Energy Flows Where Attention Goes

If you've been around New Age or New Thought teaching much at all, you've probably already encountered the saying, "Energy flows where attention goes" or similarly, "what you focus on expands." It's the same principle and it is found in many schools of thought. In Huna, the former of these two sayings is referred to as Makia. I believe in this principle and I've seen it in action in my life. Without meaning to prove it in three-dimensional life, I did just that when I happened to notice that there was a puny little rose bush in the yard of a cottage I rented for six months on Bainbridge Island near Seattle, Washington. It was so small and spindly that I must have walked by it dozens of times before I ever even noticed it. When I did notice it, I was a bit shocked by it. I love roses, and I've tended a lot of rose bushes over the years in various places where I've lived, so to find this one looking so pathetic was startling to me. All I did to set this principle in motion was to stop what I was doing and pay attention to this pathetic excuse for a rose bush, which in the beginning consisted of a few sticks and a small leaf or two. I simply looked at it and studied it for a few seconds to convince myself that it truly was a rose bush. It was nearly invisible it was so non-impressive. 

Within a day or two, I walked by it again and simply looked at it and noticed that there was the tiniest little bud on one of the meager branches. I smiled at this little marvel and walked away, happy to know that I had a little hopeful rose bud trying for all its worth to come into being right in front of my cottage. It was like a little miracle. I wondered how my landlady had kept from mowing over it with her riding lawn mower when I had barely been able to see it in passing. I said nothing to my landlady about it, even though I ran into her a lot out in the mutual yard that stretched between our two dwelling places. I simply became a witness to the budding and blossoming of this beautiful rose. 

Miracle Rose

When it finally bloomed into the lovely flower you see above, my landlady  asked with great astonishment, "What on earth are you doing to that rose bush over there?" I laughed and said, "Nothing except noticing that it is there. It did all the rest. I just paid attention to it when I finally noticed it." She shook her head in wonder and said, "That thing hasn't bloomed in years." Then it was my turn to be astonished. I also started paying even more attention to it. I didn't have anything to feed it, so I fed it my attention and that is all. The rain watered it, and it started budding like crazy. It was not able to fill out again to any great fullness though because of the amount of deer traffic in the yard. Apparently roses are yummy to deer taste buds. The deer wound up demonstrating to me what had happened to the rose bush in the first place. It had been a victim of a hit and run deer foraging. But for the couple of months it lasted, I got to enjoy probably a half dozen blooms before it was added to the deer menu again. 

Honesty is Good for the Memory

There is so much less information to retain when you tell the truth. You don't have to keep track of all the lies you've told and to whom. Free up brain cells by deleting all the dishonest files.

I Tripped Rick Steves the Ultimate Tripper

If you've ever turned on PBS, you've probably stumbled upon Rick Steves and one of his many travel videos around the world. Or you may have encountered one of his many "Through the Back Door" travel guide books. Rick is the quintessential travel guru, always trying to experience the culture from an insider's perspective. His home in the USA is in Edmonds, just north of Seattle. I used to hang out in Edmonds sometimes while I was residing in and around the Seattle area and have been to his travel center several times. There used to be a great Indian restaurant down by the ferry and the railroad tracks in Edmonds, so I used to make special trips there just to eat at this restaurant. It was called Sahib. I used to go there as often as I could, particularly for the Saturday or Sunday brunches. I don't know if it's still there. When the economy was being weird a few years ago, I cut back on my day tripping because gas had gotten so high, and I was already doing a really long work commute from the Kitsap Peninsula to Seattle four days a week. Even my Honda Civic, which sipped gas, was costing me a lot to fuel.

Anyway, years ago when they were having a travel expo in downtown Seattle, I attended that event with my then partner. We made sure to set aside time to see Rick Steves at one of his talks. Just before time to go into the room for his talk, my partner and I were hanging out in the hallway waiting for the doors to open so we could enter. I was leaning with my back against the wall and my feet stuck out in front of me. Rick came barreling around the corner in a hurry to get to the room where he was the featured speaker and tripped spectacularly over my feet. He managed to regain his balance and continue on without further calamity, but it was a moment that should have been caught on one of his outtakes from his travel videos. It was such a classic Dick Van Dyke style trip, and if you aren't old enough to get that reference, I feel sorry for you because Dick Van Dyke was a master of physical comedy in his day, and Rick Steves could be his stunt double.

Once he got his body back under control, he opened the doors and let those of us waiting to get inside to get a seat. I don't remember now what his topic was for the day, but I will always remember the trip I sent him on accidentally. Some day I'd like to go on a real trip with him, or at least with one of his books to guide me. In the meantime, I was delighted to see that he has connected with Bread for the World to help end hunger. Apparently Rick's travels around the globe have made him acutely aware of the worldwide problem of hunger. I think it's great that he is doing this and offering to match funds and send gifts to those who donate to this organization. To learn more, please click the link below.

© Robert Lerich | Dreamstime Stock Photos

Rick Steves Offer for a Donation to Bread for the Hungry

This is one of many organizations making a difference in the world. Anyone who would like for me to share one of your favorite organizations who are making a difference, please contact me at mysticangelhealing@gmail.com.

Some Laws are Begging to Be Broken

http://www.local10.com/news/police-charge-90yearold-man-2-pastors-with-feeding-the-homeless/29510268

If you aren't outraged by the contents of this article, you should be. When governments refuse to help the poor, it needs at least to get out of the way of citizens whose hearts won't allow the hungry to starve. As I noted on my Facebook posting of this article, I can imagine Mother Teresa banging on the gates of heaven to get out so she can come back and do something about this. I suppose if Jesus were walking the earth these days in Florida, he'd be spending most of his time in jail. Remember the feeding of the 5000? I'm not sure what exactly I can do to stop this. I'm not completely ambulatory right now, but I can still type and access the world through the internet. So I'll start by using my voice. 

