Tag: path

The Journey Ahead

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Life is a remarkable platform for learning. Just when things run smoothly a bump on the road forces you to slow down. And then another. Before you know it the path comes to a halt. You can get out of your vehicle, breathe and take a few moments to recognize that things are out of your control. The road is now under construction. Your choices are simple: get upset over the road blockage, or take the time to realize there might be a reason for it all. Then from there adjust your position, grab your GPS and find another way. There is always another way. Even if it’s just looking at things differently. Your attitude should always return to gratitude for every lesson.

We are undergoing some major changes. The roads are getting blocked and dangerous at times. We must not only stay in our lanes, but also return to faith that there are other paths ahead. It’s okay to breakdown and get angry, but don’t stay there. It’s okay to feel sorry for yourself and those around you, but don’t allow it to consume you. The energy is beyond intense at this moment. Actually the energy seems to be coming from the fear of the collective…so try not to add to it.

I share the blockage story because it’s important to remember your soul is a vehicle and the world ahead is the path. You have little control over situations and obstacles at times. But, you have the ability to rise above it all and shift gears. You can choose your exit from those adventures. As you continue to rise in your spiritual evolution, the challenges deepen. You are being asked to return to love and forgiveness. You are being redirected to make wise choices from another place, therefore having to make new programming. The way you have been taught isn’t working. We are all having to remember what we instinctively knew before arriving here.

I hope and pray you have folks in your life who can help charge your battery, bring you gas, and even pick you up when you are feeling stranded. I hope you have a delicious tribe that can truly make you feel that nothing is impossible. I am beyond blessed to have mine. If you don’t have it…come over to my lane…I will help you.

I love you. Be gentle with yourself this weekend. This swirling and chaotic shaking in the esoteric realm is not for sissies.

Ageless Soul

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photo (3)

I have in my possession a few things older than me: my grandmother’s Italian espresso maker, her wedding dishes from Germany, an original Geisha Japanese doll from a century ago, and photo slides of times before I was even conceived.  I am sure there are other items in my care that are older than my human 47 years.  But, the oldest thing that I have is my soul.  It is ageless.  It has arrived here willingly accepting the ignorant, stubborn, difficult, and silliness of my humanness to travel in this incarnation.  This soul has decided to witness the manipulations, rejections, and lessons of my personality while sitting back and waiting for me to acknowledge truth.  This soul has guided me in moments that I felt were my last, and in other moments that have birthed me with new knowledge and awareness.  Because of this I know my soul is ageless, timeless and priceless.

Whenever I look at my hands they feel like the oldest things I own because of the wear and tear they have endured.  They have touched, caressed, and loved deeply.  But, still they aren’t the oldest things in me.  My soul knows secrets that go beyond my age and experiences.  When I allow the openness to lead the way, magic is created.  That’s intuition!  It happens through synchronicity and serendipity…or is it a prearranged destiny that I am finally aligning to it?

We arrive into this world with amnesia.  We forget the reason we are here and what needs to be done.  We travel unconscious and erratic while waiting for someone to explain the meaning of our lives.  When we begin to honor the authenticity of spirit the soul starts to show us truth.  We begin to meet the teachers along the way.  Events, circumstances and the depth of life proceed to show us the reason for our existence.  It doesn’t happen quickly.  It arrives through small moments, conversations, listening and tasting the simple things around us.  It comes through the whispers of prayer, meditation and creativity.

Whether you believe in past lives, reincarnation, or other metaphysical subjects, there is an understanding that our souls are much older than our bodies.   I know things that make no sense to me.  I have no clue where the information has arrived into my brain.  And, because I sometimes have little filtering the words shoot out before I can analyze and retrieve them.  This is when I witness firsthand the vastness of my soul, the ageless miracle of spirit.  The unknown makes its presence known and connects to another soul.  It is mystical!

