By Debra Basham, on July 21, 2015
Over lunch with some like-minded friends earlier today, I mentioned the home work for a writers’ intensive I had just completed a few moments before joining them. One of the group is moving back to Canada after living here for twenty-seven years. I don’t see her often, but I will miss knowing I might see her any time soon.
Designed for your discovering what motivates you, part of the homework process was based on a post by Mark Manson (touted as an author, thinker, and life enthusiast).
Mark’s 7 Strange Questions That Help You Find Your Life Purpose started out with “What’s your favorite flavor of shit sandwich?” The point he was making is that even when you do what you love, there may be parts of that you do not enjoy. The list of questions ended with “If you knew you were going to die one year from today, what would you do and how would you want to be remembered?”
When I put the phrase “If I only had one year to live” into a Google search, about 540,000,000 results came up! We are not alone thinking about things like this.
That is why I write. To share what has meaning in life is what has meaning in life.
My answer to the first question is: Some people I love die. I discovered that years ago. Not all, but some, and I open my heart to be broken again and again.
My answer to the last question is: I would do what I am doing now, with even less sense of urgency. Being in the present moment would allow one year to feel like forever.
Whatever is up for you right in you life right now, you might appreciate the insights to be gained by Mark’s strange questions.
By Debra Basham, on July 14, 2015
Every child is an artist.
The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.
I first heard this quotation by Pablo Picasso watching a YouTube video of Amanda Palmer talking about being an artist. “Connecting The Dots” is about the way digital publishing has leveled the playing field and how vulnerable writers are in this venue.
Yes, writers and painters and musicians are able to now share their gifts via social media, but Palmer compares the Internet to the Wild West where pickpockets and snipers abound. With the Internet you do not get to choose. Cyber criticism can be cruel.
It is very interesting to me that I watched the video because I am participating with a handful of other writers in an eight-week intensive. A few years ago, I discovered my love of writing and I added the word author to my online bio.
Admittedly, that late discovery of myself as a writer seems strange. I am someone with fifty years of journals. I am also someone who blogs regularly, publishes a wellness tip and a wholesome thought (audio and text) weekly, and co-authors a monthly newsletter.
But am I a writer just because my heart lives in a world of words?
Texting clients, family, or friends, meeting with a couple, creating a custom wedding ceremony for them, and then officiating at their wedding are also part of my world of words.
My maiden name is Smith. In my heart, my prayer is that I am a wordsmith: a person who works with words; especially a skillful writer (Merriam-Webster).
As Palmer says, once you share your art, the response is what it is. “You, as the writer, have to weather the critics.” That made me think of the Eight Worldly Dharmas I have been working with for a bit over a year. The dharmas come in pairs, and as we grasp for one, we are vulnerable to the other. I think they will make good sense to you.
Pleasure and pain
Loss and gain
Praise and blame
Fame and disgrace
My work around the dharmas included the “Reflections on Universal Well-Being” chanted by the monks of Abhayagiri Monastery, a Buddhist Monastery in the Thai Forest Tradition of Ajahn Chah.
May I abide in well-being, in freedom from affliction, in freedom from hostility, in freedom from ill will, in freedom from anxiety, and may I maintain well-being in myself.
May everyone abide in well-being, in freedom from affliction, in freedom from hostility, in freedom from ill will, in freedom from anxiety, and may they maintain well-being in themselves. May all beings be released from all suffering, and may they not be parted from the good fortune they have attained.
When they act upon intention, all beings are the owners of their own action and inherit it’s results. Their future is born from such action, companion to such action, and it’s results will be there home. All actions with intentions, be they skillful or harmful, of such acts they will be the heirs.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama says, “Spiritual practice is difficult in the beginning. You wonder how on earth you can ever do it. But as you get used to it, the practice gradually becomes easier. Do not be too stubborn or push yourself too hard. If you practice in accord with your individual capacity, little by little you will find more pleasure and joy in it. As you gain inner strength, your positive actions will gain in profundity and scope.”
May it be so….
By Debra Basham, on July 5, 2015
There are no problems, there are only situations that ask for your loving attention.
~ Aaron
I was blessed to be the guest speaker at Pilgrim Congregational Church and some requested I share these practical suggestions for how you can keep an open heart and experience true freedom.
Pema Chödrön suggests when we are frustrated or disappointed or otherwise not approving of life’s current circumstances, we can benefit by playing a game of “Just Like Me” to help us recognize our connection to all other beings. Sitting in traffic, think, “Just like me, these people have other things they would rather be doing.” Frightened by medical tests or procedures, realize, “Just like me, these people are frightened and suffering.” Concerned about finances, remember, “Just like me, others worry whether there is enough money.”
