Mirror, mirror on the wall..................

If we need to have everything perfect, then deep down inside we 'feel' imperfect. Not always, but a good majority of the time we are all striving to obtain perfection in one way or another. It may be in our body, our earthly dwelling, or take form in a promotion at work. We spend countless hours and stress~filled minutes laboring to obtain this polished exterior, all the while giving no thought to our 'interior', our spirit-man. It reminds me of a scripture in the bible that speaks of 'whitewashed tombs', essentially stating that you look pretty on the outside but you stink to high-heaven on the inside. Sometimes, not always, all that we have accumulated externally represents what we truly lack internally ~ Self Love. Our egos are busy 24/7 working to assure that the facade stays intact and never shatters. Whenever we find ourselves looking outwardly to fulfill ourselves inwardly, we have run head on into our Ego. Our egos look into mirrors to see our reflection and usually find fault in the image. Our ego is voice in our head that is constantly chattering and whom is never satisfied. It wreaks havoc on our spirit-man and often runs our lives without our permission or our knowledge of its presence. We often think the voice in our heads is 'us' but it is not. You are the One who witnesses the voice ~ hears it. It only takes the knowledge of this fact and the presence of 'mind', which is not who you are, to realize this little nugget of truth. Too often, we get mesmerized by the image we see in the mirror. This reminds me of a character in Greek mythology named Narcissus, sound familiar? Narcissus was a hunter from the territory of Thespiae in Boeotia who was renowned for his beauty. He was exceptionally proud, in that he disdained those who loved him. Nemesis saw this and attracted Narcissus to a pool where he saw his own reflection in the waters and fell in love with it, not realizing it was merely an image. Unable to leave the beauty of his reflection, Narcissus died. I think the lesson herein is evident. When we live for our image, which is not who we really are, we become ~ an image~ Imaginary ~ Not real ~ Not authentic. Our journey here is to discover our authenticity ~ our right~ful selves. So, how do we get from here to there? We start by asking ourselves why? Why do I need this or that? Why am I doing this or that? Intentions are very important. We cannot disguise our intentions. For example, if you are doing a favor for a friend or relative to get accolades or attention instead of just doing a favor because you love and care about them, those intentions will come across one way or another. Have you ever encountered someone who pretended they liked you but the whole time they are staring you down, measuring you up, and you can feel their judgment? The truth is we live in a constant state of abundance. Abundance is all around us if we just look for it. When we live in a vacuum and become so engrossed in our 'image', we cut ourselves off from the life, the abundance, which surrounds us, and eventually we die spiritually. Remember, you are perfect just the way you are. The bible says in Jeremiah that you were fearfully and wonderfully made. Perfection is in your DNA. Go within ~ and you will never go without! Namaste'

"A Hit Dog is Gonna Bark!"

