Mary Meditation – Tearing Down the Walls

Mary-give me some advice for the day that I can pass on to others.

Child-don’t forget…to be soft and gentle is to be strong.  You used to know this when you were younger…but then you built up a wall of toughness…to cover up…you were feeling vulnerable…no one really to helped you through adolescence…with life’s issues…to help authenticate you…to help you validate who you were.  Now you need to imagine some kind of brick structure around you and every day look at it…every day remove some of these blocks…and one day…all we will see is you…shining purely and clearly in the white light of the universe.  That’s you…a channel for the spiritual realm…open to all…available to all…no pretenses…no fear…no wondering who you are…no guilt…just a shining you.  You can do these tasks…you will help and heal others, you will fulfill your task and heal yourself in this lifetime.  Just…don’t worry if you can do it or how you will do it…ask for spiritual guidance and it will come.  It’s really so easy.  You’ll see.  Your life is full of possibilities child.  You can help change the energy of the planet.  You are love.  Spread love.  I am love.  I am always with you.

Mary Meditation – Forgiveness

Have you ever felt anger in someone else or disappointment in someone else that seems to linger? 

How can you resolve these issues?  What can you do?

I did a meditation to Mary and this is the answer that I received…

“Child, all that you can do is to send that person love and to think loving thoughts, because that other person may have a troubled (or dark) soul and may not be able to give this love to her/himself.  Also, pray to me and I will send them my love and peace and the peace of the universe to them – even if they don’t pray to me or believe in me.  I am here to help all mankind and don’t forget that you are here to help all mankind as well.  I am always here to teach you – if you want to learn, just ask.  Don’t go around feeling anger toward someone who you feel has done you some wrong or who has disappointed you.  You have to let that go or you will never heal yourself or anyone else.  Love is the key.  The message is simple but hard to do – actually…it just takes practice.  So, slow down your life and spend more time sending out messages of peace and love.  Imagine the person who angers you.  First say that you forgive her/him.  This doesn’t have to be face to face.  The forgiveness can be in writing or it can even be through meditation.  This person does not even have to know that you are sending them forgiveness.  It will get there.  Next imagine white light and then pink light streaming through this person’s body and say to her/him…you are love…I bring you peace.  Say this as many times as you feel you need to in order to change the energy vibrations around this person.  I will do the same.  Our energy together can bring about miracles.  Try it.”

Wow, nice…I’m off to try it.

I Let Go Into the Pool of Forgiveness

“I let go into the pool of forgiveness and become the ever shining light of love that I am.”  This is a phrase I say and reflect upon daily as part of my meditation routine.

What/who do I need to forgive and how?

Am I a shining light of love?

What obstacles are in the way?

How do people recognize and access the shining light of love in themselves?

Jesus Christ said, Love others as you love yourself.  The problem as I see it is that most people don’t know how to sit with themselves and love ALL the aspects of their beings.  It’s easy to love the positive aspects but we also need to recognize that we’re not always perfect and that we can love this imperfect part of us if we want to and maybe it’s OK to do so.  If we could just learn to sit with ourselves and watch ourselves with compassion…as if we were watching someone else…we can talk to this self to see what’s up, console it, respond to these negative emotions it is feeling, say that they are OK, that they are organic, that they are a part of us which we need to accept and to learn from.  Yes, they will help us grow.  No one is without them.  Just as we react…we need to respond.  I don’t think we need to forgive our negative thoughts or actions or criticize ourselves…we need to forgive ourselves for feeling guilty about our feelings.  We need to release this guilt.  Yes, now I see, it is this guilt that causes hardness, callousness, indifference, health problems, relationship problems, communication problems.  We need to forgive ourselves from that.  Let the feelings flow in and out, good and bad.  Recognize them but don’t judge them.  That emotion connected to judging causes the negativity to stick in our persona, our spirit.  Imagine a rain cloud-it grows, it comes closer, it becomes grayer, bigger, more menacing…then it rains and off it goes.  It blows away with the wind and everything is so much brighter, less pressure, more alive.  So, we have to recognize these emotions welling up in ourselves and “forgive our judgement of them” and not forgive the emotions.  We need to thank these emotions.  Like the rain clouds, they will bring good things if we watch them, accept them and move on.  These “negative” emotions are just reminding us that we need to get back on track, that there are better ways to do things, that we can love more, listen more, talk less, breathe, watch nature, evaluate what we need to add to our relationships, how we can add more love and awareness to our jobs, our families and our lives, how we can help others.  Notice – releasing judgement (forgiving)  leads us out of ourselves and into the world..our connections with others.  It’s here where we connect that we can really expand and increase our energy and the energy around us exponentially!!!  not times two or three. 

