THE TWELVE STEPS TO SPIRITUAL AWAKENING

1. We realized we were powerful but that our EGOs had become unmanageable.

2. Came to believe that a power greater than our EGOs could restore us to sanity.

3. Made a decision to align our will and our lives with our SOURCE of LOVE and LIGHT as we intuitively understood IT.

4. Made a searching and fearless inventory of our desires for ourselves.

5. Submitted ourselves to Higher forms of guidance other than human beings who judged our true nature as wrong.

6. Were entirely ready to remove all defective teachings and beliefs from our character.

7. Humbly removed ourselves from judging any experiences as shortcomings but only as lessons.

8. Made a list of all the ways we could express LOVE and began to fulfill them all.

9. Expressed direct LOVE towards people wherever possible without exception.

10. Continued to monitor our thoughts and actions and when we were out of alignment with SOURCE/GOD, promptly quieted our EGOs and regained our balance.

11. Sought though prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with our SOURCE of LOVE and LIGHT as we understood IT, praying only for knowledge of TRUTH and the WISDOM to use it.

12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we carry this message into the ALL-ONEness and practice these principles in all our affairs.

Created by WYZDOM

When I was born I was not a child
I was a dream,
A dream of revolt
That my mother ,
Oppressed for thousands of years dreamt.

- Sahil Parmar, Translated from the Gujarati by Dr.G.K.Vankar

“Down to earth Visionaire” by Elisabeth Slettnes, Illustrator of “The Girl God”

If you are being abused, remember:

•You are not to blame for being battered or mistreated
•You are not the cause of your partner’s abusive behaviour
•You deserve to be treated with respect.
•You deserve a safe and happy life
•Your children deserve a safe and happy life
•You are not alone. There are people waiting to help

- helpguide.org

"By words the mind is winged."

- Aristophanes

Honor Your Body

- Imagine a Woman International

Spirit-Filled One,

Your Grandma is God and so are your favorite star and rock.
God has many names and many faces.
God is Mother, Daughter, and Wise Old Crone.
She is found in your mothers, in your daughters, and in you.
God is the God of Sarah, and Hagar, of Leah and Rachel.
She is Mother of all Living, and blessed are Her daughters.
You are girl-woman made in Her image.
You can run fast, play hard, and climb trees.
You are Batwoman, firewoman, and Goddess.
The spirit of the universe pulsates through you.
Be full of yourself. You are good. You are very good.

-Patricia Lynn Reilly

“Cleanse in Running Water” by Elisabeth Slettnes, Illustrator of “The Girl God”

The Invitation by Oriah Mountain Dreamer

It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living.
I want to know what you ache for
and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.

It doesn’t interest me how old you are.
I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool
for love
for your dream
for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon...
I want to know if you have touched the centre of your own sorrow
if you have been opened by life’s betrayals
or have become shrivelled and closed
from fear of further pain.

I want to know if you can sit with pain
mine or your own
without moving to hide it
or fade it
or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy
mine or your own
if you can dance with wildness
and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes
without cautioning us
to be careful
to be realistic
to remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn’t interest me if the story you are telling me
is true.
I want to know if you can
disappoint another
to be true to yourself.
If you can bear the accusation of betrayal
and not betray your own soul.
If you can be faithless
and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see Beauty
even when it is not pretty
every day.
And if you can source your own life
from its presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure
yours and mine
and still stand at the edge of the lake
and shout to the silver of the full moon,
“Yes.”

It doesn’t interest me
to know where you live or how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up
after the night of grief and despair
weary and bruised to the bone
and do what needs to be done
to feed the children.

It doesn’t interest me who you know
or how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand
in the centre of the fire
with me
and not shrink back.

It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom
you have studied.
I want to know what sustains you
from the inside
when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone
with yourself
and if you truly like the company you keep
in the empty moments.

Merry Christmas

Wishing you the happiest of days!

"He who wants to do good knocks at the gate. He who loves finds the gate open."

- Rabindranath Tagore

"Why are you knocking at every door ?
Go, knock at the door of your own heart"

- Rumi

"I have come to bring out the beauty you never knew you had, and lift you like a prayer to the sky."

- Rumi

"I Am Not Old"

I am not old.. she said
I am rare

... I am the standing ovation
at the end of the play

I am the retrospective
of my life
as art

I am the hours
connected like dots
into good sense

I am the fullness
of existing

you think I am waiting to die
but I am waiting to be found

I am a treasure
I am a map
these wrinkles are imprints
of my journey

ask me
anything.

~ Samantha Reynolds

God's Love

"God's love both dwells within us and extends out from us every moment of every day. When e are living in alignment with our true selves as God created us, we receive love constantly and then extend it outward as we have received it. That is what it means to live in the light."