No one makes us angry. Oh I know, I have just stirred the pot and you are already preparing your rebuttal. Whether you agree with that statement or not, does not negate its truth. Anger, along with many other emotions comes from the inside out. You are now thinking, “Oh no he/she did this or that and it made me angry, and I will say to you, “He/she did do this or that and that action/words triggered an emotion, a pain within, that already existed. Have you ever heard the saying, “A hit dog is gonna bark.”? That old adage pretty much sums it up! Their actions or words triggered a fear=anger within you and you barked. You know how you will know this is true? Because when someone does something ‘wrong’ to you, if you are not on their same ‘emotional’ wavelength (pain-body) you will not re-act. When we re-act we are doing exactly what that word means; tendency to revert to a former state. We re-act in anger or fear (which are the same) when their arrow hits a place within us that is already wounded. It’s like bumping up against your dresser with the hip you just bruised roller-skating ~ not the same accident or perpetrator but you just got hit in the same wounded spot and yes, you will find yourself cussing out the furniture. Eckhart Tolle speaks of the ‘pain-body’ in his book ‘A New Earth’. The pain-body is ~ “Any negative emotion that is not fully faced and seen for what it is in the moment it arises does not completely dissolve. It leaves behind a remnant.” That remnant is what you are truly re-acting to when someone awakens those sleeping giants with misspoke words or indifferent actions. 98% of the time they did not mean to harm you but because of a past pain (pain-body) that was not dealt with you clobber them. I once wrote an email to a friend and at the end wrote the sentiment “Merry Christmas”. Well, this friend had converted to Judaism and though I meant no harm by that sentiment she took great offense and in return wrote to me a three page response, blasting everything from my hair color to my toes. Well, of course, this was not a ‘reasonable’ response to Merry Christmas but this was a person who was very damaged and angry and always fighting some battle against the devil. She had demons but they did not reside in a place called Hell. She was living in her ‘own’ hell. We often want to demonize our problems to some outside force so we do not have to take personal responsibility for our actions. My father-in-law had a favorite saying that he repeated to almost any situation we ‘kids’, as he would call us, would encounter and it was; “There are two important characteristics an individual must possess to succeed in life and they are #1 personal responsibility and #2 self-discipline. Basically, the only way out ~ is through. So the next time someone ‘offends’ you try not to re-act that old pain but acknowledge the hurt feelings you are presently experiencing and then try something new ~ Don’t Bark! Remember their actions are their karma but you re-actions are your Karma. You will know you have healed a ‘pain-body’ when someone does something that at one time would have sent you over the top but now has absolutely no effect on you. It takes a lot of work but it is possible. Our salvation can be found in our deepest darkest secrets but they have to be exposed and dealt with. Lastly, I will leave you with one of my favorite passages from the good book, “It is for each man to work out his own salvation.” No one is going to save us, and we wouldn’t really want them to would we? If they could, which they cannot, they would have robbed us of our heritage, the trip of a lifetime ~ The Journey ~ the finding of ourselves. Namaste’, God Bless & Shalom Baby! The Dalai Mama

The Butterfly Effect

"Everything connects to everything; therefore, as we change, the world cannot but change with us." ~ Marianne Williamson ~ Imagine a string tied around your waist. Now imagine that string connected to you, is also tied and connected to everything and everyone around you. Now imagine yourself making decisions and moving forward in the direction of those decisions. Remember, the string tied to you is conneted to everyting and everyone around you, and as you move they move, when you stop they stop. When you get tied in knots, emotionally,they are tied in knots. Everything we think, say or do affects everthing around us and beyond. You know it is said that the flutter of a butterfly's wings can affect the weather thousands of miles away. The vibration of her wings, although invisible, are felt across the world. Our thoughts are vibrations and therefore go far beyond our minds, out into our world and yes form everything around us and others. Haven't you ever been in the presence of another and 'felt' their judgment? Have you ever walked into a room where you could cut the 'tension' with a knife? There's your proof that our thoughts, whether good, bad or indifferent, affect everyone and every thing around us. You now may be thinking that I have placed a tremendous weight onto your shoulders or even a noose around your neck but the good news is ~ you CAN reverse, any negative thoughts you have been entertaining. How? One positive thought can wipe out a hundred negative thoughts! So just decide right now to think 'Happy' thoughts. In the middle of whatever you are going through the one thing you CAN control is your attitude. “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” ― Viktor E. Frankl ~ One road to a life filled with more positive thinking than negative thinking, or I as I like to say 'stinking thinking', is to start each day writing down ten or more things you are grateful to have in your life. Gratefulness IS the highest prayer. I know this sound simplistic but it actually works.

