What Lies Beneath

We Lash Out.

Theses are difficult times and we often feel lost, alone, and angry.

It is human nature to sometimes lash out at others during moments of frustration, but we can learn to navigate our feelings without losing our center.

Each one of us has experienced situations where we have found ourselves lashing out at someone without meaning to. We later berate ourselves for losing control and feel guilty for treating the other person badly.

While it is human nature that our emotions and moods will get the better of us from time to time, we can learn to navigate our feelings and negotiate difficult situations without losing our center.

Often, when we lash out, it is because we are having a difficult time containing the emotions that are coming up inside of us. We may be feeling overwhelmed, afraid, frustrated, stressed out, or angry.

Having these feelings boiling up inside of us can be very uncomfortable, and it is natural to want to release them. However, when we release our feelings from our body by directing them outward and toward someone else, they inevitably impact the “innocent bystander” to whom we are directing this energy.

They not only receive the brunt of our anger, frustration, or stress, but also they can actually experience this energy as a physical force hitting their bodies.

When we find ourselves in a situation where we are about to lash out at the person in front of us, we need to try to center yourselves -- perhaps by breathing slowly and deeply and in prayer.

A few moments in reflective prayer, listening to God, can help us to be rid of our feelings before they escape us and become a part of our world.

Once we are able to sit and find yourselves in a more reflective state, we can take a moment to recall the feelings in our bodies just before and during our outburst.

We can note where we feel sensations coming up in wihin us and we can ask ourselves if they are connected to any core issue or experience from our lives.

If nothing comes to mind, we can then revisit the situation, exaggerating the details of what happened by indulging in outlandish “what if” fantasies.

Exaggerating events after the fact can help expose the unconscious subtext behind your heated response. Understanding the motivation behind our reactions can help us to avoid lashing out again when a similar situation comes up.

In learning to navigate around our emotions, we are giving ourselves the tools needed in order to become better the next time our emotions begin to boil.

In doing so, we can take care of ourselves by alleviating your own uncomfortable feelings while respecting and protecting those around us and those whom we love and care for.

With love, light, balance, and a sense for stability,

Rob

Evolving From Within

Life can be very challenging.

I just spent most of my day listening to a friend and colleague tell me the story of his life over the past five years, which he kept hidden from all.

Why do we hide our story?

We each have a story to share, and we all have our trials and tribulations, be they major or minor.

I've suffered a period of mounting financial concerns, upsetting business conflicts, an uncertain future, as well as a pinched nerve in my shoulder which even prednisone does not seem to heal.

What I've uncovered is that, in my mind, there is only one true healing, and that comes from within.

I've also discovered that ignoring the pain in my shoulder, and focusing upon positive energy, seems to work better than the medication.

Change Yourself First.

These are extremely challenging times, and we know not where we will be in life at any given moment. The world calls out for improvement and, more often than not, we are ready and willing to offer advice for how things could be done better, place blame on others who were before us, or admonish those who serve us now. More often, rather than not, this means us ... ourselves. We hold the blame for whatever life hands us.

This is not to say that we are at blame for our hardships, but rather it is to say that we are accountable for standing up against our adversities and refusing to lay ourselves down in its path.

It is our duty to pull ourselves through.

Now, each of us possesses the power to effect a positive shift in energy within ourselves and within those around us. Just as purification of the soul leads to purification of the world, change within leads to change without.

Conflicts can be resolved without words. Peace lives awake within us and awaits our beckoned call.

The key is changing ourselves and freeing our minds and our spirits. When someone or something bothers us, it helps to begin by asking ourselves if we also possess that negative quality or if we are allowing ourselves to be overly affected by it.

We only have control over our own selves, but our influence reaches much farther than you can ever realize. A positive change on our individual part often leads to positive change around us.

When I respond negatively to my situation in life, that has an effect upon my partner, who is typically bright and positive. Once my negativity effects him, it reverts back to me and only serves to feed my own negative feelings.

When I respond to him in a positive manner, there is a fuel of love of life and an energy which cannot be extinguished.

This is what God wants for us. We are called to celebrate life and to deny negativity.

We are called to embrace each and every moment and to seek the beauty of the world given to us, not that of which we've created, and this is what we are called to inspire in others,in those around us who we either know or don't know, but who we love as sisters and brothers in life. This is why friends from long ago may call upon us when in need for prayer and support, and we can make a difference ... we can effect a change.

