Aligning with Grace

In these tumultuous times that we find ourselves in, I've been thinking a lot about safety. Feeling safe, or being safe, is more than the obvious - that is to say - being safe from violent actions or situations. It also includes safety in words, thoughts, attitudes, and conditions. Let me explain.  If I am in an environment where negative conversation and attitudes are constantly on display, I don't feel safe to be myself, or reveal who I really am. So, I become diminished in terms of the possibilities that are at my disposal, and that are available for others as well. And often, negative words and thoughts can get out of control and degenerate into something worse. I believe in the power of words. I believe in the power of positive prayers and thoughts and their ability to shift or change, or even heal a situation. Why? Because I have seen this happen again and again. In these times, I often feel anxious and unsettled because of what I hear or read in the media, o...

I am halfway through an incredible journey, of visiting life long friends and family, and making many connections. Many moving pieces came together easily and quickly. A dear one said to me recently, that this trip would be a time of great significance. She was right... I am so happy to spend days walking the beach, grounding my feet in sand and salt water. It has been years since I've had that opportunity, and this time I will spend time on three beaches and two coasts. A few days ago, as I walked along the shore and looked at the crashing waves, waiting for the sun to peak through clouds every now and then in the early morning, I was struck by the luminosity and the clarity of the waves - how very silvery and radiant the water looked, how I seemed to be able to capture every little detail in the dancing foam. Mind you, I cannot see very well. And yet, in these moments, I was so present, I was able to "see" with a different sight - that went beyond the physical...

1.10.17. In numerology and metaphysics this sequence of numbers adds up to "one." The energy of "1" is the energy of new beginnings. This year, 2017 - also adds up to the number one. Again, the energy of new beginnings... Look around. Read the news. It is enough to scare you back into a cave. Your outlook could be bleak. Or not. You can believe the world is ending. Or it is beginning. It is your choice how you choose to see things. And how you choose to react. I am choosing to believe in new beginnings. I am choosing to heed the invitation of the energy of one, because this sequence of numbers is very near and dear to my heart for personal reasons. I am ready for new beginnings which invite new choices and changes. Are you? You must decide. How you will look at this year. And at the events around you. You must decide. We always have the choice to grow. Or not. So decide. Be open to new beginnings. Begin again. You always can. The mome...

"I am at PEACE with ALL that IS!" This mantra arises in my heart, barely just a week ago, after a magical weekend of seasonal and holiday music and a warm visit with a very dear soul friend of the heart... I drive through the countryside, on a magnificent and brilliant afternoon, after stepping out of place and time, inhabiting a place in-between here and the Other Side, for barely 24 hours... I AM at Peace, with ALL that IS! Truly... I am peace with my life, my relationships, my home, my family, my friends - with my limitations, what I did not accomplish - and where I am in my life... I am at peace with whatever the future brings, with what I cannot undo, with what is yet to come... I am at peace with the joys, with the sorrows - and with all that I have gained and lost... I am at peace with everything - for it has made me the woman I am today - and have yet to become... In the twilight of my life, as I journey towards the darkest deep of...

Have you ever had one of those days that didn't quite go as you had expected? Have you ever allowed your mind to run wild when things don't quite go your way, conjuring up a myriad of reasons why it may be so? And how many times have reality and your thoughts not aligned? I had one of those evenings last night... Through a series of misfirings, miscommunications, assumptions, expectations - call it what you will - I did not connect with a friend at a recital last night. One of the churches that I attend was dedicating it's new organ for the first time, and a master organist had been invited to give a recital that was part worship, part dedication, and part concert. I later reflected on what had happened - what I thought had happened - what I thought the reasons were, and then found myself thinking of a passage in scripture, where Sarah - the wife of Abraham the patriarch - is told that she would bear a son. She was quite past child bearing age - and she laughed in...

I slept in a bit this morning, and then quietly donned sweats and bundled up, and headed down to the river with my coffee. I had not been there in months! It was very cold for me - the temperature hovering in the low twenties - and ice clung to the riverbanks, as the rushing river passed on by. I said my prayers, chanted the Reiki precepts and poured out my heart to God... I've felt a little unsettled of late in my life, and after a while, feeling chilled to the bone, I retreated to my car, parked in front of the boat ramp where I launched my kayak regularly for years. I sat, I meditated and I watched the river - the waves briskly moving downstream. And then, I simply heard within me: "This too, shall pass." All of the things that most consume our thoughts - our pain, our sadness, our regrets  and our hurts - our very lives - they will all pass. But only love will remain... I reflected on a number of things weighing deep in my heart - some of which I have ...

