When we come to major crossroads in our lives, we need to take both practical and symbolic actions to help with our transition into the next phase of our life.
For example, if we are changing career paths, or changing jobs, it is a good time to de-clutter and clear our living space of the old energies and invest it with new energies.
Job hunting can be depressing if you let it get you down, so make time to go for a walk or swim or dance, or whatever form of physical activity you enjoy, because it will help keep your spirits up and keep your body energized by getting your heart pumping and the oxygen flow can stimulate new ideas.
Taking time for meditation every day helps restore calmness and clarity too.
Many people like to put up a poster board and place words and pictures on there that express what they want and even just glancing at that is a form of visual affirmation every day.
Another powerful step is to get in touch with your spirit guides, God, Goddess, guardian angels, ancestors or whoever you call on for help and do something symbolic to ask them for their help. By that I mean choose some physical symbol of the successful change you want to make and keep one with you and keep one where you see it every day.
We have to call on every bit of help we can when we need it. Every one of these exercises dovetails.
When you clean your space and discard what is no longer important, you have room for what is important. When you reaffirm your intentions and do the rituals that keep mind and body strong, you keep moving forward. When you ask for help, you acknowledge that you don't have all the answers, so you trust that your helpers will provide some for you.
Communicate your desires to everyone you meet, not just close friends. People like to help other people, and they will be better able to help if they know exactly what you are trying to do, what your goal is, what you are open to, and what might work.
We all have rituals that we follow every day. In your time of need, find a way to supercharge them and gear up so that the changes work in your favor. There may be doors opening that we have not seen. There may be opportunities that we have yet to unearth. There are connections yet to be made. Put in place a set of daily rituals that really support you. If you need help with this, ask me.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Stellar Connections
I wonder what prompted the first people to look at the stars and see constellations. There are millions of lights in the sky and they have always been stimulating to our imaginations. Is that because we have some ancient memory out there? Or is it because the sheer immensity and beauty that extends wider than our field of vision and suggests the limitless possibilities of the universe?
So then what was it that showed people the constellations? Were they simply looking for their gods and goddesses in the sky? What made those ancient seers relate those alignments to people and their personalities?
Now that we have had how many generations of people working with this model of thinking, and we see how the planets relate to our personalities and the constellations represent archetypes in people. Today it is common conversation for peoples to talk about the personalities of Leo, Scorpio, Pisces, Virgo, Aries, Aquarius and all the rest.
What was the thought process that led early people to look up at the sky and make these connections? Where else might we find connections?
So then what was it that showed people the constellations? Were they simply looking for their gods and goddesses in the sky? What made those ancient seers relate those alignments to people and their personalities?
Now that we have had how many generations of people working with this model of thinking, and we see how the planets relate to our personalities and the constellations represent archetypes in people. Today it is common conversation for peoples to talk about the personalities of Leo, Scorpio, Pisces, Virgo, Aries, Aquarius and all the rest.
What was the thought process that led early people to look up at the sky and make these connections? Where else might we find connections?
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Creative Thoughts
Did you ever stop to think about how amazing certain aspects of evolution came to be? Have you thought about how or why it might matter to you right now?
Imagine the early days of history when the first people thought of making holes in a reed to make the first flutes. Or when the first people thought to make a drum. Imagine the progress, or process they went through making the first music with their inventions. From all indications, these instruments first had ritual uses, and making music just for fun came later. Who was the first person to make this transition? No one knows the answer to that, of course, but try and imagine what that process might have been like.
Seems like we might need to reimagine how various aspects of our evolution happened. Why? For one, it is interesting to think that we did not evolve all that slowly from people who could just manage to kill a wild animal with a spear and roast it over a fire to being people who could create complex architecture and understood complex concepts, or at least approached them if they did not understand them.