So, as you go through your day today ~ remember the strings attached ~ imagine the vibration of your thoughts, like radio waves going out into the world ~ and please be responsible for the energy you bring to each and everyone you encounter. Namaste'

"Be Ye transformed by the renewing of your minds." You know the only true lasting transformation is the one that takes place between your ears. Many of us, including myself, do everything in our power, including our regular visits with our 'dentist', to transform ourselves into the images we see on magazine covers. We spend endless hours and minutes in mirror-walled gyms, where flexing arms and stances abound, pushing our bodies to be transformed. There is a passage in the bible where Paul speaks of how physical training is of some value but your spiritual walk is much more valuable. With each year that passes these temples, these vehicles of the soul travail to whence they came. Our eyes wither, our lines become more defined, if we have hair it grows coarse and lighter and we start to crackle and pop in the most peculiar places. But you know, I love aging! I truly enjoy the wisdom that only comes with age. You can read all the books in the library about wisdom when you are twenty, but wisdom arrives in her own sweet time. You still have to 'work out' your mind by reading good stuff and learning new ways to handle old problems, which by the way are just blessings in disguise and lessons to be learned. By a certain age, you have made enough mistakes that hopefully you have learned from them and thereby obtained a tad of wisdom. For some reason, in my forties, everything I had been told about life and instructed to do, just didn't work for me anymore. As a woman, in my twenties ignorance was bliss, in my thirties I was too busy burping babies and changing smelly diapers to even know ignorance, bliss or wisdom. But in my forties, I had a brief moment of clarity, a hunger for more and so there I went ~ down the road less traveled and finally escaped 'the moor'. No this is not a typo. 'The Moor' refers to being held down, secured by chains or cables, trapped, or deserted in a wasteland. All my life, I longed for more but always retreated to 'the moor', that safe spot. So in my forties I left 'the moor' and set out on my journey. I read so many books that now I could open a book store. I studied Buddhism, read the Tao Te Ching and a plethora of other books on the topic of spirituality. In the end, this is what I know for certain; 1. No one is going to save you, for it is up to each man to 'work out' his own salvation. 2. All roads lead to Home. & 3. Love covers a multitude of 'wrong turns'.

The windows are down and the wind is in my hair.......

This last week I had some repairs done on my car to stop my AC from leaking water into a compartment located in the dashboard on the passenger's side of the car. I was so excited to get my car back but that excitement didn't last long because when I pushed the AC button and turned the fan on full blast I got nothing! After blurting out a few choice expletives, I decided to roll down the windows, as if I was in a 67' Chevy, and roll with the punches. As I put the windows down, the wind started blowing through this mane of mine, messing up those perfectly placed tossles of curls, and guess what........ it felt so good! I had forgotten how refreshing and freeing it was to feel the wind in my hair. I was making my way down Hwy. 24 to pick up the kids from school, the windows down and Stevie Nicks blaring 'Stop Draggin my Heart Around' on the radio and it took me back 20 some years ago, when I was driving my black Jeep Cherokee and doing pretty much the same thing ~ exnay the kid-days! So I pick Caedmon up first, then Summer & Tucker and when they all saw that the windows were down they all reacted in the same ~ Wow!!! This is gonna be so much fun!!! It brought a smile to my face to see them so happy about something so insignificant. As we drove down 24 they had their hands out the windows, their heads out the window, and yes we were rockin' to some 80's music, which by the way, my kids love ~ they get their good taste of all things 80's from their mama. Anyway, it just struck me ~ how kids find so much joy out of the littlest things. I also found that I started acting like a kid, putting my hand out of the window, smiling, laughing, singing, all the while looking more and more like Tina Turner performing 'Proud Mary'! I also got a front row seat and lesson of how a 'collective energy' can transform a person's mood and attitude. What at first seemed to be a big imposition turned, due to the innocence and wonderment of a child, into a beautiful fun-filled afternoon ride. One of my favorite quotes came to life right before my eyes, "When we change the way we look at things ~ the things we look at change" Dr. Wayne Dyer. In the end, these are the things that truly make us happy ~ the sun on our face, the laughter of a child, the smell of a puppy, a song in our heart and yes, the window down and the wind in our hair. Namaste' Baby!

When you are at the edge......Fall!

