Sacred Fare for Cultivating Health

Sunset in the Woods - Waiting on the Full Moon to Rise

Health is the state of natural harmony producing optimum performance. Gregge Tiffen (Open Secrets: The Hidden Wealth of New Worth – April, 2011)

A different morning pattern emerged today. ‘Walk first,’ I heard as I rose and began to move about. Usually I sit and, on blog day, write the post before the morning walk. But the nudge felt right. We geared up and headed out.

The morning air was crisp; the sky, a bit hazy. Still. Quiet. We walked slowly. That is Zadie Byrd’s way. I’m grateful. She reminds me of my pace and to stop, observe, use my senses as she tunes her nose into the corner ‘doggie-net’ to discover who has already come by.

Although today’s musing was but a bundle of seed thoughts in my mind, I relaxed into the patterns of our walk, knowing that one of the seeds would sprout, wanting to be shared. No rush!

What emerged once we returned home and I settled down, pen and journal in hand, was what has been a theme for many of us these past few weeks: maintaining health.  I was reminded of Gregge Tiffen’s definition of health that I wrote about several years ago (read it here - http://cindyreinhardt.com/blog/healthy-thinking)

Creating and maintaining our health is a personal, individual path. That’s true today amidst the pandemic, and it will be true beyond this event.  The choices we have are, perhaps, more pronounced today, but boil down to choosing between love and fear. Which will we feed?  Will we tap into the raging fear or find a fare that better serves us? How might we reorder the letters of ‘scared’ to create this as a sacred time and feed ourselves a fare that cultivates health of body, mind and spirit? How can I acknowledge fear when it is present, without giving it my power?

These are the questions I’m asking myself from day to day. And, then I’m listening and observing and exploring.  What dietary fare does my body need and want this day?  What supplements?  What dietary advice is out there that will support my health?

I’m struck by what an individual journey diet, exercise, rest, and such are. There is no ‘one size fits all’.  It has me wonder, beyond current events, how with a better understanding of our individuality we can create a true ‘health care’ system rather than our current disease management system that seems stretched beyond its capacity.

But I digress. I find myself doing so frequently these days, putting attention on ‘from this, what else is possible?’ personally, locally and globally. While there will be an ‘after this’ that I’m curious about, today I want to put attention on our health, yours and mine, and share a bit more about the path I’m choosing.

I’m aiming each day to remember that there is a Universal hand in this experience and all events. That the qualities of the Universe (spirit, God, or whatever you choose to name it) are ever present and available: abundance, beauty, harmony, joy, love, light, life, peace, power. Where one is present there be them all. Find one wherever you are.

I’m being gentle, VERY gentle, with myself as I aim for more awareness and mindfulness in my choices. As I carefully choose food for my body, I’m choosing information and spiritual food that will support my mental and spiritual health. I limit news to reading (not watching or listening) what is current in my community so I can adjust as warranted. Beyond that, I scan for trends that may inform my choices in all domains of life and feel that politically curious part of me with a scan of headlines and staying informed about social, economic and environmental issues and movements that I care about.

But my main fare in keeping this journey sacred is spending time in the beauty of nature that surrounds me (I am so very, very blessed!) and reading or listening to thought leaders presenting thoughtful, uplifting ideas and tools to consider and practice. Among the many that have move me this week is Sounds True founder, Tamy Simon, interviewing Michael A. Singer (author of The Surrender Experiment). Find it here along with many other good listening experiences on Simon’s podcasts) https://product.soundstrue.com/resilience-in-challenging-times/?_ke=eyJrbF9lbWFpbCI6ICJjaW5keUBzdAWNjZXNzem9uZS5jb20iLCAia2xfY29tcGFueV9pZCI6ICJKTURnYXEifQ%3D%3D.

If you’re challenged to dance with fear and transform it, my colleague and friend, Kathy Wilson has written an informative series over the past three weeks in her newsletter The Journal of Spirited Coaching (click here for a list on her website) http://www.warrior-priestess.com/Newsletters/#archives

All that we take in must be digested and either absorbed for our health or eliminated. That’s true of our food as well as the fare we feed our hearts and minds. Be care-filled in your choices.

Smells Good Enough to Drink on a Warm Spring Day!

