Run Away? Why?

For where does one run to when [s]he's already in the promised land?  Claud Brown

For years, one of my sister's and I would joke about running away, but not having a place to run to.  Where would we go?  And, unfortunately, we were never ready to run at the same time.  There was a whole world "out there" but no where to go.

Remembering my early years, when I was struggling to maintain food, clothing and shelter, 

I said that "someday" I would have enough money to go where I wanted, when I wanted to and do what I wanted to.  My "someday" has been with me for several decades and I still have the yearning to run away occasionally.  But where would I go.  I usually escape to the library, or a movie, or lunch in a fancy restaurant alone.  

Since having had my surgery, my mouth is not in the best of shape yet, all I want is to eat a prime rib when what I have to do is puree most of my food in order to get it past the tender spots in my mouth.  Living in the promised land with a tender mouth is a challenge.

Currently, I am reading Sarah Ban Breathnach's, "The Simple Abundance Companion," and at the end of each chapter she has added an exercise called, "Write Your Way into Wholeness."  Writing my way into my wholeness I have had to recognize that this is my time slowing up, resting, healing and doing what she calls, "Approach the day as if it were an adagio - a melody played in an easy graceful manner."  Why would I want to run away from an "easy graceful manner?"  

Ah, this approach has taught me yet again to change how I look at what is going on in my life.  I live in a promised land.  I have all I need and could possibly want right now.  My life is rich and I am so blessed - for truly I have an extraordinary life.  

Support Yourself in the Process

If anyone could tell you the shortest, surest way to all happiness and all perfection, he must tell you to make it a rule to thank and praise God for everything that happens to you.  For it is certain that whatever seeming calamity happens to you, if you thank and praise God for it, you turn it into a blessing.  You could not do more for yourself than by this thankful spirit; for it turns all that it touches into happiness.  William Low

Change "happiness" into "success."  Or change "happiness" into whatever word you need in your life in order to experience more and move forward.

As I think back in my life, I am the one that kept me stuck in places that I didn't want to be because I was too stubborn to admit that I didn't know any better, didn't know what to do, didn't know that I could change the focus of my calamity, didn't have the clarity of mind to figure out what I had to do next, or just didn't get the process.  

Even in my spiritual teachings, I didn't get turning everything into a blessing by having a thankful spirit.  Now, I am thinking, how could I have missed it for so long?

These last two weeks have been a challenge for me.  I had more oral surgery and for whatever reason, it takes me longer to recover than most people.  Yesterday, my prayer partner said something like this to me.  "I support you in your frustration and your pain and your inability to rest."  What!?!  Pray for me to heal!!!  Then I got it.  I have to be grateful for where I am before I can go forward into something else.  

I got that I am grateful that I was able to get the surgery, recover from being under anesthesia, had the time to rest and allow my body to recover and to heal, that I had the time to contemplate some deeply painful subjects for me and now to be able to move on.

What I find fascinating is that I woke up this morning virtually in total comfort in my mouth.  All by changing my focus and for being grateful allowed me to experience a different reality.  Remind me that I can do this more often in other areas of my life!   

How Low Can You Go?

Waking up one day, I discovered that I could no longer reach certain body parts.  What?  Why are my feet that far away?  How can I not touch the bottoms of my toes?

It was another of those "wake up" calls for me.  Decided then and there that I needed to lose (nope - since nothing is lost in the universe, I might someday find it again), release some stored up energy commonly known as FAT!  How did this happen?  When did I get so fat?

Started the research and figured out that stress has a great deal to do with energy storage in the body.  Along with not taking the time to do the proper exercise to release the stress, it messes with the hormones, which messes with the fat storage, which messes with the body.  And on and on it goes.  

In 2015, I decided it was time and so I started to watch my patterns of eating, stress, times when I got irritated, times when I got mad, and watched what happened to my body.  Also during this time, I had my first oral surgery which helped to jump start the downward trend by not being able to eat for two weeks.  

The happy news is that I am not down two jean sizes, I can easily remove all my rings, and I have released 25 pounds.  I have noticed huge differences in my skin - drier and thinner, especially my hands.  I purposely did this slow and easy because I wanted my skin to shrink with my body.  So, far so good.

My primary care doctor looked at me last week and as she pointed to her eyebrows, she said,"you look a little thinner in this area."  Eyebrows!  PLEASE!  Well, women release energy from the top down so I guess it stands to reason that my eyebrow area would look thinner.  I am waiting for the hip area to go thinner.  What I have noticed is that my belly fat is now just releasing and my clothes are fitting better.

I am ready for my stomach to turn into a six pack - do women have six pack abs?  Well, you know what I mean.  Another surgery in my mouth this week is guaranteed to take me down some more and I am wondering, how low can I go?  Giving up sugar and white flour help while increasing lots of protein.  I can use all of the psychic help you send.  Thanks.

