Most of the shadows of this life are caused by standing in one's own sunshine.

Bowing deeply in gratitude.....for having been taught to think before speaking my feelings. 

Always maintain your sense of wonder

My spirit is unique and beautiful.

Give yourself the room to breathe so that you can feel its gorgeous light showing you, and the world, your true and authentic self.

On a journey of self-discovery that is so far more about the journey than the discovery. Grateful for all the abundance in my life.

ps/smoh

love light and peace

THE SHADOWS AND THE LIGHT

Wanting to live, and wanting to die.
Wanting to break free, and wanting to hide.
Wanting to connect, and wanting to be alone.

Wanting to want,
and wanting to be free from want.

You hold ALL of these things
in your vast and beautiful heart.

Never turn away from any part.
Yet never let any part be your master.

Be free and wild like the trees in the forest:

Reach out for the light, yes,
but love your shadows too.

ps/smoh

love light and peace

THE CIRCLE OF LIFE TAKES NO 'SIDES'

All over the world, and in the news every day, people killing people. 
People on one ‘side’ killing people on the other ‘side’. 
Each ‘side’ claiming that they are right. 
Each ‘side’ holding onto ancient pain, each ‘side’ unwilling be the first to let go, coming up with all the reasons in the world why they can't and won't. 

A tragic tale as old as humanity itself.

When will we wake up to the obvious fact that we are all the same Consciousness in disguise? 

That no matter who we think we are, no matter how we appear, beyond our stories and histories, our religions, our nationalities, our beliefs, the colour of our skin, our heavy pasts and uncertain futures, we are all expressions of the One life? 

That in truth there are no Israelis or Palestinians, Jews or Christians, Muslims or Buddhists, atheists or agnostics, Republicans or Democrats, gurus or disciples, that those images can never define us. 

That who we truly are at the most fundamental level is indefinable, mysterious, never fixed or separate, never identified with an image, just as the vast ocean can never be defined by its waves.

Consciousness has no religion and no nationality. 

It gives birth to light and dark, the yin and yang of the ever-changing dream world.

As consciousness itself, 
when we hurt each other, 
we are only hurting our own brothers and sisters, our own kin, waves of ourselves. 
We are only fighting reflections of our original Face. 
We are only killing the ones we love, ancient friends from long ago.

Outer war has never lead to inner peace. 

How much more bloodshed? 
How much more pain? 
How many more men, women, and children must disappear into infinity before we wake up?

That bleeding child is my own. 

The circle of life takes no 'sides'. 

ps/smoh

love light and peace

ROOM FOR SADNESS?

Your sadness doesn't say, 
"Please fix me, heal me, or release me". 

It doesn't say, 
"Please get rid of me, numb yourself to me, pretend I'm not here". 

It certainly doesn't say, 
"Please get enlightened so I can die!".

Sadness does not come to punish you, or reveal to you what a 'spiritual failure' you are. 

Sadness is not a sign that you are unevolved or far from healing, awakening, enlightenment, even peace. The presence of sadness is not an indication that you've done something wrong.

Sadness only whispers, "May I come in? I am tired, I long for rest".

And you reply, "But sadness, I don't know how to allow you in!"

And sadness replies, "It's okay. You don't need to know. I'm already in".

And so we bow to sadness then, we recognise how it's already allowed in, how there's enough room in us for sadness, 
how we are not 'the sad one', not contained within sadness, but the room for sadness, its space, its home, its salvation, its loving embrace; not as a goal, but as our nature - consciousness itself, already free.

Don't heal yourself from sadness; let sadness heal you. 
Let it show you the way when you have forgotten. 
Let it reveal to you the mysteries of love. 
Let it remind you of your vast heart, your refusal to split off from any part of your ancient Self, that bigger 

The happiness you danced when you were young.

ps/smoh

love light and peace

IN MEDITATION, THERE ARE NO EXPERTS

The 'amateur' is the 'lover',

the one who adores raw experience,
the one who remains curious, open, inquisitive, fascinated,
the one who exists in permanent meditation,
the one who doesn't know.