The Power of Our Thoughts

His Holiness, The XIV Dalai Lama

The history of humanity is, in some respects, the history of [human] understanding. Historical events, wars, progress, tragedies, and so on, all of these reflect the negative and positive thoughts of [humankind]. All the great personalities of history, the liberators, the great thinkers, all such people reflect positive thinking, whereas tragic events, tyranny, and terrible wars have resulted from negative thinking. Therefore the only thing that is really worthwhile is to increase the power and influence of positive thinking and to reduce the occurrence of negative thinking. If you let anger and hatred run loose, you are lost. And no sensible human being wants to be lost.  Tenzin Gyatso, The XIV Dalai Lama

Seventy years ago this day my consciousness accepted this vehicle to navigate life on planet earth. What a journey it’s been. What a journey it continues to be! What a journey it is in this moment!

Just over six and a half years ago (346 weeks, but who’s counting?) I began this weekly practice of sharing ideas, musings, challenges and such. I’ve written, though not published/shared, throughout the decades of my professional life, especially my almost 30 years as a coach. 

I share this to provide a context for the essence of today’s message, which was written almost two decades ago on September 13, 2001 when our country was gripped in shock, fear and grief as a result of the events two days earlier.  I can imagine that similar fear swept the country in the wake of the bombing of Pearl Harbor and in the depths of the Great Depression as well as other tragic events.  I find myself longing for leaders that utter positive words of conviction as Franklin D. Roosevelt did in his first inaugural address:  So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. (emphasis mine!)

Yet as I look deeply at my longing, I realize that I have a responsibility to go within. To find my own conviction, and to act from that alone as, like each of you, we navigate multiple new terrains. The Dalai Lama’s words above strengthen my belief in the power of our thoughts as the starting point that sets direction.

His wisdom echoes the message that I wrote just after 9/11. It’s title: Most Important Now is What We Think. Here’s what I said then and what I believe even more strongly today:

Our strength as a nation and as a worldwide community lies in our beliefs. Each of us contributes our individual thoughts to that belief. While governments will take the actions deemed appropriate and necessary, our individual thoughts are part of the collective consciousness that will set the direction. We will move either deeper into hatred and anger or out of conflict and into peace. Each of us has the opportunity by our thoughts and intentions to bring light into this darkness. By our thoughts we each have a role, a responsibility, to determine whether the responsive actions that are certain to come lead to a world of hope, peace and freedom or to revenge which fosters more hatred.

As individuals, our greatest challenge today and in the days ahead is to wake up, to become aware of and to choose our thoughts carefully. We need courage, stamina and time to go beyond our reactive anger and to explore what we believe, what we want for our country and for the greater global community of mankind of which we are a part.

How can you meet this challenge? First, don't get sucked into the drama and repetition of media reports. Take from the media information that you need to make intelligent decisions for yourself, your family, your business. Then turn the media off. Don't let anything outside of you determine how or what you will think. Give yourself time to be clear about your beliefs and your thoughts. Take time to go beyond your anger and the desire for revenge. Take time to go beyond even your thoughts and prayers of comfort to those most directly impacted by the events. Take time to have bold, courageous, clear thoughts about the good that may follow.

Each thought you think is a powerful thing. Today more than ever in recent history, is a time to become aware of that reality and to take responsibility for thinking thoughts that contribute to the peaceful world we all desire. The collective thoughts of all of us will establish the direction of the future. What thoughts will you choose?

Our opportunity as we navigate the current pandemic is to find the information we need to make decisions on a daily basis without getting hooked into the media fear factory. That requires not denying when we feel afraid, but rather acknowledging and working with our fear until we can put it to rest. The choices that will serve us best, individually and collectively, are those flowing from positive thoughts grounded in love and care, not fear.

We can do this, my friends. Indeed, we must.

I gain strength from all of nature, especially these mountains

A Deep Bow of Gratitude

When times seem rocky and prickly, focus on gratitude

Remember how much power you truly have. It is important that you handle this power wisely. It becomes obvious that maintaining harmony in your individual space contributes to the harmony of the planet. Gregge Tiffen (It’s Springtime!  Flow with the Power of Nature – March, 2007)

Before rising I spent a few minutes in that peaceful state of tuning into my heart and feeling gratitude. I wasn’t thinking of anything in particular, just feeling grateful and putting myself in a state of heart coherence (https://www.heartmath.com/quick-coherence-technique/).