How to Establish a Healthy Emotional Life

https://www.chopra.com/ccl/how-to-establish-a-healthy-emotional-life?utm_content=CCL%20Newsletter%20141008&utm_campaign=October&utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=email

Primordial Sound Meditation

http://www.chopra.com/ccl/what-is-primordial-sound-meditation

The Choice is Yours

Every day presents us with opportunities to complain. We are also given much to be grateful for. It is our choice to focus on one or the other. I have never improved my mood or my situation by complaining. However, many days have gotten better and brighter by highlighting the good stuff.

Attachments and Suffering

To know suffering is to understand the concept of "attachment" as it is described by the Buddhists. Suffering arise from attachment to our desires. I don't believe it arises from those desires themselves. Something we desire is not the source of our suffering. It is our attachment to something we desire that ultimately always results in suffering. It is in our letting go that we find peace. When we "let go," we are not letting go of the desire. We are letting go of the attachment to it.

Gratitude Notes

Gratitude Notes:
1. In light of my last post, I am grateful for the true heroes in this world who do amazing things without expecting any rewards. They do was is right because it is the right thing to do. 
2. Listening to your heart is its own reward.
3. "God" is the light that shines from the eyes of someone who knows what it is to suffer, but loves anyway.

A True Hero

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/czechrepublic/10844808/Sir-Nicholas-Winton-at-105-the-man-who-gave-669-Czech-children-the-greatest-gift.html

Love on Notice

Love is all around us. If we open our hearts and our eyes, we will see it and feel it. As we bear witness to this love, it expands in the universe. A simple act of noticing and acknowledging the love we see as we traverse our daily paths, leads this world to a place of greater love. Like gratitude, noticing love and peace and joy--all the good stuff in life--leads those things to expand in your life like wildflowers tended by heaven.

Try keeping a section in your gratitude notes for times in your daily life when you notice acts of love and kindness. I'm going to call my notes "Love on Notice." I hope you will join me in noticing love where it grows, fertilizing it with your attention and passing it on so others take notice too. If you pay attention in your life, you will find that whatever you look for diligently will show up in your life in greater abundance. Our attention is a powerful magical tool that change our lives and the lives of those who are near us.

Love on Notice, Day 1:

My house mate's kitten, Chi, has a heart filled with love. She licks her siblings' and cousins' heads sometimes and rubs against them, wrapping her tail around them like a hug. Chi is an earth angel. I know this because in her last incarnation, she was my kitty, Zuki, for a couple of years. I rescued her at age 15, but at the same time, she rescued my cat, Dustin, and me. I knew and acknowledged then that she was our little earth angel. Now she is back to be an earth angel to my friend, who is her mommy this time, and she is very aware of her assignments on earth. Chi is a very smart little kitten, but above all, she is the most loving kitten I've ever met. Not all in the house love her back because they have other issues, but she continues to love and melt our hearts with her adorable nature.

Hope

Hope is a light to illumine the path before you. If you feel enveloped in darkness, as though you are merely wandering in the woods without a friend, ask the universe for a light. You will find not only a light on the path before your feet but also friends to walk with you.

Answers in the Silence

In my mind, the divine waits for me on the beach or in the park or some other quiet place. While everywhere at all times, the divine awaits us in our quiet times and moments to impart guidance and wisdom and the answers we seek so desperately. Competing with the harsh sounds and busy pace of our lives is not how the divine works usually. The divine is there, but we cannot hear that "still, small voice" in the midst of the cacophony of our lives and this world. To hear that voice, we must find that quiet time and place and listen. I call this meditation. While I may "pray without ceasing," informing the divine of my many needs, I cannot hear answers when I am yammering. For that, quiet contemplation and meditation is needed.

Getting it Right Vs Just Getting By

The concept that humans are born into the world as "blank slates" (from the Latin, tabula rasa) goes back as far as Aristotle. It found a strong proponent in the seventeenth century philosopher, John Locke. The idea was central to Lockean Empiricism, which helped to fuel the nurture side of the nature versus nurture debate that has continued throughout the centuries. The idea that humans are born without any trace of prior programming sounds like a good argument against Christianity's doctrine of "original sin," but I don't see it as plausible. While I don't believe in the doctrine of original sin, I do think that something more along the lines of karma is involved. Of course, just writing the word karma opens up another whole can of philosophical worms. If you believe that there is some sort of balancing of accounts and life actions from one lifetime to another, then you posit reincarnation as a given. That is something many people of the Christian faith are reluctant to do. Never mind that Jesus debated a karmic issue with his followers when they asked him about a man who had been born blind:

"1As He passed by, He saw a man blind from birth. 2And His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?” 3Jesus answered, “It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him. 4“We must work the works of Him who sent Me as long as it is day; night is coming when no one can work. 5“While I am in the world, I am the Light of the world.” 6When He had said this, He spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and applied the clay to his eyes, 7and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which is translated, Sent). So he went away and washed, and came back seeing."
(John 9:1-7, New American Standard Bible, http://biblehub.com/nasb/john/9.htm)

Note that his followers argue from the assumption of reincarnation. How could the man who had been born blind have sinned without having lived a previous life? Also note that Jesus didn't rebuke the idea that he could have caused it as a result of something done in a prior life. He also doesn't blame the parents for it, as we so often do even today. He goes directly to the heart of the matter, the reason being that his healing was to bring glory to God. Jesus clearly wasn't into casting blame. He was interested in helping others and bringing glory to God. 

