Tools For The Road

Up The Mountain

There’s an old Chinese proverb that goes “There are many paths to the top of the mountain, but the view is always the same.”

Of course there are multiple interpretations of that, and this one from Hinduism is on my mind today:

There are hundreds of paths up the mountain,
all leading in the same direction,
so it doesn’t matter which path you take.
The only one wasting time is the one
who runs around and around the mountain,
telling everyone that his or her path is wrong.

Put another way, there are many paths up the mountain and only one truth.

That truth is love.

Or, the best way to express that truth is through love in action. You know what that feels like, yet explaining ‘love’ is like trying to slap a definition on a blue sky. You can’t make someone see blue when all they see are clouds and rain.

But this is not supposed to be a long-winded essay today. It’s a check-in, a way to let you know that I am still here, walking up that mountain. It’s the same mountain I’ve been walking up for some 25 years now – that’s about the time I identify as the official start of my spiritual journey.

It’s probably been longer, but who’s counting?

Who’s counting a belief in reincarnation that suggests hundreds or thousands of different lives and just as many years?
Who’s counting this soul’s multiple simultaneous incarnations?
Who’s counting multiple lifetimes happening simultaneously through multiple dimensions, time, space, etc.?

There is no time, so there is no counting, and all is now.

Still Climbing

At the start of the trail, the walk is always easy. Wide, smooth, well-trodden, and downright fun. As you rise up (as good a metaphor as I can muster this morning) the path is strewn with all manner of rocks, sticks, fallen branches. It’s steep and uneven and sometimes scary. It’s one obstacle after another because everything in life is the path.

I’m discovering that I have a great need to strip away non-essentials, to once again let go and let go and let go.

I’ve spent the last few years accumulating stuff – literal things like clothes and cookbooks, but also mental stuff like Reiki, QHHT, life coaching, mindfulness, and business ideas.

And I’ve gotten so turned around on the path that I think I have 10,000,000 things do to and am tired of 9,999,999 of them. I’m tired of grasping, wishing, dreaming, tired of thinking about and tired of not doing.

I’m tired of taking on things (Reiki, QHHT, Life Coaching, Mindfulness, business, clothes, and cookbooks) and having little to show — other than a PDF certificate and a large pile of cute clothes and vintage cookbooks.

Paint The Basement

My life coach asked me what I needed to do next to move along the path. I said, “paint the basement.”

I want to focus on the here and now and on things that make a tangible difference for me.

I could get all symbolic on how painting the basement equates creating a solid foundation on which to build my future, but really, there are enough metaphors out there for me to use on another day.

Today, I’m pausing at this grand turn on the path of my life.

Sidebar

(A sidebar is a short story or graphic accompanying and presenting sidelights of a major story. It’s a deviation from the main thread or idea presented here. So you can ignore this part if you’d like.)

I’ve unfollowed a lot of people and pages and businesses on social media. Each platform seems more like a bad joke. Social media wastes time and focuses energy on wants and desires over true connections.

And yes, I know people who use social media for true connections, but the majority of it seems fake and fake and fake. But yet I don’t want to cut the social media cord completely.

Frankly, social media manipulates that deep desire to spy on people. And deep down, that’s what it’s about – jealousy about that life lifestyle or activity or possessions. And in turn, that jealousy becomes fear of missing out (FOMO.)

I’m doing my damnest to seek JOMO (joy of missing out) but there’s the whole “missing out” part of both of these acronyms that bothers me: what exactly is missing from me that needs to be found and fixed?

Keep Climbing

Of the nonsense online, one blog stands heads, fingers, knees, and toes above the others at the moment for me: Schrodinger’s Other Cat.

The posts are usually short and funky, the comments thought-provoking, and the metaphysical humor 100% on point.

It’s definitely not for everyone. But it’s a cozy little box in the corner of the interwebs for consciousness naps and meows that I thoroughly enjoy.

Lately “the cats” have asked readers to experiment with a saying from a student of A Course In Miracles (ACIM.) My experience with this saying was quite interesting, so I thought I’d pass it along.

Take this saying and try it out on anyone and everyone. Include yourself, and those you’re struggling with or have struggled with in the past:

Boss pissed you off? Say the saying!
Cut off in traffic? Say the saying!
Annoying relatives? Say the saying!
Thinking of your ex? Say the saying!
Nosy neighbor? Say the saying!
Burned your dinner? Say the saying!
Former frenemy in your thoughts? Say the saying!
Pesky pests eating your tomatoes? Say the saying!

