A Sufi Story: The Lost Donkey

‘O People! Shouted Nasrudin, running through the streets of his village, “Know that I have lost my donkey. Anyone who brings it back will be given the donkey as a reward!”

“You must be mad,” said some spectators to this strange event.

“Not at all, said Nasrudin; ‘do you not know that the pleasure which you get when you find something lost is greater than the joy of possessing it?”

Source: http://sufistories.wordpress.com/page/2/

Dying to Live

We live in a supportive Universe but do not live in a supportive system and it’s the principal of this conundrum that influences our lives by way of our mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual perspective.  The system we live in is a slow burn into a personal and private prison of negative emotion perpetuated by antiquated ideals in regards to energy, government, and finance.  Our society isn’t functioning from a place of teaching us how to live healthy lives and thrive in Wellness rather we are taught how to slowly die instead.  From the smallest proton to the vastness of the Universe there is a constant and consistent force and that force is energy. 

Artwork by Josepine Wall

Energy never dies it just changes form and this is also the definition of Spirit or “God”.  We don’t have to be “religious” to use something as simple as Science and energy to “prove” that energy has an effect on each and every one of us.  We can use our understanding of energy to determine how our society shapes and forms our emotional and spiritual health to get a basic foundation of how energy profoundly influences our daily lives.

  

All energy has its own frequency which is the rate in which the energy vibrates.  It’s a proven fact that negative energy vibrates at a much lower frequency than positive energy.  As seen in the water molecule experiment, Love has the highest vibration of all and creates sacred geometry when Love energy is directed at the water molecule.  Human beings are also made of energy and our energy is our very Lifesource because our bodies couldn’t function without energy.  By volume, the human body produces 60,000 times as much luminosity per cubic centimeter as the Sun which makes human beings quite radiant indeed!  The simplistic thing about emotional energy is that there are only 2 emotions from which all other emotions stem and they are either Love or fear.  Obviously fear is negative and Love is Positive and we can visually see the difference.  This means that if there is negative energy directed at a person, society, religion, or social class then we are all effected in some way through labels and judgment or the “ego” which is a service to self mentality.

(To read the rest of the article go here http://blueprintsforbutterflies.com/)

The Power of Equinox - March 21, 2014.

FINDING BALANCE IN ACCELERATING ENERGY

Dear Ones,

As the Equinox energy bursts on to the scene of consciousness, remember that the only place where you can find Balance is in the present moment. You are exceedingly fortunate to be a part of the auspicious beginning activity of Light that has enveloped the world in the shifting sands of new awakening. The stage is set and many scenarios will be possible. In fact, there are many possibilities available for you to experience even in your own life. It is these myriad choice points that will determine the world you live in. Your choices will also be the actions that create the pathways of rampant change intensifying on the planet.

Forever removed from old paradigms, the blossoming Earth speeds her way into full awakening of new life. Nothing that holds old structures remains untouched. Far removed from crumbling realities, those who are finding new stability in present time will be thriving. Why? Because their awareness is able to stay focused on choice points that enable them refreshing, regenerating, reconnecting resources for a life that has been restructured in full expansion and freedom. This produces delight in a new ability to move and flow in ways of true Beauty.

The decisions made at Equinox will enable you to create this life of Balance when you can fully embody the frequencies made available. The living energy present at Equinox embodies a moment of power. You have the opportunity to drink in this energy of Balance and allow it to transform the very atoms at the core of your being. How would it feel to have a sense of Presence within you that is loving, whole and free? It is your most authentic Self bound to no past or future, and able to move in untethered ways. You can claim these new choices for yourself in the Balance and Freedom that embodies pure Equinox frequencies.

The Momentum at the Starting Gate

We would like to speak in metaphor to give you a sense of the energy around this time. Imagine you are astride a great horse at the starting gate of a very exciting race. You can feel his muscles bunching in excitement beneath you as the momentum is gathering. Breaking free of the field of confinement has become your primary focus. When the bell rings and the race begins, you have a clear track ahead of you. The route is obvious because you have paved the way with your intentions. Your whole concentration is now focused on staying in the saddle and moving down the track ahead of you with total Freedom and perfect Balance.

It is this level of focus and momentum that you have been gathering in recent times. The clarity you need is available through your intentional focus on what you want to experience as the speed you are traveling on your path accelerates at Equinox. Gather your focus and do not let your attention waver to what the other horses are experiencing. They have their own journey and point of attention. Each of you has a soul purpose extending a Beacon of Guidance for you to follow. When you can allow Balance within you without wavering from your clear intention, it is easier to stay in your saddle as the force of the intense energy gallops all around you.

