Finding Treasure

Compassion, Forgiveness, Healing, Joy, Life, Trials 0

Adopting the perspective of the Stargazer not only leads us toward our future best destinies but actually transmutes past unhappiness into treasure.  This is because, in emotional terms, everything is made from its opposite.  The raw material for joy is sorrow; the raw material for compassion is anger; the raw material for fearlessness is fear.  This means that the very people who hurt you worst may turn out to have enriched you most.  “Forgiveness” isn’t even an issue from the position of the Stargazer.  Why would anyone bother to “forgive” someone who’d made them rich?

— Martha Beck, Steering by Starlight, p. 76

Bring an Umbrella

Gratitude, Growth, Life 0

This is where most people get stuck.  To get what they want, they try wanting harder.  They yearn more deeply, try harder to become worthy.  They build the case about why they should have what they want, but this very attitude requires holding the desire as other (out of reach).  It’s a strange paradox that when you want a thing, you affirm that your life is wanting.  You affirm the Trance of Scarcity and lack….

We need to recognize the formula that does work.  That formula is not desire but confident expectation.  It’s an example of energy matching energy, impersonal but reliable.  When you pray for rain, bring an umbrella.

— Victoria Castle, The Trance of Scarcity, p. 111 & 117

The Sacred Romance

God, Joy, Life 0

The sacred romance calls to us every moment of our lives.  It whispers to us on the wind, invites us through the laughter of good friends, reaches out to us through the touch of someone we love.  We’ve heard it in our favorite music, sensed it at the birth of our first child, been drawn to it while watching the shimmer of a sunset on the ocean.  It is even present in times of great personal suffering — the illness of a child, the loss of a marriage, the death of a friend.  Something calls to us through experiences like these and rouses an inconsolable longing deep within our heart, wakening in us a yearning for intimacy, beauty, and adventure.  This longing is the most powerful part of any human personality.  It fuels our search for meaning, for wholeness, for a sense of being truly alive.  However we may describe this deep desire, it is the most important thing about us, our heart of hearts, the passion of our life.  And the voice that calls to us in this place is none other than the voice of God.

— Brent Curtis and John Eldredge, The Sacred Romance, p. 195

Wow.

Gratitude, Growth, Joy, Life 0

Now there’s at least two ways I can look at all of this.  I can say look at everything I’ve had to go through.  Or I can stand back and say wow.  Look at everything I got to experience, feel, and see.  And as much as I’ve resisted and struggled each step of the way, maybe that’s why I am here: to go through all of this and see from my point of view exactly how all these things feel.

— Melody Beattie, Playing It By Heart, p. 247

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