Are our Prayers our Promptings?

I was reading a blog recently and the writer mentioned interviewing someone who used the word "promptings" as a noun. He spoke of having promptings, like things to be cared for and responded to - or not - but things nonetheless. He said that the speaker also used the word to communicate within his group.

There was some talk of the value of creating a language of ones own for ones group - in order to bond in understanding through the use and meaning of these terms. This is something groups routinely do (even down to passwords and secret handshakes.)

Given today's world, I've been learning the ins and outs of Twitter, and boy is that a great example of new language that bonds a group. We tweet messages to each other, our tweeps receive them on their PC or cell phone, and we organize it all on our tweetdecks. It's great fun! It's also a meaningful shift in the way we humans communicate.

I've been through this before. As I watch the world slowly becoming more aware, more in tune and more in sync with the language of the "club of new age nuts" that I've long been a part of, my heart feels light and my smile broadens! Who knew that yoga would be all the buzz at the local Y, and that health food and whole grains would be so chic that even garlic-loving Chef Emeril Lagassi would eventually go green with his "bam!".

I began to think about the "promptings" conversation, and in the world of meditators, healers and intuitives, it would immediately be understood that "a prompting" is "an action called for stemming from an insight or intuition."

I once went to see a great yogi, spending quite a bit of time and effort to finally sit in his presence. He looked very young (although he wasn't,) and energetically vital with sweet rosy cheeks and a terrific smile. Speaking of the powerful value of prayer, he was asked if he could have only one prayer what would it be, and he answered immediately:

"let me not measure what I own, nor seek to hoard the riches of the earth,
but give to me instead the ability to create moment by moment
what is actually needed in any situation."

I love this answer!

But boy, talk about a trust walk...and how do you know you're doing OKwith it once you've been bestowed with this special gift?

I think this is the best reason I've seen for a valuable lesson on "promptings."

They come in the quiet.

They demonstrate in peaceful surrender to what is and what can be.

They show you the way - though it may not be your way.

They demand that you listen...to something besides yourself that is. Really.

That means learning to get over yourself already, and just follow the leader - the song of your soul - the promptings. Now you're on to something! Listen. And once you hear, really hear, you will know the truth...and then you must act.

No sissy-mary half-baked no-I-cant's allowed. You want to get good at this? Then take action.
Act in kindness. Act on faith. Act with courage, but do act.

Promptings. May we have them aplenty.

Blessings to you today and everyday!

I'd love to hear some of your stories...

oooooooohhhhhhhmmmmmmmmmm...

What a Wonderful World

Did you ever notice the synchronicity of some small thing regularly showing up in your life during important times, or trying times, or times when you were calling out with your soul "Hey! Are you UP there?? Send me a sign, and I'm talkin' NOW!"

I have. Bigtime. For me it's a song.

I asked that it be added to the ritual celebration we gave some years ago for my parents at their 50th wedding anniversary - that alone was a miracle of fits and starts. So I had an established relationship that this particular song was significant - sort of my own secret remembrance that life is good.

Like any of you who've lived long enough to have the juice of life spill over you, I've had my share of traumatic events too. The first time I noticed that the song was part of them, I was sending a heartfelt prayer for guidance out to the place where my heart might meet the cosmic genius - and the song came on the radio.

Months later, I'm near to shock in that awful moment standing next to the hospital bed...looking down, aching...wondering..."will life ever be the same..?" and the music therapist stops by -"just making my rounds!"- and begins to strum the song on her guitar.

Oh it feels like the heavens are alive.

It went like that several more times - enough for me to know the difference between coincidence and life showing up to meet me where I stood.

Now I'm looking for an expert medical advisor - I have a tricky question few can answer. I'm at a cocktail party and meet a new friend. He happens to be a Doc. I mention my quest. It winds up he's not just any Doc - he's an expert in the field.

WOW. All righty then...

...and as he opens his laptop to give me the longed for information - the song is part of his background start-up. It issues forth like a trumpet, and I know that all is well.

Keep you eyes open kids - and your ears!

The answer to your prayers might not need a golden chariot shooting lightning bolts to find you, but rather it could be the very thing you are looking at now, right in front of your nose.


A Hawaiian Story: THE STARFISH

Once upon a time, there was a wise elder (kupuna) who went to the sea to contemplate. One day, while walking along the shore, the elder looked down the beach, and saw a gracefully dancing human figure. He wondered out loud,"Who would so joyfully greet this day with hula?"and began to walk faster to catch up.

Getting closer, the kupuna saw that the dancer was a keiki (child), who was not dancing at all. The keiki was reaching down to the sand to pick up something, and was very gently throwing it into the sea.

The kupuna called out to the keiki, "Aloha! What are you doing? "The keiki paused, looked up and replied, "Throwing starfish into the sea...the sun is up, the tide is going out. If I don't throw them back, they will die."

"But, don't you realize, " asked the kupuna, "that there are miles and miles of beach and starfish all along it? You can't possibly make a difference!"

The keiki listened politely, then bent down, picked up another starfish, threw it gently just beyond the breaking waves, and exuberantly declared, "It made a difference for that one!"

"My" song, this rendition in the beautiful voice of Israel Kamakawiwo'ole:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAl1JBruK4Y&feature=related