MoreLanguage of letting go for October

[shadowlady861]

Say I see

I was out at the drop zone one day soon after I'd begun skydiving, when the idea occurred to me. I know, I thought, I'll get a cabin out here, on a little hill with a hot tub, fireplace, and lined inside with scented cedar wood.
Wouldn't it be nice, I thought, to live high up on a hill and look down at night at the twinkling lights, overlooking the city and the lake?
I didn't think much more about it, until the cold, rainy season started. Then, despite all my efforts to repress the dream of the cabin, it just popped up and sprang right out from inside me.
I called my friend Kyle and asked him if he was busy. He said no. So I asked him if he had some time to go driving around with me.
"I just want to check out the area," I said. "Let's see if the cabin's there. Let's just drive to where my intuition takes me."
We drove down highway fifteen when an exit approached. Taking the exit felt like the thing to do. We turned off and started driving west. I looked to my right and suddenly felt an urge to drive up the hill. So we followed the road, driving by one house after another. Finally, at the end of the road, there was a small cabin at the top of a hill. The outside was covered with rough-sawn cedar. A brick fireplace covered the front of the house. A hot tub sat in the backyard. And a for sale sign was posted in the frontyard.
There are other pieces to this story. Chip got in on the dream. At some point we stopped calling it "the cabin," and it became the Blue Sky Lodge. Pat and Andy came along and helped make the dream real. It was going to be a comfortable place for people who like to do things in the air. We'd have extra beds available. It wouldn't be a hotel, but it was open to any guest who wanted to spread his or her wings and learn how to fly.
We camped at the Lodge during construction. Everything took longer than we thought, but eventually it turned into the place of our dreams.
There's a pool table, a dartboard, a whimsical guest room called the clown room, a comfy guest bedroom, a living room with a massive stone fireplace and a big-screen TV. Then there's the Blue Room, a master bedroom with blue plaid material on the walls. It houses the biggest, most comfortable bed in the world-- the Cloud Bed-- and my desk.
Red beams line the cedar wood ceiling. Chip has a desk in the foyer, and there's video cameras and regular cameras and computers on top of it. And there's books and CDs and flight bags and parachutes and helmets and climbing ropes lying around all over the house.
The Blue Sky Lodge is really about learning that your dreams can come true.
Whether your dreams for yourself come to you in bits and pieces, over a period of time, or whether you practice visualization to see and focus on your dreams yourself, dreams are just another way of God communicating with us.
She's saying, "Look at what you can have."
An important part of the language of letting go is learning to say, "I see what I can have, who I am, where I am, and what I have right now."


God, help me become aware.

[shadowlady861]

Manifest your reality

In the skydiving world, at drop zones, there's usually a small office where the sky diver goes. This office or place is called manifest. The potential sky diver must submit the ticket and be assigned to a particular flight. Sometimes things happen. The winds might pick up, cancelling that particular flight. The sky might cloud over. Something could happen that would change that sky diver's mind about getting on the plane. But for all purposes, once you've been to manifest, you're going to be at the door of the airplane looking down 12,500 feet with a group of sky divers yelling at you to jump.
If you don't want to be at that door, trying to let go and wondering how you got yourself there, don't make the trip to manifest.
It's easy to see how events get manifested in the skydiving world. Sometimes it's more difficult to see the manifest office in our daily lives.
"How did I get here," we say, looking around at the city we live in, the person we married, or the job we have. Of course, destiny and our Higher Power play a large part in where we are.
But so do we.
Choices we make lead us along. The big decisions we make help shape our destiny. Our thoughts, intentions, and imagination have more to do with shaping our present moment than we could ever imagine.
The problem is that usually there's a gap between our intentions or behavior and seeing them manifest in reality. By the time an event takes place, we've forgotten that B happened because we did A. It's difficult to see the progressive effect of the many choices we make in a day.
I'm not saying that we create everything that happens to us. We don't have that much power. But God alone didn't send a lot of the stuff that comes our way. We created much of it ourselves.
Be aware of the words you use, especially those combined with powerful emotion or will. If we're going to manifest something in reality, let's make it good.


God, show me the creative powers I possess, especially my power to manifest events in my life. Teach me to use these powers to create harmony and beauty in the world.

[shadowlady861]

Be aware of your intentions

Your inner self is literal and does not understand ambiguity so whenever you direct it to manifest your desires, give it absolutely literal instructions... Your natural self is quite fond of accomplishing the tasks you give it. It loves to display its skills and perform for you and others, and can do nearly anything( within the realm of possibility and probability) that you can conceive.
--Enid Hoffman

Be clear on your intentions.
Intentions are more than mere wishes. An intention is will mixed with emotions and desire. For instance, I can sit here and wish the house were cleaner. When I put all else aside, take my frustration about the mess and channel it into energy and my desire for tidiness, I can say, "I will spend one hour straigntening up."
Sometimes we make our intentions known to other people. For instance, we might start dating someone, and it's our intention to eventually marry. Intentions can turn into manipulation when we don't make them clear. They can also involve control, in the worse sense, when they involve changing the free will of someone else.
The best place to start is by making our intentions clear to ourselves. What do you want? In regards to your life situations, like work or finances, what are your intentions?
Sometimes our good intentions can run totally amok. For instance, we might intend to get a person sober, but they may have no desire to sober up. We can avoid a lot of painful manipulations, if we're clear about our intentions.
Watch yourself as you go through life encountering different situations. Do you have an agenda? Do you even know what it is? Sometimes our intentions are less than conscious, hidden right below the surface. For instance, we may have an intention to get married and have someone support us so we don't have to support ourselves. Are someone else's intentions influencing your own?
When you start any project, a new relationship, or just a new day, spend a moment and get quiet. Be clear with yourself and others on what your intentions are. Then surrender those intentions to God.


