The Shape of Christmas

Post- Christmas Greetings!


Just now sitting down with my first cup of lovely coffee, "The Shape of Christmas," came into my thoughts, so here I am wondering what that means to me and to each of you.


The shape of my Christmas is round, I realize.  And full and packed tightly with stored memories, some of which are still to be told and recalled one day.  My Christmas, I am grateful to say, is full of family.   Not all of us were able to be together, but celebrating with Mom is the center of our Christmas sphere.  It moves out from there with every other person linked to her, filling the space of Christmas.  She will be 92 in March, so inevitable thoughts bubble to the surface about what our Christmases will be like when she takes the trip to her next adventure.


Victoria Safford, inspiring minister of the U.U. church we attend, recited responses to questions about Christmas recently asked of the congregation.  I nearly lost it when she quoted one person who said this would be her/his last Christmas.  Emotions are close to the surface during this holiday season.  Emotions shape part of my Christmas sphere.


I did not respond to report my Christmas feelings and memories, but my most vivid memory of all Christmases is the one following our father's death in 1955. I was thirteen.
That morning there were many gifts under the tree, given by generous people who worked with Daddy.  I remember very little of those, but at breakfast, in each child's place at the table, there was a gift. The tags said they were from Daddy.


For just a moment, he was alive.  It was a bad dream that he had died some weeks before.  He was alive.  And then, of course, he wasn't, and I was grief-stricken all over again.  Each of the boys received a Swiss Army knife.  Each of us girls, a musical powder box.  
Mine still plays The Anniversary Waltz.


Most of us have poignant memories related to important holidays or anniversaries.  Our lives are shaped, in large part, by our memories.  I am reporting some of mine because memories, while they do shape us, need not control us.  We are Becoming, and in that reshaping we decide what we do with our memories.  


Breathing into a memory and bringing all the emotions to the surface, thus releasing the energy of it, is a healthy exercise.  Unexpressed emotion controls us.  Will we live in the suppressed energy or move out of karmic controls and into the present, with breath?  Joy can grow out of that breath.  Knowing my father now brings new emotion; he is very real and the joy of knowing him now is greater than the grief that once controlled me.  


Joy to each of you and gratitude for our shared consciousness.


Until next time,
Phyllis, Still Becoming

The Karmic-Free Lens

Christmas Greetings!


Yes, it's been a while since I last posted here.  Seems odd to be posting at last just when my days are most full of holiday activities.  I do hope your days are full of joy and peace.  Mine are, and I am grateful.


Reflecting uneasily on some events in my day yesterday, I said, "How do I change this?"  And the response was, "There is no karma."
And I realized how deeply I have believed in cause and effect.  This follows that, as night follows day.  I have believed this, and even while I've explored the alternatives, I've not really questioned my conditioned reactions to the state of the karmic condition.  


Some years ago while meditating with our Synergy group, I
found myself standing at the edge of Creation.  The expanse in front of me was without form or movement.  This was completely disorienting, so I tried to turn to look behind me and could not.  There was no "behind me."  There was no history, no reference point.  The message I heard was, "When the human experience is complete, there will be a new beginning. No energy is lost."   This experience was repeated some time later in private meditation.  This time I was not so undone, as I realized where I was.  And this time as I looked out at the expanse in front of me, there was movement; the beginning of something as yet unnamed, 
but something.


Last night's message reminded me of this experience.  We had resolved all of our karma.  All cycles had reached completion.  Last night Wisdom showed me only what is in front of me.  Karma was the past, and only the moment had any meaning.  I could feel the expanse in front of me, and only it had meaning even though it had no form.


This past week Archangel Michael reminded me that on this Winter Solstice we entered the final 6-month period of the three-year cycle that began with Summer Solstice in 2009.  At that time he told me we had shifted into New Earth, but we were not yet conditioned to its new energy.


He said we had three years to try on the energy and realize its unique opportunities.  He called it a "three-year leap of faith."  We have entered the last 6 months of that cycle.  What is beyond that still has no form as far as I can see.  Its expansive possibilities and challenges feel like a full gallop. If we thought the quality of time had changed recently, for this next chapter we'd better take some deep breaths and hold on.  Better yet, raise our arms above our heads, like an adventurous passenger on the biggest roller coaster!


I can't imagine a more exciting - and challenging - time to be human.  Earth has evolved, and we with it, to the point when we can become anything.  Yes, it's always been true to a point, but the energy of The All That Is is now so vividly available that there are virtually no limits.


Releasing karma is key to new creations.  Breath is our natural tool for releasing references to the past.  


