Making room for the Divine

                                    

                                     I know that for the right practice of it, the heart must be 

                                     empty of all other things; because God will possess the 

                                     heart alone;  and as He cannot possess it alone, without 

                                     emptying it of all besides, so neither can He act there, 

                                     and do in it what He pleases, unless it be left vacant to Him.

Brother Lawrence, 

The Practice of the Presence of God

The Divine pours itself into our heart, breathing into us a profound joy and eternal aliveness. It is the center of our being and conduit through which the Divine connects with us, empowering, embracing and loving us. It is also where we connect with each other and gives us our meaning, joy, and identity.

Divine love contains all that we need and all that we long for. If only we could feel and experience it! The single most inhibiting obstacle to that inflow of Divine power, love, wisdom, consciousness is judgment's cruel blockage. Judgment is an insidious force that guards and blocks the heart like a watchdog. It builds walls, creates a million distractions and false liaisons, all blindly recruited by its terrorizing instruction to avert our consciousness from the vulnerability and sensitivity of the heart, which the ego perceives as weak. It keeps us feeling separate from others through induced guilt or a sense of unworthiness.

Since Divine consciousness is perfect love, it is without judgment, without prejudice, condemnation, and criticism. Obviously, it is not like our government rulers or oppressors who are driven by control, stemming from a selfish lack of love.

Love is freeing, going where it wills, honoring and uplifting, surrendering, rejoicing in simply being and allowing self and others to also just be and to move along their own life paths. That honoring means love is without judgment and is unconditional. Anything conditional, is, quite simply, not love.

To empty the heart of judgment - especially self-judgment which is comprised of a million scattered thoughts, each with a criticism - is the first step to an authentic encounter with divine reality, the only reality.

Honestly, it is that simple.

We've been taught to love others and deny ourselves. But, that wisdom has been so sadly misinterpreted. That which we call our "self," has been our ego, that which actually blocks our intuitive, life-giving, divine heart.

When the pain of living disconnected from the heart mounts to an unbearable level, finally we will notice that without its sweet wisdom and connection with the divine, we will die. Then, and only then, can a change occur and not one moment sooner.

Then, we decide to stop fighting and accept the pain of the expiring ego and invite God in, surrender and wait for the Divine. We also will realize that to choose to love ourselves and remain mindful of whatever it is that is condemning us will open the door to the heart. The first step is mindfully hearing what the ego - the inner critic - is saying and then choosing not to listen to it. In that first step is the beginning of our salvation from the tyranny of the ego or the inner critic, or all those controlling ideas that sweep through our minds.

If we listen carefully, we will hear the ego reminding us of all our mistakes and errors, which slowly erodes our sense of value and creative power. It makes us feel unworthy. It calls us sinners. It tells us we are without value. That is the victim's way, not the way to God. We can loosen its grip through a loving petition to God to forgive us until we feel emptied of its nagging criticism. Things that will fill our hearts are art, music, nature, walking until we are silent inside, gratitude to God for the sheer honor and joy to be alive in this moment.

Loving ourselves purely, praying for the in-pouring of God's love is the next step. And, if we become aware mindfully of the inner chatter that condemns and criticizes us, we can choose to chase those thoughts out of our minds. Under the tutelage of the inner critic we have been led to forfeit, abandon, forsake, even betray own heart and our own authentic self. It is that abandonment that causes us to feel alone.

It is not another person who will fill the inner need of the heart. It is the heart itself that needs to feel honored and welcomed and listened to by a conscious intention to love it. When it feels loved, it will sing to us. It will leap and dance and delight in its recognition and joyful reunion with us. It may even allow our real self, buried under years of judgment and condemnation, to step forward.

Finally, with awareness, we realize the divine chased away our ego - usually causing us enormous pain in the process. It doesn't go without giving a strong fight. But, after the fire fight with the stubborn, persistent, terrorizing ego, there is finally peace - a profound, deep, pervading, rich, velvet, radiant PEACE.

To love ourselves until we are healed and enriched with the divine presence, and then to love others with that same love, is truly the way to authentic and abundant life. First we have to believe that despite anything - anything - we must love ourselves. It is the first step to removing the ego and allowing space for an authentic divine encounter, which pours into our sacred chalice, the light, power and ineffable love which are the life force itself. It all can begin with a simple breath of intention to love oneself, first, and then another reciprocally.

My prayer for all of us, as we go into this new year, is to know the power and love of the Divine, and allow the Divine to fill our hearts with each beat and breath of authentic being.

Christmas light is everywhere

Cleave the wood, I am there.
Lift the stone, and thou shalt find me. 

Gospel of Thomas, verse 77

It's not science fiction.  While it may seem like a new idea, it's as ancient as the craggy rocks and the water flowing around them, or the soft luminescence of the tree branches lingering vibrantly over it all.  

It is the light of the life force itself that's everywhere.  It is the light of life. It may seem illusive to us as we run madly through our lives chasing and playing this huge collective global board game of economics, politics, poverty and wealth, sickness and health. All that is not real, really. We are so heavily invested in it, controlled by it with all its rules, all about who's winning and who's losing and what that means and what that feels like.  It is indeed the Matrix.

What is real is this effusive, luminescent life force, so subtle to our blind vision that we rarely see it.

Yet, it is there, spread out before us, if only we had eyes to see. If it is there to see in nature, certainly it is there in us and it would flow through our creations - even this tired old board game.  It is everywhere, whether or not we stop to take notice. It is our power source and it is something I don't dare frame within any religious language.  It is life, simply.  It flows where it wills, but it seems that it flows where it is least impeded.  