God, please help me align my intentions and desires with your highest good will for my life.

[shadowlady861]

Value your dreams

I always wanted to be a writer. Long ago I talked to God about it, then asked God to bring it to pass if that dream was from him. Or Her. Within twenty-four hours I had my first writing assignment from a community newspaper. I got paid five dollars a story, and I've been writing ever since.
Sometimes, we get a vision of ourselves doing something. We might get an inkling or even have a dream where we see ourselves doing something in the future. We might get a feeling that we're about to become pregnant. Or we might have a dream in which we see ourselves moving into a new home. We might be driving by a neighborhood one day and get a special feeling that it would be right for us to live there.
We might get a hunch about a career-oriented event.
Some people like these little hunches or dreams are our soul's way of remembering what it came here to do.
We see a flash: a dream, vision, or special feeling of what's coming next. Maybe your dreams about what you want and what you'd like are more important than you think.


God, show me what you want me to do and experience in life. Then give me enough consciousness to relax and see what you're pointing out.

Activity: have an I see page in your journal. As you go about the days ahead, pay special attention to the dreams that pop into your head. Nighttime dreams are important. It's good to write in your journal about those, too. Often they give us clues. But what I'm talking about here are our daytime dreams and feelings-- those things we think we want or can see ourselves doing. Have you buried any drems from childhood or adulthood, things you really wanted to pursue but forgot along the way? Tell yourself it's time to remember. Then let it go. Pay attention to what pops up into sight. Write it down, even if It's just a sentence or two. Then let the dream go again. Don't try to control the future. It will happen of its own accord.

[shadowlady861]

Take time to see it first

"Go over your skydive in your mind," my jump master taught me, when I first began learning to jump out of the airplane. "Sit down by yourself and see yourself going through every movement, from the time you get into the plane until you come back to earth."
Visualization has been a helpful tool to me in skydiving and in most areas of my life.
In the 1980's, Shakti Gawain wrote a best-seller, Creative Visualization. She talked about the powerful impact of using your mind to imagine yourself in some activity before actually doing it in reality.
Visualization has been a self-help tool that's been around even longer than that. Many people in all walks of life, from therapists to sports professionals, agree that seeing yourself doing it beforehand is the best way to do it well.
We can use the tool of visualization to help create matter out of spiritual energy, simply by spending quiet time during our meditation focusing on what we want, seeing ourselves having it, doing it, touching it, and feeling it. One woman told me she used visualization to help see herself letting go of a partner.
"I get quiet and I actually see myself living happily without the person I thought I had to have in my life," she said to me. "I get into the details of myself, too. How unemcumbered I feel. How grateful I am for the lessons that person taught me. How I'm free of the burden of obsessing about this person. It really helps me let go."
Visualization is an important tool, It's a gift when we can see ourselves doing something and then having that activity manifested in reality.
Visualization only works if you use it. Make it a regular practice in your life.
Visualize yourself living with one of your dreams. Visualize yourself doing something you're nervous about doing. Take a few moments and run through the entire scenario in your head, until you can see yourself doing that thing calmly, clearly, and successfully with all obstacles cleared from your path.


God, help me use visualization as a regular tool in my life. Help me do my part in creating positive situations by taking the time first to see it, to visualize it.

Activity: Become an expert at visualization. Go to the library or bookstore and get a couple books on visualization. Then, read these books and begin applying the tool of visualization in your life.

[shadowlady861]

See it simple

"It's too much," I said to my instructor. "Jumping out of a plane is too much for my mind to comprehend."
"Then keep it simple," he said. "Break it down into parts. You have the ride up, where you practice relaxing, your exit, your free-fall time; then you deploy your parachute. Then you decide if it's working or if you need to go to plan B. Next set up your landing pattern. When you get near the ground, pull your strings and flare."
I could handle the steps, but the big picture of jumping out of an airplane was too much to envision. But exiting, falling stable, pulling, and flaring were simple parts that felt manageable. My mind could comprehend these simple tasks.
You may never make a skydive. Or maybe you will. But there's a lot of things in life that seem like too much if we try to see them all as one big thing, I never thought I could stay sober and drug-free for twenty-seven years. But with God's help and the help of the program, I believed I could refrain from using drugs and alcohol for twenty-four hours. Then the next day, I got up and believed the same thing agian.
There have been times I didn't think I could start my life over. But I could get up in the morning and do the things I thought best for that day.
Are you facing something now in your life that feels too overwhelming? Then simplify it. Break it down into manageable parts until you can see how simple it is.


God, if I'm complicating a task or making it too big and unmanageable in my mind, help me to simplify what I see.