This seemingly passive inspiration of change not only stems from our example to others, it may also change our behavior or we may simply to adopt a change in perspective.

However, in doing so, we set into motion a series of positive consequences that, bring balance.

The more we grow in virtue and the more centered we become, the more we perceive virtue and centeredness and the more we project it outward, enacting that ripple theory in our pond of life.

We hold the ability to effect positive change within ourselves and within each and every person with whom we enact.

As we act in ways beneficial to ourselves and others, so do we inspire others to do so in similar fashion. And, when we have achieved control over our minds and souls, we can no longer be negatively affected by anything outside of ourselves.

When we wish others to change, criticism and condemnation often fail.

Recognizing that none of us is perfect and that we all need to change can be the best way of overcoming conflict.

In Aikido it is said, "Change yourself first, before looking to change your opponent, and in the process, you might find that your opponent has changed himself."

Actions, good thoughts, and positive energy speak louder than judgmental words and are the most powerful tools we can use when working toward a better world.

With love & light, and a prayer for peaceful balance within and out,

Rob

A Serious Note on the Failure of The Rapture

Today we emerged from this weekend with a little bit of a "Rapture Hangover".

Many, if not most of us, of us have spent a good portion of this weekend reading emails and facebook posts, as well as viewing media clips and comedy routines with regard
to the prediction of the Rapture this past Saturday evening and its subsequent failure.

All around New York, and other cities across the globe, there were "Rapture Parties" mocking the preaching of Harold Camping.

In Times Square, believers and skeptics gathered in the afternoon to await the End of Days at 6:00 pm. The believers read their Bibles and the skeptics dressed in funny outfits
and taunted the believers at the end of a New Year's Eve-like countdown when they discovered they were misled by a false prophet.

What to Do Next

Today there are thousands of people around the world who woke up for a second time feeling confused and let-down.

Harold Camping promised them the end of the world, but all that was actually finished on Saturday was the last shred of credibility for Mr. Camping as a serious Bible teacher.
Now his followers, many of whom trust Jesus but have been misled by the End Times teaching of Family Radio, will be feeling hurt and bewildered. Lots of them will be
struggling with emotions of shame and embarrassment and many may even believe they have been abandoned by a God who would let this situation happen to them.

Far too many of them have quit their jobs, removed their children from school, donated their life savings to Family Radio, and lost their homes.

These people will all need jobs, homes, money, and a sense of self respect as well as acceptance back into community.

What all these people need is grace and mercy.

They need to know that God is much bigger than Harold Camping and that he is also much bigger then any of their own individual or corporate failures. He is waiting to heal
and restore those who have been wounded and broken by these events, and we need to be the agents of that healing and restoration.

The first thing we can do is pray.

A website called RaptureFail is calling all people to stop for a minute at 6pm, wherever you are in the world, and lift all these people to God.

Ask for God’s mercy, grace and love to be given to those who believed in this false teaching and ask for His Holy Spirit to come into their lives and show them the truth about
a God who has dealt with our mistakes by laying the punishment for us on His Son Jesus.

Let’s pray for the real supernatural activity of God. Not a false prophecy of Rapture and Armageddon, but a true proclamation of forgiveness and restoration.

In particular, let's pray for God’s mercy on Harold Camping. Mr. Camping has misrepresented God and His purposes and has led many astray.

God, however, is in the business of taking the worst of sinners and using them for his glory.

Though Mr. Camping is an aged man, there is still time for him to realize the error of his ways and repent of his false teaching. Even tonight he will be hosting a new episode of
“Open Forum” on Family Radio where this all began.

Let’s all pray that he uses this opportunity to repent and express his regret.

Please take a minute out of your day at 6pm tonight and every evening this week, wherever you are in the world, and ask for God to move in the lives of those affected by these events.

With love & light for all,
Rob

(with appreciation to RaptureFail for their sincere efforts in this)

Letting Our Voice Be Heard

I attended a Church Workshop recently in which we worked on sharing our stories.

As chair of the Evangelism Leadership Team in my parish, we have done lots of work over the past several years on doing just this.

In these difficult times we need to share our stories with one another and stand together.

This is what we're called to do and this is the the way we support one another and survive ... unity, compassion, understanding, love & support.

We need to stand together and support one another in faith & love. This is done through sharing our life stories and opening up ourselves to one another.

We each have a story to tell, and most of our stories have to do with our faith.

It might be a story of how our faith affects our lives, or how our lives affect our faith. Either way, faith is an integral part of our life's stories.