-Marianne Williamson, The Shadow Effect, p 148

“I am not wrong: Wrong is not my name” – June Jordan

“Colour of Dignity” by Elisabeth Slettnes, Illustrator of “The Girl God”

Fear

"If you live your life fully, you will die only once. But if you are scared of every step, fear will kill you day after day"

- Paulo Coelho

Love

"Love is the essence of life. It is the ultimate healer, the most potent teacher, the inspiration for great works. For the child, love provides the assurance of survival. For the adult, it brings the intimacy that allows acceptance and invites expansiveness. And while the desire to receive love is a basic need of all human beings, this alone will not open the heart. It is the giving of love that transcends ego limitations and blossoms the 12-petaled lotus of the heart."

Anodea Judith, Chakra Balancing

Abusive Behavior

"Abusive behaviour includes physical acts such as slapping, punching or choking. It also includes withholding food and health care or forcing a partner to engage in sexual activities against her will. An abusive husband may try to control your life by limiting your access to friends or family. He may be excessively jealous or forbid you from working or spending money. Making threats against himself, you, your children or your pets is common. A quick, intense temper that frightens you is also indication of a problem. A verbally abusive husband criticizes or humiliates you. He makes you feel helpless, calls you names, and belittles you and your accomplishments"

- Caroline Jackson

“Remember everything is right until it’s wrong. You’ll know when it’s wrong.” – Ernest Hemingway, The Garden of Eden
Painting by Elisabeth Slettnes, Illustrator of “The Girl God”

"If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundation under them."

- Henry David Thoreau

Becoming Conscious

"It is the tremendous experience of becoming conscious, which nature has laid upon mankind, which unites the most diverse cultures in a common task."

C.G. Jung

“The reward for conformity was that everyone liked you except yourself" -Rita Mae Brown ‎"PortretEd" by Elisabeth Slettnes, Illustrator of “The Girl God”

"Every part of our personality that we do not love will become hostile to us."

- Robert Bly

Another Goodbye

My Uncle took his life yesterday.

I think I am still in shock.

The last time we spoke was not a cohesive time. I had decided that I would not allow anyone, no matter who it was, to speak unkindly to me.

After 20 years of sobriety, he had relapsed. He was no longer the person I remembered him to be. He was drunk, he was angry, and he was unkind.

His death came as a total shock to me. The last years had been particularly horrible for him. He divorced after a long marriage. His mother died too young. He found out he had Stage 4 cancer himself. After seeing my grandmother die so horribly, I don't think he wanted to go that way.

As I was putting together some pictures for our personal family blog of my Uncle with my mother and their other siblings as children, I was reminded that all of us start out as babes, with so much hope and so many dreams. I cried seeing my uncle in his little suit with the bow tie. He must have been about 4. I don't think he lived the life he imagined for himself. I don't think this is what his parents imagined for him either.

One of my cousins paid a beautiful tribute to him today. Her daughter is 3 weeks younger than my son, so I know the loss is immense for both of them.

Sometimes we forget how precious life is. We get caught up in the day to day grind and random drama of things, so I am taking this moment to thank you Pops, for always being there for us no matter what life has brought and although now you are no longer here with us physically, you and the joy and happiness you brought... to the lives of many will never be forgotten. Thank you for everything, I love you more than I could ever express!! You are my dad forever and always. I will cherish every moment we were blessed with for all eternity! E and I love you and miss you deeply!

Today, I am reminded that we are all known as different people to the various people we interact with in our lives. I know my Uncle as my uncle. And that has been wonderful, for the most part. But also complex.

I am deeply saddened by his death. But I also remember something I heard at another funeral, when a dear friend had killed himself. And somehow, that gives me solace.

His dearest friend stood before all of us and said, breaking up with sobbs, I have to respect your choice. And know that this was all you felt you had left for you. So I will - and I do - respect, your choice.

May it be so.

"What is to give light must first endure burning."

- Victor Frankl

"The eyes of others our prisons; their thoughts our cages. " - Virginia Woolf

Painting "Eye On" by Elisabeth Slettnes, Illustrator of “The Girl God”

The New Our Father

Our Mother who art in Earth and Heaven,
(as we are in the MOTHER
And HEAVEN is in us)
Hallowed, respectful, joyful thy name.
Thy holy realm is already come.
Thy will awaits us to be done.
Give us this day the strength to love,
To be the lion and the dove.
Forgive us as we tread your flowers,
Ignoring duties that are ours.
Lead us from annihilation
TO CELEBRATE ALL CREATION,
For we share in the life and in the power
And in the glory forever and ever.

-Priscilla Baird Hinckley

Beautiful

“To be beautiful means to be yourself. You don’t need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself.”

~Thich Nhat Hanh

Overcoming

"Beneath heaven nothing is more soft and yielding than water.
Yet for attacking the solid and strong,
Nothing can take its place.
Therefore the soft can overcome the hard,
The weak can overcome the strong,
Under heaven everyone knows this,
Yet no one puts it into practice."

- Tao Te Ching