the awakening

here is the key: every one in your life is a bit player on your stage. every player is perfectly scripted to help you understand yourself. everyone acts and reacts to you according to how you are treating yourself at any given time. the goal of each and every encounter is to awaken you to yourself. in that awakening, that awareness, adjustments can be made to keep yourself on track. on track for what? respecting and honoring and loving yourself.

your world will right itself, your dreams will manifest and the course of your days will run smooth, when and only when, you treat yourself with unflinching dignity. constantly. to find out where you're glitching and being ridiculously hard on yourself over and over again, look to the reactions of those around you. listen to what and how they're communicating with you. they are speaking for you the words you tell yourself repeatedly, those unconscious ones that keep you living a small life.

do not lay blame on another. do not be insulted. do not take any of it personally. yes, it's hard. of course, it's hard. but be honest with yourself. what he said is what you say to yourself in one form or another. and you've believed yourself for so long, you're living that lie. he only said it out loud to get you to wake up to your own brainwashing. thank his bit player actions and get on with the business of making amends to yourself for treating yourself like shit. take charge of what you think in your own brain. dare to think you are fantastic. do not give a rat's ass if you can't be perfect. decide to enjoy your quirks.

give yourself a break. and then another one. and another one. lather, rinse, repeat.

eventually, you will awaken to the fact that people have begun to treat you with more dignity. that you are laughing more and people are joining in. you will feel what it is to live hour to hour and day to day in a world of love. a world you have created for yourself, through your awareness and the gifts of bit players. it is worth the work and the vigilant awareness to reprogram the script in your brain. you deserve nothing less than the best this world has to offer. to receive it, awaken and give your best to yourself.

From That State Of Being, All Else Will Come

For much of my life, I have been too easily influenced by the words of other people. By words, I mean opinions. I felt, in order to belong to a group, to my family, to a circle of friends, I had to assimilate their opinions and make them my own. In that often unconscious assimilation, I was accepted. In agreeing and going along with voices louder and more stern than my own, I was granted safety and hopefully, love. There were times the assimilation, the agreement, the capitulation almost killed me. Literally. That's when I awoke. That's when resistance to opinions began.

It has been a slow resistance. But it has been steady. I have walked away,  I have learned to shut doors, I have even refused to open some doors while others, with loud opinions, yanked and rattled the handles. There has been deep emotional pain with the walking and the shutting and the guard of my own sanctity. I have stepped outside the bounds of acceptance, seeming to risk my own safety and secure place in the world. But that place has been small and my soul has cried out to be big. Or at least to be free.

After much inner work and self doubt, after years of practiced self referral, I arrived at today. While driving route 5 under grey skies, returning home from mundane errands, a feeling and a thought rose up from my gut. I belong to myself. Finally. I have no need of groups of any kind to confirm my status and deservability. I need not belong anywhere, or with anyone to be loved. To be safe, to be grounded, to be privy to the limitless well of Universal love, I need only belong to me. I need only to trust, to know and to act. On behalf of myself. From that state of being, all else will come. The family, the groups and the freedom.

The Word And The Way

There is a word coursing through my brain, a word that is pointing the way. The meaning of the word must be employed to even consider the re-directing purpose of the word itself. That word, that way is flexibility. I find myself bending over backwards to follow its call.

Have you noticed that things are changing rapidly? Some changes are welcome, some are not. Most feel unexpected, whether the opportunity hidden in the change feels like a comfort or a threat. Regardless, these changes, minute and vast, are presenting themselves weekly, daily and hourly. It can be hard to keep up. It can be hard to feel safe in the midst of it all.

Resistance to change, especially rapid change on several levels at once, is normal. We stiffen, shut down, argue, whine and defend our status quo like warriors. But normal responses are no longer helpful. They will prolong the misery we are valiantly trying to avoid. The new response we are being challenged to employ, on the spot and sometimes in rapid succession, is to remain open and flexible in the oftentimes annoying face of sudden change. We need to practice recognizing our resistance to the small changes in order to be capable of handling the big ones when they drop out of the sky.

