Saying Goodbye to the Past

It is December 31st, 2011. The last day of the year. We tend to focus on the coming year today yet before we can truly move into the New Year it's important to say goodbye to what has been. Come to think of it, I don't remember ever having thought about saying goodbye to the year I am leaving  even though so much of the work I do is about making peace with the past.

What do I need to say goodbye to so that I can start a brand new page in my life story tomorrow? Hmm...the first thing that comes to mind is doubt and worry about the future. This is nothing new for me and I do find myself working with old fearful thought patterns of doubt on a fairly regular basis. I've come a long way with it yet I am aware of how strong these patterns tend to be at times so that is first on my list of what I choose to say goodbye to in 2011.

Another belief pattern it's time to release is that of lack. Again, a very familiar theme in my life that is easy for me to fall into. It's a continuous process of shifting out the habit of seeing what's missing to that of awareness of oneness with Life. I notice that when I am too outwardly focused for extended periods of time it's easy to get caught up in worldly things and lose my sense of connectedness to the All.

I'd say those are the two main habits it is truly time for me to say goodbye to. I had no idea this was what my blog post was going to be about today so as I sit here writing this I am also pondering how this is best accomplished. The first thing that comes to mind is continuing to compassionately say no to the limiting thoughts as they show up and keep filling the space with love. It's getting easier all the time to do this and I can still get caught up in focusing too much attention on these patterns at times. I've said it so often yet cannot express enough how important it is to be aware, to say no to those ideas that aren't serving, to breathe love into those dark places and to shift the focus to the open space of wonder and connection.

I find that when I maintain my commitment to doing the process consistently I don't tend to get caught up in the old patterns so much. So I guess the new year is about consistency along with my theme of realization  for 2012.

Banff Avenue at Christmas

This feels good! I hope I've inspired you to consider what it's time for you to say goodbye to as well as we say goodbye to 2011.
Letting go is such an important part of opening up to writing that new life story of ours.

Couldn't resist adding the picture of Banff Avenue after spending 9 days there. It really is this beautiful.

Namaste and a Very Happy New Year!

Magical Christmas

It's been yet another magical Christmas for us at the Banff Springs Hotel where we serve as Santa's Elves in his workshop before Christmas then I get to preside at the Christmas Eve service here at the hotel. What an amazing place to be. This year Mother Nature blessed us with snow falling all day on Christmas day. The weather is hovering right around 0 or -1 most days and it's absolutely beyond belief beautiful.

Even at that, as we walked around downtown today I could feel a kind of sadness with all the commercialism and the way Christmas has become about something I don't really understand in terms of how we got here from the sacredness of what the season originally meant. Where has the sacredness of life gone to anyway? Hmm, not far really. It's right here when I stop and look at it from a place of love and connection. Even with all the commercialism of the season there's still something to be said about celebrating life no matter how we do it.

Here's a shot of the hotel from when we were on our walk on Christmas Day. You can't really capture it with an iphone photo but what the heck.
Namaste

Meet It With Love

We are coming the the end of the current 40 Day focus period where several of us have been working with our relationship with money. It's a great place to become aware of limiting beliefs in our relationships with ourselves and all of life really, if we are open to seeing the truth of what is going on.

No matter what the area of focus is or where you are struggling in life, you can spend a lot of time and energy just trying to figure it out or cope with it or succumb to it but if what you want is real change, to truly be free to live a new life story, the way through is to meet it with love.

I've noticed all kinds of beliefs related to my relationship with money over the past 38 days, some of them very familiar, some a little surprising. Others who are in the process with me have also discovered some very interesting things along the way. No matter what though, along with really questioning the validity of the thoughts involved, for me the real opportunity has been to live in a state of love and compassion inside and out.

xThis has served me well in every area of life and this week in particular it has helped me prepare and deliver a celebration of life service for a two year old who died of cancer. Throughout the process, no matter how sad I felt and how much pain I was witnessing I could feel the love flowing through me as well. It was an incredible gift. I can't say how grateful I am for every aspect of the journey.