A season ends, and so it must if it is to yield its turf to a new one... The days are getting shorter, and the darkness lingers longer into the morning... The warmer days will soon acquiesce to the onslaught of cooler and crisper days... This is simply the nature of things... And here I am, two weeks after having returned from the mountains out west, and still my head seems to be up in those clouds... So many projects and plans had I laid out for this summer, and nothing turned out as I had imagined. I lay out some more plans for the coming months, curious as to whether defined goals will be met. But in the final analysis, does it matter? Life is about the journey - not the destination - you'd think I would have learned that by now. And it is certainly always about the lessons - so many of them - always arriving in constant succession - a never ending flow and stream... Thus we reflected, my friend and I, as we lunched and sipped on dark rich coffee - our conversation...

I have a few people I highly respect and whose judgment I trust. But I trust mine more... If I do not hear that "knock" or "Voice" that tells me to more forward - or in this direction instead of that - I don't budge. Sometimes, I do end up taking the road that was suggested - but maybe a year or so later - when I feel I am ready; when I have received the indication to do so. The only times I've had regrets or gotten myself into serious trouble, is when I DIDN'T trust my intuition. I was chatting with a friend earlier this week, and we both agreed that it was very important for us to follow the inner promptings and whispers of our hearts, and in fact, she suggested I write about this. But I must insert a caveat here, because following one's intuition does not imply we make decisions on a whim. For years I taught bioethics, and I always instructed my students that one could not go against one's conscience in making moral decisions. Howe...

Sometimes, all we need to do in our lives is to change the narrative... It sounds very simple, yet this is incredibly hard to do... There are moments when things are not quite working in our lives. Our thought patterns hold us captive and our future possibilities lie scattered all around us, truncated at best... Sometimes, we just have to entertain a different way of looking at things, and recently I was reminded of this not once, not twice, but three times... I reflect on the journey of Pope Francis to a land sacred to three faiths, always in strife, gripped in endless drama and bloodshed, where its inhabitants were all recognized at various junctures by this Pope - to the dismay of the others, each one jockeying for sole attention. All of Israel and Palestine's factions were each encouraged to find solutions for peace by making hard choices and sacrifices. Not one group was praised or faulted over the other, because they all must change their perspectives if the...

Just a few days ago I wrote about undertaking one simple task for your day... Just for today, be more patient... Just for today, clean out one drawer... When we set simple goals like these ones, we tend to be more successful... But, what about when we aren't successful? What about when we fail? What about those moments we think we've taken great strides and thought we'd made great progress and then something reminds us that we haven't? Have we gone back to "square one?" Well, not really... You see, we can always begin again... And again... And again... Every day we wake up is precisely that - a new day - and a new opportunity. We can pick ourselves up, and dust ourselves off, and start over. We can begin again... So maybe you didn't exercise at all over the holidays. Or eat in the most healthy manner. Maybe you meant to start yesterday and did - but then had something you shouldn't have had later. Do you beat yourself up? ...

"With the opening of the New Year, all the closed portals of limitation will be thrown open and I shall move through them to vaster fields where my worthwhile dreams of life will be fulfilled." ~ Paramahansa Yoganada With the ending of this year, and the beginning of the next - to concur with a New Moon - we plant the seeds for new beginnings, as in this coming year of 2014... The last couple of years have been very difficult for so many. There have been seemingly insurmountable challenges for many loved ones. But I am amazed at how so many souls have been able to traverse these experiences with love, and humility and grace. It has been a great gift to me and a lesson for my soul... Every year brings with it the invitation to grow, and to deepen our relationship with the Divine. It invites us to heal what must be healed, to take on - and let go - and to accept what we cannot change. I like to light votive candles at sundown that last for almost a week - ...

Those of you who have been following my posts in this blog over the years, know that I try to post mostly uplifting and inspirational things, and so I have something very special that I would like to share with all of you. There is a wonderful page on Facebook for those of you who spend time there, which is launching an inspirational thought every day, starting on January 1st. It is called  Every Day Spirit.  What a wonderful way to start your day, and New Year as you undertake your sacred tasks and goals for the coming year! Add this wonderful page to your "Feed" - and feed your soul by adding a little "sun" to it - each and every day! Visit regularly. A website and other surprises will follow soon! May the coming year be filled with blessings for all of you! Here is the link for that site and the first picture. Enjoy! https://www.facebook.com/everydayspirit1

Advent unfolds...  Quietly, deeply... Advent is a time for waiting and preparing... It is a time for the cultivation of peace, and faith, and joy, and love... It is a time for healing... And a time for renewal... It is a time to set aside grievances and hurts, and to extend a welcoming hand... It is a time to embrace, and to let go of all that does not serve... Advent unfolds... Surely, and mindfully... Advent is a time for journeying and contemplating... It is a time for deepening spiritual practices... And a time for forgiving... It is a time for inviting others into the space within our hearts... And a time to take in and to listen... Advent unfolds... Inevitably, and silently... Advent invites us to take stock of where we are, and where we've been, so -  That we may chart a new course, for where we are going...  It is a time for starting over... And for giving birth to all that could be... And can be... Advent u...