The expert gets stuck in second-hand answers.
The expert knows, so they stop looking.

The expert cannot rest.
The expert cannot meditate.

Meditation means beholding the moment with
fresh eyes and ears and heart.
Meditation means being a total amateur,
losing the inner 'expert' and beginning again.

Drenching the moment with kind attention...
Never knowing what you'll find...

YOU ARE BEING LIVED BY LIFE!

Don't make 'acceptance' into a goal.
Don't make 'being okay with everything' into a goal.
Don't make 'peace' into a goal, or 'silence', 
or 'joy', or 'bliss' or 'calm'.
Or 'enlightenment'.
Or even 'healing'.
Don't make anything into a goal.
A goal is a jail, a prison.

And if you make something into a goal, that's okay too.
Simply notice the goal-generating mechanism now.
Acknowledge it.
And turn back towards your present experience
with fresh eyes and an innocent, open heart.
Begin again.
Here.

If you find acceptance here, wonderful.
If you find non-acceptance here, wonderful.
If you find sadness here, wonderful.
If you find a wild mind, uncomfortable feelings,
a pressure in the head, a heaviness in the heart,
a non-acceptance, a rejection, a frustration,
an urge to 'get rid of',
can you begin there?

Can you flush your experience with warm attention?

Can you drench this moment with awareness, which is love?

And if you can't... can you acknowledge even THAT?

And drench even THAT with awareness?

So that everything is included?

Everything is acknowledged as LIFE?

Everything is fundamentally okay?

Even the parts of you that don't feel okay?

And if this isn't possible, that's okay too.
There's no image to live up to.
No goal to reach.
No jail to escape.

Fail. Fail well.
And remember...

All your ancestors are holding you now.
And the Earth and all the stars are supporting you.
And our hearts are with you in your struggle.
And you are not alone in this presence, at this moment,
in this sacred space called Here And Now.

You are worthy of Life, drenched in Life, supported by Life, full of Life, illuminated by Life, breathed by Life, adored by Life, lived by Life.

ps/smoh

love light and peace

stillness

4 am and am still wide awake, this is the best time I reckon, just you and the inner stillness of the soul.

I think each person is inherently a loner, and this healthy alone-ness asks for ongoing renewal and cultivation.

Though embedded in a family, surrounded by love and supported in life, a person needs to have times of 'coming to self', time of aloneness even if it feels like loneliness.

To me, we need to be alone for periods of contemplating and prayer, 
for thinking, 
digesting of experiences, 
for writing and 
for renewing one's resolves.

Even the act of reading for leisure requires the withdrawal from interaction with others; we need to be alone, to be left alone, to have our aloneness respected.

I notice right from when I was young I don't like people at times and I thought I was weird, 
maybe this is it, 
only thus can we replenish the soul-strength that enables us to give to the world around us.

"Be the light unto the world, and hurt it not. Seek to build, not to destroy. By your shining example, seek only Godliness. Speaks only in truthfulness. Act only in love."

ps/smoh

love light and peace

Be kind...

(•_•)
\) (>
/ \
An open mind is what you need for inspiration, though not for making conclusions.

Some need 1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1=9 ... then there are smaller and smaller increments still.

We do not actually know other people, we ONLY know our judgment.

Yes, you are completely entitled to your opinion and you absolutely do have the right to voice it.
But, do you have no kindness? 

Spewing hate is straight up ugly, and ignorant, not to mention detrimental to humanity.

The good and the evil in the world, there are many complications behind them which are hard to understand which is why we should never only focus on the surface and judge others without understanding them first.

ps/smoh

love light and peace

TRAUMA: THROUGH THE PAIN, TO THE GLORY!

"Trauma is stuck life energy. Creative, natural, playful life energy that was not allowed to flow when it first emerged and it tried to flow. 