A bit later as I settled in to discover where the muse would take me this day, an unfamiliar alarm sound blared through the room. As I moved toward the sound and realized that it was my phone, a voice reminded me that as of 6 a.m. this morning all Coloradoans are ordered to stay at home … except of course, those who are exempted.

Reminder noted, I settled back in and the muse said, “LOVE.”

“What shall I say about ‘love’?”, I wondered.  “Gratitude” came the reply.

Amidst the wide array of thoughts, feelings, ideas, even rants and reactions that I might explore, gratitude for those who don’t get to stay home because their work is critical is top of heart and mind. And, along with that a recognition that I’m privileged that my ‘job’ is to stay home and do what I do – connect with others, assist where I can, listen, write, walk the dog, love nature, love life, maintain my center.

I’m grateful for the many, many thought leaders and teachers who are reaching out virtually to offer clarity, tools, and perspectives in this blessed time.  Among those who I look to are Gregg Braden, Lynn MacTaggart, Bruce Lipton. I’m grateful for uplifting posts on social media and the occasional belly laugh from a crazy canine or feline photo. I’m grateful for activists who are creatively adapting to events and continuing their quest for social, economic, and environmental justice.

My deepest bow of gratitude though is for those who are not working in the comfort of their homes: the doctors, nurses, technicians, lab folks, janitors and all who keep our medical facilities operational; the public servants who keep the water flowing and our waste going to treatment facilities; the guys on the trash truck that just came by; EMTs, fire fighters, public safety folks; transit workers; the workers in the grocery; the postal workers; the delivery men and women and those who pack the goods we order; and all others who I have surely forgotten.

I can be where I am in the comfort of my home, because they are doing what they do. They are on the front lines of this pandemic and, indeed, they are on the front lines of maintaining our lives each and every day.  Today and for every day beyond may I give them my deepest bow of gratitude. And, may we as a society not only give them our gratitude, but may we demand that they be compensated well and honored for all they do.

Grateful for the woods, the mountains and the curving road out back.

Spring! Awaken, Think Deeply, Pivot

Yield and step into the flow of nature.

Life seems to fail us because we do not make new space for ourselves. … life is a continuum of things being ‘broke’. Unless you are willing to take a new stance, walk a new path, find a new answer, develop a new character, build a new body, express in new terms, and see through new eyes, everything will remain the same. … Nature moves down two pathways. One assures equal balance on the planet. The other leads to a natural development and advancement of all living things.  Gregge Tiffen (It’s Springtime! Flow with the Power of Nature – March, 2007)

Spring! The earth spins and the season of new growth begins here in the northern hemisphere. Half of the globe is springing into newness and light. The other half ‘falling’ into the season of harvest with the darkness of winter just beyond.

But no matter the season, life has changed drastically for all of us. We have the power to decide how that change will emerge. As nature moves down her two pathways, balance and advancement, will we step into her flow, listen deeply to her voice, reflect on her cries, and pivot to create new ways to live on our precious planet?  Or, will we simply pause, rest, entertain ourselves in the hope that life will soon return to ‘normal’? Which will I choose?

Do we have the courage to challenge the thinking of scientific materialism that has taken us further and further from nature, our mother? Do I?

Are we willing to be honest with ourselves about the destruction we each cause in our daily participation in a culture that values science and the material world over spirit, not understanding that the two are not separate? Am I?

Might we examine the life we call ‘normal’ knowing (even complaining about) the stresses that it creates in our bodies, our relationships, and all of life? Might I?

Our children who haven’t yet lost their connection to nature are asking and, rightfully, demanding. From Greta Thunberg, to the Sunrise Movement (www.sunrisemovement.org), to your own children and grandchildren as voiced by this young person’s question to ‘mom’ over breakfast posted by a colleague yesterday on Facebook:

Mom, we’re doing our part and staying home from school, not seeing our friends, not going outside. We are doing this even though Coronavirus won’t kill us. We’re doing this to help the adults and the older people to live longer and healthier lives. So, when this is all over, will they repay us by making changes to save the environment? So that we will be able to live longer, healthier lives when we are their age?
Because, you know, that seems fair to me.