Consider, for example that Newgrange in Ireland, which was build thousands of years before the pyramids, is made from stones fitted together, and the roof of the inner chamber, which is vaulted, and has no mortar, has never had a roof leak. Can any builder today claim such success? Another feature that was built in was an opening over the front entry that allows the inner chamber to be illuminated by the rising sun only and exactly on the Winter Solstice every year.
Or how about all the various ancient people, all the way back to caveman days, who somehow just knew that when a person dies that the invisible part of them that kept them alive has left the body that the person was going on to some other level of reality, and so they developed rituals to recognize the death and somehow through their symbolic acts help the person transition into whatever is next. Imagine the thought processes of the first people who began to grasp this.
If we can begin to grasp these concepts, among others, it may offer us other ways to see our own evolution. It is often the far out thoughts that can create results close to home.
Imagine the early days of history when the first people thought of making holes in a reed to make the first flutes. Or when the first people thought to make a drum. Imagine the progress, or process they went through making the first music with their inventions. From all indications, these instruments first had ritual uses, and making music just for fun came later. Who was the first person to make this transition? No one knows the answer to that, of course, but try and imagine what that process might have been like.
Seems like we might need to reimagine how various aspects of our evolution happened. Why? For one, it is interesting to think that we did not evolve all that slowly from people who could just manage to kill a wild animal with a spear and roast it over a fire to being people who could create complex architecture and understood complex concepts, or at least approached them if they did not understand them.
Consider, for example that Newgrange in Ireland, which was build thousands of years before the pyramids, is made from stones fitted together, and the roof of the inner chamber, which is vaulted, and has no mortar, has never had a roof leak. Can any builder today claim such success? Another feature that was built in was an opening over the front entry that allows the inner chamber to be illuminated by the rising sun only and exactly on the Winter Solstice every year.
Or how about all the various ancient people, all the way back to caveman days, who somehow just knew that when a person dies that the invisible part of them that kept them alive has left the body that the person was going on to some other level of reality, and so they developed rituals to recognize the death and somehow through their symbolic acts help the person transition into whatever is next. Imagine the thought processes of the first people who began to grasp this.
If we can begin to grasp these concepts, among others, it may offer us other ways to see our own evolution. It is often the far out thoughts that can create results close to home.
Friday, January 28, 2011
Right Time, Right Place
Tonight I had a great time listening and dancing to some reggae music in a great theatre in Boulder. What makes it more interesting than just a night out with some good music was the fact that it was customer appreciation night sponsored by a company that sells supplies to indoor gardeners.
Of course there are all kinds of things that people take pleasure in growing indoors, like orchids, tomatoes, herbs, fruits and vegetables, but the real boom in gardening entrepreneurs came with the legalization of medical marijuana in Colorado.
After enjoying the pleasures of smoke illegally most of my life, it feels very interesting to be living here while this happens and watch the cultivation and consumption of smoke become on the one hand, a gourmet experience, and on the other, a sort of every day above ground business.
Growers have advanced their art so far that smoke is no longer referred to simply as smoke. It now has names for the various strains that these geniuses have cultivated.
Other companies may have customer appreciation golf outings or customer appreciation banquets, but how appropriate for the growers to have a customer appreciation night in a theatre with reggae bands.
I am just smiling about the whole thing. How lucky I got to happen to be living in a state just when legalization happened. It's a weird reality. A whole new crop of green entrepreneurs are doing their part to create local businesses to boost the economy. The reality kind of zings again when talking someone in another state where these things are not legal and they are still worried about hiding everything and not getting caught. And when you remind them that it is not that way everywhere any more, they go "oh, that's right. You're in one of the states where it is legal.
Eventually it will happen. Just like beer could not remain illegal forever. Eventually, politicians will wake up and decide that it is smarter to legalize it and make money taxing these new legal businesses instead of spending tons of money trying to prevent people from doing what they want to do and will do, no matter what their status is. One of these days there will not be legal and illegal states, and there will be customer appreciation concerts featuring reggae bands everywhere.