When I started writing this entry I was thinking of forgiveness in a different light – forgiving your children for jumping on the couch, forgiving your parents for being too judgemental or not judgemental enough, forgiving yourself for not healing faster or not running every day or not always being a patient listener or judging people by what they have and not what they are etc.

But now it seems different.

I don’t mean to say either that this means we can do immoral things and not judge them as immoral – I believe that innately most people know the difference between right and wrong.  I’m talking about what holds us back from becoming really God-like, from becoming the spiritual being that we were meant to be. 

• Forgive our emotions
• Recognize our emotions
• Embrace our emotions with light
• Breathe with nature
• Freedom
• Praise positive emotions
• Breathe with nature
• We are nature
• We are all one – animals, plants, wind etc. and us
• Re-connect our energy to amplify it-feel it grow exponentially
• Pray, reflect, breathe, smile, look yourself in the eye in the mirror
• See your soul
• Connect with others
• Converse, drop your guard, see what happens

You may be surprised.

Literary Musings

If you want your life to flow in the right direction, you need to be yourself.  Do you know who you truly are?  How would you describe yourself to someone else?  Where do your interests lie?  What makes you tick?  What are the adjectives that you would pick?  Here is an interesting idea that came to me this past July.  Try it.  It may help you to identify what you stand for…who you are…what you prize in this life.  Some of the results may surprise you.  You may realize that there is more to you than you think. 

Pick a certain number of books that you would consider your favorites or that made a lasting impression on you.  I picked 13.  Then, without giving it too much thought…say why…try to go with your gut and not with your intellect.  Have fun with it.  And get this…there are no wrong answers.  Here’s what I did.

#1  My Antonia -Willa Cather   The silouette of the plow against the orange sky of the setting sun, the narrator going back to see Antonia and the rich memories and friendships of his childhood take me back to my adolescence…running around the neighborhood with my siblings and our close friends, playing wolfman and bike tag, sitting on the steps of the neighbor’s house with the boy who was my first crush, listening to Beatles records, the warm summer nights…no worries…no cares…only freedom, that feeling of reckless abandon and that first romance.

#2  The Secret Life of Bees -Sue Monk Kidd  “Lily Melissa Owen-your jar is open.”   Loved the Conga line dancers/Mary worshipers-the women who preserve tradition and create their own traditions at the same time.  Loved the main character who “flew out of her jar” and took charge of her life.

#3  Little Cloud-Eric Carle  Always loved the turquoise prevalent on every page…love the expressions on the cloud’s face..so sweet….so creative.  To this day I find inspiration in finding shapes in those big cumulus clouds in the summer sky.

 #4  Heidi -Johanna Spyri  The cheese, the Alps, the Grandfather and Heidi, such a feisty, independent and brave girl.  I especially love the old edition with the beautifully colored cover that I used to read at my Grandparents’ house.  When my Mom gave me this old edition for Christmas the year my Grandfather died…I cried.  Emotions run deep.

#5  Frenchman’s Creek- Daphne Du Maurier  The pirate in this story is so dashing and charismatic…oh la la.  I can smell the salt water and feel the ocean breeze blow through my hair.

#6  Little Women-Louisa May Alcott  Loved the 4 sisters, especially how they convened in their attic, wrote a secret newspaper and put on theatrical productions.  They were very spirited and stuck to their principles.  They were not rich…but ended up doing well in life because of their good choices and kindness.  They stuck together and always looked on the bright side of life.