She says you can let life stop your mind and create a “Pause Practice.” A car backfires, a siren blows, a crow caws. Each of these common events can call us to be present, teaching us to live our lives without giving the conditioned mind the reigns. Take a few conscious breaths and say something that inspires our clarity such as:Loving others is an act of my true freedom.
The freedom of loving others as ourselves requires awareness and compassion. Our own response to racism, sexism, or fundamentalism may be fueled by our unconscious prejudice. We may be prejudicedagainst racism. The best way to lessen prejudice in the world is to not be prejudiced about the prejudice of other people.
Use this wonderful practice to develop sympathetic joy and keep your heart open. Bring to mind the person or situation and affirm, “May your happiness continue, may it increase.”
Breathe the phrase, “May your happiness and good fortune continue, may it increase. May it expand out into the world. May all beings experience happiness and good fortune.”
Use the practice for general categories: “May all women/men/children find happiness and good fortune. May all on this planet have a sense of well-being and enjoy success. May all be free from suffering and feel joy.”
Bring to mind any specific professional groups: doctors/lawyers/politicians. “May right livelihood bless our world. May all on this planet aspire to do no harm. May all on this planet and beyond aspire to do great good for all beings. May all be free from suffering and feel joy.”
Practice for corporations/countries/ethnic groups/institutions: “May all beings experience happiness and good fortune.”
Bring to mind the animals in the air, on the ground, in the ground, in the oceans and rivers and streams. Their particular happiness and well-being. “May they be well-fed and treated with kindness. All beings. Whatever happiness or well-being. May it continue and grow.”
Sacred Text: Galatians 5:13-14 (from the Message)
It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life.
Just make sure that you don’t use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom.
Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love,
that’s how freedom grows.
For everything we know about God’s Word is summed up in a single sentence:
Love others as you love yourself. That’s an act of true freedom.
By Debra Basham, on June 29, 2015
Yesterday we celebrated my mother-in-law’s 92nd birthday.
What a wonderful surprise to see her name up on the sign in the sanctuary at church!
It is truly remarkable to think about how much everyday life has changed in her lifetime. Here are a few highlights from the year she was born:
- First baseball game played at Yankee Stadium.
- The world’s first portable radio is developed in the US.
- First Le Mans 24 hour race run in France.
- Time Magazine is launched on March 3.
- The Hunchback of Notre Dame, starring Lon Chaney is released.
- Women’s One Pieceswimming suits begin to be worn.
- The Ten Commandmentsdirected by Cecil B. DeMille.
- The explosion of recordings of African American musicians including the great Louis Armstrong.
Four-out-of –five of her sons, and three daughters-in-law, all enjoyed lunch out with her.
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| Left to right: Greg, Jerry, Mom, John, and Jim. |
It is rather amazing to think about having been her daughter-in-law for almost fifty years. My life has changed a lot, too, in those years. One constant, however, is John’s kindness, respect, and love for his mother. Here they are together at the restaurant:
The joke is he butters her up so she will tell him where the money is buried. I am not sure about the money, but I can tell you where you find real value.
You find it in the kindness, respect, and love over a lifetime. And that is true at any age….
By Debra Basham, on June 20, 2015
We live in an illusion and the appearance of things.
There is a reality. You are that reality.
When you understand this, you see that you are nothing,
and being nothing, you are everything. That is all.
~ Kalu Rinpoche
As a child I loved puzzles. As an adult I enjoy Buddhist teachings. I heard this quotation by Rinpoche at Emrich retreat center in Brighton, Michigan while there on a silent meditation retreat, the title of which was Be a Lamp Unto Yourself. Another puzzle or another teaching?
When I visited with a woman who is recovering from having three cancerous ribs removed, I was seeing clearly the truth of the teachings. She is understandably grieving, understandably in pain, and understandably angry that the doctor who removed her ribs did not take into account how difficult that would be for her given that she previously had her left leg amputated at the hip.
Prior to having the ribs removed, she was remarkably independent and active—totally adept with the aid of a pair of crutches. Now, she is adapting to being in a wheelchair, often very uncomfortable as she sits on the stump causing nerves to fire.
Her choice of words were very telling, “I am angry. That surgeon did not take the quality of my life into account. The only focus was to cut out the cancer.”
