Gratitude: Bird Songs in the Evening

I recently was a guest blogger for Green Monkey, a health and wellness company that runs yoga centers and educates on balanced living.

I hope you enjoy this read as you prepare for your holiday festivities.

Gratitude: Bird Songs in the Evening

Feeling gratitude can be as easy as noticing the natural rhythms of life.  Nature can even show us how to be grateful.

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http://www.greenmonkey.net/index.php?Articles&Culture&Article=24

Melting into Oneness

Where do you put up walls?  What do you allow in?

We put up barriers around us all the time.  We do it to those we love.  We even do it to ourselves.  What might your life be like if you allowed for your barriers to just melt away?

I’m beginning to discover what happens when I simply give in.

I’ve been working on opening my heart.  I remind myself over and over again that my highest good and greatest potential lies in being courageous with my heart.

What I’m learning now is that living from the heart changes your perspective on the world entirely.  I’ve been beaten up a bit along the way.  But now I’m melting, decidedly, into oneness.

And this is my greatest lesson yet.

Over the weekend, I had a little bump in the road in matters of the heart.  I saw it coming and my mind (yes, my mind) was ready to attack it with rapid fire.

So, I did.  I expressed my discontent, and I asked ‘why me?’

Fortunately, the spiritual work that I’ve done to get me to where I am today told me there was something I needed to understand about me.

I took myself to where I always go when confusion and despair hit.  My place of surrender: the ocean.

An amazing thing happened as I sat and wrote a little poem called The Edges of Love,

“We meet at the edges of love…and dance in the light and shadow…,”

I reflected.

I noticed that some kind soul had created what looked like concentric hearts out of stones collected from the beach.

Right there in front of me, the universe opened up and showed me what I was writing about–the layers and edges of our heart.  I knew I had to go and sit at the center of the heart to understand what I was not getting.

As I walked closer, I realized that it was actually a labyrinth of layered hearts.  Exactly the maze I found myself in.  (Seriously, how does the universe know?!)

I made my way to the center of the labyrinth and sat down looking out across the layers of the heart to the sea beyond.  In that moment, I was sitting at the center of the universe.

I asked the universe why do we need to have all of these layers within our heart?

To know the truth it turns out.

The truth of how open our own heart is.  The truth of the reality we are living in.  The truth of the world that we are creating.

But there I sat at the center where no more layers exist.  What lies here?

Then, the miracle happened.

Tucked under a rock that made up the maze I noticed a small pebble perfectly black and white, light and shadow, if you will.  I picked it up, and it was in the shape of a heart!

Then, the insights came clearly.

In the center of each of us, we are not bound by layers, barriers or masks.  We are pure source.  There is no right or wrong or light or shadow at the center.  We are whole.

The essence of the center of our heart is what the yogis call the I AM presence.  This is the space of the peacemaker.  The space that knows oneness rather than separation among self and others.

And this space is in each and every one of our hearts.

I’ve already noticed a change in my perspective from this experience.  I’m noticing things more rather than reacting or making judgment.  I’m allowing the flow of the universe to be in charge.

Mostly, I’m acknowledging the untouched, pure source of oneness in every person I encounter.   I’ve realized that this very special trait we carry with us everyday, everywhere we are, craves to meet with the I AM presence of others.

It is from this melting into oneness with myself and others that I feel surging joy.  And it grows inside from that space in my heart.

I feel like I’m on a journey back home.  I’ve discovered the seed that grew me and protected me during all of my lonely, dark hours.

And this discovery is in all of us.  I believe that it is through the connections of the I AM presence that we sense the universal heart.

I can imagine the possibilities.

It is possible for duality to melt away.  It is possible to live from the source of our hearts.  It is possible to grow the universal heart into our world.

It is possible to truly know peace.

Let Your Heart Sing: My lesson in compassionate courage

Do you have the courage to live from your heart?  It’s not easy, especially when others around you do not.  But many gifts might be waiting for you if you tried.  As we pass through the Fall Equinox, I’m reflecting on how I learned to live from my heart this summer.

My summer was full of joys and challenges.  I got married, and as I’m sure many of you know, weddings bring together all of the happiness AND craziness of families and friends all in one event.  As the day gets closer, it’s as if the Earth is spinning faster.  It feels like there’s so much to do, be, feel but you can’t possibly accomplish all of it.

Looking back I can now see the beautiful design of the moments and hours leading up to our wedding day.  I was forced to let go of so many things.  And what a blessing it was!

Most of us try to control our days, our moment to moment reality, by scheming and strategizing on how to avoid certain situations, people, outcomes, etc.

