The Energy of Gratitude

"For everything there is a season and a time for every event under heaven." ~ Ecclesiastes 3:1

Spring is in the air. I know this because of my constant sneezing. 

As one season prepares its exit to make way for the next, I get somewhat left of my center and the daily grind becomes more challenging until things balance out. In the past few years, I have become hyper-intuitive to these changes. I am growing equally sensitive to the energetic shifts in my own life. The way I experienced this week is indicative of this revelation.

"If winter comes, can spring be far behind?" ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

When I begin to feel this way, focus on gratitude clears my chakra points enabling the out flow and in pouring of universal energy in a more even fashion. Instead of wrestling against the unsteadiness, opening to it allows the old season to clear out making room for the new. As the old soil is overturned, new seed is planted and I am empowered to bear more fruit in the purposes for which God has appointed.

Each season presents its unique challenges. I have chosen to be grateful for each, looking upon it as a time of pruning with an ever increasing opportunity for inner growing. By faith, I am certain of the Creator's presence in every circumstance.

Are you sensitive to the change of seasons in your life?
Is your inner soil currently being overturned?
Can you begin to look upon each challenge through the eyes of gratitude?

"That is one good thing about this world ... there is always sure to be more springs." 
~ L. M. Montgomery

The Answers in Our Resistance

"People don't resist change. They resist being changed." ~ Peter M. Senge

Most of the time when we think of resistance, we consider it in the traditional sense of challenging organizations, governments, and socio-economic systems that threaten individual, civil, and human rights.

I took my children to see the film, Selma this weekend and I was satisfied at their ability to draw parallels between the civil rights movement of the 60's and the protest movements of today. Each overcoming resistance to changes that seek to move us closer to a more universal experience of our humanity. 

On the drive home I considered the meaning of resistance as it plays out in our daily lives in the most personal of ways. I took this question into my evening prayer and meditation time and discovered that wisdom awaits in our resistance when we are courageous enough to listen.

"Resistance creates suffering. Stress happens when your mind resists what is. The only problem in your life is your mind's resistance to life as it unfolds." ~ Dan Millman

I recalled one morning griping on about the cold and how much I hated having to wear closed in shoes and so many layers of clothing. I laughed out loud when a friend remarked, "It's winter."

I was resisting winter. 

Winter which must come every year, some years in milder form than others; nevertheless it arrives. Just as there are seasons for Mother Earth, there are seasons in our human experience. Each rotation no matter how simplistic or trying is transformative and brings along with it renewed purpose. Yet we resist either by our refusal to let go, extending prematurely, or grasping for that which was never intended. 

The budding of Spring cannot last forever, nor can the carefree heat of summer. The leaves change and must be shaken from their comfortable branches to rest on the cold ground and be buried in the snow. 

Release the fear that prompts attempts to control the seasons and grow into the inevitability of the changes where promises of peace and freedom await. 

Do you resist the changing seasons in your life? 
What challenges are you currently grasping for or bracing against?
Are you blocking valuable new experiences by holding on to outdated ones?

"Clearly all fear has an element of resistance and a leaning away from the moment. Its dynamic is not unlike that of strong desire except that fear leans backward into the last safe moment while desire leans forward toward the next possibility of satisfaction. Each lacks presence." ~ Stephen Levine 

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How We Love

"Awake love is not an emotion it is a state of being. True love has no object. Many speak of their unconditional love for another. Unconditional love is the experience of being." ~ Steven Levine

I am becoming Love.

In our human existence, we love in different ways at different times under different circumstances. This often breeds what the Pali Canon calls stress, suffering or dukkha; which means "that which is hard to bear". Thai master, Ajaan Maha Boowa, translates it as, "whatever puts a squeeze on the heart".

Imagine the dismay of this dancer and serious academic mom, at a daughter's disinterest in ballet and a son's lackadaisical approach to his studies. When these disappointments "put a squeeze on my mommy heart" I believed my forced attempts at steering their pursuits was justified because I love them and I want what is best for them.

"When we say love, we usually mean some emotion or some deep feeling for an object or person that momentarily allows us to open to another, but in such emotional love self protection is never far away. Still there is "business" to the relationship." ~ Steven Levine

Clearly, my ego mind had "business" to tend to relating to my children. Translation, my dukkha was showing. Sitting in my dukkha during meditation permits quiet observation without judgement. Witnessing "that which is hard to bear" is always a challenge, but is the way toward freedom from the stress and suffering created by the ego's desire for control. 

With God's Hand of intention replacing mine, my daughter is growing into an accomplished scientist and violist and my son a developing writer and speaker.

"So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him." ~ I John 4:16

As the Great "I Am" is Love, so are my children and I an extension of that Love. Embracing this Truth with an open heart helps redefine my experience in all my relationships. 

The goal is to be present and abide in Love. 

Becoming ever mindful of any agenda and releasing it to Love without seeking control by grasping, clinging, or manipulating. I know that all is evolving according to the perfect Will of God.

Finally I am becoming Love.

Can you identify the dukkha in your life?
Do you attempt to control others through clinging, grasping, or manipulation?
Are you willing to allow God's Hand to replace yours in every area of your life?

"You cannot unconditionally love another. You can only be unconditional love. It's not a dualistic emotion. It's a sense of openness with all that is. The experience of love arises when we surrender our separateness into the Universal. It is a feeling of unity. You don't love another you are another. There is no fear because there is no separation." ~ Steven Levine

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Empty Your Cup

"You are like this tea cup, so full that nothing more can be added. Come back to me when the cup is empty. Come back to me with an empty mind." ~ Zen Proverb

Approaching this first weekend of a new year, I along with so many others continue to focus on resetting my energies. Last year was like any other strewn with growth exercises tailor made for my inner transformation. 

By far, the most profound wisdom afforded me was the value of learning to merge each triumph and trial into my spirit as I journey. I bow in honor to the lessons of the past year and I am grateful to move forward with increasing clarity, allowing what is necessary and discarding what no longer serves a purpose in my travels. 

The Creator has new blessings in disguise for each of us that will continue to facilitate our soul healing. Some will be joyful, others will be pain filled, but we must not shrink in fear. 

Remember that no experience, pleasant or ill desired lasts forever, but the Creator is ever faithful that the cup of our spirit will be filled with every good and perfect gift He has to give and it is His will that we elevate ever closer to Him. Choose gratitude for last year's sojourn, and step boldly into a new year in faith rejuvenated. 

Empty your cup in order that it might be filled anew. 

What lessons from last year are you most grateful for?
What new truth(s) are you merging into your spirit?
Are you willing to face this year's growth challenges?

"Dear Lord, Show me the empty places in my heart and the ways I try to fill them. Then lead me back to You and show me how I can position my heart to be filled and fulfilled by your promises and the power of Your Love." ~ Renee Swope

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