Have you thought about the age of your soul: the weight of its knowledge; the size of its information; the connections to those around you; the lessons it wants to teach you? They are beautiful and awed-stricken thoughts.  If, and when, we let go of the idea that we have control, the soul flourishes.  It blossoms and appreciates the awareness of ego finally letting go.  It teaches you faith, belief, hope, and grace.  Your soul, my soul, every soul, is here to learn, love, and experience life to the fullest.  It comes in with obliviousness and slowly starts to remember its purpose through the whispers of the heart. We begin to remember what we were programmed to forget through society.  Surrender to your yearning. Listen closely.  Be present.  Follow your intuition.  It is there that the soul smiles and claims its presence while guiding you to the greatness of your evolution.
“Put your ear down close to your soul and listen hard.” ~ Anne Sexton

Creation

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hazy_morning_light_by_mashuto-d7brgj6

I have been awake for the larger part of the morning hours. Now, as light breaks through darkness, I sit on my sofa staring at the mountain in front of the house. I can hear the sound of life returning to consciousness. And, for a moment I realize how I have stopped truly seeing this beauty with the busyness of the season, the desire to move, and the escalated giddiness of change.

There are moments in life when we forget to look at what is right in front of us. We become focus with what is not. We begin to search for things that we think will fulfill us. Boredom and restlessness set in. And when this happens it is indeed time for change. The soul learns everything it needs to learn from the experience and it’s pushing for more to acquire. It’s time! However, what lies behind us is just as important as what lies ahead. The only thing we need is this moment to take it all in. Every second becomes a stepping stone. How will you adorn your path? Can you be grateful for every pebble along the trail?

This morning watching light embrace the trees I am grateful for this little piece of heaven I’ve called home. I have taken it for granted the past year. I have had so many changes that I have chosen to escape to the next step of the journey. As I am coming to close here I can now quietly understand that this is just lovely. What a wonderful way to have lived five years of my life.

Embrace what you have. Feel the gratitude for the lessons, hardships, joy, journey and every experience. You are who you are today because of every event, step and circumstance. Take a deep breath. Voice your love for what is and what is to become. You are marvelous. You create everything you need and want. You are the divine energy that unfolds through consciousness.  Feel the compassion with the openness of all that you are. This has been your creation and your purpose.  Make your life matter to YOU.

Mucho love to you all. Have a blessed weekend.

A Mother’s Presence

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morning hike

My mother has been very present in my thoughts since yesterday. My youngest daughter and I went to the movies during the day. At some point she said something about her grandmother. Soon after synchronicity visited and a trail of memories came to stay a while. My mother was in the car next to us at a light, up the mountain looking at the cows, picking flowers on a farm, at the gas station, and in the car with us singing. My mother was there. I smelled her, felt her, and sensed her soul like I haven’t in a long time. There were moments yesterday that took my breath away with her touch.

I was the baby of the family. My sisters are 15 years and 24 years my senior. But, I wasn’t the baby. I was the one who took the risks, the incredible challenges without thinking and proceeded to paint way outside of the lines. I was an easy child and a difficult one simultaneously. I was submissive and passive aggressive. I was, to all accounts, impossible to figure out from one minute to another although I seemed predictable until I wasn’t. My mother did everything to control and break me down into “normal” causing anxiety and fears beyond what any teenager should experience. But, she was an amazing woman of courage and strength and having a child alone at 44 was definitely not an easy task in a Latin country in the late 60’s. There was no “free love” movement over there. There were social statuses and rules and many issues that could have pushed her over the edge. I don’t know how she did it. She did. I am here. And yesterday she was with me.

As I am transitioning into a new journey I am reminded that loved ones guide us constantly…even when they aren’t physically here. I know this…I see it iperiwinklen others all the time. It’s rare that I see the visitors for myself. I would love to get the beautiful messages loved ones give to them through me. I get them in dreams. Yesterday my mother’s presence allowed me to reach over the realm and thank her. I spoke with her last night before sleep. I asked her to show me the path in the most gentle way. It’s been a rough month.  It’s been an emotional one full of tugging and pulling and pushing trying to find purpose.  It’s just been challenging.  But, this morning on a hike my mother guided me with love. I saw her favorite flower that I have not seen in these mountains. I smiled, tears forming in my spirit, and briefly thanked her.  I watched the blanket of clouds engulfing the land and I knew she was there witnessing it all.

We all have these moments and the ability to speak with our departed ones. I have no magic trick. I have no special gift. What I do have is the acceptance, awareness, and mindfulness that we are never alone. We are always being guided by Spirit, God, Angels, and Teachers from beyond. I have the willingness to sit in silence and feel the presence of Universal Love extend through the veil of reality. If you are honest with your intuition you know you’ve felt it through a gentle touch when no one was there, or smelled a favorite flower or food, or even heard a whisper. It’s comforting to know we are never far from the comfort of our loved ones. It’s the best feeling of compassion and love there is.

