I’d Rather be Liked

When I first began to study the Bhagavad Gita with my spiritual teacher, she advised the small number of students, “Be aware that when you study the sacred scriptures, Life will offer you the circumstances to understand the lessons.” That is certainly my experience and choosing to live from a higher understanding frees us ultimately from pain, fear and suffering – but (and here’s the catch) – not without experiencing it first. 

The Meaning of Courage

It is in walking through the fire of fear, betrayal, loss, suffering, grief that we see that this is the fire that strengthens the steel of our character and spiritual expression and burns away all that does not serve the Higher Self.

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How dark is it inside a cow’s stomach?

When I was little we summered at the cottage – a log cabin on top of a granite rock. When we would come home late in the evening from some event we would feel our way up the sloping granite, one footfall at a time, following the bouncing beam of a flashlight.

The whip-poor-wills and crickets would be raucous and the stars sparkling overhead. I would cling to my dad’s hand and he would declare: “It’s as dark as the inside of a cow’s stomach!” I used to think that was a riot – but I don’t just now.

It’s a quarter to three in the morning. Son #2 is watching Chinatown – his dad’s all time favourite movie. Son #1 is making ginger and lemon tea to soothe his strep throat. Last night they auditioned for a record label and will soon fulfill their heart’s desire as musicians. They are on their way. In exactly one month from now we won’t be chatting in the kitchen in the middle of the night – we won’t be here at all. Where we will be has yet to be determined.

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THE LAW OF GARBAGE!

In the middle of the night when I am wont to wake, I sometimes surface with those trailing tendrils of prophetic dreams. Last night, the dream was about searching for a job of a certain description. I was using search terms similar to those I had used a year before and found that the jobs that came up were the same as the previous year. Not only that, they seemed to have a similar feeling of negativity. Curious. Read more…

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Holding on to stuff we should be letting go makes it tougher!

For those of us who have enjoyed the cumulative freedom of catharses (plural) will know that it is like going through a very tiny knothole into the meadow of an actualized life. Hmmm kinda like a birth. Nature is rich with metaphor if only we could grasp it while we are in labour giving birth to our whole Selves! First there is the messy work – oh gawd. And then there is the sweet smelling frilly part. Smiles. The integration. The ‘ah ha!’ moment. You kind of get it and then over the passing days and months you find yourself living life just a little differently. More centred. More trusting of yourself. Expressing more of yourself from a deeper part of your heart. What you ‘got’ at the emerging from the knothole was only the beginning. Read more…

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Claim your bliss!

Part 3 0f 3

So what did I learn from that funhouse ride into the darkest part of my psyche? Well, it illustrated what I already knew, but often forget to remember. In fact – enlightenment – or I should say ‘practical enlightenment’ (the enlightenment that is lived where we are now and not in a monastery) is a ‘one step at a time’ personal journey.

Most of us start out living unconsciously. As babes and young children we get our take on the world starting with the family dynamic. No news there. But what we maybe don’t fully realize in this age of visualization and law of attraction is that we can read all the spiritual, self help, and psychology books we want. We can go to sleep listening to chants or meditations; we can pray ’till our knees hurt, but until we actually integrate the wisdom and live it from the inside out, we will continue to be on the single rail track of our inner script. Read more…

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You bet. We call it irony!

Part 2 of 3

Remember the bad dream I mentioned in my last post? Well the next day I got to live it! Isn’t that ironic? I figured the car fire was, in a way, a good thing. I’d call the insurance company – they would write off the car as being too old to warrant repair and I’d get something more reliable. As it happened, the deductible was ‘way more than the repair and the repair was ‘way more than I could afford right now. So just when I thought I was catching a break – I was actually getting another smack upside the head. What was that about? Well, one thing – it wasn’t about the smack – it was about the punch to the solar plexus that was about to knock the wind out of me! Read more…

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Do You Have Time To Be Happy?

Part 1 of 3

It was about 4 AM when I woke this morning. I laid in bed inviting sleep back and felt the nameless dreads lurking in the corner of my mind. What’ll I do about selling the house? What’ll I do about the car that caught fire today? Why am I clenching my teeth? I finally resorted to my trusted remedy – a few drops of lavender on my pillow and twirled my nano to a meditation and away I drifted.

However I ‘drifted’ right into a very nasty dream. Read more…

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How do you measure success?

Yesterday I had tea with a friend who had recently had the occasion to chat with Kevin O’Leary of Dragon’s Den and Shark Tank. These are the advice bits he offered her: if you can’t articulate what your business is about in 90 seconds no one will invest in you; successful people have to be prepared to spend 18 hour days for some duration; spend your time not your money, and finally, know when to get out.

T queried me on the last point. How do you know when it’s time to call it a day; when you’ve spent enough money – when do you decide your great idea just isn’t going to fly? Of course, I had to confess that I was probably the wrong person to ask about that.   Read more…

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How to reclaim your heart.

Part 3 of 3

The dragon must die but to vanquish it, it must be lured from the cave into the light. All this drama of heroes, damsels, dragons, heart, and self, courage, and fear is the stuff our our daily life on Earth. Applying the archetypes only facilitates in understanding the active energy of these forces as they motivate or limit us from within, and as they attract external circumstances and relationships to perpetuate and feed the momentum of self deception – the dragon. Read more…

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How to take the good of Life’s lessons and dispose of the rest.

Yes, I’ve done this too – eaten the artichoke that is. I was nineteen at the time and in a very posh restaurant in Montreal. I was in university on the East coast and very attached to my boyfriend in Toronto. He was my first love and very handsome – like a young Michael Caine – actually Michael Caine was young then too. I would send soppy letters of longing home and he would respond with a carton of cigs and Ziggy Stardust album closing with the line: “Wish you were there” Read more…

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