My “Two-Minute” Video for this Week: Learn Your Lessons!
ROSEMARY’S EXPLORATION: Still in School?
February 17, 2014 — RosemaryAs I write this we are experiencing a huge snow storm on the East Coast of the US. Schools have been closed, businesses are closed, even the Government Offices are closed. No matter what plans had been made, what meetings were scheduled, what classes/tests/speakers were planned – they are not happening.
Life happens like this all the time. We create a PLAN, our very own statement about how things are to go, and the Universe arranges a different way for us to learn our lessons. For that is really what every incident in our lives is – an opportunity for us to learn a lesson.
We are always facing circumstances over which we have no control. We do, however, have control over how we respond to those circumstances. That is what we do when we accept what is going on around us and seek the lesson.
Of course, you can curse what is happening, or bemoan the lack of what you had wanted and planned, but neither of those choices advances your learning. What if, instead, you were to ask, ‘What is the lesson in this for me?’ and spend your energy seeking the chance to grow?
There is a popular saying that you must ‘Bloom Where You Are Planted.’ I would change that to, ‘Learn in the School in Which You Find Yourself.’
No matter what your circumstances are there is something for you to learn from those circumstances. No matter what you feel you lack, you have everything you need right now, in this moment, to learn the lesson that is there in front of you. Still can’t see the lesson? Then go inside and seek the answer there.
Sometimes the answer is to learn how to wait for guidance. Sometimes the lesson is to learn patience. Sound familiar?
And sometimes the lesson is to let go of fear and take a big step out into your Life Purpose! Maybe now is the time when you can’t hide from your Self and everything else becomes an excuse to avoid growing and moving forward.
It takes more energy to stay stuck than to let go and move forward! And, yet, for many, choosing to stay where you are seems less frightening that moving forward. Just because the familiar seems the comfortable place, doesn’t mean it is the best place for you to realize your highest good.
Look around your life and see what has stayed the same for a long time. Are you staying in your comfort zone because you are waiting for lightning to strike or the time to be perfect or for someone else to change? Or are you staying in a place where the lessons are becoming more difficult for you to learn but you are afraid to move out into an unknown classroom?
Seek out your lessons. Move out of a space where you cannot learn anymore. Leave behind a place, job, relationship, town where you are ready to graduate and learn new lessons. The school that you find yourself in will always present you with an opportunity to learn, but what if the lesson is that it is time to graduate and move on? Are you ready to complete that class?
Long-term relationships last because the people in them support each other in learning their lessons and continuing to grow. This is true of intimate relationships, friendships, jobs, associations. Are you feeling stagnant? Then ask yourself if you can find a new classroom, a new school, where you can learn and grow and expand.
Love yourself enough to learn the lessons! Step out of your comfort zone and learn the graduate level classes. You left kindergarten and grade school and high school behind you when you were ready. Maybe now it’s time to move into the Graduate Academy of Life and keep learning!
There are no ‘snow days’ in this Academy of Life!
The Year of YOU! – Richard’s Commentary
February 6, 2014 — RichardRosemary is nothing if not provocative. She wrote her Ezine article last week after coming down from her very successful Possibilities Playshop during which she led our group through an afternoon of meditation to meet a guide for the year, more meditation to clear blocks and cut cords, and most importantly to get in touch with our “bodacious wish” for the year. Then we created a “roadmap” or a “guidebook” to move us through the year to help us make our “bodacious wish” come true! So, I am not surprised when she states:
This year make a pact with yourself to BE WHO YOU CAME HERE TO BE. If that is your only resolution, goal, to-do YOU WILL BE AMAZING this year!
The Playshop was all about being. We did not use our left-brains; we did not plan; we did not schedule; we made no resolutions. The only “to-do” was to continue to work on the Guidebook and add detail selected intuitively using our right-brains and our own inner guidance.
The Playshop, the Guidebook, pictures pulled from magazines, words cut out because they trigger some meaningful thought or feeling or experience, cards pulled from an intuitive deck or Tarot deck are all tools to help us plumb our inner depths. We all know why we are here; we were born knowing. As we grow, get an education, move into a career path, earn our way, build relationships, join communities, we often forget or repress our truth, our purpose. But we know!