All of this energy of avoidance is based on controlling our reality with our minds.  We think, if I do this, than this will happen and I’ll be okay.  The outcome we hope for might be to make money, land a specific job, have a perfect wedding day, or get what we want from our spouse, friends, mother, father, etc.

By living this way, we miss the magical reality that exists underneath the game we are playing.  What I learned this summer was to let go of the game.  It wasn’t easy.  There were a lot of bad days when I felt like jumping into battle to fight for what I wanted.

Here’s what I learned.  Forcing outcomes never works.  It’s when we give up our attachment to the outcome that something actually happens.

You know the old saying, if it’s meant to be, it will be?  There is more wisdom here than we may first realize.  In essence, this saying is about believing in the goodness of things.

My life has been pointing in the direction of my marriage for a long time.  Why should I doubt that there was something for me to fix, control or make better about it?

I realized that the unfolding of love and our soul relationship was enough.

It wasn’t until our wedding day when I awoke to the bright sun–which was sandwiched between two stormy days–and the most translucent light I had seen that I knew this day could never had been planned by me.

Even my most recent animal totem showed up–the spider.  Mother spider decided to dance into my wedding dress.  As the spinner of the web of life, she was my ultimate sign that day.  She taught me that simply moving towards love was the only action that was ever required by me.

Today, I’m embracing what I learned this summer.  I’ve decided to have the courage to walk towards love in all of my actions.  Speaking and acting from the heart does take courage I’m finding.  It’s a lot easier, sometimes, to speak from my mind.

But I’ve decided the world has enough talking heads and needs one more heart.

One more piece of advice.  Have the courage to be compassionate with others.

Simply living from my heart is only part of it.  Being compassionate for where others are in their lives, their limitations and their gifts, is another part of living from the heart.

Imagine what your day would feel like if everyone around you was compassionate and heart-driven.

If that feels good to you, why don’t you try it today?

Beyond the Secret: Co-creating Reality Simply Part II

The new moon has arrived, and with it a whole new set of lessons for co-creating have come with it.

Let me get right into it.  Did my intentions actualize?

Yes and no.  Some very surprising turns occurred that I never would have predicted.  So, that’s lesson number one:

Expect the Unexpected (Or Let the Universe Figure out “How”)

So often after we set intentions, we fuss over how they are going to happen.  I tend to daydream about it, imaging the various ways that my intentions could come true.

This recent experience of co-creating on the moon cycle allowed me to let that go, because it was an experiment.  I came to it with an open mind.  I said,

“Universe, this one really is for you.”

We can easily cloud the way when we put too much thinking into ‘how’ our intentions will actualize.  We end up creating a map of what needs to happen.  When, in truth, we rarely know exactly how things will turn out.

We limit the possibilities.

This is what happened when I decided to open to possibility.

I set the intention to get a bike.  I wanted one because I recently moved to a more residential neighborhood.  Grocery stores, yoga studios and parks are not within an easy walking distance.  A bike seemed like the perfect, hassle-free solution.

What happened?  I ended up with a Jeep!  I never saw that coming.

A few weekends ago, a vision popped into my head.  It was a memory of driving around in a Jeep with an old high school friend.  It was her car.  I used to love the feeling of freedom and fun when we’d drive around in her car.

I thought it was just a random memory.  I just took in the feeling and forgot about it moments later.

The next day, I woke up and there was a red Jeep in the lawn of my fiance’s parents’ yard.  Barely awake a friend of my fiance’s says to me,

“Do you want a Jeep?  I’ll sell to you for $1,800.”

Surprised to be seeing the Jeep in the first place, I was stunned.

Okay…I thought, I think I’m supposed to have this Jeep.  So, I bought it.  By the new moon, it was on the road, and I’ve already driven to the park that I wanted to get myself to and gone for a beautiful run along the ocean waters.

Thank you, Universe!  I never could have worked that one out for myself.

Next lesson….

Believe, Believe, Believe

Perhaps, the hardest lesson for all of us, I truly thought I was a believer.  I live my life looking for direction and messages from the divine to show me my path.  How could I doubt?

But I do I realized.  Believing is a moment to moment endeavor.  We have faith and then, lose it over and over again.  Every time something doesn’t work out the way we want we lose our faith.

This time I allowed the experiment to be in charge…anytime doubt entered, I said to myself,

“I believe it will work.”

And I moved on rather than dwelling on whether or not I believed.  I just did.

Perhaps, no area is more difficult to remain faithful in than money.  We put so much emotion and baggage into our beliefs around money.

I set the intention to earn $500 in additional income.

It actually happened!!  I’m still marveling in this one.