We need to become aware when we stiffen and flare our nostrils at sudden thwarts to our plans; those plans that make us feel safe, those routines we've done over and over again. When things go awry, we need to shift our brains from instant annoyance to acceptance of adventure. We need to train our brains to relax and seek out the opportunity that lies within the sudden change of plans. So often, the opportunity to do something slightly different is to our benefit. It widens our view of life and we catch something in our periphery that begs to be acknowledged and brought into the fold. In sudden flexibility lies our betterment. We gain more confidence, we use dormant brain power, we build our trust in ourselves. And trust in ourselves is what will see us through the big changes.

Let's practice being flexible. At the drop of a hat. Let's notice when our fur rises and our carefully controlled world feels threatened. Let's do our very best to relax our body and our brain before that hat even reaches the floor. Staying relaxed is the beginning of flexibility. Quietly, yes, quietly, mull over the sudden change. Losing our power and our trust by drowning out possibilities with defensive rants is no longer an option. Listening to our own inner wisdom tell us how to respond, and not simply react, is the option we seek. Flexibility allows an empowered response to change and keeps us more safe than resistance. Flexible in mind and response, we reconcile opposition and live more comfortable lives.

Spread The Love

I want you to know we are waiting. For you. Yes, you and your unsung talents and offerings, your incredible ways and your heart of gold. We are waiting for you to gain enough confidence and realize what you have is what we have been waiting for. By denying your gifts, your specialized verve, you are denying us something we vitally need.

What we need is genuine love and enthusiasm. About life. You hold one of the keys. Without your input, without your energy in the mix, we all have just a little bit less of the glory of life. This life. Our life. The one we're in together. The one so finely and sweetly dependent on sharing amongst ourselves. What you know, what you can do, can and will make the difference to one of us, lots of us, in raising the quality of this life.

Stop thinking that what you have and who you are is insignificant. It does not matter if what you offer is being offered by another. Your version of that offering is what is missing from this life. Your version is what one of us, lots of us, are parched for.

Dare, dare to expose your gifts to the light of day. Start small and stay small, or start small and go big. Size matters not. It is only the love, the intention that matters. Stop denying your value and the key you hold. Rise up, expose your gifts, and spread the love. To yourself. To us. To life.

I Saw A Sign

Well, did you see it? The sign? (What sign, you ask?) The sign the Universe laid out just for you?The one that gave you direction on how to better your life? The one that answered your question? That sign.

You missed it? You missed the sign? Oh, for Pete's sake, really? And the Universe went to such trouble to give you such a good clue! Okay, then. Pay attention. More signs will come. No, no, you didn't miss your chance. Always, always, always the Universe will lead you to a better opportunity. Actually, it spends each and every day throwing out hints, big and small, to get you smack dab in the middle of goodness. If you're having a bad time, the hints and clues and signs the size of billboards will come at you more fast and furious. To get you the hell out of dodge and into a much sweeter spot.

So, pay better attention, will you? Nothing and nobody is served by your being in a less than savory situation. The Universe knows that happiness is contagious. It wants to get you happy. It's willing to tap dance naked in the street if it has to, to get you moving in a blissful direction.

Come on. Be honest. You wondered what that thing meant yesterday. You snapped your head around when someone mentioned in passing the very idea you've been cooking up in your brain. That bird sighting, that number coming up over and over, that name, that name, that name. They're all signs and you know it. Don't worry if you can't figure it out just yet. Just keep paying attention. The Universe likes a good, well-played-out story as much as you do. No giving away the ending in the preface. Notice the signs and follow along. The bread crumb trail of signs will walk you through a story meant just for you. A story where fear is conquered with confidence and love. A story that lifts you and gifts you with the life you deserve.

Simple Things~ November 16th

From a metaphysical point of view, the more complicated an approach or a doctrine is, the lower its vibration and the less light of truth it imparts. The more complicated we choose to make our lives the more unhappy we are and the more we tend to complain. Our jam-packed schedules, our televisions blaring with bad news and desperate people clawing at the spotlight, our closets and drawers and basements overflowing with crap we don't even remember we have do nothing but lower our vibrations and contribute to our round-robin illnesses. If we want to be happy, as most of us say we do, we need to choose a more light approach to our lives. We need to choose to be more simple.