[letgo]

Thank you for this. It's also why the concept of ODAAT is so important in recovery and for many in their early days, even one hour at a time. What is the saying?
"This is a simple program for people who like to over complicate things"

[shadowlady861]

Tell yourself how simple it is

Here's another example about the power of simplification.
For years, I heard about hiking. It sounded so elusive, difficult, and mysterious. I didn't do it, but I thought about hiking wistfully. One day, a friend asked me to go hiking with him. "Sure," I said. As the day of our hike approached, I began thinking things through. I was getting a little nervous. What if I couldn't do it well enough? What if I didn't know how to do it at all?
Don't be ridiculous, I scolded myself. You're making this much more complicated than it really is. Hiking is just walking, ans you've been doing that since you were ten months old.
The next day, I arose at 6:00 A.M., and my friend and I left for our hike. I followed my friend as he began walking up the steep incline.
Just walk, I told myself after the first ten steps. Put one foot in front of another. Walk like you've done all your life.
I didn't make it to the top of the mountain that day, but I made it almost halfway.
Is there something you've wanted to do but have put off because it sounds too difficult and complicated? Are you saying no to something in your life that you'd like to say yes to, but it seems elusive and out of your reach? Try reducing the task or activity to its simplest form.
I have a friend who hadn't dated for years. One day, a girl he liked asked him to go to the movies. He was anxious and nervous.
"Going to a movie is just sitting down and staring at the screen, then getting up and going home when you've finished," I said. "I think you can do that."
"You're right," he said. He went and had a great time.
Sometimes, we can scare ourselves out of doing the easiest things in life. Yes, hiking involves more than walking. And going on a date with someone involves a little more than sitting and staring at a screen. But not that much more. Simplify things. Bring them down to their most manageable level. Instead of talking yourself out of living, learn to talk yourself into it.


God, give me the courage to fully live my life. Help me deliberately talk myself into doing things, instead of scaring myself away.

[shadowlady861]

Hi Everyone:
I really appreciate knowing someone reads and enjoys my posts. Thank you for letting me know. Joanne

[catlady]

I love them...thank you so much for posting them! They are very motivational...and help me sometimes when I am not feeling so positive all on my own~:D

[shadowlady861]

Go at your own pace

This part of the path was steep. And the altitude change was severe. I was gasping for breath and trying not to grimace at the ache in my legs as my hiking partner strode up the path in front of me.
He stopped and looked back. I was definitely trailing behind. If his legs were aching the way mine were, his stride didn't show it. I knew how it felt to hold yourself back to someone else's pace. I didn't want to do that to him just because I was out of shape.
"You go on ahead," I yelled.
He looked reluctant.
"Go. Hike at your own pace. I'll hike at mine."
I convinced him to leave me behind. Just because we came together didn't mean that we had to hike, or walk as I preferred to call it, in the same stride. My friend went on ahead of me and disappeared from sight. I hiked, then rested, then hiked, then rested. Once, I stopped, took off my backpack, and took a nap.
My friend and I joined up toward the end of the day. We made the trek down the mountain together, side by side.
Even though we simplify things, most things are harder than we think. It's important to let each person go at their own pace. Whether it's working through an issue or tackling a project in your life, find the pace that works for you. Let others do the same.
Don't compare yourself to those around you. Let yourself be energized by their pace, but respect the rhythm that works for you.


God, help me know that each of us has our own rhythm for getting through life. Help me honor and enjoy the rhythms that work for me.

[shadowlady861]

Lower your expectations

When you're starting a first creative project or beginning the study of an art or craft, what I want you to do is lower your standards until they disappear. That's right. You're not supposed to be any good at the beginning. So you might as well give yourself the liberating gift of joyously expecting yourself to be bad.
__Barbara Sheer and Annie Gotlieb, Wishcraft


When I first began writing newspaper and magazine articles, it took me anywhere from one to three months to complete a short article. After writing for a few years, I brought a timer into my office one day. I told myself I knew how to do what I was doing, now I was going to learn to do it more quickly. Before long, I was able to write in two hours what had previously taken me months to accomplish. The key words here are in time.
When I first began recovering from chemical dependency, it took me eight months of treatment to understand what other people were comprehending in six weeks. In time, I became a chemical dependency counselor. In time, I wrote books on the subject. The key words here are in time.
When I first began recovering from codependency, I couldn't tell a control gesture from setting a boundary. I didn't know when I was taking care of myself or what that even meant. I didn't know manipulation from an honest attempt at expressing my emotions. In time, I wrote a best-seller on the subject. Again, the key words are in time.
Start where you are. Start poorly. Just begin. Let yourself fumble, be awkward and confused. If you already knew how to do it, it wouldn't be a lesson in your life. And you wouldn't get the thrill of victory two, five, or ten years from now when you look back and say, "Wow. I've gotten good at that over time."
All things are possible to him or her that believeth, the Bible says. Enjoy those awkward beginnings. Revel in them. They're the key to your success.


God, help me stop putting off living out of fear of doing it poorly. Help me lower my expectations to allow room for awkward beginnings.

