life purpose
Bittersweet Is The Fall
Bittersweet is the fall in Maine. Literally. We have a vine here known as the ‘asiatic bittersweet’ (celastrus orbiculatus) that produces attractive red berries. They are yellow at first, but as they mature the outer shell cracks open to expose a magnificent crimson berry with a yellow coat.
Crafters here in New England traditionally use this vine to make holiday wreaths and decorate their homes. It also adorns the roads of Maine with the combination of fall leaves and green of pine trees.
But the bittersweet vine does its name justice in both sweet beauty and bitterness, life and death, because it is not only adored for its versatility as autumn décor this time of year, but it is also widespread, severely invasive and destructive. It suffocatingly twines high up around trees and sprawls over lower plants and vegetation.
It is not a native plant to the region and was originally brought here as an ornamental plant. As the vine begins to spread and grow to the top of trees it becomes the vine of death for the tree as it covers it completely. A bitter vine.
The fall is indeed a bittersweet time of the year. The natural cycle of life and death. The bittersweet time of year is the time to harvest food for the long winter ahead. Get our homes ready for the snow, darkness, and ice of winter.
In Maine the old timers say ‘button up the house’ for winter. The sweet part is people are thinking of the holidays ahead and gatherings with family and friends. There are traditional recipes. Who will make the best pie? Everyone has a favorite. Whose gravy is the most delicious? It’s a time of gratitude for everything that is good in life.
The World Is A Metaphor For Human Consciousness
The natural world around us reflects the internal evolutionary patterns of human consciousness. Seasons are a good reflection of how we as humans evolve and grow at the level of consciousness. The closer you get to the poles the climates are often cold and rigid. These climates do not support a large variety of life.
We see something similar taking place within the human mind. The more polarized and rigid someone becomes in their thinking patterns the less variety and the less diversity of life experiences take place. We can have very rigid patterns of thinking, which tend to leave us cold and static in our experiences.
As we move more toward the center of our globe, we see more diversity of life. We also begin to see seasonal changes taking place on a more regular basis. There are seasons where trees lose their leaves, animals hibernate, and activity slows down. In consciousness this could symbolize a person that is beginning to expand their consciousness. Someone willing to change and grow.
This level of consciousness that northern and southern regions represent easier it is for someone to accept the ebb and flow of life. An acceptance of both the light and the dark can emerge at this stage and people become more aware of their emotions.
The closer to the center someone gets within consciousness the more diversity and love they experience. They are not focused on polarity at all, but instead accept life as it comes. This often includes acceptance of the storms in life that are produced by the overall polarized climate.
The Spiritual Calling Of Animal Rescue
I have always felt that I have two life callings: my work and taking care of rescue animals. And I aim to do both to the best of my ability.
A neighbor stopped me today as I was walking my dogs. This often happens when I am out with them. He asked me why I chose to walk the dogs, while I have a large plot of land for them to freely roam.
Well, they do run around on the property, at least the two younger ones do, but the pleasure of walking them is immeasurable. It is a true joy to see them relishing in the unfamiliar smells and the intriguing creatures they encounter in the countryside. They even made friends with a nearby farm’s goats and another neighbor’s cat.
I also enjoy the lovely countryside around me, which I will be less likely to experience on my own had it not been for the reminding me every day that it is time to go ‘walkies.’ Apart from the obvious exercise being advantageous for my health and well-being, it is also a sort of a meditative process and spiritual practice, because I am required to be very present in the moment.
One of my dogs is a warren hound, known in Spanish as a podenco. They are a Mediterranean rabbit-hunting dog breed. So, she’s a hunting dog and if she suddenly makes a dash to chase something, she could easily catch me off guard and pull me over. I can therefore no afford to be distracted or preoccupied. Instead, I must mindful and aware, which is very beneficial for my inner peace and spiritual alignment.
My dogs and cats are all rescues, some from unthinkably harsh backgrounds. Looking after them has involved a lot of care and veterinary visits, including many specialist observations and surgeries. When you take rescues into your home, they tend to come with much fear and many insecurities, which takes patience and unconditional love.