How will we respond? How will I?

Will we simply hit the ‘play’ button when this pause is over and scramble to return to life as it was or as close to that as we can make it? Or will we use this time to think deeply and pivot to creating a culture and systems that recognize and use both spirit and science/material things, that honor the ways of nature and acknowledges that we will not control her?  Will we boldly demand a culture and systems that respect ALL life?

As I watch the snow fall in the woods out my window my heart knows that these are questions. And, as history has shown us time after time, a ‘war’ on the problem is not the answer.

Use this time wisely. Rest. Take extraordinary care of yourself and those you love. Hold those whose choices you loath in light and love for they too are on a journey of learning just as each of us. Muster the courage and willingness to think deeply and honestly about your life. Build upon that courage to pivot to walk through life anew.    

The calendar says ‘Spring’. Mother Nature says ‘not yet’.

Instead of Fear ... LOVE

Oh that all choices could be so light!

Whether you like it or not, you are the end result of everything you have ever experienced up until this very moment. What you are is what you have learned. Gregge Tiffen (The Journey Continues: Near Life Experiences – March, 2010)

When fear is used to control us, love is how we rebel. … Be kind. Be connected. Be unafraid. Rivera Sun (The Dandelion Insurrection)

Perhaps it was my own attention, but somehow the coronavirus pandemic seemed top of mind for many emails I received and posts that popped up on my Facebook timeline yesterday.

While most was positive, informative and helpful, one post in particular resonated with me for its sincere, yet light-hearted reminder that we are at choice in everything we do, including how we respond to this current event. “Let’s play a game,” the post began (I was hooked at the word ‘play’!). “It’s called the ‘Instead of’ game. It works like this. During this COVID-19 pandemic, instead of …”. My friend, author/activist Rivera Sun continued with her list of choices: “… grocery shopping for my faves, I’m going to dig into my back stock. (Instead of) going to social events, I’m going to journal and do some inner work. …”

I love this idea for its light and creative approach to a serious issue which we each must address in our own ways. For me, lightness always seems to ease the burden. The game is a reminder that I am at choice in EVERYthing I do.

My reply comment began “Instead of starting my own list, I’m going to use yours and build from there.” Hey, I need not ‘reinvent the wheel’. I continued, “instead of fretting, I’m going to walk the labyrinth and go on longer walks in the woods with Zadie Byrd.” I’m adding to that list as choices present themselves or as I find myself taking a turn toward fear.

It's a great game, a way to be present to the choices I need to make for me. Playing in this way lightened a decision I’d made to suspend my participation in a weekly Feldenkrais class with several other folks, and it reminded me that either love or fear rest at the root of our choices.

Gregge’s quote reminded me that in every moment we are learning, adding to the storehouse of knowledge in our consciousness. At the same time, we have all the knowledge and wisdom that we’ve experienced and accumulated throughout time. We are who we’ve become through those experiences.

In the face of crises we make choices about how to respond. We learn from those choices. As the world faces the pandemic and other disruptive events, how will we each respond? How can we respond from a place of love not fear?

Was my decision to not go to the class based in fear? It certainly could be. I thought of it more as ‘acting from an abundance of caution’, and I realized that it was about more than protecting myself, but also out of care for my classmates.

It’s possible that love and fear can make the same choice. But the energy behind those choices draws us to very different directions. Choosing not to participate from a root of love, opens me to care and curiosity about what’s possible ‘instead of’ attending. Acting on that I found an online resource of recorded practices to guide me. Making the same choice from fear would likely have led me down the path of anger at ‘having to’ miss the practice.

In the end, the organizer decided to cancel our group for now. Having already made my choice, I’m able to embrace her decision with appreciation as one made from love and care.

Instead of fear, I embrace love, reason and creativity. I’m curious to practice using what I know. And, I wonder what my learning is as I navigate this phase of life experience.

I’m definitely ‘in’ the ‘Instead of’ game What about you? Will you play too?

Zadie Byrd’s first hike to the Ziggurat

Tapping Into Essence

Morning Trail - Heading for Home

Within any amount of knowledge is essence. It is the essence that produces wisdom, and it is wisdom that registers in consciousness. You are worth more than you or I can ever describe in human terms. You are irrepressible and invincible. Gregge Tiffen (Open Secrets: The Nature of Feminine Truth – March, 2011)

Gregge’s quote has been with me since yesterday morning when its wisdom leapt off the page and pulled me into the muse. (Yikes! “It’s only Wednesday”, I thought.)