[shadowlady861]

See how it feels to do it right

In skydiving, there's an activity called dirty diving. At the drop zone, you'll see people lying on their bellies on contraptions that look like skateboards. They make all the moves on the ground as if they were free-falling through the air. They're training their bodies and themselves to do it right. They're experiencing how it feels to do it right.
Do you have something you're trying to leanr how to do? Are you struggling to let go of someone? Are you trying to do something for the first time-- conquer your fear of flying or write a book? Do you have a meeting scheduled that's causing you some strain? Maybe you need to approach your boss and asl for a raise.
See yourself doing it. Quiet yourself first by deliberately relaxing each part of your body and mind. Then imagine yourself doing it, whatever it is. See how it feels to do it right. Go into each detail of how you would feel if you were doing it right.
If you encounter a block that keeps you from moving forward smoothly in your visualization time, ask your Higher Power or yourself how to remedy or release that block. Do you have a fear that's blocking you? Is it a new or an old fear? Maybe it's a concern over what somebody told you long ago about your inadequacy. Release that energy, then start all over again, seeing what it feels like to do it right. Keep at your visualization until you can go through the entire process smoothly, from beginning to end.
If you try but can't imagine yourself doing something, much less see how it feels to do it right, maybe you're trying to do something that's not right for you. Ask your Higher Power for guidance about that, too.
Visualization can give us time to safely dirt-dive and work through awkwardness, fears, and potential blocks and problems. Sometimes spending quiet time trying to visualize how it feels to do it right can give us a message that either this is or isn't the right time or thing for us.


God, help me use my mental powers to create the most positive scenes I can imagine taking place in my life.

[shadowlady861]

Make use of your imaginative powers

It was a small ad in a catalog for an electric flossing machine. "I don't have the time or energy to floss," the man in the ad declared. "That's why I need this machine to do it for me."
Too busy and too tired.
Some of us complain about all the things we have to do to maintain spiritual health. Prayer. Meditation. Attending support groups. All these things take time and energy, even though we get a good return on the time we invest. Now, we're considering adding another activity to our already full self-care activities list: spending time and energy visualizing to help create positive events in our lives.
When someone first suggested I use visualization as a tool, my reaction was similar to one of the man in the ad. I don't have the time. I'm too busy and tired.
But we're always thinking about something and creating pictures in our minds. Usually what we see are worst case scenarios. So why not take the time, effort, and energy we're already using to see things not working out and instead visualize things working out? If we've got enough time and energy to see the negative what if's, we've got the time and energy to visualize positive events, too.
Visualizing isn't a form of control. Just because we see things working out well doesn't guarantee that they will. But if we can see it, it's more likely to happen than if we can't see it at all.


God, help me use the powers of thought and imagination in the most creative way I can.

[CleverCelt]

When I first read about Visualization in a book written by Brian Tracy considered a professional personal motivator, I thought it was the craziest thing I have ever heard of. I also remember when the thought of staying sober for more then a day or two was crazy also. I decided that I really haven't much to lose and a whole lot to gain and began to visualize my goals in life. I found that Visualizing my goals made them very clear and articulate in my mind and I instantly knew if I was moving towards or away from my Goals. I consider it to be a powerful tool in maintaining good positive sobriety and counting my blessings!
Thank You ShadowLady!:85:

[shadowlady861]

See it and let it go

This is a reminder. While you're using your imagination, embracing your dreams, and spending your time visualizing positive preformance, don't forget to let go.
Don't worry about how things will come to pass. Your part is seeing the best for yourself. Then return to the details of your daily life.
It's safe to let go and let God. Just because we have the creative powers to imagine doesn't mean we have to control the rest. Say, I see, then let it go.
Let God work the manifest.


God, after I've seen my dreams and visualizations, help me give them back to you.

[shadowlady861]

Let go of what you can't see, too

Let life unfold, even if you can't see the good that you want coming your way. Are you worried about what's going to happen next? Has there been a shift in your job or relationship that makes you tense?
Let life unfold. Don't limit it by the past or even by what you can see and visualize. Don't deny that you feel discouraged or anxious. Let today unfold. Then tomorrow, do the same. If you've been worrying about something and you can't see how it could possibly work out and there's nothing to do now, then relax and let things unfold.
Sometimes the unexpected things that manifest are better than what we can imagine or see. Even if we can't see the good coming our way, God can.


God, help me know that what is unseen today will be made clear when the time is right.

[shadowlady861]

See naturally

I was talking to a friend one day about using visualization as a tool to help create the present and future we desire. Visualization, or using the spiritual energy of thought as a tool, can create physical reality.
"I don't really do that much," he said. "I'm not one for visualization."
Later, we were talking about a project we were working on together. He began to describe the next stage of the process. "I see us working together on it like this," he said. He described in great detail how he saw things coming to pass.
I listened. When he finished, I told him, "You said you don't use visualization as a tool. But you just used it naturally, without thinking, to describe how we are going to work on the next stage of this project."
He thought for a moment, then he said he guessed I was right.
Don't talk yourself out of using visualization as a tool. Most of us often use our imagination to consider things that are taking place now or in the future. Be aware of what you say and see, so that you can use this powerful tool, your imagination, to help create whatever it is that you really want to see.
Pay attention to the ways you use your imagination in your daily life, the number of times you naturally say how you see things working out. If you find yourself using your imaginative powers to create negative events, stop! Erase that scene and create something else.


God, help me become aware of how I see naturally. Help me use and respect my imagination as the powerful creative tool it is.

[shadowlady861]

See naturally

I was talking to a friend one day about using visualization as a tool to help create the present and future we desire. Visualization, or using the spiritual energy of thought as a tool, can create physical reality.
"I don't really do that much," he said. "I'm not one for visualization."
Later, we were talking about a project we were working on together. He began to describe the next stage of the process. "I see us working together on it like this," he said. He described in great detail how he saw things coming to pass.
I listened. When he finished, I told him, "You said you don't use visualization as a tool. But you just used it naturally, without thinking, to describe how we are going to work on the next stage of this project."
He thought for a moment, then he said he guessed I was right.
Don't talk yourself out of using visualization as a tool. Most of us often use our imagination to consider things that are taking place now or in the future. Be aware of what you say and see, so that you can use this powerful tool, your imagination, to help create whatever it is that you really want to see.
Pay attention to the ways you use your imagination in your daily life, the number of times you naturally say how you see things working out. If you find yourself using your imaginative powers to create negative events, stop! Erase that scene and create something else.