Often, frightened and overwhelmed by a medical condition, we can fail to be a lamp unto ourselves. I will not share my bias about the cruel slash and burn twin treatments of surgery and chemotherapy than can destroy lives in the guise of curing a disease, or my preference for whole-person health systems that actually assist the person coming into balance and provide opportunity for the body to heal itself. I would rather have you learn a powerful guided meditation to help us imagine a world of infinite possibilities I learned while sitting under a catalpa tree smelling the sweet blossoms falling all around us.
Imagine you are out on the ocean with many other boats. It is a beautiful day. The water is smooth. You put on your scuba equipment and dive down deep to the ocean floor. Everything is peaceful; the ground is solid beneath your feet; you move effortlessly.
As you surface from your dive, huge waves are rolling. The sea has become stormy! People on the boats nearby are yelling for help as they face being tossed overboard or the boats being capsized. The Coast Guard has been called.
You determine the best help you can be is to go back to the depths where you are safe and calm with your feet securely on the stable ocean floor. Once there, you imagine your arms stretching up to the surface of the water and you begin to help the people caught in the storm.
You lift many people onto the Coast Guard vessel where they are safe.
Next, my imagination had me lift a Saint Bernard, then an elephant, then an airplane before I was shown hospitals where this same amazing process of helping people was happening. Later, when I shared what I had seen in the meditation, another person at the retreat shared resuscitating children from this deep place of calm.
For quite some time, many of us have had a sense we have a way of being with difficult situations more constructively than focusing on what is unhelpful. Complaining (even about something we see as downright wrong) is disempowering. Even those who are unskillful or acting out of blatant greed or the ignorance of self-interest are better served by our compassionate wisdom than our anger.
I hope you will also find this vision powerful as you imagine situations in your life that can be more just, creative, and helpful. Clearly there was no “I” doing the lifting, rather it was about our sincerely intending to help all beings come to the end of suffering. It is about our being used by LOVE, as depicted in this poem by Teresa of Avila (1515–1582):
Christ Has No Body
Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are his body.
Christ has no body now but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
compassion on this world.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.
Fortunately, we are everything!
* Posted this last night and went to Pilgrim Congregational Church this morning because my wonderful friend/colleague, Linda Beushausen was speaking. From the sermon title “Rowing Your Boat Gently and Merrily Even in a Storm, the cover of the bulletin (see image below), the scripture (Mark 4:35-41 about Jesus’ calming the sea), to singing Row Row Row Your Boat and I’ve Got Peace Like a River, you have to agree we are all in the boat together!
By Debra Basham, on June 7, 2015
People come into your life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime.
This has been a very nostalgic week. I received an email message from a woman I worked with some time ago. Her email message:
I don’t know if you remember me or not. I was a patient in the early 2000’s, and you helped bring me out of a dissociative stupor.
I would love to see you again, to say thank you if nothing else. I will be in the your area in a few weeks.
If it’s not possible, please know that I’m thinking of you every day with tremendous gratitude.
My heart was so touched, I was brought near tears.
Maya Angelou said, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
I assured her, yes, I do remember her…
After all of these years, I still keep the hand-made afghan from her in my car, and this lovely needlepoint she made sits by my massage table here at the house.
Later in the week, my partner (co-developer of Subtle Communication Systems), Joel Bowman, and I met one of his former students as we walked through the WMU Engineering Campus. When she realized who he was, she said to him, “We had to do a presentation and I had been painfully introverted. I realized I had to overcome that to be what I wanted to be. Your class changed my life.”
Not everyone we touch will come back into our lives to say thank you, but whether someone is in our life for a lifetime or for a season, there is always a reason!
By Debra Basham, on May 26, 2015
It turned out to be a beautiful day, even though it started out cloudy and sprinkled a bit at the end of the Memorial Day Parade. The sky is now ribbons of blue and pink.
It has been a day of memories for me, for sure, as May 25, 2003, we had my mom’s Celebration of Life ceremony. It was the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend that year.
Most of us have heard the story about the woman who cut the end off the ham, put both pieces in the pan, and put the pan into the oven. When asked why she did that, she realized she did not know why, but she would ask her mother (who had done that).
Three generations back, the truth comes forth—her grandmother’s pan was too small for the ham to go into without cutting the end off!
Socrates once stated: “The unexamined life is not worth living,” and that certainly applies in this situation. Perhaps it applies to much more in our lives as well.
