endurance vs tolerating

In the coaching world, I often hear the question “What are you tolerating”? Meaning, what are you putting up with or ignoring, that is zapping your energy, your joy, and keeping you stuck. While this is a valid and important area of inquest, I wonder if that question has become a “catch phrase”. If we’re in a difficult situation, and we’ve tried to change it, we’ve asked and waited for direction, we’re doing all we can to make a change, yet it is unchangeable, perhaps it’s a lesson in endurance.

Learning to endure is highly beneficial to our spiritual health. Learning to move on with our lives in spite of the thorn in our side, stretches our spiritual muscles and strengthens our spiritual bones.

Crosby, Stills + Nash wrote a song “If you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with”. While I never agreed with that policy as far as intimate relationships go, if we’re in a situation we cannot change, what can we love in it? What can we do to walk toward Love? Where can we find the love while enduring a difficulty? We might think it’s not possible, though Love can shine through the impossible.

Moving forward toward Love changes everything. It breaks the stagnant energy cycles, the hopeless thinking is replaced with freshness and possibility. When we are released, we’ve changed. We’re stronger, wiser, and play larger in the world than we did before.

Athletes do endurance training. As spiritual athletes, we can benefit too. Being able to endure with grace, richness and love, is a worthy goal and changes us from a hot house plant into a magnificent tree, able to withstand the winds of change, while giving shelter and joy to the world.

Tolerating zaps our joy. Endurance deepens our learning and increases our faith. We then find the peace and joy that passes our human mind’s understanding.

xo

colds, flus + love

Since Christmas Eve, I’ve gotten caught by some sort of something three times! I cannot remember the last time I’ve been sick, so this is quite surprising.

So what does Saying Yes to Love have to do with it? Well, it’s easy to find ourselves with unloving thoughts, i.e.: “I don’t have time for this”, “will I ever feel well?”, “it was dumb of me to go without my jacket, now look what happened”, “I have no one to care for me”, “My partner doesn’t know how to care for me”…. The mind’s dialogs are only limited by our imagination! Someone once said “There’s no greater nation than imagination”. That’s so true, and we can be in an imagi-nation of doom + gloom, or an imagi-nation of upliftment and love.

So how do we change our thoughts while feeling yucky? How do we say Yes to Love?

I’ve found that I recover faster when I choose to be kind to myself; nurturing, resting and eating good food, both physically + mentally. This equals Love to me. Even when we feel we cannot stop and rest, because we’ve got to get the kids to school, care for our family, etc, we can still be kind to ourselves by watching our thoughts and inner dialogue.

Masuro Emoto has done numerous studies on the effects of spoken words and water. I’ll talk more about that in another post, but remember that we’re 98% water. What we speak + think really does affect us.

What would it look like for you to Say Yes to Love, when you’re not feeling well? Can you make that happen? If you don’t think so, why? Is it reasonable? If so, do you feel you don’t deserve it? If that’s the case, please make the choice to abandon thoughts of self-neglect and embrace thoughts of Love. You deserve it!

A few years ago, it seemed I was frequently catching colds and became very nervous about having colds + flus passed on to me. I decided to write an affirmation / meditation / treatment to dispell this, and it has really helped to change my perspective!

Maybe it will help you too:

My Love, I know only You are real.
God is all there is and your spirit, your life, fills every aspect of my being.
You are perfect health and this perfection is also mine.
I am a Golden Vessel of Light.
Perfect Health radiates within me in every part of my being.
Every cell is constantly renewed by Love.
My veins are clear and strong, and the blood flowing through them is filled with the Life of God.
Every bodily function is operating perfectly.
I am stronger with every breath I take.
As I discover the broken places, I see Golden Liquid flowing there, and encompassing me with Compassion.
There is only Love, Harmony and Grace in every muscle, every bone, and every tissue.
I see myself bathed in your Golden Healing Light.
As of this moment, I let go of my beliefs about catching a cold.
I release my fears about other people passing a cold to me.
I know that each breath I take is your breath, and your breath is that of Life Abundance.
Within me, there is no place for sickness to dwell,
Within me, there is no place for fear to dwell.
I reject the habit of colds and flus.
I eliminate the imagination of sickness and turn my thoughts to Love.
I turn my thoughts to Health.
Thank you for opening my eyes to see your Beauty even more clearly.
My thoughts are Love.
My thoughts are Peace.
My thoughts are Perfect Health.
And so it is.

today’s abundance

In this economic climate, the stereotypical definition of abundance can sometimes be challenging to find in our daily life. This morning I was considering what my abundance looks like these days, where I find it, and how much I really have. 

I spent the day with my dear friend, Ahmed, and that in itself was an abundant blessing. However, he added to that by sending me home with 13 boxes of organic Numi tea!!! So generous, as he always is… 

I want to share my abundance. I’m going to have a tea party!

xo

a touching story of love & courage

I received this in an email and thought I’d post it here. I am struck by the unselfish and dedicated love this bird had for her young:

After a forest fire in Yellowstone National Park , forest rangers began their trek up a mountain to assess the inferno’s damage.