Thanks, Mami, for your gift yesterday and today! It’s been a long time….glad you found me in the mountains. Te adoro muchisimo!

A New Spiritual Era

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Watching some shows this weekend I’ve noticed that so much gets mentioned about economic and materialism poverty in our world. The media bombards us with such negativity.  There is a lot going on…but there has always been a lot happening. Life moves through phases whether they are natural earth causes or human-made disasters. Even though I don’t watch the news (but my beloved does), regular shows seem to add the negativity into their scripts.  I have to believe that even through these world issues and events we, as human beings, are coming out of an era of spiritual poverty.  People are searching for meaning, awakening, enlightenment and growth to fulfill the absence that money once occupied.  There is no shopping, eating out, purchasing expensive homes and cars, or traveling to fill the void inside.  Therefore, we find that spiritual quest is on a rise these days.  While some believe that “the end is near” and people need to get on the bandwagon, I believe that time is accelerating us to start moving inward rather than outward with materialism.  Grant it, we can still have and achieve material wealth. The Universe has an abundance of wealth for each of us. People are actually enriching their lives with a faithful quest for Divinity.  It’s not about the end of our existence.  It is about finally accepting ourselves as spiritual beings who are connected to each other. Compassion and humility align us to the greatness of what we deserve.

In our society we have been taught to search for meaning, purpose, and aspiration from any source but meanwhile we fill ourselves with technology, drugs, alcohol, food, etc.  At the same time we now seem to be questioning our choices more carefully in regards to addictions.  Spiritual richness comes from acceptance and allowing humanity to join together.  Strangers become friends because we see God looking through their eyes.  I remember once reading a quote from Stan Dale, the founder of the Human Awareness Institute: “If God wanted to hide, He would hide in human beings because that’s the last place we would think to look.” I know this is now changing. In my unicorn-rainbow perception I am seeing God through even those I can’t be around because of lower energy and negativity. Those are becoming my most powerful teachers. I am witnessing things in myself because of their existence. It’s beautiful.

I believe we are searching more within ourselves and others in this new era.  I believe we are looking through a child’s eyes, a stranger’s smile, or a friend’s words and finding God giving us a personal message.  I believe in synchronicity, serendipity, and faith that we are all becoming more conscious of the thin thread that ties us together.  I believe in Quantum physics, science of the mind, and the chemistry of God.  Because of this I know in my heart that we are entering spiritual richness and leaving the spiritual poverty as a lesson in our human path.  The footprints of selfishness, isolation, addiction, and destruction will be a distant memory in the near future. And, this is what opens my heart and allows me to look forward to more growth, abundance, and the capacity to heal my own past issues.  An opened heart to the world brings peace, love and unity for all.  I am so grateful for what lies ahead…I am hopeful for all we, as citizens of this world, will create in the coming years while allowing the Divine to lead the way.

This is our time to awake and seek what we want. It is this moment that creates the wealth of love, peace and awareness. You want to know the secret of living authentically? Laugh. Bring more joy into your life. Positive ions create a wave of instant energy of love and creativity. Try it out! You are made of this. Have a blessed day!!!

Learning through Pain

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I believe we learn from pain.  We have been trained to feel the heartache and push through it with anger, depression, or whatever other emotion it conjures up.  Every morning I receive quotes to my cell phone. Today’s was by William Faulkner, “Given the choice between the experience of pain and nothing, I would choose pain.”  I agree.  My failures, aches, and breaks have taught me more than never trying anything at all. Because of such failures and lessons, I have been transformed and re-molded. It has not only been the life I have chosen but God’s will in an incredible story He helps me write so that I continue to aspire for more.  And those painful experiences push the boundaries in life.  Those amazing lessons have humbled me, forcing me to honor the divine.