Why don't we see it? Why does it seem only visible under a microscope or special lighting arrangements to heighten it? I think it's because we're not looking.  The power of human consciousness is so strong - if only we all knew that - that it can amplify what we perceive only faintly.  While it may be able - according to a lot of scientific studies - to make a plant grow larger and heal someone of an illness, it is relatively not acknowledged in ordinary life, and rarely if ever in the mainline media.

How can we see it?  I think we need to cultivate a sensitivity to life itself a bit more, slow down our minds just a bit. Turn off the loud voices, noise and demands of our outer world, and adjust our minds to the silence within. Eventually that silence becomes more alive than what's outside of us. 

I used to hike a beautiful natural five-mile stretch along a creek. I would block out a couple hours and head out on it. In a short while all the thoughts of work and the kids and all the ordinary things in my life would slowly pass out of my mind. Gradually, I began to hear the birds, frogs. A spectacular sight of a beautiful blue heron sweeping above would hawk his annoyance at me being there.  Suddenly everything burst into life.  It had always been there, but I hadn't.   

My mind had been on everything else. When I realized I'd stepped into a beautiful symphony of song and dance, of absolute beauty, then I could see the luminescence of the tree branches. I brushed one long branch that hung out over the trail, lovingly, and acknowledged it. Suddenly, it seemed like all the other branches wanted the same acknowledgement. There was no doubt there was a pervasive consciousness to all this. 

And, then I saw it.  I saw their light.  It came as I began to feel so much love for all of them, for the birds, the heron, the frogs, the clear water of the creek, the rocks and pebbles, the trees.  It was beyond beautiful.

Then, a car drove by on the bridge where I was standing watching the heron.  It sounded like a thunderous clap of horses' hooves.  Everything went silent.  It seemed like this beautiful, vibrant world that I had been in, screeched to a halt as it held its breath at the loud intrusion of a single car crossing the bridge. I was surprised at how loud an ordinary car, driving across a bridge, could sound. 

Then, after it left, slowly one by one the birds returned to their chirping and singing. Life at the creek came back alive, the tree branches began conversing with me again and there was light everywhere.  As I slowly started back on the trail, I wished I had wings on my feet because even the sound of my sneakers, as lightly as I walked, sounded loud. Wonderfully and awesomely, I had made friends with the life around me, and they continued to teach me all about it.  

When I finally got home, I was ecstatic.  It all had been so beautiful, so powerful, so alive, so radiant and so wonderful. That is the light of life.  And, this light is in us and in our lives also, if we can only listen for it by softening our noisy imprints in life.

Recently, at work, I was feeling a bit badly about something related to one of our disabled people. I really just wanted to cry. When a coworker, who noticed, said something sweet to me, I literally felt her words.  I physically felt the light and life in them.  It was simple, but I was stunned and absolutely delighted when I saw light in her words. I knew in our words of kindness and positive intention, like the beautiful life along the creek, is life also.  

I think another example of seeing life's light is what happens when we turn off the lights.  At first we can't see anything in the dark, but slowly our eyes adjust and soon we can literally see in the dark.  I think the "Kingdom of God," is found like that. It is an inner realm of life that is there all along, but when we're focused on everything else, we miss it.  I truly think Jesus came to help us focus our eyes in the dark to see the light that is always there - in us and around us.  We just have to tune in, I guess.

Let the children come

In July, we shared the Tiger Lilies post, America, Remember Who You Are! with President Obama. 

Then, as now, I felt passionately that we, as a nation, must accept the children from Latin America who had struggled through dangerous territory and life-threatening circumstances to come here. I was terribly saddened a town in Texas would reject the children. 

On September 26, I received an email from President Obama assuring us of his commitment and promise to help the children from Latin America. 

This week, he kept his promise with his courageous legislation to protect the children.

This is not a partisan issue. It is a bold opportunity to reach out with the same spirit that has sustained America through wars, floods, hurricanes, terrorism, civic unrest as she has grown into an ever brighter and better nation. 

This legislation also sends a powerful and courageous message to the world.

America still offers hope, promise and freedom to the oppressed, which is the initial driving vision of our founding fathers. It is who we are, regardless of politics or economics.  That vision has, and I hope always will, prevail over any and all challenges.  It is who we are.  President Obama has demonstrated a rare courage to stand by America's profound identity and mission to our country, our people and our world.

Thank you, President Obama.

From President Obama on September 26:

Dear Victoria:

Thank you for writing. I am deeply concerned about the unaccompanied migrant children arriving at our border. This is an urgent situation, and it underscores the need to drop the politics, respond quickly and effectively, and fix our broken immigration system once and for all.

My Administration continues to address this situation with an aggressive, coordinated Federal response on both sides of the border. We’re making sure we have sufficient facilities to appropriately house and process those who cross our border illegally. We’re also working with Central American leaders to publicize the dangers of the journey and to reinforce that apprehended migrants are ultimately returned to their home countries in keeping with the law. However, it is our legal and moral obligation to treat unaccompanied children with care and compassion while they’re in our custody.

Since the beginning of July, we have seen some initial signs of progress along our Southwest border—thanks in part to my Administration’s response. We are not declaring victory, and we must continue our intensive efforts on both sides of the border. We will keep taking aggressive steps to surge resources to our Southwest border, deter both adults and children from this dangerous journey, increase capacity for enforcement and removal proceedings, and quickly and safely return unlawful migrants who do not qualify for humanitarian relief to their home countries. And I’ve asked Congress to provide the funding these efforts need.

In the long run, though, the best way to truly address this problem is to fix our broken immigration system through comprehensive legislation like the bipartisan bill passed by the Senate last year. It would have strengthened our border security, equipped us with better technology, and bolstered the resources and personnel vital for an efficient removal process—including additional Border Patrol agents, asylum officers, immigration judges, and access to legal counsel. It would have also combated transnational crime and cracked down on criminal networks.

