Success and Duality

Success.  It seems a rather ambiguous term to me.  I looked both “success” and “ambiguous” up in the dictionary.  Ambiguous means having two or more meanings.  Success is having a favorable outcome or result.  The Higher Self Bookstore has succeeded in keeping its doors open throughout the economic downslide as well as the most recent unfavorable weather that kept lots of people at home.

Success can also mean the gaining of wealth, fame, etc.  I cannot claim success by that definition.  Like most things, the meaning of what is gets to be quite personal. 

One of my favorite quotes from Conversations with God by Neale Donald Walsch is “There is something I don’t know here, the knowing of which can change everything!”  Some things I have learned recently (often kicking and screaming):

I am powerful and powerless at the same time.

I am wealthy and yet have no money, at the same time.

My surrender does not allow for doing nothing.

I am a success and a failure at the same time.

I can be very focused and quite blind at the same time.

Oh, there’s more, but you can get the picture.  Duality Reality! Depending on where I put my attention is the reality I experience in that moment.  That and there is where I make a choice.

Like I said, the Higher Self Bookstore has been very successful in keeping the doors open to serve you, either with the books and products you desire or with services to counsel and assist you in your personal and spiritual growth.  Even as a place just to breathe, find some peace, maybe even a hug, a smile, a laugh.

What we haven’t been successful in is being able to expand our services to you.  To keep the latest and greatest books and products on the shelves, fulfill special orders timely, or create an online store for our out-of-town or snowed in customers.  Our computer is antiquated, as is our web site. The store itself could use new carpeting, the walls painted, etc.  We haven’t failed – we just haven’t succeeded in those goals yet!

There are the facts to consider, but we get to choose the meaning of how those facts affect our reality.  We are all a success!  That’s how I see it.  I look forward to serving you successfully today, tomorrow, and in the years to come!  How I serve and where I serve may be different, but I will never fail in my commitment to make a difference.

Love - Then and Now

Who Is She?

She’s always been near,

No doubt she exists.

She swims in a tear,

And lives on a kiss.

Her home is the heart.

Two hands she will hold

And cling ere they part

When sweet words are told.

She sings in an ear,

She puts gleam in eyes,

In dreams she’ll appear

And sweeten the sighs.

She freshens the tone,

In songs, she sings of...

She plays not alone,

She’s known as .......... 

She's knows...LOVE!  I wrote this poem as a teenage.  Ha!  What I didn't know then that I know now.   Then, it was reading articles in teen magazines on how to get a guy to like you.  Then, it was figuring out how to keep the guy. I don't know where I got the idea to be the girl he wanted me to be instead of the wonderful young girl I already was. Ah, the teenage pain of wanting to be loved.

I don't recall anyone teaching me to love myself first.  It may have been mentioned, in passing. Love someone and let someone love you.  That is what I remember.

I've mentioned before my favorite books, Conversations With God.  I went to a retreat with the author, Neale Donald Walsch, a few years ago.  I raised my hand and asked him to expand on a quote from the book, Book One I believe - when faced with a decision to be made, "What would love do?"  He looked at me closely and said something along the lines of "you are wanting to make choices with your love for another, right?"  I agreed. Then he said, "You must first ask yourself - What would love for ME do?"

I said, "Oh."

I had never really thought of that.  How strange!  I always put someone else first in my decision making.  It was "bassackwards!"  And, a hard habit to break.  I practice...practice...practice.

So, not exactly a romantic love story, but an important one.  Be your own Valentine!  Fall in love with yourself!  This is the best Valentine's gift you can give to yourself, and everyone - yes, everyone else.

A Persisent Question, Number 1

As I pondered what to post, remembering that I intended to do a series on the questions posed in The Storm Before the Calm by Neale Donald Walsch, I learned that bombings occurred in Kabul just 90 minutes after President Obama departed after meetings.  You know, we've been talking about how change is happening rapidly in our lives - but some things appear to not be changing much at all.  Like political campaign ads.  I mean really, has anyone heard anything new?  Has the platform changed?  I'm not seeing it.  But I digress...