How was once again a surprise to me.

The first surprise was that a friend contacted me about giving coaching to a friend as a wedding gift.  That was the first $300.

Then, I received an invitation to be part of a focus group for a new eco-fashion company.  In exchange for my participation, I would receive $25 or $40 towards apparel.  I’m choosing the apparel, because how awesome is that!

Lastly, I randomly received $75 from my bank for referring a friend to my bank (I don’t remember doing this…).

So, in the end it wasn’t exactly $500, but nearly ($415).  I’m not sure if this is a measure of my faith (okay, I may have doubted a little).  But it’s restored my belief in simply believing.

My last lesson…

Choose Your Intentions Wisely

I mentioned in the my last blog that co-creating your reality begins with paying attention to the themes or lessons coming up in your life.

I see that this is a crucial piece of the formula for two reasons.

1. We need to begin where we are.  Asking for a million dollars right away may be a bit too ambitious if we are currently struggling with making enough money to cover our expense.

You need to ask yourself, why?  What is my relationship to money that keeps me here?  Begin with intentions that feel possible in the moment you are in.

Once you’ve gained some success in intentionally creating your reality, you’ll be ready for more ambitious goals.

2. Co-creating our reality is ultimately about getting on track with our spiritual and life purpose.  Choosing intentions that do not fit who you are (or fit someone else’s ideas), will not come to fruition.

This is where “alignment” comes into play.  What is your life path?  What do you need to be in alignment with it?

These are the intentions that will be divinely guided and aided in lightening speed.

I believe that’s why I received a Jeep instead of a bike.  I’m sure the logic of that gift will become clearer as I explore my new neighborhood in my Jeep.

It’s also why I resolved that graciousness, kindness, relationship harmony and a life of service were other intentions for me to understand more deeply.

I made great strides in these areas.

My family relationship miraculous just healed and feels easier now.

I see now where I could be more gracious and kind in my life, and I’m working on deepening those values.

Lastly, and most importantly to me, I realized that simply by writing these two blogs I received a sneak peek of my life mission and how I can be of service.

I’m living it by sharing my experience with you.

This isn’t the vision of my fantasies, but I’m open to the possibility that there are more gifts of service coming my way.

So, long as I expect the unexpected, believe and choose my intentions wisely,  I’ll wake up to the reality of my dreams.

And never have to have found the map.

Beyond The Secret: Co-creating reality simply

I read The Secret by Rhonda Byrne last summer.  Like the millions of people who’ve read it, I wanted the secret to manifesting everything that I wanted in my life.  The message was simple and the process seemed easy.  But I wasn’t able to manifest what I wanted after reading it.

I believed in the principles described in it: like attracts like and feel (and act) as if you’ve already received what you want in order to bring those things into reality.

But, it still didn’t work!

Now, about a year later, I’ve learned a thing or two about co-creating reality.  I have not fine-tuned this.  But I’m seeing a few things work for me so I wanted to put them out there for you to try.

Pay attention to your life and your reality.

The first thing that I noticed recently was a proliferation of spiders crossing my path.  Ever since I learned about animal guides in the fall (see Finding the Wolf), I pay very close attention to the creatures that show up in my life.

I already knew that spiders are about creation and creativity.  I realized that I had reached a new moment where I was ready to practice creating my reality.

Pay attention to what is showing up in your life.  Your current lessons, blockages and challenges will reveal themselves as reoccurring messages, situations or feelings.

This is what you are meant to focus on.  To get to manifesting your deepest desires in life, you must identify your current life lessons and then accept the responsibility of working through them.

Plug into the natural cycles of the Earth.

We are all inseparable from the planet and the cosmos.  Once we truly grasp this and get in-synch with the cycles of nature, manifestation can flow.

The moon cycle is one of the easiest to connect with. At the new moon (when there’s no moon), think about what you want to create in your life.

For my experiment in manifestation, this is what I wrote in my journal on May 24th (day of the new moon):

What I want to create by the next new moon (June 22):

• An attitude of graciousness;
• A deeper understanding of co-creating my world from my heart;
• Resolution to the disharmony in a family relationship;
• A sneak peek at my life mission and what I’m currently to do to promote my life’s work and service;
• A bike!
• $500 + additional income; and
• To let go of any fear that I may still be attached to.

(I’ll tell you want the outcome is on June 23rd ).

Try this for the next moon cycle.  Imagine, create and have fun dreaming of what you want to create in 28 days.  Start with simple goals so you can gain experience with the process.

Let go and open your heart and mind.