God, help me become aware of how I see naturally. Help me use and respect my imagination as the powerful creative tool it is.

[shadowlady861]

Look where you're going

"I have the controls!" Rob, my flight instructor said. He grabbed the yoke and turned the little Cessna away from an approaching plane. "Did you see or hear him on the radio?" Rob asked.
"NO, I said. "I was concentrating too much on the flight panel instruments inside to scan outside for other planes."
"The airplane wants to fly," Rob said. "Learn to feel what coordinated flight feels like so you won't need to be glued to the instruments. You need to be looking outside for other aircraft."
Sometimes we get so engrossed in the world inside our heads, that we forget to look outside. We can become so involved with the minor details of a project, something we're trying to do, that we don't see the big problem coming at us until it crashes into us. We can get so absorbed in our emotions that we neglect the rest of our lives. We can become so engrossed with our agenda-- trying to get someone to like us, to get that job, to buy that house, or to control an outcome-- that we don't see the warning signs and realize that person, thing, or place might not be good for us.
Learn to feel your life and understand intuitively when you're on the right path, Be aware. Sometimes we can spot potential problems when they're still small and far away. If you can do this, then only minor corrections to your course may be necessary to avoid conflicts down the road.
Remember, the airplane wants to fly, but you've got to keep from hitting anything if you want a safe flight. Relax and look where you're going. That's how you stay on course.


God, help me become aware of danger signals before it's too late.

[shadowlady861]

You'll go where you look


There was only one tree in the landing zone. Most of its leaves had been stripped away by the winter winds. I didn't want to hit it, but that's exactly what I did.
My parachute opened up right over the student landing area, a blessing for someone as new and unsure as I. I flew along the side of the field, turned onto the base leg, and then carefully turned into my final approach just as I'd been taught. There it was, the tree, its scrawny branches reaching up for me. It was all I could see from that point on. I couldn't take my eyes off it. For a moment I thought I might clear it. "NO LOW TURNS, NO LOW TURNS," kept screaming in my ear as I drifted lower and lower, straight toward that tree.
I watched myself sink right into it.
Laughter and applause drifted out from the packing area.
Later another jumper pulled me aside to talk. "Do you know why you hit the tree?" she asked.
"Yes," I said. "It was in my way."
"There's more to it than that," she said. "You had plenty of time to turn out of the way of the tree. Instead, you watched yourself land right in it. You'll always go where you look. Look at something long enough to be aware of the potential for trouble, but don't fixate on the object. If you don't want to land on top of something, quit staring at it so hard.
Sometimes we get so focused on what we don't want and what we're afraid of, that's all we can see. We obsess about it, worry, and mull it around in our heads. It's all we can talk about, think, or feel. Then when we come crashing right into it, we wonder where we went wrong. After all, it was the very thing we had been trying to avoid.
The moral of this story is simple and sweet. Look at where you're going, but remember you'll go where you look.
Know what you don't want. Release your fears. Stay aware and alert to the dangers looming in your peripheral view. Your mind is more powerful than you might believe. If you put all your concentration and energy on something, that's exactly where you'll go.


God, help me stay aware and focus my enenrgy on where you want me to go.

[shadowlady861]

The beauty is easy to see

It is good to have an end to journey toward; bit it is the journey that matters, in the end.
__Ursula K. LeGuin

One lesson road trips have taught me is that while it's good to have a destination, it's good to see what the trip has to offer rather than waiting for it to bring us what we expected.
Recently, a friend and I made a trip to Santuario de Chimayo to visit the church and bring home some of the healing dust from the sacred place. Along the way, we planned to pass through other beautiful places in the Southwest, a spiritual pilgrimage we thought. We left the house ready to be enlightened. But something happened. In the hot Arizona air, we stopped letting the trip happen and started looking for a specific experience. The Indial ruins were overrun with tourist groups and the beautiful red rock vortex center had been reduced to strip malls and time-share condos. Our spiritual quest had yielded nothing but disappointment so far. We felt antsy, irritable, and let down.
Then we saw the sign: Meteor Crater road next right. We turned down that road, giving in to the cheesy kitsch of the trip. A mile wide and over five hundred feet deep the crater was left over fifty thousand years ago in the middle of what is now the Arizona desert. A man bought the land and he and his family became meteor experts-- marketing experts as well since they now charge ten dollars to see a big hole in the ground. Nice enough folks though, and we smiled for the first time on the trip.
I'd always wanted to see the Petrified Forest, though I feared that once again the hype would overpower the reality of what it was. It didn't. The giant logs-turned-to-stone were scarce but the place had a powerful timelessness to it. The sky was pastel blue. I lay on a giant wave of sand while Chip ran around taking pictures that would end up overexposed.
Later that evening we crossed the border into New Mexico. Chelle's-- a nice place to eat read the sign on the side of a building in Gallup. And it was nice, just like the sign said.
We can search for joy and enlightenment so frantically that we don't see the brilliance at our own feet. Sometimes in the search for enlightenment, it helps to remember to lighten up. To paraphrase Winnie the Pooh, if you're looking for enlightenment and only find the ordinary, then try looking at the ordinary and let it be what it is. You might then find something you weren't looking for, which might be just what you were looking for when you began.
Don't let your hopes and expectations be so high that you miss the beauty in what is. Joy and enlightenment, after all, aren't that hard to see.