I don't care what 'it' is for you, there is within the experience a call for love and compassion that can only be met by you. Why does it have to be you? Because you're the one who is having the experience.


It's amazingly freeing to realize that you don't have to wait for anyone or anything else in order to bring love and peace to your inner world. It is in you to give to yourself and to others. I can think of nothing I would want more under my Christmas tree.

Namaste

Peace Love and Joy, It's An Inside Job

I am filled with wonder and lightness and compassion this blessed Sunday morn. I'm not sure why, it's just a natural expression of Life as far as I can tell. It tends to happen a lot more when I keep my whole being focused on love within. The natural extension of that is to love all that is in the manifest world as well.

I often think we have so many things backward in our culture in terms of how love works and how to achieve peace and how to find our own value. We are taught to look to the world for validation, to love others but not ourselves, to give to others of our material good yet there is so little in the way of truly connecting with Source and allowing the natural abundance of the Universe to flow through us to bless all.

One of the reasons I likely feel the way I do right now has to do with what I'm preparing for this morning. I've been invited to speak to a rather large group of children (5 to 16 years of age) at the Sai Baba Centre today about what Jesus taught and what Christmas is really about. What a fabulous opportunity to reflect on my understanding of that. It really does fill me with joy and appreciation to ponder the loving messages I perceive Jesus to have been all about. It's also refreshing to consider the messages in a way that might make sense to a child. It really invites the most simple and profound consideration of the heart of the message rather than the intellectual understanding. It will be interesting to see what comes out this afternoon. (I rarely end up saying what I think I'm going to say when I'm speaking in public) I'm not in charge of that anyway so I just ponder, and prepare and allow.
Hmm, sounds like a great way to deal with all of life.

Namaste

It's An Inside Job!

The Bullying Syndrome

You don't have to go far to run into yet another situation where bullying is happening. One of my friends on Facebook shared a video of a young man dealing with bullying. Talking to a friend a month or two ago I found out they had taken their child out of school because of bullying. We chatted about that a bit and I was reminded that bullying is not just a problem in schools, it is cultural.

I remember hearing about a company in the US several years ago who went into the workplace with workshops to help people deal with bullying at work. You only have to watch some of the 'news' networks to get a load of bull(ying) right there for all to see. I also see a subtle kind of bullying going on in many work settings where management ends up putting all kinds of pressure on employees to work more and more and more for less and less and less. The implication seems to be that if you don't you either won't work here for long or you won't advance. Stress levels on all sides rise and everyone is trapped under the wheel of survival.

When I watched the video from a young man being bullied today my heart just ached as it always does when I hear about or witness bullying of any kind. My sense is that everyone is unhappy in these situations, not just the person being bullied. There is so much fear and pain from unmet needs at play that people just stop seeing each other as people. They become objects of projected pain. This often happens in unhappy relationships as well. When we don't know what to do with our own pain we either throw it around and let it hit whatever is in our field or we turn it inward and become the targets of said pain in others (or both).

Nothing makes any sense in this place. There is no one to blame; you could point your finger at pretty much any point or person in the cycles of bullying and find a victim. From my perspective whether you are aware of the bully or the bullied in any given moment, the situation does not need more criticism or condemnation, it needs compassion. This is particularly true if you find that it is you on either end of   that spectrum.

If you feel any discomfort around this topic, do an internal check wherever you are be it witness, bully or bullied; what is it you really want? Is it really more punishment or criticism or revenge or is there something else waiting to be released in the background of awareness that is more in alignment with what you really are beyond the veil of pain? Is it possible that what is needed is essentially what you are?

I wonder what might be possible if we allowed more of that Essential Being to enfold the pain... Hmm...

This nativity scene reminds me of the the sanctuary in our own hearts where we can allow Presence to not only be born into the world but to be fully received and celebrated.

Namaste