Today I discovered an amazing woman. Her name is Meggan Watterson, and she has traveled the outer world of religions in search of the divine feminine before going within to find it. Here is a powerful excerpt from the Introduction of her book, REVEAL: A Sacred Manual For Getting Spiritually Naked (Hay House Inc., 2013):
What I want the spiritual process revealed in this book to give you is what it gave to me: a sense of empowerment that allows you to shed any feeling of being a victim and own everything that has happened to you; a feeling of embodiment that allows you to let go of every notion about the body except that it’s sacred; an awareness of true love as a limitless source within you, not something or someone outside you; a feeling of self-worth that lets you accept that love is your birthright, not something you must prove yourself worthy of; the audacity and authority to know that you don’t need to keep your power hidden, that we all have a direct connection to the Divine; a belief in service and meaningful work in the world that doesn’t deplete you but rather demands that you receive as much as you give; an experience of the love and support of spiritual community to remind you again and again that you’re not alone—that women do the work of saving each other’s lives.
The readers of this blog who know my birth story have supported and nurtured me as I faced the inner pain of learning my mom discovered she had syphilis at the same time she learned she was pregnant with me. My dad had had an indiscretion. She and I spent my first trimester with her being treated at a syphilis sanatorium. She was understandably embarrassed, afraid, and angry. While this was not known by me until I was forty-something, her thoughts and emotions and beliefs about all of that affected me.
I am so thankful she was able to share with me before she passed from this life. I remember telling her about the vague sense of womb trauma resulting in not feeling loved or wanted. The gift she gave me was worth more than fortunes: “I could not have not wanted you, I did not even know you. I have loved you since the moment I laid eyes on you.”
Louise Hay (sometimes called the Queen of Affirmations) said, “You’re the only thinker in your head.”
Yesterday, awash in many emotions, two wonderful women friends again held my tender heart and assured me I am loved and wanted.
Yes, women do the work of saving each other’s lives. Today, as I remember my mom’s passing from this life, I remember the gift of love she gave me and I vow to pass it on.
By Debra Basham, on May 19, 2015
I look at the post date of my previous blog entry and I realize it was 13 days ago. Where has all the time gone? These days are extra busy. I find myself doing laundry after ten and making soup before nine.
We brought my mother-in-love home from the hospital on oxygen where she will now be getting support. What an intense time of meeting nurses and social workers and learning to operate machinery and setting up systems to keep things organized.
On Saturday when I picked mom up at the hospital to bring her home, the nurse/aide helped her into the front seat while I was opening the hatch for loading in the oxygen tank. Coming around to the passenger side of the van to buckle her seat belt, I noticed the seat was in a reclining position.
“Lean forward so I can bring your seat up,” I told her.
As she leaned up, I pushed the handle. The seat flew forward smacking her in the back.
She immediately popped out with, “I should have had a V-8!”
We both laughed.
We laughed later when we realized we had carefully put her oxygen tube on her, set the concentrator to “2” as we had been duly instructed, but I had never turned the oxygen on!
My sister-in-law also shared a funny story about one day when they were racing to the doctor and my sister-in-law ran through on a yellow light. Mom’s quick-witted quip was that they could stop twice the next time!
These are tender times for so many of us. One dear friend has her mom in the our local hospice residence. Another is bringing her younger brother home with hospice care today in a city in a nearby state. We are each facing the long journey of the only inevitability of our lives: our transition from these physical bodies.
Speaking at a nearby church next Sunday morning—Memorial Day—the title is “The Last Minute” and I will open with this:
Way back in the days of full-service gas stations, a minister waited in line to have his car filled with gas just before a long holiday weekend. The attendant, a member of the church, worked quickly, but there were many cars lined up ahead of the minister.
Finally, the attendant motioned the minister toward a vacant pump. “Reverend,” said the young man, “Sorry about the delay. It seems as if everyone waits until the last minute to get ready for a long trip.”
The minister laughed and responded, “I know what you mean. It’s the same in my business.”
Whatever is present in your life right now, it is best to remember we are each getting ready for a long trip every moment of our lives. Take a lesson from my mother-in-law, and don’t wait until the last minute. Let’s all make every day one filled with heart-felt laughter.
By Debra Basham, on May 3, 2015
I am listening to Jon Kabat-Zinn talking about the difference between thinking and awareness. The gift in listening is that it has turned off the fears of dying, and the preoccupation that there might be something wrong with me. I can point to the “facts” connected to my concerns, such as that my right abdomen is very bloated (an ongoing symptom I have had following the hysterectomy I had in November 2012), and the observation I have had for a few months that my right breast is lower than my left.