One ranger found a bird literally petrified in ashes, perched statuesquely on the ground at the base of a tree. Somewhat sickened by the eerie sight, he knocked over the bird with a stick… When he gently struck it, three tiny chicks scurried from under their dead mother’s wings.

The loving mother, keenly aware of impending disaster, had carried her offspring to the base of the tree and had gathered them under her wings, instinctively knowing that the toxic smoke would rise.

She could have flown to safety but refused to abandon her babies. The blaze arrived and as the heat scorched her small body, the mother remained steadfast…. she was willing to die, so those under the cover of her wings would live.

Wow. It isn’t often one gets to hear about such love and courage. We intellectually know animals instincts are keen and strong, but rarely do we have the opportunity to get a real glimpse.

I encourage everyone to hold a space of blessing for the mother’s spirit.

xo

open the love window

One of my favorite Rumi poems (translated by Coleman Barks) is this:

There is one kiss we want with our whole lives,
The touch of Spirit on the body.
Seawater begs the pearl to break its shell.

And the lily, how passionately it needs some wild Darling!

At night, I open the window
and ask the moon to come and press its face into mine.
Breathe into me.

Close the language-door,
and open the love-window.

The moon won’t use the door,
only the window.

How often do we find ourselves coming in and out of the language-door? Intellectualizing, rationalizing, heady or lofty explanations from the ego or fear. So much of the time we are living by our conditioning. We were taught to intellectualize rather than use our heart, intuition, and feeling nature.

We see this often in religion. Every group has their “doctrine”, their intellectualized version of God.

What would it be like to seek God through the Love window?

What would it be like to close the language door and open the Love window in our daily lives, going about our daily routines? What would that look like? What would change?

xo

trust & fear

I have been going through a situation for several months now. While on many levels, I trust God is working all things together for my good and the good of all involved, yet, there’s that pesky fear, and fear makes me freeze up, shrink down and not act… So, I want not only to passively trust, but act on that trust and move forward.

The next 10 days are important. This situation has been dragging on since May and I’ve been expecting a resolution several times, yet it appears no resolution is in sight. I’ve played by the rules and nothing has come forth. Now, things are down to the wire. I’m feeling I’ve been too passive and need to step into my power, but how to do that and still be an ambassador of Love?

How do I be Love, when what seems to be needed is a raving …….? And why is it that often that’s who gets heard??? Why is kindness so often overlooked?

OH WAIT, I just remembered something I have written in my Love Notes card deck: Love is a verb, put it into action.. so, being Love in this situation isn’t being passive. Because, that’s not loving to ME. And that “passive love” is lost on the other party anyway.

What do you do, what do you BE when you want peace and the other person appears to want war. How does Love show up when the other isn’t even coming to the table?

So tonight I’m thinking, Love or saying Yes to Love in this situation, is taking care of me. When doing all the “right” things isn’t producing edible fruit, perhaps it’s time to try a different crop. When there are procedures to follow, and all sorts of rules about how things “should” be handled, it can become quite disempowering. Not outright of course, but a little here and a little there, until I forget who I am, and the power that is within me. Ha, at this moment, I laugh at the remembrance that often I am associated with Kali. Who???? Yes, wake up little girl and step back into your power.

Please keep me in your thoughts and send me blessings of courage to trust what I know to be true.

xo joette

Why I might not quit Twitter

Ok, so after I wrote the previous post, guess what? I had some real communication w/fellow tweeters.

Interesting. So do I love Twitter? No, but I might hang in a bit longer. We’ll see if it matters that I just don’t tweet very often. Communicating via DM is much warmer than general tweeting. Do I still feel the same as my previous post about why I want to quit Twitter? Yes. We’ll see where I’m at with it in a few weeks.

Pleasant dreams.
xo joette

Why I want to quit Twitter

I’m not making any judgments here. If you’re a Twitter fan, I’m glad it works for you. I just can’t seem to find it’s worthiness for my life and here’s why:

1. I’m not interested in sending tweets about what I might be doing, thinking, watching, or what I read about someone else’s doings, thinkings, watchings… Unless it’s something really spectacular and interesting.

2. For my tweets to be seen, I’d have to tweet several times in an hour, then do it again in a few hours. I don’t know about you, but I’m not living tied to my pbook. Hey, I don’t even own (gasp) an iPhone. Amazing, but true. I’d rather be spending time outdoors, or seeing a friend in person! Imagine that…

3. Some folks tweet so much, I have to wade through pages of tweets trying to find the ones I really want to read. Maybe that could be solved by unfollowing those I don’t really want to keep up with, though being new to Twitter takes some time to figure out who’s tweets you really want coming into your energy field, and again, why bother? What’s so great about it?

4. There are tons of folks who tweet quotes. Quote after quote. Tweeting quotes is nice, but it doesn’t tell me anything about the person. Well, in a way it does, but in a way it feels the same as someone who constantly tweets promotional hype.

Hmmmn, this is making me rethink my little gift of quotes that I send to my followers as a “thank you”. Do they tell my new followers anything about me? Well, maybe the artwork and design does. And I had fun creating it, plus it comes from my heart.