Again, I appreciate your perspective. I am working diligently to bring an end to this situation, and we intend to do the right thing by these children. But I have repeatedly made clear that parents need to know this is an incredibly dangerous situation, and they should not put their children in the hands of criminals.

Sincerely,

Barack Obama


The following is the post from July 17, 2014:

America, Remember Who You Are!

Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free;
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless,
Tempest-tossed to me
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!

- Statue of Liberty

Waves of children, tidal waves of humanity, pour into the United States after a more than 500-mile trek through some of the world's most inhospitable and dangerous landscape.

These precious children, of all ages, are tired, poor, homeless and all are tempest-tossed by war, poverty, and unbearable cruelty in their home countries. They are the innocent of the world, as are the children of Gaza and Israel. These are God's precious little ones, the very ones who Jesus called to himself, begging for their protection.

This time, America, we cannot look away. We cannot pretend we do not see this great and terrible crisis at our doors. Life will never be the same. Don't you see this, by now? It is all ending faster than we can comprehend what is happening. If each one of us could lift our hearts to the border and welcome these children, the world's last breath would be lightened even just a little.

America, did we forget who we are? We are not our government, our corporations, our economy or domestic or foreign policies. We are the light of the world. We must open our hearts and arms to the children, here and everywhere.

We cannot expect our government to do this, and certainly no corporation would suffer itself such compassion. We as people must seek out a way to save these children. They are the children of the world. They are our children. We must save them. If we don't, who will?


WE HAVE BEEN GIVEN A HOLY COMMAND. WE MUST ACCEPT THE CHILDREN!!!

(This message has been sent to President Obama) 

Bright souls divine

Oh, bright soul of mine
please bless and shine
from heaven's source divine
her purest love and light sublime
into this human life of thine

There are times in life, even among the brightest and best of us, those with the most successful careers, happiest marriages, nicest homes, joyous relationships when a dark cloud passes across the heart and mind. A beautiful moment dims, tears come and the heart grows dark. A strange thought flickers into the mind from who knows where, challenging all that preexisting joy, and like a weed, chokes up the garden's perfection.

The news these days, if you're still one of us, who watches or reads it, is sure to breed weeds and heavy clouds, darkening our individual and collective consciousness. Adding to that is another, even more worrisome dynamic at work in our world that needs to be seen for what it is - not challenged or avoided - but simply seen and acknowledged by the collective mind.

The world as we knew it is no longer. Rather, a beautiful, bright, empowering new world is giving birth to a kind of new Renaissance, a Golden Age. We are in that dark and terrible transition between ages. The new is arriving and the old is quickly dying. However, it is not dying quietly. You know, "it will not go silently into that great night."

The old forces of control, which are that proverbial weed in the garden, are growing out of control due to the absence of love in our world today. Those forces of control have created a kind of fallow field, a stony, dried up spiritual wasteland in which nothing can live. In that environment, terror breeds terror, fear, and oppression all of which suck the life out of life, rendering whole continents so impoverished that nothing can endure, and life succumbs to an invisible virus.

It is like an old car spewing out dark, black exhaust fumes and everyone is choking on them. But, there is a beautiful bright shining new car in the garage that runs on solar energy, not gasoline. Let's drive that one, and send the old one off to the junk yard for parts.

If you are keeping track of ISIS' antics, Ebola casualties, the high suicide rates everywhere - especially in Oregon - you must be shaking your head asking yourself why. That's the old world dying, rotting right before our eyes. We must take our eyes off it. That does not diminish our compassion for those who are victims of those terrible plagues and oppressions.

In order to raise the garage door where the new car is waiting to be driven, we must stop driving the old one. We can do this because we are amazing beings. We are divinity in human bodies. We are light in clay vessels. Our minds can turn water into wine. The only reason we don't do it is because we are so deeply mired, so terribly disempowered by the news and the fear spewed out in the black exhaust fumes of a dying age that we are rendered literally powerless. We are allowing ourselves to be victims of a dying old age.

We are beautiful beings of light, living potentially radiant, powerful, creative, loving, joyous lives. In a sense we're here just to be here and radiate and experience being alive in love. Why would we want to diminish that experience, rather than allow it to fill us and raise us into states of sheer bliss, embracing each other and all of life in a kind of harmonic, resonating from heart to heart?

We each have a soul, maybe some of us share a soul, and our human lives are reflections of the light from our soul, which receives its light from the divine source. If we can remember who we really are, we will shine brighter. If we forget, the exhaust fumes of this dying age will block the divine light and all its life-giving power from coming our way. The little sonnet above reflects that awareness in its bid to remember from where we receive our lives.

So if strange unhappy things are occurring around you, (the many strange little tragedies everywhere - from the polar vortex to a friend's home being burglarized) and when times feel frightening, uncertain and confusing, rather than succumb to the fear, look into the sky and imagine your soul star and invite it to shine heaven's light and love into your human life. You might want to put St. John of the Light's little sonnet on your car dashboard or refrigerator or computer at work to remind you of the big picture of which you are an important and key part. Without you, the world would be darker. To complete the birth of the Golden Age, we need every single bit of light from every single one of us. You are a precious troubadour of light, a powerful knight. Remember who you are.

Thank you for reading Tiger Lilies.

A note: Our book, Only Love Remains, has been sent off to the literary agents for possible publication, which is why it is not on the blog any longer. If you would like a PDF copy, please email Amani at tigerlilieslife@gmail.com and he'll I'll send it to you, as soon as he gets back from Hawaii - any day now.