I do believe in reincarnation and karma, rather than original sin, although I see how that doctrine arose when there is clearly something going on with the human condition from very early on. We claim that we don't teach children to lie or steal, and yet often little children do just that. While I'm by no means certain that children don't learn to lie and steal through subtleties in the environment around them, I also don't think they arrive in the world as "blank slates." I think in the reincarnation process there are impressions left on our consciousness, and I think those impressions not only color our experiences in our next life, I think they influence them. I think we often have echoes of past life influences in our present lives. In fact, I think those echoes are often the root of present live issues. Those issues are the weeds that grow from the seeds that have been left behind. I think we can get by if we leave the weeds there, but the longer we allow them to grow unchecked, the more they suffocate the healthy plants. Some  people may regularly mow down the weeds, often taking the healthy plants with them. Others may trim the weeds so the healthy plants can grow too and reach the light so they can survive. 

The only way to know that you have a truly successful garden is to pluck up the weeds and plant good seed that will yield a crop of life-giving plants. Then you have to tend the garden and make sure there are no lingering weed seeds beneath the soil, waiting to spring up suddenly. You can get by in life by doing the bare minimum of work or none at all, or you can get it right and live life abundantly. But you have to dig down and get rid of what has produced the weeds in your life so you can sow seeds that grow into lush, healthy plants that sustain you and help you to thrive.

It is popular in the New Thought movement to attempt to change our lives using positive affirmations. While I support this good practice, affirmations alone are not enough. Affirmations are the good seeds that grow healthy plants, but they will be far more effectual if you dig up the roots of the weeds that were planted in your garden, either by you or someone else early in your life or as part of a former life. It takes work to do this. Not the back-breaking, blister-inducing kind. It requires the conscious-awareness kind of inner work that starts in quiet meditation. 

Some people would prefer to dig ditches or swim the English Channel than to exercise the discipline of prayer and meditation. Those people should try working or walking meditation. This is the practice of working alone while in prayer and meditation. The key to this is intention. Choose to think about a particular part of your life that isn't working all that well. It might be finances, relationships, employment, health, or any number of other aspects of your life. Pick a topic while you are in quiet or moving meditation and see if you can't follow that trail back to see where that particular issue might have arisen. It isn't always easy, and it requires a honesty that may cause us to flinch, but it can be done. If you get all the way back to your present life birth and can find incidences there, then it is likely that the roots go back beyond this lifetime and maybe even several more lifetimes. In that case, you may have to seek out help with past life explorations. It may require several sessions exploring each issue until you find that you've dug up, released, and forgiven the final incidence. 

How do you know when you've reached the end of the trail and plucked up the final weed at the root? When those affirmations you've been saying begin to take hold and yield a bountiful harvest. Even while you are digging,  you will find that the affirmation part of the equation will begin to yield more and more fruit. You will know that you are on the right trail at least, but don't stop digging up the weeds until you feel totally free of that particular issue. Then you can go to work on the next issue. While you can work on multiple issues at once, you won't necessarily get free of each one at the same time. Just keep on working at it until you get it right. Or ignore this message and just keep on barely making it. No one but your higher self is going to be urging you to keep going. Your higher self wants to keep growing and improving your life. Your higher self wants you to experience abundant life. 

It is your ego that is content with just getting by. It is your ego that tells you that you don't want to do the work. Your ego will supply you with lots of reasons not to grow strong and to get better. After all, if you are strong and healthy and prosperous, then there is no reason not to be fulfilling your life's goals. You no longer have an excuse. If you show the people in your world that you can do it on your own, then they might get the message that you need them any more to hold your hand. And then what? Then you grow into a fully functioning adult who can have relationships that are healthy rather than needy. 

While that may feel scary now while you are doing the work, the more weeds you clear out of your life's garden, the more you will embrace the healthy crops that are growing and thriving in your life. As you fill your life with healthy plants, you'll realize how sick those weeds were making you feel. You'll want them out and the healthy plants in, but right now, you may just have to take my word for it until you get further along the path. 

My garden isn't finished. Not by a long shot, but the more I work, the more motivated I am to get it right. I want the abundant life. I want good health and positive relationships. I want it enough to work for it and remove the weeds. Do you?

Heroes Among Us

Heroes and superheroes do indeed walk among us, but they don't wear colorful spandex outfits (usually, anyway), but they do perform amazing acts of heroism. They can be found in the midst of us in schools, hospitals and clinics, playgrounds, at beaches. They are also found in the eyes of a friend who reaches out and says, "I won't let you go there alone" when it's time to face an abusive spouse or parent or some other party. They are also behind the fire hose that puts out the blaze and behind the badge that brings an end to the violence at hand. Heroes are everywhere. I'm willing to bet that every one of us knows several of them. I bet we even know more heroes than we know villains. If you know more villains than heroes, then either you are a hero being on hand when you are needed or you need one to help you get out of your environment. I hope that you will take a minute today and thank one of the heroes in your life. I have several in my life. I'm off to thank some of them now.

Gratitude Notes

Gratitude Notes:
1. I am a victor rather than a victim.
2. I am still standing against all odds.
3. I know angels exist because I have had encounters with them a few times that I know about. There might have been more when I was unaware of it. The first time was more than 30 years ago.

Gratitude Notes

Gratitude Notes:
1 I've already had a belly laugh this morning. 
2 I can wake up any given day and be at peace if it were my last one.
3 Prayer is easy. If you memorize only two words of prayer, make them "help" and "thanks."