You can let yourself be carried by the steed of Grace, supported by Angels who are cheering you on as you follow your pathway, creating worlds where no one has gone before. You hold the reins connected to your clear desires for the life you truly want to live.

The way is open for you to choose ~ staying in Balance is the key.

More Metaphors to Enhance Your Vision  

To continue the metaphors, you are creating what we love to call a Gyroscopic Stabilizing Field. It allows the core balance within you to be in a moving form like the Gyroscope that keeps things level on vessels at sea. A boat on the water is really very much like what you are experiencing in your changing world right now.

As the waves grow in intensity, your need for a stable balancing place becomes ever more important. Your inner Gyroscope is working constantly to keep you in balance, and the more you are aware of this mechanism the better you will feel. Your awareness of this Gyroscope creates a field of Balance that assists you in being a stabilizing influence with the world around you. You are only focused on your powerful intentions and the creation of a balancing point within, but your vibration becomes one of Balance, a gentle influence that is very affective.

Use your time wisely to anchor the new structures you need to stay in balance as the energy waves increase around you. You will experience the revolutionary shifts occurring with far more resourcefulness when your inner Gyroscope operates in perfect Balance, Harmony and Grace. We offer you a prayer that can assist your focus.

Divine Presence in whom I live, move and have my being, I ask for assistance in this awakening moment of Equinox.

Grant that I may create a structure of being that enables my Soul to thrive. Give me a pure experience of Gyroscopic Stability and let me use that energy to live in the power of the present moment, making choices that enable me to move through the accelerating shifts of energy in perfect balance.

Bless me that I may be in harmony with my Soul's Divine Blueprint of Perfection and maintain my place of Balance within the Love awakening in my heart.

Allow this new stability to anchor into every area of my life in a flexible form that allows freedom of movement. May all my choices be in Harmony and Alignment with my Soul’s Destiny. From the deepest place of Gratitude in my heart, I say thank you for your blessings in every area of my life. Be it so, and so it is.

Shanta Gabriel for

Archangel Gabriel

March 5, 2014

http://us1.campaign-archive2.com/?u=f1eb1a943390480866073131e&id=b6b6073b2f&e=47f27a62ff

Moving On

Woke up this morning thinking of an old friend.

Marie Claire was born in Paris shortly after WWII. She and her mother lived in abject poverty. She never knew her father. Marie Claire's mother told her many times that she had not wanted her, had tried unsuccessfully to abort her. In some ways this knowledge haunted Marie Claire and shaped a great deal of her life. 

Marie Claire and I were born on the same day, a decade apart. At the age I am now, she died of cancer. When I went to see her in the hospital she told me, “Here I am having to go through this alone as I have done with everything.”

I didn’t know what to say. In fact, Marie Claire had a loving husband she’d been with for decades- a chef who ran his own restaurant and brought her tasty meals daily during her stay in the hospital- and two grown daughters who came to see her regularly while caring for young children themselves. And I was there.

But the truth was, Marie Claire always felt as if she was scrambling to survive, was unsupported and on her own. That’s the experience she lived. When I’d gently point out that the reality of her life did not match this assumption she would cringe and agree, but I knew it changed nothing.

And it wasn’t only that Marie Claire was unable to receive from those around her. She also could not give to herself. She had a small successful skin-care business and dreamed of creating a healing spa for women, a place where spirit was tended even as the body was pampered. She told me once that she had the money to fulfil her dream, but she couldn’t do it- was afraid to spend the money, sure that it was too late or too early or not the right economic climate or the right place. . . . Honestly, I don’t think she ever really considered acting on her vision. In her own mind, she was still the unwanted daughter, the girl living on the street, barely surviving.

I remember once sitting with Marie Claire and feeling my own frustration at her inability to receive and enjoy the life she now had. I wanted to tell her to “let the past go,” to “move on.” I didn’t- because I knew these words don’t free someone from the past and can stir deep shame- and that never helps.

And, I knew something else: where we want to say, “Move past this!” to another, we are speaking from our inability to be with the other where they are. (And yes, sometimes we may need to take a break so we don’t start saying unhelpful things.)

