Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Put it down...

Dear Ones,

Whatever you are carrying with you today that doesn't belong to today, put it down.

Maybe you are carrying some old hurts. Maybe you are carrying some unresolved conversations in your mind. Maybe you are carrying the sadness from a relationship that didn't work out. Maybe you are carrying anger. Maybe there is a heaviness inside of you.

Put these things down. They are weighing you down, like a bag that is too heavy for you to hold. So often we place our energy into things that weigh us down, when we are meant to fly free.

So put these things down. If it helps, make a list. Then burn it. Or, make a list and put it in a box in the back of the closet. Let God handle it until you take the list out at some later date. By that time, things will have changed. If it helps, go for a walk and talk to God, the Universe, the Holy One about all the things that are bothering you. Tell God you are going to put these things down.

Then do it.
Warmly,
meb

Monday, September 29, 2008

Missing the Mark

Dear Friends,

Maybe, like many of us, you grew up with a list of "do's" and "don'ts" that satisfied someone else's list of what was a "sin" and what was not a "sin." If adults around you were really into "sin," particularly someone else's sin, then you probably grew up with a sense of guilt about you, about what you do, about who you are.

That kind of guilt is hard to get over. Lots of times that kind of guilt makes you want to stay away from church or "spiritual" people as much as you can.

The real meaning of "sin" is: "missing the mark." You miss the mark when you choose your ego over your silent, inner knowing. You miss the mark when you forget how beautiful you are, when you forget how important you are to the rest of creation. You miss the mark when you forget that you are completely whole and good as you are. You miss the mark when you choose to think your way out of things, instead of getting in touch with your deeper self.

We all "miss the mark." That doesn't mean we are bad. When we live with a sense of guilt or shame, we "miss the mark," as well.
"Missing the mark," sometimes choosing our smaller self instead of our larger self, is simply part of being a human being in this human body. Get used to it! Learn to forgive yourself when you "miss the mark." Forgive yourself and move on with your life, trusting that you are beautiful, whole, and that you are an important part of the creation, simply by being alive.

Warmly,
meb

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Go with it!

Dear Friends,

I know it doesn't feel good to be angry, or sad, or frustrated. Our first inclination is to change something - anything - that could be causing our anger or sadness or frustration. What we try to change is inevitably someone or something outside of us. It is good to remember, with some humility, that our anger or sadness or frustration belongs to us. Nothing is wrong. Nothing needs to be changed. All that is happening is that you have a feeling - as uncomfortable as it might be.

Go with it! Go with it! Fall into the feeling. Say hello to it! If your feeling were a person, what would it look like? What would you say to someone else who had the same feeling? Let your feeling talk to you. Let it get the depth of what it is about out. Give it a hearing.

Then...

Warmly,
meb

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Making a Choice

Dear Friends,

How often do we hear that we have a choice? Most of us know that it is easy for someone else to tell us that we have a choice - when we are in the throes of resentment, or anger, or thinking we have to say "yes," when we want to say no.

Every single choice we make goes deeper than these things, however. Every day, we ultimately must choose between fear and anger, silence or the loud voices inside our heads, between what others think we should do and what we feel best serves our deeper truth. We can choose to be angry with someone forever - a choice which harms us more than them - or we can choose to feel the anger, speak our truth, and then move ahead, free from the anger and with having to have it our way.

We can choose to be controlled completely by our feelings by ignoring them and thinking we are completely rational in all of our choices, or we can choose to feel our feelings, to discover what they are communicating to us about ourselves, and then to let them go.

Every moment holds a choice. We can live in the past or the future, or we can choose to live in the present. Fear or love. Dark or light. Compulsion or freedom.

What will it be for you today?
Warmly,
meb

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Fear and no fear

Dear Friends,
We live in a time of fear. While that can be said for most times, it seems as if these days, fear is used to motivate us more often than any other motivational tool.

For example, you will look old if you don't buy the right kind of creme for your face. You won't be safe unless you buy a certain kind of car. Unless Congress does exactly this - no room for creativity - we will fall into an abyss as a country.
Make sure you wear the right clothes, or you will look out of date.

Each of these examples requires us to be motivated by fear. When we are motivated by fear, we are buying into the thoughts we have about what is good and what is bad. These are only thoughts. Thoughts have power, of course - the power to make us feel good or bad, happy or sad. And - thoughts can be changed.

When you are surrounded by fear, acknowledge the fear, but don't succomb to it. Listen to it, take it in, and give it a good look. Examine your thoughts. If you are thinking something like: "Oh - no! - this is really bad!" Change your thoughts. Keep your options open. Tell yourself that you can wait until more information surfaces, or you can gather more information. Don't make decisions when you are feeling afraid.

