Category: Spirit

Ego v. Spirit – can there be a winner?

A few things have really been bothering me lately.  Far too many of us are living in “ego.”  What I mean by this is when we live in ego, we claim moral authority, we judge, we make pronouncements regarding what ought to be and we are noisy.  When we live in ego, we cannot be still enough to know that spirit is trying its level best to get through.   When we live in ego, we cannot summon enough compassion to pull ourselves out of ego and see things from the level of spirit.  We are surrounded by the white noise of our televisions, our radios, our personal devices and our own voices– our profanities.  When we are noisy we cannot hear the truth of what is.  This is not to say that we don’t need ego in our day-to-day lives because we do.  Ego protects, ego manages and ego even guides in the material well-being of things. But as Suzy Orman says “People first, then things….”

I watched a friend’s relationship unravel because the two involved were not meeting on a level field– one was using anger born in ego to communicate and the other was trying to respond in spirit.  It wasn’t working because the anger blocked any wisdom that could possibly have been felt in the heart.  The one who was responding in spirit found herself being shut out, shut down and no longer a partner in her relationship.  The angry one wanted to blame and couldn’t understand why his position wasn’t the only one that mattered.

Anger has its home in ego.  Its home is “I am right and thus I have might.”  Anger is another word for deep fear, deep sorrow, deep hurt.  All of which can be healed in spirit.  However, in order for healing to take place, anger needs to recede and there must be room for willingness, surrender, acceptance and acknowledgment.

Acknowledgement is extremely important– one can accept that one is wrong but not having the presence of mind to acknowledge that to another belies the acceptance.   Acknowledgement means that in speaking the truth of my spirit, I am “…heading, however haltingly, toward unity.” (Deepak Chopra)

What bothers me is this– in our Western culture, there has been far too much ego-based judgement on what ought to be right, what ought to be good and what ought to be in general.  The fact of the matter is this– every soul, every spirit has something unique to contribute so what ought to be really is an ego-value-based judgement.

So who wins in the battle between Ego v. Spirit?  No one.  The winning happens when ego is set aside and the world is seen through the pure potentiality of spirit.  “Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field – I will meet you there.”
(Jalaluddin Rumi)

 

Practice the Power of Intention

The power of intention is the power of love and receptivity.
It asks nothing of anyone, it judges no one, and it encourages others to be free to be themselves. Remember: You were intended out of love, so you must be love in order to intend.

Dr. Wayne Dyer

Spirit to Spirit…

From my favourite Poet of all time– Jalaluddin Rumi:

wordsbyrumi

Celebrate life and say thank you!

Always say thank you ….

It’s the only way to keep ourselves sane in an insane world.  And it’s really one of the only ways in which to keep ourselves happy and grounded.

Spirit reflects what it is given in abundance.  If your focus is on how much you don’t have then you will find yourself experiencing scarcity.  However, if your focus is on abundance, then you will find yourself experiencing prosperity.

In times of craziness, in times of joy rising, your focus will determine the outcome of your experience.  In witnessing the death of a beloved family member and the birth of another, I realised that sometimes crazy comes in a package deal!  And in giving thanks for both lives I began to realise something even more  life affirming: that in celebration of a life well lived, it paved the way for the blessings of a new life.   When we say thank you to this wonderful universe of ours, we are blessed in ways we cannot imagine.

I hope your thank yous this week bring much love and abundance.

A New, Happy Year! My wishes for all…

To all celebrating and welcoming in the New Year, I wish you a happy start to 2013.

My wish for you is that you find peace and joy in all good things and that abundance in all good things be yours.

My wishes for the world are these:

That we give thanks and feel gratitude for the abundance of blessings that are upon us every day.  That every day begins with a new opportunity to give thanks.

That we begin to welcome and be open to the spiritual paradigm shift of our wonderful universe.  Too many of us are steeped in cultural, behavioural and religious dogma. Let us be open to receiving and being grateful for what we receive.

That elected officials participate in ‘doing the right thing,’ as opposed to holding steadfast to egotistical constraints.

That victims of horrendous crimes are not re-victimized because of the cultural barriers that prevent laws from being upheld.

That governments of countries experiencing civil strife and civil war open themselves up to dialogue.  And remain open to solutions.

That poverty and disparity be vanquished.

That we continue (and some of us begin) taking better care of planet Earth.  Quite frankly, it’s the only one we’ve got!  It makes sense to respect our little blue dot.

That people begin to say what they mean and mean what they say.  That we begin to move away from “what will people think?” and begin moving towards “will this feel good in my soul?”

That we put an end to bullying and domestic violence.  No child should have to consider, even for a moment, what his or her life would look like if he or she were no longer alive.  No person suffering any kind of violence should have to.

