Live Here Now

I am not looking for an escape from this life. I am not looking for a way out. I am looking for a way in. I am looking for a way to feel more of life. To taste more of life. To ingest it and revel in the experience that only birth on earth can bring. Stress and angst and fevered insistence on perfection keep me ungrounded, rootless and tumbling with every breeze that blows. I am kept in the past and the future when I tumble with the breeze, when what I am looking for is to live here now.

My answers for the way in, my answers for living in the now are found in simple, accessible avenues. Nature is my first and favored way in. Nothing has taught me more about peace and strength and acceptance of the way things unfold than trees and birds and flowers and stars. Nature is every spiritual text, every true word of every spiritual text playing itself out in living color. Right before my eyes and ears. If I am lost, I willingly throw myself into nature's embrace and suddenly, I am found. Feathers and petals and bark have saved me from the jagged edges of my past and the fear-filled illusions of my future. Because there is no where to be in nature, but the grounded, sane-filled present moment.

Another of my ways into the goodness of life is the recently adopted practice of yoga. Nothing has put me more in touch with the beauty and natural peace of my body than this physical practice. My body, having its own separate intelligence from my narrow mind, craves the stretches and movement. It craves the attention and love. It craves uncritical connection to my mind and spirit. Yoga is the bridge for that harrowing gap. It stimulates peace and love and acceptance between all 3 aspects of my being.

More favored ways into life include the words and advice of Eckhart Tolle, Marianne Wiliamson and Deepak Chopra. Writing, expressing myself creatively and listening to soothing music. Prayer, meditation and giving. All are avenues to ground me and root me. All offer the way into life, my life, especially as an ensemble.

What I get out of this collective of accessible practices is this: I get more moments of clear thinking. I get higher levels of acceptance of the way things are. I get more courage to change. To grow. To risk. I get more awareness of what myself and others need. I get more love. More peace. More stability. I get a reprieve from the drain of the past and the future. I get to embrace the wonders and opportunities of my life. This life. I get to live here now.

The Sacred Within

In my search for the sacred, I have come gently to the understanding, that what I have been searching for lies within. There is no recognizing the sacred without until it is first recognized within. It takes a willing surrender and a mind exhausted of fighting itself to slip past the gates of reason and glide into the presence of grace.

It can happen as a torrent of tears winds itself down and there is nothing left but the rhythm of the breath. In that space of emptiness and freshness, a presence can be felt. It is calm and soft and speaks in whispers, if at all. It's vibration is familiar. It feels like home. It is the soul having risen to the surface. And it feels nothing less than sacred.

This presence, this grace, this feather-light fullness is safety and ecstasy all at once. It is perfection and love and unshattering peace. It sustains everything. It is everything. It is ever present.

To feel this peace, this love, this ultimate safety, if only for a moment, is to be changed forever. Because once it is felt, it can be recognized again. Once the sacred is understood to dwell within, it suddenly appears without. In all of God's creations. If it suddenly disappears without, it is because it has been forgotten within. How we feel about ourselves is how we feel about the world and everything in it. If we know we carry the sacred with us, the sacred appears everywhere we go and in everyone we meet.

We are each of us sacred. We are each of us filled with grace and the spark of God. Let's be open to the awareness of that soft presence within. The love and the safety we each struggle to find without is at home within our surrendered minds and ready hearts. It is at home within our sacred selves.

{This glorious photo of honoring the sacred is from the incomparable website:

http://www.ashesandsnow.org/}

The Embrace Of Suffering

Everyone suffers. Some more loudly than others. Some more often than others. Some have made it a way of life and frankly, seem to thrive on it. Suffering seems to be an endless quality of humanity. A quality that makes us uncomfortable even when we are not the ones who suffer. Since happiness is not possible in every moment of a life, suffering, in its infinite manifestations, would serve us best if it was embraced.

It is the resistance to suffering that prolongs it. It is the resistance to the pain or the grief or the depression that allows it to endure. Suffering is meant to be a transition. A transition to a more refined state of self-understanding. We learn more about ourselves in a state of despair than we do when we are flying high. Or even coasting merrily along.

Suffering cracks open a doorway to our inner-most selves, the secret God-essence that few us take the time to acknowledge. Suffering is meant to cleanse and purify us. It is an alchemical process that refines our character and our soul. It leads us to an understanding of our greatest wants and needs and desires. But, because it is grossly uncomfortable, most of us seek to crush it down, drown it out, shop it, eat it and drink it into oblivion. We become addicted to the avoidance of suffering, and so it never ends.

