Look To The Sky

When people say that one has his or her "head in the clouds," they usually refer to a mental state that appears to be drifting rather than concentrating. For this reason, putting our heads in the clouds can be a wonderful meditation tool. Whether puffy and white or tinted with the colors of dawn and dusk or shades of gray and darkness, those vaporous sky dwellers can remind us of so many things about life and about ourselves.

I sat outside of my office today, as I often do, and I watched the clouds go by and change their shapes. This provided for some healthy reflection.

For this sort of meditation, we can find a physical place to relax and look upward, or we can look to the skies from within our imaginations.

Directing our thoughts to the endless expanse of sky that clouds inhabit, we feel our souls expand to reach beyond any seeming limitations. Following the clouds, we are free to unleash our imaginations. We may choose to merely drift along with them for a time, enjoying their distanced perspective on the world. Or we can look for messages in their fantastical shapes. Even still, we can just sit, watch, and wonder as we feel the joy of their immense billowy puffiness.

However we interact with them, we do so from a peaceful place. Clouds drift above the hustle of the world below, knowing they belong to another realm that cannot be affected by the frenzy below, reminding us that peace is always available to us.

By directing our vision beyond the ordinary, clouds also remind us of the illusion of appearances. While appearing to be solid, their vapor and mist appear like puffs of cotton balls.

From below, they give little indication of the heights they reach.

Sometimes they may cast shadows, leaving us in shade, but like life's difficulties clouds change shape and move onward, revealing the shining sun, twinkling stars, and blue sky that eternally exist beyond them.

When a ray of light breaks through the clouds, their dramatic filtering only makes the light more beautiful by contrast, just as we can shine more brightly in the midst of life's challenges.

When we allow clouds to offer us a welcome respite, they help us visit the realm of illusion to see the truth beyond.

God's nature offers us so much when we seek peace.

Look to the sky and trust in it's change and wonder.

With love & light,

Rob

Accepting Life As It Happens

Life has been challenging lately.

I usually embrace challenge and see it as opportunity. However, lately I have felt overwhelmed by the life this past year has brought to me and am eager to get past it and move ahead.

On 07 July, I wrote about "this too shall pass" and on 14 August I wrote about my goldfish pond and the cycle of life that it recalls me to when I feel sad or alone. I look at the pond and I know that when winter comes, the fish will hibernate beneath the cold ice above - just to return to life come Springtime.

Today, when the pond was approached for quiet reflection, it was discovered that the dozens of fish that lived there had died.

My immediate thought was how to see this as an opportunity, but that didn't take hold. I could only think "what more can happen?". I admit that I feared the answer to that and while I wished that this year would just end already, I was afraid of jumping to the future in haste and not appreciating what is here and now, no matter the situation.

We all go through times when we wish we could press a fast-forward button and propel ourselves into the future and out of our current circumstances. Whether the situation we are facing is minor, or major such as losing a loved one, it is human nature to want to move away from pain and find comfort as soon as possible. However, we know deep down that we need to work through these experiences in a conscious fashion rather than bury our heads in the sand, because these are the times when we access important information about ourselves and life.

The learning process may not be easy, but it is full of lessons that bring us wisdom we cannot find any other way.

The desire to fast-forward can lead to escapism and denial, both of which only prolong our difficulties and in some cases make them worse. The more direct, clear, and courageous we are in the face of whatever we are dealing with, the more quickly we will move through the situation.

Understanding this, we may begin to realize that trying to find the fast-forward button is really more akin to pressing pause. When we truly grasp that the only way out of any situation in which we find ourselves is to go through it, we stop looking for ways to escape and we start paying close attention to what is happening.

We realize that we are exactly where we need to be. We remember that we are in this situation in order to learn something we need to know, and we can alleviate some of our pain with the awareness that there is a purpose to our suffering.

When we feel the urge to press the fast-forward button, we need to remember that we are not alone; we all instinctively avoid pain. But in doing so, we often prolong our pain and delay important learning and healing.

As we choose to move forward in real time and accept what life holds for us, we know that in the long run, this is the least painful way to go.

With love & light,

Rob

Take Time To Breathe

"Should the cabin lose pressure, oxygen masks will drop from the overhead area. Please place the mask over your own mouth and nose before assisting children... or other adults acting like children."

That is an actual announcement that we heard once on a flight to Mexico. Certainly meant with humor to ease the anxiety of travellers, but also true.

We have all heard the instructions of an airline attendant reminding us to put on our own oxygen mask before we help anyone else with theirs. This advice is often cited as a metaphor for self-care because it so accurately expresses why it is important. It seems to say, ironically, that if we can't take care of our self for our self, we can't do it for others.

Few situations in our daily lives mimic the wake-up call of an airplane emergency, so it's easy to keep putting self-care off easily; that is, until we become sick, overwhelmed, or exhausted, and we suddenly don't have the energy to care for the people who count on us. That's when we realize we haven't been getting the oxygen we need to sustain ourselves. We begin to understand that taking care of ourselves is neither selfish nor indulgent; it's just plain practical.

