This post is part of a series on the subject of Awakening sponsored/inspired by Barbara Franken—a January Challenge that has claimed the first week of February as it’s own as well… * * * * * One of my favorite descriptions of awakening comes from the book Dialogues on Awakening by Tom Carpenter. These are Tom’s recounting of conversations he has had with his friend and brother, Jesus, that grew out of his daily practice […]
At the tail end of this last week I came down with a pretty decent sinus cold, my third in about four months. I invite you to listen to the voices with me, some inner, some outer… Taking vitamins? Getting enough rest? Gotta’ be stress-related. Your system is weak. You need more balance in your life. I take [insert the product here] and I never get sick. You should probably get more exercise. You’re not […]
I could say I wasn’t afraid. But I was. Me and that feeling looked each other in the eye, and I looked away. Shrugged my shoulders. Flicked up my collar. Kicked the dirt. Got a hobby. Next day shipping, of course. Ran half way across the world. Whatever. I was desperate to tag out, to sneak out of the ring, maybe get into promotions, have an office with high ceilings, be famous or happy or […]
In A Course of Love, Jesus notes that “the animation of form with spirit is an ongoing aspect of Creation.” He says this is not a timebound dynamic. This is every moment. It was there at the Beginning. It is there right now. It will always be there. It is what is happening… Spirit is peeking out at us right now from behind and within everything, including the stale self-concepts I jam like boulders into […]
Hafiz explained to us that, given Mr. Findley’s unexpected absquatulation to Costa Rica, he would be teaching the class for a little while. Then he let go of a stack of books from about eighteen inches off the desk and when they landed the sound they made was so big it damn near blew the back wall of the room off. After the dust settled, he winked at us. “Mr. Findley,” he said, “was the […]
I have really enjoyed the recent flurry of activity I experienced here as we thought together about the word power, and all the tendrils wrapped inside of it, and sundry connected things. I will be away for about a week and think I may not have access to Internet service without going to some extreme lengths. In thinking about all of the feedback I’ve received, and what to leave this site with for the week, […]
It’s late in a long day. You know the ones. A few aches and pains are emerging: the backing is starting to show through the pile. Something wants to be slept off, rebooted, allowed to lose its way, permitted to dissolve, misplaced, or forgotten. That’s when Hafiz drops by unannounced, bubbly as a mountain spring, says, “Wanna’ go dancing?” Eyes roll… “You kidding me?” “Well,” he says, “it just seemed like you were starting to take […]
I cling yet to the known, no longer panicked, but bemused by the early warning signs of my precipitous departure, dangling auspiciously over the side of this ledge, fingers clenching the last tufts of what has been as I hang in a state of white-knuckled longing for what will be, waving gently to and fro over all of space like a piñata awaiting the strike of some holy timber. This reluctance to all out surrender, […]
The first step in accepting your True nature is to look up from what you are doing, to disengage from the volition that you have become, to take one step back from the thread of responsibility and longing to which you are responding, and consider that the space into which you have stepped is more real, more alive, and more “you” than any place you have previously occupied. There is no encounter or situation in […]
Time capsules are intriguing. Your elementary school teacher encourages you to round up some receipts, a few movie tickets, maybe a back-of-the-envelope journal entry with your favorite candy bar or song written on it, along with a note of encouragement to your future self, and then you and your classmates shove all these notions into a box or a tube and bury it. Kickball, the old standby, would probably have been a more thrilling recess […]
Embracing Forever 