Boundaries are walls to the ego.  But to our authentic Self, boundaries are all about listening to and speaking our own truth (mainly to ourselves.)  This allows us the safety of becoming truly ourselves, which is what we are really hungry for whenever we are compulsive!

There are all sorts of walls we have put up to listening to and living from our own truth – the fear that it is selfish; the fear that we will die if we listen to our truth and act from it; the fear that people will leave us if we don’t put their needs before ours.  May we know that EVERYTHING works better when we take step after step beyond those fears and live from our truth!

Be light, Mary

I hope this post finds your mind curious about whatever life is bringing you today.  Know that it is all for you!

I invite you to explore the art of trusting life by experiencing your soft belly.  When your belly is relaxed, you are open to life.

So often we tighten ourselves against life.  Our egos don’t trust that life will unfold in a way that is for our highest good.  But to trust is the healing we long for, and it is possible to truly trust.  In fact it is not only possible, it is the most powerful way for human beings to move through life.

Trust isn’t about always liking what is happening.  And it isn’t about just lying down in the road and letting life run you over.  Instead trust is full engagement with life as it is right now.

To trust life allows us to dance with it – passionately, lovingly and joyously; To trust life allows us to let go of all of the should’s, have-to’s, can’ts and wont’s so that we can connect with the newness of every moment; To trust life is to learn how to respond rather than react so our actions don’t add to our confusion and heartache, but they instead become a place of healing.  And to trust life allows us to tap into the great river of creativity that has been unfolding for millions of years, for everything that is authentically new and of lasting value comes from this ability to be fully engaged with life no matter what is going on.

May you watch your belly this week, and when it is tight, soften it and make contact with life as it is right now.  Hear a bird sing, taste your food, really see a loved ones face.  For your life, no matter what is happening, is for you.  May you show up for it!

Be light, Mary

As I prepare for leading the Fall Retreat on Whidbey Island next month, I am remembering on an even deeper level the nourishment, the heart connection and the importance of gathering together in awakening communities.  Isn’t it wonderful that even though we are separated by space, we are together through the heart?

Here is the wonderful quote that speaks to coming into the theater and finding the terrified part of us sitting on the stage. – all alone!!! – with many parts of us dancing around in a circle saying, “You did it wrong, you are wrong, you are not worthy,” and on and on and on.  This experience lies at the core of most human personalities.  And we are waking up to it and breathing it into our hearts so all beings can be free from this core suffering.

This quote speaks to the knowing that there is no accident we are in the theater all alone, lost in fear and self judgment.  And there is no accident that we are, together, entering the theater and going to be with the little child on the stage rather than joining the judgmental circle that is dancing around him or her!  As Rilke says, “Perhaps everything terrible is in its deepest being something helpless that wants help from us.”

“We have no reason to mistrust our world, for it is not against us. Has it terrors, they are our terrors; has it abysses, those abysses belong to us; are dangers at hand, we must try to love them.  And if only we arrange our life according to that principle which counsels us that we must always hold to the difficult, then that which now still seems to us the most alien will become what we most trust and find most faithful.  How should we be able to forget those ancient myths that are at the beginning of all peoples, the myths about dragons that at the last moment turn into princesses; perhaps all the dragons of our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us once beautiful and brave.  Perhaps everything terrible is in its deepest being something helpless that wants help from us. –Rainer Maria Rilke

And Nisargadatta:
“You cannot know yourself through bliss alone, for bliss is your very nature.  You must face the opposite, what you are not, to find enlightenment.” –From “I Am That”

Be light, Mary

Here are two quotes that are a combined invitation to be curious about what is and to see your vulnerabilities and difficulties in a different light – they are not something that is wrong; they are doorways into a full connection with you!

Notice that Agnes is saying the same thing as Krishnamurti: that it is what you turn away from that controls your life, and when you look, it lessens its power over you!

“If you look at something carefully, you will always be able to see its dark side. One cannot exist without the other.  And yet we choose never to look into the shadows.  Understand that it is what you choose not to observe in your life that controls your life. Everything begins with a circle of motion, without the positive and negative poles there would be no movement, no creation.  Without the dark side your beauty would not exist.  Don’t be afraid to look at both sides.  You need them both.  You must honor all as part of the great spirit.” –Agnes Whistling Elk

“It is not that you must be free from fear.  The moment you try to free yourself from fear, you create resistance against fear.  Resistance in any form does not end fear.  What is needed, rather than running away or controlling or suppressing or any other resistance, is understanding fear; that means watch it, learn about it, come directly into contact with it.  We are to learn about fear, not how to escape from it, not how to resist it.” –Krishnamurti

Be light!
Mary