#7 Anger-Thich Nhat Hanh   I am always amazed at how Thich Nhat Hanh explains how to welcome all emotions, take them into our being, acknowledge that they are there and then embrace them. So calm and refreshing…and it works!  I read a little at a time, took notes, and absorbed the information.  I have used the mindful breathing and walking technique many a day to realign myself and to reconcile negative emotions or amplify positive ones.

#8  To Kill A Mockingbird- Harper Lee  I loved Atticus Finch-he was so straightforward, unprejudiced and unswerving in his moral views.  I thought that he was a cool dad as well…explaining life to his kids as it was.  No excuses.  A real freedom fighter.

#9  Versailles- Kathryn Davis  I haven’t read many books more than once, but this was one of them.  A poetic and dramatic portrayal of Marie Antoinette…seemed to flow and float.  The repetition of numbers really drummed in the danger and ferocity of the French Revolution, Marie Antoinette’s frivolities…and her innocent, emotional way of seeing life.  Loved it!   ”Seventeen arcades, each with eighteen mirrors.  Three hundred six mirrors and in every one of them no Antoinette.”  “Eleven miles from Paris to Versailles, from the Chaillot tollgate to the Place d’Armes.”

#11  Gone With the Wind- Margaret Mitchell  Tara, Scarlett, the Southern belles and that dashing Rhett Butler…an amazing trip back in time to a difficult period in the history of America.

#12 The Poisonwood Bible- Barbara Kingsolver  “The things we carried with us.”  Makes you realize that you are probably not as daring or adventurous as you think.  What a vivid picture of a faraway land.

#13 Lost Horizon- S.E. Hinton  This book totally blew me away…the ending really surprised me.  The feeling exuded was that of peace and mental clarity.

Make your own list.  When you have finished your descriptions…go back and pick 2 key words or expressions from each work.  Here are mine.  

1. nostolgia – adolescence
2. freedom – creativity
3. floating – turquoise
4. feisty – Germanic
5. romantic – sexy
6. friendship – optimism
7. peaceful – enlightening
8. poignant – moral
9. poetic  - dramatic
10. adventure – loyalty
11. romance – lost culture
12. velvety – gripping
13. cerebral – airy

Here is my list.  I found it to be quite interesting..but there were a few surprises.  Good surprises.  There is more to us than we think.  Sometimes a few surprises are hiding just underneath our perceptions of ourselves… waiting to surface.  We can nurture these ideas and feelings and help them to grow.  First we need to recognize them.  I think that this exercise can help.  What do you think of your list?  Were there many surprises? 

Listen

Listen to the radio, listen to your dreams, listen to your inner thoughts, to your insights from the spiritual world, from God, from your kids, from your favorite Saints, from your Spirit Guides.  Listen to the birds, to the butterflies, to the wind, to the yearnings of your heart, to lines from movies and plays, to your Mother, to your Father, to the words of the wise ones…the Dalai Lama, Jesus…

Jot down ideas that come to you…they are sent to help heal you if you just listen.  There is no such thing as a coincidence!

Here are some things that came to me. No coincidence I’m sure.

• This message on a church message board…”Be someone’s reason for peace.”
• A quote from the Native American Red Jacket at a local science museum “Let him that would move the world, first move himself.”
• Terry Gross on National Public Radio “It’s not about me.”
• These ideas that I wrote down on pieces of paper throughout the day…”I’m not all that.  We are all the same in the eyes of the Creator.”  “Home is the Healing Place.”
• A sticker on a package that I got in the mail said “Turquoise and Blue” which are the colors of my soul (as a clairvoyant related to me) and the color of my throat chakra (the chakra related to speaking out about your beliefs.)
•  Turning on the radio and hearing “When I find myself in times of trouble, Mother Mary comes to me, speaking words of wisdom let it be.  And in my hours of darkness she is standing right in front of me, speaking words of wisdom, let it be.”

Listen to your own inner wisdom.  Just be yourself-no pretenses and everything will be fine.