For most of us this is the hardest part.  In The Secret, the experts say to just “feel good” or “feel like you already have one million dollars.”  Let’s be real, this is very hard to do when you are feeling the pressure of bills to pay or the sadness of a void in your life.

Like I said, I’m still fine-tuning this in my own life.  But here are a few things I’ve learned.

Sometimes, what we say we want and what is for our highest good are not the same.  Even when things seem like they are not going our way, it’s generally for our highest good.

Our greatest life lessons are in our greatest challenges.  From these we grow and expand into the extraordinary human beings we are meant to be.

What this means is we have to accept EVERYTHING.  When we resist anything in our life, we block what we want from coming to us.

Try to see the things that you resist as doorways to possibility.  I believe this is the true secret to manifestation.

The outcome may be that your goals and manifestations change, but are, in fact, better than what you originally wanted.

Be open to possibilities with a grateful heart.  Thank the universe for your challenges, and movement will happen in your life.

Look for my update on June 23rd.  I’ll let you know how creating on the moon cycle went.

Until then, I hope you will all wish upon a star for your wildest dreams.

Finding My Way to the Heart

I’m moving in 2 weeks.  This is a move that was planned rather shortly and spontaneously.  My fiancee and I thought it would be nice to symbolize our marriage by making a new home.  When we made the decision I didn’t see the larger picture at work.  Now, I’m gaining glimpses of it.  I’m being reminded of two crucial pieces of wisdom:

1. There is always a bigger picture at work in our lives even when we cannot see it.  This bigger picture moves us towards love, happiness and spiritual heights.

2. We cannot skip steps in our path to spiritual awakening and living our purpose.  Each step, or moment, contains a lesson or connection that we need to understand the bigger picture of our lives.

I love when I catch a glimpse of the bigger picture.  It helps me to feel assured that there is one and that I am being guided along the way from a higher source.

This quote from Deepak Chopra in the Third Jesus sums up the experience I’m talking about:

The soul journey begins in the darkness, where truth is masked or misunderstood.  The journey progresses by clearing away an obstacle to the truth every day.  At times we make leaps into the light, great bounds that free us from the grip of an ignorant belief.  More often, however, revelation proceeds by tiny steps, one insight at a time.

My journey began in the darkness of lossing the security of a relationship.  Years ago when my fiancee and I first started dating, we came across a rocky patch in our relationship.

To spare you the details, I will only say that this wasn’t an ordinary relationship concern.  It was big!  We both suffered tremendously.

Yet, it was a tremendous moment for me.  I first found my way to the light under these extra-ordinary conditions.  I didn’t want to suffer anymore and prayed and pleaded for things to change.

I began to meditate, do yoga and simply changed the way I lived.

The turning point for me came when I had a dream.  It was really simple.  I dreamed of a big body of water basking in the dawn of a soft violet light.  I swam from one shore to the other.  I walked up onto the shore and felt peaceful and serene.

I woke up feeling awesome.  All of the pain and fear I had felt the night before (and for months!) had dissolved.  It was like something got turned on inside of me.

I know now that it was God.  It was my inner spirit.  It was my true heart space.

I just knew then and there that everything was going to be fine.

A little while ago I had two experiences that brought me right back to that dream.  The first was I was walking around a big reservoir.  I walked up to the water’s edge, I felt this incredible energy in my heart.  It was the energy of the water swaying in my heart.  I’d never felt that before in my waking life.  I always loved being by a big body of water (probably for that reason), but never actually felt it.

I could feel the connection to oneness and the universal heart.  Water, I’ve realized, allows me to feel that without even trying.  I enjoyed the moment and let it be.

A few days later while lying in corpse pose at the end of a yoga class, I saw a flash of the dream I had years ago.  I was swimming up to the shore feeling peaceful and serene.

I’ve learned that one of the laws of the universe is that signs come in three’s.  Some call this synchronicity.  I had my three signs so I was taking note.

I knew there was a much deeper awareness that I was to understand by seeing that dream I had some 7 years later.  The physical experience of standing by the reservoir pointed it out to me clearly.

My fiancee and I are moving to the biggest body of water there is, the ocean.  We are getting married this summer and will begin our unified life together on the shore of the ocean.  For us, it’s the completion of a healing cycle that will sanctify our new journey together.

But there’s more.  As my path out of the darkness has lead me to see the specks of light along the way, my path is getting brighter.  What began for me with a heart ache is transforming quickly now into my heart opening to a much wider sea of possibility.

I’ve found my way to the shore!  I didn’t even know that I was on my way.  I can see the horizon now where closure and beginning at the cusp of dawn awaits.  It’s here, on this shore, that I will understand the new heights that I am to walk.

