Here Comes the Dog-ma Catcher

I am Love.

Your dogma has developed a habit of biting and clawing other creatures, especially those who refuse to bow to it.

I am taking it to the dogma pound, where it will be euthanized (lovingly and gently, of course).

Don't worry. The more you get to know Yourself as Me, and Me as Yourself, the less you will miss your dogma.

Click "Yes to All"

Sometimes, as you're downloading a program or file, you come across something like this:





Life offers similar choices. Whenever we come face to face with what we have created, we can click "No" - resist, argue, fight with our own creation. We can click "Cancel" - deny, run away, do whatever we can to "escape".

Or we may choose to click "Yes" and move forward, one file at a time. But why not just click "Yes to All"? - take a quantum leap forward, trusting that it's all going to turn out alright.

Why keep resisting what we created? Somewhere, on some level, we have our own highest good at heart. We just sometimes take the long route to get there. And the "stuff" reflecting back at us in the mirror of life can serve as roadmaps and help us make to course corrections.

Clicking "Yes to All" can be a direct route to getting past our stuff. Just accept it. Love it for what it is. Then change course if you want to.

Loving It All

I felt the Beloved in my heart space today, and I experienced a most delicious sense of expansion there.

I've been feeling life force energy stirring in my second chakra quite often for quite some time, it still being an area that is in process of clearing and healing.

But today, the energy moved around quite a bit, also stirring in my solar plexus and creating a wonderful melting and expansive feeling in my prefontal cortex.

Love keeps doing its perfect work and reminding me of my wholeness. I am loving it!

And I realized tonight that being in love does not require a love object. The most expansive and liberating way to be in love is to be in love with life, loving all of life. It is all love. Love is all there is.

Get Your OWN Path

There have been times when I have read other people's testimonials about how this course or that book completely changed their lives. All of a sudden, everything clicked and their whole lives fell into place. And I have wondered why I haven't come across any teaching that has just pulled it all together for me.

Tonight, it dawned on me that the reason no one path has been "the answer" for me is that I don't belong on anyone else's path. Oh, there have been plenty of people who have helped me along my path - people who asked just the right questions or spoke just the right words or took just the right actions to awaken the exact knowledge I needed to move forward. However, the knowledge was not an addition from outside me. It was already within and only needed to be discovered.

My path is undefinable, and therefore unfollowable, and unduplicatable. And I am glad. Defining a path tends toward dogma and I am much happier without dogma in my life.

Something Better than Polyamory

One of the things I keep coming across as I research sacred sexuality on the web is the concept and practice of polyamory.

Call me wild, but I suggest we skip polyamory and go straight to omniamory. Okay, technically, it's not a word, but I think it should be.

Obviously, I'm not suggesting we enter into sexual relationships with everyone on the planet. Not only would that be unhealthy (and impossible considering the number of humans populating the planet at the moment), it would be downright illegal and harmful in some cases.

I'm talking pure, unadulterated love for all. Come on, you say, we can't really love everybody. To which I reply, why not?

Of course we can't be BFF with everybody in the world, and our agreement to the illusion of time and space prevents us from getting to know everyone; nevertheless, we absolutely can come from a place of love in our hearts that causes us to contribute to our world and those we interact with in a loving and beneficial way. We can open our hearts to others, and in the process, empower them to open as well.

What causes us to believe we must place a limit on how many people we love is that we confuse love with attachment. We form certain attachments in order to interact with others in the various roles we decide to play, as parents, spouses, lovers, friends, etc. But those attachments don't necessarily come from love, and love doesn't necessarily lead to attachment.

Love is more than a warm feeling, it is acting in the best interests of all. We may not feel warm and fuzzy toward everyone we pass on the street, but we can absolutely act lovingly toward all.

Is it not love that performs a random act of kindness, or gives a meal or a blanket to someone in need, or offers to help someone with a difficult task? Is it not love that listens to someone who is hurting and offers words of comfort? Is it not love that helps someone who is carrying a heavy burden? Is it not love that reaches out to touch someone when they are down, that offers words of encouragement to those who feel they can't go on? It is love, and when we reach out in love, we are being the instrument through which love pours its beautiful music into the world, uniting the hearts of all who hear.

Leo Buscaglia said it well, "Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around."

Let's do it! Let's love 'em all.

Just When You Thought It Was Safe...

That safety thing again.