Wherever our attention is, we are creating.  Our reactions, our references to what was, hold our creational energy in the past and produces more of the same.  We must breathe and refocus if we expect to produce what we prefer.


To focus on the moment, to hold a steady view through a karmic-free lens, we must breathe.  We not only fulfill our own dreams and intentions, we expand Consciousness and provide a clear creational pallet for the planet.


I am breathing and practicing the release of all references. 
I love the feeling of freedom, the ease of my body, the peace in my System as I focus through this karma-free lens.  And I feel more focused having processed here with all of you.
Thank you.


Karmic-free Blessings to all,
Phyllis, Still Becoming

My Personal String Theory

Greetings!

Today I felt a shift within, as if there were a physical floor shift changing positions on the floor of my old Gremlin.

And tonight when I was quiet and asking for insight about it, I was reminded how compelling the differences in time have been most recently.  No, not the, "My how time flies," experience.  These days the impressions around time are palpable.  So I asked, and this is what I was told.

"Think about a string held between the fingers of both hands.  The string represents time. When it is relaxed, hanging, time seems to move more slowly.  When pulled taut, the appearance is that time is accelerated.  The tension of the energy, here represented by the string, produces the sensation we associate with time.

These days the string is taut. Our evolutionary cycle brings us to this state of exploring time as a human invention to measure the space between sunrise and sunset, for example.  We have been comforted - and controlled - by linear measurement and thinking.  Now we are experimenting with it.  What do we choose it to be?  In what reality do we choose to live?

This whole symbol of the string piques my curiosity about "string theory."  Not that I have a clue what that means, but perhaps reading about it I might absorb some of it by osmosis.

The shift also has to do with how much is contained in any timeframe.  How much do we believe is possible?  The possibilities are literally infinite.  The real question is, how much can we handle?  We may dream hugely, but our belief system monitors what we are able to manage.  Sometimes we feel swamped by it and learn a lot about abundance and whether the flow serves us well. At other times the flow is generous but not overwhelming and we thrive.  And we all know the feeling of lack.  It is only as real as we believe it to be.  Now is a perfect time to breathe and practice stretching our levels of acceptance.  "Time" is on our side.

Until next time, breathing,
Phyllis

Anchors and Wings

Greetings!

In times of great change, we all need our anchors.  I know some of mine, and I wonder how you would answer if we could sit down to chat.  My family and friends anchor me in love and in challenges that bring me into the reality we must all face.  I soar into other dimensions with my clients, who then anchor me with a hug.  My home anchors me.  Meditation may seem to be a journey outside of self, but it does anchor me.  My church is an anchor, challenging me to personal growth and providing a grounding in faith.

My heart is full and my system at peace, with such gratitude for the loving, creative, generous and enthusiastic people of Lake Superior Interfaith Community Church.  As Ann, our board president said when we came down from the sanctuary Sunday afternoon, finding her standing on a chair applying plastic to the windows (!), "The church is glowing!"  And truly is was/is.

This little church has survived so much, creatively and with determination affirming that it has such value, no matter what the challenge, no matter what change is necessary to raise its Consciousness.  Its sacred nature exceeds any perceived limitation and soars to another level.  I embrace this church, created on a foundation of love, affirming and celebrating that, after 25 years of trips to Duluth to offer messages a few Sundays each year and, in turn, to be served by this church, I am at home.

And, with new members finding themselves happy to be among us, I thought, how perfect that they arrive as the vibration so vividly radiates this loving intention and says, "Yes, here we are and welcome!"

We do not all choose a church to provide us a community of faith, and I'm the first to say it surely is a personal choice.  In fact, had it not been for my church inviting me to speak all those years ago, I don't know that I would have a church.  My mother and daughter-in-love have chosen the White Bear Unitarian Universalist Church, and I attend there with them most Sundays.  That church is an anchor in social justice and a UU church not afraid to explore God, with fabulous music and a minister so inspiring she defies description.

Spirit anchors me and gives me wings.  A church we prefer may not always be available when we need an anchor.  Nurturing ourselves in faith, unique to each of us, we thrive, we find our anchor and our wings.

I am never alone, we are never alone, and with a breath - or several - move from any trouble, any wrinkle in my world to a place where I am solid and clear.  I love the music in a church, the people, the creative approach of a community to reach out, to touch one another and the world outside of its walls.  I am blessed by it, but it is not religion that compels me.  After years of struggle to find who I am with God, I am grateful to have found the path within and without.  I celebrate with each of you the path you choose.  How exciting that we choose differently and help to anchor one another in our discoveries!

