What Can We Leave to Those Who Follow?

I have entered the stage in life where a clear, persistent awareness has arrived: I am the future. I hold the answers. I am looked to - and for - by the young ones of our human tribe, and I am responsible as best I can be for the insights I offer.

Perhaps you too are at this stage with me - perhaps you are only now seeing the glimmer of truth that one day you will be. Always we have needed the voice of insight and experience to guide us. Forever into the future we will continue to grow through the contributions of those that came before us.

The Elder - The Statesman - The Wise One.

It has been about a year now since I noticed the gentle turn in the road to this new territory in my own life journey. No longer the Seeker myself, the questioner who opens infinite arms to new teachings and experiences, I have been pressed into service to honor the wisdom that I already hold.

The young ones among you have done it.

A phone call here, a "remember me?" there...the ones I taught when they were perhaps too young to really understand are letting me in on the oh-so-holy moments they have had as a result, and now somehow affected, are returning to reach out, to ask deeper questions, to connect. They are in their 20's and 30's, and filled with earnest longing to understand life and improve their conditions. Piling up around me I see that they, not I, are the Seekers with open arms to new teachings and experiences and that the Elders must take their place.

I must take my place.

I accept the honor, and I invite you to do the same. The World needs you.

Observing the role, there are landmark choices that light the path:

Admit your age.
Be proud of it.
Speak of the joys, not the sorrows - the accomplishments not the aches.
Be a renegade and try something new everyday.
Get friendly with technology and use it wisely.
Appreciate the laugh lines.
Be sensual.
Be sexy.
Stop being so "nice" and if you're being mean, stop that too.
Be willing to share what you know.
Be willing to know something different.
Look people in the eye - especially the really young ones who might automatically think you are judging them. (and if you are judging them - don't)

There is so much more than meets the eye that lives in the heart of man.

Be trustworthy.
Extend your helping hand.
Be optimistic.
Be the change you wish to see.

Forget about "when I was your age" and get real with "now that I am wise..."

Talk about them, not about you.
Listen.

Lastly, if you want to leave a lasting testament to the generations that will follow, you can do it now by living a life that will earn the right to be admired.

BE PEACE NOW.

Whatever it is and wherever you can, create peace today right where you stand. In your family. With your neighbor. Through your green purchases and recycling efforts. Make peace with your body image, your IQ and your age. Live peace inside your own heart.

This is the possibility of wisdom made manifest. This is the possibility of truth we leave for our young ones.

May you have many smiles along the road!

oooooohhhhhhmmmmmmmmmmm
Namaste

God Holds You in the Palm of His - Her? - Hand

I have had the privilege of hearing the deep and true stories of peoples' lives in my coaching practice. Lately, for many of you the challenge is growing. Divorce, loss of love, fear of the current economic picture, feelings that life is leaving you alone and abandoned, stories of what "should be," what was "supposed" to be, what isn't and what wasn't...

In my journey through the ecstasy of living I have found that my most revered teachers often shared something so profound, so vastly embracing, and so enriching to my soul as to take only one sentence to impart the deepest of truths. Consider this...

"Once one is committed to Wholeness, all that is not that will step forward to be healed."

(Mind says "and I thought it was going to be easy, you know, like once I decided to have it all and reach for my bliss things would get better...")

No?


Bummer.


When your soul needs to grow beyond it's present limiting circumstance that's when it's time to bring out the fan and watch the slinging begin.

Your own, that is.

Everything that stands in the way of your greatness will appear out of thin air, rising to the surface like some bad joke. Only here's the thing..."all that is not that" simply needs to go. The one who needs to let go...is you.

"BE the change you want to see" is not a new idea, yet it can seem so hard to apply when we are hurt, angry or scared.

The great meditation teacher Thick Nhat Hanh advises this simple mind body spirit routine:

Breathing in, I calm
Breathing out, I smile.
Present moment.
Wonderful moment.

Simply put, he is giving us permission to be in charge of the moment - every moment.

If you can't change your life, change your mind.
If you can't change your mind, change your breath.
If you can't change your breath, smile...

You are a gentle soul, says the Mystic, waiting to be reborn.

Know that when we address life difficulties, all of our decisions involve bodymindspirit as one - each time - every time. We cannot create change on one level and expect that it will not affect the other levels significantly.

You are ever and always in charge of something you can do to create a positive outcome in any situation.

Where to begin?? The way we feel, think and act naturally follows a sequence of energetic motions that travel through the system of our energetic body - the system of energy anatomy we call chakras.

If you follow the awareness that each chakra invokes, your road map will be clear and the work you need to do on yourself for yourself will become evident.

• 1st chakra - facing the challenge when the structure of our beliefs about what "should be" are getting tested. Facing our own limiting beliefs as well as the limiting beliefs of others in our environment and in our tribe. Going it alone and accepting the necessity of aligning our personal belief with the choice to take a stand. Growing up.

• 2nd chakra - moving from apathy and argument to caring action. Finding the ways to care properly rather than shutting down. There are tools to help us through this area of creation that are related to the care and nourishment of our body. Eat well, exercise, rest, visit nature. These are not options if you want to stay healthy and spiritually awake.

• 3rd chakra - grief and the subsequent arrival of ease. We need to address our feelings of self-esteem and self-realization. Where are we responsible for our own experience, like it or not? We address the VICTIM and acknowledge the gifts of the true Self who actually does know what to do and how to do it. How does grief feel? Why is it necessary to grieve if you are to ever truly let go? Why feel at all? What's the upside? Letting go is the work of a healthy 3rd chakra.

• 4th chara - fear. How do we convert the energy of fear into faith? We are renegotiating "that to which we were wedded" at this level of interaction. This is emotional and spiritual as well as physical.

• 5th chakra - anger transformed into healthy boundaries. The necessity of finding your voice resides here. Make it real. Keep it true. Release blame. Transform aggression. Maintain protection. Say what you mean and mean what you say - and don't be mean.

• 6th chakra - insight comes when the pain subsides. We practice meditation to help us recognize the difference between insight and the chattering of the monkey mind. Peace is the answer. Listening is the skill. Develop ways to listen. A 10-minute daily meditation practice is invaluable.

• 7th chakra - love is all there is. Keep the best for all concerned in sight. God holds you in the palm of hir hand...

This is the barest of outlines on how the incredible energetic information system you were born with operates. There are many ways to fill in the blanks of the outline so find your teachers. Attract support. Make your stand. Look at yourself and improve, improve, improve what you see. Stop being a victim. Start taking responsibility for the life you created and if you need to change it, then change it.

Whatever it is you must begin, begin it now. There is greatness in that.

Expecting someone else to change so that you'll have it easier is a blame game that is a waste of your spiritual energy and a false reason for living. Don't give up on yourself...the best is yet to come.

Stay strong dear ones, and breathe deep...

Namaste

ooooohhhhmmmmmmm