WELCOME TO MY BLOG
Here you will find a place of healing and comfort—thoughts and ideas that will help to guide you on your life’s journey, whatever journey you may have chosen. May you come to realize who you truly are—a beautiful enchanting soul!
I HOPE YOU DANCE
All of us, if we have lived long enough, have those moments when we feel overwhelmed by a wave of suffering. It can show in many different ways, and does for most of us.
Perhaps it is a relationship break-up, losing our source of support, an unexpected health challenge, a death in the family or losing our home. Perhaps we are simply a witness to the suffering of a close loved one, and powerless to do anything about it.
When this happens it can throw us for a loop, sometimes causing us to veer off our path. But when we face such a challenge can we stand tall and fearless?
It takes a special person to do that–someone with a true sense of their own inner power and resolve.
At times of great challenge music has been one of my sources of inspiration. “I Hope You Dance,” a song popularized by Lee Ann Womack, is full of wonderful messages, reminding us that life is worthwhile, that we should never lose our sense of wonder, that we should “never settle for the path of least resistance.”
After all, life was never meant to be a painless experience. Make your life special and meaningful, despite what happens to you, and in your determined resolve you will find the gold nugget of your soul’s joy.
[Below you will find the complete lyrics of this wonderful song:
I hope you never lose your sense of wonderYou get your fill to eat but always keep that hungerMay you never take one single breath for grantedGod forbid love ever leave you empty-handed
I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the oceanWhenever one door closes, I hope one more opensPromise me that you’ll give faith a fighting chanceAnd when you get the choice to sit it out or dance
I hope you dance (dance)I hope you dance (dance)
I hope you never fear those mountains in the distanceNever settle for the path of least resistanceLivin’ might mean takin’ chances, but they’re worth takin’Lovin’ might be a mistake, but it’s worth makin’
Don’t let some hell bent heart leave you bitterWhen you come close to sellin’ out, reconsiderGive the heavens above more than just a passing glanceAnd when you get the choice to sit it out or dance
I hope you dance (time is a wheel in constant motion)I hope you dance (always rolling us along)I hope you dance (tell me who wants to look back on their years)I hope you dance (and wonder where those years have gone)
I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the oceanWhenever one door closes, I hope one more opensPromise me that you’ll give faith a fighting chanceAnd when you get the choice to sit it out or dance
Dance, I hope you dance (dance)I hope you dance (time is a wheel in constant motion)I hope you dance (always rolling us along)I hope you dance (tell me who wants to look back on their years)I hope you dance (and wonder where those years have gone)
Tell me who wants to look back on their years (dance)And wonder where those years have gone (dance)”
[I Hope You Dance lyrics © Universal Music Corp., Sony/atv Melody, Choice Is Tragic Music, Soda Creek Songs, Round Hill Verses Publishing]
TRUE BLUE
The Indian sage Ramakrishna extolled the virtue of truth, saying: “Truthfulness in speech is the tapasyā of the Kaliyuga”. He also said: “One should live in the world like an ant, taking only the ‘sugar’ of truth and discarding the ‘sand’ of untruth”.
Truth has to do with discernment and discrimination. Can we discriminate the real from the unreal? Do we have the courage to stand up for what is most important in life? Are we true to ourselves and our life’s purpose or are we wandering about without direction?
In mundane language the color blue is associated with faithfulness. However, the same is true on an esoteric level, for blue is the color associated with vishuddha chakra, which is located in the throat area and ruling speech. In the subtle spine it is one of the higher spiritual centers, as it is located above the heart space and below the third-eye. Meditation on this chakra results in purification and alignment with higher wisdom. We are no longer afraid to speak our truth.
We live in an age of pervasive untruth, and our expression of the qualities of this chakra are urgently required. The question to ask ourselves is whether we can help to bring much needed light and truth into this suffering world.
WE ARE ALL CREATORS
We have been taught that life is a struggle, and the game of life consists in accumulating money so that we can meet our needs. Thinking in this way we get ourselves trapped in dead end jobs, debts and other obligations. When this happens we have no time left for what matters to our soul and we become lost, bored, frustrated and deeply unhappy.
In essence we are all creators. We have come to this planet with purpose–not merely to enjoy sensual pleasures and to keep our bodies alive. In addition to our fundamental purpose of working on our own purification and awakening, our purposes are always to bring something into being that did not previously exist, and in that sense we are creators. We could choose to bring children into the world, to enlighten others, to write an perform joyful music, to create artwork that helps others to see with a new vision, to establish an amazing bookstore, to heal, to entertain or uplift others, etc. etc. The possibilities here are endless and our good works ripple out in amazing ways to help other beings that we will never meet.
When we leave this world, what positive contributions will we have left behind?
FRAMING OUR REALITY
We think of the world that we live in as an objective reality, but actually we live in a world of our own making, because our experience is based on how we frame what is presented to our senses–good or bad, right or wrong, favorable or unfavorable, fortunate or unfortunate, etc.
Moreover how we frame our experience has a profound effect on whether we experience happiness or sadness. This is why we are encouraged to keep a gratitude journal, and effects of doing so have been proven to be of immense value, both for our physical and mental health.
One yogic discipline is to see God or the Divine in everyone and everything, and to see the hand of God in all of our experience, thereby learning to surrender to Divine will. Doing so will cause an amazing transformation of your personality and awaken your inner joy.
CONSCIOUSNESS IS CONNECTED
One of the many things that we learn in our spiritual journey is that separation is an illusion, because consciousness is not limited in space or time. Vedanta tells us that everything is Brahman (or consciousness) on a fundamental level–not just you, all beings and all things. EVERYTHING. When we focus at the level of that underlying reality we can draw our attention to anything that we choose. If our attention is one-pointed we can “lock on” to an energetic connection that we can feel as a tangible reality.
To do this we first need to approach the task with an open mind, and leave behind our feelings of limitation and doubts, as they can only serve as hindrances.
Try a meditation on Mother Gaia. Feel her as a living presence. Allow into your heart gratitude for her service to you as a platform for your earthly life. Feel the love for her that naturally arises in your heart. In your heart space you will feel an exchange of energy. What does she have to tell you?