Books come into our lives to help us remember. Yesterday evening our Spiritual Exploration Group came together around the topic of books, especially books that were the most influential in our lives. My measure of this is “What single book would you want to have if stranded on a desert island?” We had a wonderful conversation; many fabulous books were discussed and shared. The books that seemed the most meaningful were those that drew ourselves out; set ourselves free; helped us remember who we are and why we are here!
BE WHO YOU CAME HERE TO BE begins with remembering. Find and use the tools to remember. It’s there inside; draw it out.
With this new year of the Wood Horse I am meditating more, dreaming more, practicing mindfulness and receiving incredible guidance. Where does this come from? Inside me; I am remembering. And these memories are beautiful, expanding and powerful expressions of WHO I AM.
And I WILL BE AMAZING this year!
How are you experiencing the Wood Horse energy after the first quarter moon into the New Lunar Year? Are you ready to be who you came here to be? My bodacious wish for you is to have an amazing year! We live in an amazing time of heightened potential. We all have a role to play. I will look for you in the field!
PS: The Possibilities Playshop Rosemary held to create our 2014 Guidebooks, roadmaps for the year directed by the moon and our intuition, was a truly amazing event. And now you can play too! The videos of the meditations and the process for creating the Guidebook are now available; Details Here
ROSEMARY’S EXPLORATION: The Year of YOU!
February 5, 2014 — RosemaryHow are you looking at 2014? Are you still keeping your New Year’s Resolutions? How are doing toward your goals? Do you have a big to-do list for the year?
This year make a pact with yourself to BE WHO YOU CAME HERE TO BE. If that is your only resolution, goal, to-do YOU WILL BE AMAZING this year!
January is a good time for an assessment of where you’ve been and where you’re going. A lot of folks work towards the New Year on January 1 but the holidays and end of year confusion can sometimes make that a difficult time to concentrate on deep desires for the coming year.
How about trying something new this year?
Let’s declare the New Year starting with the Lunar New Year or Chinese New Year, with the second New Moon after the Winter Solstice. This way we can move beyond all the end of the year hullabaloo and spend our January recovering or putting away decorations or getting the bills out of the way and then relax and focus on the energies coming in for the New Year.
2014 is a year of the Wood Horse. This is the energy of new growth and charging forward. Are you ready?
2014 is also the year of Transformation that carries us forward on the tide of change that 2012 energized within us. The Big Shift is upon us.
If you focus your Horse Year energy on BEING YOU you can take yourself forward into the life you were meant to be living on Planet Earth. When you go inside yourself and commit to BEING YOU, you will find that all the tasks on your to-do list follow naturally from that Being-ness. Goals follow in the same way.
And there is no need for resolutions because you are learning to trust the inner voice that comes from your inner guidance telling you, reminding you, to be the Light that you already are.
Too often people seem to get excited about goals and resolutions in the New Year and they forget to live in the present moment. They are focused on some time in the future, after they change something about themselves and/or their life. They start living in ‘Someday’ and ‘When X then Y’ thinking.
Here’s the most important goal for you to have in 2014:
“I listen to my inner guidance and commit today to live my life BEING ME.”
That’s it. That’s all the resolution that you need for the New Year. All your goals fall under this.
Once you have freed yourself from creating a list of resolutions that might even be based on what you think you should do, not on your heart’s desires for the year, you can relax into being yourself and following your heart.
What are you greatest dreams? What is your Life Purpose? Do you know your Life Lesson so that you can use it to help you grow and not succumb to it as a blind spot?
What is your ‘Bodacious Wish for 2014’?
Answer all these questions and you will have a blueprint for how you want to be this year.
Once you have identified your dreams and wishes and Purpose you can develop your business plan or vision board or list of goals but they will all be in the context of who you ARE in this year.
Climb onto your 2014 Horse and charge forward, being the YOU you were born to be. This is your year. Live Your Richest Life!
