to: "Lead me from ignorance to wisdom, From restlessness to peace, And from desire to contentment." I reflect on the state of the world, the divisiveness, the hatred and v...

"There is no fear in love;  but perfect love casts out fear,  because fear involves punishment,  and the one who fears  is not perfected in love." ~ 1 John 4:18 Perfect love, casts out all fear... If we choose perfect love, then fear cannot reside within us... I recall a dream, I had 25 years ago or more, where medieval monks in hooded robes, danced in a circle, holding hands, chanting over and over again: "Perfect love, casts out all fear!" I woke with a start, somewhat fearful - ironically - not knowing why I had that dream... Perhaps it was meant to unfold with time, and it has... When we have perfect love, we live from the heart. We can choose to live from this place, even when fear stubbornly wants to hold fast onto our souls... Every day, we can choose perfect love over fear. We can choose to see love in everyone we meet, and in every situation that comes our way. Today, and every day - choose love. Choose perfect love...

The title for this post came after a particularly trying day for me, involving change and releasing the past. A dear friend noted that such an experience can ultimately be joyous, even when we cannot see it that way. This morning, I reflected on the stories behind the two 90 second meditations I posted most recently. Yesterday's meditation revolved around a story I heard years ago, but which became familiar to many after the movie "The Bucket List." It is told, that before an ancient Egyptian was allowed to cross over into the afterlife, he or she was asked two questions: "Did you find joy? Did you bring joy?" In other words, have you allowed yourself to experience joy in your life? And have you embodied, reflected, and shared it with others? It seems simple enough, but often, we lives our quotidian lives without any joy, overlooking the simple things in life that can bring us joy: a smile, a friend's laugh, a warm cup of tea, birds chirping o...

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 week, my yoga teacher asked us if the holidays had a way of throwing us off balance. At first I shook my head nodding no - and then quickly caught myself, because if truth be told, I have been out of sorts and dealing with some issues on the personal and physical front. The whole sequence of poses steered us - not only in the direction of attaining greater balance - but urged us to simply accept where we were, when we experienced ourselves as out of balance, in a non-judgmental way. My teacher, who is perhaps the most enthusiastic person I have encountered in my life, urged us to banish our inner self-critic - and send him or her packing indefinitely to the local watering hole! I loved that image! I had no idea how timely this class would be... Instead of succumbing to unbalance, my teacher reminded us, that tuning into the breath, and availing ourselves of all the skills that our yoga and meditation practices offered us, could help bring about this elusive state itself. We had in...