Becoming still, with Breath,
Phyllis

A Brief Message

Good Morning!

I have little time this morning because I'm off to Duluth for two days with my church family and I am grateful - and brief.  I do want to comment on yesterday.  Although 11-11-11 was chaotic for many, we survived, didn't we!  If anyone was hoping for an extra serving of "luck." yesterday, I surely hope you got it.  The day and night were full of symbolism and dreams for me and the moon was wonderful.  It is a powerful time of shifting, for sure.

This is a time of turning toward the gift, Wisdom says.  We are in a pivotal moment, taking a step to the right, seeing our possibilities through a new lens, accessing The All That Is more vividly.  As we breathe we let go of more logic to defer, surrender to, what is in store for us, what has always been there.  As our personality came into being, Creation included all the creative energy we would ever need, storing it for us until such time as we believed enough to accept each creation into our lives.  And even as we change our lives and dream bigger, the alchemy of our System brings it into being.  So we might say that everything is there as if in an infinite storehouse, just waiting for us to allow it.

The excitement of this time on planet Earth is palpable.  I hope you can breathe and feel it, breathe and create a space to accept what is already yours.  Anything we can feel, dream and accept we can bring into being.

Have yourselves a fabulous weekend!

Breathing with you in new creations,
I am Phyllis, still Becoming

Reflections on a Symbol

Good Morning!

As we open to this symbolic (at least) week of the 11s, I'm thinking about the movement, the  insights, the guidance this date is generating.  And I wonder if we need anymore of the same.  It's a rich opportunity to add to the wisdom, and if there is anything Archangel Michael has to say about it, I'm open and willing.

Perhaps it is also a time for me to be authentic about what I believe about the date and whether it has significance to me.  My first reaction to the date is to say that, according to numerology, which fascinates me, the "real" numbers for this Friday in November, 2011, are "11-11- 4."  We are in a "4" year, which we get by adding the 2 to the 11.  I know this sounds like sour grapes, like I am sticking a pin in a global belief balloon.  The truth is, I believe more in numerology than in a selective, collective belief.  How can we simply ignore one element in a group of numbers?  It would be the same as doing numerology on my name and leaving out one number because it doesn't produce the image of myself that I prefer.  What?!

We know that what we believe we create.  So the collective belief, fueled by agreement in global consciousness, can produce a result.  The belief is the cause, and we will observe the effect on Friday.
It's the concept of self-fulfilling prophecies on a global level.  Or not.  The human part of us, Michael now says, likes associating with symbols to comfort us in times of great change.  Thank you, Michael.  I hadn't thought of that, but it is true.

I'm feeling quirky this week.  The planet is acting quirkily as well.  Two earthquakes in Oklahoma City in the past two days are indications that pressure is being released in some unusual patterns.  The Mother will do what she must to achieve our rebirthing.  I hear our friend, Barbara, shouting, "YES," considered by some the most dangerous (effective) prayer.  Barbara has been around a lot lately, and I am grateful.  We miss her physical presence but cannot be sad when she makes herself so vividly available to support us on this amazing journey.

Perhaps that's enough rambling on this subject.  Breathing into change is the key.  I strongly recommend it as a stress release and as a contribution to assist Earth in her change.  I am going to
do an extra level of breathing and releasing around the collective belief focused on this symbolic date.
I'll be happy to "see you there!"

Happily, Quirkily,
Phyllis

Symptoms and Systems

Greetings!

My thanks to each of you who has expressed concern about me or commented on missing new blog entries.  Your attention to this blog is gratifying.  I grow and become simply writing it, but truth be told, no one creates a blog without some desire to reach an audience.

This summer was a journey in self-discovery.  It was a summer of moving Mom to an assisted living community, and it was a season of personal inquiry.  I managed to injure my hip, begin a treatment program with a chiropractor and have two heart events that have produced a most amazing meeting with a cardiologist who, after testing and review, defers to my intuition as to whether I take medications!

My symptoms are personal and unique to me.  Symptoms of friends and clients are just as unique to them, but I am seeing some common elements, and Wisdom has offered some common insights.

In this period of massive change on Earth, we are also changing.  Our physical systems are reflecting this change as stress on joints and organs.  Moving forward in times of change is no small feat. Each person has his/her own vulnerabilities, inborn and now more subject to stress, so we want to be cautious about making sweeping generalizations.  At the same time, as we see symptoms crop up and Wisdom offers similar remedies, I take note and reflect on our options.

