Deepening the Pleasure

Gratitude, Joy, Life 0

Receiving means being available in the fullest sense of the word — allowing the precious moments of life to touch us deeply.  Receiving has nothing to do with being worthy, but it has everything to do with being Open….

If we receive fully, Gratitude follows naturally.  Gratitude is generative energy that acknowledges our connectedness.  Gratitude deepens the pleasure of Receiving and makes us eager to accept more and more good things into our lives.

— Victoria Castle, The Trance of Scarcity, p. 97

Learning the Lesson

Growth, Healing, Life 0

People say everything happens for a reason and God has a Plan for it all.  I believe things do happen for a reason.  And God does have a Plan.  But if we don’t learn the lesson from the circumstance and let ourselves completely heal from it — whether it is in the past or today — the things that happen for a reason will just keep happening over and over again.  And we’ll end up on a talk show talking about what keeps happening to us and wondering why.

— Melody Beattie, Playing It By Heart, p. 244-245

A Surprise Gift

Letting Go, Life, Relationships 0

If others do change because of something we said or did, which sometimes happens, we feel validated and this validation boosts our self-confidence.  Unfortunately, it also encourages us to repeat our behavior relentlessly.  Face it.  Others change only because they want to.  Not because we want them to.

So why do we incessantly try to do the impossible?  After years of observation, coupled with my own unyielding commitment to changing this behavior in myself, I have concluded that we attempt to control as a way of quelling the threat we feel when our companions have opinions or attitudes or behaviors that differ from our own.  The greater the threat, the more we try to control.

But what we discover when we give up trying to control everybody and everything is that we suddenly have the time and opportunity to learn and change and grow within ourselves, so that we can progress to the next level of spiritual awareness that awaits us.

A surprise benefit, too, is that by letting go, moving on, and living our own lives peacefully and with intention, we often inspire others to change in the very ways we want them to change.  Ironic, isn’t it?…

Being powerless over others is one of the best gifts we have been given on this journey.  Trust me.  You will be grateful, in time.

— Karen Casey, Change Your Mind and Your Life Will Follow, p. 66-68

Power

Growth, Healing, Letting Go, Life 0

Sometimes, I forget things that I know.  Sometimes I forget that letting go has more power than holding on, and then I forget to let go.  Sometimes I get so focused on the other person and what they need and want that I forget how I feel, what’s important to me, and what I need and want too.  Sometimes I forget that no matter what situation I find myself in, I do have powers available to me, even when I feel overpowered.  I have the power to think, to feel, to pray for guidance, the power to let go, and take care of myself no matter what’s coming down on my head.  And sometimes I forget that the temporary hit of power from drama addiction wanes in comparison to the real power we can connect to when we’re at peace with the world, and with ourselves.

— Melody Beattie, Playing It by Heart, p. 242-243

The Stories of Our Lives

Gratitude, Healing, Joy, Life 0

However God may choose to evaluate our lives, whatever memory of our past we shall have in heaven, we know this:  It will only contribute to our joy.  We will read our story by the light of redemption and see how God has used both the good and the bad, the sorrow and the gladness for our welfare and his glory.  With the assurance of total forgiveness we will be free to know ourselves fully, walking again through the seasons of life to linger over the cherished moments and stand in awe at God’s grace for the moments we have tried so hard to forget.  Our gratitude and awe will swell into worship of a Lover so strong and kind as to make us fully his own.

— Brent Curtis & John Eldredge, The Sacred Romance, p. 190-191

Dare to Be Enriched

Joy, Life 0

Being open to the flow of abundance will not eliminate pain from your life.  It won’t instantly make you wealthy.  It won’t even guarantee that people will come to your parties.  What it will do is reinstate you at the center of your own life.  Being open to the flow of abundance will sustain your capacity to greet whatever comes your way, as you dare to be enriched by it.

— Victoria Castle, The Trance of Scarcity, p. 87

Better Late Than Never

Forgiveness, Growth, Life 0

As we renew our commitment to the processes of life, then the processes of life will recommit to us.  We’ll feel forgiven for a past that wasn’t all it should have been when we commit to a future that is all that it can, should, and will be — now that we’ve finally grown up.

The prodigal son did get home late, having partied hard, but his father rejoiced to see him.  And so does ours.

Wherever you’ve been, and whatever you’ve done so far, your entire life was building up to this moment.  Now is the time to burst forth into your greatness — a greatness you could never have achieved without going through exactly the things you’ve gone through.  Everything you’ve experienced was grist for the mill by which you become who you are.  As low as you might have descended, in God there are no limits to how high you can go now.  It is not too late.  You are not to old.  You are right on time.  And you are better than you know.

— Marianne Williamson, The Age of Miracles, p. 9

Age Well

Letting Go, Life 0

By midlife most individuals stop blaming external villains for problems.  They accept their shortcomings more readily and change their ways.  This willingness to reform is a major difference between those who age well and those who do not.

— Allan B. Chinen, Once Upon a Midlife, p. 80

Feelings and Circumstances

Life, Peace, Truth 0

From my vantage point, you’d have seen many, many people who are deeply loved and still lonely, beautiful and still horribly self-conscious, professionally successful and still so terrified of failure that their nocturnal tooth-gnashing could crush diamonds.  Here’s something you’ll need to hold in your mind, at least temporarily, if you want to get a good look at your own North Star:  External circumstances do not create feeling states.  Feeling states create external circumstances.

— Martha Beck, Steering by Starlight: Find Your Right Life No Matter What!, p. 6

Resting in Jesus

Growth, Life, Story 0

Resting in Jesus is not applying a spiritual formula to ourselves as a kind of fix-it.  It is the essence of repentance.  It is letting our heart tell us where we are in our own story so that Jesus can minister to us out of the Story of his love for us.  When, in a given moment, we lay down our false self and the smaller story of whatever performance has sustained us, when we give up everything else but him, we experience the freedom of knowing that he simply loves us where we are.  We begin just to be, having our identity anchored in him.  We begin to experience our spiritual life as the “easy yoke and light burden” Jesus tells us is his experience.

— Brent Curtis & John Eldredge, The Sacred Romance, p. 174-175