Monday, October 27, 2008
"Use Me God....."
"Use me God and show me how to take who I am and what I can do and use it for a purpose greater than myself."
Oprah Winfrey's mantra, since she was 14 years of age.
Move toward Desire...
"Take steps in the direction of your desires, not your fears."
The Storyteller (www.mostwondrous.com)
The Storyteller (www.mostwondrous.com)
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
"ARE YOU OPENING OR CLOSING?"
I spoke with my friend, Doriane, this morning and she spoke the perfect words to me:
Are you opening or closing?
These are words from Pema Chodron's book, 'Comfortable with Uncertainty' -- and the question could not be more perfect for these times.
If circumstances in your life are causing you to close or shut down or retreat, be willing to entertain a different way. Be willing to respond with curiosity instead of anxiety, with a sense of adventure rather than a retreat into status quo.
The journey now, in my own life, is to stay open, excited, delighted, willing, creative - to move towards what feels expansive and joyful not contracted and fearful. I am reminded of something one of my first teachers used to say, 'Oh Goodie, something gets to change!'
Blessings of Love Appreciation and Gratitude!
Christiane
Are you opening or closing?
These are words from Pema Chodron's book, 'Comfortable with Uncertainty' -- and the question could not be more perfect for these times.
If circumstances in your life are causing you to close or shut down or retreat, be willing to entertain a different way. Be willing to respond with curiosity instead of anxiety, with a sense of adventure rather than a retreat into status quo.
The journey now, in my own life, is to stay open, excited, delighted, willing, creative - to move towards what feels expansive and joyful not contracted and fearful. I am reminded of something one of my first teachers used to say, 'Oh Goodie, something gets to change!'
Blessings of Love Appreciation and Gratitude!
Christiane
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Something Overwhelmingly Evolutionary Is Afoot Rendering The Old Irrelevant!
I feel so strongly that what is 'falling apart' in our world is the natural consequence of something overwhelmingly evolutionary. Something that is calling us to cease our reliance on the irrelevant and the unreal. To drop the old consciousness of fear that drove us into separation from our true natures and separation from each other. The impulse is clear: drop what blocks you from revealing more Light and more Love, connecting with others, and acting from your heart.
This all came to me as a result of running out of makeup. Yes, makeup. Irrelevant, right? I have been running out of makeup for weeks now. In the past, I would have rushed out and replenished my supply. Because I had to maintain my look and be pretty. But over the last few weeks, it has felt entirely unimportant. Entirely irrelevant to the greater impulse for change that is afoot in me and in the world.
Yesterday, as I contemplated meeting my friend at a restaurant near the water, I realized I would have to go naked. I scrounged for a little lipstick - but that was it. Oh, oh, I thought. Then I thought...oh, goodie, I get to experience what is real, and true, and basic. I get to be with my friend -- a truly important and valuable experience. I get to put what I look like on the back burner. I get to experience and appreciate my friend. And there's a lot to appreciate. She's a beautiful, thoughtful, original soul. I get to appreciate that I have my car and that it has gas in it and that I have my health and it's a beautiful day.
My friend never misses a trick. She commented on my lack of makeup, and I said, yup, I am not wearing any. No excuses, no apology. She couldn't get over how Light seemed to be pouring out of my skin, shining out of my face. She grabbed her digital camera and started to take pictures. The sun was setting and the Light was shining through the windows. I could feel it on my cheeks. But I knew there was something more. She showed me the images. You don't even look like yourself, she said. Yup, I would have to agree. I didn't look like the self I had been attached to looking like -- but there was something more going on. In my face, I could see my mother's face -- and the fear she carried all her life. It was spilling out of me. The fear imprinted in her from the Depression, the fear of never having enough, the fear of not being good enough - no matter how accomplished she was, no matter how good her life had become. I saw all that in my face -- revealed in the Light. All the fear I had inherited from her- of not being or doing or having enough was leaving me. I realized I could let go of my reliance on all those structures, all those 'things' that kept those old beliefs in place.
As I sat there, the words of Unity Minister, Charles Fillmore came to me: "Desire...is the onward impulse of the ever-evolving soul." He wrote those words in the 1930's, I believe, during another time of vast change.