"How is it possible that 6.9 billion people claim to want the same thing (peace, security, opportunity, prosperity, happiness, and love) and  be singularly unable to get it?"

For one, we keep doing what we've always done and expect different results.  I know you've heard this before.  Until we stop and take a look at our beliefs, our "cultural" stories, our history, and whether or not our actions match our intentions - we will continue to get what we've always got.

I was also reminded of an article I wrote a few years ago.  It adds more questions I hope you "conversate" with others about.  I edited the length.
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Lessons on the Beach

 Listening to the waves was nourishing to my body and soul, digging my feet into the sand connected me to mother earth and grounded me at the same time.  But it was the words I heard spoken by the friends, intentionally and unintentionally, that I took home as true treasures.  Words I could feed on and digest and apply to life.  Lessons on the beach.

At lunch with a friend yesterday, these questions were posed to me:  What causes a person to be civilized? What causes a person to be uncivilized?  As I pondered these excellent questions, he asked, “Well, do you have an answer?”

Yes, of course, love and fear is at the base of every chosen action or way of being.  I am assuming we are using the same definition of civil, meaning what we in America consider civil behavior.  What other countries call civil may be viewed as uncivil by our standards.  Honor, peace, respect, dignity, and other sub-definitions of love could be the causes for civil behavior.  These same aspects could come from a place of fear and cause uncivilized actions.

Not much later that day, I witnessed this same enlightened soul engage in loud, angry, mostly verbal battle on the beach with a complete stranger.  I didn’t, or wouldn’t, believe that any physical harm was going to result, so I did not intervene.  I had a sense that a great lesson was going on. 

When my friend returned to my side, defensive and angry and righteous, I calmly repeated his earlier questions – What causes a person to be civilized?  What causes a person to be uncivilized?

As he started in on what she had said and what she had done and how people should be this way and people should never…I interrupted with “This isn’t about her.  I want to know what ‘caused’ you to react the way you did?”

It took a very long walk down the beach and back to get to his underlying personal issues.  As we talked, I recalled the words I heard on another beach with another friend the previous week about conflict.  Her revelation was “I want what I want.”  And, the other person wants what they want.  Too often, all the individuals really want is to be “right.”

This morning the newspaper ran yet another article on the conflict between Israel and Palestine.  From a distance, we don’t understand why these two peoples can’t create peace from a place of love.  They choose, instead, to use intimidation, manipulation, threats, and violence.  Both sides believing they are right and acting out of righteousness.  This is similar to what I witnessed during the beach battle.  Both wanting what they wanted, both believing they were in the right.  First they tried intimidation.  Then manipulation.  When threats didn’t work, violence happened.

So, what causes you to be civilized?  What triggers you to be uncivilized?  Better yet, what do you want as your ‘cause’ to be either?  Will it be love, peace, honor, respect, dignity?  Is there a particular fear you are still holding on to that could cause you to be uncivil?  

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Share your thoughts with me, too!  Thank you for passing this forward so more can participate in the conversation.  Namaste'

Where Am I? And Why Am I Where I Am?

The second and third questions I'm asking myself are Where am I and Why am I where I am? These questions are presented in Neale Donald Walsch's latest book, The Storm Before the Calm. I already addressed Who I Am - a child of God, one with the Universe, a spiritual being having a human experience. So where am I?

Here. I'm here. And I'm there. I'm everywhere. I'm pure energy connected and in flow with all energy. I am you and you are me. I am here and you are here, I am there and you are there. Confused yet? I get this mostly as a concept, but have experienced (in what seems like small, fleeting moments) Being all that is and Being everywhere. Feels good, really good.

Have I ever told you my silly putty analogy? One day while contemplating the concept of "We Are One" I had an epiphany! Up until that moment I couldn't quite get it. If I was a part of the whole, I was still separate as a part. The jigsaw puzzle theory didn't work for me - I was still a separate piece. I could be willing to be of the "One", but was still removable, know what I mean?

Anyway, I pictured silly putty spread way out, really thin. I hope you all remember silly putty! Then I pictured using my finger to poke upward a silly putty me. I did it again, and that was me, too. Again and again. Silly putty me, and the rest were silly putty yous, which were actually me. I was everywhere! With absolutely no separation. We Are One!