I work at holding that person in my mind’s eye and gazing into the person’s eyes. Then I say the saying (it’s not a mantra, but, if it’s easier to remember it that way, so be it.) I wait and see how it feels.

That’s the key here — how does it feel? Most people I can do one recitation and feel some change or release. Some folks take two, three, four or more recitations. You may need to stop, collect yourself, and really get in touch with the compassionate part of yourself that loves beyond love – unconditionally.

You’ll know you’re finished saying this for the person because there will be a clear release. For me, it’s usually quite subtle like a gentle sigh or stomach muscles releasing.

Notice any thoughts that appear while you’re doing this. It could be something like “leave me alone” or “thank you.” You might say “whew!” when you’ve finished with some, and smile with others.

Feel free to change the saying around to make it work for you. For the word “Brother” I’ll often say something like “brother, sister, father, mother, source, god, goddess.” And I found that I had to repeat “all is forgiven and released” over and over for some people.

This is one way of being love in action. It is a way to walk your path up and around the mountain of your life with as much love in your heart as you can muster.

Regardless, try it out and let me know how it goes.

You are perfect

immortal spirit

brother

whole and innocent.

All is forgiven

and released.

Above Majestic, PGS Intuition, and InnSaei

spiritual movies

Above Majestic and PGS: Intuition are two movies that I have wanted to see. InnSaei is a movie I stumbled upon while browsing suggested films on NetFlix. I watched all three recently, but not in a traditional format in a movie theater.

More and more we are seeing the decline of traditional, controlled methods of sharing information. The internet has virtually decimated the legitimacy of traditional network news – I certainly don’t watch NBC, ABC, or CBS, do you?

And I absolutely do not watch the so-called news networks; they focus far too much on fear mongering for my tastes.

I don’t read a newspaper either or buy magazines – unless it’s second hand at the thrift store or an estate sale. I do read big books!

Frankly, I get more of news and information from Twitter, Facebook, and various blogs than I do through any news outlet – other than public radio which I definitely listen to in the morning and occasionally at other times.

Still, this lack of following traditional news media makes it challenging to find reliable information.

Regardless, I had heard about Above Majestic and PGS Intuition and learned I could simply stream them via my Roku.

PGS Intuition

I tried to bring PGS Intuition to Mount Pleasant through Gathr films, but that didn’t fly. So I was elated when I learned that the movie was now available on Amazon, iTunes, and more. I watched it over the weekend, and let me tell you, it’s fantastic – just watch the trailer:

PGS Intuition is like the next evolution from “The Secret” or “What The Bleep Do We Know.” It’s a true exploration of and demystifying of a system that is innate to all of us — intuition. Loved this movie – it’s the best $16 I’ve spent in quite some time. And bonus — there’s also a book available from Amazon (affiliate link.)

Above Majestic

Above Majestic covers so-called conspiracy theories and those can be pretty hard and heavy to swallow.

(Also remember that ‘conspiracy theory’ is a term invented and proliferated by the CIA in an attempt to discredit anyone who put forth narratives that disagree with the preferred narrative. To me, a lot of the theories are plausible, and heavens knows they’re researched.)

So, on one hand, it’s a tough red pill to swallow, but it opens your mind to possibilities.

(Red pill – as in Neo taking the red pill in The Matrix and finding out just how deep the hole goes. Let me tell you, it goes and goes and goes.)

via GIPHY

Above Majestic is more than two hours long. And in that two hours, you’re hit by every conspiracy theory out there: aliens, adrenochrome, pedophilia, torture, the cabal/illuminati, evil, banking scams, secret space programs, secret cults, and more. It’s a rough ride.

The movie bombards you with everything I’ve been reading about for years.

It was hard for me to sit through, mainly because taking in that much information in sitting is exhausting. I felt like falling asleep multiple times – and not just because it was getting late – but because the sheer volume of information being thrown at me was astounding.

You could take just one piece of that information and research for a long time.

Seriously. If you searched on adrenochrome alone, your mind will be blown – in more ways than one.

You know how when you pull a carton of milk out of the fridge you sniff to ensure it’s fresh? When I sniff around Above Majestic, there’s something that’s off. Not that it’s “gone bad” like spoiled milk, but that something isn’t quite right.

If any of this entices you, watch the trailer. Rent the movie from Amazon or ITunes, etc. because it’s not available in regular movie theaters or Netflix — yet.

InnSaei

This is yet another “spiritual’ movie I watched recently, and it’s available on Netflix now.

