All Hands On Deck

This is a guest blog I wrote for "On The Journey" blogspot.

http://t.co/M8qD0Mt

                                 Photo credit;  http://www.freedigitalphotos.net 

Recently I had a vision of a ship while contemplating the spiritual process that is in full swing on earth now. I found it intriguing that I was shown a huge ship as a description to what I had been thinking. It became clear when I just allowed the vision to tell me what it wanted me to know.

Unity was already a reality here on earth, not something that will be created. It already is. Then a few days later I was asked to write a guest blog about unity and my thoughts on how I felt it could be anchored here on earth. In a flash, the picture of that huge ship came to mind and I knew that this was what I had been preparing to do.

The ship in my minds eye was a large ship, one likened to the ships of old. Where the ship itself was large bellied with tall masts and many oars for manual rowing. It was a ship that Columbus would feel at home on. I remember thinking that this ship had a large crew and within this crew everyone had their perfect place according to their abilities.

The strong were the rowers when the wind was low. The navigators where the ones who knew the stars and could best plot the course. Then there is the cook, the medical team, the lines men, those that hoist the sails, etc. Everyone had their perfect job which they were good at. This was critical for the voyage to be a successful one and for the ship to reach it's destination.

Planet earth right now is no different. Whether we know it or not, we are all in our perfect place. We are awakening in our own perfect time, in order to keep balance and harmony on this ship as earth heads towards her destination. If we were all to awaken at once, the ship would sink. If half awakened, the ship would flounder and be off balanced. If only a few awakened, we wouldn't go anywhere, just stand still.

Those wide awake are not "better" than those sound asleep. We all chose before birth where our own expertise would best serve the entire ship, to keep it balanced and afloat during our rocky and sometimes daunting voyage. We all chose when we would awaken and we all have our perfect place until we do. We are the crew in perfect harmony, in perfect unity already!

Instead of working to anchor something already real, would it not be better for us to realize and recognize that in perfect unity, we are sailing this ship into port, and the ones who sleep on the journey will be the ones who will awaken in time to best serve our arrival?

They will be the ones who will awaken just in time to see the New World come into view and it will be their job to then unload our ship and begin building the New World. And, I for one am really grateful for that, because after such a long journey, I think I will go for a swim! Unity is now and we are already united!

Just loving you along,

Kathleen

Ode To Joy

The other day I ran across this video on my face book stream and just laughed out loud. In that moment my vibration rose another notch and joy chased away any worries I had in that moment.

It was later as I watched the video again that I saw another message emerging. I realized that this was a perfect depiction of what unity was, not only individually but also collectively. It was amazing as the picture became really clear.

Within each of us there is a collective, aka; mind, heart, body and spirit. Within this collective in order to be in balance, we must also be in harmony. When one of the collective looses focus, faith or even desire to live, our entire unit becomes unbalanced and out of harmony.

So too goes the collective human race. We see this when we watch a part of our collective do something harmful or hurtful to another part of the whole. We see the opposite, when we see someone reach out to another to help and in so doing, brings balance back to our collective well being. As a collective unit, we are constantly in a state of flux as the collective strives to stay in balance. So, to on a personal level.

We are each, individual and collectively, individual units and to keep our worlds in love, harmony and balance, it is the job of each part of our unit to be in harmony with the whole.

You can see the results, when an aspect of ourselves becomes unfocused or self centered. The entire collective falls and chaos ensues!

So, the next time we step forward and the music begins to play, lets take the ME and change it to WE and play a symphony of harmony, balance and beauty. Then as we each harmonise ourselves, the world will sing in harmony as well.

Ode to Joy has brought both joy and laughter to my shores, as well as a deep and penetrating way to see myself, as a sum total of all of my parts.

With laughter in my heart and a great appreciation for this wonderful funny video, I ask you, what melody are you currently playing?

Just loving you along,
Kathleen
Video by The Muppets on YouTube

The Bench

I will never forget the time when I first moved to Mt. Shasta. Like every place I have ever lived, one of the first things I did was to take a long walk around to see the area and to find a place of refuge that I could enjoy.

I came upon a place that was full of life that just seemed to draw me in. There in the middle of this place was a spot where 6 trees, 3 on each side forming a circle, stood together. It just looked magical to me, how these trees seem to be in this spot together. Under these trees was a piece of a large tree branch that was big enough to sit on, yet was so low to the ground that it was hard to sit on it comfortably in order to fully relax and just BE.