I thought I was done playing it safe. And then I noticed a pattern that I have seen repeated relatively often in my life recently. A gentleman had showed some interest in me, and I found myself backing away after feeling that he was backing away.

So, I asked myself, "Why does this keep recurring?"

And myself answered, "You push people away and then blame their lack of interest for the lack of progression in the relationship."

Ouch! Busted! And by my own self, too. You'd think my self would go a little easy on me. After all, no one knows better than my self what I have been through and the reasons I do the things I do.

Speaking of reasons, I found myself asking myself, "What are the reasons I behave in this way?"

And damn if myself didn't reply that looking for reasons is just another way I keep myself from moving forward.

Good grief! Give me a break already! But nooooo, my self has to be all about the highest good and shit.

Alright. Fine, then! It's all me. There, I admitted it. Are you happy now?!?!

Okay, I'll admit it does feel good to step out of the darkness and into the light. At least, when you know it's all coming from inside, you know that in addition to owning responsibility for your own creation, you also own the power to create whatever you decide to create.

Yeah, baby! That's what I'M talking about.

Love Your Shadows

This was posted on the Heal Thyself tribe message board at tribe.net. I love it!

There are some wonderful people posting on Tribe.net. I find it very uplifting to read the posts (most of them).

Love your shadows

"There is that part of ourselves that feels ugly, deformed, unacceptable. That part, above all, we must learn to cherish, embrace, and call by name."
-- Macrina Wiederkehr

Each of us has characteristics we define as ‘good’ and those we define as ‘bad.’ The parts of ourselves that we continually reject want to be acknowledged and loved. Until we honour these aspects, they will continue to assert themselves. They will do whatever they can to get our attention.
What aspects of yourself do you reject?
Take a few moments to open to the parts of yourself that you do not love. See each one honestly for what it is. Explore the wounds and the motives that gave rise to its condition. Love a wounded part of yourself and it will heal.

"...self-contempt never inspires lasting change."
-- Jane R. Hirschmann and Carol H. Munter

"The first step toward change is acceptance. Once you accept yourself, you open the door to change. That's all you have to do. Change is not something you do, it's something you allow."
-- Will Garcia

posted by:
Jeff
SF Bay Area
53 friends

My Teacher, Master Smoky, the Cat

I received an interesting lesson today in the Law of Attraction from Smoky, the Cat. Smoky demonstrated beautifully the simplicity of the principle, Thoughts Become Things.

He has demonstrated this lesson many times for me, but today I finally got it.

His manifestation unfolded in this manner: he went to the door and stood there patiently gazing at the door until I went to the door and opened it to let him out.

How simple! How profound! He didn't scratch or claw or meow or hiss. He simply focused on what he wanted until it came into being.

Wow! If only we had the wisdom of a cat!

Keep Doing It

I was just reminded that in the original language of the Bible, verbs have a continuous tense...at least, I have been told that is the case.

...which means that "ask, and it shall be given" signifies asking continuously;

..."seek and you shall find" indicates a continuous seeking until the discovery occurs;

..."knock and it shall be opened to you" connotes continuous knocking until the door opens.

Need I say more?

It's All You

We teach people how to treat us. We communicate what we're willing to tolerate by what we do tolerate.

So, if you don't like the way a relationship is going, change your direction. Stand up for your life and your self. You can't change the direction for someone else. What you can do is change your own direction and then it's possible that others around you will respond and change. But there are no guarantees along those lines. If we are not prepared to accept another's behavior just as it is, we may choose to communicate our preferences. It is then up to the other to decide whether they want to continue as they are or make adjustments for our comfort. This may depend on whether they consider the trait or behavior in question to be a preference or to representative of who they really are. It is never reasonable to ask or expect someone to change their essential self to satisfy us.

If the other decides to continue doing as they are doing, and being as they are being, it is then up to us to decide whether the relationship serves us as it is. If not, the most loving thing we can do is to let go. Let go and let them be as they choose to be. Let go and let us be as we choose to be.

Another thing you may want to consider when you don't like the way a relationship or interaction is occurring is to ask yourself what is being reflected back to you. Others are mirrors of what is inside us.

If we repeatedly find ourselves feeling abandoned or ignored, we may ask how we are abandoning or ignoring ourselves and our own needs. If we feel devalued or disrespected, we may need to look at how we are devaluing or disrespecting ourselves. Once we are aware of how we are mistreating ourselves, and we make the shift necessary to honor and cherish ourselves, that is what we will see reflected in our relationships with others.