And. . . . where we are feeling judgemental and frustrated about another’s failure to “move on,” we may well be feeling stuck ourselves, identified with or limited by something that has happened in our past and frustrated by our own inability to “let it go.”

We are wanting someone else to do something that we have not found a way to do.

Maybe we want them to show us it can be done.

So, as I woke up this morning filled with memories about Marie Claire I wondered: Where am I feeling caught in the past? Where am I missing the opportunity to lay down a burden and walk on with more freedom? Where am I refusing healing, afraid to be free, not allowing myself to receive fully what is offered to me now?  

And I offer a prayer for my old friend, grateful for what is stirred by remembering her, wishing her spirit deep peace and freedom.

Oriah House (c) 2014

http://oriahsinvitation.blogspot.in/2014/03/moving-on.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed:+TheGreenBough+(The+Green+Bough)

Lupita Nyong'o Delivers Moving 'Black Women in Hollywood' Acceptance Speech

Newcomer Lupita Nyong'o was honored with the Best Breakthrough Performance Award at the 7th annual Black Women in Hollywood Luncheon for her work in critically acclaimed film, 12 Years a Slave, presented by fellow actress, Alfre Woodard. The following is her acceptance speech in full:

I wrote down this speech that I had no time to practice so this will be the practicing session. Thank you Alfre, for such an amazing, amazing introduction and celebration of my work. And thank you very much for inviting me to be a part of such an extraordinary community. I am surrounded by people who have inspired me, women in particular whose presence on screen made me feel a little more seen and heard and understood. That it is ESSENCE that holds this event celebrating our professional gains of the year is significant, a beauty magazine that recognizes the beauty that we not just possess but also produce.

I want to take this opportunity to talk about beauty. Black beauty. Dark beauty. I received a letter from a girl and I’d like to share just a small part of it with you: "Dear Lupita," it reads, "I think you’re really lucky to be this Black but yet this successful in Hollywood overnight. I was just about to buy Dencia’s Whitenicious cream to lighten my skin when you appeared on the world map and saved me."My heart bled a little when I read those words. I could never have guessed that my first job out of school would be so powerful in and of itself and that it would propel me to be such an image of hope in the same way that the women of The Color Purple were to me.

I remember a time when I too felt unbeautiful. I put on the TV and only saw pale skin, I got teased and taunted about my night-shaded skin. And my one prayer to God, the miracle worker, was that I would wake up lighter-skinned. The morning would come and I would be so excited about seeing my new skin that I would refuse to look down at myself until I was in front of a mirror because I wanted to see my fair face first. And every day I experienced the same disappointment of being just as dark as I had been the day before. I tried to negotiate with God: I told him I would stop stealing sugar cubes at night if he gave me what I wanted; I would listen to my mother's every word and never lose my school sweater again if he just made me a little lighter. But I guess God was unimpressed with my bargaining chips because He never listened. 

And when I was a teenager my self-hate grew worse, as you can imagine happens with adolescence. My mother reminded me often that she thought that I was beautiful but that was no consolation: She’s my mother, of course she’s supposed to think I am beautiful. And then Alek Wek came on the international scene. A celebrated model, she was dark as night, she was on all of the runways and in every magazine and everyone was talking about how beautiful she was. Even Oprah called her beautiful and that made it a fact. I couldn’t believe that people were embracing a woman who looked so much like me as beautiful. My complexion had always been an obstacle to overcome and all of a sudden, Oprah was telling me it wasn’t. It was perplexing and I wanted to reject it because I had begun to enjoy the seduction of inadequacy. But a flower couldn’t help but bloom inside of me. When I saw Alek I inadvertently saw a reflection of myself that I could not deny. Now, I had a spring in my step because I felt more seen, more appreciated by the far away gatekeepers of beauty, but around me the preference for light skin prevailed. To the beholders that I thought mattered, I was still unbeautiful. And my mother again would say to me, "You can’t eat beauty. It doesn’t feed you." And these words plagued and bothered me; I didn’t really understand them until finally I realized that beauty was not a thing that I could acquire or consume, it was something that I just had to be. 

And what my mother meant when she said you can’t eat beauty was that you can’t rely on how you look to sustain you. What is fundamentally beautiful is compassion for yourself and for those around you. That kind of beauty enflames the heart and enchants the soul. It is what got Patsey in so much trouble with her master, but it is also what has kept her story alive to this day. We remember the beauty of her spirit even after the beauty of her body has faded away. 