There are times when finding God - or experiencing God is more accessible - such moments arrive as unexpected gifts in our lives... There are times when writing is much more fluid - when thoughts come unbidden and the urge to record all of them before they evaporate into thin air is excruciating... There are moments when insights come to us at the speed of sound and break like waves against a cliff - scattering everywhere - escaping so rapidly we never really have a chance to grasp even a figment of the resulting spray or hold on to so much as a droplet... There are minutes that pile upon hours and days - irreversibly lost - they evade any attempt at the slightest retrieval - and we can only lament that they are gone forever... There are times when heaviness saturates everything and we explode from the sheer will to try to hold space for everything and every one and a million prayer requests, despite the fact that we are not meant to succeed... In those moments we do well to ...

The rain falls, gently and deliberately, and the ground soaks it up. It arrives many weeks after the parched environs sought whatever drops of moisture could be found and extracted from greater depths... The atmosphere is heavy with the political impasse of the moment. Most government employees are home, waiting out the outcome of this shutdown, unwilling pawns in a game - dare I say it? - of thrones... I feel the heaviness also - the gloom of an impending doom I cannot accept or even begin to visualize... For weeks I have wanted to write and speak, but a dying computer made it more difficult, and so instead, I journeyed inward... I wish I could say that I have profound insights and answers to share, but I have only lessons received that may be helpful to others... I am saddened to see so many displaced and hurting because of the intransigence and the inability of others to compromise, which in turn holds a nation hostage and so many souls captive. I feel powerless in the fac...

Sometimes we are meant to be placeholders in time or in space...   Some of us are here to anchor energy and/or to send and shine light wherever it is needed...   It implies that one must constantly practice non-attachment and let go of expectations and we constantly receive invitations to do so through various life experiences.   When I visited the river early one morning this week, a dense fog blanketed the water's surface. As I prayed and meditated - bit by bit - the fog lightened and released it's essence into the sky. It was only then that the brilliant blue sky revealed itself in all its magnifence, occasionally punctuated by powdery white clouds.   There is much I could share about this week. It has been full and rich and not without its blessings and challenges. And throughout all of my experiences, I was granted profound insights... For example, I realized that often when we give of ourselves, our time, and resources, we do...

I reflect on how one season ends and another begins... Like a circle, it goes round and round, and we revisit the same places... I stand on the doorstep of the nascent fall season which invites a more vata-pacifing diet and lifestyle. It is a time of cooler evenings which come, oh - so suddenly and much more quickly that it did - just a mere few weeks ago... It is a time for hot teas, and root vegetables, and for soups and stews... It is a time for centering, and nesting, and going more deeply within... And it is a time for greater clarity... I thought of this, as I went down to the river one morning this past week, and was struck by how I could see so clearly to the bottom of the riverbed, even though the water itself was far from clear... After weeks of purging and cleansing and de-cluttering - knowing that there is still so much to do - I have started to downshift. Yes, there is much to do, but it does not all have to be done at once... I ease into the...

I have a wonderful soul companion who deeply relishes her time spent in the arms of the Divine as much - if not more - than I do. I say this, because for years now, I have been an empty-nester and I have enjoyed the gift and pleasure of much undivided time. She, on the other hand,  is only just now getting ready to send her child to college, so soon she will have such highly desired and coveted time as well! For years, we have referred to our quotidian quiet times for practice, as our monastery time. Sometimes our practice consists of doing laundry or cleaning toilets, or other such less than glamorous tasks. We often challenge and inspire one another to seek the face of the Divine even in such mundane things. In fact, we have often coaxed one another to experience the mundane as simply glorious! We have both had spouses who traveled at times, which also afforded us some days here and there to journey more deeply within. Often, we share insights from our practice, seek wisdom...

"By means of all created things, without exception, the Divine assails us, penetrates us, and molds us. We imagined it as distant and inaccessible, when in fact, we live steeped in its burning layers." ~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin Chardin was a Jesuit scientist - a brilliant paleontologist, geologist, and philosopher, whose works were at times banned. His insights and reflections were well before its time and helped pave the way for more recent philosophical, theological, and scientific discourse. He was silenced by the Church, and yet he did not lose his faith. He was born in 1881, and died in April of 1955, just a few months before I was born. These words came to me precisely at a time when I have been reflecting on how the very essence of our beings seems to be comprised of layers. All the significant issues in our lives are similarly constructed of layers, and somehow we must revisit them again and again and again... This poem came to me yesterday, an...