PS: Are you ready to BE YOU? Here’s a way to get some insight into what it means to BE YOU: I am offering a video recording and all the bonuses from my 2014 Possibilities Playshop I held last week. It’s a great way to move into self-discovery about how you want to BE this year. Details Here
Possibilities Are Right in Front of You – Richard’s Commentary
January 23, 2014 — RichardRosemary opens her post with a wonderful belief:
The ‘possible’ is constantly under attack because someone thinks it is improbable, or impossible, or difficult, or ‘not the way we do things.’
I call this a belief because it comes from an optimist! Optimists believe in the “possible” – and everything is possible!
I’ve been an optimist my whole life. I too believe anything is possible. This doesn’t mean everything I’ve ever attempted in life has succeeded, been possible in the long-haul. But this hasn’t changed my basic belief.
One of my last major programs for the company I retired from a few years ago was a satellite-based tracking system that we targeted to long-haul trucking companies. The idea was to offer a low-cost, easily installed device that could pin-point a unit’s location and even communicate with the driver using text messaging. The concept was developed long before smart phones, texting, immediate GPS-based location services, super-cheap hardware and ubiquitous cell-phone coverage. We developed the technology from the ground up and partnered with a new satellite company. We faced many hurdles, delays, technology short-fall, cost-creep and even market push-back. I was in charge of marketing and welcomed the possibility of major market penetration. I became really excited when we developed a device to track truck trailers when they were decoupled from their trucks. In fact during testing with a customer we actually located and recovered two trailers that had been stolen and taken into Mexico; we even helped recover the load on the trailers!
Exciting, right? My sales team began to take orders. The “pipeline” was growing! Major possibility here! Then…further delay; satellites didn’t launch as scheduled; technology failed; delivery of component parts was late; competing technology came on strong; and the company, wisely, withdrew development funding from my program. I took nearly a year to shut the program down, redistribute staff, sell off piece-parts, resolve lawsuits and close the program office.
Possibility turned to failure. I look back on this as a wonderful example of a “possibility right in front of me.” In this case it was handed to me; and I grabbed it and took it as far as I could. The program did not succeed; but I did! I made sales. I installed units and they recovered stolen equipment. That possibility was realized. And, oh by the way, I had a heck of a good time doing my darnedest to make the whole thing work. I even learned a great deal about the trucking industry! There was a lot of success inside this program that I look back on with good feelings and pride.
Eternal optimist? Yes. And I have had many great possibilities fall into my lap since that “failed” program. They keep on coming. My next one for 2014 involves a major trip mid-year that is exactly inline with my purpose and my entire world-view. It may be the biggest possibility of my life so far. I will be sharing more about this possibility as it unfolds, as I unfold it! Stay tuned!
Are you an optimist? Do you look at all the possibilities right in front of you? Do you follow Rosemary’s advice?
There are possibilities right in front of you but you may have donned your filter-glasses so that you can’t see them. Take off the glasses. Part the veil. Reach for the possibilities and stop listening to anyone who tells you that you can’t do it.
Impossible things are happening everyday!
ROSEMARY’S INSPIRATION: Possibilities
January 21, 2014 — RosemaryMy Two-Minute Video for this Week: Possibilities:
PS: Do you want to open up the possibilities for you in 2014? Join my playshop, in person or by video link, and expand your vista of possibilities; then lay out your play script for 2014! January 25. Details Here
The Power of Connection – Richard’s Commentary
January 16, 2014 — Richard“Connection” is Rosemary’s word for 2014. It is not surprising that early in the year she would choose this to write about. This word, in all of its meanings, can be taken in many directions. Rosemary goes through a long list, connection to Higher Self, connection to guides and angels, connection to others (both positive and negative connections to the people in our lives), connection to our purpose. All of these are important connections to be aware of, to remember; as Rosemary writes:
Connection is an energetic that, at its highest level, we all seek. We want to feel connected to others, to our guidance, to Source. In seeking we sometimes forget that it is not to be found outside ourselves, but to be remembered as an inner truth.
