The Power of Grief

The Power of Grief

The Buddha called suffering a holy truth, because our suffering has the capacity of showing us the path to liberation. Embrace your suffering and let it reveal to you the way to peace.

- Tich Nhat Hanh

I know down to the marrow of my bones that the way to emotional freedom lies in facing, embracing and going through the emotional suffering to get to the transformation on the other side. You will not grow until you face and release your fears, period. You can face your fears and grow in a proactive manner or you can wait until life smacks you down because you have avoided the problem until the resulting crises hits you square between the eyes; your choice.

The Tenderness of Silence

The Tenderness of Silence

The profound love that we have always shared continues to come to the forefront of our interactions more and more with each passing year. Instead of the inner noise of our fears and conflicts, there is now a silence in the space between us that is so tender and beautiful that I don’t have words for the quiet depth of love that I allow myself to experience in her presence.

   

The Meaning of Mindfulness

The Meaning of Mindfulness

“All suffering is either remembered or anticipated, never experienced in the present moment”   - Course in Miracles                        

You choose how to respond to life events. You ultimately have the power to choose even how you interpret situations, and if you practice, you can consciously choose how you think about something or how you feel about something based on your wisdom and inner knowing rather than allowing your ego-based fears to control this process. This skill takes practice, because most of us are used to allowing our unconscious programming from our past make these choices for us, but you do have a choice.

You Are Bigger than Your Difficulties

You Are Bigger than Your Difficulties

You are more than what is troubling you. A very real part of you exists beyond your worries, beyond your doubts, independent from the troubles and frustrations of the present moment. Step back and observe yourself as you experience each moment. Be present. Watch yourself think as you take action and as you experience emotions. Your body may experience pain, and yet the pain is not you. Your mind may encounter troubles and yet you are not those troubles.

You Are a Force of Nature

You Are a Force of Nature

I am talking about finding your pearl of great price, getting your priorities straight and going for what is most important in your life with everything you have. Maybe your dream is a big change in your job or relationships or maybe it’s simply learning to speak your truth and create healthy relationships where you are or have an inner shift and learn to be happy where you are now. When you look within and do a gut check, you already know what you want and you know where you are living your truth and where you are selling out on your dreams. Whatever it is, why settle for less and why allow toxic thoughts or situations to dominate your life simply because your fear says you should play it safe and settle for less?

Aligning With Your Source

Aligning With Your Source

Allah, Jesus, Buddha, the Force; Reality is what it is regardless of your perspective or interpretation. This is not about any particular material, spiritual or religious belief system, yet every religion has some version of the idea that you are made in God’s image; that the essence and the core of what it is to be human is Divine and this Divinity is the essence of your true nature and is at the center of your being.  Any belief system is only useful if it helps you to align with your Source but essentially this is not about some belief system; this is about having a direct experience of who you are, and living your life and making your daily decisions from this knowing. This power manifests in your life and everything works whenever you align with this Source.

Don't Let Your Fears Run Your Life

Don't Let Your Fears Run Your Life

You can face the fears in your life. When you face your internal fears, then the external issues that appear to be causing your problems will resolve. The fundamental truth here is that your inner reality out-pictures as your outer reality and when you overcome the fears within yourself, the demons of your life become the daemons of your inspiration and transformation. There is no magic to this. Simply put, your fears create the repeating patterns of problems in your life, and when you face your fears, then you learn to face your life problems in a new and more effective manner so that these issues are resolved.

Healing the Nation

Healing the Nation

Imagine our nation as a single entity or a single family. Any family or individual who would have the kind of contentious and difficult decision making process going on in their head that compares to the level of blame and criticism that goes on in our halls of power in Washington every day would have some serious mental health problems. Any individual who acted out the types of conflicts that happen between our leaders in Washington D.C. every day could be considered to have a diagnosable mental health disorder.

My Relationship with the Hoop

My Relationship with the Hoop

All suffering is either anticipated or remembered, but never experienced in the present moment. The more present you are in the now, the more your suffering disappears and the awareness of the presence of overwhelming love becomes more insistent, more alive and more real.  This love then begins to influence your every action, your every thought and your every emotion and you enter the flow more easily and more consistently until your life becomes an expression of the Divine.