Each of us is walking, sometimes with a torchlight and sometimes without a light at all, towards our heart opening.  All we have to do is notice when the next step arrives and take it.  Bon voyage!

Love=Purity=Divinity

I’m coming to understand so many things about this wonderful journey as a spiritual being (living as a human).  One thing is that our spoken words are so limited to explain what we experience.  So, bare with me as I attempt to download what it is that I’m learning, knowing that the written language is not equipped to carry this message.  I just might resort to formulas, symbols and prose.  No wonder the mystics used poetry to explain the universe.  In the past, that was the only way to get around our restrictive communication abilities.

But now things are different.

Where to begin…

Many of us have experienced ‘knowing’ how a person is feeling before they’ve said a word.  What if your life began to feel that way all the time?  You knew the essence of the next moment, the next phase of your life?  You understood who stands with you and who walks alone shielded in their own private space of fear?  And what if you fully understood why you fell in love with someone?

I’ve landed in this place.  It’s as if I woke up one morning and realized I’ve been in a play.  The actors have taken off their masks and sat me down and explained to me why we are in this theater together.  At first I felt so humbled that we were one and purposeful together.  But then, there was disappointment.  So, that’s it?  Should we just close the theater and go home and watch TV?

Having all the answers, as much as we think we want to know them, only opens up a new door.  I’m now asking, but why?

As soon as I asked my higher self (and the whole crew that’s with me, my guides and angelic beings), a new opening appeared.  From a place of true love, or unconditional love (which has been made by choice, i.e., our souls have chosen to be here and support one another on this journey together), our veils come down.  We find that we are standing in the truth of who we are.  It is here that we touch purity.

When we finally decide to end the ego games and let go of the fear of human existence, we know that we carry within us a translucent purity.  At first it’s just a spark, but I’ve realized how powerful it is.  Because it is this space, this energy, this consciousness–however it speaks to you–that expansion of your divinity can happen.

Life is about creating these moments.  Imagine a crystal clear lake inside of you–it’s light, airy, serene and wants to fill every one of your cells.  This is pure life in you.  This is what the yogis teach as prana or the Christians call the holy spirit.  Our souls crave to know this within ourselves, to connect with it within another and ultimately, to create this in our external world.

Notice when this awakens in your life.  It might be in your marriage when a particular conversation shows you the love your spouse has for you or you for them.  It might be when your child walks into the room and the atmosphere shifts entirely to lightness and joy.  It might be when you are running in nature and you drink the air and can’t imagine any greater happiness.  Or maybe it just happens without a trigger.  You feel a sort of random joy.

This is it!  This is the point.  I’m seeing that as I open to more of these moments in my life, they come more often, and people who are ready for them come to me.  I believe that our souls are actually communicating to each other.  They are saying,

“Show him.”

“Let her see how beautiful she is.”

We can only understand this as ‘the point’ when we are truly ready.  Otherwise, we see no utility in such moments.  There is no marketing angle to this; there is no story to tell; there is no real ‘accomplishment’ to feel good about.

But we gladly give this all up for the knowledge that we know ourselves, know our family and know our divinity.

I believe that it is at ‘this point’ that we close the theater and get on with the real world.

Waking to My Soul Purpose (or What I Know So Far)

I’ve been feeling this blog coming on for some time.  The desire to write is twofold: 1) to understand where I am in my awakening process and 2) to connect with others that are going through this now, even if you’re struggling.

I’ve felt the speeding up of time and the quickness of energy pulsating through my world.  While before I was being shown the direction that my life would take in my dreams and through messages from people and guides, I am now living in a new reality.  I’ve truly shifted.  I have hiccups where I can glimpse where I was before–fearful living and trapped by attachments–but these are seen by my higher self now as old versions of who I was.

How did I get here?

Though more is at work than I can truly know, this is what I know so far:

My higher self has taken possession of my body, mind, heart and soul and now they are all working as one.  I used to separate these aspects of myself.  I understood that higher self existed and tried to steer me in the right direction, but I lived in the duality of higher self and self (in actually this was my ego).  Higher self is running the show now.  Ego is there but more as a friendly sign-post to pay attention to my truest desires.

I’ve activated new chakras.  I’ve been working with chakras for about a year now.  (Learn more about chakras in general.  Learn about the new chakras.)  I learned to balance them.  To see and manifest my reality with my chakras.  Quite magically, I started to notice a shift in the color spectrum in my chakra meditations.  They went from rainbow colors to more translucent, white and golden colors.  Through research and guidance, I learned that I am now working with the high heart (or thymus chakra) and several above the crown of the head.

