We are forever growing and expanding.

February 5, 2009 at 2:57 pm | In General Thoughts, faith, meditation, spirituality | Leave a Comment
Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

I have a confession to make: I tend to be a bit judgmental of people in the healing world who move from one modality to another, in an endless procession of new classes and certifications.  Today they’re a massage therapist, next year they’ve added Reiki and tapping to their list of credentials.

Enough, I always think.  Just practice your trade and stop getting, getting, getting!

But now I have another confession to make: I’ve begun to do the same thing.

I can’t speak for others about their motives.  All I know is that for me, it just feels right.

I never thought I’d be doing Shamanic Journeying.  Never.  Not once.  No way.  Not me. (In fact, I have a dear friend who’s spent the past 5 years making a film on the injustices to native people by the commercialization of their spiritual practices!)

And now I’m doing it?

Well, yes.  I am.

And the changes that have taken place within me – and within my work as a Healer – are stunning.

So what’s this all about, this thing that seems like an endless search for the “one right modality?”

Here’s the deal: In the end, we are all looking for the same thing.

Love.

With a capital L.

“Love that casts a widening pool of light.”

I might find it today through journey work, yesterday through Reiki, and tomorrow through sitting in stillness.  You might find it through Christianity, while the next guy finds it through whirling dervish-ing. That lady over there? Past-life-regression. And this one? Transcendental meditation.

The list is endless.

And that is a good thing.

It’s a testament to the fact that no two people are alike – and no one person remains the same from one moment to the next.

We are forever growing and expanding.  We cannot expect our spiritual practice to remain the same.

But through this web of differences – between people, and within the ever-evolving nature of Self – the one constant is Love.

It doesn’t matter how we connect to it – this Love, this light.

It only matters that we be with it in a way that feels fully right to us.

Deeply, genuinely, peacefully.

Love that casts a widening pool of light – Day 13

January 20, 2009 at 8:59 pm | In General Thoughts, a better world, faith, soul, truth | Leave a Comment
Tags: , , , , ,

“On the brink, on the brim, on the cusp — praise song for walking forward in that light.”

From the Inaugural poem by Elizabeth Alexander

The light she’s referring to is, as she says, the mightiest word: “What if the mightiest word is love, love beyond marital, filial, national. Love that casts a widening pool of light.”

I am struck and filled and overflowing with a sense of awe. This language, these things of which I’ve been thinking, feeling, teaching, writing – they’ve found an audience with the world.

Clearly I’m not the first to use these words. But I do often feel…well, that many consider me a bit of a…hippie-freak, or what others would call a heathen. I wouldn’t say I feel misunderstood, but I certainly don’t feel as though I’m swimming with a very big school of fish.

And by my nature, the sense of swimming against the crowds is fairly uncomfortable. And expressing any level of faith, let alone a strong one, using strong words, in public…well, it’s taken no small amount of courage, and faith (!), for me to do it.

I find myself choosing my words carefully when talking with “normal” people, catching myself when I begin to speak of a person’s energy, or the energy exchanges I so frequently witness within a given situation.

But Ms. Alexander did not filter her words for “normal” people.  She wrote and spoke them straight from her heart.

I’ve been thinking about this lately, before today’s events.  How can I ask to become more connected, when in the next breath I apologize for my connection? How can I invite openness, as a healer, to those healing powers that are not mine at all but are something much greater than me, and then in the next moment make a disclaimer about my openness?

In doing this, I’m holding myself back.  When I look at the people I most admire, they are the souls who know their inner light and do not attempt to dim it.  They do not worry that others around them may not understand.  They are the ones who let their light shine out of them just as brightly as it has come into them.  This is precisely why I so deeply admire them.

Today’s Inaugural Ceremony was steeped, for those who were listening, in the language of Spirit. As the President himself wisely noted, we need not split hairs about the name of this spirit: “For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus, and nonbelievers.”  No, we need only to invite that spirit into our daily lives.

We are on the brink, the brim, the cusp, as Ms. Alexander pointed out. I, for one, am ever-more committed to playing my part in bringing this deep, unearthly love, this widening pool of light, to the fore.

I will let my light shine, and I will not make apologies for it.

And the beat goes on – Day 12

January 19, 2009 at 9:09 pm | In 21 Days to 21 Minutes, General Thoughts, creative healing, faith, meditation | Leave a Comment
Tags: , , , ,

Well, Day Twelve was no easier than Day One.

For some reason I was under the impression that by now I would feel some sort of progress…you know, see some return on my investment.

Alas, that does not seem to be the case.  I’m still hopeful, though, and here’s why:

In my writing and teaching about Creative Healing, I’m always struck at how often the idea of non-linear-ness comes to me.

For a few years I’ve led groups through a book called The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron.  There’s a daily exercise in the book called the Morning Pages, where you write free-form 3 pages first thing every morning – no thought goes into it, just total stream of consciousness.

People often think that after writing the pages for a week or two their lives will instantaneously turn around. And they get frustrated when it doesn’t happen that way.

In my infinite wisdom, I know the folly in such thinking.

These changes you’re seeking, I say, are non-linear.

Yes, change will come, I say – but it won’t be immediate, and it likely won’t be what you’re expecting.

The important thing, I say, is the act itself.  It’s the commitment, the daily return to your internal self.

Ultimately, I say, it’s an act of faith. One must continue this practice without proof, without understanding, without cause and effect.

Oh, how easy it is to see outside of ourselves.

But I’ll take this reminder – this thing I can see so clearly for others – as a gift for myself today. I will continue my practice on faith alone, on knowing that this is a path toward a peace that I hold so dear.

And the beat goes on….

Blog at WordPress.com. | Theme: Pool by Borja Fernandez.
Entries and comments feeds.