My Friend Art

My Friend Art

When people don’t feel heard and understood, then their positions and their rhetoric get more extreme and they resort to bigotry and hatred. This is when people start demonizing the other side and are willing to lie, cheat and steal to get what they want because they believe the other side is evil. This right/wrong, black/white thinking is the problem and it happens in marriages, in friendships and between the different groups in our society. 

The Kitten

The Kitten

Even today, when I release my fears and become fully present in the current moment, this flow of the goodness of life experience energizes around me as I begin to move in harmony with my surroundings and meetings with people become more true and genuine, synchronistic “coincidences” occur to let me know I am aligned with my source, my connections with others becomes more profound and meaningful and challenges resolve and the things I am intending and working for in life materialize as if summoned by some mystic genie from a bottle.

The Choice point

The Choice point

As a society we are going through the unpredictability and volatility of puberty in our development as a culture. The vortex of our collective desire to make our nation better is getting stronger as we are waking up to a greater clarity as a people. While we may make many poor choices through the process, overall, citizens of our nation are developing a greater awareness of the issues, and as we collectively experience the consequences of our choices, we are driven to think more deeply about our decisions and we are becoming more mature and wiser through the process.

The Gift of Life Experience

The Gift of Life Experience

The teenager looked like he was about 15 years old and the gun was shaking in his hand as he held it high and pointed it at me and said, “Give me everything you’ve got!”

It was two months before we were getting married and Liz and I were returning home from a graduate school class we had together. I was putting my key in the front door of my house when Liz, tapped me on my shoulder to get my attention. When I turned around I saw this guy with a gun running across the lawn with his friends waiting in their car on the street. 

Emotional Intimacy and the Real Deal

Emotional Intimacy and the Real Deal

The bonds of love and trust you have with your family, friends and loved ones and your community is one of the most important things in life. It’s more important than fame, power, sex, money or anything else that most of us strive for in this life. Don’t get me wrong, I think money, fame, sex and all those things are great, however ultimately all that is just a cheap substitute for the real thing which is the connections of unconditional love with the people in your life.

My Dog Scout

My Dog Scout

About five years ago our dog went into heat as we were driving in our minivan with her across the country to visit family. Scout is an adorable small-breed half-pug, half-lab and she was six months old at the time.  The veterinarian had recommend Dramamine for car sickness and had assured us that she would most likely not go into heat any time soon. Well, about one hour out of Denver she went into heat, and the next few weeks we were buying doggie diapers, chasing Scout across parking lots through the mid-west, and trying all sorts of remedies to deal with the situation.

Synergy and Divine Intervention

Synergy and Divine Intervention

When I was in the 5th grade, my father quit a lucrative practice in orthopedic surgery to work full time at a neighborhood clinic for free. Then he left the clinic to work full time at our church, again for free.  At the time he had six kids and eventually a seventh on the way. His parents and his sister thought he and my mom were crazy but they looked at it differently. 

The Sacrifice

The Sacrifice

I was in an enormous torch-lit cavern surrounded by people all dressed in brown hooded robes. I was standing in front of a stone alter with my infant son laid out in front of me on the alter. We had always called him our “joy boy” because his happiness and vitality lit up our whole house.  I had a ceremonial knife in my hand and my mother-in-law was beside me telling me that I had to sacrifice my precious son. I asked her if there was any other way and she assured me I had to do this. Like God telling Abraham to sacrifice his son in the old biblical story, I was feeling such a profound grief and kept on asking if there was any other way and why I had to do this and I could not stop crying. 

The Kingdom of Heaven is Within

The Kingdom of Heaven is Within

My father shared that his great, great grandfather was one of the last confederate soldiers to walk out of the battle of Atlanta when it was burned to the ground in the civil war. He eventually walked back to his home in Pensacola Florida after the fighting. My father confided that the men folk said that my ancestor came back from the Civil War a war hero but the women folk said he came back a broken man. 

Giving Thanks for Everything

Giving Thanks for Everything

This past semester, my son had his heart broken when a girl he had fallen for decided she liked his friend better and started dating this other guy. Over the past few months he has gone through anger, hurt, denial and loss.  He came to me yesterday and told me he was learning to love unconditionally because he had finally come to the place where he wanted her to be happy, even if it was with someone else.