Aligning with Grace

I have the power to change. Read that again. I have the power to change. To change what? EVERYTHING! But first of all, I have to power to change myself - and the direction of my life. Because I can make choices. I can change what I allow into my energy field, what I focus on and dwell on - what I read - who I spend time with. Even the direction of my life. Yes, especially that. I can end what does not serve and always begin again. Every single day. The list goes on. Even well known figures like Nelson Mandela and Viktor Frankl who were incarcerated, have written about what enabled them to survive. It was ultimately about changing their thoughts and seeking and finding meaning in their lives. You may not believe you have the power to change. I'll be honest and tell you that at times, I don't either. But we can "change" that by converting our long held beliefs into a simple mantra: I have the power to change. Commit to saying this to yourself several times a day for a w...

"Offer blessings to everyone: To those who are good, and to those who aren't." ~ MeditationSimple.com It has been almost a year since I last made a blog entry. I needed to take this year for self-reflection. deep listening, and to engage more deliberately in my spiritual practices. It has been a year of a great spiritual pilgrimage and the loss and passing of beloved friends, but more on that later... To offer blessings to and for another, is one of the most powerful and transformational spiritual practices I know. That is not to say that it is easy. Recently, I was consumed thinking about a relationship in which some hurtful things were done and said on both sides of the equation. As I walked, my guides simply spoke to me on an intuitive level:  "Offer blessings.Yes.  Bless this person.  Just bless him or her. Let go, and think of something else." Humm I thought. Easier said than done! But as I was only halfway into my walk, and I did...

Happiness is, more often than not, elusive. But it really depends on how we define it - or what we think makes us happy. This morning, I read an interview with Oprah Winfrey. The interviewer had to wait for her to finish a photo shoot with the esteemed Annie Liebovitz, who was very apologetic for keeping Oprah longer than expected. Oprah's response caught me my surprise. She told Liebovitz not to worry. While she was with her, she was fully present to those moments and those experiences. Later she would be with the interviewer, and then she would be fully present in that moment with him, no longer thinking or concerned with the photo shoot.  This is the first key to happiness I thought, being fully in the moment. Not in the past - and not in the future. That is not to say that this is an easy task! Earlier this week, I listened to a webinar where the presenter said something very similar. She noted the past does not exist - it is only a memory we insist on bringing back t...

"Cooperation is key for you at the moment. Let go of ego and work it out." ~ Pelican I walk the shoreline of the ocean, as often as three times a day. Sometimes more, hungrily trying to make up for my many years of absence. With each step I bathe and ground my feet in the healing salt waters. Every time I visit, I receive gifts from the sea - of insight. Of wisdom. And actual physical ones as well. Sometimes I receive shells. Yesterday an un usual rainbow colored one appeared at my feet on a long walk. Yesterday I also received a pelican feather. Not once - but twice! Mind you, I rarely receive feathers, but recently two came to me - one from a cardinal and another from a vulture. I quickly looked up their meaning as totem animals. I have been treated to a convocation of pelicans, gathering daily in the same general vicinity, so yesterday I looked up the significance of pelicans. Here are some of the insights I come across from several sources: If Pelican...

I awaken drained and exhausted, after several days of sadness and heaviness for the state of affairs in this world, and the perception of my own. Everything in the news seems to consist of a blockage - an impediment for communication, compromise and collegiality - a challenge that is seemingly insurmountable, and yet in my heart of hearts, I know it is not true... Did not Gandhi once exhort us to be the change we wanted to see? Messages come from so many different places, and I receive two that are particularly notable, one as I finish the book that I am reading, "Hallelujah Anyway: Rediscovering Mercy," by Anne Lamott: "...Things that grow are what change everything.  Moments of compassion, giving, grief, and wonder  shift our behavior, get inside us and change realms  we might not have agreed to change...  The world keeps going on.  You can have another cup of coffee  and keep working on your plans.  Or you can take t...

We live in troubling times... We live in sad times... In a time of much despair... But, it is because we have forgotten we belong to each other. We have forgotten that at our essence we are Love. And we can shine that love. We can increase the Love that is on this planet. We can make a difference... Every book I pick up recently has the same message. The world needs your love and mercy. The world needs your kindness. We come into this world as pure love, but we forget who we are at our essence. So, let's take a moment right now to remember who we are. Yes, right now! Stop! Find a comfortable seat. Close your eyes... Place one hand over your heart. And your other hand over that one, as if you were holding or caressing your own heart... Feel your beating heart. Listen to it... Visualize that every heartbeat pluses with Love... FEEL that Love! Let it embrace you and saturate every fiber of your being... FEEL it's warmth! Your heart and body is fill...

The last couple of weeks has brought its shares of challenges, blessings, and insights... I more or less had certain plans for the month which had to be abandoned as I was faced with several unplanned house repairs. In many ways, these needed repairs mirrored issues within my own soul that needed attention. A house has always been a wonderful metaphor for my soul and the work that it must do... Last week, as I left my acupuncturist, after having discussed with her some of the issues and decisions I was facing, I was greeted by a beautiful tiger swallowtail butterfly, that reminded me so much of the blue butterfly whose path mystically intersected with mine on a walk last fall.  Butterflies are symbolic of change, freedom, creativity, and joy. In ancient cultures they were also regarded as a sign of impending rebirth - of renewal or of a new beginning on a higher plane of existence. The various life cycles butterflies go through are indicative of questions we might need to ask...

This month is nearly over - and the summer is now officially for me - two thirds of the way through as well... It was not the kind of summer I had originally envisioned for there were so many unexpected turns that were taken. But in my heart of hearts, I know that everything was as it needed to be - and indeed, everything is always as it should be... I spent Saturday afternoon and early evening, attending Sally Kempton's workshop, titled - "Surfing Transformation: How to Navigate Your Journey of Inner Awakening and Change," at Willow Street Yoga Center. I have regularly attended Sally's workshops, and it was also wonderful to return to Willow Street and see so many friends. As always, Sally had much to say that was helpful to me. Her insights and the practices she led us through were particularly meaningful. In fact, a couple of the practices resulted in one of the most profound "aha!" moments that I have had - and I know I will be sitting with those insig...

On a day of major planetary alignments and a watershed moment in my yoga community, I step into the sunlight with an incredible lightness of being... It feels like I am seventeen again - open to possibilities I could not have dreamed of... On this incredible day, the West Coast will witness the rare event of a Ring of Fire Eclipse... On this unbelievable day - the Earth, the Moon, and the - Sun align with the Central Sun in the middle of the Galaxy and with the Pleiades... On this significant day, Saturn and Venus are both in retrograde... All of these events portend momentous change in our journey towards ascension and transformation - the details of which are much too many to list here. How interesting that this occurs as we near the completion of the first half of this year... The changes can be abrupt and brutal - and there is a sense of no turning back... I have no plan for the future - and I do not know what comes next in my playbook, but I am ready... Life has been a long, slow,...