We need not worry our lives will become dull should we make more room for simplicity. True glamour is uncomplicated, true love is straight forward, and nothing is less complicated than fun. We need to have more fun. We are so blasted serious and self-absorbed, we are ruining our lives and our planet. We need to shut off the electronic world more often and play with our kids and our pets. We need to ride the rides and howl at the moon and not give a fling what anyone thinks. We need to play at whatever makes us lose time and flash our teeth to the world.

Simple things, simple ways, and simple, glorious love will bring lightness back to our hearts. Let's release the crap, let's learn to play, let's choose to live in our truth.


Simple Things is brought to you by the warm and lovely Christina of Soul Aperture fame. Click HERE for a list of other bloggers offering their views on simplicity. Thank you, Christina, for the opportunity to play along with your cuteness.

Invisible Stars

For 22 non-stop years I have been "walking a spiritual path". I have been seeking to improve the quality of my life and gain enough know-how to avoid repeating some pretty painful patterns. I have actively sought the advice and wisdom of world religions. I have immersed myself in the too-many-to-count tributaries of metaphysics and new age rivers of thought. Books, seminars, meditation groups. Astrology charts, channeled opinions, psychic opinions. Oracle cards, crystals, dowsing pendulums. Auras, prayers, yoga, drum circles. I've done it, consulted it, lived it to the best of my ability.

All the while, those 22 years, Nature has been my companion; teaching me the language of instinct and flow and living in the moment. There have been countless consultations with trees and birds, sorrow lifted by waterfalls and rainbows, the peace of stillness found in stars.

Suddenly, everything seems to have fallen away. The books, the horoscopes, the opinions of others. Mercury in retro-grade means nothing. My interest has fallen to rock bottom, leaving me standing perfectly still after 22 years. Nature continues to be my greatest companion, though. Creeks and cats and prayers for the well being of Canada geese during hunting season. My nightly barefoot viewing of stars from my doorstep.

Having conditioned myself to seek and ask for so many years, I asked why complete disinterest has come. In asking, my eyes settled on a pot I had painted 7 years ago; the one I unearthed from a tote and felt the need to put magazines in just last month. A lamb looks up to the stars; I wrote these words on the rim:"Dear God~ may the stars which fill the sky fill me".

And so the answer came. Instantly. I am full. Of stars and starlight and rainbows. Of love. The time has past, after 22 years, of seeking for answers outside myself. Confidence has slowly accumulated and a solid foundation of trust in myself has been laid. The mantra I have heard of over and over again, that all answers lie within; I am ready to live that mantra. I am ready to continue my spiritual path and look to myself first. For all of it. Surely, I will keep on reading Mr. Chopra and his very wise friends, but in truth, I already know what they are going to say. I already know what to do to live a life of quality. I will continue to stumble and fall. I will continue to live at low tide at times. I will continue to address my fears. But now I know, yes, now I know, in the stillness of disinterest, I have always been my own best compass. I have always been filled with invisible stars.

A Letter To Esme

My Dearest Esme,

I have been waiting for you. Finally, in the season of sunflowers, you arrive as a herald, ushering in the light ahead of the dawn. Welcome to your beautiful life. Your Mother is one whom, many years ago, I had waited for as well. Like her, you will always live in my heart.

I have no daughter of my own, Esme, but if I did, I would tell her needful things. I will tell these things to you and offer them as a shield and a prayer.

You were born today to heal this world with your love. Your love, found in laughter and bursts of joy and steadfast compassion, is the key that will not only offer healing, but unlock all the treasures you deserve. You deserve every treasure, Esme. You deserve not only the moon and the stars, but good health and friendship and support in all you will do. You deserve the sweet and the savory and the courage to recover from the bitter when it comes. It will come, as it is meant to, to shape you into a more eloquent human being and help you to understand the beauty to be found in all circumstances.