Instead, if we could just summon the courage to sit with our pain, to acknowledge our pain, to feel it and allow it to burn, we would move beyond it at an astonishing rate. If we could just stop telling ourselves, "I shouldn't feel this way" or " I will appear weak before others if I allow myself to feel" or "oh my God, why did this happen to me?", if we could accept that we have the right to feel the pain and learn from it and use it to mold a stronger life, we would diminish our addictions and our forays into insanity. We would stop living a defensive life and start living a life that embraces. That partakes. That receives infinite bounty.

The courage to sit with, acknowledge, feel and burn the suffering comes from the breath. Next time we begin the cycle of suffering, if we could simply breathe loudly and rhythmically for 10 seconds, our suffering lessens. We consciously shift our whole selves out of the sting and at the same time allow ourselves to feel it more deeply. Breathe as loud as we can, and allow the breath to get us through it, because there is no getting around it. It is the attempt to get around it that impairs us.

Let's not avoid our suffering any longer. Let's be brave and feel our way through it. Let's use the simplest tool of the breath to aid us in our quest. Let's come out the other side more stable, more able and more compassionate towards ourselves. Let's give ourselves permission to feel and permission to heal.

Happy Valentine's Day

Nothing says "I love you" like a meat heart for your sweetheart.

Only $13.16. Such a deal.

Streams Of Living Water

" Set out now, while you're strong, on the heart's vast plain:

You'll never discover joy on the plain of the body.

The heart is the only house of safety, my friends:

It has fountains, and rose gardens within rose gardens.

Turn to the heart and go forward, travelers of the night;

there's where you'll find trees and streams of living water."

My favorite mystic poet, RUMI

Take One Small Step

Join me in taking one small step to realize a dream. Join me in extending one small effort in the direction of a more positive, fulfilling life. Stop looking at the enormity of what you have dreamed up for yourself and do one thing to invoke your vision. Do one thing to nab the attention of the Universe and let It know you are serious about manifesting this dream. Resist the temptation to sabotage yourself by focusing on three needful steps. Focus on one.

Prepare yourself.

Take the step.

One of my dreams, one of my visions for myself is to open a shop online. Something small and managable for myself in the midst of the life I have now. Something that reflects the qualities of this blog in a 3-dimensional form. Things to be welcomed into the home and heart that remind our souls of ever-present beauty and love. Things made by me.

Tonight, I cleared off my studio table and took one step towards realizing this dream. I prepared surfaces for paint. Yes, there are 239 other steps that must be taken to achieve the goal, but I set the intention. I put the energy out into the void. I demonstrated my willingness to help myself along, and now the Universe will respond.

The Universe will bring me snippets of inspiration, people who offer encouragement and the where-with-all to take the next step. Then the next after that. It is my responsibility to hold the vision of my dream, demonstrate willingness, and act. Even a small action makes a difference. It keeps the Universe engaged in helping me. It keeps the enegy alive.

So, let's not be daunted by how many steps it might really take to manifest a dream. Let's just take a step. Yes, it may take longer than we planned, than we seemingly have patience for. But in the end, life will begin again. And it will be sweeter and more fulfilling than if we had never dared to make our dream come true.

Bloom

Rise up. Unfurl. Bloom. Set your sights on living life and spread your heart wide open. Walk straight through the disease, the debt, the divorce, the death of someone you love. Walk through it because there is no getting around it, there is only getting through, one brave and determined step at a time. There is so much life to be lived and our traumas make us face the parts of ourselves that have never seen the light of day, much less the light of life. Walk straight through the trials and wait for your blood to start simmering again. It will. And when you feel the percolation in your heart, the renewed interest in life, rise up.

Rise up and open yourself to opportunities and connections that were too outside your narrow box to consider before trauma trampled your life. Open yourself to people and places and the purple hues of dawn. Welcome change because you have just survived change. Unfurl your hidden wings, your shimmering petals and grace the world with your true self.

Hold back nothing. Love with abandon, knowing love will never abandon you. Give your passions permission to thrive. Live your best life. Bloom for all the world to see.

{16 dawn-lit blooms on my orchid...what an inspiration!}

Francine Ward~ Self Love

"If love is an action, how do you express self-love? Self-love starts with having the courage to be who you are, regardless of what others might think. It is about having the courage to live your dreams, to do what makes you happy in life, so that one day you won't wake up saying, ‘I wish I had.’ Self-love is about self-care, making your health a priority. Self-love is revealed in your willingness to stay focused on the things you say are important. It's about having the courage to set boundaries and protect them".

