Faith is The Force. Nourish It.

Christmas Full Moon on a Snowy Night

“… and when you have the willingness to accept who you are, you become aware of an internal flame that burns with a fire that is unquenchable. It’s your acceptance that dispels fears and inadequacies.”  Gregge Tiffen (Open Secrets: Sacred Passageways, December 2011)

As I continued my year-end reflections this week, my attention turned to faith, and Gregge’s words seemed to summarize my interpretation of The Force in the current Star Wars movie, The Force Awakens.

The Force is not some ‘thing out there’. Rather it is our inner knowing of the power we have each and every one been given in this Universe.  Perhaps the success of the Star Wars franchise over the decades is that it reminds us of who we are by touching that place within us that knows the truth of our power, a truth that seems forgotten by so many.

Its seed is within us all. As you ring in 2016, I invite you to join me in nourishing your faith in the 365 days that lie ahead.

Perhaps this prayer, one of my favorites of Gregge’s writing, will support you to deepen your faith in you and in understanding just how important you are in the Universal scheme of things.

Let me never forget how important I am to the Universal Picture. Without me there would be a blank space where there should be color.

Let me understand that the challenges of life are just that and not battles. I am not out there to win or to loose, only to develop my skills as an on-going student in an omnipotent school.

Let me understand that the difference between people is one of the wondrous realities of an infinite Universe. Giving those differences space to be is far more important than comparing them to my set of beliefs.

Let me be proud of what I do. To whatever my hand touches, let me remind myself that it was my effort that added to the result. Perfection is not my goal. Creativity is.

Let me remind myself that most of what I take seriously about myself also qualifies for a good laugh. Let me remember to be kind to myself. Loving companions are one of life’s treats, but they are not responsible for my care. Self-kindness can heal almost any hurt.

Let me take responsibility as a gift and not a burden. Within that effort is the grandest sense of accomplishment I could achieve.

Let me be patient with life. Nature does not produce the flower before the roots have taken hold. If I recognize that the place I am in is the right place at the right time, it will always be the right place at the right time.

Gregge Tiffen (The Significance of Beginning,  January 2007)

A Holiday Wish

Walking in the Snowy Woods ...

May the greetings of Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, and Blessed Solstice be a salutation not spoken lightly in passing to others as much as it is a greeting first to you, then to Heaven, then to both of you together in the ultimate form of Joy!  Gregge Tiffen (Winter Solstice: The Christmas Story)

Words are few this Christmas Eve morning as the dawn breaks to a fresh blanket of snow here in the woods.  My heart is full from sitting in the silence of Solstice, hiking with Luke, time with friends, and time for just me. 

I feel deeply blessed to be alive at this time and curiously concerned about how I and we will be with the future as it unfolds.  But that is for the new year just around the corner, not for this day.

Today, I simply wish you this ...

May the peace and balance of this Solstice time be with you through all the days to come.

Solstice Tea

May you know the harmony of this time when all of heaven and all of earth coordinate.

And Heaven and Nature SING!

May your life be filled with joy.

These are a few of my favorite things!

And, May you know the blessings of this holy season throughout the coming year!  

Receive the Gift of Solstice

It's Beginning to Look (&Feel) a Lot Like Winter!

What I would exhort you to, what I would give as a gift to you, what I would lay down a soul for, would be for your awareness to recognize that this is a personal event for your life. It is the time that has been set up on this planet for you and Heaven to be with each other without interference.

May the reindeers pull your sleigh filled with new awareness across the rooftops and into the fertile green valleys of a truly new season.  Gregge Tiffen (Winter Solstice: Giving To Yourself)

Each year I seem to discover that my sense of the potential for reNEWal in this season deepens.  I savor this time when ‘all of heaven and all of earth coordinate’ for my benefit as a very personal ‘me to me’, ‘me to Thee’ and ‘Thee to me’ experience.

This season, the events leading up to Solstice brought me the gift of looking at my attitudes, up close and personal. Some serve me. Others do not. The later will not be invited to the new me, the one that emerges from the release at Solstice. They are not who I am and do not serve how I want to participate in the world.

I’ve called on last week’s post, Prelude to Solstice, several times this week as I walked through the local controversy, creating responses and proposing a way forward.  ‘Take Heaven.’  ‘Take Peace.’  ‘Look.’  Yesterday a friend reminded me to include grace.  In a flash, I realized that she had been working overtime. I know that ‘the day will break and the shadows flee away.’  Grace brings that knowing.

Early Morning Coziness

I feel good about how I’m addressing the situation (and great about the team I work with). I’m not so pleased with the energy that’s been required and with those moments when I simply felt overwhelmed. Luke and the beauty of nature brought me back to balance.

I’m comfortable not knowing the outcome and how the public will respond. I totally trust its perfection – whether it’s an outcome I prefer or not.

