Gratitude

Sometimes our light goes out but is blown into flame by an encounter with another human being. Each of us owes the deepest thanks to those who have rekindled this inner light.

Albert Schweitzer

Star Patterns

Last September I was in Carmel during the lunar eclipse. In the quiet early morning hours with camera pointed at the sky, I stood in a parking lot trying to capture the main event.

Since I was out there for a while, I had time to experiment and found that I could make letters out of the eclipsing moon and actually got a pretty good rendition of my initials: AVO. I call those photos my lunar letters and I was looking forward to getting more letters during this recent eclipse, but the sky was too cloudy.

Back in Carmel, I also pointed my camera toward the stars. Jupiter was particularly bright then with the star Antares just below, so I practiced making star pictures also. In the above photo Jupiter is the higher one with the white light; multi-colored Antares is below.

What I love about what this photo shows is that Jupiter is white because planets reflect the sun's light, having none of their own, while stars produce their own light, which is why Antares has so many colors. You can click on the photo to make the image bigger. During this recent lunar eclipse, the sky was too overcast to experiment making star patterns.

Today, I am going to remind myself to color and scribble outside of the lines and be open to life showing itself in unexpected ways.

Lunar eclipse

The night sky was overcast for much of the evening but I managed to get a couple of photos of the lunar eclipse. What an awesome sight. I hope you all saw it. There is nothing like a celestial event to put things in perspective. The sun, moon and stars were here before we were born and will be doing their sky dance long after we are gone.

Today I am going to remind myself of this, so I don't allow my emotions to convince me that something is more important than it really is.

Simplicity

Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated. Confucius

Last night I was reading Power vs. Force, David Hawkin's book. In his Introduction he states: To explain that which is "simple" can sometimes be almost impossible; yet if we can understand even one simple thing in depth, we'll have greatly expanded our capacity for comprehending the nature of the universe and of life itself.

I really related to this statement. When explaining the Receive courses, I always say: this is so simple, so counterintuitive -- yet this work with these simple, simple exercises shifts the way you are in your life. And as your inner landscape shifts, the outer follows as life continually rearranges itself around you. It's not about raising self esteem or increasing your self worth. There is impersonality to this, if that makes sense. One of the ways I describe this work is this: It's like putting the right key in the right lock. It's a universal mechanism where your opinion of yourself is simply not the point.

We can make things so complicated, so convoluted. Today, instead of running around on the hamster wheel in my mind, I am going to remind myself of the beauty, elegance and simplicity of life.

Nature

Just after finishing my five-week Receive course last Monday, my mom arrived from the east coast for a visit. I hope you have been enjoying the quotes and photos I have been posting.

Visitors give me a chance to get out of my regular schedule, which is a good interruption! Stepping back from daily routines, I have the time and room to evaluate my choices and to see if I want to make new ones.

The writer Stephen Covey talks about the importance of tending to the important and not just to the urgent. I have a saying: Are you running your schedule, or is your schedule running you?

I find myself thinking about that this morning and wanting to regroup and change the way I am spending my time.When I first moved to Arizona last May, I regularly spent time in nature. Lately, I have been staring at the computer screen more than I would prefer.

So, today I am going to make sure I get out of the house and receive the beautiful sights that are all around me: the desert mountains, the cactus and trees, and the endless Arizona sky.

Silence

It is only when we silent the blaring sounds of our daily existence that we can finally hear the whispers of truth that life reveals to us, as it stands knocking on the doorsteps of our hearts.

K.T. Jong

Energy

The visible world is the invisible organization of energy.

Heinz Pagels

Wait

There are occasions when you can hear the mysterious language of the Earth, in water, or coming through the trees, emanating from the mosses, seeping through the undercurrents of the soil; but you have to be willing to wait and receive. John Hay

Take a break!

My mom is visiting. I'm taking a break today!

Love

Love is our true destiny. We do not find the meaning of life by ourselves alone – we find it with another.

Thomas Merton

Where there is great love there are always miracles.

Willa Cather

In order to create there must be a dynamic force, and what force is more potent than love?

Igor Stravinsky

Happy Valentine's Day!

Kindness

Wherever there is a human being,

there is an opportunity for a kindness.

