Note To Self #3: Step Out On Faith

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
 Lao-tzu

There have been times in my life when I have not been able to see how I could take another step. I just knew I had to take it. To put one foot in front of the other, and, well, trust God. Trust that I'd make it through that proverbial dark night of the soul. And I think that's how it is from time to time for a lot of people; when things are not working the way we know they should. We have no other option but to just step out on faith, even if, or especially when, we think we can't go any further. When we may want to take the high road but the direction isn't actaully clear, there's no signage to take this path or that one, to stay the course or turn left or right. When that hope or dream falls out of reach, when it seems we are in our most vulnerable place, or life appears most uncertain. Those are the times that faith is most needed.  

Fatih in God enables us to look at things that look terrible and see hope, to look past the horror and see holiness, to confront the forces of fear with the grace of God. The moments in life call upon us to have an irrevocable confidence in God are great teachers and infuse light into our darkest hours and assurance in the human soul. The whole arc of possibilities become possible, to him that believes. Faith. The substance of things hoped for. The evidence of things unseen. Imagine that.

 "...Walk By Faith, Not By Sight". 2 Corinthians 5:7

"...without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him". Hebrews 11:6


Word of the Day- Faith

 noun \ˈfāth\

plural faiths \ˈfāths, sometimes ˈfāthz\

1   allegiance to duty or a person : loyalty;  fidelity to one's promises; sincerity of intentions

2   belief and trust in and loyalty to God; complete trust

3   something that is believed especially with strong conviction; especially a system of religious beliefs — on faith : without question <took everything he said on faith>

Note To Self # 1- God's Hospitality of Hope

The first power that meets us at the threshold of the soul's domain is the power of imagination." —Dr. Franz Hartmann

Imagination and Creativity. The twin flame of well being, often overwhelmed if not extinguished  by the challenges and chasms of life. A sudden tragedy, deep pain or even regular intervals of disappointments can tighten the mind and narrow the gaze until it is difficult to see the possibility for real change and transformation. Without the ability to see things as we would have them to be, through the lens of the eternal, there is no alchemical means to move up, through and out of a crisis- with grace. And the connective tissue between mind and body, hope and destiny, dream and reality that holds the fulcrum of our aspirations in place, is severed, putting us at precarious odds with the whole notion of being fully alive.  

Why is there so much difficulty and pain in the world? I think it's because we haven't learned how to imagine life without it. And so 'the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune', becomes a part of the human condition, just by living life every day.  There is a suite of tools though that we can use to learn to live with joy or learn to respond to suffering from a place of enlightenment and empowerment, until we do.  My tendency til now has been to withdraw. To build a web of emotional skin around the points of pain in my life, like a protective, impenetrable barrier from further injury. And withdraw from it, from others, from self.  Now, I realize that in doing so, I was also impeding the healing processes I needed and prayed for. As I journey, more and more, I am seeing every moment as a teachable one, and every thing that comes along, a teacher.

When I was a little girl, growing up in Tennessee, I'd watch Flip Wilson on TV.  He was one of the greatest comedians of his time. He played this flamboyant character named Geraldine who with hands on hip, always used the phrase "What You See Is What You Get". Back then it was just hilarious and while it later inspired the acronym WYSIWYG,  it was otherwise long forgotten by me. Today, while contemplating Neville Goddard's essay 'Imagination Creates Reality', that 'What you see is what you get' phrase came immediately back to mind. In the essay I am noodling over he writes, "Imagination is the very gateway to reality"... "your imagination automatically creates a change in your outer world"... By imagination we have the power to be anything we desire to be. Through imagination we disarm and transform the violence of the world..."  Neville's whole body of work is concerned with, what you see,'imagine', is what you get, 'reality', raising the immortal brow in terms of WYSIWYG. Though entertaining, Geraldine's view is comedic and through the eyes of man. Neville's is esoteric and through the  eyes of God.

"Your own wonderful human imagination is the actual creative power of God within you", Neville Goddard, "Imagination Creates Reality"

A lot of the chaotic stuff that push and pull us along the guardrails of daily life can lead us down a path to the positive, albeit sometimes radical, change we need. The process is not always glamorous, it is not always elegant, explainable, and can be particularly unpleasant.  But I have discovered this, that whenever I divest myself of outside voices and explanations and make the decision to accept the intimacy of change, even in small increments at first, there's an instant shift in my body, perspective and outcomes toward more peace, harmony and luminosity.  

The imagination is the eyes of the invisible - John O’Donohue

It is possible for us to learn from everything in this life including the pain that would shadow over the Oversoul, or diminish its imaginative impulses. And we can use those lessons as a catalyst to fuel new growth, and as an opportunity to nourish and enrich the power of our imaginations from the creative marrow of the Divine, and so, assist this gradual coaxing of the heavy heart, the broken spirit, or despondent soul, with all its mystical potentials, back up towards higher gateways of light, rejuvenation and God's ineffable hospitality of hope.

"I lift up mine eyes to the hills, from whence cometh my help" Psalm 121:1.

Believe that ye receive and ye shall receive." Mark 11:24

Word of the Day: Imagination

1 : the act or power of forming a mental image of something not present to the senses or never before wholly perceived in reality

2 a : creative ability b : ability to confront and deal with a problem : resourcefulness <use your imagination and get us out of here> c : the thinking or active mind : interest <stories that fired the imagination>

3 a : a creation of the mind; especially : an idealized or poetic creation b : fanciful or empty assumption http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/imagination?show=0&t=1306769259

See imagination defined for English-language learners »

See imagination defined for kids »

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Note to Self # 2 - Thoughts On Anger Management

Anger hasn't been an emotion I consciously allowed myself to feel. For all of my childhood and much of my adult life it just seemed a whole lot less complicated for me to ignore that part of the feeling spectrum. It was easier than try to confront them. I have since come to accept that Anger has it's rightful place along side the long list of other emotions I feel any given day, and in fact Anger is not at the bottom of the emotional hierarchy as I once thought. If expressed in constructive, meaningful ways, Anger can be as healthy an emotion as Love. A classic mistake is to think that Anger in and of itself is a 'bad' thing. Or that it and Love should remain mutually exclusive in our relationships when they are not. Anger, big or small, that vie for recognition and acceptance in our normal emotional outflow can enhance our own human potential and also the ability to more completely connect with others and they with us. I have now learned that there is a deep long lasting benefit and so much we all gain by simply being authentic, by honestly owning and then sharing how we feel. Yes, when it is tempered with understanding, respect and Love, Anger too, I now know for myself, can heal and help restore greater balance in our lives, .

The word of the Day: Anger.

• Date of Origin 12^th c.
  The original notion contained in this word was of distress’ or ‘affliction’; ‘rage’ did not begin to enter the picture until the 13th century. English acquired it from Old Norse angr ‘grief, and it is connected with a group of words which contain connotations of ‘constriction’: German and Dutch eng (and Old English enge) mean ‘narrow’, Greek ánkhein meant ‘squeeze, strangle’ (English gets angina from it), and Latin angustus (source of English anguish also meant ‘narrow’. All these forms point back to an Indo-European base *angg- ‘narrow’.