As I put this experience, as well as business (and busy-ness too!) aside, I invite (really I implore) you to embrace the personal, individual nature of this season.  Take some time just for you.  Take homage at heaven and earth coming together. Feel the presence of nature.

And, let go. Release attitudes, be they good or bad. Release the people in your life, all of them – those that are meant to shall return.  Release hopes, dreams, fears, goals, regrets. Let go of EVERYthing.

It is only the empty goblet that can receive the next sweet taste of the abundance that life will most surely bring.

My Goblet is Ready

I wish you boundless blessings in this sacred season and in all the days ahead!

Prelude to The Winter Solstice

Early Morning Greeting from the Moon and Venus

All of heaven and all of earth coordinate at the Winter Solstice. Gregge Tiffen (Winter Solstice: The Christmas Story)

This week amidst a community controversy in which the board that I chair is being challenged, I’ve felt out of sync with the season and out of sorts with myself.  I want to stop. I want to stop not just for a few minutes to catch my breath, center myself and move on to the next task or conversation, but I want to STOP and BE the winter. Quiet. Still. Peaceful.

My time for that will come. I feel her on the horizon. Until then, there are ‘miles to go before I sleep’ in these last days of autumn before that moment when heaven and earth synchronize at the Winter Solstice. I know without a doubt that I will be there.

I know too that I alone am responsible for choosing how I walk through the tasks along those miles. I choose calm, confident, clear, kind as my foundation. These are grounded in love.  My choice is simple; implementation, not always easy. Often when I’m challenged, fear interrupts and invites me to its prickly path of tension, harshness, unkind words spoken and not. Too much of the world is on that path. I don’t want to be a part of that crowd.

And, so I pause. Make time for a long morning walk with Luke to visit a favorite spot along the creek. I ignore the ringing phone and resist the temptation to see what new jab is posted on Facebook. I pick up Gregge’s booklet Winter Solstice. I find this message, perfect to remind me of the choices I can make now and moment to moment, before my time of winter solitude, and beyond winter into the spring:

Prelude*

There is nothing I can give you which you have not got; but there is much, very much, that while I cannot give it, you can take.

No Heaven can come to us, unless our hearts find rest in today.

Take Heaven

No peace lies in the future which is not hidden in this present little instant.

Take Peace

The gloom of the world is but a shadow. Behind it, yet within our reach, is joy. There is radiance and glory in the darkness could we but see, and to see, we have only to look, I beseech you,

Look!

In the quiet there is tranquility. May your life move and radiate in that unity and your heart sing the hymn of peace to all mankind.

And so, at this time I greet you not quite as the world sends greetings, but with profound esteem and with prayer that for now and forever the day breaks, and the shadows flee away.

* Gregge Tiffen (Winter Solstice: The Christmas Story)

A Gift of Love from Cottonwood Creek

Developing Our Hearts

Nature's Bounty - Flakes, Needles, and Cones

You carry your worth in your heart.  Gregge Tiffen (Echo September 10, 2012)

At times such as this with the joy of the holidays juxtaposed with violence near and far, I’m tempted to generalize with words that paint us to be the same. Something like: ‘our hearts are heavy.’  Yet, we are different. The heaviness in my heart is unique and personal to me. It flows from all the experiences in my life – the good, the bad, the ugly, the distant, and those events that are fresh.

How we each walk through life’s events doesn’t just determine the quality of our life. It contributes to the quality of life on our planet.

Yesterday I woke extraordinarily early. My thoughts were scattered and unfocussed. The theme seemed to be one of angst. I felt unsettled.  Something was off in how I’d walked through the events of the previous day. I wasn’t satisfied with the tone I’d projected, especially in relating to others; quite the opposite in fact.

This isn’t a new experience. I’m far from perfect and sometimes I react, speaking before I think. Generally, I’m able to move on, cleaning up any mess with a sincere apology or other appropriate action.

This felt different: deeper and more unsettling. The practices that usually bring me back to my center didn’t banish my angst. Only after a long hike and returning home to chop wood (using more mental focus than physical strength) did my mind calm down enough to reflect and gain some clarity.

Blessed to live in the shadow of this beauty.

Additional words from Gregge, along with remembering that all of my words live forever, provided a perspective for understanding my angst:

You are designed to interact with people to the highest degree of your person through your posture, your body movements, the expression in your eyes as well as with the words you choose.  In that way, you naturally carry people with you to a higher spiritual level.

I saw more clearly than ever before that there are no meaningless events or interactions. And, I wondered:

What kind of world will we create as more and more of us walk through the events and interactions of life truly being ‘the highest degree of our person’?

And, how can I expand my heart to be just that?

Maybe we can learn to play and be free with models like these as our teachers and guides.

