grace
Life Is In The Eyes Of The Beholder
What is the lens through which you view the world? When I close my eyes I see waterfalls, flowing streams, and flowers. This is the scenery surrounding me with my eyes open too. It tells me a story of life, of inner perception, and beauty.
The experience of life is what we make it, not because we are independently powerful controllers or causes of physical outcomes, but because we are eternally sentient beings with the gift of free will.
The spirit soul is a spark of consciousness, and we can express that consciousness through a variety of qualities. It is that inner flavor of our quality that then colors our experience and lens.
So, for example, when I see the water in the stream rolling around rocks and carving a curvy path through the land in front of me, I am reminded of a world that is gentle with feminine energy. She flows and nourishes and moves with consistent but soft determination.
I know that elsewhere there is also hard, jagged terrain and a state of mind that matches it. I can choose to match my mind to the beauty, diversity, and gentleness of spirit, or to the rigid harshness of a cold, hard, inert world of matter and might.
This choice presents itself at every step. Two people may suffer a similar loss in their lives, but process it completely differently. One might see it as an opportunity to grow and become more resilient, while the other might choose to feel angry and unfortunate. It depends on the lens through which we choose to view the world and our interactions with it.
Our circumstances also do not have to change for consciousness to change. When we change our inner consciousness and the lens through which we choose to view life, we change the experience.
Leave Some Space For Grace
When I read energy, it is shown to me in terms of the strength of that energy. In other words, the strength of the energy is directly tied to its manifestation here in the physical realm. As above, so below.
When we are angry or in conflict, we are often heavily invested in simply being right. And the more the argument evolves… the more virulent the energy becomes. This is never a hopeful, healthy precursor to manifesting better things in our life.
Fortunately, there is the powerful spiritual and emotional energy that love and forgiveness can also manifest in our lives, to counteract the impact of negative emotional energies.
A sister to the energies of love and forgiveness that is not always afforded equal honor, bit is equally powerful is the gift of grace. You may have heard of ‘grace under pressure?’ Essayist William Hazlitt defines grace as “the outward expression of the inward harmony of the soul.”
So, what is grace? Webster’s Dictionary defines grace as both a noun and a verb. Noun: unmerited favor, kindness undeserved. Verb: to confer dignity or honor on, or to add beauty to.
Grace is the ‘breath’ we take between anger and forgiveness. It is a choice to be silent, hold our tongue, and open the door for peace to enter into a challenging situation.
Angels naturally possess infinite grace, and many times the angels I work with have to remind me to hold my tongue, think before I speak, and simply be silent and listen to the person I am angry with. Being heard even if we are not understood is very validating. It says to the other person, “you are important to me, what you are feeling and thinking matters to me”. What you give you will receive.
The Spiritual Tidings Of The Ladybug
If you enjoy gardening or spend a lot of time outdoors, you are probably well-acquainted with ladybugs. These brave little members of the beetle insect family come in thousands of varieties and colors and are found all over the world.
In medieval Europe, these little beetles were associated with the Virgin Mary, because they helped protect farmers’ crops from pests. The ladybug eats aphids and other garden pests, while keeping flowers and plants healthy.
In other cultures, including Scandinavia, Japan, and India, ladybugs are associated with divine feminine energy, as well as forgiving ourselves and others, spiritual grace, and empathy. The cycle of death and rebirth, along with the ability to heal, are also symbolic trademarks of the humble ladybug.
But they are not just useful as nature’s pest controllers. They are also spiritual messengers.
It is said good fortune isn’t far away when a ladybug lands on you, and for good reason: their hard outer shells and bright colors make them among the toughest survivors in the insect world. And they do not only bring tidings of good luck, they are also good omens of protection and healing.
Next time you encounter a ladybug, count the number of spots you see on its shell. If there are a total of seven spots, or another prime number, it is considered especially lucky. Likewise, note the color. Ladybugs are often depicted as red with black spots, but they also come in various shades of yellow (joy, optimism, the sun) and orange (health, prosperity). Just like our fingerprints, no two ladybugs are the same.
Unlike some other insects, the ladybug can live comparatively long, up to two to three years, and they also hibernate like mammals. For this reason, ladybugs often show up in our lives when it is time for us to engage in greater self-care, or recover our physical and spiritual strength when life becomes overwhelming. When they fly on a warm summer breeze, imagine them taking some of your cares away.
Life Invites You To Dance
In the quietude of the morning, as the sun gently rises with a golden glow glistening through the trees, I feel a calm within reflecting the clear blue sky. The season is changing. The heavy heat and humidity of summer has dissolved into an idyllic balance of coolness, warmth, and lightness in the air.
It is a time of transition, moving toward autumn, but not fully there yet. For me, it is a season of revitalization and renewed inspiration. The vastness of nature expands all around and the interconnectedness of every soul within it reaches the forefront of my awareness.
Today, I will be intuitively teaching a dancing with nature class at the World Peace Sanctuary nearby. All of life is a dance with nature and its Creator. We are invited into that partnership and party of life, to move together in joy and harmony.
