Where Am I?

Paradise is where I am.  Voltaire

We sometimes forget that wherever we go, we carry all of the universe with us.  That means that all of our beliefs, values and thoughts about the universe go with us all the time.  

Write a story; create a future, Stephanie Dowrich, tells us.  In writing my story, I can create anything my heart's desire is and in the process, I can make up some stuff to fill in the blanks.  

Somewhere recently, I read, "Make it easy."  That is part of my new story.  To make everything I think, say and do very easy.  My personal motto has always been, "Simple, fun and easy."  Parts of my life have not been simple, fun or easy.  Time to incorporate that into my story too.

Paradise is easily translated as our Kingdom within.  Paradise has a nice, healthy, luxurious and affluent ring to it.  Sometimes it is hard for me to realize that like Dorothy, Kansas is not a version of Paradise, but for me right now, it needs to be because I am here in Oklahoma. 

So, with writing a new story while creating a future, I am going to add, "or at least create a compelling present."  Thomas Edison, or someone as wise as he was said, "Do something that will astonish you." I know that in my compelling present, I can astonish myself into something great, grand and glorious.  I love the concept of astonishment!  It adds an element of excitement and certainly makes life more interesting and FUN.  

I invite you to join me in the exploration of our current Paradise.

Make It All An Adventure

Passion excites and compels you.  It makes your life rich and extraordinary.  Marcia Wieder 

Have you ever wondered what makes life extraordinary?  What could make your life extraordinary?  What does it mean to be extraordinary?

Marcia goes on to tell us, "...when you open up to the potential of having what you want, you allow wonderful people and events to appear in your life.  When  you clarify what you're committed to having, and when you believe that everything is possible, the results i your life will seem effortless and show up easily.  The key is to get in touch with what you feel passionate about, what excites and motivates you."  

So few people ever think about, let alone do something, that will move them into a place of excitement, motivation and passion.  I think that is what makes us extraordinary.  

Recently, I was looking for something I wrote out about what my purpose in life was.  Couldn't find it on my computer.  Where did I write that and what was it about?  I know it was short, compelling, and kept me focused for a lot of years.  

In my process of lightening up my life, I made the decision to release my 2,000 plus library of books and to pass them on to be treasures for someone else.  I would keep the ones that I still wanted to read but release the ones already read and those which no longer had an interest for me.

In picking up Marcia's book, Making Your Dreams Come True, I found what I was looking for.  Somewhere in my past, I took a marketing course and we had to write out our purpose - a directive that would keep us on track and would be something easy to reply to the question of, "What is it that you do?"  

I wrote, "I assist people in deepening their spiritual practices to create a higher quality of life."  What this means to me is that I add value, share information, inspire, encourage and support, see the spiritual magnificence in everyone, have fun, and make life an adventure.  And I am still doing that.  

I invite you to think about what it is that keeps you up late at night, wakes you up early in the morning eager to jump into your life, what is so wonderful and compelling that you can hardly wait to do it and what it is that keeps you doing it over and over, day after day.  Being extraordinary is inherent in all of us.  I want more of it, how about you?

Clear and Specific Language

Life delivers to us exactly what it is that we think, say and do.  Dr. Cindy Flor-Lambert

Reading a very well known metaphysical author, I was again struck by the use of language and how often we take for granted that what the authorities

say as gospel.  

Here is an example of what I am talking about:  I now command the forces of life to bring me abundance and prosperity and riches.  Those of us who are familiar with the teachings of how to use our minds to create what it is that we want, know that we already live in the Kingdom of God.  In this Kingdom, all is provided (at least in mine it is) in profuse amounts and is distributed everywhere and in every place.  

If we are not experiencing the abundance of the universe, then our thinking or language is off kilter and needs revision in  order to experience exactly what it is that we want.  So, let us read the above sentence again and then revise it to read:  I now command the forces of life to bring me in ever-increasing amounts of abundance, prosperity and riches permanently.

A subtle but important difference.  The key to all of this is to pay attention to what you are thinking, saying, and reading.  

Be careful of saying "will bring, is bringing or is going."  When?  The lesson is to stay in the "present" because that is what the brain/mind system hears.  

Another "All disharmony and conflict fade away."  Really!  Again, when? Rather than focusing on the negative, change the sentence to "All harmony and peace are reflected in my life now and forever."  

We know that what we focus on is what we get.  I have decided to get really picky and careful with what I want to experience from this point forward so I am tuned in and aligned only with my highest and best good.  I challenge you to do the same.

New Leaf Wellness

Choose the fine, truly kindly, rich, sympathetic, encouraging, vigorous words that go with your new "part."  Choose your words carefully, fastidiously.  Eliminate destructive words.  Throw them out one at a time.  Purify your speech as you would purify the water you drink.  get the deadly germs of all that is dispiriting and fatiguing out of it!  Margery Wilson

Since having had oral surgery several months ago and not being able to eat solid foods, I have released some major stored up energy.  I have decided that I am ready for a smaller body, more energy, vigor and strength.  I have decided that I want to turn over a new leaf - one that is filled with health and wellness.