~ Quote by: Francine Ward

My Birds Of Paradise

It is not often I find myself kneeling in snow. But the other day, instinct and gratitude brought me to my knees. Following the gentle whispers I have come to know as God, I went for a cold and sunny walk through Akron park. Listening to the soft suggestions going on in my brain, I followed the road above the creek. It was on that road, bliss burst through and stopped me in my tracks. It was on that road in a tree to my left, my personal paradise revealed itself.

Hanging from the underbelly of a limb, hammering away, was a rare and glorious Pileated Woodpecker. The largest woodpecker in North America. I have seen this rare bird an average of once a year, flying quickly by me and out of sight. Suddenly, here it was, in full view without aid of binoculars, doing what woodpeckers do.

It stayed in my view for no less than 20 minutes, swooping from tree to tree, trilling and calling and hammering for bettles slumbering beneath the cover of bark. It was when its mate flew in and landed nearby, I fell to my knees. They stayed together, in my view, for 10 minutes. Calling and joining each other on successive trees. At one point they were even joined by my favorite bird, the red-bellied woodpecker, and at that moment, I had to consciously open my heart wider to receive such levels of joy.

The Pileated Woodpeckers flew off towards the creek, one behind the other, bouncing silently over the cold air. I turned my attention back to the whispers within and wandered through the park. I fascinated myself with my own footprints in pristine expanses of snow. I leaned against elderly hemlocks and suddenly, I heard the calls. The woodpeckers were back in my view. They regaled me with their presence for another 10 minutes before chattering their way along the creek. My smile was miles wide and a lightness lifted me 3 feet above the snow.

Had I chosen to stay indoors, I would have missed a glimpse into my personal paradise. Had I ignored the whispers and instincts, my knees would have stayed warm, but I would have missed the making of a life-long memory. So little effort brought so much reward. I heeded my instincts and happiness flew in.

{Tthe photo of Drycopus Pileatus, all 16 to 20 inches of feathers, is a stock photo image}

Blue and White

What Do You Love?

Today, I want you to quiet your monkey-mind. The part of your mind that swings wildly from one illusion to another. From one worry to another. From one judgement to another. I want you to practice focusing the part of your mind that leads you into made-up trouble on something positive. Practice focusing for one minute. Yes, just one minute. I want you to think about what you love. Not who you love. That's another minute. This minute, I want you to think about what you love. Because it takes a bit of concentration and the monkey-mind must come to a rest while thinking positive thoughts.

While you're contemplating, I'll share with you what I love:

*The first scent of apple blossoms in May
*Orange roses
*The laughter of the red-bellied woodpecker
*Cats
*Stained glass windows
*Lancet arches
*Trees
*The color cerulean blue
*Rose petal tea
*European chocolate
*Hiking along a creek
*Autumn leaves
*Butterflies
*Every single bird
*Skeleton keys
*The poetry of Pablo Neruda
*Carousels
*Elephants
*Hot wine soup
*Moonlight on snow
*Kissing
*Red shoes

Like me, you will find that one minute is highly insufficient for focusing on things you love. One minute could easily turn into hours. And those pleasant hours will seem like minutes.

You see, love is the secret to making everything more positive. Focus on love and illusion retreats. Focus on love and worries abate. Next time your monkey-mind is swinging out of control, take a deep breath and focus on anything you love. Keep a list handy of your personal, positive loves and refer to it in times of need. Add to your list on a daily basis.

When you turn your thoughts to something highly personal and highly positive, blood pressure drops. Tears dry up. Shoulders relax. Give your mind a needed rest. Focus on what you love.

The Goddess Shift

For the women I know and love, and the women I have yet to know and come to love, and the women I will never have the privilege to meet, take heart, Dear Ones. We are individually and collectively in the midst of a shift. A shift of magnificent proportions. A shift of focus. A shift of purpose. A shift instituted and driven by the force of Love. We are in the midst of the Goddess Shift.

If you are awake and aware, you have no doubt felt the effects of this shift. It is felt in the hours of depression that seep into your daily round. It is felt in the tears that fall for unclear reasons. It is felt in the yearnings for something that cannot be named. It is felt in the unexpected happiness that swells in your heart when you peer through the doorway of a new-to-you world. The seeping and falling and yearning and swelling are signals that the life you have been leading is asking to evolve. Evolution is pressing at your window, asking you to let go of outmoded self-deprecation, outmoded dependencies, and outmoded excuses for playing small.