When good things don't seem to be coming our way, when our dreams and desires are not manifesting, we need to become aware that no one is blocking our good except we ourselves. And when we are ready to receive our highest good, we will find it was there all the time, just waiting for us to open our arms and welcome and embrace it.

When we are ready, we will receive. Until we are ready, we cannot receive. Everything is unfolding in perfect time and in perfect order.

How fascinating!

Saying "Yes"

"UNFOLDING AND ALLOWING

The definition of a master is not one whose life is perfect. A master is one who says, “Yes!” to whatever shows up on one’s plate. By saying “Yes” we unlock the raw energy of a situation. It becomes accessible to us to use in whatever way we choose.
Synchronicity occurs. It is just raw energy flowing.

JUDGMENT STOPS THE FLOW

By choosing judgment, anger, guilt, blame, or other aspects of fear, we say “No” to the experience and immediately encounter resistance, a block to energy. We fall out of harmony with the flow. Answers, that would have streamed forth, remain hidden, unrevealed, locked within the blocked energy."

This is an excerpt from an article entitled Miracle Journey written by Dolly Mae and published in The Psychic Observer.

Good stuff. Very good stuff.

Activate Your Passion

The Blessing of the To-Do(or was that To-Be?) List© 2008
Julie Jordan Scott

My eyes scanned the day's speedily written to-do list, outlined
fetchingly in black crayon.

I looked at my mood indicator on myspace, where I had for unknown
reasons declared I wanted to explore the river, but I wasn't exactly
sure what that meant. On my list of "to-do's" I had written
"collect wood" so I figured that would combine with river exploration.

I read a quote from Maya Angelou and again, wondered what
syncronicity was doing tap-tap-tapping on my heart.

"A woman in harmony with her spirit is like a river flowing.
She goes where she will without pretence and arrives at her
destination prepared to be herself and only herself."

The only two things on my daytime carved in time-allotted stone
schedule were a phone call and to be home when Sam was due
back from school at 2:45. The phone call was to be at 9:00 o'clock,
nice and early, with my friend, Stephanie, who agreed to talk to me,
deeply and soulfully once a week while I dealt with some of this
"stuff" of life that came as a part of my reawakening. I felt like I hadn't
"done" enough to merit a conversation of substance.

I stood back for a bit, though, prior to the prearranged time for our
phone call and I discovered that lo-and-behold there had been a lot
of growth this week, that I had taken what we had talked about
before and integrated much of what we spoke of and
amplified it… many fold.

I had gotten stuck in my self-critical inner dialogue of the day before and lost
sight of the beauty and wonder of the preceding six days.

"I just don't feel like I have big enough swaths of time and yet
I know that isn't so, I mean, I am aware that I make that up, that the
swaths aren't wide enough… I know this lack based thinking is just
creating more lack rather than abundance… and… I mean…" and I tap
danced in circles of belief and misbelief during our conversation.

I continued speaking: "I just need more time in silence, and study,
and contemplation." I told her. "I have felt such grace, such
abundance since we last spoke," I said as I told several stories of
receiving, abundantly, simply as a result of me being 100% myself – not trying
to get anything accomplished in particular or aiming at a particular intention
beyond simply being me and doing exactly what
my heart called me to do.

Maya Angelou floated back into my mind.

"A woman in harmony with her spirit is like a river flowing. She
goes where she will without pretence and arrives at her destination prepared to
be herself and only herself."

The river was calling.

I climbed into my beloved Ford Explorer, Jane, and started to
drive east. Live Oak, Live Oak, Live Oak was a chant running through
my veins – the echo of my heartbeat itself.

Live Oak is a daytime use section of the Sequoia National Forest, five
miles into the Kern River Canyon. I hadn't been there since July and
I was curious how it was during the winter as compared to the Summer.
I figured the flow of the river would be satisfying given all the rain
and snow we were having.

I was excited.

Jane started making a sound I thought was weird and I felt fear grip me. "Maybe
I shouldn't go to the river. Maybe it isn't God
calling, maybe I should get an oil change first, maybe I should turn around, oh
it looks dark in the canyon, maybe I am going to get into an accident if I drive
in, maybe....maybe.....maybe....."

The circle dance of belief and misbelief was taking up residence
in my belly.

"Maybe you should tune into that silence you said you wanted," a
whisper-thought came into my heart.