Living with the new chakras took some time to understand.  I’ve had to relearn how to balance my body with my everyday actions.  I’ve learned I need to speak and act in truth in all that I do.  (Otherwise, I end up with a constricting blockage in my throat.)  Just getting by with my words and intentions simply doesn’t work anymore.  My words come from my heart, where unconditional love (not of the personal kind but from the cosmos) is expanding within me.

At the moment, I’ve been noticing that there’s a new energy in and around my third eye as well.  My intuition tells me that this is a new level of awareness that I’m about to gain–where my heart, communication and wisdom will align.  This will unfold for me another piece of the puzzle of my purpose and divinity.

My purpose is deeper and more complex than I originally understood.  About a year ago, when I was first jolted into this awakening space, I perceived my purpose from an old worldview (or 3D world, if you want to know more about this, comment, and I’ll post some links).  I was still stuck in ‘what’ I can do to feel more myself in the old world.

I’ve learned through intuition and guidance that there’s no point to waste effort in these areas now.  As a planet and humanity, we are in a holding pattern where we are to understand our true soul purpose and mission in life.  Work with the tools that we are gifted and to bring love and light into the world in all that we do.  As we do this, our soul purpose is revealed because we are living in the truth of who we are (who we all are).  This is crisp, pure, clean, powerfully living.

I feel that the whole puzzle is only a few pieces away.  I’m no longer anxious to know everything because what I do know is that I have a very powerful mission in this life.  I know it involves supporting others to awaken to their purpose.  I know it involves global transformation and honoring the beauty and love of this planet.  I know that I chose to be here during this very spiritual time in the history of humanity because I’m needed.  With this I am content.

The last thing I know so far is that everything has shifted.  My thoughts become reality; love grows and expands everyday; the light and peace in my heart connects to everyone around me; there is nothing to fear and joy is the new status quo.

I also know that this isn’t easy for most people.  For those living in the old, hanging onto old thoughts of what’s real and desirable, there is a lot of suffering.  Our institutions, leaders, schools, parents, friends, our ego, etc. have led us astray.  To be liberated from this suffering will require great commitment and faith in oneself.

My advice is to look inside, and ask yourself what do I know so far?  Make a list, write a narrative or talk to a friend.  Start from here and you will begin to live where the light of truth shines.  It will grow.  Before you know it, you’ll be in a beautiful place that you’ve known forever deep in your soul.

Let me know when you arrive, and I’ll met you there.

The Unfolding

These days everything is a sign or a message to be truly noted and integrated into my life.  It’s been a little while since I’ve written and the deepening of my connection to spirit and heart has expanded to yet another level.  I write these blogs to understand what is going on with my own spiritual evolution, and how it connects to changes happening in our universal evolution.  Only about 2 months ago did I come to understand that my own cycles of understanding and confusion (or birth and death and rebirth as I also see it) are connected to something greater than myself.  For a time, I considered it to be all about spiritual understanding of the great unknown, the void where everything and nothing lives.  I felt peaceful in this place of knowingness.  Today, everything has shifted again.

Recently, I recounted to a friend how in the last year I have moved quickly through several phases of emotional and spiritual awareness.  It wasn’t until I did so that I could see the intelligence and completeness of my path.  I can summarize these experiences into distinct phases:

• Detachment and loss where I surrendered to what I couldn’t control;
• Personal power and my human potential where I experienced a great opening to the possibilities of myself and for all of us;
• The desire for freedom-my true self was calling to me louder and louder and didn’t allow me to ignore that I have a purpose here on Earth that I must perform; I needed to allow it to speak and live now; and
• Today, universal love and compassion, which is revealing itself to me with a softness and loving touch I can only walk towards with great enthusiasm.

My friend said to me, ‘What a perfect unfolding.’  And this is what brought forth the intelligent rationality in what seems like such a bizarre, strange trip.  I’d heard that word before in a meditation where I was told that what is happening to humanity and Earth right now is “The Unfolding.”  I understood then that it meant the unfolding of who we were as humanity (the destruction and unhealthy ways in which we’ve lived) to a new way that is about harmony and love.  I see now that as the whole of humanity learns from our mistakes, each of us is also learning how to make a new life.  Some of us are experiencing this shift by force (losing jobs, unbalanced lifestyles, disease, etc.) and others who already were awake to the changing course of humanity are making the leap because they see the choices clearly.  This is ‘The Unfolding’, and we are both witness to it and participants in it.

My own path clearly demonstrates that I’m a participant.  I find great solace in this and know that I simply have to remain aware and respond to the signs.  I don’t actually create my unfolding.  It will happen on its own.  How I experience it is my decision.

