obstacles
Maybe It’s Time To Dream Big Again!
The first week of a brand-new year is an opportune time for reflection on the past year, and an opportunity to visualize the upcoming year with fresh optimism and conviction.
For most of us, the past two years have been difficult and even overwhelming with various social restrictions, stress, political upheaval, illness, anxiety, fear, grief, financial loss. We endured a roller-coaster of events that made us hopeful yet kept us off-balance. Our lives and daily routines have been repeatedly disrupted.
However, in spite of the various set-backs, we made it. We showed courage, strength, perseverance and the ability to bounce back. We can now face 2022, trusting that we are slowly but surely heading in the right direction.
So, take a minute to pat yourself on the back. Reflect on some of the hurdles you overcame in 2020 and 2021, whether they involved financial strain, health challenges, family issues or unpredictable relationships. Regardless of the outcomes, you can rest assured that you did the best you could with what you knew at the time. We can take pride in the fact that, despite the constant setbacks and obstacles, we somehow figured things out and made it work. Job well done!
Now, let’s look to the future for the year 2022. Maybe it’s time to dare to dream big? Think of all the things you would like to accomplish over the next twelve months. What would joy, fulfillment and happiness look like for you?
Does it involve changes to be made regarding lifestyle choices, personal responsibility, or perhaps self-care? Might your happiness involve the mutual support of friends and family with group goals? Is a well-deserved vacation long overdue? Would taking a course, conducting some personal research, or working more efficiently improve your chances for a promotion or starting that new business?
Stop Blocking Yourself!
Have you ever felt like your life is just going nowhere, or you can’t connect emotionally to another person? At these times there is always one thing after another, and events in your life simply don’t seem to ‘gel’, or go right. Maybe you can’t get the job you want, or you are lonely.
There are so many barriers we have to deal with, but there is a way to overcome all of this. The best way to do it is by truly knowing yourself – through self-discovery – and by letting go of people and material things that hold you back.
So many times we invest so much wasted energy in people-pleasing. Instead of constantly trying to please others, we could use this time to live a happier life, with greater more spiritual awareness, which will in turn make us much more useful in our service to others. Instead we spend so much time thinking about things we may have done wrong, the wrong others have done to us and regretting what we could have done differently
When we try and reason about our mistakes it just leads to anguish, because we have a lack of faith – faith in God and in ourselves. But, if we go before the thrown of God and get on bended knees, we will find that inner peace, grace and forgiveness that so many people venture off to far of places, looking to find. That inner peace and joy is always there and available, we just have to look up!
Also, we are concerning ourselves too much with the things of the world, putting too much value on financial success and material possessions. These can become obstacles that keep us from connecting with those we love, or want to love. It is pure self-sabotage.
Reversing The Reversals
You’re moving at a breakneck pace and everything is going like gangbusters. Good health, great job, satisfying relationship. You just moved in with the person of your dreams and you’re banking some major coin that gives you many options in life. Travel, designer clothes, flashy car with all the latest bells and whistles. You’re the belle of the ball, the center of attention, feeling like Ms Scarlett O’Hara in Gone With The Wind.
Any problems you might have, like those recurring nightmares in which you’re being chased and can’t get away, you simply disregard. You’ll rather think about it tomorrow. Every morning you simply turn a blind eye and start another glorious day. Today is good, forget about last night. No time to see the truth in the rear view mirror.
And then a global pandemic hits. Suddenly the entire world is reversed and upside down. Everywhere people are dropping out and tuning into misery. You’re stuck at home with your new live-in partner who no longer looks so shiny, neither does the new car, even with all those bells and whistles.
You’re feeling shell-shocked, overwhelmed, scared. You feel like a trapped lab rat, waiting for an insidious disease to strike. Meanwhile you are getting a crash course in relationship 101, learning about all your partner’s peccadilloes, those annoying little quirks and habits you used to find so cute. Then the awesome job goes away, and you and lab rat partner are left to fight all the time. One of you needs to leave. But neither of you can go anywhere.
All you can do is go within. Sleep becomes a refuge, until those nasty nightmares become more of a reality to you than your waking life. And now you feel like a zombie; the dead version of your former vibrant self.
This is what’s called a reversal in life. Dramatic? Yes. Depressing? Absolutely. We all encounter it from time to time, the reversals, the spiritual contrasts. Sometimes not quite so dramatic, other times even more so.
The Power And Beauty Of Your Inner Divine Light
A friend recently asked me to help her hang a new chandelier. And reluctantly, I agreed to give up my treasured Sunday evening movie time to help with the project.