I heard the Live Oak chant again as my car entered the canyon.

I drove into the call of the Canyon, into the call of the river. I drove into
the darkness of my fear. My heart was pounding rather loudly in the fear places
and I wasn't comfortable at all as I drove into the mouth of the Canyon. It was
dark, the fog closed behind me – a door shutting my escape, and I surrendered to
the call.

I uncomfortably surrended, as Teresa of Avila reminded me,
"Surrender requires courage."

The road was beautifully empty so I felt no pressure to go fast
along the curves. I could take my time and really see what I was
passing in each moment. I started to relax into my heartbeat
and to the rhythm of the call itself.

A red car came up behind me and the "Live Oak" chant became
"take a turn out" so I did and the red car behind me happily
tooted a "thank you" horn as it moved past me towards its destination.

I was almost sad when Live Oak arrived so quickly.

I took the "Road Closed" into the parking lot as a set back
until I realized there was a ready-made turn out parking spot to use so I parked
Jane and climbed out and just stood, stood, stood for a
moment breathing the chilled, crisp air.

I spent, in "human time" about 45 minutes by the River. I
didn't need an enormous "swath of time" in which to experience soul
fulfillment. I could have stayed there for a lot longer, but there
wasn't a need. I was able to celebrate the sounds of squirrels,
the sight of a tiny bird with yellow and green in its very small
flight across the sky. I was able to celebrate the sensual aroma
from an enormous pinecone, the sweet kisses of the wind on
my face and the divine direction telling me which path to take,
which tree to honor with my touch, my prayers, my tears.

In following the call into the canyon, I slashed out sections
of misbelief that were whining or complaining or coming
remotely close to anything labeled "less than" or "not
enough" or "I don't have" or "I can't."

This very short "field trip" away from my cocoon like home
brought me to astounding levels of awareness and presented
me with a gift that I can continue to pass around to my friends,
my beloved readers, to complete strangers who happen upon
these words and say, "Yes, this is good."

It took letters hastily scrawled on a black crayon written to-do
list and leveraged what was there and followed it to slicing through
fear and into the expansive soulfulness of simply being in the moment.

Passion rang out from the crayon, it was in the machete-like movement
of my car into the canyon, it is in being bold and courageous when I
didn't
particularly feel like being bold and courageous when I trusted
in the rhythmic call and kept moving forward anyway.

And I am so grateful I did.

This story repeats itself countless times in my life.

And each time it is richer and deeper and sweeter. I never fail to be
amazed, awestruck, grateful and so glad I am exactly who I am with exactly this
perspective in exactly this moment.

I hear Maya speaking again.

"A woman in harmony with her spirit is like a river flowing. She
goes where she will without pretence and arrives at her destination prepared to
be herself and only herself."

Yes, Yes, Yes – so be it.

+ = + =
Julie Jordan Scott is a Writer, Life Coach, Poet, Speaker,
Actor, Director and Mom Extraordinaire whose deepest passion
is helping people - like you - discover and live with
passion. Call 661.444.2735 to book your complimentary
coaching session or visit http://www.passionactivator.com

for plentiful resources to live a passion-rich life.

Do One Thing DIfferent

There's a simple way to improve your life that is so simple, it is often overlooked. But if we would practice it, we would begin to feel better immediately.

It's simply this: if you don't like the results you're getting from some pattern of behavior or interaction, change it. I have heard insanity defined as doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

If you keep doing the same thing, you can expect to keep seeing the same results. Hello! It sounds ridiculously simple. And yet, it seems to be the last thing we think of so much of the time, if we ever think of it at all.

And yet, even changing one small thing in a pattern can produce profoundly different results.

There's actually a book on the subject, Do One Thing Different: Ten Simple Ways to Change Your Life by Bill O'Hanlon.

It's amazing to me that often the most profound changes in our lives occur as the result of doing very simple things. In fact, often when the light comes on and we become aware of how simple it is to live a life of joy and richness, we ask ourselves why we didn't see it before.

The answer, once again, is simple. It doesn't matter how simple a concept it, if you are not ready for it, you won't get it. Others may tell you over and over how simple it is, and explain it in the easiest-to-understand terms, and yet you will resist it or complicate it, until you are ready and open to receive it.

So, the first step is to open up. Be willing to accept that things could be different. And that you have the power to make it so.

Have a blissful day!

And change something, if you want to.