Embracing the Space Between ~ Falling Into a Sea of Possibilities
Everything you want is in the space between. When you embrace the emptiness of space, you fall into the fullness of space, and all it holds for you. It is often without our choosing that we are forced into the space between. Maybe we have lost a job, or a relationship, or the dream we have held so long. But in what appears to be nothing but an empty space, when embraced, lies a universe of possibilities greater than the plans we’ve conjured up. What if emptiness was productive? Opportunistic? It doesn’t sound so, and certainly it goes against all our upbringing and the values of our society to believe so. But what if by allowing things to sit, to simmer, we discover what we […]
Welcoming Change ~ 3 Ways to Respond to Uncertainty
Change is not easy. We are forced to leave the familiar and venture into the unknown. We’re not clear where we are going, how we will get there, and if we’ll be ok. But whether we like it or not, slowly we are being pulled into the unchartered. There are three ways we tend to respond when faced with the inexorable pull of change: 1. Force: We make rash decisions and anxiously push our way through. We want it to be over with. 2. Denial: We act passively, pretending change is not happening, even though we know it is. 3. Acceptance: We lead from our belly, acting as a conscious participant, and accepting the truth of the situation no matter how uncomfortable it feels. In […]
The Call of The Butterfly ~ Answering the Call of the Awakened Heart
“What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly.” ~ Richard Bach There may come a time when you feel the call to become something more than you’ve always been; a call to let go of one way of living, without being clear of exactly where you are going. All you know is that you can no longer stay where you are. This is the call of the butterfly. Life only really begins when you answer this call. It is you saying Yes to your soul, and Yes to soul-full living. It is the courageous beginning of a journey away from what no longer feeds your soul, towards a life that allows you to express yourself more fully and authentically. Answering the call awakens […]
Playing Through Fear
“Everything you want is on the other side of fear.” ~ Farrah Gray. The other day I did something that was a real stretch for me. It pushed all my buttons and had my monkey mind going pretty crazy leading up to it. I paid good money to get a two hour event in front of 200 people filmed by professional videographers. Oh how my mind fretted… What if the room layout isn’t right? What if the audience doesn’t want to participate? What if the lighting is bad? What if the film doesn’t turn out good? Maybe I should just cancel. Maybe I should just call it off. It’s probably not the right time and place. The fork in the road was laid out in […]
Three Stages of Transformation & Transition
When the heart awakens there is an immediate calling for change in your life. The seed of awareness and possibility has awoken within you, stirring a deep desire to search for a renewed sense of Self and life, and to follow a path of purposeful and authentic living. The awakened heart sparks change in three general stages that reflect the inner transformation and outer transition necessary to awaken the butterfly within. Much like a flower’s incremental unfolding into the light, people move through these stages gradually. Notice how many times you have gone through them in your own life. 1. Answering the Call In answering the call you embark on a new phase of your journey. The essence of this stage is saying Yes to […]
The Answer to How is Yes
A friend of mine has struggled to earn a healthy living through her spiritual practice for a while now. Because of her low income, she has ignored many things that need fixing, including painting the house, re-paving the driveway and re-shingling the roof. She has spent many years frustrated and scared thinking How she is going to get this done, wondering How to work harder in order to make the money, and praying to the universe saying, “How can I earn enough money to pay for this.” She has been stuck in fear and focused on the problem instead of the solution. Old energy grants primary power to the problem New energy grants primary power to the solution One morning she woke up and decided […]
Playing with Global Change
“Life commences not with birth, but with the awakening of awareness.” ~ Frank Yerby. The purpose of Remembering to Play is to show that play is not just something to do on the side, slotted amongst the many duties and obligations we have throughout the week. Rather, it is a way of being in the world grounded in wisdom, joy and creativity. And it is a way of living that can support the global change amongst us. As we can see from the news lately in Egypt and Libya, old regimes are crumbling, replaced by a new collective spirit. The old is finding it harder to stand on the foundations from which it was built. These foundations are based on belief systems and ideologies rooted […]
Three Stages to Becoming a Spiritual Human
“We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.” ~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. As we enter 2010 I am seeing so many people beginning or deepening their connection to a deeper sense of Self. Thoughts, feelings, insights, and unexpected desires and shifts in priorities they would never have had before are suddenly bouncing in their consciousness. And uncharted paths are opening, often asking them to leave something familiar to step into a new adventure. Life is moving in new directions, and it can seem like life as I knew it is getting bigger than I even knew it to be. These increasingly common signs prevailing in our communities are pointing to a shift between what I […]
Time for a New Operating System
“Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson. I was watching Larry King Live the other day. The topic of discussion was the “Health Care crisis” in the US, and on the panel were some esteemed guests including CNN’s Chief Medical Correspondent and the President of the American Medical Association. They were discussing the obvious problems and the not so obvious solutions to the dilemma. It was interesting to see that every time a potential solution was suggested, it was said with vagueness and shaky confidence. No one seemed to really be clear on what was needed. Half way through the show a new guest came on. Andrew Weil, M.D. is […]
From Work to Play
“As more humans awaken, the word work is going to disappear from our vocabulary, and perhaps a new word will be created to replace it.” ~ Eckhart Tolle, from The Power of Now When you identify yourself as a human doing, life becomes work. When you identify yourself as a human being, life becomes play. For us to feel truly fulfilled in our careers, and life as a whole, we need to express who we are at an authentic level into whatever it is we do. Society recognizes and rewards performance before well-being – ie, how well or how much one does versus how one feels in whatever it is they are doing. Performance appraisals and our school system are good examples of this. When […]