Now I could look around at all the silly putty me's and say, "Wow, look what I am doing over there!", and over in another direction, "Fascinating the choices I'm making over yonder." In my daily reality, the "over theres" are You. Me being you. Of course, I forget that.

I recently had another "epiphany" around my silly putty analogy. Remember how you could take the silly putty, press it against a comic strip and create a "copy?" That's what I did. I put a "face" on all the finger beings I created- You now have a face! Ha! My illusion, my show!

What was the questions? Oh, yeah, Where Am I? My conscious human self is in Traverse City, Michigan, United States, Earth, Universe. I am in the Higher Self Bookstore at this moment - at least that is where my focus is. Talking to you, out there everywhere, where I am as well just not feeling it at the moment. Words are so limiting, aren't they?

Why Am I Where I Am? I figure there's got to be a good reason. I need to go a little deeper, but not just yet.

I attended a retreat with Neale Donald Walsch some time back. One wonderful thing I took away from that experience was this: "You are in the room to heal the room." I'm sure it is in one of his Conversations with God books, but I remember it from the gathering. To me this means that wherever I am (in a room, a park, a convention, a friends house, a family reunion), I am there to do what I can to raise my vibration and the vibration of those around me. To bring in positivity where there is negativity. To make the "room" and those in it feel better.

More on these questions and the next question in my next blog. My women's group has already started discussing the questions. If you are interested in meeting for A New Conversation, let me know and we will plan a get-together! And feel free to leave comments here. Namaste'

Can We Have a New Conversation?

Neale Donald Walsch's latest book, The Storm Before the Calm, was on my "to read" list, having to do with 2012 and how we can be proactive in our collective future. I'm a big fan of Neale's works, all of them, the Conversations with God series being my "go to" books for answers, inspiration, peace, love - and remembering who I am.

My sister, Cindy, received The Storm Before the Calm as a birthday present in January. Her friend also told her about a group in her area meeting to have "conversations." She called me very excited about the book and the group, so I brought the book home the next day. On the cover reads "Conversations with Humanity."

Neale encourages us to ask ourselves seven questions, and have conversations with others about these topics. He presents the questions as early as pages 43 and 44. When I first read them, my reaction was "Oh, hell no, I do not want to go there." Which is exactly why I am going to go there. It's time to dig deeper. We all could use a deeper dig. In fact, I believe our future depends on a deeper dig.

My women's group is going to work the book and the questions. I am considering having the Higher Self Bookstore host a "conversation" group. You may want to join in right away, so I am going to share four of the questions with you now:

1. Who am I?
2. Where am I?
3. Why am I where I am?
4. What do I intend to do about that?

Who am I? I answer this without labels, such as mother, store owner, daughter, woman, feminist, writer, artist, cook, housekeeper, blahblahblah. I am Divine, a child of God, I am spirit now having an human experience, I am God individuated. I forget this as I am doing all the things my "labels" seem to require of me. And like many of my neighbors, local and globally, I have been very, very busy focusing my attention on survival. Except when I'm not. It has been way too easy to forget who I am.

But now, as encouraged, I ask my self that question everyday and am automatically reminded who I am. Wow, this conversation has already changed my life! I am also going to the web site to participate in conversations there, http://www.TheGlobalConversation.com

What impresses me about the "Occupy" movement is that conversations are happening. It may not be clear what the solutions are, but with enough people talking to each other and sharing what they know, answers can be developed, declared, and demanded. We can go even bigger.

We are going through many changes and we feel we have no control over the future. We are way more powerful than we think. As the line goes in an Indiana Jones film (something like) It's Time to Ask Yourself What It Is You Believe.

If you are interested in participating in the "conversation" at the Higher Self Bookstore, send us an email and let us know: higherselfbooks@aol.com

As I dig into my own answers deeper, I promise to share them with you. I'd love to hear your answers as well. Let's talk - it's important, and it just may be our saving grace.

Why this book, and why these questions and not some other? It is the one before me, it talks to me, I can relate and connect. Neale's has laid out some great guide lines, and has "started" the conversation, and it's a good one!