Self-Sabotage

Thinking back over the reason for things, you will find that you are surrounded by a Mind, or Law, that casts back at the thinker, manifested everything that he thinks.  Ernest Holmes

I am astonished how many times we can shoot ourselves in the foot and not see the correlation.  I have an acquaintance who again announced to the world of an important occasion and then allowed themselves to be locked in their garage at the time when they were suppose to leave.  

Another person told of an experience where they were suppose to be at an important engagement and drove in the wrong direction for an hour and half only because they couldn't read the GPS correctly in their rental car.  Hello?  What do you mean, you couldn't read the GPS?

Another who can barely afford to live with a roommate got so antagonistic, she almost got kicked to the curb.  I invited her to check out the nearest and dearest bridge to see what it would be like to live under it to see if she could stand hearing the traffic all the time.

Why we shoot ourselves in the foot is because we don't think things through throughly enough from start to finish.  It is what I would call haphazard thinking.  

What is wonderful about following the lives of the above people is that they are great examples of "what not to do."  I got into the Science of Mind philosophy to learn how to think and to learn how life works and how to make my life work for me.  

Thank goodness I have given up doing the stupid things, the accidents, and the shots in the dark that propel me backward instead of forward in life.  I have become very aware of what is going on in my life and what is necessary for me to move me forward with ease, grace and poise.  It makes for a much more interesting and joy filled journey.

G. O. A. T.

The person who is studying and practicing the presence of God soon as no problems, no needs, or desires.  Those things where are necessary for health and supply have a way of taking care of themselves.  Unknown

As I am sitting at my computer, I can glance out my window into my front yard and I see it snowing.  This is the first of the season.   I am grateful to be sitting in my pajamas and robe, cozy in the heat that is forced in the room from the ceiling, drinking wonderfully flavored coffee from my favorite cup.  

Looking at an early "Quote" journal, I didn't date or give credit to the quotes I thought were inspirational.  I am sorry for that now.  

When we desire only a God experience, heaven itself will open and pour itself out at our feet in the form of every good thing.  Unknown

No matter what the spiritual laws are, I am someone who gets them.  This is the year I give up "wanting," "yearning," "desiring."  I know spiritual laws work and they work in my life now.  All I ask for is having the faith to know that Grace is in my life at all times.  Since life is an upward spiral, I know that every condition, every experience of life is the result of a mental attitude.  I can only do what I think and from this time forward, I think great thoughts in order to G. O. A. T. 

G. O. A. T. means "the greatest of all time."  I invite you to think about taking this journey with me.  I would love the company.

Epiphany of Sorts

This is the season of Epiphany, when the renewal of light and revelation are celebrated in the liturgy of the Catholic, Episcopal, and Eastern Orthodox churches.  Sarah Ban Breathnach

The title of the daily essay of her book, Simple Abundance, for September 23, is For Thine Is the Kingdom, and the Power, and the Glory.  I have been contemplating the concept of the "kingdom" for years.  What would it be like to "live in the kingdom?"  What does that mean to me?  What would life look like to me and how would I show up in the kingdom?

For those of you who don't have the book, here is the opening paragraph of September 23:  Several years ago I read a profile of Oprah Winfrey in The New York Times magazine.  In it she expressed her belief that the concept of God never giving us more than we can handle refers to much more than the stoic bearing of pain and suffering.  God's giving also includes the goodies - wealth, worldly success, power.  If you think you're not strong enough to bear the Glory, rest assured, it will be withheld until you believe you can and ask for it.

This was an epiphany for me!  It was a OMG (Oh My God) moment.  An epiphany is defined as a moment in which you suddenly see or understand something in a new and clear way.  Please realize that I am still in the stunned and contemplation of the above paragraph.  

To paraphrase Ms. Breathnach into my language, here is what I came up with in order to remind me what it is that I need to think about, explore, and discover new ways of Glory.  She lists her own ways of what this is all about in the essay.

1.   Get strong enough to bear the Glory.  
2.   Turn on the spiritual switch of Power.
3.   Prepare and grow into new talents and skills.
4.   Acknowledge and celebrate each accomplishment.
5.   Trust self and all abilities.
6.  Live the bliss (kingdom) - ecstatic states of joy, satisfying hunger, fulfilling all yearning, igniting the passion, reaching out to others, and feeling the peace.  
7.  Experience the wonder of it all.

Here is the kicker!  The real OMG!  In September 24, she goes on to say, "...the rate of exchange in Heaven is wonder.  Doing what you love is not about money, it's about wonder.  As soon as you understand you're suppose to be asking for wonder instead of money, you'll start experiencing abundance."

This last paragraph is giving me a whole pile of stuff to think about.  I have had it backwards for years.  Somehow through the Grace of God, I have managed to accumulate some real wealth, but now I know how Oprah was managed it.  She jumped from the "kingdom" to the "glory" by using the "power."  I can do that too.  How about you?

Based on this, I can see us having a tremendous new year set up for our exploration and I am looking forward to discovering my glory.  Join me.