Sharing our own story can provide an outlet which can help purge any frustration, anxiety, or long-dormant feelings.

Everyone, at one time or another, has wanted to express his or her story.

Writing a memoir to read privately, share with family or friends, or publish publicly is an emotionally satisfying way to gain perspective on our experiences and to share our unique voice.

We've all experienced feelings and events in our lives that we long to document.

While in my process to ordination, I wrote my own Spiritual Autobiography, and I find it very helpful to return to it as I navigate the waters of my life.

Giving into the urge to journal our lives can also provide an outlet which can help purge any frustration, anxiety, or long-dormant feelings.

No one else has to read it.

We might even want to write our story without reading it afterward and put it away to read in the future. Satisfying the need to tell our story is not predicated upon our writing ability. It does, however take effort to write down the truth in detail.

Our memories, captured on paper as descriptive scenes, sights, sounds, and scents, may at first seem disconnected or incomplete. However, rest assured that we possess the ability to shape our recollections into stories which we can share with others to help build lives of faith and fellowship.

Writing our story, however, is different from writing a journal.

On the one hand, writing a journal is a private and personal matter.

On the other, everyone wants to be heard and know that we matter and that our life story can possibly make a difference.

Reading our story to others meets the human need to be heard. Writing our story helps validate our life.

We all want to know that what we have to say matters.

Once we finish writing, we might even be surprised at what we have accomplished.

Our story can encompass as much or as little of our life as we prefer or as in needed to be told for a purpose.

We might even be surprised with what we learn about ourselves as we prepare this story to share.

There are new insights, ways of finding ourselves, exploring our roots, our identity, and our future through our words.

There is an amazing peace and balance which comes from reviewing our lives and sharing our stories.

There is a peace which ensues.

We need to allow our writing to guide us and write as truthfully as possible.

We can't worry about what others will think of our personal journey, our style of writing, or our words.

Research has shown that writing a narrative filled with feelings and perceptions can create long-term health benefits.

As we write, we need to remember to express compassion and understanding toward ourselves, particularly when writing about traumatic events.

If you are a young person, you can add to your life story as you grow older.

If you are an older person, you can do the same as well as add memories as your story telling will encourage and enhance that.

Your writing may even help family members know you better or understand themselves more.

Most importantly, in writing our personal story, we express ourselves in a permanent way, giving a gift not only to our future selves, but to the world by letting our voice be heard.

With love, light & volume,

Rob

Anxiety About Change

In these trying times, we know not what life will offer us with regard to change.

My life changes every day, and I regret that I will never have the life which I've longed for, but I am blessed for the life that I have.

My life has changed, and I accept that. I wished, hoped and prayed for better, but I embrace the life I have with all of its realities and challenges and changes.

Change will occur in almost every aspect of our lives.

We can learn to embrace change while releasing the past with grace.

When we find ourselves going through any kind of change in our lives, our natural response may be to tense up on the physical, mental, or emotional level.

We may not even notice that we have braced ourselves against a shift until we recognize the anxiety, mood swings, or general worried feeling toward the unknown that usually results.

However, there are positive ways to move through change without pushing it away, or attempting to deny that change is happening.

Since change will occur in almost every aspect of our lives, we can learn to make our response to it an affirmative one of anticipation, welcoming the new while releasing the past with grace.

One thing we can do is change our perspective by changing the labels we use to identify our feelings.

We can reinterpret feelings of anxiety as the anxious butterflies in our bellies that come with eager expectation.

That nervous feeling, called "butterflies" also tells us something ... butterflies are signs of change and new life ... transformation.

With this transformation, we begin to look for the good that is on its way to us.

Though we may only be able to imagine the possibilities, when we acknowledge that good is there for us to find, we focus our energy on joyful anticipation and bring it into our experience while allowing the feelings to carry us forward.

We can also choose to do a ceremony to allow our emotions to process.

Every culture has created ceremonies to help people make the transition from one phase of life to the next.

We can always create a ceremony too, perhaps by burning written thoughts to watch the smoke carry them away, thereby releasing them, writing our transgressions onto the shoreline, or placing our intentions on parchment to be planted beneath flowers or trees.

Some ceremonial activities such as a farewell send-off or housewarming party, we may do automatically.

Society also has built-in ceremonies, like graduations and weddings, which may satisfy the need we feel.

Sometimes the shift from denial to acceptance is all that is needed to ease our anxiety, allowing us to bring our memories with us as we move through nervousness to joyful excitement about the good to come.