And so now how did this new phase of loving and compassion begin?  Unlike some of the other phases of spiritual awakening that I have experienced, this one comes with great joy and great pain.  I’ve spent several weeks feeling the great pain of my life and everyone else’s.  I cry when I do yoga, I release the layers of built up pain and sorrow easily now.  And I welcome it!  I can feel the healing that is happening inside and around me.  The release of pain literally comes in waves now.  I’m learning to surf the waves rather than attempting to control them.  And great things are happening!

But first some background information.  Throughout my process of unfolding, I’ve discovered new ways of seeing and knowing that I never fully utilized before.  One of them is my intuition, which at times has been what we might call psychic.  I’ve learned that being psychic doesn’t mean predicting the future.  Rather, when we tapped into our 3^rd eye chakra (the energetic node at our eyebrows) we gain an understanding of knowing without a doubt of what is.  We can even hear messages that aren’t our own voice but the voice of the great knowing that lies beyond ourselves.

For me, this period of opening to the greater wisdom that lies beyond my mere self, represented a transition from dreaming of a new reality to actually waking up in one.  If you’ve read earlier blogs, you know that most of my awareness and understanding has come through dreams that then manifest in my waking life.  Today, the experiences are almost the opposite, in my waking state I can live with the spiritual realm while I’m working out the earth realm in my dreams.

This new place has led to some rather unusual experiences that I find almost difficult to share because of their strangeness.  It was a lot easier to speak about my new awareness when they came from dreams as we all have such experiences.  My ego wants to assure each of you that I haven’t gone off the deep end, and this all did happen.  Hopefully, by sharing it with you, it will open in you a new space for understanding and a new way of discovering it beyond your ego and rational mind.  I can tell you that when you do open that doorway, you will find a whole new world of capacities that can guide you in your life.

The first thing that happened was seeing an angelic woman in my mind’s eye (one time with my eyes open and another in a deep meditation).  The first time I saw her, I dismissed it as nothing, fantasy or mind creation.  But when it happened a second time, I decided to be really open minded that maybe it was real.  I had read somewhere that people who see guides and angels (my only reference for what this could possibly be) sometimes channel their messages through free writing.  It turned out to be really easy.  I just did it.  And this is the message she sent:

Your true spirit is perfect and divine.  It contains all things and will always provide.  Abundance is your birthright and it is connected to spirit-the all knowing, everything.  There is sweetness in life that can be drunken everyday with or without the flowers.  Clouds will have mercy when the sky is abominable.  In the truth lays the answers to yourself.  Find it in the virtues of personal love, beauty, peace, universal love, wisdom, and self-not.

Days after this message surfaced I began to see how I had ignored the importance of true love–love that doesn’t want or expect anything.  There is nothing that warrants holding back love, and when we do, we only hurt ourselves and prevent universal love from filling our hearts.

I sat for a meditation several days after I was delivered this message, and I was filled with a soft red light.  I felt my whole being rise and fall softly with the waves of pink light as if I was floating on the clouds of heaven.  Peace came over me like I had never experienced before.  An image of Ghandi came to my mind’s eye, then Martin Luther King, followed by Jesus and Buddha (whom by the way was one with Jesus; they weren’t not shown to me as separate beings).  I asked them, to show me how they experienced universal love and compassion.  For a moment, I felt it through them.  And, then, a lighthearted, kind voice said, ‘but you don’t need us, feel it yourself.’  Ah, yes, that was the ticket.  Of course, it’s up to each of us to unfold the universal love and compassion for all things that already lives in us.

And then, a new message and wave of understanding hit.  This one was huge!  It brought everything together for me from my beginning struggles starting my own business, healing from the wounds of working for an energetically dysfunctional institution and discovering my soul purpose.

Here is what I received:

How to earn money in the new economic (and energetic) paradigm

Money earned, transferred and loved with integrity and truth of spirit, inner self, is a loving circle.  It cycles back what is truth in action, what is the truth in the love, truth in the knowing.  Money earned, transferred and loved with your true self will cycle, cycle and grow.  It is a circle, an infinite cycle in fact, that will continue in harmony with the intention of its creation and quality of love.  How do you love what you create, do and perform?  What would you wish upon yourself to cycle back forever?  Give with pure intention.  Don’t overdue, do that which meets your capacity and truest desire.

I’m sitting with this one for awhile.  I’m waiting for greater guidance because I understand that there is a momentous tide behind these words.  An economy based on love, beauty, peace and wisdom (as my guide/angel informed me) would change everything.  I believe we are on this precipice.  How it will transform us we can only imagine, but it is a beautiful waiting period we’re in.

