Blog Feed: Reflections on the many great and helpful tools I've found in seeking the voice of the God of my heart
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Letting It Be Enough
Published on 2012-05-15 16:34:00
I heard the notion of “enough” discussed in a way that caught my attention recently. As I thought about it, it made me realize what a gift it is to notice that we have, in all things, enough.We expend a great deal of energy working on accumulating enough – enough money, enough connection and intimacy, enough success, enough leisure and play and health. The list is endless. The quest seems to take on a life of its own, and the seeking to have becomes the focus rather than simply enjoying wh [..] > read more
Saced Longing
Published on 2012-04-26 11:07:00
I attended a wonderful Unity workshop last weekend on peacemaking. One of the facilitators introduced the idea of sacred longing, which was new to me and intriguing. I love the idea of it, because it describes a very holy gift in our human experience. Sacred longing is that deep, persistent need to know the presence of God within us and in all things. It is the profound wisdom that leads us to seek to better understand ourselves, even when we are so busy with life’s details that without that i [..] > read more
Healing the World as We Heal Ourselves
Published on 2012-04-05 16:18:00
I have recently discovered the writings of Pema Chodron, an American Buddhist nun who teaches in Nova Scotia, at the first Tibetan monastery in North America established for westerners. Her books have provided me with some very practical and appreciated insight from the Buddhist perspective.In the book I’m reading now, called Taking the Leap, Chodron addresses in her gentle but powerful manner how we often use our spiritual practice as a way to feel better, but could broaden our perspective to [..] > read more
Having Compassion For Yourself
Published on 2012-03-24 12:56:00
In the years I've been writing I haven't yet gotten to this topic, which isn't surprising given how much easier it is for most of us to offer compassion to others than it is to have deep compassion for ourselves. > read more
Asking for Help
Published on 2012-03-08 17:23:00
It can be hard sometimes for ask for help. We feel the need to manage things on our own because we don’t want to appear incapable or weak, or because we don’t want to burden others. Or maybe we just get so caught up in pushing our way through something that the thought of seeking help doesn’t even occur to us. There have been countless, everyday situations in my life when my load was made lighter because I decided to ask for help. There have been times when I probably should have asked for [..] > read more
Letting the Best Happen
Published on 2012-02-22 17:35:00
The world shows up to us in the way that we expect. We have no idea of the extreme power that our expectation has in taking what we are given, and turning it into reality. It's the difficult times that allow us to bring this power forward most dramatically, when we can turn a distressing circumstance into a miracle, all by what we choose to expect. I've learned to be grateful, or at least be willing to try to be grateful, when a situation arises that makes me feel hopeless or out of control. [..] > read more
Standing in Grace and Gratitude
Published on 2012-02-21 14:15:00
I heard a song at Unity last weekend, and woke up with it in my head this morning. It happens fairly often, and I always appreciate the voice of God, speaking to me as I dream, helping me remember. The song is "Grace And Gratitude" by Olivia Newton-John.All I have and all I feelIs all because of youAll I reap is all I sowAnd love is our living proofThank you for lifeThank you for everythingI stand here in Grace and GratitudeAnd I thank youSeasons come and seasons goNo matter what we chooseA tho [..] > read more
Being God, in the Middle of an Otherwise Ordinary Life
Published on 2012-02-13 13:05:00
Another door has opened on my personal spiritual path, and so the direction of this blog is getting ready to take an exciting new turn.Daily Spiritual Tools has always been about remembering the deep, abiding truth within us that we are God. I've delighted in sharing many of the tools I've learned and used, and in celebrating the spiritual teachers who have affected me so profoundly, both in person and through the books they've written.The spiritual tools in this blog have literally saved my lif [..] > read more
Living in Prosperity
Published on 2012-01-11 15:04:00
Sometimes when I need inspiration I open one of my favorite books and let a chapter speak to me, knowing that the right words will appear. Recently I opened Florence Scovel Shinn’s The Game of Life and How to Play It, and was again awed by her vast understanding of the unbounded creative power that we all have. What an amazing teacher she was!My husband and I have had more than the usual amount of money going out lately, and I’ve been feeling limited in our finances, so I wasn’t surprised [..] > read more
Allowing the Noise
Published on 2012-01-02 15:34:00
A friend of mine from Unity told me recently that he is never able to quiet his mind. One of the problems that this is creating for him is that he feels completely unable to meditate. I felt a lot of empathy for him because it seemed that he felt like he should be able to quiet his mind, and wanted to, but for reasons unknown to him just didn’t have the ability to.His feeling that he lacks something that is intrinsic to all of us as part of our spiritual nature moved me to jump in and suggest [..] > read more
The Perfection Underlying All
Published on 2011-12-21 12:30:00
During this time of year, as many are honoring the growing light of God consciousness being born within each of us, I offer up my humble blessing.May you find more of those moments where in the middle of whatever is happening your mind is content and your heart is full because you know that all is well.May you trust more, and laugh more, as you turn over your expectations about how things are supposed to be and make more room to just enjoy the ride.May you know the peace of being born of a perfe [..] > read more
Learning From Conflict
Published on 2011-12-13 15:43:00
A teacher many years ago told me that the people we have the most struggles with are our biggest gurus. The word “guru” is a telling one, as it means “spiritual guide or leader.” How difficult it is to think of the people who get under our skin as the people best able to help us find part of the truth we seek. It is through interaction and relationship with others that we have a way of defining ourselves and our place in the world. Human interaction provides the base material for our abi [..] > read more
What Do I Need to Do to Take Care of Myself?