For me her point here is if we are disconnected from ourselves, from that “inner truth”, then can we be connected to anything or anyone on the outside? And how easy it is to disconnect, to fall into isolation, to withdraw. I wonder sometimes if this isn’t at the root of the issues we face as a society, as a country, as a culture looking for something on the outside, some connection we are longing for but have no means to identify or find.
I don’t really want to get into politics here but somehow this word “connection” brings up social concerns. Humans are a connected species. We wouldn’t have survived and evolved over the millennia if we had been an isolated, individualistic being; in the wild we are not strong enough, don’t have all the necessary skills within ourselves to go-it-alone.
How many of the political battles we see raging in this country, whether it is over healthcare or foreign aid, political favoritism or retribution are about social issues, connections. It almost seems that people divide along the lines of: “we are all in this together” or “I’ve got mine; you need to be strong enough, work hard enough to get yours” – a survival of the fittest mentality!
Interestingly, since Darwin comes to mind here, much of the current research on the evolutionary process reveals that it is cooperation that is a primary mechanism for evolution, not competition! And we have to connect to cooperate, connect to survive and evolve!
Connection, beyond the necessary interdependence for survival, does begin within. When we are connected to ourselves, to Source, to Angels and Spirit Guides, we gain a certain level of confidence that can lead us outward to find healthy connections with others. When we are connected to our purpose our connections become productive and benefit society, the greater whole beyond ourselves. These vital inner connections are the ground for our being human, for lifting our spirits to join with others, in connection, in community to move and evolve consciously.
Are you connected?
ROSEMARY’S EXPLORATION: The Power of Connection
January 15, 2014 — RosemaryWho are you, really? Are you connected to your inner essence or are you going through the motions of your daily life, waiting for ‘someday,’ or retirement or the kids to leave home? Are you truly connected to your Life Purpose? Do you feel you have a connection to inner wisdom and guidance when you have a question?
‘Connection’ isn’t just about the electricity that flows through your house, waiting for a lamp to be plugged in and connecting. Sometimes we can fool ourselves into believing that we have to do something to get connected, just like that lamp.
But the truth is that we are always in a state of connection. All we have to do is to remember that this is so.
You are connected to your Higher Self at all times. Do you take advantage of that connection and access the wisdom that is available there?
You are connected to Source Energy, the energetic flow that is the source of abundance in the Universe.
You are connected to the Angels and Spirit Guides who can help you in your life but they are waiting for you to invite them in, to remember your connection.
And you are connected to other people through the cords of connection that have been established throughout time. Some of these connections are working for the highest good of all involved and others are drains of energy that aren’t supportive of your personal growth. Do you know how to determine the difference and what to do to disconnect the energies that don’t sustain you?
Connection is an energetic that, at its highest level, we all seek. We want to feel connected to others, to our guidance, to Source. In seeking we sometimes forget that it is not to be found outside ourselves, but to be remembered as an inner truth.
Are you seeking Connection? Are you feeling disconnected or connected to energy drains instead of supportive energies? What are you going to do about this?
Let 2014 be the year that you decide to connect to the parts of yourself that you have disowned, have disconnected yourself from. Decide to connect to the energies that support your personal growth this year. Find experts who can help you connect/disconnect as you need.
Start with connecting to your inner guidance. How do you do this? Meditation is a good way to start. Get still and listen to that inner voice.
Pay attention to the signals you receive from your intuition. Journal and allow yourself to write whatever wants to flow through your pen. Take a class that gives you an opportunity to make the connection to inner guides, your Higher Self.
Sometimes you are connected to energy that drains you. Learn how to disconnect or find someone to help you disconnect the cords that are holding you back from growth. Connection is as much about connecting to the energies that are supportive as it is about disconnecting from those that are not. You might need expert help to detach from energies that you aren’t conscious of being there. You will feel free when you have taken care of this.
Connect to like-minded people who support you along your path and with whom you can share your gifts to support them. This is not the time to be isolated from what is going on around you. The world has fewer boundaries than it used to and you are called to reach across the miles to those with whom it is time for you to connect. With 21st Century technology you can stay connected around the globe. It is no longer necessary that you find a tribe with which to connect in your own back yard.