Balance is always our objective.  Nutrition is always best ingested in foods, where possible.  Wisdom has been offering counsel to increase zinc, for instance, preferably with medical advice if taking supplements.  I never take a supplement without researching its potency, side effects and guidance about natural sources.  Wisdom also encourages increasing intake of root vegetables and foods rich in amino acids for supportive nutrition.  We're human, so we tend to develop patterns of eating that don't match our changing needs.  It pays for us now to look at what we've taken for granted and ask our own insights about what the body is asking for and how we might more intuitively feed ourselves.

We may also need the intervention of doctors or therapists, traditional or alternative partners to answer some questions and open us to our options.  We may even (Oh, my!) need treatment.  I am stubborn,
but I'm not stupid.  Some of the insights I've needed have come because I finally gave in and asked for help.  My own Wisdom was dislodged by intervention.  And my own Wisdom has a better chance to work through me as I breathe and allow it to work for me.

We are in charge of our lives.  Some folks who are consciously engaged in supporting Earth changes are having more pronounced symptoms.  But Earth is not in charge of us.  Earth is not a greater entity than any one of us.  We choose.  Creation invests in us the power to choose and to create beyond what is perceived in our humanity.  We, each of us, is Source to our own Universe.

We are conditioned to believe we are one small part of something too great to understand.  On the contrary, we contain The All That Is, God, Christ Consciousness, Great Spirit, whatever it is that you call a higher power.  Containing it, we assert it.  Or not.  But we have the choice to take the leap now.
Reacting to external systems our bodies struggle in conflict with what it knows to be true.


Humanity is on the threshold of taking its greatest evolutionary leap; to know itself not as part of, and subject to, greater systems, but to know itself to BE System.


Our physical bodies provide symptoms these days to prompt us to reconcile this conundrum, both in our Consciousness and in our physical bodies.

Grateful to have partners like you to share this journey,
I am Phyllis, still Becoming

Change with Intention

Here again and Hello!

Change is a physical cycle so natural that we don't notice most of it.  What we do notice, in Earth's latest changes, are obvious because they cause us to question how safe we are.  Because change is inevitable and it can make us feel uneasy, Wisdom offers us some advice which I have shared with my church and some clients and it seems appropriate here.

To adapt to change, intentionally incorporate change in daily life.  The more we practice change, the more at ease we are with the condition.  The advice is to thoughtfully change some one thing each day or as often as possible.  It can be anything.  The example was to change the way you towel off after your shower or change the place you eat.  Small changes intentionally done each day help us to adapt more easily to change within and around us. 

The quotation from Gandhi, "Be the change you want to see in the world," is a different twist on this guidance.  That sounds intimidating, but when it's in the context of simple changes to adapt with greater ease it feels doable and accomplishes so much.  We might say, "I change simple things to adapt to change in the world."

In yesterday's posting I reflected on my journey toward authentic self.  I've noticed that my awareness of this more deliberate journey came because of the frequent changes that I've incorporated into my days.  Some changes have become better habits like eating more fruit.  Some of them are only an exercise to observe change as a thoughtful condition.

Breath achieves change.  This week I had a medical test in which the technician said that the contrast agent would quickly dissipate from the lungs with each breath.  And I thought, so do we release old energy from the body and achieve change with each breath.  Change is inevitable.  Intentional change expedites the cycle and I know that when each one of us changes on purpose we ease the stress on Earth.  What we do for ourselves has global implications.  What a good thought.

Until next time,
Phyllis

BURNING BRIDGES

Greetings on All Hallows Eve!


Burning bridges is not fun.  Once begun, though, it has a momentum of its own.  In other words, intention is powerful and because Creation begins with each of us, our world is shaped by that intention.  I am burning bridges and gathering my wits about me to replace old patterns with what I prefer, what serves me better.


Other people are involved when we burn bridges.  As I release old identities I either change my pattern with others or I release them to other experience that also serves them better.  And people all around me have been providing exactly that stimuli I've needed to identify my more authentic self.  I write that as if it were easy. Ha.


I've written before about how the karmic pattern of predictions serves no one.  My ego-centered self held on for a long time to the comfort of at least the suggestion of psychic insights - even while I voiced my aversion to doing it.  These days, burning those bridges of traditional psychic practice with clients is a focus. 


We are all intuitive.  Being comfortable in that natural state is how we become all we can be, so I am not suggesting we discard this quality.  At the same time, seeking projections diverts our attention to the future, when all the time Wisdom tells us this moment is our assignment.  Here and now, this is where we learn ourselves.  