My Prayer of Thanks

A Winter's Hike on the Hermitage Trail

We pray for the very important reason that real prayer is a prayer of self-sustenance. Real prayer is you dealing with Omnipotent Intelligence the way you see fit. This is you and ‘IT’. In turn prayer brings you back to your own basic belief factor as a member of an infinite human family.  Gregge Tiffen (THANKSGIVING: The Power of Prayer – How It Works, November, 2006)

Moon rise at sunset.

Sitting quietly by a warming fire in the predawn hours earlier this week, I began reflecting on all that I’m grateful for.  As I began to write in my journal, the words surprised me and took me to an unexpected place: gratitude for being me.

I am grateful for how I live my life, the choices I make, the insight and curiosity I experience, my love of quiet and of nature’s beauty. I’m grateful that I take reasonably good care of myself. I’m grateful that I take time to ease into the day and enjoy the morning quiet with Luke curled up near-by. I’m grateful for my introspection and for how I see the world unfolding perfectly in this human experiment/experience despite events that are horrific beyond my understanding.

I’m grateful for how I’ve faced the challenges in my life, even those events where in hindsight I saw a different way for me to be. Each offered a gift and I did my best to accept it.

I’m grateful that I enjoy my own company as well as being in the company of others. Both are so very important, yet we humans so very often shun being alone for fear of being lonely, forgetting that in our aloneness we hear Your voice and feel Your presence.

Thank You for always being with me/in me. Thank YOU for allowing and guiding me to be me. I feel so close You, God, in these quiet moments and I am so very grateful.

A quiet moment at Cottonwood Creek

Thankfulness and gratitude are often expressed for things external to us – our family, our work, our homes, our pets, our friends.  Yes, I am grateful, deeply grateful, for these many, many blessings in my life. 

And, another quiet moment at our favorite spot on the creek

And, in taking my gratitude to a different place this week, I found deep peace and personal satisfaction in allowing myself to express gratitude for me. In whatever form you celebrate, may it bring you peace, joy, love and all that your heart desires.

The Powerlessness of Control

The Deep Quiet of Winter Begins to Settle In

At some point it becomes necessary to realize that spiritual Power rests in giving up the issue of control as an attempt to control people outside yourself.  Gregge Tiffen (The Power of Giving Thanks – November, 2007)

On some level most of us know that controlling others doesn’t work. We’ve had experiences in close relationships, jobs, and organizations that show us this up close and personal. The violence, chaos, and crises in the world reflect attempts of one group or country to control another.  Our own culture of consumerism and competition, even politics, reflect attempts to control.

It wasn’t until I looked at an event in my own life this week through the lens of Gregge Tiffen’s quote above that I began to understand the high personal cost of my own efforts to control things outside of me.

This week I was reminded that trying to control others and situations involving others takes me away from being me and lands me square in a place of exhaustion – physically, mentally, and spiritually. In hindsight, I realized that allowing myself to skip the most important part of my day, my morning quiet time, set me on this particular path to stress.

In my quest to provide an awesome experience for my bed and breakfast guests this week, I forgot that others and situations are not mine to control.  An early morning plumbing problem in the shared guest bath, combined with a talkative guest in one room and a quiet guest in the other, found me trying to control the volume of conversation, which logs went on the fire, while I dealt with an overflowing toilet.

The plumbing problem fixed itself. Guests had their breakfast and happily moved on into their day. The clock read just shy of 10am. I was tired and found it difficult to focus my thoughts and energy on the day’s work that I wanted to accomplish. 

I slogged through that day and the next, still experiencing feeling tired and unfocused. A day later, in the quiet of my morning reflection time, I read Gregge’s words above. The dots were connected and I realized the source of the drain on my focus and energy.  I learned yet again the futility of trying to control others. And, I learned its cost:

Attempting to use your power to control others is exhausting.

This point of reflection leads me to wonder whether and how collective exhaustion in society contributes to creating the chaos we witness daily.  What might be possible in our world with just a bit more time and effort for quiet, personal reflection and the peace and personal power evoked from that awareness?

No Insignificant Thing

The nights are getting colder and slowly ice grows on Cottonwood Creek

Believe in the importance of everything you do.  Gregge Tiffen [The Journey Continues: The Legacy for Generations]

Many voices in our culture (most of them well-meaning, I assume) urge us to ‘be, do, and have’ more. “Do big things in the world” and “Make your life matter” we’re told. It’s as though we aren’t enough. 

I lived a lot of my life on that path, striving for goals I thought I should have and placing my security in the material world. Now though, I’ve come to understand life and living differently.  After years (decades?) of angst wondering if what I was up to met the standard of ‘big enough’ and not feeling as though my work in the world was meaningful (of course, I was comparing it others), I’ve come to a new understanding of what ‘important’ and ‘matters’ mean.

Being off of that treadmill is a breath of freedom and fresh air.  I see what I couldn’t see then: my worry was for naught. Nothing that I do is unimportant. And, that’s true for you too.  WooHoo!