Published on 2011-11-30 17:04:00
I’ve found a great deal of help in this tool, which I teach in my stress management classes at work. In any moment, the simple act of asking ourselves, “What do I need to do to take good care of myself right now?” can have a very powerful effect on our experience, our clarity and effectiveness, and even our health.In the middle of our busy days, we tend to place our awareness “out there” for long stretches of time, concentrating on what needs to get done next. Because those to-do lists [..] > read more
Being of Service
Published on 2011-11-21 11:54:00
I have heard it said that it is in giving that we receive. I can see the truth of this on a number of levels. When we are reacting from fear of not having enough ourselves, we won’t feel like we can spare anything for others. Everyone loses with this type of belief because what we hold as true we create in our lives. In other words, we get what we expect. In the midst of the world’s current challenges it’s pretty easy to believe in dwindling bank balances, eroding resources, and maybe even [..] > read more
Blessings From Strangers
Published on 2011-11-16 16:23:00
Air travel these days can be stressful, and because people are rushed, cramped, and often frustrated, it has the potential to bring out the worst in travelers’ interactions with each other. My husband and I took a quick trip across the country last weekend to visit our daughter and her family, and meet our new grandson. The adventure was another example for me of the innate goodness in all of us.It had been bumper-to-bumper traffic approaching the toll plaza to cross the Bay Bridge into San Fr [..] > read more
Friendship
Published on 2011-10-31 12:46:00
“A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words.” I attended a costume dinner party last week with a group of dear friends. We call ourselves the Ya-Ya’s (borrowed from the wonderful movie “Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood”), and it’s a perfectly fitting name because it's a truly divine sisterhood.For me, the Ya-Ya’s are divine in part because we celebrate all the time, birthdays, big events in our lives, our [..] > read more
Seeing Beyond the World of Our Making
Published on 2011-10-18 17:59:00
I believe that I am growing in my awareness of God living here right now as me, not just as a mental concept but as a miracle that opens my world in indescribably heart-felt ways. But the pull of forgetting is strong! I honor it as a tool for transformation, but divine tool or not, I much prefer remembering! Forgetting is so automatic that most of the time I am lost in this world of my own making, this delicious and dizzying reality where I rather ironically get to re-create a truth that has nev [..] > read more
Caring for the Body
Published on 2011-06-30 12:54:00
For a very long time, our awareness of God has been of a deity out there somewhere, exerting his influence based on criteria we don’t understand, leaving us always looking outside of ourselves for some philosophy that can help us know what we need > read more
Present Time
Published on 2011-06-15 20:04:00
Lately I’ve been renewing my love affair with present time. It’s always been a very one-sided relationship; present time being right here with me, always waiting to be savored, me gallivanting off to who-knows-where in my mind, unable to re > read more
Not I, But God Within Me
Published on 2011-06-01 22:03:00
So many times I've despaired over things that I don’t do well enough, or despite my best intentions still manage to get stuck on! Human experience being what it is, we all have challenges; some of them are pretty easily solved and some t > read more
Celebrating!
Published on 2011-05-26 10:54:00
There is always something to celebrate. Celebration is a form of gratitude; it's a way of acknowledging our unlimited ability to create and opening ourselves up to our best and highest expression. To me, celebrating is a form of prayer, a way of sayi > read more
Finding the Life in Your Life Situation
Published on 2011-05-14 19:41:00
I love the wisdom of Eckhart Tolle. I am currently reading for the second time his book, "The Power of Now," and am discovering some wonderful insights that I somehow missed the first time through.Tolle, and many others, teach that the ego-driv > read more
Hearing God's Whisper
Published on 2011-05-04 15:00:00
As we move through this blessed life, growing in love and wisdom and in truth, the situations we encounter to help us along on our path can be complicated, confusing, and sometimes painful. These challenges provide our perfect opportunities to rememb > read more
Seeing Yourself Through the Eyes of God
Published on 2011-04-26 22:34:00
I haven’t written in a few weeks, and I have missed it. After some suggestions from friends, I took a short break to begin the process of turning Daily Spiritual Tools into a book. I’m excited by the prospect of having these tools in > read more
What Would My Best Self Do?