The past is complete.  Regressions may be a curious journey to take, but here and now in the emotional, mental and physical reality is where we are learning ourselves.  The future, also a curiosity, sidetracks us. 


When we access a probability we are excited by it; we move into mental and emotional, even physical reaction.  I call it a psychic bandaid.  Feels good for a while, but finally we must return to the moment, to the original wound, where we are intended to learn.  The bandaid falls off and we have to face what we avoided.  Even worse, the wound or pattern is repeated.  Another element is that any prediction triggers the brain, then emotions.  Wisdom is not available on that merry-go-round.  The only information that serves us comes from Wisdom, and that comes through breath. The insight that comes through us, in our own sensory experience, is what further inspires and motivates us.


Surrender is essential to achieving that moment, the peace, the internal calm that allows us our personal Wisdom.  Surrender is achieved with breath.  With breath we move out of logic and into Mind.  In Mind, The All That Is, all Wisdom is available and able to reach us as we breathe.


Several people I love have asked recently to access answers to the issues that are scaring them right now.  Our natural reaction is to wish we knew the future.  Offering counsel to breathe and know the moment is a disappointment for those asking.  At the same time each of them is providing me the perfect exercise to further define what serves me best.  I am so grateful.  Owning this script is not simple, but I am closer to my authentic self  as a result.


Recalling the Essential Self is our goal.  Of course this is not the conscious goal of some, but since you are reading this blog, you are probably one of those whose intention is to follow this bumpy road to all Wisdom.  Perhaps you are burning bridges, too.


Deep emotional levels are coming to the surface.  A combination of changing health patterns, expanding and contracting relationships, defining new standards for myself - all are coalescing to prompt this entry.  I wish each of you the Peace that surpasses human understanding and accept it for myself.


Still Becoming,
Phyllis

Independence Day

Happy Independence Day!

I am reminded that our grandmother did not call this holiday "The 4th of July," she called it Independence Day, as it was originally named. That title seems more appropriate to our current Earth as a whole, not a holiday limited to The United States of America. I love our country, but more than that, I love our Earth as a whole and this seems a fine time to celebrate our planet and ourselves as a brave people, learning independence as an entirely unique experience.

As of Summer Solstice, celebrated a week ago, our Third Earth Age is two years old. As we enter into this third year of a three-year cycle, "a three year leap of faith, trying on for size our full access to The All That Is," we are actually feeling and seeing the effects of this astonishing time.

As I tried to go back to sleep at 2:00 a.m., I felt a shift and saw/felt the physical difference between a thought and the leap to fulfilled event . This is a bit difficult to explain, but I'll try. The thought was the usual human thought about something I still have to do with the condo my siblings and I will sell now that our mother is happily moved to an assisted living community.

The thought had barely come to mind when I felt the shift into Mind where the thing was done. It's important to say that I did not consciously try to shift into a better frame of mind, breathing into an effortless outcome (which I often do to relieve stress). One moment I was in thought, the next I was in completion. This shift came so naturally I took a moment to realize that the shift was/is a natural event. I had entered into the dimension where it was fulfilled, complete. We now have this access to the resolution of any thing. And because we do, because it is the new reality, breathing into it, allowing it, this new state of being becomes us.

Our guidance in the past two years could not have prepared me for this shift. We are so conditioned to having to try to achieve a thing. Wisdom has advised us that anything and everything is already "in store for you." Time is no thing. It is an illusion. Whatever we think to do, everything that will fulfill our lives, already exists in No Time. We are now in that phase of human evolution where we have only to think it to access it.

Becoming a person who shifts from thought to fulfilled outcome with no effort is something I know I will continue to realize until I am living joyfully without effort. This is our common journey, now, not in some idealized future. Now.

"To live a life of ease," Wisdom told us was our goal. Now I can actually feel what that means.

Until the next time, Breathing,

I am Phyllis, still Becoming

P.S. Two things to clarify: First, the shift from thought to completed event was inter-dimensional, from one location to another. I interpret this as moving into The All That Is.

Second: I've returned to the condo to pick up some of Mom's things, and the sense of what I have yet to do has changed. I do not dread it as I did before the shift. I feel free of the burden of it. I am observing.

It's a New Day!

Greetings with Gratitude!

On this perfect day of both New Moon and Solar Eclipse, I'm up early. Actually woke up just in time to greet the eclipse and felt moved to post here for the first time in weeks. So, welcome!

Archangel Michael has a report for us: "Turn your eyes away from the disarray that might distract you. Yes, there is much in chaotic transition. All of it will come to fruition in a manner no one expects. So it is not possible now to plan for a future in your traditional mode.