When I see these times through the lens of desire and the evolutionary soul, I see something profoundly exciting at play. We have been calling for this, haven't we? We have been calling for Oneness, community, cooperation, togetherness, an end to the illusion of separation, struggle and lack. Ask and ye shall receive. And to receive, we must change and grow. We must grow ourselves to be able to receive the changes -- the very changes we have called for. God's desire is for us to grow, to always grow. To remain static is to die. To become fully who we are here to become requires us to grow and change and let go of the old. And change comes with the appearance of loss. But what is lost is always replaced with something better. As Joseph Campbell reminds us, 'You cannot make an omelet without breaking eggs.'
I am being grown - every day now- beyond the ways I have isolated and insulated, judged myself or others, felt not good enough. It isn't comfortable and it isn't easy. I see my resistance. My desire to hold on to the way things have been. I know I am being catapulted beyond my old story. I know I am being coaxed to give up my reliance on the consciousness of 'what I can't live without'. Beyond needing to know the outcome. I am being asked to grow beyond my fears, and actually render fear irrelevant.
The waves of change are washing me clean of my past. Are you feeling this too? Can you relate to this impulse for change, growth and becoming?
You can go kicking and screaming into this good night -- or you can meet it with a sense of profound curiosity, reverence, adventure, and awe. Who am I? What am I being asked to become? Who did I come here to be? What is being called out of me to create? How am I meant to contribute? How can I play more? How can I express more love, appreciation and gratitude? How can I experience more abundance? Where am I being guided? How can I bring myself and the world more joy? How may I serve at the highest level possible? What now? What's next?
All I can say is: Let go and let's go!
Onward!
This all came to me as a result of running out of makeup. Yes, makeup. Irrelevant, right? I have been running out of makeup for weeks now. In the past, I would have rushed out and replenished my supply. Because I had to maintain my look and be pretty. But over the last few weeks, it has felt entirely unimportant. Entirely irrelevant to the greater impulse for change that is afoot in me and in the world.
Yesterday, as I contemplated meeting my friend at a restaurant near the water, I realized I would have to go naked. I scrounged for a little lipstick - but that was it. Oh, oh, I thought. Then I thought...oh, goodie, I get to experience what is real, and true, and basic. I get to be with my friend -- a truly important and valuable experience. I get to put what I look like on the back burner. I get to experience and appreciate my friend. And there's a lot to appreciate. She's a beautiful, thoughtful, original soul. I get to appreciate that I have my car and that it has gas in it and that I have my health and it's a beautiful day.
My friend never misses a trick. She commented on my lack of makeup, and I said, yup, I am not wearing any. No excuses, no apology. She couldn't get over how Light seemed to be pouring out of my skin, shining out of my face. She grabbed her digital camera and started to take pictures. The sun was setting and the Light was shining through the windows. I could feel it on my cheeks. But I knew there was something more. She showed me the images. You don't even look like yourself, she said. Yup, I would have to agree. I didn't look like the self I had been attached to looking like -- but there was something more going on. In my face, I could see my mother's face -- and the fear she carried all her life. It was spilling out of me. The fear imprinted in her from the Depression, the fear of never having enough, the fear of not being good enough - no matter how accomplished she was, no matter how good her life had become. I saw all that in my face -- revealed in the Light. All the fear I had inherited from her- of not being or doing or having enough was leaving me. I realized I could let go of my reliance on all those structures, all those 'things' that kept those old beliefs in place.
As I sat there, the words of Unity Minister, Charles Fillmore came to me: "Desire...is the onward impulse of the ever-evolving soul." He wrote those words in the 1930's, I believe, during another time of vast change.
When I see these times through the lens of desire and the evolutionary soul, I see something profoundly exciting at play. We have been calling for this, haven't we? We have been calling for Oneness, community, cooperation, togetherness, an end to the illusion of separation, struggle and lack. Ask and ye shall receive. And to receive, we must change and grow. We must grow ourselves to be able to receive the changes -- the very changes we have called for. God's desire is for us to grow, to always grow. To remain static is to die. To become fully who we are here to become requires us to grow and change and let go of the old. And change comes with the appearance of loss. But what is lost is always replaced with something better. As Joseph Campbell reminds us, 'You cannot make an omelet without breaking eggs.'
I am being grown - every day now- beyond the ways I have isolated and insulated, judged myself or others, felt not good enough. It isn't comfortable and it isn't easy. I see my resistance. My desire to hold on to the way things have been. I know I am being catapulted beyond my old story. I know I am being coaxed to give up my reliance on the consciousness of 'what I can't live without'. Beyond needing to know the outcome. I am being asked to grow beyond my fears, and actually render fear irrelevant.