My belly laugh was because of something I thought my housemate said. She looked at the
calendar and said "Welcome to the last day of July." Only she was facing away from me so I 
couldn't hear her very well, so what I thought she said was, "Welcome to the last day of your 
life." I not only thought it was hysterical that she'd be saying that, but it was perfectly okay with
me if it were true. Thus the early morning belly laugh. It took awhile for me to stop laughing 
enough to share with her why I was laughing. Even not knowing, my laughter had her in stitches
anyway. Welcome to my world!

Gratitude Notes

Gratitude Notes:
1. When colleagues become friends and vice versa, work time is sweeter.
2. Help is never more than a prayer away.
3. You can go as often as you like to the well of infinite possibilities.

Gratitude Notes

I have been posting three things I'm grateful for each day on Facebook and I thought I'd share some of my favorite ones here. If you are so inclined, take a few moments at some point in your day to make note of three things for which you are grateful. It really does change the way the energy flows in your life. It's easier if you keep a record somewhere, either a gratitude journal or a blog or something. You could try posting them for a whole day at your computer so you can be reminded of those things as you move through your day. You can post them of Facebook the way I do and see what conversations they start. It's a good reminder for those around you too that a shift in consciousness is only a thought away.

Gratitude Notes:
1. We get a brand new start each day
2. Even a snail makes progress if it keeps moving.
3. Beauty is everywhere if you remove the critical spectacles. It truly is a matter of perspective.

Dispelling the Darkness

If you read this blog on a regular basis, you may recall an entry I made that was entitled, "Lessons from Lao Ma and Xenaverse." This essay was about harnessing the power of Chi in the universe to move energy through our three dimensional world. I mentioned as briefly as possible that I had been the object of psychic attack. That went on for over three years until I learned enough and healed enough to keep the attackers out of my energetic space. I was technically only a secondary target. I was helping a friend of mine who was under attack and unaware of the questionable energy of a person who claimed to be helping my friend. When I started drawing attention to the fact that this person was clearly not acting in integrity towards her, my friend's eyes were opened to just how much out of integrity this person was. The spell over her was broken, even thought the attacks continue. When it was discovered that I was pulling back the curtain to reveal the truth of the situation, I also came under attack, even though I had never even met this individual.

I'm going to fast forward through a lot of suffering, drama, and spiritual battling, so I can report that this battle is finally over. The last battle occurred during a very dark dream, where it was clear that the evil was planning to finish me off once and for all. Only God had a better plan. When it was clear what entity was attacking me, even though it was in a new guise, I gave the situation over again to the Divine to bring to an end. While I have no idea what happened in the rest of the dream, it must have been a big deal because I blacked out even in my dream. There was no pain, only a sense that a lot of dark energy was attacking me. Bear in mind that I was asleep and dreaming and yet the scene felt and seemed very real to me. Real enough that I passed out in the dream after yielding up my soul to God to take to heaven. Whatever happened after I passed out is a blank. While I can nearly always use lucid dreaming and finish or change the dream, either in my sleep or in a semi-somnolent state, this time I could not go back. It was as though the angels had bolted and locked the door to that part of my brain. While it felt a little strange to be barred from part of my brain, I knew it was for the best. I let it go of it in trust. In truth, I didn't want to know what else had happened. All I know is that the angels fought the rest of that last battle without me, and while I suspect I'll learn what happened on the other side of the veil, I have no desire to know at this time. I care only that it is finally finished and for good.

As for my dreams, the dreamscape change dramatically, as though someone turned the television off for a while and then turned it back on to a much more light and love filled show. With this change of channel came a whole new series of fictional stories I started writing/living in my dreams. The contrast was extreme, and for the first time in three years, it felt as though my dreams were finally all mine again. I was so happy for the story arc to entertain my inquiring mind. I jotted down a couple of pages of notes so I can start writing these stories soon. I want to immerse myself in happy stories. I am ecstatic to bid that time of my life goodbye.

Going through the next couple of days, the Twenty-Third Psalm was brought to my mind, and I suddenly understood the phrase "the valley of the shadow of death." I already know that death is nothing to fear. After my experience of sensing the joy radiating from my Granny's spirit during her funeral, I know that there is nothing about death to fear, so the phrase is something that seemed puzzling. I've been near death before, and while I had some regret about leaving others behind to mourn, I didn't fear death in my early twenties, and I have no fear of it now. There is more of a happy expectancy now. I know my time isn't for a while yet, but I realize that the valley of the shadow of death has more to do with the fear of evil than with death. It is the fear of the monster we believe is under our beds at night. The monster isn't real, but try telling that to a child who is certain that it is real. Belief is a powerful thing. On one hand, it is the Light of faith. On the other hand, it is the shadow of fear.

After that dream that night, Psalm Twenty-three came alive in a new way for me, a way in which I felt the presence of the divine protecting me not from the outside, but from the inside. Not only do I have no fear of death, but I also have no fear of those who think they have the power of life and death over me. It only takes a split second to make the decision to give that power to whatever divine being or presence you believe in. In so doing, you disarm fear; you dispel the darkness. Your experience of life and death is in your power. In my dream, I gave that dark moment of attack over to my Creator and let a higher wisdom make the final decision. Now I realize that the night this occurred, you could say that it was "only a dream," but be that as it may, it seemed very real to me and the fact that I chose to surrender my soul to the Divine feels right to me. I have been able to feel a Presence that is tangible ever since. I've sensed this Presence before, but I felt it in a new way starting that night. I know that encounter changed me in the same way that sensing my Granny's joyful spirit at her funeral changed me. I have never feared death since then and now I no longer fear evil having any power over me again. Ever. I am free and it feels really good. I bask in the Presence. I know that this Presence is Divine and it is inside me, filling me, informing me, and protecting me. Anything that is foolish enough to attempt to attack God is going to have the battle of their life. I am not the combatant. I am the protected sheep. The one that comforts me is a shepherd, but apparently one with one serious, evil-whooping rod and staff.