"We are an idea in the mind of God, and an idea does not leave its Source, so we cannot be seperated from God." Doesn't it blow your mind that God thought of you? You were not a random birth. You were created in the mind of God. He named you and then wrote your name on the palm of His hands. He has counted every hair on your head and collected every tear you have cried ~ That is how precious you are to Him. Re-member ~ It is a soul dance ~ our partner ~ our Father ~ waltzing 'our' way back home. When we stumble ~ we learn how to get up. When we fall off the cliff we learn how to fly. Re-member if you're afraid of stumbling you will never get to fall ~ thereby fly and oh I tell you, you don't want to miss that adventure, by the way, they are all adventures. So ~ stumble my child ~ skin your knees and elbows ~

let go ~ let God ~ and when you come to the edge of 'that cliff....Fall....

I am a window...................

This idea actually came to me misreading a comment someone had made about themselves. They had written 'I am a widow' and for some reason, I kept reading 'I am a window' which of course, got my mind a reeling. I finally read the analysis correctly but still could not get the imagined analysis of 'I am a window' off my mind, so as I often do, I find a piece of scrap paper on my less than organized desk, yes I know I am a Virgo and this messiness is so out of character for me, and I scribble down 'I am a window'. I pretend to go back to my 'work', which at the moment is as an agent for a prestigious insurance company, but my real life's 'work', which by the way isn't work to me at all and that's how you know what your calling is, kept beckoning me to once again dance the dance and pen my thoughts on paper, or this computer. Hmmm...... I pondered, "I am a window". The first thought that came to me originally when my eyes went crossed and I saw this statement instead of the other was, "We are ALL windows". Now I use to sell windows so I do know a little about the manufacturing side of this product. A window usually has a frame, panes of glass, gas in between those panes, insulation around the frame, grids for ascetics and of course locks and screens to keep pests out. We also have all of these attributes, they just look a little different. Our bodies are our frame, what carries our souls around in this world. Our eyes are the panes of glass that people can look through and really see us, for the eyes are 'the window to the soul'. Now the gas, hahaha! you've been waiting for that one haven't you? We all have gas!!! This is the invisible, protective insulation that we use to cushion us from the blows we have withstood in our lifetime and the imagined ones yet to come. Unfortunately, these invisible protective walls are like the clouds that block the sun, yes the sun is still shining but we cannot see its light or feel its warmth and it often dulls the panes but not the pain. We all carry excess baggage in one way or another and that is another form of insulation we have wrapped around ourselves much like the foam around the window frame. For some people, its excess weight and for others it may be that drink or two or three late at night. There are a plethora of 'insulators' too lenthy to mention too obvious to expand on, but when the window is shattered and all is exposed you will see the coping mechanisms all too clearly. Oh and the grids or should I say 'grills' that we decorate our windows with. Women are especially trained in this area. We dress everything up like a stained glass window, and oh isn't it pretty, but it only obscures the true image, the true self behind the vail. I am especially guilty of this! My close friends can tell you that I would put on make-up before going to lay out at the beach in my youth. Let's just say, I had a lot to cover up! But I can personally attest that no amount of make-up, lotion or perfume can take away the pain of lost innocence and neglect. For men their grids usually are materialistic ~ cars, houses, toys and of course beautiful women. Either way, neither is wrong or right, it is just what it is until......it isn't! Now to the locks and screens we install, throughout our life, on the windows to our soul. I can only speak from my own personal experiences, but I have in the past burn't many a bridge and locked many a window to keep 'pests' at bay, thinking the whole time, "Well, that settles that!" but it never did. You see, we create a theif when we lock our doors and windows. We truly have no enemies! Now, there are people, in our lives, that do behave badly but I truly have come to believe that they were placed there for our benefit. "God works ALL things for good for those who love HIM." God is love and if we love one another, even those that cause such deep pain, we love HIM and in the end he will give you beauty for ashes. Ashes are something that people in biblical times would rub all over their bodies when they were in mourning. Maybe our masks, our facades are our ashes. I have learned, evolved, over time to be a window ~ I am open ~ I let people and things in ~ I release people (forgiveness) and things (houses, cars, $$$) ~ I've learn to tilt, to bend to someone else's opinions & beliefs (respect), I kept the grids cause I just lik'em! (but now they are adornments not masks) ~ I'm still a little insulated but my husband loves that about me (he tells me only a dog wants a bone) ~ My hazel eyes are clearer than ever, not blocked by gas (fear, judgement, resentment) ~ And from a distance you can look at me and feel LOVE flowing out and in ~ I am a window. Namaste' Baby!