The waves of change are washing me clean of my past. Are you feeling this too? Can you relate to this impulse for change, growth and becoming?
You can go kicking and screaming into this good night -- or you can meet it with a sense of profound curiosity, reverence, adventure, and awe. Who am I? What am I being asked to become? Who did I come here to be? What is being called out of me to create? How am I meant to contribute? How can I play more? How can I express more love, appreciation and gratitude? How can I experience more abundance? Where am I being guided? How can I bring myself and the world more joy? How may I serve at the highest level possible? What now? What's next?
All I can say is: Let go and let's go!
Onward!
Monday, October 13, 2008
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Harriet Tubman and The Liberators of Light!
"Liberate The Light" was the theme of a Sunday 'Sacred Sharing' Gathering I held in Santa Monica in April of this year. As we finished a prayer blessing, a member of my Circle walked in with an unexpected guest under her arm -- a Bible from Abolitionist times, reputed to have travelled with Harriet Tubman's Underground Railroad.
Harriet Tubman was a runaway slave from Maryland, 'The Moses of her people', a bold, courageous, fearless icon of liberty, freedom and justice, a woman who risked her life time and time again to free slaves and bring them to safe sanctuary in the free states and Canada. The journey she made was along 'The Underground Railroad' -- code for a secret network of 'safe houses', tunnels, roads and people, both black and white, that helped slaves to freedom.
We sat in a Circle -- the 5 of us - three women, two men.Two of us were African American, three of us were white. I was awed by God in that moment. Here we were about to begin sharing about our journey to liberate more Light in our lives by dropping old fears and forgiving old beliefs and in walks my friend with the Bible. My friend had not received the email about the gathering and did not know our theme. But here we were focused on liberating more Light and in she walked with a Bible that was reputed to have travelled that ancient road to freedom.
The Bible had been found in a garage sale many years before in Virginia by a wealthy family that had recognized its value. My friend had formed a friendship with the owner of the Bible and told me about it. I was intrigued. I had always felt a great connection to the Abolitionist period -- I don't know why. Maybe just because my father spoke with admiration of John Brown, the famous white abolitionist who was a rebel and whose life and death was dedicated to the fight to abolish slavery in the South.
We set the Bible down on a small table in the middle of our Circle. It was old and weathered with beautiful lithographs of Jesus and the angels. John, one of the regular members of our Circle opened the Bible to John 8:32: Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.
The irony was not lost on us. This Bible definitely had a presence, a voice and a message.
As I stared at it, I heard these words: There are many great ones that have come before you, who have suffered far greater adversities, unspeakable tragedies. This moment - now - is your opportunity to free yourselves of the fear, divisiveness, separation, racism that wreaked havoc in our lives, stripped us of our humanity, rent our souls.
When I think about why it came to our gathering -- why that morning and why to our Circle....I don't know that I have any answer that feels right- even all these months later. It certainly reminded us all of what once had been, how so many had suffered at the hands of ignorance and fear --and what still remained to be acknowledged, forgiven, healed. The Bible's arrival was telling us it seemed that there was still work to be done -- and that we had to do it together. Black and white, Irish, Scottish, French Canadian, Jewish, German, Christian, Muslim, Catholic, Episcopalian, Lutheran,Buddhist. We were all on this road together. The way it was meant to be.
Harriet Tubman was a runaway slave from Maryland, 'The Moses of her people', a bold, courageous, fearless icon of liberty, freedom and justice, a woman who risked her life time and time again to free slaves and bring them to safe sanctuary in the free states and Canada. The journey she made was along 'The Underground Railroad' -- code for a secret network of 'safe houses', tunnels, roads and people, both black and white, that helped slaves to freedom.
We sat in a Circle -- the 5 of us - three women, two men.Two of us were African American, three of us were white. I was awed by God in that moment. Here we were about to begin sharing about our journey to liberate more Light in our lives by dropping old fears and forgiving old beliefs and in walks my friend with the Bible. My friend had not received the email about the gathering and did not know our theme. But here we were focused on liberating more Light and in she walked with a Bible that was reputed to have travelled that ancient road to freedom.