The upheaval or unease or new twinkle in your eye is shifting your personal evolution into a higher gear. A gear that is needful to keep pace with the coming opportunities to blanket the world with more Love. What is required to blanket the world? Women in charge of themselves. Women who have slurped rancid water from gutters and risen above those gutters one limb at a time. One small effort at a time. One small prayer and one pound of emotional strength at a time. Women who have found the strength of Goddesses in the marrow of their beings and lifted themselves above the manic fray. This is what Love requires to heal the world of its ills. You are being asked to heal yourself, so you may assist in the healing of others.

Upheaval and depression and new ideas that catch your attention are shifting you out of your old lesser-self and ushering in a refined, more balanced inner beauty. The shift can be painful, depending on how invested you have been in playing small and dismissing your value. The sooner you understand how important you are, how precious you are and how much your personal gifts can contribute to the healing of the world, the sooner the shift becomes bearable. Navigable. Enjoyable.

You are a participant in this Goddess Shift because you have something no one else can contribute to the healing puzzle. You have a brand of love that the world cannot balance itself without. Keep rising up one limb at a time. Keep crying until the vision of your true beauty becomes clear. Keep telling yourself you are capable enough to fulfill your needs. Keep exploring. Keep praying. And along the way, keep one hand out to help the next shifting Goddess stay on track.

See yourself. Heal yourself. Allow the shift. And do your part to blanket the world with Love.

Winter's Opportunity

In the depths of winter, a quiet form of despair can seep into our minds. A weighted apathy can slow our pace. A disinterest in the world can shut us away. We wonder where our enthusiasm went. We wonder where our passion went. Friends don't satisfy us. Books don't satisfy us. Food is always on our minds. We feel stuck. Bloated. Impatient. We worry this will not pass.

In the depths of winter, we put on the death mask. The mask is an opportunity to turn away from the world and look within. It is an opportunity to embrace stillness. In that stillness of the death-mask experience, we are invited to look at our true selves. We are invited to relinquish our false and fearful selves. We are invited to die to all that holds us back from realizing our full potential.

The death mask, with its accompanying despair and apathy and disinterest, is a divine tool of transformation. The only way to transform and move towards greater levels of happiness, is to see ourselves clearly as we are~ beings deserving of joy and goodness and loving kindness. We must turn away from the world and its distractions to see and hear the truth of ourselves. We must turn away for a time, to uncover new worlds within. To know ourselves more intimately. To attend to the rage and the shame that holds us back. To feel how beautiful we are.

We must die to the false beliefs we have stubbornly held about ourselves. We must die to the idea we are less than others because of our life circumstances. We must die to the notion our every life-affirming wish cannot come true.The death mask is ours to embrace. We are not stuck. We are transforming. Through the gifts of despair and apathy, we can choose to turn inwards. We can choose to use winter's opportunity to heal our darkness and reveal our light.

{This is a post from last year. Although the idea of friends or books not satisfying me does not apply currently, I re-read this post and thought to myself, "if this notion would apply to even one person right now, and they read it and it helped in even a small way, it is worth re-posting." If that person is you, my highest blessings go with you.}

My Essential Yoga

This morning, my world was turned upside down. In a good way. All because of Yoga. I have been the blessed recipient of unintentional private Yoga lessons each Monday morning since last September. I joined a new studio and have been the only dedicated soul to claim Monday mornings as the best time for my practice. Each week I am inspired and planted more firmly on a course of contentment. Each week I am asked to set an intention for my session and my forthcoming days. ( Today: "go with the flow") Each week I get stronger and more willing to find out just what my body can do. And what my body can do is more than I ever thought possible.

Yoga is helping me to understand just how open I really am, even when there are too many days I think I am closed. It is helping me to understand how willing I am to try new things and how willing I am to be my own best support system. The postures and breath work are aiding me in stability and awakening me to my inner resources. If I can hold myself in a position longer than last week, I know I am getting stronger on all levels of my being, not just the physical. If I can reach just a bit farther than last week, I know I am becoming more flexible in all areas of my life.

So, this morning, when I was encouraged to try inverted postures, I knew my world would be turning upside down this week. With the help of my instructor, Kathy, I managed 2 handstands. With the help of a wall and Kathy's encouragement, I managed 1 smooth headstand. Strength keeps building, new perspectives are being embraced and if my world does turn upside down, I will have the fortitude to meet it. Hopefully, with grace.