And so I hope that my presence on your screens and in the magazines may lead you, young girl, on a similar journey. That you will feel the validation of your external beauty but also get to the deeper business of being beautiful inside. There is no shade to that beauty.

Source: http://www.essence.com/2014/02/27/lupita-nyongo-delivers-moving-black-women-hollywood-acceptance-speech

To Be On A Spiritual Path

To be on a spiritual path means to live mindfully, paying attention to the signs along the road and being conscious of our body — the vehicle we are traveling in — and of the needs and safety of others on the journey.

"To be on a spiritual path means to look inward as often as outward, knowing that the externals of our lives are reflections of our thoughts and words, manifestations of that which we are imagining and energizing into being with the fuel of our passion.

"To be on a spiritual path means to use the rearview mirror to be sure that the path behind is clear of debris and that we do not obstruct another's journey with clutter of our own. It means making peace with our past, knowing our future contains it, and summoning the courage it takes to acknowledge, forgive, and release whatever we have clung to that impedes our movement.

"To be on a spiritual path is to take responsibility for creating our own creed, based on our commitments, and to respect the rights of others to do the same. It also means to reflect anew on what beliefs we've inherited to be sure they are compatible with our wisdom and compassion.

"To be on a spiritual path is to embrace the mystical paradox that while we are singular, physical beings on this journey, we are also profoundly connected to one another, animated and sustained by the same vast Spirit that abides in the star, the petal of an iris, the howl of the wolf. […]

"To be on a spiritual path, it is necessary to forgive yourself for wrong turns, for failing to yield, for driving under the influence of others. These are minor and forgivable infractions. The more important rules of this road are to be attentive, to notice when you stray, and to get back on the path as soon as possible.

"We could all use a road map for the journey inward, a guide away from the crowded thoroughfare to the quiet path of our own true calling; a reminder that it is not the destination, but the journey, that is important. The fourteenth-century Italian saint Catherine of Siena once wrote, 'All the way to heaven is heaven.' Perhaps this is roadmap enough — this one stark line enough to keep us walking, reminding us that the wind we feel on the back of our necks is nothing less than the breath of God.

To Be On A Spiritual Path

by Jan Phillips (Mar 03, 2014)

(Jan Phillips, from "Finding the On-Ramp to Your Spiritual Path: A Road Map to Joy and Rejuvenation")

Dying to Be Me: My Journey from Cancer, to Near Death, to True Healing by Anita Moorjani

"Previously when I felt lost, one of the first things I did was to search outside for answers. I looked to books, teachers, and gurus, in the hope that they’d provide me with the ever-elusive solution. That’s exactly what I did when I was first diagnosed with cancer. But I only ended up feeling even more adrift because I was giving my own power away again and again.

I FOUND THAT HAVING AN INSIDE-OUT VIEW MEANS being able to fully trust my inner guidance. It’s as though what I feel has an impact on my entire universe. In other words, because I’m at the center of my cosmic web, the Whole is affected by me. So as far as I’m concerned, if I’m happy, the universe is happy. If I love myself, everyone else will love me. If I’m at peace, all of creation is peaceful, and so on.

If things seemed challenging, instead of trying to change them physically (which is what I did pre-NDE), I began checking in with my internal world. If I’m stressed, anxious, unhappy, or something similar, I go inward and tend to that first. I sit with myself, walk in nature, or listen to music until I get to a centered place where I feel calm and collected. I noticed that when I do so, my external world also changes, and many of the obstacles just fall away without my actually doing anything.

What I mean by being “centered” is experiencing being at the center of my cosmic web, being aware of my position. This is really the only place any of us ever are, and it’s important to feel our centrality at the core of it.

But from time to time, I would forget my central place in the cosmos. I got caught up in all the dramas, contradictions, angst, and pain of the physical world and couldn’t see myself as one of the expanded, magnificent, infinite beings we all truly are.

Luckily, I realized at those times that we never really become disconnected from the center. Rather, we temporarily lose sight of it and don’t feel the sense of peace and joy that comes from it. We get caught up in the illusion of separation and can’t see that happiness and sadness go hand in hand—like light and dark, yin and yang. Our sense of disconnection is simply part of the illusion of duality that makes it difficult to see oneness forming out of perceived separation. But getting centered means seeing through this and once again feeling our infinite place at the center of it all . . . at the center of oneness." 

~ Anita Moorjani from Dying to Be Me: My Journey from Cancer, to Near Death, to True Healing ~