Your heart, Esme, will be your truest companion. Practice paying it close attention. It will speak to you in a language meant only for you. Follow its every calling. Its compass, its barometer, its map will lead you to all roads and connections meant to enrich your soul's earthly adventure. It will always uphold your highest good.

Know you will never be alone. Just as a legion of angels ushered you into the light today, so will they remain with you, ever vigilant, guarding you and lifting you in each moment. Know you are protected and loved by more than human eyes can see, and so it shall be. (However, your legion would care to remind you that common sense and awareness of your surroundings makes angelic duties much easier.)

Most of all, Esme, know you are wanted. By so many people. You matter. You are needed. You will always be loved. I light a candle in your honor today, to welcome your little flame into the hearts of many. Across the miles, I bow to you and look forward to basking in the tenderness of your soul.

xxoo

{For Esme Alexandra, daughter of my cousin, born August 29, 2009, in the stillness before the dawn.}

All Things Worthwhile

Everything worthwhile takes time. Lasting contentment, master's degrees, cooking like Julia Childs, they all require a process to achieve. Healing and soberness take time, as well. Effort is required, and consistent effort is the shortest route, but we are human and easily distracted. Even from goals we think we really want.

We have learned there are no quick fixes that last, but we secretly wish there were. We've tried them, those quick-fix-elixirs, in our spiritual lives, in our business lives, in our most treasured relationships. We've taken the seminars and followed the guidelines and omitted the truth while looking off to the side. Yet, here we are, impatiently tapping our foot, smacking a backhand into our palm and imploring ourselves to "get there faster". Deep down we know we never will, unless we submit to the process our goals require~ patience, persistence and a heavy dose of accepting the foibles that join us along the way.

But if we look closely at our lives, we will see shining examples of where we have been patient and loving. We will see goals in process and we then have the opportunity to notice how good the process itself feels. We are not failures. We are, more accurately, huge successes in disguise to ourselves. We see we are already engaged in activities and relationships most worthwhile to our own deepest needs. We realize we have all it takes to begin and sustain the process for anything we deem worthwhile. And maybe, those seemingly important goals that keep our feet impatiently tapping are not so important after all. Relaxing our expectations and allowing natural rhythms to direct our efforts will reveal if, deep down, we feel the process itself is worthwhile. If the process is, so then is the goal.

A life well lived takes time. It also takes concentrated effort to sustain the values our hearts hold most high. We have all and we are all we will ever need to live the life we imagine. We set aside quick fixes and we settle into our own pace of traveling and stumbling and traveling again on the journey to all things worthwhile.

The Power Of Love

There is so much power in love. Love is the hiding-in-plain-sight secret to living a powerful life. Not the kind of power that comes from climbing over the backs of hard working people or from manipulating the masses through media-driven scare tactics (hello swine flu), but power that rises from authenticity, and quietly taking charge of one's self. The smallest incidences and choices can be all the lift we truly need to fly forward into a self-powered life if the choices are based in love. Especially love for self.

How do we express more love for self and thereby invoke the lift? We choose to treat ourselves as if we were the longed-for beloved suddenly standing at our door. We revere ourselves and consider our own feelings and needs as if we were serving deities. We think kindly of ourselves, we feed ourselves well, we stop working so damn hard and make more time for fun. We stop wasting endless, mind-numbing hours in front of computer and TV and we invest that time in the making of our own dreams. We listen to the voices within begging for more joy and we go after it with every dancing, exuberant fiber in our being. We stop living the lives that other people tell us to live. We decide we are worth it.

We love ourselves madly and deeply, we use the money available to us to support our truest needs and stop ourselves from frittering our money away, we offer appreciation to everyone who treats us with respect, and we leave the ones who don't behind. We invest ourselves in ourselves. We love ourselves madly and deeply some more. And through this mad love, we lift ourselves to the levels of goodness we deserve. We live each moment as God made us to be and we do not apologize for it. To anyone.