So, now what?  I’m waiting, I’m releasing the pain and sorrow, I’m peaceful with each wave and wide-eyed curious about EVERYTHING.  I’ve learned that even the littlest thing can carry a message from the divine.  I pay attention to what speaks to me and what work I need to do to transform myself and this beautiful planet.  There is so much power to be unleashed in our divinity that I know we are in for a great experience.  If The Unfolding brings the sweetness of flowers everyday (even in the dead of winter in New England), I welcome it with my open heart and singing spirit.

Stacey Emerald

Before I dive into this blog, I need to remind everyone that Be an Everyday Humanitarian is available!  Check it out.  Learn to live sustainably and with purpose.

We are living in the time of Stacey Emerald.  She came to me in my dreams, and I immediately was repelled by her name.  It just didn’t fit.  (Seriously, say it aloud.)

That’s the challenge I feel now.  How to fit in the time of Stacey Emerald?  When we all need a little bit more Emerald, Stacey is holding on for dear life.

I’ve clearly been on a magic carpet ride for the last few weeks (months really).  I’m beginning to believe that it’s not all by chance, but for a much higher purpose than even I, who is a strong believer in life purpose, thought could be true.  It’s one thing to ‘believe’ that we are all here for a reason, and it’s another to know it.

If you’ve been following the launch of my coaching program Be@Home with Your Personal Power, you know that I’ve gone through some pretty tremendous personal transformations lately.  I’m living my dream of guiding people to change their lives and to live with personal power and integrity.  Even just writing those words gives me chills, and there is a feeling behind the words that tells me that it’s as real and true for me as the air I’m breathing.

How do we know when we’ve found it, our calling, our purpose in life?

It’s an age-old question that consumes many peoples’ minds.  For me, it was never like that.  I always thought I knew what I was suppose to be doing in life.  It was rare that I doubted myself and my outward actions.  In fact, I’ve always been someone that my friends would say what did I have to worry about?  I had it all figured out and did everything so well.

I’m realizing now that that can be the problem.  There can be a way in which life can just move along, some good things happen and some bad things.  Life just happens.

Looking back now at my own life path–comfortable jobs, making a relatively good contribution to the world, nice vacations, good friends and a loving family–I see that it’s these things that distracted me from noticing Emerald.

Who is Emerald?  My dream life helped me to see her.  She’s my inner beauty, the pulse of the universe that lives in me and the higher purpose that I have in this life.  Really, she is my 007 mission.  If I don’t complete that mission, I will self-destruct.

Fortunately, I stumbled upon her.  I didn’t go looking for her like so many people do.  She just kept popping up until the messages got louder and louder, and I could no longer ignore them.  They really were messages!  They came from people I met, lucid dreams I had and lots of coincidences.

When I read Eckhart Tolle’s book A New Earth, I loved that he said that all coincidences are for a reason.  I now believe that they do add up to something that is very real for each of us, and if we take notice of them, the mysteries to our life can be solved.

I know now that I was guided to write Be an Everyday Humanitarian.  The next step is what I don’t know.  But I’m finally, truly comfortable with not knowing the plan.  Like I said to an old friend I was visiting over Thanksgiving, I don’t know what I’m doing!

The key, I’ve learned, is to simply be open to the possibilities.  I’ve gotten myself to this point–a place that I never imagined.  I’m very comfortable with my present moment.

But what I am aware of is there’s a problem with Stacey.

Who is she?  She is Emerald’s other half or what I think is also a representation of our greater society.  We are in a great transition around the world and especially in the U.S.

We are transitioning from an old-way of being and doing to a new one that isn’t quite real yet or understood.  The work hard, get ahead model is dying; the violent, get what you want by force and egotistical power is waning; and yet, the next phase of our humanity is hanging in the backdrop of our reality.

Some of us know how to pull the curtain and reveal the beauty, abundance and new way of living.  But most don’t even see the curtain.

We are living in the time of Stacey Emerald.  She came to me in my dreams, and I immediately was repelled by her name.  It just didn’t fit.  (Seriously, say it aloud.)

That’s the challenge I feel now.  How to fit in the time of Stacey Emerald?  When we all need a little bit more Emerald, Stacey is holding on for dear life.

I keep coming back to what I know is true.  Time is a paradox.  It exists in our minds only.  The present moment is all there is.

So, my plan?

To call Emerald to live in my present moment.  I know that means everyone who is living with her, or at least has seen her, will be alongside me.  That’s how we not only live in this transition–it’s how we thrive in it.