"I Am"

(I share this with one caveat, I want to differentiate between Jesus the Christ and God the Father. The song, in my opinion, is about the Father - the Universal Consciousness and Creator who pervades the universe to whom Jesus pointed,and from whom Jesus received his mission, awareness, vision, teaching and ultimate enlightenment, and from whom we also can draw our consciousness and power.  Often, non-Christians don't understand the differentiation. Sometimes Christians don't either)

The music is rustic, rock and roll, but the message sounds like Christian enlightenment. Yet, it is universal, beyond the bounds of any and all religions or cultures.  It is the story of the most profound love of the universe, the Consciousness of the One who created it all, that is our consciousness, that is Life and is Love.  To see the glimmering light of this profound awareness in early Judaism - with Moses' on the mountain who hears God say, "I am that I am," and then to hear that awareness developed more clearly in the early teaching of Christ shows us the awesomeness of the Father's love and patience.   

"I Am"

There's no space that His love can't reach
There's no place where we can't find peace
There's no end to Amazing Grace
Take me in with your arms spread wide
Take me in like an orphan child
Never let go, never leave my side.

I am,
Holding on to You.
I am,
Holding on to You.
In the middle of the storm,
I am Holding on,
I am

I am,
Holding on to You.
I am,
Holding on to you.
In the middle of the storm,
I am holding on,
I am

Love like this, Oh my God to find!
I am overwhelmed what a joy divine!
Love like this sets our hearts on fire!

I am,
Holding on to You.
I am,
Holding on to You.
In the middle of the storm,
I am Holding on,
I am

I am,
Holding on to You.
I am,
Holding on to you.
In the middle of the storm,
I am holding on,
I am

This is my Resurrection Song
This is my Hallelujah Come
This is why to You I run
This is my Resurrection Song
This is my Hallelujah Come
This is why to You I run
There's no space that His love can't reach
There's no place that we can't find peace
There's no end to Amazing Grace

I am,
Holding on to You.
I am,
Holding on to You.
In the middle of the storm,
I am Holding on,
I am

I am,
Holding on to You.
I am,
Holding on to you.
In the middle of the storm,
I am holding on,
I am
Songwriters
ERNA, SALVATORE P.

Open invitation to love

Video: Syrian refugees in Lebanon

It's a small world, and what happens in one country impacts the whole world. While geographically we're all divided and subdivided, we are one people, one heart, one humanity.  We cannot ignore what is happening in one country.  It won't go away by itself.   

The children . . . the elderly. . . the sick . . . the poor . . . the hungry . . . all the people need love.  Their suffering is an open invitation to us to open our hearts wider and be more compassionate. Theirs is a sacred opportunity. Is it their fault they found themselves in a war zone?  Is it the children's fault? God is merciful. God is compassionate, and we are God's hands and feet. We cannot say we love God if we abandon others to the suffering that's abounding in our world.  Today, you can pick which country and which cause to lift up another's suffering.  It's everywhere.

This group, Medical Teams International, has a local headquarters in Portland.  I've been to their site, met Jeff Pinneo, and left with a heart overflowing with hope for the world, just because they are in it. They are passionate about helping those who need medicine and healthy life coaching the most.

And, so I share their light with you.

Here's their website: 
www.medicalteams.org

God save the people

Flowers of thy Heart, Oh God, are they

let them not pass like weeds away

Their heritage a sunless day

God save the people  ..

Last week, my sister sent me a beautiful photo of tiger lilies growing in her yard.  She admired them and wanted to show them to me.  Francesca is a sensitive lover of  poetry, art, animals and natural beauty. She saw the flowers and wrote me that they reminded her of this Tiger lilies blog.  And, then, this morning, she wrote me that someone had cut down all her tiger lilies, and sent a picture of the flowerless stalks.

I was sad to see they had been cut down. Only an innocent child would do that, I thought. They might have been thinking that flowers are there for the picking, not realizing that they were killing a beautiful life. I couldn't help thinking, that we are like those flowers, as the poet of the famous God Save the People, made famous in Godspell.  

We are flowers of His Heart, and yet lately the blood of the innocent, Israeli, Syrian, Iraqi, Iranian all are passing away like weeds. I wept at the news that the three Israeli teens were killed.  We had all hoped somehow miraculously they would have been found alive.  

Suddenly, in that news, the flowers in my heart felt more like the dead stumps of my sister's decapitated flowers.  The words to this song from Godspell are stinging my heart.  I am brokenhearted at this news and find the only solace is to cling to the image of my sister's lovely flowers.  

God Save the People

When wilt thou save the people?
O God of mercy, when?
The people, Lord, the people,
Not thrones and crowns, but men!
Flowers of thy heart, O God, are they;
let them not pass like weeds away
Their heritage a sunless day
God save the people

Shall crime bring crime forever,
Strength aiding still the strong?
Is it thy will, O Father,
that men shall toil for wrong?
No, say thy mountains; No, say thy skies;
man's clouded sun shall brightly rise,
and songs be heard, instead of sighs,
God save the people!

When wilt thou save the people?
O God of mercy, when?
The people, Lord, the people!
Not thrones and crowns, but men!
God save the people; thine they are,
thy children as thy angels fair;
from vice, oppression and despair,
God save the people!

by Ebenezer Elliott, 1850

---

Universal power

"Let your light shine before all people . . .

A beautiful green field with gently rolling hills was spread out before me. A soft humming filled the fragrant landscape with a comforting presence, exquisitely welcoming, and vibrantly alive. 

I spanned the picturesque hillside meadow that rose to meet the base of a mountain slope edged in tall pines. The fresh mountain air felt clean and invigorating against my face. I wanted to run, dance, spin and sing. I felt intoxicated by the beauty and presence around me. 

Then, suddenly and fleetingly, as visions usually are, I saw a stunning huge monolithic crystal almost as high as the pines, shimmering before me in the meadow.  As I looked at it, I saw it was broadcasting a radiance, a power, which I can only describe as love. I must have blinked at its sheer brightness glistening in the beautiful sunshine because in a fraction of a second, it was gone. And the vision was over.