On each walk with Zadie Byrd (yes, ‘Sadie’ has a new name that seems to perfectly fit her essence!) I looked deeply into the mountains, the trees, the rocks, and the vast valley recognizing the beauty that is nature’s essence. A neighbor called with produce to share, the essence of love.

Later ‘essence’ popped into a conversation with a colleague and friend as she updated me on her book, sharing that she is aiming to share the ‘essence’ of the women she’s profiling in the project, not long details of their stories.

Except perhaps when I was focused on organizing info for my tax return, the ‘essence muse’ was with me throughout the day. Perhaps on some unconscious level it was there as well.

In the evening, as I read several chapters of Rivera Sun’s prescient 2013 novel, The Dandelion Insurrection, with its underlying theme of love and the movement’s motto, “Be kind. Be connected. Be Unafraid.”, I saw more clearly than ever that love is the essence that weaves us together as humans on this planet. Indeed, love weaves the fabric of the Universe.

I surrendered to slumber knowing that ‘love is our essence’.  I woke this morning with a deep sense that love is our core. Not just mine, yours, our friends, family and those who share our views, EVERYone’s.

This isn’t a new idea of course, but the muse invited me to feel it more deeply, to embrace love as the essence that breathes worth and value into each of our lives, to more fully BE the love that makes us irrepressible and invincible. The muse reminded me that love is the essence of the Universe of which we are each part and parcel. What is true of the whole is true for its parts. That’s you, me, everything, and EVERYone.

I began to see love even at the core of fear and of hate, but that’s a musing for another day.

For now, look deeply into what you know. Look until you see the love embedded there. Use what you know with the love at its core, the same love that is your core as well. Love is my experiment for the week. Join me?

Zadie Byrd Marching Home with her Antler Find

Revealing Habits

It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

As we value experiences above things, we get more conscious and more open to more profound and more complex experiences. Nisha J. Manek, M.D. (Bridging Science and Spirit: The Genius of William A. Tiller’s Physics and the Promise of Information Medicine)

Now is the time to take the corrective measures to break out of old habit patterns. Gregge Tiffen (Open Secrets: Revealing Habits – February, 2011)

An experience this week and the awareness that it presented reminded me of just how much our habits are like the water a fish swims in. Like that water, many – perhaps most – of our habits are transparent to us, operating as our navigation system through daily life. Generated over lifetimes of experiences, our habits are hidden drivers on this sojourn.

Without awareness, habits rule. With awareness, we create choice.

Sadly, in our culture today we’ve adopted habits that are anchored in fear. As I discovered for myself this week, we probably don’t need to look beyond our front door, to identify habits generated from fear. Collectively beyond our door, fear drives chaos and divisiveness in the world. Perhaps it’s time to assess our habits, at least some of them. Perhaps it’s time to anchor them in qualities of the Universe, like love, peace, light rather than in the fear that has us seek to control that which is uncontrollable.

This muse emerged from a conversation last week, in which, a friend shared an experience she had while having her vision checked. When she was choosing the ‘better’ of two choices, she realized that while one choice offered clearer vision, the other choice ‘felt’ better. Hmmm…

I loved the awareness that she brought to the ‘exam’ (the doc was blown away too!). As I reflected on her ‘how does it feel’ distinction, I realized that a part of my current self-care/health maintenance simply didn’t feel right. Taking my extensive array of vitamins and supplements, all of which make perfect rational sense given my age, etc. etc., no longer felt good to me. And, it hadn’t for some time.

Upon reflection, I saw that this aspect of self-care had become an unconscious habit of gulping down pills with little awareness, other than perhaps a touch of annoyance that I ‘had to’ take so many. Ouch!

I’d lost the clarity of my intention – to maintain excellent health and vibrant energy. I didn’t prepare/organize or swallow with any intention in my awareness other than to ‘get it done’. Rather, I gulped them down hoping that I won’t become ill. I was acting in a habitual pattern of fear without awareness. Little wonder that taking them didn’t feel right or good!