"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me." Psalm 23:4

http://www.mysticangelhealing.net/2013/05/lessons-from-lao-ma-and-xenaverse.html

Now Released... High Tide: A Sequel to Driftwood

Mystic Angel Healing Photo Gallery

The Healing Miracles of Archangel Raphael by Doreen Virtue

Email Snafu

It just came to my attention today that there was a huge snafu in my email forwarding where some requests for reading were forwarded to my main address while others were routed to junk mail. I have no idea why, but I apologize for that disconnection. I am going to keep a closer eye on the junk mail box from here on so that is resolved from this point on.

Out of the Silence...Creation

While I was researching a topic today, which arose from my quiet time, I was reminded of a dream vision I had a couple decades ago. I'm not entirely sure whether it was a dream or clair voyant vision. Oftentimes just before I fall asleep or wake up, I "see" things in that in-between time that I know are coming in through my third eye. This vision felt less like a dream and more like an encounter and thus a vision, but I can't be entirely sure of that. It came in answer to a prayer about wanting to see the feminine aspect of the divine I had been studying for a while, both for my independent study in grad school and for the women's spirituality group I had pioneered (WISPIR) in Asheville, NC. What I saw in this in-between moment was a middle-aged woman with long, dark hair, which she wore loose. She was standing at the edge of a forest and she wore about her a long, flowing cloak that was indigo--dark as the night sky. She had energy that was absolutely pregnant with possibility. I knew that she was the Mother Goddess, but I wasn't sure which tradition until I came across her card in Doreen Virtue's Goddess Oracle Cards deck today. While I've used this deck quite a bit, I've never pulled this card. I came across it while I was browsing the deck, looking for a different Goddess. I actually recognized this being from that vision. I recognized her appearance, but more importantly, I recognized her energy. From this energy, came this message:

Sige, Goddess of the silence

from whence came the Word.

The Womb that gave birth to the World. 

Mother of Sophia, the Goddess of Wisdom.

Sige, Goddess of darkness from whence 

came the Light--Illumination. It was Good! 

The Light of Knowledge and Wisdom. 

From this dark soil grew the Tree of Life. 

This Darkness is the darkness of Yin. 

It is the Mother of Ten Thousand Things.

Sige, the source of all manifestation 

arising from the Silence of Meditation.

The Womb of Gestation.

The Stillness of Being.

Plant a seed in this rich soil. 

Tend it with awareness, still, silent awareness.

     "In the beginning God created

     the heavens and the earth. 

     The earth was formless and void,

     and darkness was over the surface of the deep,

     And the Spirit of God was moving over

     the surface of the waters.

     Then God said, “Let there be light”;

     and there was light. 

     God saw that the light was good;

     and God separated the light

     from the darkness. 

     God called the light day,

     and the darkness He called night.

     And there was evening

     and there was morning, one day."
                        ~Genesis 1: 1-5 (NASB)

Sige was the darkness over the surface of the deep. 

And Sige was the deep.

And Sige was the Spirit of God

moving over the deep. 

Then God/Tao/Sige said: "Let there be Light 

and duality was born from that one Word. 

From then on, there was no Light

without corresponding Darkness.

From the ONE came the 10,000 things, 

the many faces of Divinity,

the many manifestations of Eternity.

From the ONE came

the endless dualities of Existence.

All the nameless things gathered names

unto themselves from the stuff of words.

From every word that was spoken,

came the creation of a thing,

and the no-thing too. 

All the words gathered nameless things

unto themselves from the stuff of existence.

From Awareness came Existence. 

From the Word came the Things. 

What is a word before it is spoken? 

It is potential. 

"I think therefore I am?"

"I think therefore I speak.

I speak therefore I am."

Speaking brings forth manifestation. 

Before speaking begins, there is only Being. 

When Being becomes Conscious Awareness,

it becomes Potential. 

When Conscious Awareness becomes Potential,

it grows in power. 

When Conscious Awareness bursts forth into Speech, 

it becomes Creation and the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

The Tree of Life is Pure Potentiality. 

The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is Creation,

the result of Speaking.

Sige teaches us to embrace Silence

until Silence becomes Conscious Awareness

and Conscious Awareness becomes Creation.

Choose well what you speak

for in speaking, all Creation arises. 

Spend more time with Sige 

in Conscious Awareness. 

Embrace Silence before you begin to speak 

and unleash all manner of dualities 

upon Existence.

© 2014 Beth Mitchum

(with a quote from the New American Standard Bible)

 This is the image incorporated in Doreen Virtue's Goddess Oracle Cards.

Below is a link to Amazon if you'd like to look at a sample. 

Eternity

Time is a line drawn in both directions,

encompassing past, present, and future.

Eternity is a vast ocean, consisting of an infinite number

of individual droplets indistinguishable from the whole

when viewed as such.

We can study each droplet, examining it under a microscope,

which magnifies it beyond its original purport.

When it is returned to the ocean who can tell where it went?

Who can retrieve it? Identify it?

Why then do we place greater importance

on some moments in time over others?

The eyes of God behold all moments in time as one.

All droplets of the water as an ocean.