Published on 2011-03-31 12:41:00
It's a tongue-in-cheek name for a spiritual tool, but also a simple guidepost for living our days in as much harmony as possible. Even though I know that God lives as me just as she did as Jesus, I find that asking what my best self would do se > read more
Releasing, Revisited
Published on 2011-03-21 15:41:00
I was speaking with my husband this morning about how important and useful it is to have tools that help us to release. Being human is by its very nature a process of being surrounded by countless different variations of spiritual energy. Spiritual e > read more
The Healing Energy of Mary
Published on 2011-03-11 17:56:00
There are countless beings, spirit guides, angels, or whatever name we want to give these points of divine consciousness that very greatly affect the vibrational quality of our human experience. These beings of light, who from beyond the realit > read more
Surrendering
Published on 2011-03-07 19:48:00
I have said that I write to remember, and this morning I stopped everything I was doing to put words to paper, so that much like taking a photograph of some beautiful scene in the high mountains that I love so much, I could capture my awareness of th > read more
Owning Your Abundance
Published on 2011-02-27 20:12:00
I am struck sometimes when I consider the magnitude of the abundance that upholds this human experience. Abundance is an inherent part of the divine consciousness that conceived of and maintains all of existence.We could never be less than whol > read more
Taking Risks
Published on 2011-02-18 16:55:00
I am grateful to spirit's infinite wisdom for guiding me, repeatedly, off the path of least resistance. I am not by nature a risk-taker. It seems that I would be perfectly happy settling in to what I know and what I do, and enjoying my pe > read more
Healing in Nature
Published on 2011-02-14 22:33:00
I spent the weekend recently with a group of dear girlfriends for our annual beach trip. We rented a perfect little cottage overlooking the ocean to enjoy spending time in nature, and with each other.I love being at the ocean, but it turns out > read more
Matching
Published on 2011-02-06 13:48:00
Matching is a wonderful tool that I learned about during my years with the Berkeley Psychic Institute. Matching is a way to align ourselves with the energy of something that we would like to create more of in our lives. We live in a creative un > read more
Silence
Published on 2011-01-31 15:31:00
In the space between our words and thoughts exists oneness with all that is. In the silence, we find the vast creative consciousness that breathes life into our world of form, the world we know. God is there, in the silence.It is, for me, > read more
Hope
Published on 2011-01-24 17:50:00
Hope springs eternal. I’ve heard this saying countless times, but never stopped to consider the profound truth of it. There is always hope. As long as we live to create another day, we have the opportunity to witness outcomes that may have previous > read more
Charter for Compassion
Published on 2011-01-22 10:46:00
As caring beings having a human experience, we all are born with the capacity for compassion. Someone once said the difference between sympathy and compassion is that the one who sympathizes, can see and feel what another is experiencing, but does no > read more
The Gift of the Breath
Published on 2011-01-13 21:53:00
I had a delightful “aha” moment last weekend at a workshop that I attended. The insight actually came from the meditation that the facilitator led us through at the beginning of the session.As a practice, I remind myself as often as possibl > read more
Playing
Published on 2011-01-08 18:25:00
A dear friend of mine suggested to me yesterday that I write a post on play. We've known each other a long time, and she knows that playing is definitely one of my favorite topics. Friendship would be another wonderful topic today, as I a > read more
Seeing Things From a Distance
Published on 2011-01-04 20:38:00
In the middle of the trees, it’s hard to see the forest. And oftentimes while in the midst of our life’s circumstances it’s hard to see the bigger picture playing out. Getting caught up in the details that are apparent on the surfac > read more
Walking the Labyrinth (revisited)
Published on 2010-12-31 14:36:00
My husband and I rose early this morning and walked the labyrinth, as we do every New Years' Eve. Along with treasure mapping, walking the labyrinth is one of our traditions for acknowledging the gifts of the past year, and for creating our vis > read more
Honoring Your Gifts
Published on 2010-12-29 10:59:00
During this time of year, many of us are aware of all that we have to be grateful for. Some may have had more time to spend with family and friends. Those who celebrate Christmas likely had presents waiting under the tree, and exchanged g > read more
Joy!
Published on 2010-12-16 22:56:00
It’s impossible for me not to be touched by joy during this time of year. I love every part of it. From Halloween on, I am deeply aware of the days becoming shorter and another year coming to a close, creating time for rest, and for the > read more
Solving Problems From a Higher Level
Published on 2010-12-13 21:51:00
One of my favorite universal truths is that we can’t solve a problem from the energy of the problem. It has helped me countless times manifest a higher outcome by getting out of my own way, and allowing divine intelligence to work its magic.S > read more