But how do we join the flow? It begins at the feet, at the root of the tree of life. In Srimad-Bhagavatam, the great celestial sage Narada instructs, “As pouring water on the root of a tree energizes the trunk, branches, twigs and everything else, and as supplying food to the stomach enlivens the senses and limbs of the body, simply worshiping the Supreme Personality of Godhead through devotional service automatically satisfies the demigods, who are parts of that Supreme Personality.”
Not only are angels, nature spirits, and demigods part of the tree, but so are we. Like leaves upon it, we are connected not only with the twigs, branches, and trunk, but with the root, the very source and sustenance of all life. By watering that root with our whole-hearted attention and intention, we are nourished, supplied, and satisfied.
But what does this mean practically? It means peace and growth rest not in pursuit of individual desires, but in harmony with and service to Divine desires. Endeavoring to serve separate interests is futile and unfulfilling, just as watering the leaves and limbs of a tree individually would be. They would dry up and die if simply watered separately. Continue reading
Honor Yourself With Unconditional Love
Dear loves, the message we bring to you today is about unconditional love. We want to help you know and understand more about this earthly concept of love, this love that you so desire and, indeed, richly deserve.
The first thing you need to know and accept about love is that love in action means freedom; freedom for you to be yourself, and freedom for the other person to be themselves. This is what true love really means. You must be able to allow that other soul to flourish, to fly, to be all that they can be.
Doing anything less than that is not love, it is entrapment. It is expectation. It is setting you up to be hurt and disappointed. We know that you are not used to this concept but some things are true, whether or not you believe them to be so.
Can anyone else be you? Can you be anybody else? The answer to both these questions is no. You were born into your body, which is your earthly vessel. Each body comes in different shapes and sizes, just as each soul inside that body has different needs and wants and dreams.
True unconditional love only comes once you accept yourself for who you are, in all your glory and your entire splendor. Another cannot honor you, if you are not honoring yourself. It may be what you have been taught throughout the years, but We are older than time itself and We tell you the way to achieve love is by setting yourself free to the Universe and the glories of that world.
Your Light, your own individual grace and purpose, can then start to glow, and the one whom is meant to enjoy that, the one whom speaks your language can then find you. For you have only just begun to live.
Seeing Yourself As You Truly Are
The art of ‘being seen’ begins within. It is not in the eyes, or heart, of an external beholder. It is the grace of being able to see oneself through the Divine Eyes of our Creator.
Every soul is unique. No two are the same. Each soul emanates from the Supreme Loving Source to offer its unique beauty and pleasure to God in an incomparable, individual way. When we look at ourselves through this lens, the true beauty, light, and power of the spiritual spark of our being shines upon our inner vision.
Relationships offer mirrors too. But what they show vary according to the quality of the reflecting surface. And what we see in them depends upon how well we know, see, and stand in the truth of our own higher self.
For example, if I look at myself in a broken mirror, do I see a crack in my face? I might…if I am not sure of who I am. However, if I know myself to be whole, I can readily recognize that the crack is in the mirror, and not in my face.
Similarly, there are relationships in life that reflect broken images back to us. That does not mean that we are broken, nor that the other person or people involved are broken either. We all have wounds and scars and other gaping holes yet to be healed, or not.
Whatever the case may be, it is the relationship itself that offers up the reflective element. It is the dynamic of exchange that shows itself as either clean, clear, balanced, cracked, smeared, skewed, and so on.
Knowing oneself in truth and wholeness is thus extremely valuable. If we do not possess such certainty of self, we may accept a broken or distorted impression projected by an ill-functioning relationship to be a reflection upon ourselves.
Reconnect And Recharge Your Soul
What a crazy place the world is right now! First wave, second wave, third wave. New virus, old virus, mutant virus. To be vaccinated, or not? Fear, chaos, anxiety. Misinformation, conflicting information, false information. What do we trust? Who do we turn to for guidance?
And the pandemic is not our only concern. Scientists are warning us that the polar ice caps are melting faster than they had anticipated, as global warming causes climate change. The oceans are drowning in our plastic waste and animal species are going extinct.
Whatever will be next? Will things ever get better, or will they get worse? Are we worse off than our ancestors? Where will it all end? How do we center ourselves in all the chaos and drama, and foster a sense of inner peace and faith amidst all the upheaval?
The one aspect of this world I completely trust is Mother Nature. The Earth Mother, Terra, Tellus. Our beloved Gaia. Like any other maternal energy, she continually finds a way to cope. She readjusts, heals and rejuvenates.
I believe the planet will find a way to heal, restore and recover. Our Earth Mother has the innate power to sustain herself, despite the assault and abuse by her thankless human offspring. Unlike us feeble humans, Mother Nature does not resort to hysterics, fear and panic.
I believe there is a divine understanding that at different times particular events and changes will unfold, as the world evolves its own destiny.
The other aspect of life that I have complete faith in is my soul, my spirit, my higher self, that remains steadfast within me regardless of what goes on in the outside world.