That we put colour barriers aside and reach for the commonalities that bind us all; we are all human.  We all eat, sleep, excrete waste, we all take up space (on this little blue dot) and we all, for the most part, experience life.

That we understand the need for financial security and stability.

You have within you the power to create the brilliant future that is meant to be yours.

My wish for you is that you use everything within you to make that a reality for yourselves.

My wish for all of you is that you live a life wherein joy rising greets you in the morning and gratitude for the abundance of blessings in your life gives rest to your body at night.

Have a wonderful 2013!!

 

 

When Hope breathes…

“The right to hope is the most fundamental human motivation I know.”  
 — Baccalaureate Address, Brown University, His Highness The Aga Khan 1996

 
When hope takes root within an individual, that hope can be such a factor for motivating and lasting change.  A belief in oneself to overcome, to outlive, to outgrow, to outmaneuver whatever challenges may lie in one’s path begins in hope.  Hope is the quintessential sustenance of that belief.

Challenges will always be present in life; this is factual.  The challenge to life is to find Grace within rising above or meeting those challenges.  Many of you are questioning if you are overdoing things for the holidays.  Others are questioning when or if they’ll ever see their relatives from the Middle East.  Yet others, are sleeping on sidewalks in the coldest of wintry weather.   All of us possess the capability of hope; of grasping on to whatever it is that causes hope to breathe spirit into us.  So long as we have a belief within ourselves to strive beyond our known capabilities, we have hope.

The tricky thing about hope is that it is highly criticised and often imitated but never fully achieved.  If we look at what constitutes hope, we have to look at what necessitates its existence. When something isn’t working on the level we need or expect, hope is necessitated.  When all else seems lost, hope is necessitated. When Grace is needed but isn’t quite present, hope is necessitated.  To have hope, is to change an underlying human limitation: losing faith.

There are many who would argue that hope is a waste of time.  The other day I heard Diane Sawyer remark that someone had once told her “a criticism is a really bad way of making a request.” If we apply this to those who would criticise hope, it is not surprising to realise that those who belittle this great motivating factor are those who likely need it most.

This is what I know for sure– when it seems that I am being challenged most and the only place to which I can turn is Spirit, I know that my ‘right to hope’ is so powerful, that Spirit has no choice but to acquiesce.

 

Life is short. So live it.

I received this on email the other day from a sister-friend. I’d forgotten that these are rules by which I have always lived.  I often smile to myself in public.  It either freaks people out or it makes them wonder what the heck I’ve been up to!

Every message I have needed this week has shown up in the form of emails, phone calls, intuition, and believe it or not, in a box of oranges! This abundant universe of ours always works in wondrous and miraculous ways.  As Ms. Oprah says “you get in life what you have the courage to ask for.”  So ask.   Ask for more moments that make you smile.  Ask for moments that take your breath away because you know in those moments, you have really lived.  Ask for the joy of laughter to be part of your life every day, and ask to love.  Do whatever makes you happy, but above all, love.

Have a blessed, blessed week!

From Iyanla Vanzant’s “Peace from Broken Pieces,”

“Until and unless you know that you are enough just the way you are, you will always be driven to look for more. Knowing that you are enough is a function of consciousness.   Your enough-ness develops in direct proportion to the relationship you have with your true identity.”

“If you never learn the language of gratitude,
you will never be on speaking terms with happiness”

          

Perception….

can be everything…

Last week I realised that a friend who is terrified of crows and can’t seem to remember where she left her last bottle of perfume has the depth of compassion that people only dream of in their lifetimes.  But does her relative “absentmindedness” and phobia override her ability to feel compassion for all things?  Or should it?   While we are constantly amused at her inability to locate her belongings, we are also constantly amazed at her ability to see things from perspectives not often realised or even imagined.

Some people are offended by the slightest nuance of behaviour.  Others couldn’t care less.  So where do we find balance in our lives?  And is it okay to be offended by one set of behaviours whilst declaring our love of humanity and our desire that all living creatures experience compassion and therefore have the perception of understanding?  What is in fact, the perception of understanding?

Can you walk a mile in the shoes of one whose company you would rather do without?  Is that even possible?  If we all felt compassion, would we then be moved to action?  If “intention determines experience,” then would it not be feasible to expect of ourselves the innovative quality of spirit moving our beings?  So while my friend can continue to search for that pair of perfect  black heels she bought on one of her many holidays, I know that in her search, the material doesn’t matter.  Hence, her continued need to find things.  Finding compassion comes easily, because she lives it.

well, except for the crows!   But we all have work to do…