Putting our self first means that it may be necessary to say no to someone else in order to say yes to ourselves. For many of us, there is always something we feel we could be doing for someone else, and it helps to remember the oxygen metaphor. We can even encourage yourself by saying "I am caring for myself so that I am better able to care for others" or some other mantra that will encourage us. It also helps to remember that self-care doesn't have to be composed of massively time consuming acts. In fact, the best prescription for taking care of ourselves is probably small, daily rituals. For example, taking one half-hour for yourself at the beginning and end of the day to meditate, pray, reflect, or just be. We might also transform one evening to do invest an hour or more taking our daily shower or bath and turning it into a self-pampering session.

Whatever we decide, making some small gesture where we put our self first every day will immensely for us and the ones we love and provide care for.

The oxygen we need is all around us. Sometimes we just need to be reminded to breathe.

So, as a friend always tells me ... be good to you.

With love & light,

Rob

Embracing Life

Celebrate Life As It Happens

While celebrations are intended to honor life’s more momentous occasions, much of real life tends to happen during the in-between times.

While moving from one moment in time to the next is seldom considered a significant occurrence, it is during those in-between times that we are most in tune with life’s most profound, albeit simple, joys. Between birth and death, triumph and sorrow, beginnings and endings, we enjoy innumerable experiences that often happen unnoticed.

These times are just as worthy of celebration.

The in-between times are seldom about landmark moments. How we choose to celebrate them or which moments we choose to celebrate is up to us.

We may want to celebrate the simple facts that we are alive and that every day is a chance to spend time with the people we care about or do the work that we love. Then again, when we look at the good that exists in our lives, many reasons for celebrating the in-between times may become clear:

*our favorite beverage,

*a beautiful sunrise or sunset,

*a good book read out of doors with the smell of fresh air and the warmth of the sun,

*memories of times shared with one we love.

Each of these is reason for celebration.

Celebrating the in-between times can be as easy as paying special attention to them when they do happen, rather than taking them for granted.

It is such focus of attention that can turn an in-between time into a celebration.

Every day is a holiday, every meal a banquet, every paycheck a fortune, and every every night a honeymoon.

Is there really any better way to embrace life other than these simple and beautifully optimistic approaches?

We can celebrate our days by slowing down and allowing ourselves time to look around and allow our hearts and minds to take in all of life’s wonders. Far too often, we can let those simple moments of awe pass us by.

These in-between times are when life happens to us between the pauses that we take to honor our milestone occasions. Without the in-between times, there would be no big moments to celebrate.

Those of you who know me well know that I celebrate "Half Birthdays".

Half Birthdays occur six months after our birthday - or six months before ... whichever comes first.

One must love having an "Alice In Wonderland" moment every now and again!

The beauty of a Half Birthday is not only that we acknowledge and celebrate our life without adding a digit to our age, but the beauty lies in the warmth that we feel as we simply celebrate life.

So, celebrate life and celebrate it when others least expect it.

Tell someone how much you love them. Dance in the rain. Sing out of tune. Follow a sunset until it rises again.

Love life, live life and celebrate life as if tomorrow never mattered.

With love & light,

Rob

Fear of Loneliness

I enjoy our goldfish pond.

Winter comes and freezes the pond over as the fish bring all of their functions to a bare minimum and hibernate beneath the thick, icy, barren world above them, only to return to full life along with the flora and fauna that surround them come Springtime. The pond is a wonderful place to sit for reflection when one feels a little lost, a little sad, or lonely.

We all have days when we feel lonely, but the very idea of loneliness comes from the false notion that we are separate and isolated parts in a world filled with other separate, isolated parts. In truth, we can no more be separate from our world than a fish can be separate from the water in which it swims.

When we begin to look at the boundaries we see as so solid, they prove to be, in fact, quite porous - such as the boundary of ice above the goldfish in the Winter. For example, it is not clear exactly where our skin ends and the air begins when we consider how our skin is affected by changes in the quality of the air and that air flows through us.

When the air in our environment is dry, our skin becomes dry, and when it is humid, our skin becomes moist and supple.

By the same token, it is difficult sometimes to distinguish the boundary between one person and another, especially when our lives tie us together so inextricably.

Every piece of our lives has an effect that touches all the people associated with us. On an even more subtle level, when we share a more intimate relationship with another person, we often pick up on their energy, feeling how they feel and attuning to them, whether we mean to or not; whether we choose to or not.

This is what we mean when we say a mood or a feeling is contagious. We cannot help but be part of the realities of the people we know and love because we take form from the same spiritual energy, and this energy unifies all life. This energy is the light that we instinctively know to move toward, and it is the light we dissolve into as we move beyond our individual egos.

If loneliness, or the fear of loneliness, is a temporary condition based on an incomplete understanding of what we are made of, we can think of its presence as a catalyst for exploring our ideas about our realities. We can respond by testing the boundaries we believe separate us from the life within and all around us. If we test them, we might discover that they are not so solid after all and that we can never really be alone.

With love & light,

Rob

Fear of Losing What We Have

One of humanity's biggest fears is losing what we have.