The only one who cares about this moment more than another

is the one who sees it as separate from all others. 

For this observer, this moment is a lightly golden sunset

upon dusky blue mountains, a band of rippling gold upon the water.

For another it may be a time to say goodbye,

to let go of the bonds that tether us to physical dwellings.

Dwellings that separate us from the vast ocean,

which is our true abode, our eternal existence.

We must let go of the grasping mind and the restricting body

and lose ourselves in the ocean of life that is God, Tao, Being.

That journey begins always in this moment in time.

© 2005, 2009 Beth Mitchum
Reprinted with permission from bethwor(l)ds: 20 years of poetry 
Published by UltraVioletLove Publishing

Seen Dancing: Essays from the Heart Gets a Face Lift

The cover of Seen Dancing: Essays from the Heart, got a little work done. There was something about it that wasn't working, so while I was updating the logo on the outside, I applied a little nip and tuck here and there to make it pop more. I hope you like the results. 

Seen Dancing: Essays from the Heart Gets a Face Lift 

Angel Therapy for Healing By Doreen Virtue

Tribute to the Runners of the Boston Marathon 2013

Found the actual photo with the poem from last year. I wrote this on the day of the Boston Marathon Bombing while the perpetrators were as yet unknown and the magnitude of the tragedy was still unfolding. Being so far from the situation, this is how I channeled my grief and concern to the people of Boston and to the participants in the marathon. That day we all ran the race with them. Our love saw each one of them across the line in spirit if not in body. Love finished the race that day. Hatred did not end it then and it does not stop us now. We are Boston Strong. We are American Strong. We are humanity strong.

What's your Realm? An introduction to the Certified Realm Reader Course

What's your Realm? An introduction to the Certified Realm Reader Course

Driftwood Continues on its Journey

Next year, I'm planning to release a 15th anniversary edition to celebrate the journey of this book that is about taking your journey. I have gotten a lot of feedback over the years from readers from all walks of life, whose lives were impacted positively by reading this book. Some of the most unexpected feedback was from a young (American) man who was living in Japan at the time. I ran across him over 10 years ago online, when I tripped over his review of the book on his web site. I tracked him down to find out if he was connected in any way to a good friend of mine, also in Japan, who was the first reader of Driftwood to contact me because of how much that book had impacted her. I answered the email she sent to my publisher and we became friends and have remained so to this day. There was no connection between the two of them. 

Driftwood had been given to him by his sister in Kentucky. I'd sent autographed copies at the request of the owner of A Charmed Life, a gift shop that Yelp lists as being closed now. They contacted me because of hearing about my books from my cousin, who lives in Paducah. It's one of those examples of moments when you don't have any idea when some small action on your part will have a big impact on the other side of the world. This is called the "Butterly Effect" in Chaos Theory, and it's interesting to observe it in action in our daily lives, but it requires awareness. What is truly synchronistic is that I've compared Rita's transformation in Driftwood to the metamorphosis of a butterfly. It happened when and where it did because she was ready to take her journey and become the new being she was meant to be.  Now the butterfly is having her own Butterfly Effect. Those affected have been readers from all walks of life who have been able to identify with Rita because she is an every-woman type of character. The details about the type of transformation needed by the reader vary greatly, but the call to take our journey is applicable to everyone. Sometimes it starts when a sister on the other side of the world sends us a book at just the right time to help us to deal with whatever challenge is currently facing us. Driftwood's publication coincided with a personal transformation of my own. I was changed in so many ways after that butterfly broke free from its chrysalis. The changes continue to reverberate throughout my life and now around the globe through my writing. That is truly humbling to see.

How to Undo Negative Energy, with Doreen Virtue

Better Than Therapy

Combine Pharrell Williams' "Happy" video and Masaru Emoto's teaching about The Hidden Messages in Water and you get a recipe for changing your life by shifting your mood that's better than hours of therapy and a lot less expensive. I have actually played some of the videos that repeat the song for a full hour while a series of different people dance to the song. It illustrates that moods are contagious. It is definitely an argument for hanging out with happy, well-adjusted people and for listening to upbeat music. I could tell the difference not only in my emotional state but also in my physical state. After listening to the video even a couple of times activated a mood shift. After an hour of it, I was downright high from it. Plus, I felt better physically. 

So next time you're not feeling well or happy or strong, try listening to that song a few times. After a while, you'll have it hard wired into your brain and find yourself playing it in your head even when you're not actually playing it. You'll be amazed at how much it affects your outlook and even your physical state of being. You are exposing all the cells in your body to the words happy and happiness dozens of times. It definitely has an amazing effect. I suspect that we have Pharrell to thank for changing the mood of millions of people around the world. Stand back, anti-depression drugs, the "Happy" song is the ultimate mood elevator and there are no known side effects. Pretty soon all we'll need to do is take two views and call a friend in the morning to pass on the happiness.

Planting the Seeds of Wonder

Have you ever seen the look of wonder in a child's eye? Perhaps it happens the first time they become truly aware of a Christmas tree all lit up and filled with promise. Or perhaps it happens for you when a dramatic sunset splays itself across your horizon. I think that when magic happens, we all know and recognize it. A transformation occurs when we realize that we can encourage more of those moments of delight and wonder when we open to the mystical side of life. When we open our hearts to it and look for the magical moments in our day, they begin to multiply. We have an entire universe at our disposal. We can, if we choose, fill this entire space with moments of awe and wonder. We paint the pictures of our lives with our thoughts, with our words, with our dreams, and with our actions. Good or bad, productive and destructive, beautiful or ugly. It's all up to us. We can choose. Here. Now. This. That. I don't know about you, but I want to load my palette with a variety of vibrant colors. I choose to load my brush with exciting shades of wonder. Brilliant brushstrokes of the miraculous kind. How about you?