We are as powerful as we decide ourselves to be. We are powerful in direct proportion to the level of consistent love we shine on ourselves. We can make any choice in the world from each moment to the next. Let's get powerful together. Let's fly forward. Let's respect ourselves with the power of love.

Sun Feather

I find it impossible not to believe in miracles. Especially when four and a half inches of tiny feathers allows its invisible, animating life force to take flight from the palm of my hand.

She called me to her as I drove home from work. It was the slightest whisper of, "please take this road home". She knew I would hear it, sense it, obey it, that plea for help. So I took this road I do not usually take and I found her; an exquisite dusting of yellow on a grey tar lane.

She left ample room in my hand as I carried her. She was still warm with life, but she was leaving. The essence of common yellowthroat warbler, secretive, sweet and diligent, could be felt vibrating against my skin. Her soul was breaking free. I offered extreme unction. I bore witness to grace.

She left. Yet she left behind the tiniest black orbs that still reflected the sun. And shocks of yellow feathers that were the sun.

Message of Love

At 5:30am, just before turning on the shower, I heard it. A thud on the kitchen counter, the clanging twirl of a glass being pushed by small, black paws and the satisfying crash of glass hitting the floor. Blue shards everywhere and a smile on my face. Thank you, Black Prince of fun and destruction. Thank you for bearing the message of good fortune and hope. For, you see, every time glass shatters around me, good news awaits and a piece of my unnecessary-to-hold-on-to-past is let go.

After a shattering, my senses are heightened. I am wide-eyed on the look out for clues as to what transition is occurring in my life. The answers are usually spread out over days. Today, my first clue arrived on the phone. "The cancer tumors have shrunk", said my Mother. The chemotherapy is working. Her liver, site of the secondary tumors, is now on the path to becoming a candidate for a 5 hour operation to remove and ablate the offensive cells. Hopes are high, patience is needed, and fingers are crossed.

But more than that, I have work to do. This is what I am doing. I am picturing my Mother as healthy. I am visualizing removing her liver into my hands and scrubbing it clean. I am visualizing bathing her liver in the pink light of love and returning it to her completely healed. As well, the parade of healing flowers will not cease. Nor will my daily, steadfast support in whatever way she needs. A window of opportunity has opened. It's time to be strong and fly through.

I await the next clues. Let them come. Come more good news, more letting go. Come love, come love, come love.

*******************

And so, in turn, I offer a message of hope to you. If you or someone you love or someone you know needs healing, picture yourself or them as healed. Do not be squeamish. Visualize scrubbing clean the place within that needs to be healed. Most importantly, send love to that place and love to the whole person. Bathe them in pink light or picture yourself holding them tight and sending loving energy from your heart directly into theirs.

It is the energy of love that is the supreme healer of all God's creations. Use the love bottled up within you to make a difference. Visualize your love and positive intentions flowing out of you and into the person in need. Visualize more love flowing back into you to fill your well. It is your overflow of loving energy that you give. Give as often as instinct advises. No matter what, truly, no matter what the love you share in your visualizations will make a difference.

Begin

You can do it. Whatever "it" is, I promise you, you can do it. You have enough strength, enough courage, enough wits about you. It's time to stop doubting yourself. You are all and you have all you need to get started. Whatever else you need after you start will just come. You can do it.

Believe in yourself. Trust your instincts. It's time. Set yourself free. Begin.

Make The World Better

Today, I want you to do something. For me, for you, for the world at large. Today, I want you to go out of your way to make some one else's day better. Even if you're having the worst kind of day. Especially if you're having the worst kind of day. Take one moment or several to give what you would like to receive.

Say a prayer~ for your mom, your son, your waitress or the elephants at the zoo. Hold the door open for more than one person. Bake cupcakes for your elderly neighbor. Give hugs where they are needed. Listen instead of trying to be heard. Drop off cat food at a shelter. Leave a random note on a windshield stating, "don't worry, everything is going to be alright". Tell her she looks beautiful. Offer to make dinner. Text a love poem. Look him in the eyes when you say, "thank you". Give yellow carnations to the stranger of your choice.

