Make a Joyful Noise!

 

 

Life constantly tests our willingness to see the good and beautiful around us. In the past week, one of my favorite forests — the Black Forest on the edge of Colorado Springs — burst into raging flames and friends got evacuated from their home. Hundreds of families became homeless when their houses burned to the ground.

 

Here in Santa Fe, where we have situated our RV home for the summer, fires have devoured forests near Pecos to the north and Jemez to the west. My heart sinks every time I see or smell the smoke and when I think of the wildlife that died or became displaced. 

 

Sometimes just the details and aggravations of daily life keep us from seeing the good and beautiful around us. Situations like these can spiral your mood downward:

• your computer gets infected
• your phone dies in the middle of an important conversation
• your spouse breaks his arm or gets sick

 

When devastating or disruptive incidents happen, it's natural to react emotionally — to feel sad, angry, upset or even hopeless. It's important to acknowledge and feel the pain.

 

It's also important to place the situation in perspective and see beyond what's in front of you.

 

As difficult as it may be, count your blessings. Appreciate the good and beautiful: the friend who took you in, the tech support guy who soothed your concerns, the skilled medical staff, a bird singing, a flower in full blossom.

 

And then...make a joyful noise.

 

 

Note: David Muenker photographed this lovely French Polynesian woman singing on the island of Raiatea.

 

 

 

Loving Thoughts Prove to Be Powerful

In a recent encounter with a woman who was spewing anger and complaints at me, I garnered the presence of mind to remember a spiritual article I read recently.

It gave this advice: Look at the person and say to yourself, "I accept you. I bless you."

As I repeated in my mind, "I accept you. I bless you," I watched the woman's anger melt before by eyes. Her countenance softened. She became civil, and as her body relaxed, she began talking in friendly tones.

When she left, she kindly said, "Have a nice day."

Thinking those loving thoughts proved more powerful than I could have ever imagined!

Getting Centered and Grounded Walking a Labyrinth

From Florida to California, we have encountered labyrinths on our travels. When I see one, I walk it if at all possible. I find that labyrinths help me get centered, grounded and connect with Spirit.

The labyrinth's path weaves back and forth as  it follows the pattern from the outside to the center and back. The rhythmic turns seem to cause the mind's focus to shift from the left side of the brain to the right side and back again. Back and forth; back and forth. Yin and yang. Logical and creative. Masculine and feminine energies.

Depending on what's happening in my life at the time I walk a labyrinth, I may seek peace of mind, balance or guidance with a decision. I only know what I'm going to focus on at the moment I step onto the labyrinth.

The other day, I mentioned to my husband that we hadn't walked a labyrinth since the one we happened upon on a beach in northern California 18 months ago. Its layout was set with stones, drift wood and feathers laid in the sand. The surf roaring in my ears, breeze caressing my skin and sun beaming down on the crown of my head made walking that labyrinth one of my most cherished memories.

My husband immediately googled labyrinths in Santa Fe, New Mexico. To our delight, it has four labyrinths easily accessible to the public. One of them was right under our noses when we visited the Cathedral Basilica St. Francis of Assisi off Santa Fe's historic plaza!

Made of inlaid colored stone, the cathedral's outdoor labyrinth lies mere steps from the main entrance. Its 11-circuit design with a 6-petal rose at the center is patterned after the famed Chartres Cathedral Labyrinth in France.

While tourists photographed the church and statuary, I walked the labyrinth, pausing in each petal of the center rose to meditate on an intention. In the midst of voices and busy activity, I enjoyed sublime peace. I felt reconnected to the Source. I felt at one.

And I was reminded to become more aware of my surroundings. At any time, a labyrinth just might be in plain sight!

Getting the Courage to Fly!

Just a few more steps to the edge of the cliff -- and the option to fly!

While conversing with Spirit today about a big project of mine, the message came through loud and clear that I have a choice to make. 

I can stay at a standstill and continue keeping the project stashed away on a shelf. This is the option I’ve been following the past several months by default. Although this option is safe, it is frustrating. No matter how hidden from view my project may be, its unfinished form keeps poking at my consciousness, pleading "Don’t leave me like this. Please finish me. Make me complete."