Btw, if you think you might enjoy a few pages of quotes, just go to the “Thanks for Following“ blog page on the right sidebar here under “Pages“. I’m not promoting anything except I hope, LOVE, and creating is most fun when sharing that creation. Consider it my gift for reading this post!

5. Sometimes being on Twitter is like being surrounded by billboards. Do you know there are towns that don’t allow billboards? Until you move to one that does allow them, you don’t realize how wonderful it was to be without. Billboard clutter can be such an energy drain.

6. Don’t get me wrong. I love people and connecting. And I genuinely care about all life & our planet. I also am more of a Be-er. I do plenty, but when people ask what I “do”, I’m more apt to reply “being me”, so the Twitter question “what are you doing” is already lost on me.

7. The very word “twitter”, implies nervousness. Twitting/flitting about. Nervous movements, like the unconscious tapping of one’s leg. Or the constant need to be doing something or going somewhere. Does Twitter fill a need for those who are uncomfortable being alone with themselves, or cannot just sit quietly, listening for a Divine/creative seed-thought?

It seems everywhere we go these days, someone is on their cell phone or texting. Going for a walk along the water front, I’m bombarded by people’s phone conversations. Is it not possible to just go for a walk along the water and notice what is lovely about that? Notice the bird life, feel the breeze, let your mind be free? What if we had a day of no cell phone or texting activity? What if you could go to the park for a picnic and not have to listen to someone’s phone talk? This is another subject entirely, and for another post, so I’ll stop here…

Anyway, that’s all for the moment. It’s a gorgeous day and I’m going out to play… with people… in person… in real time… as in NOW!

I”m wondering what you think. Would love to hear your thoughts if you’d like to share or dare I say connect! Do you love Twitter? If so, why? If you don’t or you’re on the fence, maybe a love/hate sort of thing, what’s your reason?.

Have a lovely day & thanks for reading.

xo joette

fear and compassion

Due to a situation I recently found myself in, I realized that when someone is living in a place of fear, it’s not always easy to recognize compassion. Because of their need to protect and defend, kindness can feel threatening, so they respond to it with anger.

This is challenging. Compassion and kindness makes us vulnerable because we’ve put down our weapons and armor. We become open, which can be frightening to one who sees everything as a personal attack.

Realizing this has given me more understanding about different people and situations in my life, and causes me to have more loving-kindness toward them. I have to let them be, show unconditional love and trust they will find their path to healing. By being love, and showing compassion and kindness, we impart the energy that can aide their healing process.

We’re all living in different worlds. None are more superior or inferior than the other. We all have different degrees of sight. Yet we’re all a part of each other, like one big body. We have to do everything we can to heal each part of that body, just as if our own physical body were ill. One way is by acknowledging our part in the process. Realizing the energy coming from us is either a healing force or something else, and taking responsibility for that. When we do, we let more love in, dispelling our fear. 

Love is always the answer. Compassion and kindness birth contentment and peace. It may take a while for everyone to recognize it, to trust that unconditional acceptance and love is possible, yet we must try!

What if we don’t always succeed? Forgive ourselves, love ourselves, let it go and try again. We’re all learning and as we do and continue to walk toward Love, the worlds we create will be joyous beyond our own imagining.

xo

forgiveness is the cash you need (hafiz)

He goes on to say, All the other kinds of silver buy just strange things.

Indeed. Very strange things… Someone recently said to me, “it costs a lot to forgive”. I suppose it does. Yet it costs even more not to, doesn’t it?  What sorts of “strange things” are we buying with the unforgiveness silver? What do we buy with the forgiveness cash? How do they fit into our lives?

If we feel we cannot or will not forgive someone, we might also find many ways in which we do not forgive ourselves, because often what’s inside is what we give out. Our lives might be ruled by endless cycles of resentment, retaliation, and fear.

When we forgive, the mortal wound we’ve built a wall around to protect is finally exposed to the Light. The warmth of love can come in, healing and causing the scab to  fall away. As Love melts our heart, we open like a flower reaching to the Sun. The past is truly gone and a new life can begin. 

I think forgiveness can become a way of being, one that keeps us in a high place, close to our God-likeness. When we are in a state of forgiveness or we ARE forgiveness, we aren’t angry about anything around us, or anyone. We no longer take things personally and are able to bend and flow with whatever comes along. Like living with grace.

Grace understands our wounds and so kindly wants to pour a salve of Love into them. Grace so lovingly wants to heal our sorrows.

So, I have these questions for you (and me too):

1. What keeps us from forgiving?
2. What are we afraid of losing if we forgive?
3. Has our wound become our identity, and our song? Is it time to learn a new song?
4. What are you missing by not forgiving?
5. If you are forgiveness, if you embody and become that, what would change in your life?
6. How would you treat yourself? How would you treat others?
7. What would your life look like?
8. What do you need to let go of to become forgiveness?
9. How would you feel, being forgiveness?
10. What could come into your life as a result?

I send my wish that we all learn to live by forgiveness, buying and enjoying all the beautiful gifts she has to bestow.