It is healthy when fear of loss helps us take steps to appreciate and protect what we have worked hard to attain, be that a career, a home, a relationship, a love, or a life.

However, it is unhealthy to continue to fear something we can do nothing about.

We need to remember that focusing our energy on fear can actually create and strengthen what scares us, and holding too tightly to what we have keeps us from participating in the spiritual flow of abundance and instead creates stagnation. Since we can only really control our thoughts and our responses, gaining proper perspective may be key to conquering such fears, allowing us to grow in spirit as intended.

It has been written that the letters of the word "fear" can be an acronym for
"False Evidence Appearing Real."

Fear of being separated from something or someone we feel we need for our security, happiness, or love comes from a delusion - a distorted way of understanding ourselves and the world around us.

When we understand that what we perceive as possessions are only tangible representations of spiritual energy at work in our lives, we can shift our attention to the right and proper place.

We can stop fearing loss of what means our world to us because, when we understand how it is created, we can always recreate it through energizing that spirit to live on forever within us and through us, to shine forth for others, and for ourselves.

We can stop fearing loss when we realize that our source of our joy and well being consists of the same energy of love, which can, in reality, never be diminished.

We need not hold anyone too close for fear of losing them for we know that love does not diminish when it is given or shared, but rather it expands beyond boundaries of time and space.

By focusing our light on our fears, they are revealed as mere shadows that disappear in the presence of mind and spirit. We can choose instead to direct our thoughts and creative power toward things of true value ... love, abundance, peace, passion, joy, and eternal spirit.

With love & light,

Rob

Awareness and Faith in Times of Adversity

sLife is a journey comprised of many steps on our personal path that takes us down a winding road of constant evolution.

Each day, we are provided with a myriad of opportunities that allow us to transform ourselves into our next best selves. One moment we are presented with an opportunity to react differently when yet another someone or something in our life rubs us the wrong way. Another moment we may find ourselves wanting to walk away from a particular circumstance but are not sure if we can.

Sometimes, we find ourselves stuck in a rut that we can never seem to get out of. Perhaps we make the same choices over and over again because we just don’t seem to know how to choose otherwise.

Rather than leading us forward, our personal paths can sometimes take us in a seemingly never-ending circle where our actions and choices lead us nowhere but to where we’ve already been. It is during these moments that awareness and faith can be the first step to change.

Awareness is when we are able to realize what we are doing. Faith is when we are able to realize where we are going.

Awareness is the first step to change through faith because we can’t make a change unless we are aware that one needs to be made in the first place.

It is once we see the destination we seek, and have faith that we will arrive there, that we then begin to understand why we do what we do.

Afterwards, it becomes difficult not to change because we are no longer asleep to the truth behind our behavior. We begin to realize that, just as much as we are the root beneath the growth of our behavior, we are also the originator for any changes that we want to happen.

There is a freedom that comes with awareness of our faith, combining the two. Rather than thinking that we are stuck in a repetitive cycle where there is no escape, we begin to see that we actually do very much play a hand in creating our lives.

Whether we are aware of them or not, our behaviors and choices are always ours to make. Our past and our present no longer have to dictate our future when we choose to be aware and faith-filled.

It is then that we are free to move beyond our perceived limitations, make new choices, and take new actions. With this awareness, our paths can’t help but lead us forward in our lives while paving the way for new experiences and new ways of being. It is through faith that we can continue to consciously evolve.

Along the path which lies before us grows hardships and joys.

When we encounter adversity, the stress we feel can erode our optimism, eventually convincing us that the issues we face cannot be overcome.

In faith, however, there is no situation so dire, no challenge so great, and no choice so bewildering that it cannot be overcome. Though we may believe that all avenues have been closed to us or that our most conscientious efforts will come to naught, we are never without feasible options.

The best course of action may be veiled benath a protective shell of doubt, but it is there and waiting to ne nurtured to life and growth.

When we are honest with ourselves with regard to this simple fact, we can overcome anything because we will never stop looking for a solution to the challenges before us.

Faith, coupled with a sturdy plan of awareness, is the ultimate antidote to adversity’s tendency to instill disillusionment in the human mind.

As difficult as the obstacles that plague us seem, they are no match for the unconditional love of a supportive God who has been a part of our life since before the day of our birth, and will be with us forevermore.

We must not to be misguided by our fears as this gives rise to the notion that there are problems without solutions.

When we have faith in the talents and capabilities that God has granted us we may discover that our personal paths, that we once believed could lead us in a seemingly never-ending circle, miraculously open. Even if all we can do is allow our perspective to turn an impediment into an opportunity for growth, we will have found the hope that is an inherent element of all hardship.

Our destiny is a product of our own creation.

Even when it seems we have nowhere left to turn, there is a solution waiting for us.

The only insurmountable obstacles are the ones we create in our own minds, and these can only persist if we allow them to overpower our faith.

Uncertainty will always be a part of our existence, but perseverance and mindfulness of what we believe ... our faith, will never fail to see us through to the other side of hardship where only peace and joy can thrive.

No matter what life places in our path, there is absolutely no situation that cannot be resolved with time, love, and friendship.

With love & light,

Rob