The Union of Fire and Water

Have you ever stood at the ocean’s edge watching the sun rise or set?  This is a beautiful opportunity for a visual metaphor of fire in union with water.  Each day these two elements dance their exquisite dance; at sunrise the water seems to birth the fire’s offering of passion, purification, warmth and light and at sunset the male/fire merges into the female/water in union with the divine cycle of  nature’s turning.  The mirror of creation and manifestation reflects back to us humans an image we can claim as our own.  Daily we are reminded of an internal  union that can  guide and catalyze us through our life’s journey.  Every moment we are present with this union we bring ourselves into a universal harmony and balance that creates an inner connection to wholeness rather than separation.  Nature’s constant turnings, sunrise to sunset to sunrise, season to season, new moon to full moon to new moon, and so on are external images of ourselves and the same cosmic journey all existence shares.

Today if possible go put your feet in a nearby body of water at sunset and sunrise or IMAGINE yourself there and breathe in the fire from above and water from below meeting in union as liquid lava flowing through your veins, arteries organs, systems and meridians with every exhale.  Let each breath guide you into experiencing this sacred union that calls you back to the oneness of your own being and all life.  Let your body and soul radiate this union.

Lava flows like a river to the ocean where the union forms new land mass                                                                                      Fire and Water creating a new foundation to ground a new moment, new growth, new possibilities.

Let Your Light Shine

In the construct of time December 31st is designated as the gateway into a new year.  Here we are again with the opportunity to birth ourselves anew.  The birthing energies seem to build at the Winter Solstice as if we have entered the birth canal.  The contractions begin and intensify the closer we get to our collective “birth” day of January 1, 2010.  The cosmic energies have added a super punch to the process this year with a full moon lunar eclipse in the 10th(a number signifying new beginnings) year of this millenium.

I am reminded today of the birth of my fourth child, a Scorpio, who came into this world after a very long and intense labor, with the doctor doing a version of the Heimlich Maneuver on my belly; an urgent, forced birthing in a life or death situation defying all resistance and demanding the moment to be now!  Such an experience readied me for these times it would seem.  No more messing about.  If we are to birth a new world that is healthy, at peace and an expression of loving kindness then each of us must birth that for ourselves NOW.  No more procrastinating with new years resolutions but rather simply with each breath embrace, live and breathe those qualities into the collective oneness of being.  However that plays out with each one of us is unique to the individual.  It is the energy that must be aligned, the intent in synch. Open your heart and imagine/intend each breath you take as  one cosmic breath taken by the entire Universe, over and over and over again….and, so it is!

The Stillness of Time

Time is a man made structure that offers benefits and challenges.  It frames how we move in the world, see the progression of existance and function year to year, month to month, day to day, hour to hour, minute to minute.  The masculine within us all looks to these borders to keep us on track with all the doing and activity of being human.  To move into the stillness of time is to embrace TIMING as our natural clock and impetus to move on down the river of life.  This is the feminine realm of awareness that allows and trust the water’s knowing.  In the ocean of consciousness embodied there is an internal beacon of light that aids us in traveling through even the darkest experiences.  When we can trust the perfection of timing, surrender to the energy of such movement, we are free to be fully present in whatever shows up along the way.  Efforting, trying, forcing, resisting, and so on can be released in an out breath as we take in, breathe in, the gentleness of timing that is spacious, alive, spontaneous, and full of surprises and creativity we might never have considered.  It is a heart space that opens to infinitely more support and energy, peace and laughter, insight and ideas.  The struggle is eliminated and the moment comes alive with possibilities. 

Just Breathe

Click on this video from Gilles Chamoraire  for a lovely way to start and end your day and

Just Breathe……………………….

Simple Reminder

My thoughts drifted to Don Luis Ruiz this morning and his very simple yet profound guidance of The Four Agreements.  To paraphrase:

BE IMPECCABLE WITH YOUR WORD…Integrity and truth are keys to walking through all of life’s doorways….to be honest with yourself and others allows for a clear openness and trust to radiate from the core of your being in relationship to all sentient beings.

LET GO OF ALL ASSUMPTIONS…projecting what we think someone is thinking about us or anything is a waste of energy and dams up the river of each moment; we can never truly know what motivates someone in their intricate universe.  If you want to assume anything; assume everyone’s presentation of self is just the perfect gift for the whole.

LET GO OF TAKING ANYTHING PERSONALLY…the only thing that is personal is if you have a reaction to an experience or person.  Take it in as your own and claim the out-picture as a reflection of yourself that is getting your attention.  Look deeper into the reaction to discover where there is a match within.  For example, if you are feeling abandoned and betrayed by someone, see where you are abandoning and betraying yourself.  Always turn it around, use it as an opportunity to clear out more  SELF judgment, denial, hurt, meanness, and so on…then all is a gift.  Yes, not always a nice touchy feely moment but a gift nonetheless.

DO YOUR BEST IN EACH MOMENT…show up 100% trusting that it will look and feel different in each moment, perhaps each breath and take advantage of the divine multiplicity of versions available to us to simply BE in.  Our “best” is limitless;  it is simply showing up, present, awake, in choice…..OR NOT.  The “or not” may be our best in some moments too:)

And……so it goes….life, one breath at a time.  Enjoy!

Good Morning:)

What if you woke up this morning, every morning and allowed the river of the moment, the hour, the day simply to flow while you trust and be in its movement or stillness breath by breath?  What if you opened to whatever crosses your path of awareness and followed its lead?  The job, looking for a job, the grocery list, getting kids off to school, a conflict with a loved one, depression, ecstasy, fatigue, vitality and so on simply part of the river you show up in.  The drive to “do”, “awaken”, fix, avoid, find enlightenment, get it right, be enough shifting the moment you wake up to simply waking up and greeting the infinite possibilities of a new day.  Perhaps it is not what we do so much as how we show up in what is presented to us as we travel down the river (and even when we fight to swim upstream) of life step by step, breath by breath.

