A Time of Initiation

Have you noticed how we are no longer debating whether global warming is/is not going to happen (it's here is the quiet consensus) but whether we humans will make it through the multitude of changes and challenges, or not?  Books on " 2012" abound and prophecies of civilizations no more, are being used to support both the doomsday predictions of the changes and by those who conclude we are entering the next golden age.  So what really do we know about what is going down?

Knowing often brings humans a sense of comfort because knowing offers us a sense of control, and control is what we have all been taught grants not only safety, but power. Yet, what has power when change and challenges are not only out of our control, but overwhelming in their nature and scope as well?

As Einstein offered, insanity is continuing to choose responses that created a problem in the first place, and expecting the problem to change...not!  Meeting the challenges in our lives offers an invitation, an initiation really, for choices and power different than we have been choosing.....choices made differently with our divine and infinite knowledge and power as human beings.

Initiation means "to begin" and is the perfect word for reminding ourselves to begin to bring our infinite and divine knowledge and power to our challenges.  Our physical minds and hands alone cannot meet the changes and challenges life is bringing us in spades these days.  Alone we never are if we initiate engaging our infinite power and knowledge for what challenges us, and what challenges us offers us the beauty, satisfaction, and legacy of our infinite, divine, creativity as human beings.

The Mother's Prayer

Motherhood was once honored as a sacred calling, the nurturing of a child into an adult considered of critical value to the entire community. The sacredness of motherhood was believed to have the active support of the sacred, ancient wisdom believing the prayers offered by a mother the only prayers God was bound to honor.

Whether we believe in the prayers of a mother being more powerful or not, we can honor "Mother" by honoring ourselves as daughters of the mother we all have in common... Mother Earth. When we honor ourselves as daughters and sons of Mother Earth, all life that receives Her nurturance, Her shelter, Her sustenance, becomes our relatives.  And the Earth Mother's sacred prayer for Her children's harmony, happiness, and peace,  is a sacred prayer we are now being called upon to honor as human beings.

Just what IS grace these days?

"Grace" is a word getting a lot of press these days as is "divine feminine", "women's leadership", etc. and while catchy as sound-bites, just how the heck do they apply to life in the real world (translates to already too full schedules as women? As an exacerbated client shared this morning as I was teaching her about "soul language" "it's like having to learn a whole new language and I am already overwhelmed!".
In my work with women, I update words and concepts for both more congruence in today's world and for the word's offer of it's power in our daily lives. Often this means taking a word we have learned as a noun and updating it's relevance as a verb. For example, the word "grace"- which we learned was something one had (or did not) I teach is more a state of being, a dynamic we live in-in short, a verb.  And yes, it is like learning to learn a new language...so whassup?

We are changing and transforming from talking and knowing in our head to living and being our humanity-and divinity- in everyday life. Our language will reflect these changes ....the words of control and manipulation transforming into the language of faith and trust, the words of coercion and challenge transforming into the language of cooperation and opportunity, the words of "either-or" transforming into the language of "both-and", the limitations of our words giving way to the living grace of our heart and soul as human beings.

So next time you find yourself frustrated by "what used to be so" and now needing to change, congratulate yourself for noticing an invitation from your life to update and transform more into your "being".  Life offers in every one of her challenges, power within the challenge for meeting it.  When we choose to let go of life as a series of nouns and live our faith in life and of ourselves, we gain the grace of our divinity flowing through our humanity, the living gift of being a human.

Walking as a God/dess on Earth

With temperatures about freezing for the first time in months-and our April Fool's Day snowfall melting-I took myself on a walkabout today on the land I live on. Winter's stay was long and harsh this year and I knew winter's damage would be compounded by the damage of hungry deer looking to stay alive with 4 feet of snow on the ground.

Splintered branches, young pines snapped in half, sides of young hemlocks nibbled mostly away, and cracked trunks of bushes I look forward to the blooms of, were the sights greeting me as I walked about in the warming sun of April. I sighed as I tagged the trees and bushes needing tending,  reminded again of the circle of life.

When I first become the steward of land I live on, winter's damage saddened me, and I did not know how to respond to the damage. I love trees and after a heavy snowfall, take my broom out to brush off bushes and branches bending almost in half with snow weight. I became more comfortable with pruning and cutting off the damage of winter after learning the cost of damaged limbs to the health of the rest of the tree. I became more comfortable with honoring my power as God/dess with my beloved green companions.

