Sitting in Our Choices

There are two oversized down-filled chairs in our living room right now, complete with their oversized ottomans - all in a beautiful chocolate brown chenille fabric.  They look like two big friendly bears ready to embrace anyone who walks by.  What I love about them the most is that our cat and small dog find them the most comfortable place to take their day-long naps.  My roommate and I, however, are having a bit of a problem with them! 

They were "cushy and wonderful" in the beginning, but as time has passed, our fascination with them has wained.  Alas, after 10 months, we have finally admitted that we cannot get comfortable in them.  They are too big, and two soft for our "not-as-young-as-they-used-to-be" bodies, and we need more support for our backs, and fewer feathers poking us in the bum. 

So we found and ordered their replacements; two Lane rocker recliners, special ordered with a wonderfully soft fabric in, of course, chocolate brown.  We are "patiently" awaiting their arrival.  "Patiently" means that I've been in daily prayer for the wonderful people who are taking swift action, lovingly creating our special order so that they will arrive sooner than the estimated 8 to 12 weeks promised by the furniture store.

Our chairs are a perfect example of the life choices we make.  We choose and then find we need to choose again because the first choice didn't turn out so well.  At first my roomate and I felt a little guilty about getting new chairs to replace the new chairs we already own, but the guilt didn't last long.  We knew we needed to make a change.  We placed our new order.  We learned from our first choice and soon we will be sitting in a new choice and having a new experience.  

This is true in every part of life.  We choose, we experience, we learn, and then we choose again if need be; and the cycle continues while we gain knowledge and experience through every choice.

I like to think of this as living in the flow of life.  There is no need to live with a choice that no longer works for us, unless we choose to "hang in there" - in which case we can choose again, if we wish.  We learn every time we choose.  Morover, every choice we make is a blessing, even when we realize it was not the best choice.  We learn from it and we choose again, creating another blessing for us to experience and learn from.

Insight for today:  Live in the flow of life.  Allow your choices to unfold and create something new  and then let each creation be a blessing in your life.  If it becomes something to change, bless the experience and move on to new choices and new experiences.  We have lots to experience, so we might as well have a seat and be comfortable in the process!

Living in the Flow

This morning I had a dream that I was saying goodbye to some people I apparently really loved. I was crying as I hugged them, holding them close to me and not wanting to let them go. The faces in my dream were not familiar to me but there was a deep sadness that I had to leave them and then drive a long distance to get home.

Usually when I have dreams of crying, something in my life comes up that makes me cry just as I did in my dream. With that in mind, I choose to bless the activities in my life as well as my subconscious mind for working on whatever needed working on. I just bless it all and know that the sadness in my dream is about change. I bless the changes in my life and know that they are assisting in my evolvement as a spiritual human being.

Can we ever hold on to life as we know it? Not in my experience. We have to let go and allow our lives to move forward with grace and ease. I honor and love every aspect of myself and allow that which no longer serves me to be released into its’ highest good so that I can continue on my way to my highest good.

Changes in life can bring tears and longing to have life always stay the way it was, but changes are actually the effects of the flow of our thoughts and of life. Just as water flows around the rocks and tree roots making changes with its constant flow, so does the constant flow of our thoughts and ideas bring changes to our lives.

Our thoughts change and ideas come and go flowing into our awareness and then moving on. The thoughts that we hold on to and keep as our own Truth cause of the experiences we will have.

Today I choose to live in the flow and know that the changes I experience are those that move me forward in my human evolvement. Some of those changes might be messy or incredibly sad, or some will be extremely joyful. Some changes may be a mixture of all those things. What I know for sure is that holding on to the old will take me out of the flow of life and I’ll be stuck in some old thought or experience while I cling to all those thoughts (and things!) that no longer serve me.

When I relax, let go and live in the flow, my life expands and I grow into the peaceful beauty of life that was already mine in the first place.

Overwhelm or Divine Discontent?

Overwhelm. What does that mean? It feels like I am overpowered by the things I have to do, while wanting to relax or do other, more fun things. Overwhelm, very often, comes along around the work I do, but I’ve noticed lately that it can also engulf me at home.

Sometimes at home, I actually see all that needs to be done and I become stuck in the overwhelm, doing nothing rather than taking action. Like the garage, for instance. There are so many boxes of things I need to go through, sorting them into categories such as Give Away, Throw Away, Store, Sell, or whatever other category I can think of. Sigh. It seems like such a daunting task, but what if I just did 15 minutes of Garage Time every day? Eventually it would be done and there would be space to park both cars! What a concept!