"Your future is assured. Make no mistake. Those who see the transitional conditions and leap to conclusions that Earth will not survive must live with those realities. You need not. All is going as planned. Earth is managing her healing. Wounds will be healed. People will reach out to one another. Catastrophic events themselves will prove to be the means by which Earth's plan is effected. You will see much of this even in your lifetimes, though all change will take some time to reveal itself.

"Help is all around you. It always has been. It always will be. But you do need to ask for it. Give permission for help to reach you. Ask, then open to receive. Breathe. Breathe again.

Every human being has an equal opportunity to receive the support always available. If not all accept it, that is also a perfect choice - for them. Be the change agent in your household, your community, your country, and for the world. Be the change agent, allowing yourself to evolve with the Earth in this extraordinary time of personal and planetary transition. Breathe and breathe again. Breath moves energy beyond your own space.

Celebrate your perfection! We do.

"You are the change. And so it is done."

My thanks to each of you, breathing with you, and thanks to each of those in other vibrations who love and support us. We are perfect. I am so grateful to be taking the ride with you.

Until next time,

Phyllis

Perfection

Greetings on this perfect Saturday Morning!

Observing lately how it is that we so often devalue ourselves, I was struck with the beauty of my granddaughter Thursday evening at her very first full band concert. She is in 5th grade and in her first year at a charter school, grades 5 - 12, with a huge participation in the band program. She plays flute, first year, and she is very good. I brought her a rose, and when I congratulated her, she said, "I did great!" Even now tears come to my eyes,

Holding this tiny being in her first years, I would repeat, looking into her eyes, "Hello Andrea. You are strong, you are smart, you are beautiful." Her parents did, too. She believed it. She knows it. And I pray it means she will never undervalue her perfect self.

Most of us are raised with a different perception, most parents coming from a place of fear and self-consciousness and not so able to tap into pure energy. Every child with stable self-esteem has come from someone who was able to do that for them; to say to them, "I see who you are and I know you. You are perfect exactly as you are." I was not equipped to do this for my children. But these days I tell them in other ways and speak to them in Spirit as well to say,

"I trust your plan with God is perfect, and I will keep breathing with you to let go of any other perception."

God knows each of us in our perfection. We are created exactly to specifications that God deemed essential to the Whole. And I am not talking about a pontificating grandfather/God sitting on some throne far and away. Consciousness is God, we are God. God exists as a Source we can only imagine, but not understand. Not completely, not now. But I believe that God is the constant that maintains the balance of the Cosmos. The Grand Design creates us from energy/light. Every cell in our bodies remembers this Source, The All That Is.

I have been carrying a lot of body weight for years now. I've explored all the reasons why. I know all the means to reduce my weight in traditional terms. I understand nutrition and exercise. And while I will choose some of these, I seem to be emerging from this reality into a new state of being. It is my intention, and I've been asking for help in remembering the person that I am in a fit and healthy body. One day I heard, "I am Light."

I am recalling how to maintain balance, and this phrase, repeated to myself, helps me to feel into the ways in which I have devalued myself and to remember, gradually, gently, how to act in this dimension with respect for myself. I am also accepting that the way that I am and have been is also perfect. Creation lives in me, perfectly, exactly as I was, as I am, and as I will be.

I am Light. You are Light. And because we are all Light together, on this day, May 21st, when fear grips some of us, holding this truth that we are Light sustains us.

In Light, Breathing,

Phyllis

What is Your Vocation?

In Gratitude, Good Morning!

Isn't it just when we least expect it that Wisdom speaks to us, and we are changed? Yesterday was such a time for me, and Victoria's message may inspire you as it did me.

I have mentioned White Bear Unitarian Universalist Church, led by Reverend Victoria Safford. Every Sunday we can, Mom and I drive to this lovely church where we often meet my daughter-in-love, Carin, and my perfect grandchildren for the service and brunch afterward.

Victoria posed a question in yesterday's service that then produced a conversation between Carin and myself that doubled the message for me. Victoria asked, "What is your vocation?" Not, what is it you do for a living, not how do you make money or spend your time. From the root of the word, "vocation," what is your true voice? How is it that you express true Self?

Having read this blog, you know a lot about what I do. From waking to "channel" in 1983, through study and revelation, from ordination and counseling lots of folks, tripping and getting back up, I've considered this journey an expression of faith, my calling. So I thought I knew my vocation. Then I heard in my heart yesterday that this was not the core. As I listened to Victoria, I breathed and closed my eyes and heard Wisdom, my innermost voice, speak:

"Your vocation is to know God and to support others as they come to know God."