Most importantly, connect with your higher purpose, the reason you are living this life on Planet Earth. Discover your Life Purpose and commit to it. When you connect to Purpose you feel fulfillment and joy. You will find your days opening before you with wonder and light. And you will be connecting to the other souls who have been waiting for you to show up and connect.
Do it now!
PS: Do you want to create some new connections in 2014? Come to my playshop, in person or by video link, and connect to a great group; and lay out your play script for 2014! January 25. Details Here
ROSEMARY’S EXPLORATION: Reflections from 2013 = Guidance for 2014
January 1, 2014 — RosemaryHere are excerpts from selected posts from 2013. May they guide you into a happy and prosperous 2014!
From April 12, 2013
Each of us has a responsibility to ourselves and to others to learn how to live in community with the people around us. We are not private islands with ‘No Trespassing’ signs on our foreheads! The most important lesson to learn about living in a civilized society is to learn what healthy boundaries are. Learn what to let in and what belongs to the other person.
From February 22 2013
Reach out beyond what you can see to the possibilities that are there. Keep your mind open to optimism. Maybe things aren’t as bleak as they seem. Maybe the glass really is half-full and not half-empty. Take charge of how you think, speak, feel about something and it just might change around you.
From December 6 2013
A crystalized belief feels like an energy block. It is not negative or bad; it is merely a block where the energy feels stuck. It is important, though, because stuck energy prevents us from moving forward into our highest potential. And the longer energy stays stuck the more problems that block can cause us.
From August 30 2013
When you find yourself stuck in a rut, or not sure what your next step is, remind yourself that you are always at a point of choice in your life. What benefits are there to staying in that rut? Do you really not know the next step? Or are you afraid of what it might ask of you and, therefore, you choose not to seek help in identifying it?
Happy Birthday to YOU!!! Today is your birthday. You get to choose who you are today, right now, in this moment. You don’t even have to be the same as you were when you woke up this morning. OR you can decide that you like the YOU who woke up and you re-decide to celebrate YOU! Either way, it’s your birthday today.
From January 11 2013
It’s okay to consider yourself and your own needs. Sometimes we need permission to do that. You have that permission now. Focusing on what you need is vital to supporting your efforts to help others in need. Fill up your cup so you can serve from the overflow in the saucer.
From July 5 2013
When you put your attention on being instead of doing, your energy flows into being the you you were meant to be. Doing, taking action in your life, then follows being yourself.
Where are there energy blocks in you, in your life? Identify the stuck places and take action to move the energy through the blocks. Free up any stuck energy so that you can truly be free. Focus your attention on manifesting your dreams and watch how much energy can then flow into that manifestation.
From March 22 2013
When you demand control of your environment, you limit the ways in which the Universe answers your requests. Your thoughts are projecting an often unconscious request to keep things just the way they are. And, yet, there are laws of the Universe about change being ever present.
For today, remember this equation:
EVENT leads to your REACTION and then you choose a RESPONSE.
While you might not control all the events that happen [Surprise!] and your reaction is your immediate ‘knee jerk’ feeling, you DO control how you respond. Put your energies into practicing Conscious Response – choosing the response that demonstrates your personal growth. Then you can relax into making peace with the ‘not knowing’ and enjoy the ‘Surprise!’
From May 24 2013
This message is from The Divine Feminine for us:
“Dear Ones,
The flames are licking at the Doors of Change. Those who fear change are trying to engulf the opportunities in flames so that you and others will not walk through them. Do not let these fear-mongers paralyze you.
Change and Opportunity are two sides of the same coin, of the same door. Opportunity is the invitation to Change. Every time you say ‘no’ to Change you are leaving a Doorway to Opportunity closed. Every time you ignore or say ‘no’ to Opportunity you are saying ‘yes’ to everything staying the same.
Is there something in your life that you wish to Change? Then you must walk through a Door of Opportunity or there will be no Change.
Are you seeking Opportunities in your life? Then you must Change something.