My new "part" is one of a smaller body.  Do you know how hard it is to talk about weight loss without "waiting" and knowing that "loss" is not a reality and can easily be "found?"  Choosing the "right" words has been a challenge for me.  At first, I used the language of "using up stored energy." Not very motivating.  Since the focus is on language and the pictures it creates in mind, I have played with different ways of saying what it is that I want to create in my life.

What I have come up with is, "I am shrinking into my skinny body."  Meaning that I am shrinking into my ideal shape and size of what will make me feel the satisfaction and joy of a smaller body.  

The above quote can be used as a reminder that no matter what is going on in your life, we need to choose encouraging words that will foster our forward movement into joy and happiness.  I was reminded yesterday of a situation that occurred, that no matter what is going on, I am in peace.  

Part of my new speech is that all of the pleasure I am experiencing also replenishes my energy.  I volunteered my platelets this week and had the starch taken out of me.  Whew!  What an experience.  Not only was the experience long, but I had to sit still and pay attention to what was going on with the machine doing the work of filtering my blood and replacing it.  I had a great deal of difficulty finding the pleasure in it other than I knew I was assisting some people who needed the platelets in order to experience a healthier life after cancer or whatever.  

I know that the people receiving my platelets not only are healed but that they are receiving a "dose" of high consciousness that I placed in my donation while I was having to sitting still.  Thankfully, only I control my mind and what is taking place.  Choose well.

Answers Abound

There is an answer to your question when you ask it.  Before you can speak audibly, the desire creates the thing which produces the culmination of it at once.  If we could get out of our consciousness these things that hinder this omniscience from flowing through into objective recognition, we would like a life without effort.  Ernest Holmes

Living life without effort.  Grace Points.  Living life with the full trust that all is well, that all we need shows up, that life brings to us our deepest heart's desire without asking.  We know that everything is mind - your mind, my mind, God's mind.  What we put into mind individually, is put into mind universally.  All One Mind.  

The most difficult for me is to pay close attention to my thoughts because so much of what my Mother said is still there and comes out in the most interesting ways.  I question the thought and wonder if it truly is mine for something my Mother said and I accepted as truth at the time.  I have a feeling this is why my "trust" factor is a bit skewed.  I don't remember how old I was when I discovered that Mom couldn't be trusted with what she said or did because all she did was for her own benefit.  I do remember that after that discovery, I never fully trusted her and even now have to question some of my thoughts and how I feel about them.

Trusting that life brings what I need is a struggle.  Maybe it a controlling issue too.  Can I give up, fully release, and get into an acceptance that all of my life is truly well?  

Digging into consciousness is something that intrigues me because of some of the demonstrations I have had recently.  Several blogs back, I wrote that I was open to new ideas for what was new and different in my life.  Since I have retired from active ministry, I was feeling a sense of loss and of purpose.  I asked  how I could be of service to a great many people and still  have a feeling of satisfaction and fulfillment.

I got my answer yesterday.  The idea came to me that I had not contacted our blood bank since returning from vacation and that I needed to do that.  I called and was asked if I would be interested in giving platelets.  Apparently, my body is a platelet manufacturing machine.  I said yes.  Made the appointment.  Then, realized that I found a way to be of service to a great many people and just thinking about that, gave me a felling of satisfaction and fulfillment.  

Releasing, letting go, accepting what is, relaxing.  I can do all of that.  How about you?

Grace Points

Grace is the logical result of the correct acceptance of life and of a correct relationship to the Spirit.  Grace is the livingness of Spirit to Its Creation and is not a special law, but a specialized one.  Ernest Holmes

Wonder what a correct acceptance and a correct relationship to the Spirit means?  Or that Grace is a specialized Law?  Dr. Holmes, what are you saying and what did you mean by the above statements?

My question in my thinking was, "I wonder what it would be like to live in Grace all the time?"  Now that I have looked it up, I am more confused than ever.  The dictionary is even worse.  Since I don't believe in regeneration or sanctification, I assume that grace is really about paying attention to those times in life when wonderful things just seem to happen.  

What would it be like to live with grace points?  What I mean is what would it be like to live to open, so aware, so grateful that grace showed up every step of the day.  

Ernest Holmes talks about "living in the Kingdom."  To me, that Kingdom would be surrounded by, immersed in, filled with, and centered in Grace.  What if we substituted the word Grace with the word Good?  It is easy to accept that we are surround with Good.  I think that Grace is like a step up on consciousness. 

Joel Goldsmith talks about grace as giving up needing or asking or desiring anything in your life and what shows up is grace.  Wonder what that would be like to just trust that all shows up on time and in the right time?  I am willing to give it a go if you are.

I am ready to experience more Grace Points in my life.  How about you?