There is a larger part of yourself that is not afraid, regardless of what is happening. Do you know that part of yourself?

Warmly,
meb

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Holding that Thought...

Dear Friends,

What do you want to do with your one "wild and precious life"? (Mary Oliver). Well, I want to do... this and that... etc. We each have our own lists, of course.

What if you held your thoughts about this differently? What if you thought: "I am on a trip to Italy, enjoying the beautiful sea and the warm people of Italy..."
"I am a professor of English at __________ University, with a specialty in Middle English. I enchant my classes with my love and knowledge."
"I am ---"

Then, see yourself and feel yourself into the thoughts you hold. For a few moments, don't feel the longing you feel as you think about those things. Instead, feel them happening now.

Make this part of your prayer. Ask: What am I called to do with my one wild and precious life?" When your answer is clear, hold that thought as if it is happening now.

Let's see what happens!
Warmly,
meb

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Changing Seasons...

Dear Ones,

Today is the first full day of autumn, after our passage yesterday morning, the turning of the equinox.

Especially at the start of fall, we are aware of how things speed up. School begins, fall schedules begin, meetings seem to multipy, classes start up again, we make appointments we may have put off over the summer, and we work hard to get as much done as we can before the crunch of the holiday season.

In winter, we are often aware of how things "cocoon" - we try to get home earlier, with the darker evenings, we turn on more lights, we drink a few extra cups of tea.

Our lives have these seasons, as well. "For everything there is a season...," the Wisdom writer has reminded us. This may be a season of your life when you are changing, a season when you are feeling hopeless and uncertain; this may be a season when you are focusing on earning your way in the world, or building your community, or searching for a life partner; this may be a season when you are letting go of old ways of being, and are searching for a new identity; this may be a season when you are discovering that you are, like everyone else, growing up - or growing older!

Whatever season of life this may be for you, remember, all the seasons change, one season is constantly moving into another season. Who you are now is changing with the passage of the seasons.

Warmly,
meb

Monday, September 22, 2008

What do you want, body?

Dear Friends,
I am learning to ask my body for advice, for the best advice it can give about itself. I am discovering that my body does, in fact, answer my questions.

For example, I am simply learning that my body likes to move. Of course, through the years I've moved to lose weight, moved to fit into my pants better, and moved because the doctor told me to move! Sometimes I've moved because someone said to move!

Lately, though, as part of my spiritual practice, I have been moving simply because it feels good to move. I get up from my desk more frequently, go up and down the stairs more frequently, walk when I could drive.

And I am also learning that my body likes to be listened to. When I listen and don't try to make my body change, it likes that!

What does your body want today?
Warmly,
meb

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Return to the Quiet Place

Dear Friends,

Maybe you have a quiet spot, a place you like to go. What place comes to mind? A chair in a corner is fine. A place next to a window is great, too. Maybe your quiet place is outside, where you can see the colors of the seasons change, and where you can sniff the subtle changes in the air.

Wherever you go, take your quiet place with you. Find the quiet place inside of you, now. The quiet place is always there, always in deep and blissful silence. You know the place. Find it now. Even when your mind is buzzing, even when your calendar is filled with important happenings and the schedules of others as well as yourself, you have within you a place of deep and blissful silence.

As often as you remember, return to that quiet place, now.

Warmly,
meb

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Take a few moments today

Dear Ones,

Today, take a few moments to make friends with a tree! I mean it. Simply sit and watch a tree. See how it breathes. Sense its being. If you sit long enough, you may find you have something to say to that tree. What would it be? "Thank you..."

As you sit with your friend, the tree, discover your own connection to the tree. Feel the connection within yourself.

This is a good friend, indeed!

Warmly,
meb

Friday, September 19, 2008

Who you are...

Dear Friends,
Who you are is very different than who you think you are, or who you want the world to think you are, or your life goals, or your frantic searching for your life purpose.

Who you are is vast, boundary-less, and connected to everything that exists.

Most of the time, we identify ourselves with a narrow version of ourselves. We know we are smart, so we want others to know we are smart. When something important needs to be done, we consider ourselves the best person for the job. We want to be seen as a nice person, so we make sure we look all put together, present a smile (even when we don't feel like it), and always use our best manners - according to our own standards, of course. We like to be known as industrious, so when something needs to be done, our hand is the first hand in there, making sure the job gets done.

None of these things is really who you are, however.

Spend a few moments today remembering and sinking into who you really are.