Those who prevent change also prevent opportunities from being realized. If you are one who wishes to preserve the status quo then you are not ready for increased Prosperity and Abundance in your life.
Think about the energy it takes to resist Change. The evolutionary forces of the Universe are not static. They are always and forever moving forward, taking with them those who are connected to growth and leaving behind those who wish to go backward, which is the same as attempting to stand still. There is no standing still. There is only moving forward or being swamped by the Tides of Change.
In every moment cells in your body are changing. With every thought your brain is changing. Energetically, your field is changing with every thought, feeling, heartbeat. What vibration are you emanating as these changes take place? You are changing and you are constantly generating an energy field around you. Your choices create the energy vibrational frequency of your field. What energy field are you choosing to present to the world?
Think about the people you have attracted to your energy field. Do they emanate the vibrational frequency that you wish to share? Think about the situations in your life right now. Are they what you wish to manifest in your world?
Now is the time for you to consciously choose the Opportunities you wish to pursue. What do you desire to Change? Which Doorway of Opportunity will bring about that Change? And what must you Change to take advantage of that Opportunity.
Opportunity and Change.
The only way forward is to walk through the Doorway.
And so it is.”
Happy New Year! For even more guidance for 2014 you may want to listen to a message I channeled from The Divine Feminine on the Winter Solstice; they offered guidance and advice on what we might expect in 2014, and how to approach the year’s upcoming energy. Expect more change! The transformation continues! The message it is available as an MP3 recording for a modest price; check out the details here: Winter Solstice Message
Mystic Messages 
Still in School? – Richard’s Commentary
February 20, 2014 — RichardI’ve been in school my whole life. How about you? As I think about this I am continuously upgrading my skills with blogs, WordPress, graphic design, HTML, etc. I began my technical career in computer programming in 1971 and have never stopped learning new skills as the technology advances and honing old skills as the basic approach continues to stay pretty much the same when it comes to instructing computers.
Then there is my spiritual study which has also come a long way from learning Transcendental Meditation from students of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in 1969 to my current work with Kalachakra Tantra Yoga, refining this practice and learning everything about it in preparation for the Kalachakra Initiation offered by His Holiness the Dalai Lama later this year. Along the way I was ordained as an Interfaith Minister in 2000 after an intense two-year seminary experience and I spent a couple of years in Martín Prechtel’s Bolad’s Kitchen.
But my real school is documented in my fingerprints; and they tell me I’m in the school of LOVE. The fact is I have so many loops in my fingerprints (10) that I’m not only in the school of Love but my lesson is Love and my Life Purpose is – yep – Love! And since our fingerprints don’t change through life I will always be in the school of Love.
And we are all always in the School of Life. This is what Rosemary’s post yesterday is really about; that school of life lessons that seems always in session! Here’s what she says about that:
We are always facing circumstances over which we have no control. We do, however, have control over how we respond to those circumstances. That is what we do when we accept what is going on around us and seek the lesson.
“Seek the lesson.” This can be the hardest test; when in the midst of a life crisis, the last thing I want to hear is “what is the lesson in this?”! “I don’t care what the lesson is; I just want to get through this!”
Sound familiar? Then you probably don’t want to hear Rosemary’s next advice:
No matter what your circumstances are there is something for you to learn from those circumstances. No matter what you feel you lack, you have everything you need right now, in this moment, to learn the lesson that is there in front of you. Still can’t see the lesson? Then go inside and seek the answer there.
Sometimes the answer is to learn how to wait for guidance. Sometimes the lesson is to learn patience. Sound familiar?
Ah, “patience.” I’ve mentioned here before that my word for 2014 is “patience.” Yes, I am finally going to embrace this lesson and, if not fully learn it, at least make some gains on it!
I have a difficult time learning my lessons in the moment. But I do find myself going inside later and examining the circumstances, asking the questions about lessons, examining reactions and how they could have been managed better. I use the “nightly review” for this: before going to sleep I review the day in reverse and consider the big events, how I handled them, what could have been handled better, what there was to learn. And this is working for me; it’s like doing my homework; honing skills in life.