No Limits in Inner/Outer Space

So much of my early life is recalled through the music of the times because music was central to my life in so many ways. I started listening to music of my own choosing in a conscious way when I was seven. I chose rock 'n' roll over the music of my mother. I started playing guitar in 1972 and writing songs in 1973, featuring the folk rock music that suited the acoustic guitar so well. All my teenage angst was experienced hand in hand with the music happening all around me. Most of that music had to do with the counter-culture revolution, when young minds were busy throwing off the trappings of earlier generations. We were rejecting war and embracing peace, although we made the mistake of rejecting those who had been sent to fight those wars as though they themselves had caused it. Those vets paid twice for fighting a war they may or may not have signed up for voluntarily. They fought it in Vietnam and they fought it on the streets of America when they returned home, already battered and abused from the inside out.

I can't experience "throwback Thursdays" on Facebook, where you're supposed to share a photo of yourself from the past, without experiencing a trip back in time through music. A time that commemorates those times of unrest and revolution. My growing up years are inextricably linked to the music that informed me, infused me, and introduced me to the world that existed outside of my head. Although I always had a lot of friends, I saw myself as a loner growing up because what was going on inside my head was more important to me. I couldn't have cared any less about school cliques and proms because it was the internal stuff that mattered to me. Music helped introduce me to new ideas about the world. It helped me to explore my inner space while the world around me was exploring outer space.

When I was entering the seventies, I was not quite a teen yet, but I was already being introduced to drugs through my friends, school, and through the "head music" side of rock 'n' roll. I may have been only twelve at the time I started smoking pot and doing drugs, but I started using drugs as part of a search for answers to all the philosophical and metaphysical questions for which I craved answers. I didn't do drugs to "drop out." I was doing drugs to find my way to Truth. That path never managed to lead me to truth philosophically, but in a way it did lead me to Truth experientially. When I would start off on an acid trip, I would encounter a blank wall and on it the word why? would appear. I would trip inside my head for many hours, but as I was coming back down, I would always see the word why? appear again on the wall, and I would realize that I had gained nothing, learned nothing really from the trip I'd taken with those drugs. Until "one dark and stormy night," when I came face to face with someone inside me and outside of me at the same time.

During a trip in 1975, when I had done 2.5 hits of LSD, I had an unexpected encounter with someone from beyond this realm. I found out decades later (by asking questions) that it was one of my spirit guides who spoke to me and got my attention in a very big way. A little LSD, a little nudging from beyond, a little hallucinating, and I found God. Only I didn't find a God that fit in a tiny little box that could be tied up in a package with a ribbon and a bow. I found a Being who embodies love and embraces us all: gay, straight, bi, trans, you name it. Every color of the rainbow is found in the Light. Every culture, every truth. Although I went on to embrace charismatic Christianity for a decade after that, I found that church was more about capturing the Divine in a box and putting it on display than about allowing that Being to live and breathe in an expansive way through us. I think that was what Jesus himself was all about, but that is not what most churches were doing at the time. So I learned as much as I could from the few churches who were serving up Truth and allowing the Divine to be expansive then left Christianity, taking this expansive Being with me to continue to shine the light of love on the path before me. That light led me to search other religions and viewpoints, and it showed me that all spiritual paths are predicated on love at the heart of their teachings. Those that weren't had stumbled off the paths on which they'd started. When I realized that all paths to Truth are based on Love, then I realized that Love was the heart of Truth and all spirituality. As long as I hold to Love as my guiding Light, then my path will be in the direction of Truth. When a path veers into judgment of others, fear, and hatred, then it has careened off the path.

No one religion holds the key to all wisdom, but if we stop long enough to listen to one another, to share the pieces of Truth we've encountered along the way, then we'll reach the Truth. Truth is already centered and built upon a foundation of love--for ourselves, for each other, for the awesome Being and experience of everythingness around us. If, in our explorations of life and outer space, we focus our inner space on Love, it will take us where we want to go. Along this path is the freedom from rules the counter culture was seeking. It is an inner freedom rather than merely an outer one, but we had to throw off the outer chains first to realize that what is left then are the inner chains that are not any better than the outer societal ones. Being chained to drug addictions or unplanned children were not necessarily better than the previous generation's rules and laws. They were simply different. Attempting to rebel against those laws put us at odds with ourselves and our children rather than our parents.

The song from my music CD, Driftwood: The Music, entitled "Caught in a Nightmare," marks the 5th anniversary of that night when I met the Being within and beyond my small perspective and walked away from drugs for good. Although I smoked pot a few more times after that point, I never did hard drugs again. I no longer needed LSD, PCP, THC, or any of the other myriad mind-expanding drugs out there. I discovered that my mind was already as expanded as it needed to be, and that I was in the process of shrinking it with drug use. Now I expand it by allowing prayer and meditation to take it beyond the illusory limitations of three-dimensional thinking. I am not my body. I am not my mind. I am spirit and spirit knows no boundaries that it would need to extend them. I simply plug my spirit light into the Source of all Light and let it flow through me. It may not always be easy to do that, but it is always simple. As simple as lying back and letting the music you hear inside take you into outer space. As simple as plugging in an electrical cord so you can allow it power your computer or lamp, etc. You can plug into the Source that is Light and Love and let it empower you effortlessly.