The Bible had been found in a garage sale many years before in Virginia by a wealthy family that had recognized its value. My friend had formed a friendship with the owner of the Bible and told me about it. I was intrigued. I had always felt a great connection to the Abolitionist period -- I don't know why. Maybe just because my father spoke with admiration of John Brown, the famous white abolitionist who was a rebel and whose life and death was dedicated to the fight to abolish slavery in the South.
We set the Bible down on a small table in the middle of our Circle. It was old and weathered with beautiful lithographs of Jesus and the angels. John, one of the regular members of our Circle opened the Bible to John 8:32: Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.
The irony was not lost on us. This Bible definitely had a presence, a voice and a message.
As I stared at it, I heard these words: There are many great ones that have come before you, who have suffered far greater adversities, unspeakable tragedies. This moment - now - is your opportunity to free yourselves of the fear, divisiveness, separation, racism that wreaked havoc in our lives, stripped us of our humanity, rent our souls.
When I think about why it came to our gathering -- why that morning and why to our Circle....I don't know that I have any answer that feels right- even all these months later. It certainly reminded us all of what once had been, how so many had suffered at the hands of ignorance and fear --and what still remained to be acknowledged, forgiven, healed. The Bible's arrival was telling us it seemed that there was still work to be done -- and that we had to do it together. Black and white, Irish, Scottish, French Canadian, Jewish, German, Christian, Muslim, Catholic, Episcopalian, Lutheran,Buddhist. We were all on this road together. The way it was meant to be.
Saturday, October 4, 2008
The Cosmic Ahhhhh of Creation
In a CD called 'Meditations on Manifesting', Dr Wayne Dyer shares how in the Hindu tradition of Siddhi consciousness the sound of 'AH' is the sound of creation. It is the sound found in the names of many mystical deities and traditions - Allah, Buddha, Krishna, Ra, Kali, Shiva (Kaballah, Merkaba, I might add) and of course, God. Ahhh is the sound of joy, the sound of the heart gloriously pleased. Dyer teaches that there is a channel of energy in the body between your root chakra and your third eye and recommends doing a morning meditation in which you breathe and speak the sound 'Ah' from your root chakra up through your third eye .....as you visualize your heart's desires in motion, by the power of intention, towards you. I was guided to resume this practice about a week ago and as I began doing it again, I felt a profound peace.
A few days later at the end of my yoga class as we sat in meditative silence, a word floated up from the stillness inside me to the surface of my consciousness: Obama.
I spoke Obama's name silently, once, twice. On the third time, something guided me to emphasize the deep 'a' of the last vowel. Obamahhhhhh....
As I did so, I felt this gorgeous peace settle over me, this feeling of utter calm and complete certainty, serenity, abundance and joyful unity with the moment.
I left class feeling elated, exhilarated, expectant. As I got to the parking lot, next to my car was a van painted with a wild swirl of happy colors and the words: Lifeisgood.com.
Ahhhhh....I smiled with complete delight. Thank you. Thank you. It was as though God had given me a playful reminder, an affirmation of the truth -- that when we slow down, relax, allow that possibly, just possibly, all is well, no matter how things look, choose peace, focus on what we can be grateful for, and launch our heart's desires into the cosmos through intention and the cosmic 'ahhhhh' of creation, the return is immediate and unequivocal. Life is good. Life is good. Life is good.
Ahhhhhhhhhhmen.
*****
@copyright Christiane Schull 2008
A few days later at the end of my yoga class as we sat in meditative silence, a word floated up from the stillness inside me to the surface of my consciousness: Obama.
I spoke Obama's name silently, once, twice. On the third time, something guided me to emphasize the deep 'a' of the last vowel. Obamahhhhhh....
As I did so, I felt this gorgeous peace settle over me, this feeling of utter calm and complete certainty, serenity, abundance and joyful unity with the moment.
I left class feeling elated, exhilarated, expectant. As I got to the parking lot, next to my car was a van painted with a wild swirl of happy colors and the words: Lifeisgood.com.
Ahhhhh....I smiled with complete delight. Thank you. Thank you. It was as though God had given me a playful reminder, an affirmation of the truth -- that when we slow down, relax, allow that possibly, just possibly, all is well, no matter how things look, choose peace, focus on what we can be grateful for, and launch our heart's desires into the cosmos through intention and the cosmic 'ahhhhh' of creation, the return is immediate and unequivocal. Life is good. Life is good. Life is good.
Ahhhhhhhhhhmen.
*****
@copyright Christiane Schull 2008
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