{For anyone Yoga-curious living in the Buffalo, NY area, please give my new friend, Kathy, a visit at her studio. Find out how Yoga can change your perspective about yourself and build strength on all levels. Essential Yoga is located at 9830 Main St. in Clarence, across from the post office. Call 716-759-7303 for rates and class schedules.}


Photo of inverted Kestrel is a stock photo image. One of my favorites...

Frost and Clarity

Very little is clear. Frost and hesitation and doubt are obscuring my view. Both inner and outer. Decisions feel too big to handle, yet the perception of light is there. Just beyond my doubts. Just beyond the limitations I have outgrown, yet still choose to shield myself with.

Very little is clear. But I have decided to relax. I have decided to take the new road and put my needs and well being in the hands of God, instead of thinking I have to figure everything out on my own.

Logistics. Safety. Funding. Sanity. I'm handing it over. I'm going to take a nap. Or maybe read a book. Or create something with my hands. Or attend to the needs of someone else. I'm going to let go, and let God steer and make it clear. I'm going to let go and accept the outcome labeled, "this is for your highest good".

I'm going to live in the moment and trust. Trust that my life and its details are of interest to the Loving Energy that made me. Trust that, with little effort and worry, decisions will come easily and the light of truth will be revealed.

3 Things~ Lao Tzu

I have just three things to teach:
Simplicity, patience, compassion.
These are your three greatest treasures.
Simple in actions and thoughts,
you return to the source of being.
Patient with both friends and enemies,
you accord with the way things are.
Compassionate toward yourself,
you reconcile all beings in the world.

Lao-Tzu

A New Day

The word of the day is "new". New music to listen to, new tea to drink, new curtains to hang on my window. New-to-me effects on my computer to play with, new authors to read, new business to lift out of my brain and into the 3rd dimension. This day and this month and this year are all about new beginnings. Numerologically, 2008 is a "one" year and ones mean new beginnings. New opportunities. New adventures. New levels of awareness.

The most important "new" of this day and this month and this year for me will be a new mindset. It will take a conscious effort on my part to be open to new things, new people, and new thoughts. To welcome anything new and fresh and beneficial, I will need to change my mind about the way I see my world. I will need to disregard and move beyond inhibiting patterns of thought, like the one that covertly tells me I don't quite deserve the same level of goodness I see others allowing themselves to have. Or the one that overtly tells me that to be seen is to be made vulnerable. And vulnerable is not in the comfort zone.

This is the time in my life, this is the year in my life to come out of the comfort zone to a greater degree than I have previously felt capable. Because, really, what am I waiting for? Why hold back any longer? Approval isn't going to be any more forthcoming from outside sources this year than it was last year. So now is the time to say," I need no one's approval but my own. I'm doing it anyways". It will be up to me and my new thoughts about myself to invoke the adventures I crave and deserve. It will be up to me to think differently and say "yes" to opportunities. It will be up to me to create, through my thoughts, the world I'm ready to embrace. Come hell. Come high water. Come sputters and doubts and quaking boots.

It's time to travel more. It's time to create more. It's time to stop denying myself goodness. There are new hearts to welcome and new levels of compassion to attain towards myself. Join me, if you will, in making 2008 the sworn year of new and positive beginnings.

My New Year's Wish For You

In 2008, I wish for you the awareness of Love with all 5 senses.

I wish for you the sound of love in voices that call your name. Listen closely. The human voice is one of the greatest conductors of God's purest Being, God's embracing vibration. Listen with your heart. Speak with your heart. Use sound to soothe and bless and uplift the world of everyone you meet. Turn down the discord, turn up the Love.

I wish for you new eyes to see the beauty in yourself. Love is beauty, beauty is love. When you see and acknowledge the beauty within yourself, you see the beauty more clearly in those around you.

I wish for you the life-altering therapy of loving touch. Nothing is more healing than the human hand. Your hand, when offered gently to another, is a conduit for God's love. If you have no hands, know your lips are also gateways to healing. Open your arms. Pucker up. Give and receive. Be touched by love.

I wish for you the discernment to taste only food that was prepared with love. You know when a meal or a cookie has been made with love, the flavor is just that much richer, that much sweeter, that much more healthy for your system. The only meal plan that heals and balances the human body is food infused with the love and positive intentions of its creator. Whether the cook or baker is known or unknown, Love's vibration can be tasted. Eliminate uncaring food. Be healed and slimmed by the flavor of love.