Arriving at her house, I found her with a very heavy box nearly five feet tall. At first, I could not fathom the actual size and shape of the chandelier hidden beneath the layers of packaging and thick pieces of unyielding plywood and cardboard.
I was surprised to eventually find what seemed like a chaotic mess of tangled wires affixed to hundreds of tiny quartz crystals. Could it be a warehouse or shipping mishap, I wondered?
I stepped back and took a deep breath, asking myself if I had maybe taken on more than can handle. But before I could speculate any further, my friend proceeded to life up the chandelier to allow each of the seemingly coiled wires to gently fall into place!
I was amazed at how something that appeared so entangled and messy one moment, could suddenly transform into this breathtaking spectacle of sparkling light. Then we added the large quartz stones for the ends to complete the fixture, and soon it was hanging in my friend’s dining room. And I stood back in awe of its magnificent beauty. I was speechless.
This experience reminded me of those times in life when everything seems to be upside down and off-kilter. Those unexpected situations that render us temporarily overwhelmed. I have no shame in admitting that I have succumbed to feeling somewhat defeated in moments like that.
But what I have also learned with the guidance of Spirit is there is always the opportunity in our lives to transform with just a little bit of courage and perseverance a seemingly messy dilemma into something positive and beautiful. No matter how difficult a situation might appear, there is always a silver lining. Continue reading
Love, Joy And The Pursuit Of Happiness
According to the United States Declaration of Independence “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” are the inalienable birthrights of every human being given to us by our Creator, God, Source, the Divine.
Sadly, I find very few people to be successful in their pursuit of happiness. The same is true for finding love and joy. It seems many are merely stumbling through life trying to find it.
A teacher once told me life is like school. For some of us it’s like kindergarten – easy, uncomplicated, and lots of fun. For others it’s like graduate school with lots of difficulties and challenges to overcome.
Searching for joy, love and happiness does seem to be a ‘wild goose chase’ for many people. It truly is like chasing wild animals. The faster we run after it, the more it seems to flee. I don’t believe joy, love and happiness can be found. Well, at least not in the ways that many of us are hoping to find it.
Like happiness, the right to love is also the natural inheritance of every person. The well-known channeled text, A Course in Miracles, delves into the idea of love from a spiritual perspective. It states that it is impossible to teach love. Instead, the goal should be to remove the blockages or obstacles we have to allowing love’s presence in our lives.
I have seen repeated evidence of this in doing readings for many years now. Certain reading themes are repetitive and common themes are ‘finding love,’ or the ‘lack of love,’ or ‘loss of love.’ In all these readings one thing always becomes very clear: love itself is not an ‘out there’ thing. It is also not something that can be received from another person or thing.
In readings, Spirit will often say, “Love is not a feeling.” This one initially took me a while to understand myself, until I realized that love is in fact an intrinsic quality of being. It is already within each of us. We refer to it as the Higher Self, the Soul, or the Spirit. No one is ever separated from this innate love because it is an intrinsic aspect of our very being.
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.
Ask Spirit To Guide Your Every Step
As babies we learned to walk on our own. We may have had some guidance and support from our parents or caregivers, to protect us from falling, but in the end we mastered it on our own. And once we learned to walk, we could in time advance to running, skipping, jumping, and so on.
Similarly, we must learn to make major life decisions for ourselves. We may receive guidance and support along the way from others, including Spirit, but in the end, we must master our life choices on our own.
One of the major challenges we all face in life is how we choose to manage stress and hardship in our life. Stress is a given. Setbacks happen. Overcoming adversity is part and parcel of our journey in this lifetime. No one can live an entirely peaceful and easy life of serene bliss, without dealing with some drama and chaos from time to time.
But we choose different ways to cope with the daily challenges of life. Some people choose to lead a healthy, uplifting lifestyle, as well as practice spirituality, while others sadly opt for destructive ways to ‘cope,’ such as substance abuse, various forms of addiction, and self-sabotaging behaviors, which only serves to make their troubles worse.
When it comes to spirituality, everyone must choose their own path. It is usually what works best for you personally that is ultimately the best way to go. But some choose to not have any belief system. One thing I have learned in this life is that spirituality is essential.
You don’t have to go it alone. There is a great force, a powerful presence known as God, Source, Universe, Spirit, the Divine that guides and protects us. All we must do is ask.
Another important life lesson I have learned is that no one can truly know what you are personally going through, except yourself. Others will have their ideas and opinions of who you are, and what you may be going through, but none of that really matters.