Of course there are all kinds of things that people take pleasure in growing indoors, like orchids, tomatoes, herbs, fruits and vegetables, but the real boom in gardening entrepreneurs came with the legalization of medical marijuana in Colorado.
After enjoying the pleasures of smoke illegally most of my life, it feels very interesting to be living here while this happens and watch the cultivation and consumption of smoke become on the one hand, a gourmet experience, and on the other, a sort of every day above ground business.
Growers have advanced their art so far that smoke is no longer referred to simply as smoke. It now has names for the various strains that these geniuses have cultivated.
Other companies may have customer appreciation golf outings or customer appreciation banquets, but how appropriate for the growers to have a customer appreciation night in a theatre with reggae bands.
I am just smiling about the whole thing. How lucky I got to happen to be living in a state just when legalization happened. It's a weird reality. A whole new crop of green entrepreneurs are doing their part to create local businesses to boost the economy. The reality kind of zings again when talking someone in another state where these things are not legal and they are still worried about hiding everything and not getting caught. And when you remind them that it is not that way everywhere any more, they go "oh, that's right. You're in one of the states where it is legal.
Eventually it will happen. Just like beer could not remain illegal forever. Eventually, politicians will wake up and decide that it is smarter to legalize it and make money taxing these new legal businesses instead of spending tons of money trying to prevent people from doing what they want to do and will do, no matter what their status is. One of these days there will not be legal and illegal states, and there will be customer appreciation concerts featuring reggae bands everywhere.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Light, Shadows and Love Without Measure
When you see a face that looks familiar, what do you do? Do familiar faces make you feel like you are getting a "do-over" or a reminder of a past experience that provided a powerful lesson? So if this face belongs to someone else, it stirs feelings in you, but different feelings in them.
It is the play of shadow and light that illuminates our visions. When we see what is on the screen that plays in our mind, how many of these shadows form the movies that we watch?
It is all shadow and light, you know. Movies, they are all shadow and light. Memories. They are all shadow and light. Look at how we look when we think we see something and we are awakened to the possibilities.
Have you noticed that look that sometimes lights up another person's eyes when they think they have recognized you? You know that puzzled look like they are trying to remember where they saw you before?
Then after you speak and you know that you don't know this person, they still have this look in their eyes like they still are remembering who they are remembering even though you are not the one they were thinking of.
It is all shadow and light.
How much of the world we inhabit is shadows and light? Who is remembering what? It is all shadow and light.
Do you ever feel like you are walking through a forest and cannot find your way out? Do the trees look like the ones you passed coming in, yet the more you look, the more you cannot tell? Is there an in and an out?
What frequency is normal? What does it mean that we recognize but do not recognize? Is it that we are finally getting the lessons?
There are names that go with every face. There are faces we associate with all the phases of our life. There are times when we get an opportunity to do it over, and do it right this time.
There are faces of light and shadow, there are sorrows of great depth, and loves without measure. In our waking moments, our aliveness brings us to a new state of awareness, constantly. They speak to us of second chances.
The wheel turns, but not without giving us another look. Karma, coincidence, sorrow, joy, light and shadow. It is your movie. It is my movie. It is our movie.
Yes, there have been sorrows of great depth, and these shadows are the reminders that we are still alive and that there is also love without measure, and with these we can fashion new pictures, new images, new movies. It is all shadow and light. And love without measure is the only balm that lets us start over with a clean slate.
There are no ghosts in our shadow land that do not respond to love. Yes, it takes some of us longer than others to recognize the true faces of the shadows.
It is the play of shadow and light that illuminates our visions. When we see what is on the screen that plays in our mind, how many of these shadows form the movies that we watch?
It is all shadow and light, you know. Movies, they are all shadow and light. Memories. They are all shadow and light. Look at how we look when we think we see something and we are awakened to the possibilities.
Have you noticed that look that sometimes lights up another person's eyes when they think they have recognized you? You know that puzzled look like they are trying to remember where they saw you before?