My mom was terrified by life. Admittedly, I learned fear there. Perhaps Mother’s Day is a perfect time for me to forgive her for teaching me fear by taking responsibility for who I am now as an adult. I can begin by integrating what I know about thinking and awareness: the difference between that which flows through the mind—in terms of thoughts, feelings, and emotions—and that which is aware of these things.
Jon said the Buddha said all of his teachings can be condensed down to one sentence, “Nothing is to be clung to as I, Me, or Mine.” Mindfulness is not about suppressing your thinking, it is about not self-identifying with those thoughts, feelings, and emotions that flow through your mind.
“When not examined in the larger field of awareness, thinking can run amok.” Our thoughts, feelings, and emotions can make us miserable. It is not my mother’s thoughts of fear around her life that are causing me distress today; my distress comes from my identifying with her thoughts, feelings, and emotions.
I value the use of metaphor, symbolism, and story to help get a person out of primitive brain (fight or flight response) and to get into the relaxation response. A great free online source is available at Lightworker.comand I chose to use the Inner Child Cards:
What is real about my fear something is wrong with me physically (abdomen bulging and right breast sagging)?
 Eight of Swords
The children in the Eight of Swords card are walking, through a cave or labyrinth that represents a soul journey into unknown territories. A labyrinth often has one winding path that leads towards an ultimate goal. It is often used in initiatic procedures. When deep transformation occurs, we are often guided into the secret places of our minds in order to resolve old karmic patterns and subliminal fears. Oriental mystics say that the true self resides in the cave of he heart. We must go there to restore our wisdom.
The spider represents the enigma of the web, which weaves in and out of itself. Our minds are similar. We reshape and recreate our thoughts continuously. The snake, coiled in a figure eight-the symbol of infinity-is the psychic power and life force within. This snake reminds us of the ancient kundalini energy wisdom that travels up and own our spines, and has been likened to a fiery dragon , sleeping within the root chakra. The ability to readapt in life situations is essential if we are to successfully respond to the calling for change and maturation.
You may feel that this is a trying time in your life. Put worries aside, for you are entering a sacred journey. Overcoming fear is possible if you are willing to confront its deceptive face. Perhaps you are not honoring this time of initiation. The way to do so is to illuminate the deep fears that block your life and be ready to come to terms with their potent meanings. This is a unique opportunity to clean the house of your psyche. There is always light at the end of a tunnel. And a general question: What is real about death?
 Ace of Crystals
In northern folklore and legend, a belief exists that during the winter months when the Earth is silent and asleep, under her blanket of snow the gnomes are busy weaving crystals from the light of the Moon, Sun, and stars. When the rebirth of springtime arrives, the gnomes offer these precious gems to the sky, and through the gentle rain of springtime, magnificent rainbows are created.
The hardworking gnome in this card has uncovered a beautiful crystal for you. The time has come for you to accept the promise of hope, unity, and abundance that this crystal brings. The rainbow in the sky is a bridge uniting heaven and Earth and representing the harmony of all people. The Chinese called the rainbow the t’ai chi, or “Great Ultimate,” uniting yin and yang.
When the Ace of Crystals appears in your reading, great potential is being uncovered and tremendous possibilities are present in your life, for this card depicts a dynamic rebirth on the physical level. You may be birthing something magical, be it a baby, a business, a book, a relationship, or a new phase of self-expression. You are blessed by the presence of the glorious crystal brought to you by this humble gnome. An ace in any suit says, “Yes!” Begin anew. Many ideas and dreams that have been hidden for years are now revealed. Join the light of a new day. Blessed be.
By Debra Basham, on April 20, 2015
I have been revisiting a pattern of physical pain that was years ago key in my journey. Back then—ah, interesting—it was a “back” problem that caused me to quit my job and totally redirected the work I do in the world. It is how I became interested in holistic health, and it is something I am profoundly grateful for.
Over the winter I had some slight symptoms, but this past week I have been experiencing a lot ofdiscomfort in my left hip, knee, and leg. It is odd that it comes and goes. Some times I have barely been able to hobble around, and other times I have had absolutely no sensation of discomfort.
This morning I looked up hip and leg problems in Louise Hay’s Heal Your Body. Ah, fear of going forward in major decisions, nothing to move forward to…. The affirmation: I am in perfect balance. I move forward in life with ease and with joy at every age.
I drew an Angelic Messenger Card. The messages are by Meredith L. Young-Sowers, and the photography was done by Carol Duke. You can access them online, but I was blessed to be gifted a deck by a friend who had allowed us to rent her home on Pine Island the past three winters. In the three years of using this deck, I have never previously drawn this card!