In previous posts, I’ve written that every thought we think and every syllable we utter lives forever.  In a Universe that is energy, those thoughts and utterances matter. Whether I smile tenderly or snap impatiently in response to something in nature or Luke or another human being, it matters.  Whether I’m speaking passionately about what I care about, attending to business, or walking in the woods, it matters.

I am a part of and contributing to consciousness with every step I take.  The attitude that I engage from is more important than what I engage in. When I engage with that clarity, I’m at choice and aware of the worth in what I’m doing.

I’m not talking about drum-beating, banner-waving importance to satisfy the ego. Rather, this is the importance of self-satisfaction, self-belief, of discovery, learning and growth. It is a deepening knowing that we are each important parts of a greater whole. Yes, both YOU and me.  

It is recognizing that the opportunity to adopt a shelter dog five years ago and to engage in the journey of giving love and care and receiving unconditional love holds as much importance as other personal and professional accomplishments in life from step-parenting, marriage, and being a charter member of the ICF.  It is taking time to be patient with myself and a postal worker who had difficulty figuring out how to get my international, military package on its way. It is trusting that I’m always in the right place at the right time and not allowing the unexpected extra time required to complete a task  to be a waste or a burden.

Patiently waiting for Mom ...

Importance is not a quality that comes from comparison or competition. It emerges from honest self-assessment, self-acknowledgement, and practicing the belief that there are no small things. What important things have your attention today?

Worth & Wealth

Crossroads: I think I'll leave the captioning to you (smile).

The Universe and all Its basic laws and qualities are always and everywhere available to you. You are never empty. You cannot be destitute of substance or reality. Gregge Tiffen (An Empty Heart Makes An Empty Purse – November, 2008)

Returning home after my brief trip to Texas, I found myself busy with the arrival of a B&B guest, harvesting remaining bounty from the garden, preparing for winter weather and adjusting to the change back to standard time. 

I was feeling tired, disconnected and more than a little out of sorts. Angst around finances as the B&B season winds down was creeping in, and I found it difficult to focus on what was in front of me. But I kept pushing, trying to will myself to get things done.

That wasn’t working.

And, so I stopped to give myself the gift of time: time to rest; time to read; time to reflect; time to remember what I’ve come to understand about life:

• Opportunity abounds. My job is to discover the opportunity in this moment and, then to act accordingly.
• Everything that I need to know is available for me to discover. My job is to expand my capacity to access what I need to know.
• Each of us is an important piece of the infinite puzzle that is the Universe. Our job is to live in alignment with the piece we are designed to be.

Remembering opened me to deeper reflection about the limits that our human definitions and standards try to impose on us, limits that are counter to the infinite abundance of Universal flow. Perhaps our greatest opportunity is to learn to use these human creations for our growth, without accepting limitation.

In our culture I find it easy to fall into the trap of measuring my worth by the quantity of things I do and my wealth by the numbers in my bank account.  That leads me to compare my performance with others or to rate my performance using standards created with no regard for the infinity of the Universe. Ugh!

Giving myself time to rest, read, reflect leads me to remember that the Universe knows no limits. As part of that Universe, I have access to all it offers and I am only limited by what I accept. Worth and wealth are not defined by man’s primary measure: the quantity of what we do and how much we have.

True worth is in our nature – the unique, loving, caring, creative beings we are each designed to be.  Worth is in the choices we make and in our willingness to learn and grow.  Wealth is in our health, in our knowledge of Source, our intelligence, our ability to live in harmony, and in how we experience life.  My wealth is in my willingness to walk through life’s events as experiments discovering along the way what works and what doesn’t. It’s in the joy of creating a lifestyle that nurtures me and in having the tools to bring myself back to my center when I forget what and where that center is.

Winter is coming ... Cottonwood Creek's first icicles of the season.

Texas (The Capitol) in my rearview mirror.

Back To The Future

From Austin, Texas - The Music Capital of the World

We are part of a natural flow of experiences in which all that we are really doing is allowing ourselves to participate in the flow.  Gregge Tiffen in Deeds are Fruit, Words are Leaves (October, 2008)

This week I’m visiting Texas – that part of Texas where I spent my first days away from home at college, Central Texas.  I’m visiting cousins who didn’t live here those 45 years ago, having a fun time with the change of pace and place, and seeing how things have grown and changed since I was a college student here in the late 1960’s and early 70’s.  A fun and easy flow.

Being with family that I don’t often see (we figured out that the last time we were all together was 1999), reminds me too of family and friends who have departed this life.  And, with little time for reflection this week, I wanted to share my ‘All Hallows Eve’ post from last year http://cindyreinhardt.com/blog/all-hallows-eve

Along with a couple photos from The Lone Star State.

On the square in New Braunfels, Texas ... I love the old buildings and the stately live oaks of my home state.