And so, I stopped. No vitamins. No supplements other than nourishing Chinese herb formulas that have ‘felt’ right since I started using them several years ago and infoceuticals to support my biofield. I’m giving my body a rest. Feeding it clean, nourishing food. Being clear and intentional about and grateful for EVERYthing that crosses my lips. Then, in time, with strong intention grounded in love not fear, and using the intelligence of my body’s wisdom as a guide, I’ll re-evaluate and give this body what it seems to need.

In the meantime, I’m curious to look more deeply at my habits – habits of action (and inaction), habits of thought – to examine how they ‘feel’. Are they ‘right’ for me in each moment? Are they anchored in love, peace, light, power (not force or control), beauty, harmony, abundance? Or are they habits of fear to give the illusion of keeping a dangerous world at bay? Stay tuned. More habits may be revealed. Better yet, take some time to notice and be at choice about your own. 

A Colorado Blue Sky Day!

TWO!

From ONE - Split! - Two

You cannot separate yourself from the Universe. … I must find within the separation the basic one unity so that I never really leave the thing I am separated from, and I never really leave the Universe or you. … We have never left each other. Gregge Tiffen (The Language of a Mystic: Polarities – February, 2009)

When I noticed today’s date – 2-20-2020 – this morning as I began to write, I felt a surge of curiosity and sensed ‘Wow, what a powerful day!’  I wondered ‘what’s up with two … and with the sum of today’s 2s, 8?’

As I reflected a bit and read from Gregge Tiffen’s booklet quoted above, I thought about the seeming paradox that there is a Universal Law of Separation, yet we are not separate from the Universe or from one another. The number ‘2’ represents this. From ‘one’ we get ‘two’. Those ‘two’ each contain all the qualities of the One from which they came. And, everything came from the Universe.

There is beauty in the number ‘2’ for without two we could not experience and learn about balance and harmony. It takes two to tango, the saying goes, and when we dance together, we demonstrate the synchronous joy of the Universe as One harmonious unit.

When I need to make kindling for starting a fire on a cold winter’s morning, each swing of the maul or the hatchet separates one piece of wood into two (okay, sometimes I need two swings to achieve separation, but that’s a topic for another day!). I repeat from each of those two and two becomes four, et cetera, until I have the size needed. Each piece retains the qualities of the first piece I split. And, that first piece has the qualities of the tree from which it came. And each piece has all the qualities of the Universe.

I take this back in time to the beginning of the tree from which the log came. At some point a seed separated itself from another tree and fell onto receptive ground. That seed held the potential to become a tree. Over time it did so, growing in receptive ground that likewise contains all the qualities of the Universe. Yet the soil and the tree are distinct manifestations, both necessary for the seed to fulfill its potential.

Eight is the number that represents manifestation. Viewed laying on its side, 8 is the symbol of infinity. From One, separation brings Two, an infinite cycle throughout all time and across everything in this wonderous Universe.

We are not separate from the Universe or from one another. You cannot separate yourself from the Universe period! You just cannot do that and nothing can. That is the Law, and that is how the Law operates. The premise is that you are not different from the Universe from which you are drawn. Gregge Tiffen (The Language of a Mystic: Polarities – February, 2009)

What is possible to manifest if we learn to live from knowing and understanding this basic Universal truth?

Favorite Old Tree — from a seed and with all the characteristics of the Universe

Me, You & The Times We Live In

Clouds Obscure the Beauty of the Peaks … What might be clouding beauty in your world today?

The psychology of the individual is reflected in the psychology of the nation. … Only a change in attitude of the individual can initiate a change in the psychology of the nation. Carl Jung (This Nonviolent Life: Daily Inspiration for Your Nonviolent Journey – February 11, 2020)

The Universe sees in you the harmonious co-operation as one of Its parts to the whole. … The Universe loves you enough to agree to your request to be here now. Gregge Tiffen (Fanned Fire and Forced Love Never Did Well – February, 2008)

There are times in life when I’m challenged to not loose heart, faith and to maintain perspective beyond whatever event I find myself experiencing or observing.  I’m guessing you too have experienced such times. I’m guessing as you look out at the world and bear witness to anger, greed, fear, and violence this may be one of those times.

In addition to what we observe in the world, events in our personal lives may throw us into doubt and fear. Events, both personal and global, are the stuff life is made of, ingredients of the learning opportunities we are gifted with on our journey.