Then after you speak and you know that you don't know this person, they still have this look in their eyes like they still are remembering who they are remembering even though you are not the one they were thinking of.
It is all shadow and light.
How much of the world we inhabit is shadows and light? Who is remembering what? It is all shadow and light.
Do you ever feel like you are walking through a forest and cannot find your way out? Do the trees look like the ones you passed coming in, yet the more you look, the more you cannot tell? Is there an in and an out?
What frequency is normal? What does it mean that we recognize but do not recognize? Is it that we are finally getting the lessons?
There are names that go with every face. There are faces we associate with all the phases of our life. There are times when we get an opportunity to do it over, and do it right this time.
There are faces of light and shadow, there are sorrows of great depth, and loves without measure. In our waking moments, our aliveness brings us to a new state of awareness, constantly. They speak to us of second chances.
The wheel turns, but not without giving us another look. Karma, coincidence, sorrow, joy, light and shadow. It is your movie. It is my movie. It is our movie.
Yes, there have been sorrows of great depth, and these shadows are the reminders that we are still alive and that there is also love without measure, and with these we can fashion new pictures, new images, new movies. It is all shadow and light. And love without measure is the only balm that lets us start over with a clean slate.
There are no ghosts in our shadow land that do not respond to love. Yes, it takes some of us longer than others to recognize the true faces of the shadows.
Walking Between the Worlds
One of the old expressions that is used for a shaman is one who walks between the worlds.
Picture yourself as one who is completely conversant in one world and learning to navigate others.
The shamanic reference is to the worlds of spirit and matter. We also find ourselves balancing between worlds when we are trying to reorganize aspects of ourselves, whether it is starting a new business, changing careers, beginning new relationships, starting a new workout schedule and eating habits.
Any of these tasks can have us balancing between two worlds as we set our course.
That path between the material and spirit worlds is pretty thin. We get glimpses over the fence when people close to us are dying. And as we periodically peek over the fence on either side, we can also see the other places where there are connections between the two worlds.
Walking that path between the worlds gets easier when you know that it is there, and when you know that you are walking it. How many things change, how many decisions get easier, when you know you are on the road?
Picture yourself as one who is completely conversant in one world and learning to navigate others.
The shamanic reference is to the worlds of spirit and matter. We also find ourselves balancing between worlds when we are trying to reorganize aspects of ourselves, whether it is starting a new business, changing careers, beginning new relationships, starting a new workout schedule and eating habits.
Any of these tasks can have us balancing between two worlds as we set our course.
That path between the material and spirit worlds is pretty thin. We get glimpses over the fence when people close to us are dying. And as we periodically peek over the fence on either side, we can also see the other places where there are connections between the two worlds.
Walking that path between the worlds gets easier when you know that it is there, and when you know that you are walking it. How many things change, how many decisions get easier, when you know you are on the road?
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Second Wind
How many times have you been nearly exhausted, and then got your second wind? Where does it come from? Can you summon it any time you want?
Maybe it is not a mysterious force. Maybe the second wind comes from our determination to complete the task before us. It's what happen when you press on after your initial burst of energy has been used up. It's what happens when you get tired and then remember all the reasons you want to succeed.
Suddenly that burst of strength and fresh energy fills your body and we resume our task with renewed vigor.
Perhaps that first wind that nearly exhausted us was necessary to test our will. The second wind is the universe sending us what we need to keep going.
After all, if we have decided that our task is important, we find the courage to keep going. Second wind is the breath that courage summons.
Maybe it is not a mysterious force. Maybe the second wind comes from our determination to complete the task before us. It's what happen when you press on after your initial burst of energy has been used up. It's what happens when you get tired and then remember all the reasons you want to succeed.
Suddenly that burst of strength and fresh energy fills your body and we resume our task with renewed vigor.
Perhaps that first wind that nearly exhausted us was necessary to test our will. The second wind is the universe sending us what we need to keep going.
After all, if we have decided that our task is important, we find the courage to keep going. Second wind is the breath that courage summons.
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