God, help me let go of my expectations and delight in what is.

[shadowlady861]

Take another look

It's amazing the difference
A bit of sky can make.
--Shel Silverstein

We spend mornings at the Blue Sky Lodge drinking coffee on the back porch watching the world wake up. One morning, after grabbing my cup, I walked out back to find Frank, a skydiving friend staying at the Lodge while visiting from the United Kingdom, busily snapping pictures of the surrounding terrain.
"Frank, why are you taking pictures of this?" I asked. "If you want, we can take you to some of the more scenic areas around here."
"No way," he replied. "No one back home will believe that I got to spend my time in a place with a view like this!"
I looked around and tried to see the view through his eyes. The rolling hills of southern California were bathed in golden early morning sunlight, while a light marine layer curled over the ridgeline of the Ortega Mountians just three miles to the west. San Jacinto rose high in the eastern sky, a pale silhouette in the morning sun.
I smiled and for the first time in a while took in the sheer beauty of the view. Lately all I had been seeing were the piles of leaves and construction materials scattered around the yard or the cars driving along the road in the valley below us. I had been surrounded with beauty and yet had grown so accustomed to it that I didn't even notice it anymore.
Many times what we need isn't a change of scenery, but a renewed vision of what's already there. Take another look at your life-- where you live, your friends, your work-- all your gifts. Maybe the view in your life is better than you think.


God, renew my spirit. Help me look at my life with a fresh vision. If I don't like what I see, help me look again.

[shadowlady861]

See for yourself

I have a friend who likes to hike and backpack. He always takes beautiful pictures of the places that he visits. After one trip he was telling me about a camp high in the California Sierras while showing me a photo of a stunning sunset. He told me about the night that he returned to camp after walking to the top of the mountain.
"When I got down, I found that everyone else had packed up and left camp. I was alone at twelve thousand feet. The silence was so thick I could almost touch it. You should have seen the sunset that night. It was even better than this picture."
"Why didn't you take a picture if the sunset was even more beautiful?" I asked.
"I figured that no one else cared to see the world from that viewpoint that night but me, so I just kept the sunset all to myself," he explained. "If you weren't there, you just missed out."
This summer I watched the sun set over a lake in a corner of New Mexico, then I spent the night under the stars in a sleeping bag. The stars were so clear, so close, so brilliant I felt like I could touch them. And no, I didn't take a picture. If you weren't there, you just missed out.
You can read a meditation book, make a list, and even talk to people who live their lives fully, but unless you make the trip yourself, you won't see all this life has to offer.
Is there a picture that you've been too busy to see lately? Break out of the ordinary. See something new or see the ordinary in a new way. Don't just glance. Really look. Then bring back the picture in your heart. Unless you're there, you're just missing out. Some things you just need to see for yourself.


God, help me live my life to the fullest. Help me see and treasure all the beauty in the world.

[annalittlebit]

:1:

[shadowlady861]

Thank you Annalitlbit:

Love you comment, I to get a lot out of these posts. Have a good day. Joanne

[shadowlady861]

Be present now

Take time, but not too much, to see where you want to go. Learn the lessons from your past. Then let go of yesterday. Let tomorrow take care of itself. Even our best prediction about what may come in the future is only an educated guess, no matter how diligently we try to see ahead. If all you look at is where you're going, you'll miss all the wonder and beauty along the way. And once you get there-- your future-- you may not even remember where you've been. Rushing may be such a habit that you won't enjoy your future once it arrives.
Be where you are right now. See what's in front of you, not what you wish were there. Take time to see, enjoy, and appreciate what's present. Take action if you need to. Or just enjoy the view. You've worked hard to get here. Enjoy it.
The past is important. It's where we've been. The future is important, too. But there's no time-- and no time as real-- as the present.
Learn to be here, now.


God, heighten my awareness and appreciation of each moment in my life.

[allaflutter]

The ever present precious precious present moment

[shadowlady861]

Cultivate awareness

Often the words "consciousness" and "awareness" are used interchangeably...Consciousness is the pulsing vibration that is the essence of all things. Awareness is the individuating "I AM" in each of us. Wherever I am, my awareness is also. When I move, my awareness goes with me. When I focus my awareness on something, I perceive that thing. Through my physical sensory organs I am aware of sights, sounds, tastes, smells and touch. Through higher sensory perception I am aware of much more.
--Enid Hoffman

Use all your senses, whether you are visualizing the future or sinking into a joyful awareness of where you are right now. Don't just look at the flower-- touch it. Smell it. Feel it.
Don't just gaze at the people in your life. Hear them. Feel their power and presence.
Slow down, Don't move so fast. You'll miss important things. Cultivate awareness. Bring your senses, all of them, into the heart of your life.
Awareness isn't about looking. It's about seeing with more than your eyes. Often when we look for a thing, whether it's a home or a girlfriend, all we can see is our projections-- our hopes, fears, past, and desires.
Relax. Stop projecting yourself onto the world. Let go of judgements. Let things and people be what and who they are.
Cultivate awareness by using all your senses.
Learn to see what is.