I looked down at my big grey tiger cat still sleeping stretched out on the couch. Outside, a torrential rain storm was streaking the windows with buckets of rain water.  My cat's purring seemed to harmonize with the sound of the rain dancing down the windowpanes. I stroked his silky fur and listened to the summer rain storm as I reflected on the vision. I knew instantly what the vision meant. It's what I'd been thinking about for days, weeks, even months so perfectly encapsulated that it could only have come from the angelic realm. And, so, I will share with you what it means.

We human beings are not what we think we are.  We see ourselves in three parts: body, intellect and something spiritual.  But, even those definitive categories are like cardboard stand-ups, lacking the depth of real understanding.  They barely even come close to scratching the surface of what we really are. 

That "something spiritual" is who we are.  It has a depth and multidimensionality that expands outward exponentially, potentially filling the entire universe.  It is the field that I saw. That is the "heart." It is the innermost realm of your total being in which your spirit nests. We've always been told that we have within ourselves an inner light.  We know this and many of us haven't ever seen that light within our minds. Some believe it's there anyway and some don't.  I have seen it and I believe it's there. I believed it was there before I ever saw it. For me it is a very bright sun-like glow at the top of my inner vision horizon.  

This monolithic crystal that was broadcasting radiance was not the same thing, but it might have been.  It is divine love within your soul-mind that is within your consciousness. In a sense that crystal is your soul light. It is your power source. It is solid light that emits a radiant power that is the strongest substance in the universe and yet it is visible light that is clearly palatable.

Because we don't realize who we are, we run around like little ants in a flurry of activity of doing, doing, doing. We are the most magnificent beings who have this universal power source within us all the time, even when we don't see it or know it's there. Unfortunately, too often we don't know it's there and so we think we are powerless and  live our lives steeped in fear and hostility. We negotiate exclusively in materiality, attempting to store up money, wealth, prestige, power as bastions of protection.  

Yet, all that time we could have been living powerfully, creatively and courageously healing and uplifting our lives and all those around us simply through the power of that inner radiance.  It is magnetic, resonant, electric and life generating.  If we all, all of you who are reading this, allowed this powerful love broadcast to radiate out of us, it would do all the work of healing the world. It only asks that we let go control, allow the power to flow and let it carry us into supreme states of sheer joy and love. 

Our light would light the world if we would let go of our fear and surrender to who we really are and let that broadcast of love, light the world as it flows through us.

We can cooperate with the broadcast by intentionally remaining mindful of it, and choosing to love, until it actually changes our thinking patterns and raises our vibration and enlightens and expands our consciousness so that we outwardly become more like what we really are inwardly.

We are love, made of love and made by love.  That love, as I said yesterday, is not a romantic, sentimental Hallmark card kind of love. It is the power of the universe, made of a substance of divine creative power.  It is all that is real. If we knew who we are, fear would dissipate in a second and we and our world would change.  

I'm offering you this vision for you to realize that awesome crystal is inside you.  It might have a personal hue, it might be in a different setting within your mind and imagination. You create the scene. It is your home. It is a gift left there within your heart by your creator for you to share in the power and responsibility of creation. You need to know you are love and you are loved and you are so much more amazing and brilliant and powerful than you can ever imagine.  But, do try to imagine it and let your light shine and heal the world.
_____________________

"Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." Matthew 5:16 KJV

Our only hope

A radiant morning opens a gorgeous new age. The wars are over, the prisoners freed, the children are singing and playing in beautiful garden playgrounds, the world is alive and thriving in joy. The knowledge of anything else is long forgotten.

Maybe that's a 100 years from now!

Stop. Wait. Before you flip on another day's sad news, which the media feeds us daily, hourly, seducing our minds in the way a drug dealer sucks in a new customer, consider for a moment there is a "more excellent way." *  

There is an antidote to the global virus of hatred and fear that has infected us all. While it seems the world has gone pica, which is a distorted sense of real nutritional need which creates an addiction to the very thing causing an illness, there is another way, a simple solution.  But, as anyone who has ever attempted to change an unhealthy habit knows, it may be simple, but it isn't easy.

While the body may actually be starving for a nutrient, pica causes an addiction to the very condition that is causing the need.  An anorexic will have a strong aversion to food, people who are allergic to wheat will crave bread, children who are malnourished for calcium will eat lead based paint.

Has the world become addicted to war and the unimaginable, unwatchable, news coming out of every sector of the planet? Is that addiction leading us away from a healthy response which would heal our world. Are we, the blind codependent victims of violence, becoming its perpetrators through our vacuous complicity?  

There comes that moment in spiritual awakening when you realize you are completely powerless against the furious winds of hatred storming the planet, degrading the quality of life everywhere. People have forgotten it is evil to kill, steal, lie, covet, curse, disrespect your parents, violate the sacred rights of another; and trespass on the hearts, minds and pocket books of others, abuse animals and the earth, cleverly manipulate and devise complex psychological strategies and methods to control the minds of innocent victims by the predatory capitalist marketplace for selfish gain.  Who has not been touched by this, infected, weakened, stung in some way? 

The global agony is so vast, so out of control, you realize anything you could possibly ever do wouldn't so much as make the slightest difference in tipping the planet back onto the axis of sanity.  But, to do nothing feels like the most ungrateful response to this great gift of life from our loving creator. 

The call to "fight the good fight" has never been more urgently needed.  It is heard in our on-going  reach for global peace, humanitarian feeding and clean water projects throughout Africa, lobbying in Washington for the ever expanding rights and recognition of the diverse groups of the American population which fragments further each year, the desperately needed environmental efforts and scientific search for clean energy, and the loud cry of the innocent victims of tyranny in the Middle East and the Ukraine. The call is pounding in the hearts and minds of every conscious human being. 