#14 Inner Authority
Present Challenge
Gaining confidence in using your inner wisdom to sustain relationships.
By drawing this card of Partnership you are being urged to reconsider your opinion of yourself. In appreciating your own inner beauty and inestimable value you become better able to support and interact with the diverse opinions and attitudes expressed by others.
You may be feeling that others often disregard you, fail to meet your needs, or override or undervalue you and/or your efforts. You may feel sometimes overshadowed by others who have more inner authority. You long to be fully united with your own true nature, to eliminate the inner hollowness and find renewed deep health and purpose. This card comes to you in order to encourage you to nurture your inner authority so that you are better able to move into meaningful and fulfilling relationships.
Angelic Message – Inner Authority
Inner authority is spiritual energy born from union with the Divine. Inner authority is seen in what you say and what you don’t say, in the quality, tone, and reverence with which you approach all living things. When you speak out of love, out of commitment, out of determination, you are ordering the forces of energy within you and the Universe toward the harmony of purpose, and explosion of power. This inner combustion takes place when you turn your attention inward and give time to your spirit.
You do not need to ask permission to love yourself, because loving yourself is the natural state of humanness. You are encouraged by the Universe to find and live the fullest expression of your own unique nature; nothing less is sufficient to you or God. Your inner authority develops as your need for outer authority diminishes and as you listen continually for the voice of your inner mind, your spirit.
Possessing inner authority is at the core of creating and sustaining lasting relationships and spiritual community. True community is based on each person’s willingness and ability to maximize each opening to spiritual growth while also honoring this process in the others. People have an underdeveloped inner authority from a lack of commitment to the purpose of their own life, which is to give rise to their spirit’s fullest bloom.
Inner authority comes not from an immediate material or spiritual “success” but from perseverance. You gain inner authority with the belief and inner expectation, that you do have an essential inner beauty that is priceless, worth struggling to uncover and to know. You’ve come into this life having already lived and blossomed before in many extraordinary ways. Your search now is to uncover this lifetime’s essential core so that you may also indirectly absorb the learning from past lives. Your journey is the awakening of your inner authority, and this voice, this spiritual energy, can contribute to your fulfillment in relationships and act as the force to bring you and your Earth into peaceful times.
Spiritual Opportunity
The guidance available to you through the flower image on this card is to take a long, hard look at the future you hope to create and to realize that it will never be simpler or more difficult than in this moment. The multiple colors, shapes, and designs within this flower show you, symbolically, that your life is never all good or all bad but is rather a continual blend of the emotional and spiritual experiences and energies. Your life is never totally clear of obstructions or factors that need resolution. The challenge is to begin to create, one moment at a time, knowing that today, like tomorrow, will have its conflicts.
Your guidance suggest that you can step up to today’s opportunities because you have the seeds of spiritual love and awareness already in your life, now within this magnificent blend of sorrow, joy, loss, and gratitude. In placing more emphasis on exploring your own inner authority, you’ll be less easily sidetracked or put off by the demands and expectations of others and more able to create the future you choose.
Application
Write down what your inner authority spiritual voice “sounds” like to you. Observe the people and circumstances in which you already use your inner authority. How does it feel when you use this more aligned inner energy? Why don’t you use it with certain others? What do you need in order to use this inner authority voice more often?
Ask those you live with or your closest family members or friends to discuss the idea of an inner authority voice. Ask each person to share with you information about the times and the ways they are able to use their own inner authority voice. Ask each person how each can help the others call forth their own inner voices more often. Place a small sticker on your daily calendar identifying the days in which you feel you are actively using your inner authority and thereby reinforcing this new alignment.
Letting this amazing message seep into my consciousness, I felt myself affirming God’s will in my life, and for just a moment I slipped into an old belief system that God might be asking me to do something I do not really want to do (or feel capable of doing). Almost instantly I gratefully recalled these words of truth I had just read yesterday in the Deep Spring Center Thought for Today!
As I was sharing all of this with a dear friend, I noticed that throughout the document the voice to text function had replaced “inner authority” with “in her authority.” Our world is recovering from the Patriarchal view of God as a strong-armed father who knows best. What an injustice to this quiet, sacred, vibration of the Divine within our hearts.
I have begun affirming the truth: I am in perfect balance. I move forward in life with ease and with joy at every age IN HER AUTHORITY. You are welcome to join me. I think we might just be rewriting HIStory.
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