God, help me slow down and become aware.

[annalittlebit]

Thanks Shadowlady---This really hits home with me as I am amazed at my awareness in the last few months of the beauty of things around me---I know that Gods world has always been filled with beauty but I was to self absorbed to notice. Not so now---God has given me new eyes!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :195:

[shadowlady861]

Be aware of your heroes

Heroes and mentors can inspire and teach us to do great things with our lives. They can help point us in the right direction when we're unsure. They can bring us just the right message at just the right time. Usually we can find someone who has walked the path before us, and can lead us with his or her example. The problem comes when he or she stops being a mentor to us and becomes an idol instead. If we spend too much time revering as individual, we can easily lose sight of the message.
Take a look at the people in your life that you have chosen as mentors, heroes, sponsors, or teachers. Appreciate all the help they give you. But be aware that they don't and can't have all the answers. They're human too. They too have blind spots, prejudices, and their own lessons to go through. And yes, they'll make mistakes. But if their hearts are true, they'll come back to the path. And if your heart is true, maybe you'll be a light helping guide them there.
Listen to your mentors. Respect them for who they are. Be grateful for the inspiration and messages that come through them to you. But don't worship your heroes.
Learn to think for yourself as well.


God, help me remember that it's the message, not the messenger, that counts. Thank you for my heroes, teachers, and mentors, but help me remember not to lift them up too high.

[allaflutter]

Thank You....How true that is and a very valuable reminder...I am fortunate and blessed that my sponsor suggested early on... "Do not put me up on a pedestal..I am human and walk this same journey with you & I will make mistakes.." I have passed that message on to those I sponsor and I suggest them to watch as I walk thru those mistakes using the principles

[shadowlady861]

Find and respect your own stride

Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the men of old; seek what they sought.
--Basho

One of the dangers of following a hero is the temptation to emulate them too much instead of walking our own path. John quit his job and started his own company when he was twenty-four years old. Five years later he sold out for millions of dollars. We want to be like John so we try the same thing and go broke. What happened? Is the universe against us? No. We just got confused about the difference between learning from a hero and trying to walk his path, John's path may have led him to start a company; your path may also lead you on that course, just not at the same time in your life.
We can still learn much from our heroes and the people we admire. Just be aware that their path and time frame may be different from ours.
When the time comes for you to start that business, learn a new skill, enter into a relationship, or whatever you're hoping to do, the experience will be there. The experience will be ready for you when you're ready for it. Your timing may be different from everyone else's.
I know people who got married after knowing each other only two weeks and then stayed mostly happily married for more than thirty years. I know people who date each other for years and still can't decide if they're ready to commit. My friend made the transition from living in the Midwest to living in California in months. That transition took me several years.
We each have our own stride and path. And while many of our lessons are similar, each of us is unique. If we spend our time trying to emulate a person rather than an idea, we'll at best be an inferior version of our teacher and at worst will never discover our own path. Their stride will be too long or too short for us, and we won't learn the true lesson, which is to trust our inner guide.
Gautama Buddha found enlightenment while sitting under a banyan tree; Milarepa found it while living as a hermit in a Himalayan cave. Gaining enlightenment isn't an exercise in following a person; it's an exercise in following your heart.


God, help me let go of any expectations of perfection I may have of myself or others. Help me be aware of the messages you send me, then help me discern my own truth.

[shadowlady861]

What you see isn't always what you get

I was walking through the mall when I saw a photo booth at one of the kiosks. A large green screen hung as a backdrop and the photographer had her subjects stand in front of it in various poses. After taking the photo, she used a computer to paste it into a scene. You might then look like an alligator wrestler, a snowboarder, a hapless adventurer getting run over by his own jeep.
What you see is not always what you get. People are not always what they seem. It's easy for others to paint an inaccurate picture either to impress or manipulate us into doing what they want us to do. Understand that while many, even most, of the people in your life will be honest, there will be those who will paint a false picture. They will claim to have experience that you don't; they will claim to know the secret of how to live your life; they will claim to be something they're not. They will try to use their self-exalted position to control or manipulate you.
Be aware of people who would manipulate you by pasting themselves into a false background or scene. Don't just take things at face value. Take your time, as much time as you need, to see what the real background is.
Most of us get misled from time to time. Sometimes people con us. Other times we trick ourselves. Let go of naivete.


God, if I start getting conned or manipulated, please show me and help me see the truth.

[shadowlady861]

Stop tricking yourself

Even the best of us get tricked from time to time. Someone comes along and impresses us with magic. Later we discover it wasn't magic, just illusions.
Sometimes the issue isn't that people were trying to trick us. We tricked ourselves. We saw what we wanted to see, regardless of what reality was. Then when reality started to creep in, we told ourselves if we held our breath and didn't feel our feelings and hoped long and hard enough, reality would change.
We don't have to get mad at ourselves when we get tricked, even if we've fooled ourselves. We need to see and acknowledge the truth and become aware of what reality is.
Don't let your embarrassment over finding yourself in a bad situation cloud your view of yourself. Sometimes all we need to do is acknowledge the truth, including the truth about how we feel. In a few days or a few months, the solution will become clear.
When all the illusions drop away, that's when real magic begins. You'll be guided along your path.


God, help me remember that when I admit and accept the truth, I'll be given the power and guidance to change.