It is a global call to arms, heard by each one of the 7 billion (and rising) to work, dream, create in whatever way one is able to leave the world better than the place they found it.  If we each did this, things would change in a moment, in a single second of time. But, the task is overwhelming, and the path is dark and overgrown.

To love is the only way out of this nightmare. It is "the good fight." And, it's not a Hallmark card. It's not romantic. It's not sentimental and it's not weak. It is the ultimate power of the universe. It's just too bad the word itself has been so degraded in meaning. It too has been corrupted as has everything else that's beautiful and sacred.

It is the power of God in your imagination, in your dreaming, praying, and in genius visionary planning.  It is the light of divine wisdom streaming into your mind and then down the 100 yard line into your well barricaded heart. It is hope, and is often born out of a form of righteous indignation, a passionate cry to God for mercy, for help, for redemption, for healing, for enlightenment, for life - again and again and again until finally the creaking rusty ancient steel door of your precious sacred heart begins to slowly budge open.  

You might push against it with all your might for a long time until a single thought flings it open. You suddenly awaken and are enlivened by the awareness that you are loved and you are loving and there is no one there who judges, condemns, or punishes you. There is only love, flowing like a crystal clear river, inviting you to flow with it. That love, like a radiant sunrise within your being, is the antidote to everything that haunts and spoils life on our once beautiful planet.

It is the hope for the children, for the aged, for the prisoner, for the animals, for all of life. It is the only hope. And, it is not of our own making, our own doing. We cannot roll away that massive stone gate opening into heaven from within our own hearts, unless we ask the angels to help us. Unless we are completely in tune with God whom we encounter within our most sacred chamber, we are powerless. 

This is that great moment of grace. Only God can open our hearts. We can only ask, and wait. As one waits in a Japanese garden for the master to invite him into the tea house, we wait for God's angel to unlock the gate to our hearts.  There is no other way, but it is the only way.  And, even that way is easy. All we have to do is simply ask and it is done.  Period. From that moment on, all of our power is hinged to our intention to love, to remain in perfect union (communion) with divine love within us.  If we don't have time to meditation or pray formally, the intention alone is sufficient to keep the heart open and flowing with the love light of the divine, making us powerful enough to reverse all that plaques the world.  

And, just in case we have forgotten what love is, I'll close with the immortal words of St. Paul:

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, 

but do not have love, 

I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.

If I have the gift of prophecy 

and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, 

and if I have a faith that can move mountains, 

but do not have love, I am nothing. 

If I give all I possess to the poor 

and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, 

but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient 

Love is kind 

Love does not envy

Love does not boast 

Love is not proud 

Love does not dishonor others 

Love is not self-seeking 

Love is not easily angered

Love keeps no record of wrongs 

Love does not delight in evil 

Love rejoices with the truth 

Love always protects  

Love always trusts 

Love always hopes 

Love always perseveres
Love never fails 

But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became an adult, I put the ways of childhood behind me.  For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. 

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthinas 13, NIV)

Weeping

Think, dream, speak only about Peace

Listen with your heart to your enemy's pain,

until you feel his fear and know his history.

There is no other way

until we take down the walls that hide 

their sorrow and fear, hidden within their rage.

There is no other way

until we find love for the other 

who we call an enemy 

"WEEPING" by Dan Heymann

I knew a man who lived in fear

It was huge, it was angry, it was drawing near

Behind his house, a secret place

Was the shadow of the demon he could never face

He built a wall of steel and flame

And men with guns, to keep it tame

Then standing back, he made it plain

That the nightmare would never ever rise again

But the fear and the fire and the guns remain

It doesn’t matter now

It’s over anyhow

He tells the world that it’s sleeping

But as the night came round

I heard its lonely sound

It wasn’t roaring, it was weeping

And then one day the neighbors came

They were curious to know about the smoke and flame

They stood around outside the wall

But of course there was nothing to be heard at all

"My friends," he said, "We’ve reached our goal

The threat is under firm control

As long as peace and order reign

I’ll be damned if I can see a reason to explain

Why the fear and the fire and the guns remain"

Hope for the world

As an oyster on the ocean floor, a radiantly beautiful new world is opening before us.  This new scene on an old stage brings an entirely fresh hope to the weariness of our lives, tossed tempestuously for millenia against the illusive reefs and rocks of uncertainty and lost meaning. 

Today the despair and fear of those ages are only damp ashes from a former firestorm. It is over. The war is won and we are here now to rebuild our world with a brand new arsenal of medicinal tools. It is akin to a bright sunny morning after a terrible night of winds and storms that wiped out a third of the world in its fits of fury and oppressive control. The angels have won and today, if only for a day, we can rejoice and rest in this news. Tomorrow the clean up begins.

Our tears will dry, lives will be restored and those precious souls who lost their lives at the hands of those enslaved by the dark soulless structures will be elevated to heavenly places of light and endless life. In some incomprehensible way, they helped birth this new world.

Perhaps it is a kind of New Jerusalem, gilded in crystalline light, sparkling, glistening, softly now appearing amid the rising mists in the warmth of this new day. It may be more palpable, sensory, than visual at first as it profoundly radiates love's resonance deep into the far reaches of our interiority. Stirring, awakening, our hearts, this love nurtures us with its own unique and breathlessly beautiful joy and peace. Like the gorgeous colors of a rainbow, it cannot be described, only experienced.  

Today, in the drying tears and dying winds of a thousand centuries of misery, the rainbow of love rises before us, shimmering in its technicolor promise and gift of restoration and life. It is sweet with the vision of a spiritually vibrant spring after a long, dark and frozen northern winter.  In its tender promise is a hope and the assurance that things have finally changed.