It wasn’t safe to let it flow and you didn’t know how. And so it got stuck in your body. It’s not your fault, dear one.

The words you wanted to scream. The ways in which you wanted to move your body. The healthy human feelings you intelligently squished in order to protect yourself, get love, be “okay”, stay alive. The truth you needed to express, but couldn’t.

But it’s a new day, and anything stuck in you yesterday can be given permission to move again today. This will take courage, the willingness to feel old pain and breathe through it, to trust the body now instead of giving in to the mind and its fears. To tell the truth. To come out of hiding and let yourself be seen.

In the safety of your own presence, or in the safe presence of another who can hold you and trust your process, can you turn towards the sore place, the tight place, the dark place, the aching place, and bring to it the light of your awareness, the light of love?

Life only wants to play in you, dance, tremble, vibrate, surge and move through to completion. The rage, the terror, the impulses and urges and desires you learned were ‘sick’ or ‘dangerous’ or ‘wrong’ or ‘shameful’ were always natural, and normal, and healthy, and they won’t damage you as you turn towards them now and give them the love and attention and safe passage they always deserved.

You don’t have to act them out. Just feel them, shine the light on them, bow to them. And allow, allow, allow. 

Moment by moment.

Be a vast Heart now, a loving curious welcoming Heart, and trust this intelligent storm of feeling as it emerges, roars and passes in its own time.

Your wounds, your turbulent and sorrowful places, your traumas, are not mistakes; they are the sacred places in you desperately yearning for love, waiting to be penetrated by your curious Light.

So scream, shake, tremble, weep, vomit, make a holy mess - you are a survivor and you are alive and you are healing and learning to play again.

Through the pain, to the glory!

And behold:
The place in you that was never traumatized."

You turned towards yourself when you started to listen.

dedicated to a friend that has lost a daughter

Namaste

ps/smoh

love light and peace

Build your career around your lifestyle, not your lifestyle around your career.

We only live one life on this earth, as far as we know. When the real meaning of this truly sinks in, you start to understand the real value of every single day in your life. 
You weren't put on this planet merely to serve your boss in order to put food on your table and a roof over your head; you are here to live your life to the fullest.
Those people who are truly happy and satisfied with their lives, build their careers around their lifestyles, not the other way around. 
This is what we should teach our children, and teach them at an early age because doing this is much easier if you start from the beginning. 
Every choice we make either moves us closer to living life as we want, or closer to living life as we have to because of our past choices. 
But it is never too late to live life your way.
Unless your job is your passion, you are spending a certain amount of time each day working in order to live the remaining time that you have the way that you want. 

The problem comes when working that job, for which you have no passion, sucks up all of your energy and passion for life, and you are just walking through life like a zombie on auto-pilot.

Choose your lifestyle and then decide how you will support your lifestyle. 

If you live your passion and your passion is your job, then you will never have to work a day in your life. 

Just remember, life is short; choose carefully how you spend your time.

Namaste

ps/smoh

Just ask yourself,

"Which choice will help me become the person that I want to be? 
Which choice is being true to my values and principles and which is not?" 

The answer to these questions will always point you in the right direction.

All of our days are filled with choices that we have to make, and the sum of those choices does add up to become who and what we are. 
Every day presents you will a multitude of choices, many which will test your conviction to your principles and your conviction to the lifestyle you want.

Some of those choices will have minor consequences, and some will have major consequences, but each one, no matter how small or how large, carries with it some consequence for your life. 

Every choice you make is either moving your closer to being the person you want to be or further away from whom you want to be.

If you keep this fact of life fresh in your mind, it will make the hard choices easier for you. 

In fact, when you keep this in mind, the hard choices become as automatic as the simple choices.

 "Did you know that there's no two people have ever been found to have the same fingerprints?

I also learned that those little ridges and whorls on the tip of each finger are formed from pressure on a baby's developing hands in the womb.