Are you the "Black Sheep" in your family?

I heard something yesterday that really blew my mind! I heard someone say that often the term "Black Sheep" of the family was misunderstood. I leaned forward with interest, being that I have often worn that label in my family. That person is usually described as different, difficult, and dramatic, but what this person said was, or should I say what was really going on is, this "Black Sheep" is usually the most intuitive and spiritual in the family. This person usually takes on all the emotion and dynamics of the family unit and thereby, of course, carries themselves a little different than others, probably because they are "carrying" alot of excess baggage from everyone else around them. This person may act out in their youth simply because they do not know how to process what they are feeling, but channeled in the right direction this person can grow ~ evolve ~ into a great spiritual teacher and because he/she has lived many lives through their own family dynamics they can relate to others on many different levels. Often, in youth, this person will try to conform simply because that is what we are taught (brainwashed) to do. In other words, you will get along alot 'easier' in this world if you are just like everyone else, but your not! You try it, but it often ends tragically. Hopefully as you age, you evolve, you get comfortable in your own skin and you realize, you are a beautiful Black Sheep. You are a rare gem. You will help many people because you will teach them to be fearless ~ step out of their comfort zone ~ and just BE. Namaste' Baby!

....speak of those 'things' that be not as if 'they' were.....The Bible

In this scripture, in the bible, the wisdom that is given has often been misconstrued by many teachers, preachers, interpreters and general laymen. When reading this verse many derive that it is telling you to 'speak' ~ give your focus ~ your attention ~ your energy to those 'things' that be NOT, but in all actuality what it is instructing you to do is speak the 'opposite' of the condition you are currently experiencing. By focusing on what you want is the ONLY way to bring 'that' into your life! You do not focus on what you DO NOT want because that is exactly what will come back to you. You also DO NOT speak of what you do not want in your life because there is power in the tongue. The bible states: "Out of the heart the mouth speaketh." & "Out of the heart come the issues of life." So what you think & speak are very important. 'You reap what you sow' and your thoughts & words ARE seeds. 'As a man thinketh so HE IS.' There is also a scripture in the bible that states; God rains on the just and the unjust. What that means to me is whatever I send out into the Universe ~ to God ~ negative (unjust) or positive (just) is what rains down on my head and into my life. So, everday I make two lists in my journal ~ the 1st one states everything I am grateful for and the 2nd one states EVERYTHING I want to attract into my life. Another verse in the bible in Habakkuk 2:2 states: "Then the Lord replied: Write the vision down and make it plan." I not only write the vision down but I also have a vision board in my office that I have placed my current goals, the things I want to attract into my life, so I can visually see the direction I want my life headed. I know I have shared on many occasions my belief and ritual of keeping a gratitude journal & vision board and most people read the words but do not take them to heart, but those fearless souls that have, are living the life of their dreams and accomplishing things that at one time, in their life, seemed impossible and all of these fires started from ONE spark ~ FAITH ~ for if you have it you can say to this mountain move from here to there and it will be done! Some of you might say, 'How do I get faith?' and I say, 'You practice gratitude!' What? You become grateful for what you have and then write down "I am grateful now that......." and you start seeing your dreams manifest & it truly builds your faith. You begin to 'think' anything is possible & guess what ~ YOU ARE RIGHT! We become what we meditate on everyday. So there you go..........I can only hope! Namaste', God Bless YOU, & Shalom, Aleece