Why Assertiveness is the Key to Abundance in all forms, with Doreen Virtue

Giving Thanks for Burnt Toast

(reprinted from my blog: Slices of My Life, located at http://www.slicesofmylife.net)

Most of the time my life is really good and fairly peaceful. During the years I spent living on the Kitsap Peninsula in Western Washington, I'd described it as "idyllic" for at least three quarters of the time. I lived for about five years either on the banks of Hood Canal or Puget Sound. The cabin where I lived overlooking Hood Canal accorded me jaw-dropping sunsets, while the house on Puget Sound yielded stunning sunrises, both of which I spent countless hours admiring, photographing, and capturing in prose and poetic writings. While I haven't been living at that level of serenity a lot of the time since I relocated to Florida, I still have a fairly peaceful and pleasant life, that is, until recently. Some time in the fall, the wheel of fortune began slowly turning me upside down. It finally ended in a dramatic turn that landed me suspended in air hanging from my toes. I'm glad to say that is starting to change. Things have shifted enough that I know that the wheel of fortune is moving up and about to smile on me again.

Since this blog is called, Slices of My Life, I'm entitling this entry, "Giving Thanks for Burnt Toast," because it is about finding the silver lining in one of the worst slices of this life oft examined. Seldom is my life aptly described such, but recent days and weeks it has made me wish I could chuck it in the trash, since no amount of scraping with a butter knife seemed to do anything towards making this slice any more palatable. While it hasn't been terrifying it has been, in so many ways, quite odious. I'm way past ready to cut my losses and move on now. While nothing that has occurred has been horrific by itself, it has been the combination of so many little things, with a few big things added to the mix, that has made life barely tolerable.

I'm disinclined to list all the things that have gone wrong in the past few months, because I prefer to focus on the positive aspects of my life. Bearing in mind the adage: "What you focus on expands," I am finished dwelling on all the stuff that went awry and looking instead at those things that remained steadfast. First of all, while I have been working to help all of my cats and my housemate's cats recover from a recent fungal infection that impacted each of them to a varying degree, I am grateful that they are all young enough to weather this and arrive on the other side in tact. I wondered for a while about one of them in particular, but he is now doing so much better that I know that he is very close to being back to his perky and lovable self. Despite it all, I am happy that they are alive and that our love for one another remains. They'll forget (eventually) all the times I had to capture and corner them for the application of medicine. They'll remember the love that drove me to do it (hopefully). Even though they have eluded me dozens of times during these medicinal moments, I will remember the times they allowed me to catch them so they could be treated. I know they allowed me because I know firsthand what Houdini cats they can be.  Bear in mind that these four cats and I drove from Orlando to Seattle, from Seattle to Minneapolis and back, and finally from Seattle to Cape Cod, and then back down to Orlando again. We have been through a lot together and know each other well. There is a lot of love and trust amongst us. For that I am very grateful. I am also grateful for the help my sister and her nephew gave me in getting the house sanitized to help with the recovery process. Sanitizing our living space was important to keep them well once we got them there.

Another thing I'm thankful for is having a roof over my head and a place to live where I can stay mostly warm and dry. One room in the house has sprung a leak recently, and getting someone out here to fix it has been not only a challenge but an act of futility. Technically we started calling roofers to repair it back in the summer, but no one ever came out. During the rainy season, this is not too surprising, but in the fall and winter, there's no reason not to be able to find someone to do the job. This should be their slow season. However instead of dwelling on the one room in the house that needs repair, I celebrate the other 90% of the house that is dry and cozy. Someone will show up eventually, and in the meantime, I'm grateful that this is the dry season. I also feel that we are fortunate for discovering the leak during the dry season so we could have it repaired. We had been warned that it was likely to leak, given the way the original job had been botched, but we didn't actually spring a leak until a couple weeks ago. So I'm thankful for the timing of the discovery of the leak so we can get it taken care of long before the next rainy season returns again.

I'm also grateful for the progress I have been making towards better health and mobility. I have made great strides towards reclaiming my strength and health. While I've had to start using a walker to get around, I've graduated to one with four wheels and a seat, so I can do more. Not only can I stack things I need to move from one part of the house to the other on that seat, but I can also start a task and know that if I get tired, I can always sit and rest before finishing it. That empowers me to attempt to do more, which keeps me active. That is really good for keeping up my strength and muscle tone, but it also encourages me by making me feel that I can still contribute to the upkeep of the household. The kitten and kitty rides have been worth the price of the chariot alone. Six of the nine cats in this combined household have allowed me to give them a ride at one time or another. So I'm thankful that I'm getting stronger and that I'm able to use this helpful aid to get things done and entertain kitties all at once.

While there have been lots and lots of small and large annoyances of late, I know that "this too shall pass." I have finally been able to stop struggling against the current and instead go with the flow, knowing that there may be moments when I need to be mindful of the rapids and hold my breath when I feel myself going under. During less stressful moments, I've been able to lift my head and look around, momentarily enjoying the scenery as it passes by rapidly. There have been a few moments of grace and laughter, as well as an awareness that this kind of testing is rare and that some good will come from the difficulties themselves. Even in the case of burnt toast, the charcoal from the burnt bits is purifying to the system. Why do you think they use charcoal in water filtration systems? It captures and draws out the impurities, so even the trials themselves work towards our growth and benefit. I may not be able to discern those benefits right now, but in time I will. I usually do, although sometimes it requires a lot of time. While I'm waiting for those revelations, I will give thanks in faith that somewhere some time, I'll understand the whys for the circumstances. I'm already figuring some of them out now. While I'm not likely to say, "Pass me some more burnt toast," I have at least swallowed the serving I already had and have lived to talk and even smile about it.