I wish for you good scents. Whatever tickles your nose with pleasure, whatever fragrance makes you swoon, love is the mixer of that fine elixir. Body fluids mixed in the act of love, cinnamon bread fresh from the oven, lilies and lavender and rosemary and thyme, kittens and babies and sweet spring soil. Fill your lungs with saturated love.

Love is all around you. Hear it. See it. Touch it. Taste it. Breath it in. In 2008, I wish for you to come to your senses.



{http://thefirstmorning.wordpress.com/2007/12/28/new-year-promises-to-myself/ For more new year's wishes about the power of the senses, visit my favorite preacher.}

The Masked Bandit

Yesterday, at 7:06am, I was driving to work on Route 5. The sun had yet to rise. Traffic was not an issue. My mind was reviewing the morning's dream. Two points of light in the middle of the road, low to the ground, snapped me out of my lazy review. Animal eyes, yellow-green in my headlights, were moving back and forth. The size and shape of the shadow in the road told me it was a raccoon. A raccoon in trouble.

As I slowed down, I saw the raccoon was writhing on it's back, trying to right itself with flailing forelegs. I sucked in my breath, hard, and spewed out expletives. The bandit was suffering. And there was nothing for me to do. Had the eyes belonged to a cat, I would have been out of my car in flash, scooping it up. But raccoons carry rabies, and I am not equipped to end an animal's life, so I drove on.

I detest suffering. It hurts my heart. And so I began to pray. I asked all Universal agents at large to attend to the bandit in the road. I asked for its highest, most gentle good to be done. I asked for its ability to crawl off the road or its swift death. Whichever was more merciful. I prayed all the way to work, knowing it was the best I could do, then I turned my attention away.

After a short work day and completed errands, I drove home along Route 5. I had to see what mercy had delivered. There, straddling yellow lines in the middle, was my bandit. Flat on its back, forelegs stretched up to its head, belly exposed to the afternoon light. I stopped my car. When traffic had cleared, I walked to the yellow lines and said, "I'm here now. I came back to help". And with that, I picked it up by its tail and walked it over the side of the road. It was not quite stiff when I laid it down on winter grass under a tree. It's teeth and paws were covered in blood, but it had not been crushed. Nor would it be. I covered it with branches that arcked over its belly and told it it's life was a gift and a blessing to this planet. I told it suffering was done and peace was all it would know. I said, "bless you, little one" and walked away.

In exchange for honoring its death, the raccoon spoke to me as I drove home. It told me that its medicine, its symbolic energy, was that of the mask. The mask has many applications for transformations, healings and rituals. All for positive purposes. But in my case, the mask was inhibiting. In my case, the mask I wear is hiding my true self. And without living my truth for all to see, the bandit told me I would never know the happiness I longed for. I would never know the full joy of expressing my life's purpose. The bandit told me I am half way between 2 lives. I am on the yellow lines and now is the time for me to make the choice. Remove the mask and walk proudly to the other side of the life I was born to live, or stay stuck in the middle, still wearing the mask of the life I have outgrown.

Today, I am holding the mask in my hands. Tomorrow, with the help of a raccoon spirit, I hope to leave the mask on winter grass under a tree.

My Christmas Wish For You

This Christmas, if you have lost someone dear to your heart, I wish for you 3 moments of peace amid the sadness. Just 3 small moments where the pain recedes and the presence of your loved one is palpable in the glow of white lights.

This Christmas, if you are alone, I wish for you the knowledge that God is always with you. Stillness and candle flame and a quiet mind will invoke for you whispers in your heart that confirm your worth and love-ability. Be still until you hear "I love you, Child" at the very edges of your awareness. Know you are never truly alone.

This Christmas, if you spend it with family, forgive everyone their foibles and dare to see them as individual human beings doing their best to live a valued life. Just one day of removing judgements and "shoulds" and expectations, just one short day of seeing them exactly as they are, will produce miracles. In you.

This Christmas, if you receive everything on your list, or you receive nothing on your list, or you had no list to begin with, I wish for you the most over-looked and critical gift that exists. Your breath. And its continued flow. Without your breath and the life-animating force it carries, you would have no lists to enjoy or aspire to or choose to never write.

Breathe deep the scents of the season. Breathe deep the love that time and space cannot erase. Breathe deep the God-force within and around you. Breathe deep the miracle of forgiveness. This Christmas, inhale love. Exhale peace.


{Ornament image is a stock photo}