The River

On my walk today with a dear sister I felt inspired by the flow of water in the irrigation ditch we were following.  As we often do, these “walks” are a time to  unravel a knot in our body or being  allowing for insights and clarity.  We walk.  We talk.  We allow the river of movement and conversation to flow freely taking us to our destination. The journey unfolds the next piece of our unique life’s puzzle as we  mirror for one another whatever is intuitively needed in the moment’s arising.  Today our companion, the water flowing by our side, was the teacher and guide.  Her simple message:  Trust the flow, all is already coming to us, through us and beyond us; all in this moment, this breath.  Abundance, support, love, creativity, opportunities and so on are there in the river of life;  we are always in the embryonic waters that can continually birth us anew.  Simply step into the river and BE the water.

Having the water’s flow supported by the banks on either side contains the fluid motion in a way that allows its purpose to be directed and energized. Much like life, our boundaries hold a protective, supportive framework for movement through life with ease trusting the journey will continue to take us to the destination we need to be in along the way.   With presence, openness, trust and spirit the river of our intent is catalyzed forward.  Our hearts sing, our spirits soar, our minds clear when we follow the river’s model; trust in her example.  Nothing to resist.  Rushing waters, rocky, shallow, deep, whirlpools, log jams, whatever!  Flow with grace.  All is well.

Our Birthright

Our birthright is a rite of passage.  Embodiment is the opportunity to remember HOME.  Many of us spend years, a lifetime, longing for home, feeling as if we don’t belong in the family we were born into, the circumstances of our environment, the body house and even the planet.  We see ourselves as foreigners struggling to understand the culture and language of life surrounding us, lost, out of place, expending our energy “trying” to fit in, “trying” to get it right, go by the “rules” and adapt to a picture painted for us by others or the projections of our own minds.  Perhaps the simpliest solution to such a dilemma is to use it all to keep reminding us where home really is…our own hearts and the “house” we reside in is our own body.   We can perhaps recognize that our life’s journey is to truly understand the concept of home; that the only home we need feel a part of is within us.  For those that must experience the loss of their “outer” house and material possessions due to the economy there is the challenge to understand the gift in it all.  When we begin to step back and observe from a metaphoric perspective the implications become clearer.  We can open to the possibility that the growth offered is one that will allow us to move in a world where home is always with us; OUR SECURITY LIES WITHIN.  There we can trust we are protected; flexibility and fluidity soar to new heights as we adapt to life in the moment.  We can gain a deeper understanding of the concepts of detachment and acceptance  as well as compassion,  finding joy in the perverbial “WHAT IS”.  Yes, it can be excruciating, stressful, heart wrenching for sure AND often that is where the most profound shifts happen.  When it seems as if the rug has been pulled out from under us, letting go of the old and familiar opens the door to new creations we never would have imagined… or imagined but would never have been catalyzed to implement.  Loss of the outer house is the gain of a deeper security;  home is no longer a structure, a roof over our heads but rather within us no matter how dire the circumstances.  The foundation, framework, strength, and protection is everpresent as we walk through the chaos and storms of the world around us.  In each moment we then can peel away the old constructs and belief systems that limit the recognition that we are truly spiritual beings having a human experience.  From that vantage point we can then lighten up, get the joke and begin to enjoy all that is presented to us along the way to remember we are always home and that this embodiment is simply a house we moved into at birth to have a grand adventure! Breathe in such a possibility.  Breathe out the fear and resistance.

The Magical Mystery Tour

THE GREAT MYSTERY.  THE VOID. SPACIOUSNESS.  OPENNESS.  GOD.  CREATOR.  LIFE.

ALIVENESS!  ALL THAT IS….

We are IN the ocean of all this, whatever name we put on it…………hopping from lily pad to lily pad, experiencing….experiencing what is with each movement, each breath….opening, receiving, expiring, exchanging.  Our bodies are the up close experience of the mystery and the journey through illusion.  Science, our mental constructs and explorations continually call us home to this magical mystery tour that is infinite.  Ahhh, infinity….our mind can not let us know that word BUT or AND our hearts can FEEL the experience of it….or at least give us a glimpse, a reference point to remind us when we are stuck in the box;  we can remember that even in the box we are also in the vastness of the infinite;  space and more importantly, FREEDOM is always there even if we only allow ourselves to visit it from the smallness of the lily pad feeling separate floating on IT….still, there is that “opportunity”…that possibility, that awareness, that perhaps we are it all; that the barriers and delineations are a mind’s fabrication. 

Broken Glass

Glass, seemingly fragil, when broken has sharp edges that can cut to the quick , cause pain and draw blood.  Such a mirror can fit all of us at times in our lives and most especially in our teen years when any wounds of early childhood begin to take their toll.  We often have a tendency to judge the younger generation when they act out their pain with anger and self destructive behavior and want to blame and shame them into submission.  When that happens their dysfunctional patterns magnify and entangle them even more as they trip and fall towards adulthood.  What if love were the answer?  Teaching them to love and respect themselves in a world, whether inner or outer, has modelled disrespect, hatred, judgment, anger and so on.  That’s not to say that the plentitude of beauty and love has not been there for them also but rather that for whatever reasons that influence has not been the dominant one.  They are that piece of broken glass in an ocean of emotional waters.