With our choices in life-with our beloved animal companions, with what we eat, with what we give our precious time and energy to-we choose what lives and what does not in our life.  And when we honor the trust of power given to us as human beings, we begin to honor how our actions-even the ones we call small-often have large impact in the world we are trusted to walkabout as a God/dess.

Pausing for Prayers Simple and Big

"I feel a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced."

―Obi-Wan after feeling the Destruction of Alderaan

Unfolding in Japan are immense human, health, financial, and life tragedies, challenges, and changes for the people of Japan. Watching a video of the tsunami coming ashore, my breath stopped, my mind screamed, and my heart began to pray. I felt as Obi-Wan said....a great disturbance of the Force and again, a reminder how our belief in separation from each other is a false belief, not a truth. Technology gifts us with ability to know what is happening with our human family around the world and tragedy reminds us to offer our prayers, simple and big.

Choosing our Divinity Simple and Big

As humans beings, our divinity serves our humanity, or as I like to say, we are gods and goddesses serving time on Earth! Our divinity is "built" for flowing through and for our everyday life, needing nothing more than our simple choice to exercise it's big power. For our family in Japan, in New Zealand, in Libya, in Bahrain, for those unknown to us, our divinity is needed in ways simple and big. Choose to pause a moment in your busy day and offer a simple prayer for those in unimaginable pain and sorrow. Choose to pause talking on your phone with your friends and simply text a donation (90999) to Japanese relief efforts. Choose to pause and take a deep breath of gratitude for being alive and then again draw another deep breath simply because you can. Choose to light a candle for those in the darkness of despair and the feeling of being alone. It really is simple to exercise our divinity and when we do so for our human family of the world, divinity flows big.

In gratitude for your presence in my life,

JaiKaur

“Surrender", the “kissing cousin” of commitment, is another word/concept that (unfairly) has come to have a bad reputation. Like so many words and concepts whose definition means one thing in the seen world and almost the opposite in the unseen world, surrender is a powerful word and concept. Once my clients begin to get over their confusion at the paradox of meanings between the exterior and interior world, and embrace the interior meaning of surrender, magic begins to happen!

Surrender is the choice to put aside our mental pre-conceptions of what is and is not possible, our allegiance and belief in the supreme power of control, and our fear of the unknown and the unseen. Surrender is making the choice to create room for the sacred, the unknown, the mystery of life, to deliver it’s grace and wisdom in reponse to the call of our heart and soul. Surrender is honoring the divine marriage of the earthly and the heavenly, suspending our disbelief and embracing our faith, and the willingness to entrust possibilities not made of simply mental means. Thus the saying "let go and let God"!

"Surrender to the Goddess" reminds woman to surrender to the divine nature of her being, initiating the sacred marriage of what we call a human being. When we surrender to the Goddess we are, matters on earth become sooo much easier and joyful for like any marriage, the alchemy of the partners-in this case the earthly and the heavenly-creates a third where magic and miracle abound!

Commitment is a word that has gotten a bad rap in the last generation and is a word in bad need of a reality check. The definition of commitment is "dedication, allegiance, loyalty, faithfulness, fidelity" ....what's to knock about any of that? Me thinks it is not what commitment is as much as the mis-use of the word commitment to mean handing ourselves over to others.....clearly not what the true definition of commitment is!

When working with a client, one of our core exercises is up-dating concepts and words from having meaning and power outside of ourselves to claiming their meaning and power within ourselves. Commitment is no different; it is a word and a power first applied to oneself. What do I commit my precious life and energy to? What commitment do I make regarding my thoughts? Will I commit to my deepest values or simply go along with whatever?

Commitment is needed to create, to grow, to achieve in life. When an acorn commits to growing, it commits to pushing up against the darkness and weight of the soil for reaching the sunlight it needs to grow into an oak tree. As human beings, we live our days by committing to some level of faith and trust of the unknown; if not, we would never get out of bed!

Women seed, nurture, and contain the creative forces and this grace we flow through us as women relies on our commitment to do so. When we do not commit to being a woman first and make the mistake of committing instead to the duties of roles and expectations of others, we feel the unhappiness and dissatisfaction of committing so. Where we commit as women lies the caliber of our lives as well as those we lead through our vision and wisdom as women.

Once we embrace the power of commitment as women, we offer ourselves the opportunity to surrender to divine grace, a topic I take up in my next blog "Surrendering to the Goddess"....stay tuned!