The dark lords are gone.  As the ancient dinosaurs, beasts who once stalked the Earth, were gone one morning, so are these dark fearsome forces. After ages of oppression, twisted manipulative insanity which consumed the bodies and souls of our brethren, they are gone.  All that remains of their vain Godless structures, are ghosts, powerless phantoms, now dimming out of our memory.They are not here in this new world.The stench of their tyrannical blood thirsty greed, their exhausting terror, endless world domination, their dark charade - is over!

While we are left to clean up the planet, aided by angels and light beings from throughout the cosmos, it is an honorable opportunity of great joy.  Yet, as we greet it with relief, tears still linger, and may for awhile, for those who suffered as unwilling victims at their hands, plyed by their vast global predations, campaigns which fed on the lives they selfishly weakened  before consuming completely.  Those who perished are safely in the arms of God now, and lovingly restored into new lives of light and their nightmares forgotten.

Perhaps the skeletal remains of the dark lords' crimes against God's children will sink like ancient Atlantis deep into the bottom of our great oceans, never to be seen again.  And, maybe only as a warning, reminding fuure generations of what once was, they would be found a million years in the future by some intrepid archaeologist.  

But, as for today, only the fresh florid scent of roses, the songs of the birds rejoicing in their own free abandon among the softly drifting leaves on the large gentle trees are here, now. And, for those of you courageous enough to embrace this vision I share now with you, sing with them as we are all freed together from the great and terrible lie that held us in its dark grip for so long.  As you believe, you are freed from its fallacious hold.  

Here is the promise and the keys to this new age:  You are free to dream, to fearlessly and joyously unleash your passion for life, drink deeply of your life and spare no time whatsoever in living and loving as loudly as you are capable. And, tomorrow, your power will be fully restored to you and your joy abounding beyond your current ability to contain it. It is with that power together we will build our new Earth.

Silent no more

I wonder what were her thoughts as she walked hand-in-hand with her husband on that warm May evening? I wonder if her last thoughts were of her unborn baby, her beloved husband and the hope for a new life together? I hope her death came quicker than the awareness that it was her own father who cast the first brick to her head, killing her.  

The world's oppression of women, especially in heavily patriarchal cultures, is desperately calling out to us, begging us to all awaken to the oppression in our own lives and those of our sisters, mothers, grandmothers and daughters. Nothing will ever be the same again. Once you realize your soul has been in bondage, a funny thing happens.  It's suddenly not in bondage anymore. That awakening has to spread across the world, into every pocket, enclave, home and community.

The tears of billions of women in varying stages of liberation are giving birth to a new generation of feminine liberation. The voices of those weeping alone tonight all over the world - from heart break, soul loss or physical torture, silently suffering in a million different ways - are being heard at last.

This includes the more than 200 Nigerian school girls being held captive by Boko Haram. Their fate remains uncertain and who can imagine what they are suffering presently? I pray God is protecting them.

This week, when I first read about a young Pakistani woman, three months pregnant, who was stoned to death by her own father, brothers and their male accomplices, while her beloved newlywed husband stood by helplessly unable to save her, I was shocked.  I couldn't breathe.  My heart was profoundly wounded by that unbelievable cruelty. As an unbearable deep ache within me took my breath away, I felt physically sick. I quickly turned the page of the newspaper. I didn't want to know this could happen anywhere. I attempted to turn away, pretend that it wasn't true as I have so many, many times when I've read or heard about the unbelievable injustice, exploitation, use and abuse of innocent women virtually everywhere - Africa, the Middle East, Pakistan, America, even Portland. 

From sex trafficking in America to the sale of pre-pubescent girls by their families into marriages to much older men in the Middle East, it's too hard to comprehend such things can happen, much less speak up, stand up and wake everyone else to this great evil.

But, earlier today, headlines on CNN made an even more disturbing revelation unavoidable.  I read the incomprehensible. This woman's husband had killed his first wife a few years earlier so he could marry her. 

At first, I wondered if she knew that and what kind of man would do that and how could she love such a man and risk her own life to be with him. Then came the realization of the terrible tragedy of it all. Women who are caught in such a culture don't know any better. As much as they are victims, so are their oppressors. They participate, unwillingly perhaps, in the continuation of the ultimate dysfunctional culture. They accept their lower status and attempt to navigate among abusers as part of their everyday lives. This young wife, soon to be a mother, had traded one family of abusers for another.  Her husband like her own father and brothers are all victims of this hideously ugly ignorance.  Under the spell of this dark systemic evil all is lost - body and soul. Life itself will not endure this silently any longer.   

Have all their souls been silenced, numbed by fear and ignorance? I can't comprehend what causes a father to put a noose on his daughter's neck and cast bricks against her skull until the life in her is cast out.  What kind of cultural brainwashing could go against the natural loving bond of a father and daughter? In other parts of the world, fathers die everyday protecting their wives and children.That has been how it always has been.  What would allow this to happen? 

And if, as some say it has, this has happened for over a thousand years why are we only waking up to this obvious evil now?  I would suggest that we have collectively, finally, evolved to a place of absolute non-acceptance.  We cannot stand by and watch this happen as we've watched the dictator Bashar Assad torture and commit genocide against his own people in Syria, a once beautiful country long touted as an Eden, as one of the most fertile and vibrant countries in the world.  

As this long foretold, newly emerging Golden Age is calling us all to the awareness of our unity as a human race, slowly, yet virulently, it will not tolerate this kind of prejudice against women or the cruel, merciless exploitation and oppression of any who are marginalized victims. The new age will not be silent. Our tears will be heard and are being heard. If the world is silent, nonchalant, unresponsive to such cruelty, the angels of justice, those invisible hands that orchestrate life itself, will give back to those what they have given.  