Seneca

Courage

It is never too late to be who you might have been. George Eliot

Dance

Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your living room. Kurt Vonnegut

Miracles

There are two ways to look at life. One is as though nothing is a miracle; the other is as though everything is. Albert Einstein

Surrender

It may be that when we no longer know which way to go we have begun our real journey. Wendell Berry

Sometimes you just have to let go; it's the sensible thing to do. It's not the easiest; it's just the thing that makes the most sense. I am thinking about this, this morning because I am going to go back into my manuscript and re-write some of it. And the truth is, letting go and surrendering to the process of re-writes is not exactly how I had planned spending my time. But, I know I can make it better and my goal all along has been to write about this subject in a way that will help the reader make the same kinds of phenomenal shifts and changes that those who take my Receive course experience.

Is there something in your life: a project, a person, or an idea that needs you to let go so that you can take the next step in your life?

Today I remind myself that life is not a race.

Attract

Just outside of Philadelphia, lovely plants known locally as butterfly bushes appear each summer. Their blossoms attract butterflies that arrive to pollinate them. Nature provides many such examples of giving and receiving. Who is the giver? Who is the receiver? It’s easy to see that both the butterflies and the butterfly bushes give and receive. Together, they are achieving their individual goals.

If these plants were to approach their goal the way we have been taught, this is what it might look like:
Each summer, the neighborhood would be filled with butterfly bushes running around waving their blossoms trying to convince butterflies that they are the best butterfly bush around and that the butterflies should follow them home and pollinate their flowers.

Essentially that is what we are doing when all or the bulk of our efforts are geared toward the active pursuit of our goals. Yet, there is another world largely untapped and wholly at our disposal. It’s the other 50 percent: the receptive world.

So, the question becomes not how can I go get it, but how can I attract it? In other words, why would your goal, your dream, or anything you desire want you?

Have you ever thought of something you later find out somebody has patented, taken to market, written a book about, or done something with and you say, “I thought of that, too. I should have done something!”

An idea whose time has come finds its way to many people. But a goal will only manifest for those whose fertile soil can nurture and grow it.

When we develop the capacity to receive in the same way one would exercise a muscle, a goal is given a chance to plant itself, to establish itself, and to develop long, sturdy roots.

Today, don't chase after what you want. Instead, ask yourself what would make you attractive to your goal. Attract your goal to you just the way a butterfly bush attracts butterflies.

Dream

Throw your dreams into space like a kite, and you do not know what it will bring back, a new life, a new friend, a new love, a new country. Anais Nin

Blossom

Open your life like a flower opens its petals.

Accept

Whenever I remind myself to accept, I open up choices that I couldn't know about previously, because too much energy was expended in resistance. Whatever you would like to be different in your life, do yourself a great favor and accept where things are right here, right now. It is relaxing to receive yourself, the people in your life and life itself. And, it is easier to make changes from this vantage point because you have clarity about your circumstances.

Make a point today to relax, accept, and get a good aerial view.

Stillness

Sitting quietly, doing nothing, Spring comes and the grass grows by itself.

Zen saying

Share

A smile, a gift, food, or insight.

What ever it is, today share what you have to give.

Content

I am just getting ready to write my five gratitudes for the day. I have so much to be grateful for. One of the things I treasure the most is a calm, beautiful, peaceful environment. And as I look around at the beautiful flowers in a vase on the table, as I listen to the ticking of the kitchen clock and drink my morning coffee (Kona blend: my favorite!), I am content.

Are you content? What is it that you have created for yourself that brings this to your being? It is easy to allow the critical mind to run around unfettered. Instead, why not spend the day enjoying the wonderful things you have brought into your life.

Choice

The universe holds its breath as we choose, instant by instant, which pathway to follow; for the universe, the very essence of life itself, is highly conscious. Every act, thought, and choice adds to a permanent mosaic; our decisions ripple through the universe of consciousness to affect the lives of all.

From Power vs. Force by David R. Hawkins

Embrace

Whether you look within or without or up or down, embrace what you discover. All parts of you and your world need your love and acceptance.

Laugh

Expecting the world to treat you fairly because you are a good person, is a little like expecting the bull not to attack you because you are a vegetarian.