InnSaei is the Icelandic word for intuition, though it has multiple meanings:

{InnSaei} can mean “the sea within” which is the borderless nature of our inner world, a constantly moving world of vision, feelings and imagination beyond words. It can mean “to see within” which means to know yourself, and to know yourself well enough to be able to put yourself in other people’s shoes. And it can mean “to see from the inside out” which is to have a strong inner compass to navigate your way in our ever-changing world.

Watch the trailer, and go search for this on Netflix – it’s well worth 90 minutes of your time!

Have you seen any interesting “spiritual” movies lately?

Creativity and Intuition Are Partners Made In Heaven

creativity and intuition are partners made in heaven

Creative intuition is the ability to quickly identify valuable or useful creative ideas without conscious thought. As with all intuition, it is described as instantaneous without any conscious understanding of how the mind created the idea. –Simplicable

Intuition is Creative

Back when I was first truly starting on my spiritual journey, I worked through Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way with a small group of women. Cameron encourages you to slowly begin exploring your feelings about creativity.

I’d done fairly well in art classes in middle school. But by high school I was a typically petulant teenager and stopped taking art classes: I had to go to college and get a job, after all. Art was not for people like me.

But by the mid-90s I had started meditating regularly, and used the gentle nudging of Cameron’s writing to explore creativity. Sure, Cameron made suggestions, but it was up to me to decide what to try. A friend suggested craypas, and boy, that was all it took.

I created craypas drawing after craypas drawing – just playing with the texture and colors, not following any specific rules and not hoping for a really good grade or someone’s approval. Remarkably, most drawings explored the images and feelings that came to me during meditation.

It was purely intuitive drawing. Listen to what Picasso said about intuition:

I don’t have a clue. Ideas are simply starting points. I can rarely set them down as they come to my mind. As soon as I start to work, others well up in my pen. To know what you’re going to draw, you have to begin drawing… When I find myself facing a blank page, that’s always going through my head. What I capture in spite of myself interests me more than my own ideas. -Picasso

You may not be Picasso, but you can definitely be creative. Grab some crayons and paper. Sit quietly, and then just color. Ignore the rules, and just do what feels right.

It OK to do what feels right to you. The idea is to figure out what you do all on your own, without an art teacher grading you or friends critiquing you.

Poetry is Heaven Whispering

I’ve always been a poet; heck I even won a poetry award in high school. But in my 30s, fell in with some amazing poets in Athens, Georgia, and created remarkable poetry.

In poetry, words slip and slide like colors on a painting, like craypas or watercolor. I just followed what was my unique way of using words and fellow poets encouraged me to “just do me.”

The ‘Morning Pages” technique of Julia Cameron gets me going. I simply sit down, take a pen in my hand, and start writing whatever shows up. Usually I’m whining about the fact that it’s early and I’m tired and don’t know what to write or why I’m bothering to write.

But then magic happens, and the voice shifts.

There is a marked shift in the writing. It’s whiny and then -poof! It’s clear and beyond competent. Look at these divine words that simply flowed out of me one morning on it’s own.

Creativity Is Intuition

Once you’ve tried your hand at a little creativity (whether it’s craypas or poetry – or your favorite creative endeavor,) it eventually becomes easy to intuit everything and anything. Want to add a garden to your back yard? Sit in the backyard at different times of the day and feel what would make you happy. Just listen to your heart, and you’ll know exactly what to do.

What creative practices do you do? How do you use your intuition when being creative?

Despair and the Bright Shining Light of Just Maybe

We like to think that one person can’t change the world. I don’t believe that’s true.

As one person, you have significant impact on your world. The energy produced by your feelings resounds everywhere. Your energy touches all of the people and buildings and cars and plants and animals that you meet every day.

Your energy can be enough to change the world. Or, at least your little part of the world.

But here’s the thing.

That little ripple of your energy goes out into the world and bumps into other ripples. And on and on it goes, a whole universe of ripples, with you at the center, causing motion to begin.

What kind of ripples do you set in motion?

Watch Your Ripples

With fast-paced chaotic lifestyles, it’s hard to be hell bent on peace, love, and understanding.

(Nick Lowe version here because there’s a sincerity here that is undeniable. He really means it. He also wrote the song, FYI.)

Maintaining a positive outlook and hope for the future of the world is a challenge.

In fact, it’s much easier to be negative. Complaining is easy.

No doubt at some point in your life, you’ve been the one talking up the latest tragedy, bitching about work, or bemoaning your latest aches and pains. Once you start complaining, it cycles on and on..

But caught on the wheel of negativity, despair meets you on the way down. Despair leads you to think that there is no reason to bother to hope that things might change because they never have and never, ever will.