"Justice is mine," they say, the Lord has declared.  And, while I don't believe in justice, it seems this Pakistani husband had his beloved wife taken from him as he had taken his first wife's life.  While that isn't justice, because justice cannot restore the lives of those two innocent women, it clearly makes one sit up and listen.

With all that in mind, I share the following that I received in my e-mail this morning.  It seems fitting, especially, given the great birth pains of the divine feminine, today. She, who has been silenced into subservience, self-exiled from her own creative life, murdered, beaten, tortured, rejected, abandoned to die at the hands of those she trusted, will not be silent any longer.  She is us as we are all one with each other.  If a woman suffers as this woman did, or as the 200 school girls, or the shakled and brutally tortured imprisoned person in one of Assad's dark prisons in Syria,  or the missing girls in America or the countless women who are sexually traded, assaulted, raped and abused everywhere, everyday - we all suffer.  

We cannot be silent anymore.  Everyone of us has to reach for our soul and speak out, dream our biggest dreams and rekindle our own souls, breakout of the closet our too long repressed  passion for our lives.  Together we are one and only as one will we rise into the full stature of our collective humanity.  

Eve has tasted the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil and she will never be silenced again.  Taste it.  It is life itself.

    

This post comes from a friend of the "Standing on the Side of Love Campaign" and contains personal and community reflections and resources about sexism, patriarchy, and sexual assault. Trigger Warning for sexual assault and violence. There is no greater agony than  bearing an untold story inside you. -Dr. Maya Angelou This past week, another tragic mass shooting occurred in Isla Vista, California. This time, the shooter released several videos and a manifesto that made clear his distaste for many people, especially, but certainly not limited to, women. In these materials, the shooter expressed his beliefs that women should be judged on their appearance and that he was owed sexual experiences from women. Also this past week, we also lost a great American hero, Dr. Maya Angelou. Assaulted as a young child, Dr. Angelou did not speak for five years, believing her words brought on the death of her perpetrator. She later found her voice and used it to raise awareness about the many times she experienced sexual violence and assault throughout her lifetime in over 30 works including autobiographies, anthologies of poetry, books for children and more. She taught countless women the importance of sharing our stories to release the guilt and shame we might otherwise internalize after experiencing sexual violence. And on a personal level, this past week I was sexually assaulted.  Shortly after the Isla Vista shootings, the #YesAllWomen Twitter hashtag sparked a nation-wide conversation on misogyny and patriarchy, and I had a burning desire to share my story. These milestones all occurring this week make it so clear to me that patriarchy still rules our society, that sexual assault and misogyny are not limited to one incident but are a ubiquitous threat, in varying levels, to all of us. The humanity of every person is threatened by this reality. I wanted to share my story both to help me heal personally, and to provide information that yes, all women, and all people of all gender identities might find useful. Immediately after the assault, friends and family pointed me to resources that have helped me profoundly. I hope all of you reading this have never experienced, and will never experience sexual assault or violence. Sadly, statistics and personal experience force us to acknowledge and bear witness to the fact that far too many women, far too many people, will have to suffer through this as well. If you, or a loved one, experience sexual assault, here are some points you may find helpful: • Ask for and accept help as you are able and willing: This might be something that is usually hard. I realized early on I needed to be honest with a close circle of people about what happened so that I could have their support. I also reached out immediately to a local rape crisis center and survivor’s advocacy network. To find information on your own local resources visit: RAINN and the National Center for Victims of Crime. • Be prepared to make difficult decisions: The circumstances of every assault are different, but in my case, like so many others, I knew my assailant. There were many things that needed to happen immediately so I could be in a safe space away from harm, and that was the most important thing I needed to focus on. You or your loved one might also be confronted with many other immediate decisions, like whether to go to a hospital to get a “rape kit” done, when to reach out to sexual assault detectives, or deciding to press charges. People will likely give you conflicting advice, something I experienced over and over. I was also told: “ultimately it is up to you to decide”, as if that would be comforting. It wasn’t. I didn’t ask to be assaulted in the first place, and it felt like I had this huge burden of making all of these deeply uncomfortable decisions that felt overwhelming. I got through it by practicing self-care while journaling to see what felt like the right things to do for me. You may find creative expression might be something that helps you as well. • Remember that ending patriarchy and misogyny will take work: Transforming the way we treat ourselves and each other will take lots of love, compassion and time. But we have to take action today to ensure that the normalization of violence against cisgender and transgender women, genderqueer and gender non-conforming people ends. For more information on transformation check out Black Feminism Lives, Against Patriarchy: 20 Tools for Men to Further the Feminist Revolution and the UUA Reproductive Justice Curriculum for Congregations. For a few days after my sexual assault happened, all I wanted to do was scream with rage. In fact, one day I had to do just that. I parked my car in an almost vacant lot, turned a warrior women song on full blast, so loud my car shook, and I screamed. I screamed until my face hurt, until I let all that rage and anger and fear out of me, so it wouldn’t stay inside and become toxic. Then I made a very conscious decision to stop screaming. I turned off the music, and sat very still. Later, I wrote some words from Dr. Angelou in my journal: You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them. One thing you might consider doing is sharing this story with others in your lives, so they have access to these resources. You might also want to share your own story, perhaps anonymously like me, or with your own voice—whatever feels most comfortable and safe to you. In the words of Dr. Angelou: History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again. I ask you to join me so that collectively we can change the long history of sexual violence in our communities. Listen to the stories shared by people directly impacted by violence. Our collective future of love and liberation depends on it. Signed, #YesAllWomen PS: #YesAllWomen has acted as an important rallying call in recent days as people share stories of systemic and personal violence that is normalized. We recognize that people with many gender identities are impacted by violence. Let us begin with working for the human rights of all people to be respected.

Above photo:  https://sites.stedwards.edu/andrewkf/2014/04/30/incarnation-and-the-dignity-of-women/