I want you to do something. I want you to be a reflection of the Divine. For one moment or several. I want you to give to receive. I want you to make the world better. I want you to do this today.

On Behalf Of All The Women

To the person or persons who felt the need to post this sign, on behalf of all the women who are not mothers in the biblical, traditional sense~ due to choice, divorce, childhood trauma, surgery, miscarriage, infertility, not finding the right mate before the biological clock ran out and all the reasons, heart-wrenching and not, under the sun for not being a mother on Mother's Day~ I say to you without a shred of politeness...Bite Me.

To all the women of the world, be you mothers of children, mothers of beings with fins, four legs or feathers, mothers of invention, mothers of creativity or mothers of souls in need of mothering, I wish for you a happy, healthy, grateful, inspiring Mother's Day every day of the year. Your womanhood is your true salvation. Express it as you see fit.

{For Lynn}

Soul Bird

My soul is part bird. In kinship, the feathered nations come to me and teach my soul their secrets. The secrets I have forgotten, or have yet to learn, or the ones that remind me to defy gravity.

Yesterday, lady cardinal, freshly expired with broken wing, called out to me. I scooped her off the side of the road and took her home. In honoring her body, I wanted to comfort her soul. It was she, in the end, who comforted me.

She reminded me in these times of great personal stress to notice and take care of the little things. To rest and to play and remember to laugh. To keep flowers close by and prayers at hand. To never stop trusting in miracles. To let the heart be heard.

Before I put her to rest in my garden, she gave me feathers from her wing. Needing them no longer, she told me to use them to rise above despair, to stay focused on the love in all outcomes and to keep my soul aloft.

The Only Opinion That Matters

The only opinion that matters is your own. Your opinion of yourself is the foundation of all events and happenings in your life. If you find yourself overwhelmed by the criticisms of acquaintances and strangers like I was this past week, it's time to shift your mind to the positive. About yourself.

What you think about yourself and the labels you unfairly pin to your lapel need to be rewritten. Your world is a reflection of how high or low you hold yourself in esteem. Join me in daring to think better of yourself. Join me in appreciating the 10,004 wonderful aspects, quirks and caring ways inherent in your soul. Look deep with me to find them. List your positive qualities and be ever so gentle in acknowledging the qualities that make you secretly cringe. There are pockets of pain supporting those less than savory qualities. There are reasons behind your outbursts and freak outs and meltdowns. You've been hurt. I've been hurt. It's time to kiss your wounds with love and understanding. It's time to support yourself like never before, no matter what.

You are star shine and tenderness and valor. You are exceptional in so many ways. You, just as you are in this minute, are a gift to this world. Think better of yourself. Forgive and soothe yourself. Dare to think you are fabulous. Act fabulous. Stay humble.

Use your new-found positive opinion of yourself as your shield and your foundation. Write a new label and pin it to your lapel~ "I support myself in my awesomeness". Share the gift of yourself with the world, unafraid. Be the love and appreciation and understanding you have hoped for and needed all along.

{The little cluster of fragrant blooms is "freesia".}

Reflection Of The Divine

Despite all your doubts and merciless self-judgements, your sabotage and fortified walls, you are still a reflection of the Divine. You matter. You are relevant. You are loved.

Speak To The Heart

Last night, at 10:20pm, I lay in bed and listened to one of my favorite sounds. The sound of church bells. The Methodist church at the top of my street usually regales me with its chimes twice on Sunday mornings. But last night it rang the bells for reasons other than calling its flock to worship. It rang its bells 50 times. Once for each person who perished one week before, at 10:20pm, when Flight 3407 went down.

I lay in bed, counting each peal, and thought of the vast web of connection each of those 50 people had created in the course of their lives. And how that web of family and friends and co-workers and teammates was now in such turmoil and transition. So many hearts have been crushed. So many things have been left unsaid. So many questions will never be answered.

It doesn't take a plane crash to count one's self among the ranks of those in grief, however. It could be accidents or cancers or wildfires that have severed connections too quickly. Soul deep grief is an affliction all too many succumb to when there is no time to say a proper goodbye to the friends and loves of our lives. But there is a way out of the shock and the seemingly bottomless well of grief. There is a way out. And that way out lies within. It lies within our hearts.