Dennis Wholey

Awe

...an overwhelming feeling of wonder or admiration.

When is the last time you looked around at your surroundings and felt amazement or reverence. You don't have to be looking at the red rocks of Sedona to feel awe. You can have this experience where ever you are. Keep this idea in your consciousness and your eyes and other senses wide open today and find something to be absolutely amazed about.

Invite

A skilled Receiver receives everything. I am thinking about this poem this morning as I am getting ready to teach the third class of my five-week course on Receiving. It's one of my favorites. Enjoy!

The Guest House

Rumi

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they're a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

From The Essential Rumi, Translations by Coleman Barks (HarperCollins, 1995)

The Source

I was reading from the I-Ching last night and came across this beautifully worded thought in hexagram 48 titled The Source: This hexagram represents the deep, inexhaustible, divinely centered source of nourishment and meaning for mankind...It receives from the individual's experience and gives to the individual's nature.

What a lovely and inclusive way to think of reciprocity and the givingness of life. Do you ever think of how your personal nature and your experience sends a message that invites a larger universal response, with that response being in sync with you? Hmmm.

Am I being too esoteric here? Simply, I can think about where I would like to be and what I would like to have happen, but life meets me where I am. When you think of it, it is very honoring to meet someone where they are, instead of where you would like them to be or wish they were not.

I'm going to sit with that thought today and see where it leads me.

Music

Recently I was reading Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain by the neurologist and storyteller Oliver Sacks. In it, he writes about how people experience music, or more to the point, how the brain experiences music. The stories are fascinating. For example, he writes that some people who are deaf or partially deaf, hear music "in their heads. " It's like the brain "decides" on its own to produce this music!

I read this with interest since for much of my life I have heard music "in my head" periodically although I am not deaf. Nor had I ever thought to mention it to anybody since it was infrequent and unobtrusive.

I was a musician/songwriter throughout my teens, twenties and thirties and occasionally still pick up my guitar, but music doesn't have the same place in my life as it did previously. And when I think about it now, it's possible that the less I play or listen to music, the more my brain decided to "play a tune." Hmmmm. Not sure about that; I'll have to pay attention.

It's interesting to think about the importance of music in our lives. How often do you give your linear thinking brain a rest and turn on the music?

Today I am going to make sure that listening to music is a part of my day. I may even play my beautiful Taylor guitar. But first, since I especially love songs that are in a language I don't know (for some odd reason), I am going to start out this morning listening to my new favorite artist, the Iroquois singer Joanne Shenandoah. If you haven't heard her before, treat yourself and get Peace & Power: Best of Joanne Shenandoah.

Curiosity

Curiosity is a door opener to the unknown. Instead of doing the same thing, thinking the same thoughts, feeling the familiar -- what would it be like if you approached your day with a curious mind and a willingness to let in the unexpected, the uninvited, the un-thought of?

I have a saying: receive everything; decide later, which reminds me to be open to possibilities instead of closing the doors too quickly before I've had the opportunity to sit with something new.

Today I will remind myself to be curious about what crosses my path. I'll save my assessments for tomorrow.

Peace

I watched a film last night titled The U.S. vs. John Lennon which profiled Lennon's role as a peace activist. It also highlighted his relationship with Yoko Ono and I have to say my feelings about her changed by the time the film ended. Not only was the love between them touching, but she handled herself with such grace in situations that could have brought out the worst in so many people. Although this was a film about Lennon, Yoko's role as a catalyst for John and her own importance as an ambassador of peace were made crystal clear.

This morning as I think back to the sixties and seventies, the tumultuous time in the United States and the power of ordinary citizens to bring an end to a war, I am touched by the contributions to peace that come in so many and often quiet forms.

Gandhi said: We must be the change we wish to see in the world. So many of us want peace, yet in our day-to-day lives we may not act in a peaceful manner.

In my book Lucky Stars I call the sign Libra The Peacemaker. Both Lennon and Gandhi are Libras. Today I am going to be inspired by these two great people and Yoko as well and choose peace as my mantra for the day. I will be peaceful inside my thoughts, allow that peace to reflect in my speech and look for ways to make a concrete contribution to world peace.