Our only purpose here, my only purpose, your only purpose, is to learn the map stamped on your fingerprint and follow it faithfully into the depth of your own life. Surprisingly, this turns out to be a most difficult task!

We are not here to fit in, be well balanced, or provide example for others.

We are here to be eccentric,
different,
perhaps strange,
perhaps merely to add our small piece, our little clunky, chunky selves, to the great mosaic of being.

As the gods intended, we are here to become more and more ourselves."

Namaste

ps/smoh

I am a Persistently Positive weed! I Grow! Grow! Grow! despite being chopped, poisoned or pulled! 
My Roots are Deep and Alive! 
I Thrive where others fail! 
I never give up! 
I am a Persistently Positive weed! 
I Rule the Garden of My Life

You become what you believe – not what you wish or want, but what you truly believe.

Nothing can touch you if you are humble. Neither praise or discouragement, because you know who you are.

So it is.

The GOLDEN RULES...

Who is Helping You, Don’t Forget them.
Who is Loving you, Don’t Hate them .
Who is Believing you, Don’t Cheat them.

Namaste
love light and peace

ps/smoh

Writing is not just a spiritual practice, it is also a psycho-therapeutic practice-
forcing to confront my demons,
the voice of not good enough,
issues around abandonment,
our childhood, and
collective download of 'who cares what you have to say?',

Our capacity to sit and focus for days on end while all our personal triggers arise etc.

So many triggers and niggling voices of self-doubt can arise in one paragraph as we are forced to confront the very real distinction between the healthy self-concept and the shamed version.

Yet there is so much growth at the heart of the process if we can let go of our obsession with the ‘perfect’ outcome and see the process as a healing journey.

And if we can stay with it, we will watch as the thing that we are creating morphs over time, ultimately becoming a reflection of the healthier being that wrote it.

A paragraph that is written from ashamed self-concept is radically different from one that is expressed from a place of self-love.

Like anything, we bring a conscious intention to, writing is a profound opportunity to heal and transform, outcome be damned.

Namaste

love light and peace


ps/smoh

Hmmmmm

May you live every day of your life......the purpose of life is a life of purpose. There is no wealth but life.

My formula for living is quite simple. I get up in the morning and I go to bed at night. In between, I occupy myself as best I can, that was me years ago.
But now a few years down the track..... the song has changed, the art of living lies in a fine mingling of letting go and holding on.

Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out. Believe that life is worth living and your belief will help create the fact.

But now I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had an underlying truth.
Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. 

Accept no one's definition of your life; define yourself.

Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first. Everything has been figured out, except how to live, life itself still remains a very effective therapist.

I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.

Who will tell whether one happy moment of love or the joy of breathing or walking on a bright morning and smelling the fresh air, is not worth all the suffering and effort which life implies.

You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life. 

Your life is what your thoughts make it. 

Not life, but good life, is to be chiefly valued. Only a few things are really important. 

The fear of life is the favorite disease of this century. The great use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it.

This life is worth living, we can say, since it is what we make it.

When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say,

 "I used everything you gave me".

ps/smoh

Be you!

There is an infinite supply of people who want to tell you how you should live YOUR life.

Most have good intentions and are trying to give you good advice, but the vast majority of this advice has a major flaw that is usually overlooked - it is YOUR life, and your life doesn't fit into some cookie cutter mould.

You must learn to listen to the voice of your spirit and let it guide your way. Like the saying goes on to say that if you listen to the voice within, 

"Your body and mind will become clear and you will realize the unity of all things."

You were put on this earth to be YOU, not some carbon copy of what your family, your church/mosque, your friends, or some self-help guru says you should be.

Develop the self-confidence to listen to the voice within and live your life your way.

Change can always cause a revolt, even if that change is in our own way of thinking. Happiness is a choice so choose Happiness. 

Be happy!!!
Be do we do to do be done

May the joy be with you

ps/smoh