I knew it was true. This is who I Am. The simplicity struck me and I knew this was the insight that had been eluding me for weeks, perhaps months, no, all of my life.

Victoria's message included a discussion of what jobs we do to maintain our lives - work that is not our vocation. Our maintenance life feels heavy, demanding, but a necessity to support life. Out in atrium Carin and I talked about the message. I did not express my new insight. It was too soon and too new to me to speak aloud what I was feeling. Instead we talked about maintenance, essential activities, for Carin, of raising children, keeping a house, tending to marriage. And for me, managing a client schedule, running errands for Mom, shifting as our relationship changes, reacting to situations in the world that sometimes just feel wrong. Life feels big and we've learned to react to our lives and our responsibilities.

It seems to me that our goal, surely my goal, is to breathe and consider every maintenance task a meditation. Digging a ditch, washing a dish, walking a dog, each a meditation. Inspiration sometime comes during programmed meditation, but it most often comes when we least expect it. It comes in moments with a child, while driving my mother to the doctor, during a television show, in the shower. True voice speaks while we are otherwise occupied - if we intend and allow it. With such intention we become constant meditators instead of reactors to our task-filled lives.

My intention has changed. I speak to the population I now choose to serve. As guided years ago, I breathe and speak aloud my intention so the Consciousness is invested with my new vision. I attract and engage with those who are seeking God, whatever it is that they might call "God," and so I learn God better and speak my true voice.

I express my true voice not marching with it, searching, seeking, pontificating. It comes with my breath, with ease. And so it comes not only with clients, but on the street, at the co-op, with people I love and with folks who surely challenge me. Not in words, but in the energy, through the Consciousness from which I come.

For each of us, the revelation of true voice comes perfectly timed to the whole of our lives. Do I wish I had the simplicity of this back when I was struggling, before my ordination, at any time when clients challenged me or a message for my church seemed stuck in my throat? No. Well, I may have wished it, but the struggle, too, was essential. As Wisdom said: "You cannot be rescued from your struggle if what you are learning from it is necessary for your growth."

Each moment is a moment in becoming. To accept ourselves, "as we are, where we are, when we are," is our journey. True voice, our inspired vocation, is within us and reveals exactly as we are prepared to live it.

Peace, with Breath,

Phyllis

A Fine Old Tree

Happy Spring Morning to you!

This has been such a week of tears. Beginning with the reflections in my last post and yesterday the loss of a fine, stately tree from my neighborhood.

I'm struck by its loss and realize how inextricably be are woven together with all of Earth.

I've lived in this building now for nearly 23 years, in three different apartments, but all of them facing our neighborhood at the rear of the building, and the tree has always been some part of my view.

I am not schooled in tree identification, so I am not sure what species this lovely, old tree was.

On one hand, I am hoping it was not destroyed to satisfy someone's capricious action. On the other hand, I dread the loss of more trees if it was infested with one of the diseases we've heard about.

It seems to me that its huge, green canopy was always the size it was when I woke yesterday morning, so it had probably reached its maturity many years ago. It spread its generous limbs over the fence that separates our parking lot from neighborhood houses. And, although I had never thought of it, it always filtered the light that floods my apartment. And now it doesn't.

So my world has changed in a way that seems only important to me, but the loss of a tree is symbolic of larger Earth changes. Reflecting, we can appreciate how much we count on the steadiness, the comfort of what we know best. So, while grieving the loss of homes, crops, businesses; while we say goodbye to loved ones and try to find a way to go on without them, it is sometimes the single tree or another personal shift that brings our New Earth into focus.

The loss of this old friend is a reason to breathe and to offer gratitude for his/her life and all the gifts it provided us. The loss also reminds me of the abundant helicopter seeds it spread abundantly every spring, creating a clean-up project for our maintenance folks. Now it seems a small price to pay for all its benefits.

The light in my world is changed forever. And I think about all those areas in our own country and so many other countries where acre after acre and mile after mile of destruction has changed the light and the quality of life for thousands of people. My loss is small in comparison. But any change that affects our personal world calls for grieving to honor the value of what was. The grieving moves us forward, breathing into the next change and supporting Earth in her shedding and growing.

Honoring, grieving, moving forward, we observe all the unique ways we are Becoming.

A Human Being is Dead

Peace to All of You,

This gray day in Minnesota, is a gray day all across the globe, and I feel compelled to sign on for the first time in weeks to acknowledge it.