[shadowlady861]

Be aware of how you feel

What happened today? How did you feel about it?
Just like all those stuffed feelings from childhood that we could not deal with then, any feelings that we repress or deny today don't go away. They linger in our energy field until we give them their due. Sometimes these repressed feelings blook our view of the truth.
For many of us, resisting our feelings is an ancient pattern and a habitual way of life. Take your time to debrief from your day, but don't just say what you did and what you liked. Say how you felt about each thing that occurred.
You might make a discovery that surprises even you. You don't necessarily have to tell the other person how you feel, but you might. For certain, you at least need to tell yourself.
Today is just a simple reminder of something you already know. Be aware each day of what happens. And be aware of how you feel.


God, help me remember that it's okay to be who I am and feel what I feel, no matter what those feelings are. Remind me when I believe my feelings are a nuisance that they're the key to my power.

[shadowlady861]

Be aware of the illusion of control

Remember how it feels when we try to control someone else.
"I was driving down the road one day behind a car that I decided was driving too slowly," a friend said to me. "I was yelling, raging, and carrying on about the driver in front of me, trying to mentally will him out of my way. I wanted him to move over and let me by.
"While I was driving I observed myself. Then I started to laugh. I wasn't angry about this driver in front of me. I was angry because I was trying to control something that I couldn't change."
Be aware of all your feelings. But also remember to be aware that sometimes it's not the other person that's making us crazy. We're doing it to ourselves.


God, help me be aware of the self-created drama in my life. Help me let go of my need to control. Give me the courage of my feelings. And help me be aware of when my self-will is running riot.

[shadowlady861]

Let enlightenment come

Sometimes, the harder we try to see a lesson, the more lost and confused we become. "What does it mean?" we ask, squinting at the problem.
Relax. Let go of your expectations and your interpretations. Quit trying so hard to see.
Sometimes the lesson may be a simple reminder to see the sacred in your ordinary life or to practice compassion for yourself as well as for others. Sometimes what we're going through is part of a larger lesson, one that may take us years to complete and comprehend. It's easy to fall into the false belief that there's some lesson that we have to push and struggle to learn. There isn't.
We only have to see what we see and know what we know right now.
Experience your life.
More shall be revealed when it's time.
Practice seeing without squinting.


God, help me be present to the situations in my life without trying to read too deeply into them. Help me trust that my lessons will become clear when it's time.

[allaflutter]

For those "NOW" moments our progam offers "A New PAir OF Glasses"

[shadowlady861]

Ask to see what you're being shown

I was in a small shopping center dropping off film to be developed. When I returned to my car, I realized I had locked my keys inside it. Disbelief shortky turned to acceptance. I walked down to the police station, a few doors down. I had locked my purse in the car too. I didn't have a quarter on me to use the phone.
The police called the automobile club for me. They told me help was on the way. I went outside and sat on the curb. Then I began staring at a small kitchen furnishings store across the street. I stared and stared. Then I decided to go browse for a while, even though I didn't have my purse.
For months I'd been searching all over Southern California looking for a particular brand of pots and pans. I'd almost given up. Although this was a small store, I decided to inquire if they carried that brand.
"Oh yes," the clerk said. "We sure do."
Sometimes an inconvenient incident is just that-- inconvenient. Sometimes we just need to slow down, come back to earth, and be aware. Sometimes there's something our Higher Power would like us to see. And once in a while that unexpected problem is really a blessing in disguise.
Take interruptions and inconveniences in stride, Instead of being angry, try to be quietly present to your life. Be aware. See if something's being pointed out to you.


God, help me open my eyes to see what you want me to see.

[shadowlady861]

God's aware of you

Dear God,
Are you really invisible or is that just a trick?
--Children's Letters to God

Sometimes we cannot see more than a few feet in front of us along the path. The path is still there. All we have to do is keep walking it until we're out of the darkness and into the Light. Just take one small step at a time.
Surrender to the circumstances in your life. Feel your feelings. Be aware of your pain and your suffering, if that's what you're going through. But remember that even when you can't see God, God can see you.
And God cares.


God, help me feel your active presence and love in my life today.

[shadowlady861]

Practice awareness of God

I can remember the moment when I was willing to be truly vulnerable with life again. I was walking around in a beach town, talking to my friend. I was talking about my safe little life back in Stillwater, Minnesota, where I thought I had everything under control. I had avoided living in big cities and thought small town living would be safe. In that small town, working for its daily newspaper, I had found all the potential held in life. I got that big break that put me, an unknown author on the New York Times best-seller list. And my son had died. Small town life wasn't as limiting as I feared or as safe as I had hoped.
I told my friend about the time, many years later, I was wandering around the Middle East. I was talking to my daughter on a cell phone. She was on her cell, too, driving through the heart of Los Angeles.
"Aren't you scared over there?" she asked. "Isn't your life in danger?"
Just then a man honked at her. I heard him scream through her window, "If you don't get that car out of the way, I'm going to have you killed."
"Complete safety is an illusion," I sad to my friend. "Maybe the only time we're really safe is when we're willing to acknowledge how vulnerable we really are, no matter what we're doing, and be okay with that."
"Ask God to be with me," I said to an older woman who was my mentor at the time.
"Foolish child," she said. "You don't have to ask God to be with you. He's already there, wherever you are."


God, help me feel safe, comfortable, and in your presence wherever I am today.