That did not stop me from sitting there and I would walk to this place all the time and just sit and connect with nature. One day I had a thought to myself as I was working out the kinks in my legs, "It sure would be nice to have a park bench right there under those trees. Yep, if I could, I would place one there. "

I walked all the way home thinking how great it would be to be able to sit there in that beautiful place, in far more comfort then how I have been. I thought that maybe I could start sitting on the ground and I made a note to myself to next time bring something to sit on . Something that would fit in my pocket so I wouldn't have to carry it, since this place was a ways from home.

The next time I headed there on a walk, I got almost to my spot and realized I had forgotten to bring something to sit on. I thought to myself, "well I will just create something! I know I can, so when I get there, there will be something for me to sit on." Thinking of course of a piece of cardboard or something. So, as I walked I began to really look around me, hunting for a scrap of anything that I could use. 


As I approached my spot and nothing to sit on was to be seen, I just sighed and said, "next time, remember to bring something!" I came around the final bend of the path and looked up. In a jaw dropping moment of disbelief, there under those trees just how I had envisioned it, was a park bench! I kid you not!

I stopped dead in my tracks, jaw hanging open in total disbelief! I thought I was seeing things, truly! My heart was beating out of my chest and it wasn't from the long walk.

I approached the bench as if it was going to disappear. I stopped in front of it and leaned down and touched it. It was made of this beautiful wood and it was chained to the trunk of one of the trees. I walked around the trees, looking here and there almost waiting for someone to jump out and scream, surprise! I gingerly sat down to test the reality of it and I was totally blown away when it didn't dissolve from under me!

Everything I had learned about life, changed in that one moment. Everything! I realized that I live in a safe, loving and supportive universe even if I didn't know this. I realized that I was loved and cared for by far more then I could ever comprehend.  My entire life changed that day and every time I walk to this place and sit on that bench I glory in creation. I glory in the basic fact that we are not alone and we are loved beyond our knowing.

Now, I know you must be thinking, how DID that bench get there. I am sure I am not the only one that found that place to be a wonderful place to visit. I have seen evidence of others being there and someone else had the same idea I did, but was in a position to truck one there and chain it up. 

For me, it isn't the how so much but the timing of it all! That bench could have shown up there at any time, but the universe choose to deliver it to me when I had asked for it. When I had finally had the confidence to KNOW that there would be something there for me to sit on that day! Now, how brilliant is that?

Just loving you along, 
Kathleen
photo credit; http://www.EJPphoto.com

In A Word---Gratitude

                                                     

All through my conscious journey I have heard spiritual truths. They are repeated in our lives over and over and in many different ways, in an attempt to get through to us. That is how things work on this road to enlightenment. It is a continuous repeat of every "good thing" we can do to hasten ourselves down the path. Some times they "hit" home, other times it is a "miss," but we always get it, eventually.


The one simple truth that disturbed me the most, was the one that surprised me the most, by the power it had in changing my life. In a word, gratitude. Yep, that simple word would make my insides buck and twist into knots. I just could not see how being grateful for the mess my life was in was going to help change it. On top of that, it was difficult, at best, to find something to be grateful for.

Oh, I would give it a go now and then. Especial in those moments of disbelief that my life had taken the turn it had. I would say something like, "I am grateful that the cliff I just went over is only 2 feet down instead of 100 feet down!" You can see how that helped my life. I was confirming, that I had just gone over a cliff and according to the laws of attraction, another cliff was soon to appear on the horizon!

Seriously now, what I did find interesting was that every time I did say I was grateful for, "..." and really meant it, I felt my insides tie into knots and resist the thought. The angry, negative part of me started screaming in my ear all the reason I had, NOT to be grateful. And that angry voice was right in most cases and I just wasn't in a place to, not agree with it. So, I decided that, when I can FEEL grateful, then I will say, I am grateful. Humm.

Then came the testing. I would test myself all the time. "I am grateful for "..." Nope, still nothing. Don't feel a thing. In fact my insides still refuse to budge on this issue, so surly this doesn't work!