Today, much is being said across all forms of media and around kitchen tables over cups of tea (or glasses of something stronger!) about this time in history. Many wring their hands and bemoan what they are witnessing. Others engage in various forms of activism. Some are victims. Others are perpetrators. Some feel outrage. Others are gleeful at the power they wield. Many are fearful of what’s to come in their personal lives and in the greater collective.

Jung’s quote reminded me of this as I found myself reacting to current events here in the United States. Our society, our country are reflections of us.

I think about this often when I observe events in the world beyond my quiet woods. I’m curious to observe my own thoughts which run the gamut from instinctive, angry reaction to a deep sense of peace that ‘this too shall pass’ (though I don’t believe this means that things will return to ‘normal’ or go back to some imagined ‘better time’). Life is after all an onward proposition.

I aim to quickly move through my reactions and look at events that perturb me from a higher perspective. I don’t want to contribute to the fear, anger and chaos that seem to reign in much of the media. We need quiet (and, yes, not so quiet) voices of understanding and peace.

As systems break down, we need to weave the fabric of new ones: systems that honor the truth that we are all one and that how each of us thinks, speaks and acts matters to the whole. Before we can weave, we must discover for ourselves threads of love and understanding, of connectedness. We must understand that we are separate parts of a whole that needs our highest and best – moment by moment, day by day. That is how change manifests: from inside each and every one of us to the highest and best expressions of ourselves in the world. This is our work first and foremost.

In a world and in times with demands and distractions from all directions, our work is not easy. It requires discipline, self-care (indeed our work is a form of self-care), commitment, and conviction. We are part of a greater whole that needs us to be our best selves. Our thoughts matter as much, perhaps more, than the words and deeds that follow.

It seems to me that this is important learning in and for these times. The school bus awaits. Will we climb aboard?

And after the clouds, clarity and beauty that was there all along.

Reliable Source

Blessed by the Beauty of Fresh Snow on the Peaks and a Colorado Blue Sky Day

With so much information pouring through media of all kinds, we need our minds to belong to us, not to external stimuli. Rev. Dr. Margaret Stortz (Daily Guide for January 26, 2020 in Science of Mind Guide for Spiritual Living)

One might add ‘and disinformation’ to the above quote. From time to time over many years I’ve wondered what sources were accurate and reliable as I sought to keep up with current events and be an informed citizen, voter. It’s troubling and sad how we’ve come to use technology to control rather than to inform. But that’s what those who, fearing the wisdom of the individual and the collective wisdom of the whole, seek: ‘power over’. And, they use whatever means are available.

It's to their (and there are many ‘thems’!) advantage that we stew in this uncertainty, wondering who and what we can trust. ‘Me!’ they each loudly proclaim. That’s the bad news.

The good news? The systems of business, government, etc. that we have built using this approach throughout human history are breaking down and falling apart under the weight of these unstainable ways. Ways that are unstainable because they defy universal law. And that law will prevail.

The even better news? There is a Reliable Source, one available 24/7, weekends and holidays included, without regard to any external conditions or circumstances. We only need to call upon and use it.

The more you feel the love issuing forth from Source, the more you are able to receive in your daily experience. Gregge Tiffen (Fanned Fire and Forced Love Never Did Well – February, 2008)

As I observe the countless breakdowns and crises across the globe, hear the cries for new systems, even make those cries myself, deep inside I know that no new system, no technology, no approach to these very real problems will work unless we have a giant shift in our collective consciousness. It is a shift that occurs one by one, step by step, building until a giant wave propels us forward collectively. Examples abound of individuals and collectives doing this work grounded in the love of Reliable Source.  

Somewhere and sometime along this road of life, it would be wise for each of us to stop and to go off alone for a period of time in order that we may give up beliefs in the power of the coin and the weapons of defense. Let us once again put our dependence on love to sustain us. Gregge Tiffen (The Numerology of Love – February, 2007)

In these times we need the confidence, creativity and conviction that comes with belief in and true love of oneself. Love that is deeply centered in the heart and comes from but one Reliable Source. That is how we make sure our mind belongs to us. That is the foundation for moving forward.

Ever grateful for the beauty that awaits when I step outside.