Perhaps the overwhelm has to do with my current weight and how I’ve been feeling. I’m concerned that my energy level is low, my weight has crept up again, and I’m not sure where to begin. See a Naturopath? Do a Juice Fast? Begin walking again? This is a perfect example of being stuck in overwhelm. So far I haven’t done any of these things.

The blessing here is that I am seeing patterns that have come up for healing. Perhaps the overwhelm isn’t in all the aforementioned details, but rather a message of Divine Discontent – that something needs to change in my thinking so that I can change these patterns and live in peace and contentment. I like that.

I think I’ll go take a 15 minute walk, just to get started.

Fun Abundance!

Exploring some of the areas around the Sheraton New Orleans Hotel has been such fun.

We walked to Jackson Square and saw the Barkus Parade last Sunday. This parade consisted of dogs and their owners all dressed up. The dogs were all so cute and seemed to know that they were being admired. There was a poodle wearing pink sunglasses, a St Bernard wearing a balerina skirt (with a lace petticoat) and a pink bra, and other doggies dressed in girl scout uniforms and one Scottish Terrier wore his CIA vest.

Last night, we stood outside the front of the Sheraton and watched the Muse Parade - what a hoot. The muse parade is all about women. We heard that they threw hand decorated shoes from the floats. Only one float had shoes thrown (one soft shoe wrapped in plastic) and the rest of the floats threw plastic cups, lighted toy rings, and balls, along with the ever present beads!

Such fun! Watching the floats from a distance it looked like it was raining goodies from the very tall floats and reminded me of the abundance that rains on us all the time, if we only pay attention, look up and open ourselves to receive!

What are you open to receive today?

Winding it all up!

Yesterday all of your church representatives slept in and had a late breakfast, not by design ... it just happened. Several attended some of the morning workshops but I asked that all of us attend an afternoon workshop on the Meta Model. It was so very informative that we have signed our church up for attendance at the three-day seminar on growing our church. This seminar is designed for our leaders.

Last night was our closing banquet and many of us were brought to tears by the fact that these two marvelous organizations are now one giant and magnificent organization, and the love expressed last night was very touching and inspirational.

This morning, Dee, Donna, and Bill attended the Laity Meeting while I attended the Minister's Meeting. What a fabulous way to bring this conference to a close. We each feel empowered, inspired, and so grateful for all that has been, all that is now, and all that is yet to be.

Tomorrow afternoon we touch down in Ontario, and invite you to join us in church on Sunday to hear all about our Convention Connection!

Wednesday Wanderings

Wednesday during the week of our conferences are usually designated as 'free afternoon' and yesterday was no different. Dee and I attended a morning workshop on Social Media and getting on the radio ... interesting but not what we expected. We gleaned a couple of informational jewels from it and then met Bill, Donna and Rebekah for lunch.

We went to "the restaurant with the statues out front." It is actually the Beignet Cafe on Burbon Street and had a delicious sandwich and, of course, a Beignet (Ben-Yaa). When we were leaving, a woman from our conference approached me and asked me to put her name into the Ministry of Prayer at the the hotel because she thought she was having a heart attack. I did an affirmative prayer for her on the spot and when we returned to the hotel, I did put a prayer request in for her. The paramedics arrived a minute later. (Prayer works ...I saw her at breakfast this morning.)

Dee, Rebekah and I spent the afternoon riding the trolly to the French Market where we found a few treasures and admired the amazing masks for sale! Beautiful! After we finished shopping there, we went to the Gabazo Cafe for a cup of tea and rest, and then back to the trolly stop for a ride back to the hotel. We caught the last trolly back ... angels are looking out for us!

The evening keynote speaker was Iylana Vanzant who has written many books, appeared on Oprah and even had her own TV program some years ago. She was amazing, wonderful, insightful, and really funny! She begins filming in Tennessee today for a show produced by Harpo (Oprah's company). Her story is truly an inspiration.

It is truly a blessing to be at this conference.

We Are the Face of God

There are a couple of "hot topics" at this Annual Convention and diversity is one of them. We talked at length about this at dinner tonight due to three of our folks attending a workshop on the subject. One of them explained that some of what was presented in the workshop is what we have already put into practice at our Center. We also talked about how several of us are blind to skin color or ethnic differences because we are sensing and seeing the Divine in everyone. As we talked, we realized just how diverse we are and how blessed we are because of it. We are a deep blessing to the world and to our church! It is so beautiful that we love each other no matter who we are or what we look like! As the song says, "You are the face of God, I hold you in my heart. You are a part of me, you are the face of God." And so it is!