A Great Bumper Sticker

I saw a great bumper sticker today...
"May God bless us all -- no exceptions!"

Wow, what a different world we'd have!

Slowing Down on a Fine Wind....

"A fine wind is blowing the new direction of time through me. If only I can let it bear me, carry me." ~ D.H. Lawrence.

As many of you know, I have collected quotes on writing, creativity and the inner journey for many years. I call these Messages from the Muse. Recently, I wrote on the above quote.

This is something I have felt so often, and usually attribute it to my work. It leaves me feeling anxious. My mind insists, "Get on with it. Just do it! Let me just do it and finally break through!"

Do what? I am now wondering, and I am left with the feeling that I have missed something. And I have!

The "new wind" had little to do with "work". I realize I never had to work so hard, push so hard. I simply had to be patient and let the fine wind do its work -- or its joy!

I think I am finally allowing change to bear me, carry me in its own mysterious way. I want to slow down. Do less. Such a sweet opening. I feel less anxious about simply being and allowing -- surrendering to what is. It seems that my focus is softening. Not everything needs to be seen and known.

How wonderful this feels. I smile with it, and know that it spreads slowly within, like honey on a warm day, carrying me to exactly where I am. Peacefully... sweetly... moment to moment, without regret. 

If only I can let it bear me, carry as I say yes to simplicity, acceptance, and surrender of my will to a greater knowing/not knowing within me.

Fear Is the Fire Breathing Paper Dragon

Change terrifies us. Fear grips us.
I didn’t ask for this.
Why am I always the victim of the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune?
Even when we are hungering for the change, fear steps in and makes the change seem impossible.

The truth is, You, the True You, knows that there is nothing to fear.
The True You came into life for the adventure of life and knows fear is part of the journey,
but doesn’t take it as fire breathing dragon appears to be.

The True You knows that illness, loss of a job or relationship,
a betrayal, an illness and death are a clarion call to change!

Yet fear is feels very real.
It isn't. Fear is the fire breathing paper Dragon set off by the ego.
Change is the core of life.
Terrified or not, change happens, all the time.

Life as a Living Prayer

I receive Daily Meditations from Richard Rohr and this is one that I particularly like, and so I am sharing. It changes the word "prayer" in a dramatic and life-giving way. This is for anyone who is consciously on the journey of inner change, simplicity and peace.

"The word “prayer” has often been trivialized by making it into a way of getting what we want. But I use “prayer” as the umbrella word for any interior journeys or practices that allow you to experience faith, hope, and love within yourself. It is not a technique for getting things, a pious exercise that somehow makes God happy, or a requirement for entry into heaven. It is much more like practicing heaven now.


Such prayer, such seeing, takes away your anxiety for figuring it all out fully for yourself, or needing to be right about your formulations. At this point, God becomes more a verb than a noun, more a process than a conclusion, more an experience than a dogma, more a personal relationship than an idea. There is Someone dancing with you, and you are not afraid of making mistakes.

From The Naked Now: Learning to See as the Mystics See

Silence

Silence
by Emily Hanlon

Life is born of silence.

Without silence we could not
hear the song.
She is the life-giving womb,
the beat of the heart.
Worn like a crown,
she is a star-studded cape.

Worn in laughter, sorrow,
joy and pain,
she is Self.
Enter her womb,
there sound is born.