Even as young children we learn through pain.  If we touch something hot we know to stay away from it in the future.  Children register the simplicity in the reaction of circumstances.  As adults, we sometimes choose selective amnesia to deal with the same situations (which cause the same painful effect), like that old saying: “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”

In this depth I feel closer than ever to the Divine.  Each painful experience has allowed me to accept something frightening about myself.  I have rehearsed all my life for this particular moment, like a dancer preparing for the ultimate recital.  Every rehearsal has been painful, frustrating, but enlightened while preparing for the final testimony of strength.  I have learned to take materialism and abstract emotions and placed them on some shelf high above to observe.  I keep those parts of my life in view so I won’t fall again in the same mistakes.  Failure can be repeated if it’s not recognized as failure.  Experience is the after mass of falling down, getting hurt, and hitting a rocky bottom.  As Bill Cosby once said, “I don’t know the key to success but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.”

I have learned from spiritual teachings that we are ultimately responsible for our choices and actions.  Our decisions come from knowledge or the lack of knowledge.  That’s the law of responsibility that explains the cause and effect.  As elementary science teaches us – for every action there is a reaction.  Divine reasoning cannot destroy this or change it.  There would be absolutely no memory.  In order to solve any problem in life we must focus on a solution and recognize the problem without excuses.  Through pain we are pushed to step back, acknowledge the lesson, and then decide if we want to repeat.

I would not change a single obstacle, challenge or heartbreak. They have molded me to grow while acknowledging the path. This is a mystical journey. We are always held through love, joy, grace, and compassion. Each lesson has taught me the capacity of my humanness. Each sorrow has opened me to a higher consciousness of acceptance.  It is purely serendipitous. As Oprah says, “Turn your wounds into wisdom.”

Trail Junkie

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One of my favorite things in the world is hiking.  I love finding new trails in these mountains.  I love the challenge of the terrain and the exuberance of the surprises that I find along the way.  It is the reason I stay in these mountains rather than travel anywhere else.  I love being in nature.

This morning my friends, my daughter and I hiked up a new trail near the house.  The trail has been here for a while, but it was new to us.  The Florence Nature Preserve is beautiful now that spring is in full bloom.  Most of the hike is uphill and the terrain is a little challenging at times, but the surprises along the way are breathtakingly lovely.  The creeks that run along the paths are enticing.  Waterfalls cascade everywhere with the Rhododendrum trees starting to bloom with tunnels that go on forever.  The Mountain Myrtles are absolutely delightful.  It is a hiker’s paradise.

 

Last night we went on an evening hiking venture up Bearwallow Mountain.  It doesn’t matter what time of the day I go up this mountain, the scenery changes.  It is constantly surprising every one of my senses.  This is definitely my favorite hiking spot in the world.  I have a boulder with my name on it up there on the summit.  I feel closer to divinity up there like no other place I’ve been to.

 

There are things I am learning as an intermediate hiker.  Trekking around the Western North Carolina Mountains has become a surprise to my character and how I fit in this world.  I climb each trail by learning to breathe, by not resisting the tugs of my lazy muscles, and by being completely in the moment with each step.  There is a thrill in witnessing a meadow, a clearing and finding myself alone on top of the world.   The joy in spontaneity drives me and encourages me even when I just want to give up.  Just waiting to see what’s around the next curve or hill or pasture seems to participate in the exploration of my own spirit.  The possibility of coming in contact with a family of deer, or bears or other wildlife is invigorating.  Whenever I interact with nature in these mountains I seem to leave a little bit of me behind while grabbing a little piece of the land to become a part of me. In each new adventure, nature becomes the teacher and I become the humble student thirsting for more.

I get giddy when the day allows for a majestic view of all the humps and I can witness the haze from the Blue Ridge Mountains.  I also find it exuberant to find another hiker admiring the same spots.  In silence we stand, on a common ground of immateriality, separated by the grandness of this land. There are others that join me in this search for authenticity and self-exploration.  We are all stepping behind Lewis and Clark hoping to find the next place that’s virgin to the outside world.  We want to experience the world from a bird-eye view while sitting on top of a boulder or standing on the edge of a cliff. Before I moved here I don’t remember what inspired me to breathe in my own space.  Now what I do know is that I am no longer afraid of heights when before I was constantly paralyzed with fear and anxiety.  The fresh mountain air hypnotizes me in a way that I have no explanation.  The “aha” moments are so many that the cares and stress slip away in seconds.  I think each hike truly touches a part of me that compassion alone can’t reach.  My humanity finds clarity and I feel as if we are all one thread tying us together under God’s quilt.  And yes, perhaps I have become a trail junkie but it is better than anything else I have experienced in the past.