The love and friendship we think we have lost is not lost at all. The heart connections forged in life do not cease at death. Time and space are no match for the unshakable bonds of love. If there is unfinished business, finish it. If there are important words left unspoken, speak them. If there was no time for goodbyes, make the time now. How is this done? With visualizations and words.

Whatever you need to or want to or wish you had said to the loved one who left you behind, picture them in front of you and speak. Visualize your words as a stream of energy flowing directly into their heart. See every word you need to say entering their heart. Hold nothing back. Say everything you can think to say. Because love is the highest connecting force in the Universe, the love you shared in life is the same love you share after this life as we know it. Your loved one can hear your words and feel your words, if they are aimed at the heart, no matter where they have gone. They can feel your words. They can feel your emotions. They are healed right along with you when you aim your words at their heart.

Know this as truth and it shall be. Tell them how much they meant to you and still do. Thank them for each moment of love shared between the two of you. Be brave and start the conversation flowing. Keep talking until you instinctively feel all has been said. This might take minutes, hours or days. Then ask the Universe to give you clear signs that tell you your message has been received. The signs of confirmation will come. And your heart can then climb out of that soul deep grief.

The physical heart is the same as the ethereal heart. Both are conduits for that most powerful force in the Universe, love. Heal yourself and the one who has moved on. Speak from the heart, to the heart. Let peace and gratitude become part of the legacy of the love that remains.

Purpose Begins At Home

Each of us has the ability to make a difference in the world. A real and lasting difference. A difference that makes our souls light up and gives purpose to our days. Most people I know want to make a difference, contribute to the greater good or leave their positive mark. Some people I know are fully engaged in living their purpose, some have stretches of time where they feel useful and fulfilled, some are stuck in uncertainty, and some are stuck in the quagmire of self pity. In each of us, though, lies great possibility.

If we could tap into our abilities for sustained lengths of time, the world would be healed. If we could figure out just what we are meant to offer, what talent we possess, what is special within ourselves that completes the outer puzzles, there would be no more questions to ask. There would be only the singular answer to all the whats and hows. That answer would be love~ given freely, reciprocated, circulated, and ever present. If only we could understand, harness and live our purpose out loud.

If we are not fully engaged in living our purpose or lose sight of it on cloudy days, there is an antidote, a way forward, a path to follow. If we care enough to bother. If our soul feels restless enough to "get on with it" before our time runs low. The path to purpose, the way out of uncertainty, lies in the way we treat ourselves.

There will be no greater good served if we refuse to take care of our own good. What we do or do not do for ourselves is what we will do or not do for the world. If we neglect the most basic things in our lives, like eating well and moderately, caring for our clothing, keeping our homes clean and unclogged, the world will also be deprived, by us, of basic goodness and respect. Our purpose, which is meant to bless the world, is only revealed when we show respect for our bodies, minds and spirits. We must be blessings unto ourselves before we can be blessings to anyone or anything else.

Purpose begins at home. Our first home. The home of our self to our self. If we feel restless, unfulfilled, inert to our talents, we need to love ourselves more. Love. Ourselves. More. It is the only path that leads to healing the world. It is the only path to leaving a memorable, sustainable, needful mark. We must choose to do better for ourselves. How we speak to ourselves, how we support ourselves, how we live beyond or within our means, we must become aware and make more loving choices. Over and over again.

When we do right by ourselves, magic happens. Clues and coincidences and happy flutters in our stomachs point us succinctly and quickly to our joy. The path of purpose becomes lit with ten thousand stars. We know what to do and we can't wait to do it. Let's look within and find where we are wanting. Let's supply our own wants and needs. Let's honor and respect, listen to and support ourselves the way we truly deserve. Let's make a real and lasting difference in our own lives. We are adults. We can do this. Let's love ourselves like we've never been loved before. From the overflow of our love, the world will, at last, be healed.