It can be very challenging to maintain a positive attitude and a measure of faith when we are in the midst of difficult times.

This is partly because we tend to think that if God loves us we will experience that love in the form of positive circumstances.

However, we are like children, and God is our wise Mother who knows what our souls need in order to thrive better than we do.

God is as much as a Mother as God is a Father ... there is no difference or separation.

Just as a young child does not benefit from getting everything that child wants, we also benefit from times of constriction and difficulty to help us grow and learn.

If we keep this in mind, and continue to trust that we are loved even when things are hard, it helps us bear the difficult time with grace.

We are suffering through very difficult times.

Our world is changing every day, and we are each experiencing change in income, family, and society.

This period of time in history is full of difficulty for a lot of us, and we may feel less alone knowing we are not being singled out.

There are extreme energy changes pulsing through the universe at every level and, of course, we are all part of the growing process and the growing pains.

It helps if we remember that life is one phase after another and that this difficult time will inevitably give way to something new and different.

Once again ... "This Too Shall pass."

When we feel overwhelmed we can comfort ourselves with the wise saying: "This too shall pass."

At the same time, when we truly feel that nothing is going right for us, it’s never a bad idea to examine our life and see if there are some changes we can make to alleviate some of the difficulty.

Gently and compassionately exploring the areas giving you the most trouble may reveal things you are holding onto and need to release: unprocessed emotions, unresolved transitions, or negative ways of looking at reality.

As we take responsibility for the things we can change, we can more easily surrender to the things we can’t, remembering all the while that this phase will, without doubt, give way to another.

With love & embracing care,

Rob

The Newness of Spring

Springtime!

I love Snoopy. He is generally happy with life, he is a dreamer, and he cares about others.

Even when he is annoyed, his discontent only lasts until his senses are enlivened by something that makes him smile and his happiness is resurrected.

Look at how pleased and content Woodstock is.

Look at the way Snoopy sees and tends to Woodstock in the above cartoon, and how content Woodstock is knowing that Snoopy has provided a flower for his nest as he rests.

Isn't that what we strive to do?

We deliver daffodils, tulips, lilies and candies in hopes of externalizing the magic of the Season.

We share the celebration of the arrival of Spring and all of the newness and renewal it offers to us.

Now, I may be jumping ahead a little bit here for someone who lives in the Northeast of Pennsylvania. We've enjoyed a few scattered days of 70F at the top of the mountain, yet we are still facing the probability of a dusting of snow and impending frost.

Spring doesn't really "happen" here until June, when most others are embracing Summer.

However, when Spring does make her earthly appearance, it is when when the earth is enticed by lengthening days and warmer temperatures and she begins to awaken from her Winter slumber.

She stretches open and reaches forth to receive the rain that gives drink to flower buds and seedlings. She takes a deep breath, and on her exhale the leaves on trees unfurl like tiny flags heralding her revival as baby animals tumble forth, trumpeting the good news to all who will listen.

Rebirth and repopulation fill the void of winter with flurry and fury as what appeared to be gone forever comes into being once again.

Even though it happens this way every year, we stand in awe, our insides trembling sweetly like the legs of a new foal as we too are reborn.

Does this not seem to happen overnight?

Aren't we also called to awaken from our Winter slumber, stretch forth and receive what those around us have to offer in order for us to be nurtured and grow?

Aren't we also called to allow the warmth of the Season to melt away our ice and snow in order to replenish and supplement others?

Spring is when we fall in love again, speak without thinking, say "yes" to things we would normally refuse. However, all in a good way.

It becomes more difficult to say "no" when the whole world around us appears to be an astounding affirmation of the resilience, richness, and plain, perfect beauty of life.

We may find ourselves feeling several years younger and 10 pounds lighter without having changed a thing. We may feel the urge to cleanse our bodies with a new pattern of eating, clearing our cupboards of cold-weather comfort foods and filling them instead with lighter fare and fresh fruits and vegetables. We may clear our closets of old clothes or cut our hair to express a new facet of who we are, and who we might become.

Springtime inspires us to believe that, along with the earth, we too can change, releasing the past, and giving birth to new ideas, new prospects, new friendships, and new perspectives.

In honor of Spring, we could make a list of the many possibilities we envision for the future and plant it in the earth, surrendering the fertile seeds of our imaginations to the nurturing soil. In tune with the season, we can then watch in wonder as the last of the snow dissolves into the rich brown earth, and stark winter gives way to green possibility.