Two large rescue dogs, that have since departed this life to cross over the rainbow-bridge, wouldn’t allow me to touch them and refused to come inside the house. I provided them adequate shelter outside, but it still bothered me, because the winters can be harsh here in Spain.
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
When My Guides Would No Longer Guide Me
Like most people, I have faced my own share of difficulties and life challenges. In fact, there was a very challenging period in my life that lasted about 15 years.
I remember in those days asking my guides for support and guidance. I was in desperate need of finding a path out of the chaos caused by a strange series of events in my life. I was praying, humbly requesting divine intervention.
Nothing. Silence.
In the past I had always received feedback from my guides. I have even had magical messages and miraculous signs proving without a shadow of doubt that God and my spirit guides exist.
One time, I was dealing with a very toxic employee, who was spreading nasty rumors about me and my business. I was at my wits end with stress and frustration. On my way back home from my office, a negligent driver unintentionally pulled their car right in front of me on the freeway, almost forcing me off the road! Fortunately, I swerved just in time. After I recovered from my initial shock, I noticed the license plate frame said: Happiness Is Loving Satya.
That same day, my electronic garage door was not working for some reason, so I had to enter the house through the front door, which I never did. I found a tree service business card left on the porch. The tree service owner was once again my namesake. An unusual name for man.
I’ve had hundreds such magical, confirming moments. I have even been told I would receive tangible gifts from my guide, and I did receive those gifts.
But now, during the most difficult, confusing, terrifying time in my life, there was nothing. Nothing. Silence. Why aren’t you responding, I asked. Are you still here with me? Have you abandoned me? Why is this happening?
There Is Only One Path To True Love
There is only one way to experience love, joy, and peace and that is in the now. Too often we have most of our mental energy focused on our future happiness. These thoughts conjure up ideas and imaginings about some future reality we are yet to experience, believing that a certain future event, experience or outcome will finally ‘make us happy.’
There is a real problem with this line of thinking, because there is actually no way to ‘arrive’ at a future happiness. Even if specific ‘happy events’ do occur someday in our future, the happiness derived from these events will always be short lived. It will be a temporary excitement or euphoria, not lasting happiness.
The truth is we always carry our consciousness with us everywhere we go in life and the state of our everyday consciousness is our only sustained experience than will be able to count on in a future reality.
Many spiritual wisdom traditions talk about the past and the future as being an illusion, because the only moment that is real is the present moment. All the love, joy, and peace that anyone can possibly experience in their lifetime all happens in the current moment.
The never-ending search for ‘somewhere out there’ happiness is also fruitless because the experience of happiness can only happen within and in the here and now, and not somewhere out there. Love, joy and happiness are internal experiences.
There is no external place out there in the Universe where you can find a secret fountain of love, joy or happiness. You will not be able to seek it out and fill up a bucket with these feelings, because the actual fountain is within. Continue reading
Honor Your Goals And Dreams
Sometimes the goals and dreams we aspire to remain dormant, because it may seem daunting, challenging, or even impossible. But these ambitions deserve their rightful place in our lives. There is certainly no shame in dreaming big, but there is potentially much disappointment in giving up on one’s goals and dreams too easily.
Several modern technologies, such as motion pictures, sound recording, alkaline batteries, the telephone and the electric light bulb, that we take for granted today were once deemed impossible, until Thomas Edison defied all odds and made scientific research the focus of his life.
At just 12 years old, Edison lost hearing in one ear and was nearly deaf in the other ear, but instead of feeling defeated he used this traumatic loss to increase instead his ability to focus. From a tragedy emerged an uncanny gift for unrelenting concentration for hours at a time without distraction.
Edison subsequently honored his dreams and transformed our world with many great inventions that have impacted out lives exponentially. His industrial research lab was established in 1876 and was one of the first laboratories that welcomed teams of scientists and inventors to participate in the process of invention.
The world as we know it today would not exist without the many contributions of Edison and his teams of fellow scientists and researchers. These individuals were true mavericks who honored their goals and dreams. Their unyielding focus drove them to uncover many scientific complexities. By honoring their vision, they harnessed the power of nature to bring light to the world, and so much more.