Warmly,
meb

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Beneath the Buzz

Dear Friends,

As I was growing up, I was aware of a "buzz" that was part of the environment around me. When I went out on my own as a young person, I took the "buzz" with me. Of course, I didn't know that. The "buzz" likes to hang around!

Now, I can choose to live in the buzz, or beneath the buzz. I can choose to listen to every demand that comes, from myself or from someone else, or I can kindly refuse the demand.

Who I am is really beneath the buzz. Who I am has always been beneath the buzz. When I was only living in the buzz, I felt as if I was alone, because I was looking outside of myself for what was in there all the time.

Who are you, beneath the buzz?

Warmly,
meb

Monday, September 15, 2008

Remember Who You Are...

Dear Friends,

If you're having a tough time today, take a few moments to remember who you are.
Remember the YOU that has always been with you, the silent, witnessing, wise YOU that has been guiding your whole life.
YOU know who YOU are, and this is the part of you that has been forgotten in making your plans, listening to your mind, and thinking yourself into the future.

Simply take a moment now. Breathe. Settle into YOU for a moment. Look out at your surroundings, your part of the world.
What do you see? Notice your mind. What is your mind doing?

Remember who you are.

This is who YOU really are.

Warmly,
meb

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Looking for answers...

Dear Ones,
If you are looking for answers to your questions about your life, then look no further... No! The answers are not out here, on the Internet... the answers are within you! That is absolutely true.

"I was always looking outside myself for strength and confidence, but it comes from within. It is there all the time." - Anna Freud

When we pray, we may be expecting lighting-bolts to flash answers to our prayers. I, for one, have often prayed for a "neon sign," as the answer. But truthfully, the answers to my prayers have often arisen from my body, or in words someone has spoken.

I've learned that we are often looking for specific answers. We want what we want! And how natural that is! But when we ask, we need to be aware of what happens, simply to be aware.

Then, when we are looking for answers, we will know that they do, indeed, come.
Warmly,
meb

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

People I Have Known

Dear Ones,
We all have known people on the journey of our lives who have touched us deeply, or importantly, for better or for worse. Sometimes it is good to remember those people again.

Who are the ones who have listened to me, and have let me know my inner thoughts even when I did not know them myself? Who are the ones who have seen a wider path for me than I have been able to see myself? Who challenged me to be bigger than I thought I could be? Who helped me when I didn't even know I needed help? Who was with me when I needed them, and when they needed me? Who are the ones whose time with me seemed too short? Who are the ones I would see again today, if I was able?

See if you can make a list of the important people who have touched your life. And if you can, give thanks for each one of them. And if you can, maybe you can write a note of thanks to one or another of them.

Warmly,
meb

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

On being a bubble...

Dear Friends,

"It was worth having been a bubble to have held that rainbow 60 seconds." - Carl Sandburg, American Poet

A bubble is beautiful and vulnerable.

Today, remember you are the bubble. You are beautiful. And you are vulnerable.

And as you go through this day, see all the other bubbles who are living their lives along with you.

They, too, are beautiful. And they are vulnerable.

Warmly,
meb

Monday, September 8, 2008

Surrender and Gratitude

Hello, dear friends,
As I have been reflecting on the spiritual journey these last few months, I am beginning to understand that the central "practice" of any spiritual journey is surrender and gratitude.

Maybe other phrases would sound better than: "surrender." I know that for me, when I first heard about "surrender," I was not drawn to that practice. Why would I want to surrender what I thought was best? As I grow older, however, I have learned that "surrender" is simply another way of "going with the flow," "letting go," or "trusting what is." If one of those phrases works for you, then use that phrase.

How do we surrender? We breathe into the moment, whatever the moment brings. For a moment - even simply a moment - we accept ourselves and whatever is exactly as it is.
If we don't like it, we give a "nod" to that awareness, and we accept our dislike. Then we breathe into the moment. Practice this now. Whatever is in your heart or mind, breathe into this awareness. Breathe.

I suppose "surrender" is simply another word for "trust." And if you care to think about it, "surrender" is strongly connected to "forgiveness." When we accept, when we surrender to what is, we are in a state of "forgiveness." Most of us know we can't do this perfectly, but even a moment is enough.

Gratitude. Maybe this is the next step, after surrender. Maybe it's simply another way to say surrender. Say: "thank you,"to the Universe, to the Great I Am, to God.
Say, "thank you... well, I'm not completely grateful..." and see what happens!

And at the beginning or end of each day, write a list of at least 5 things for which you grateful.
Warmly,
meb