One day as I lay face down and too tired to move as my life used me as a trampoline, I simply said, "I am grateful that my life looks to be over, and now I can rest." Do you know that in that moment my insides actually yelled, "YES! you are grateful!" And for the first time I actually felt it! It was in that moment of least resistance that I cracked open the barriers and felt what gratitude feels like. It was amazing!

Now, just because I cracked that shell open did not mean that being grateful and feeling it was easy. What I realized was that at first, I didn't necessarily need to feel the gratitude before I could be grateful. Even though the mental concept of gratitude is only mental until felt, I still had to start somewhere. And so I began to mentally list every day all the things I was grateful for. The first one on the list was always the hardest. The second one a tad easier and by the forth and fifth item on the list, I noticed that it was getting easier and easier and the list was getting longer and longer! All of a sudden the door swung open and the amount of things in my life that I had to be grateful for came tumbling out.

Today, I don't get out of bed before listing all the things in my life that I am grateful for. Nor do I go to sleep at night without doing this as well. Even throughout the day when things go awry, I immediately begin to list all the things that are going right and how grateful I am for that! Even when it is hard and I am angry, I push through the anger and find one thing. Then the next thing comes a little easier and more show up. Most of the times that I do this, the thing that went awry just magically disappeared or changed! 

There is no other feeling like the feeling you get when that subtle shift occurs and you are taken from the realm of anger and frustration and into the realm of calm and center-ness. I would call this realm the, "state of grace" and that is where gratitude is realized and life takes on a newness never experienced before!

From my grateful heart to yours,
Just loving you along,
Kathleen
Photo credit: http://autismhomerescue.wordpress.com

Through The Looking Glass

      

                                       

Have you ever found yourself completely baffled by an experience you are having, wondering how you ever attracted it into your life? Well, if you have, you are certainly not alone.

Things happen to "good" people and "bad" people in a way that doesn't make much sense to us, as we view the event through our own life experiences. We can not look at anything in life, without running it through our own personal lens of perception. Everything is colored by this lens, and therefore we see things as we believe them to be more then seeing them for what is truly taking place.

It is as if we are standing inside a  glass container, looking out wondering how we got into that container at all. We stand there and watch as the experience we are experiencing swirls around us, disconnected and feeling totally "apart" from the experience. There is a sense of "surreal" to these kinds of events, that of the "otherworldly".

It is at these times we are the viewer of the events. We are the witness, witnessing and therefore, not a part of the experience even though we are standing in the midst of it. We are in it, yet out of it, at the same time. There is a numb feeling that overcomes us as if we are being held in the protectiveness of a space, that was not present only moment before. We are ourselves, looking out at ourselves, apart yet strangely together.

These are the times of our greatest learning. It is likened to, "being in the world, but not of it." It is the twilight zone of learning that we place ourselves in, in order to learn who we really are. In that place of surreal calm, we are more able to view our lives from a dispassionate state. We are able to view the event from a perspective that is not colored by past experiences that we have stored within our subconscious minds. We are viewing the event from the totality of who we are, in truth, not illusion.

Here in these spaces of great reward are hidden vast stores of wisdom to be claimed, maybe not in the moment of happening, but in moments of reflection afterwards. It is then that we can truly experience the wholeness of who we are, in the context of who we are not, without the trauma of experience.

We are always sheltered from the storms of life, but in these rare moments of detachment, we are placed within a protective web of life where learning becomes far more important to our journey then the pain of experience.

So, when these types of experiences come to call and even though these times may be frightening and last on your list of things you wish to experience, open fully into the gift that is present and learn at the deepest level of yourself, just who you really are! These are life changing events that come to us by the grace of God, for it is always the desire of God, that we come home into fullness with Him. Place your trust there, and reach inward towards home.

Just loving you along,
Kathleen
Photo credit; wakingdream1 http://sunnynala.wordpress.com

Health and Aging, OH MY!

Throughout the years we have all heard that, what we think, is what we are, right?" Well, it wasn't until recently did I really understand fully, what that statement truly meant. We are all so inundated by all the different "new thought" movements that after a while we don't really hear it any longer. It becomes so tiring to always be doing "this" or "that." Most of us just throw our hands up and refuse to move another inch. It almost seems impossible to meet all the criteria to what it will take to change our lives for the better.