We might take a sheet of paper, compose our dreams, desires and prayers upon it, and bury it beneath a new annual plant before we embed it to the earth, knowing that for as long as earth permits, that plant will blossom and bloom along with our prayers.

As the last vestiges of Winter depart, all of nature enters into a lively and animated state of renewal.

In the Springtime, Earth’s life energy is awakened from dormancy, and the cycle of life begins anew.

We have the ability to sense this change taking place even before the seasonal flora around us blooms before our eyes. It is natural, therefore, that during Spring many of us begin to feel the urge to clear away the clutter that has accumulated while we've enjoyed being sequestered in our Winter nests.

Now is the time to let the fresh breezes cleanse the energy in our homes.

Interestingly, it is near the same temperature that in Autumn we shutter up and light a fire for warmth, that is Spring we open our windows and invite that same temperature air inside to enliven us.

Spring cleaning is traditionally a way to welcome a new season—one in which we open our doors and windows to let visitors and the sunshine in.

It is also a way to remove stagnant energy from our homes in order to prepare our personal space for the positive, verdant energy of Spring and Summer.

As we sweep away the dust and clutter that has blocked the flow of energy in our homes, we inevitably sweep away some of the issues that may have been blocking us in our lives.

Intention is important, so before cleaning, we might ask ourselves what needs to be cleansed, what can be discarded, and how we can make our homes a reflection of our best selves.

Also, we need to ask how what we cleanse and discard will allow us to reflect not only upon ourselves, but how we can shine forth in brilliance upon the world around us.

Then, we gather our tools and supplies around us, and we begin the cleaning process, much as we do when we work toward brightening, polishing, and shining up the world around us.

Once we've begun Spring Cleaning, we may find that with each piece of clutter we discard and each item that we clean, we begin to feel increasingly energized.

Divesting ourselves of unnecessary possessions can help us to regain clarity of mind while cleaning our windows can help us not only to refocus our vision, but allow others to see us more clearly.

As we clean, we invite healing and vital energy not only into our homes and our hearts, but also into the homes and hearts of all those with whom we know or meet.

Wishing you a brilliant Spring with sunshine surrounding you for all to see,

Rob

Stuck in the Mud

Staying in Depression

Depression comes and goes, and returns.

It is one of the most unavoidable aspects of our lives, yet we somehow embrace it and invite it into our lives once it rears its ugly head.

We try hard to release ourselves from its grasp. but sometimes it's as though we are stuck in the mud, or the quicksand, of depression.

It is when we become stuck in our depression that our own lives become detrimental to our well-being and development.

Depression comes and it goes, ebbs and flows ... just as the ocean. However, it is merely one component to the cycle of life.

Once we understand and embrace that reality, depression can actually serve as a teacher.

It is when we allow ourselves to become trapped by or get stuck in our depression that it becomes detrimental to our well-being and development.

If we notice that we feel closed-off, resentful, heavy-hearted, or that we try very hard to avoid being hurt again, or lose again, there may be a part of us that is still stuck in depression, often shutting ourselves off and staying away from the loving embrace of our friends and partners in life. Perhaps even giving up on faith and hope.

We can become trapped by depression for many reasons.

As children, it was natural for us to cry, throw a tantrum, and allow the experience to move through us. By fully feeling our pain in this way, our emotions would wash us clean, leaving us open and available to new experiences.

As with the ocean, the salty water of our tears would cleanse us.

However, with age we might determine that expressing emotion is no longer appropriate. So we develop a variety of coping strategies to deal with our discomfort.

We may teach ourselves to pack away our feelings down or to run away from them.

Perhaps we begin to believe that tightening up our shells and staying closed and unwilling to try new things will keep us safe from heartbreak, clear of rejection, and free from failure.

We might even become so accustomed to pain, rejection, and failure that the thought of being without it scares us.

However, if we continue to hold onto our issues longer than necessary, we are expending a lot of energy that could instead be channeled into making our life experiences more positive.

It is when we notice that we are continually connecting with the same familiar patterns of pain that we need to consider embracing our feelings and letting go of our hurt.

Whether our pain is from childhood or from an experience last week or today, whether it is loss of health, loss of income, or loss of home -- or fear of such a loss, we need to give the situation and experience room to move. Once it does, we can then connect with the source of our vital energy, the spirit that exists within us and can lead us through our darkness and into the life we are meant to love in, laugh in, and live in.

With love & light,

Rob