Despair-Be-Gone

Therefore, do your best to make the signals you send to the world be filled with joy and happiness, peace and love.

It’s easy to write that.

But boy, is it hard to put into practice. I fail miserably.

I fail every time I get angry at work, and every time I’m angry at that slow driver in front of me. I fail every time I cuss out my cat for bothering me, and every time I complain.

But I do not despair. I keep reminding myself of joy and love and happiness.

Frankly, even in the depths of depression, I didn’t despair. I didn’t give up hope that somehow, someday, things would change.

What I didn’t understand then, was that I had to change.

What I really didn’t understand was, that as I changed, my whole world changed.

It’s as if I turned on a little light bulb inside myself and started to shine, just a little bit.

Shine On

So for today, do what you can to shine.

Your little light may be the only ray of hope for someone today.

And that sense of hope ripples around the world. Even if your world is just right here, right now.

Shine on, shine as bright as you can.

Escape To The Lake Near Grand Rapids, Michigan

I escaped to a small, private lake earlier this month.

It was the first weekend that we -finally- had warm weather.

I glamped in a 1970s camper surrounded by trees.

I had a couple of campfires. I forgot to bring marshmallows.

I admired the deep blue sky at night as the full moon rose.

I stared at the scenery. I took a couple of naps and finished a book.

I walked along the trails.

A statue of Buddha contemplates the tall grass. In another area, a collection of similar statues presides over a simple labyrinth.

A couple of boats were available, if I was so inclined. I am not.

But staring at that serene lake?

Or gently resting in the arms of a swing seat hung from a tall tree?

Definitely for me.

You can stay in this beautiful spot, too. It’s affordable – even for one person – and convenient to Grand Rapids if you’re interested in city lights.

But for me, a quiet escape to the lake was perfect.

Machu Picchu – Starting At The End of My Spiritual Journey to Peru

Sometimes the one thing you think will be the best is actually the worst. I had high hopes for Machu Picchu – no pun intended.

I was hoping to have a peak spiritual or energetic connection to…well, to whatever is there. The UNESCO World Heritage Site is built between two mountain peaks and was home to the Incan empire.

And there’s not much official talk about the spiritual side of the site, other than the fact that the sun touches the Inti Watana stone at key times through the year.

Energetically Disappointing

Energetically speaking, Machu Picchu let me down. The sacred site was covered with bucket-listers, tour groups, teenagers, and frankly, the soul of place was hiding. After two or three hours I was ready to leave.

Yes, the views were spectacular. Machu Picchu is everything you’ve heard about and more, and it is well managed and maintained.

But if you’re hoping to find a connection to the ancient power lines, there are other, less visited archaeological sites where you can feel the call of the Inca, and of the ancients who lived in Peru in the before time. For example, we visited Tipon and Pumamarca and both and beautiful energy.

By all means, don’t take Machu Picchu off of your bucket list. I’ve heard stories of times when it’s not as crowded and you can feel the energy.

I mostly walked around and admired the views.

Machu Picchu

Stairs at Machu Picchu are steep and uneven.

The weather was stunning: clear blue skies and in the 70s.

Steep terraces. The orange areas are being restored or repaired.

You’re not allowed to go past roped off areas.

Machu Picchu was also swarming with tourists.

And yet, I managed to find a few quiet moments.

Llamas and alpacas graze freely. Tourists are not allowed to feed or touch them.

Agua Calientes

Although the energy at Machu Picchu was disappointing, I enjoyed the tiny tourist town of Agua Calientes (also known as MachuPicchu.) People heading to Machu Picchu blow into town on the train, sleep in a hotel, do Machu Picchu the next day, and leave.

A traveling companion and I had a blast walking around, admiring the scenery, and buying almost everything at the market near the train station. This was definitely the best and largest market for buying tourist apparel I visited; a close second is the market in Pisac. Look for the local food market or take a dip in the hot springs that give the town its name.

A local train goes right down the main street of Agua Calientes.

A chicken admires the roaring river in Agua Calientes.

Rupa Wasi Eco Lodge

I can’t say enough about the hospitality of the Rupa Wasi Eco Lodge and The Tree House Restaurant. Definitely worth walking and down 60 steps!

My trip to Machu Picchu was an add-on to the Women’s Retreat organized by Ashera Sefarty at Luminosity Healing Arts. I’m sure it took a great deal of effort to get set up: two hotels, two trains, entrance to Machu Picchu, and bus ride to Machu Picchu. The retreat was co-organized by Daina Puodziunas Awakened Potentials for Woman.