What really hit home for me was a very simple idea that became a HUGE, aha moment for me. I mean I finally really GOT it, through I had heard it probably a hundred times. It begins with this simple statement; "What you think and feel, you become." The second thing to add to that statement is, "it has been scientifically proven that the cells in our bodies regenerate each and every day, and in approximately 7 years, every cell in our body has been 'reborn' or regenerated back to its original health." Humm.. So, I asked myself this question, "If my cells are being released and regenerated every day and I have a brand new cellular structure every 7 years or so, then why do I look ancient and feel even older that that?

 Of course! It all came rushing in. Our thoughts and feelings can re-create even our aging process! I mean, really think about this! Each day the old is being replaced with the new! If we are always focused on what is sagging and aching all the time, we are teaching those new cells that behavior! We are literally taking these new cells and telling them that they are OLD and UN-healthy! What if we began to really believe that we were getting younger every day (because physically we are) instead of older? It is a scientific fact isn't it? Hasn't it been PROVEN?

So, lets take our focus away from the aches and pains and place it on the joyous FACT that our "aches and pains" aka; old cells, are naturally being shucked off everyday! By doing this, I am sure that our new cells would regenerate at a quicker rate and health, youthfulness and well being would be the result! It can be no other way! It is cosmic law! Do you see? 

So, the next time you look in the mirror and see what your thoughts have created to date, just move your focus away from that and onto the new cells that are replacing the old ones and maybe one morning, we will wake and see a much younger version of ourselves, looking back at us in that same mirror!  

Mirror, mirror on the wall, you ARE the fairest of them all!

Just loving you along,

Kathleen

Fixing Our World

"Problems cannot be solved at the same level of thinking that created them."
Albert Einstein

Fixing my world was probably the most important thing I wished to do, when I really began to understand that my every thought and feeling was creating it. Gone where the days when I could look outside of myself, and blame another person or thing for the mess that my life had become. Going about changing it was my first priority. The hunt then began for everything I could read about, regarding the laws of the universe that govern our lives.

First came the, "fix your world by monitoring your thoughts." Oh, boy! That was a lot of work! I had more thoughts then I could keep up with and I soon found myself tired and frustrated. The thing was, I knew this was an important part of the puzzle, but not the whole puzzle.

Then came the, "visualize your life the way you wish it to be." That was a little easier for me, though I sure had to work on my visualization techniques. But all in all, my mind became a cartoon land, where I played with images of how I would like my world to look like. Still, this too was only a piece of the puzzle.

Adding to this, I began the rounds of mantra's. Over and over I would recite to myself exactly how my world was, not what it seemed. This too was just another layer, but only a piece of the puzzle.

So, there I was, doing the best I could to control my thoughts and to visualize my perfect world. Even though I found my life improving, it sure wasn't the world I was seeing in my mind. It wasn't until I really understood why I was here on earth that things began to make more sense to me.

We all came from paradise didn't we? So, why would we do such a thing? Why would we come to an imperfect world from a prefect one? Because, we are all here in this imperfect world in order to know our perfect self's!

Have you heard the phrase, "Earth is a school of learning"? The reason for that is because, this is a world of contrast. A world of polar opposites to be exact. Without one, the other could not exist! So, fixing our world would be likened to removing the text books out of grade school and expecting to graduate college. There would be no way of reaching our potential without a guideline to getting there.

It was in that moment that I quit trying to fix anything! I began to realize that in order to "fix" my world I had to allow my world to show me what I wasn't, without the need to "fix" it! The more I focused on my True Self, the more my world reflected to me, everything that I was NOT! Do you see?

I began to empower myself by KNOWING that I was NOT this, or that! It was in those moments that I could see clearly who I AM, because of the contrast. When my bank account said I was "poor," I knew I wasn't poor, I AM a child of God! As soon as I moved away from trying to fix it, I pulled my attention away from what I was not and onto what I AM, until doing this caused a tipping point in which, by universal law, my life had to begin reflecting to me who I really am! It is law!

So, the next time you see or experience something in your world, that does not reflect what you wish to see or experience, remember who you really are and fix it by, moving away from the reflection of what you are NOT, and focus instead on who you really are! Then step back and watch as your world changes to reflect who you really are, without you having to fix a thing.

As a side note, I firmly believe that as each one of us does this in our own life, we will begin a momentum that will tip the scales collectively. Then there will once again be, Heaven on Earth.

Just loving you along,

Kathleen