Hold that thought

Your grief for what you've lost lifts a mirror up
to where you're bravely working.
Expecting the worst, you look, and instead
here's the joyful face you've been wanting to see.
Your hand opens and closes and opens and closes.
If it were always a fist, or always stretched open,
you'd be paralyzed.
Your deepest presence is in every small
contracting and expanding,
the two as beautifully balanced
and coordinated as bird wings.
-Rumi*

In its own unique fashion the Christmas season builds until it usually sweeps me off my feet, distracting me from ordinary things so much that I end up losing my keys, my cell phone - which is still missing somewhere - and basically disorienting my normal sense of being in the world.

The other day I left my purse at a coffee counter in the grocery store while holding my keys and a bag full of Christmas baking makings.  It wasn't until I was home that I noticed it was missing.  After searching the car and my shoulder about 10 times I realized I must have left it at the grocery store.  When I went back the woman behind the customer service counter smiled knowingly.  Women all know what this season does to us - we lose our minds - if not our purses - randomly and constantly. Sometimes I don't know which I miss more - my money or my mind.

So how do we survive this season? Recently, I stumbled across the teachings of Abraham - a group of angels who have been channeling through Ester Hicks.  It's more of the "you create your own reality" material - as in "The Secret" - but the really wonderful, truly inspiring and blessing part of their teachings is the idea that we can control our present and future by staying very clearly focused on our thoughts - which do inform our emotions.  Each dream or hope we hold dear is powered into reality by our emotional desire for it.  If we want it intensely and believe in it intensely, then our emotional "will" power will actually bring it into our reality. 

If we can stay centered, listen carefully to what we're thinking - musing - brooding - dreaming -  about, we can direct our thoughts into more fertile fields.  Love, hope, joy, peace are dream-weavers, while despair, fear, depression, worry are dream killers.  This thought follows the praise and gratitude (at all times) concept that fuels and nurtures our dreams into reality.

Many of us were taught to work hard - the old Puritan work ethic - strive tirelessly, study and work and climb to the top for success.  But, according to Abraham, we were not designed by our Creator to do that.  We were designed by our Creator to dream and will our lives into existence, in every beautiful, colorful, lovely detail we desire.  Our emotions, which are the fuel for our dream weaving, are directly effected by our thoughts. 

For example, if we think we're going to fail a test, we will worry and that worry will drain away our vital fresh energy.  If we think we're going to be a wiz at that final, we will go in well prepared, rested and confident so as we read through all the questions, we can realize they are all not only all answerable, but we can master them with an eloquence we couldn't have tapped if we were exhausted from worry. 

So, why not decide to think of ourselves as wiz kids, and choose to think good things about ourselves, our capabilities, our own abilities.  Why not think of ourselves as wonderful, powerful beings who can have the most beautiful lives - as beautiful as we can dream?  I mean, what's the difference?  If all we have to do is change how we think about ourselves (and each other) and in that single focused change, we move our life missions from impossible to possible, why wouldn't we? 

As I raced back to the grocery store, thanked the woman who saved my purse - with all my Christmas shopping cash still intact,  I realized I needed to be more conscious of every thought.  Even moreso, I needed to change my emotional vibration from "run, race and worry" to "peace, calm and joy" - more joy, much more; more love, more hope, more peaceful expectation for my own dreams and my family's.   My father used to say that the woman sets the spiritual tone for the family.  If we women lose our minds and our pocketbooks in our race against time and money in our Christmas preparations, how does that set a positive, spiritually life-enhancing model and tone for our families?

I also learned that as much as I seek peace, I must live in peace every moment of the day; as I seek love, I must live in love, vigilantly aware of any thoughts that may be less than loving, less than believing, divert my mind always away from those thoughts that would steal my joy, love, patience, hope and peace, and remain centered on the strong person within who supplies all that I need, if only I would remain focused and presented minded.  I needed to believe more intentionally on the abundant goodness and graciousness of life - of God - to meet us at least half way on our dream weaving.

I share this with you because it seems to me that we're all in this life together, and we're all challenged similarly by those mental obstacles that have kept our dreams at bay.  Today, I hope that all your dreams bloom in the hope that they can come true, if only you (and I) would want them so much that we would not let any little negative thought take down our high hope levels.  Believe in your dreams, feel them, live them already and they will come as you invite them.

Peace and love to all you beautiful courageous people as we travel this well worn path toward authentic empowerment together - growing into the human creators our Creator made us to be. 

*From The Essential Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks, with John Moyne, A.A. Arberry, Reynold Nicholson