Or I can take the remaining steps leading to the edge of the cliff, take a deep breath, and step off the cliff with faith that I will fly – that whatever happens as a result of following through with this project is an essential part of my spiritual growth and expansion. 

In truth, I have hesitated moving forward for several reasons. There’s comfort in staying small. But I sense that this project won’t let me stay that way. 

On a spiritual level, I know that when this work gets out into the world, it will require me to step into the bigger role I am here to fulfill. That’s intimidating to my human self who thinks she’s flying solo. But it’s exciting and exhilarating when I remember that I am not alone. As I take deep breaths infused with faith and trust in the Higher Power, my jangled nerves calm. My resolve strengthens.

I have made the commitment to resume my steps on the path starting tonight when I’ll spend an hour of sacred time revisiting the project. My intention is for this to be the first of many small, sweet, consistent steps.

Instead of trying to do this work alone, I hope to remember to call on the support of my Divine Dream Team and fully entrust the process to Spirit. And to move toward the edge with ease and grace.

Namaste.

How To Build Trust In The Answers Inside You

If you get the inside right, the outside will fall into place.

~Eckhart Tolle

Western culture has conditioned us to look outside ourselves for answers. We turn to our families, peer groups, religion, academia, the media and government to show us what to think, what to feel and what to do.

This conditioning causes us to question the counsel we get from inside ourselves--intuitive nudges, inner voice, rumblings in the gut and the like.

Yet, except when ego-driven, our own counsel provides amazing guidance and answers.

The challenge is to trust the information we receive and act on it.

Part of cultivating trust in our own answers and, as Tolle says, “get the inside right,” is to regularly connect with that inner knowing. The more we connect with it, the more we learn how to distinguish between the voice of ego and the voice of inner wisdom.

In time, we develop the capability to “know” when the guidance is truly coming from our inner wisdom. And the fear and hesitancy of following its counsel lessens.

Writing from Source provides an easy way to connect with your inner wisdom and to strengthen your trust in it. The monthly Writing from Source teleseminars give participants the opportunity to experience the process firsthand in a safe, supportive setting.

You can begin your journey to deepen your connection with the answers inside you by attending the free monthly Writing from Source teleseminars. Learn more…

Happy Valentine's Day

I wish you a life filled with love each and every moment! ~ Rose

Challenge Is Change With Added Oomph!

Have you noticed that the word challenge is often used as a euphemism for unwelcome change? That change could be anything from the inconvenient, such as learning how to walk with your foot in a cast, to the traumatic, such as getting on with life after the death of a loved one.

A friend pointed out that only 3 letters make the words challenge and change different. L L E  Yet when we give those letters significance, they can make all the difference in how we handle change.

He gives the letters LLE this meaning:

Live Life Empowered

When you approach an unwelcome change from the perspective of empowerment, you transform it into a challenge — a change during which you choose to live life empowered!

I would add that when we fully recognize that we are never alone — that we always have Source supporting, guiding and protecting us — we gain even greater strength to live life empowered. 

As always, it's our choice. I opt to embrace change by living my life empowered. How about you?

Learning to Trust the Flow of Life

How can you follow the course of your life if you do not let it flow?

~Lao-tzu

When I think about being in the flow of life, rivers immediately come to mind. Man creates huge dams to control rivers and hold their powerful waters back. But unless the dams provide a means for at least some of the water to continue flowing, the structures fail.  The water eventually creates a path around the dams or bursts right through them. 

Life is like a river. Surrender to life's flow and it will carry you over and around obstacles. It will take you through spillways to maneuver around dams. It will flush you out of stagnant pools created by flotsam and debris. When turbulence pulls you under, the water will, in time, shoot you back up to the surface. 

Nothing flows on a river without encountering blocks, obstacles or rapids. But most everything eventually reaches the mouth of the river. 

So why fight the flow? Why refuse to budge from this one spot in the bend of the river? Why resist inevitable change? 

Why not simply relax and go with the flow, and let it reveal the course of my life? 

It's a question I ask myself often — usually at times when life feels difficult, I'm struggling, and obstacles rear up in front of me. 

I know the answer. When I choose not to go with the flow, it is because my faith and trust in myself to stay the course falters. And that happens when my connection with the Divine waivers. 

The solution lies in staying connected with my Source — the power through whose guidance and direction I can co-create the course of my life.