We could not have known as we woke yesterday morning, the first day of May, 2011, that by the end of the day a world figure would have been assassinated. We could not have known as we sat in church, holding one another in the Sacred, that by the end of the day people all over the globe would be celebrating the death of an infamous figure.

Today I do not celebrate. Today I am sorrowful for the nature of human; that we still hold such hate for another person that we would celebrate that person's death. Worse, that we would celebrate the murder of any one other human being. Today I feel less human because I am part of a culture that can hold this event as a victory without acknowledging the Spirit of this now dead being. I see only the exacerbated contrasts in our human nature. And I pray for balance.

Part of my Consciousness feels I should apologize to you for bringing this negative energy by my words. Another, greater part, says these words must be expressed if ever we are to raise the Consciousness. How long are we to continue in the tradition of "an eye for an eye?" I pray we can be done with this. Let us honor the Spirit of any person and, seeking justice, find new and inspired ways to bring our humanity into balance.

I hold Osama bin Ladin in the Sacred. I do not understand him, nor his terrible actions. I acknowledge that his assignment, like that of Hitler and similar human villains, springs from a script none of us can understand.

Years ago when the bombs began dropping in the first stages of Desert Storm, I heard from Spirit that my assignment was to hold in the Sacred every human being on both sides of the conflict. From the Ayatollah to President Bush, from our soldiers to the Muslim citizens who would die, I was to see them all as a part of an event so mysterious we could not fathom it.

So I stopped screaming and breathed and encouraged others to do the same;

to stop reacting and judging and simply to breathe into the mystery of The Sacred.

We are all sacred expressions of the Creator. Each of us with an assignment. Each of us still judging and being judged. I am crying for all of us today in my own human reaction - and breathing. Always breathing for our possibilities.

Gratitude

Greetings in Gratitude!

With limited time this morning, I offer this observation: Over the years I have learned to be grateful for so many things and to build gratitude into my days, observing the things I used to take for granted and embracing them in heartfelt admiration. This week gratitude is even bigger than usual.

Nothing obvious has changed, but gratitude is in the air. I love simple things and this of grand proportions. I love my morning coffee. I love that my patio doors are stripped of winter plastic to allow in the changing light of Spring (and grateful I had the plastic as we endured our long winter). The sun flowing into my apartment this morning fills me with gratitude for its warmth and the 60 degree temperatures it promises for the coming week. Fellow residents are expressing gratitude as I meet them in the elevator, in the halls, for the lovely promises of Spring. People smile more. We have survived, and after all we only had snow and cold, not earthquakes and tsunamis.

Over the past weekend I was grateful for a group of men who are practicing their dance/stomp routines in our parking lot. Men. Dancing. Their deep, resonant voices calling out their stomp lyrics, happily cheering one another on as they nail it. They may have thought me odd, a gray-haired white woman cheering from my 4th floor deck, but we connected, and I am grateful.

I'm off with Mom to her doctor's appointment this morning, and this evening to Shannon's school concert. So I have gratitude for family, for caring and for celebration of what it means to be part of a thriving collective.

I offer my gratitude for all of you who care and contribute and connect. There is joy in this sharing.

Breathing in Gratitude,

I am Phyllis, still Becoming

To Manage Our Humanity

Greetings this Sunday Morning!

Earth changes are so obvious that even those who have scoffed at "New Age" philosophies are paying attention. Apocalyptic prophets are increasing on the other side of the issue, so maybe it's time to chat about it here for any of you who are wondering what is going on and what we can expect. And time for me to take a fresh look as well.

Thanks to this question from a client yesterday, I reviewed what we have heard over the past 30 years regarding what Earth changes we could expect. Archangel Michael's predictions of increasing earthquake activity and weather events are here and now and multiplying. The "axis shift" is in process; the earthquake in Japan moved Earth's axis 6 inches. That may not sound like a lot, but it's not the first shift, and they will continue. We were told our technology would be challenged. Did we consider that it might include nuclear facilities? This has only deepened our uneasiness - and brought us closer together, dissolving "borders, boundaries and barriers to create a human community."

We are learning "to manage our humanity." What an amazing thought. I suppose we have been on this mission all along, but I never really stopped to consider it in this light. Our journey on Earth has always been intended to learn ourselves and to learn to love ourselves along the way. And we have so much help.

We contemplate what has real meaning to us when we face tragedy. We reevaluate and focus on people instead of things. Our values change when our foundations are shaken. All of this and more result from increasing Earth changes.

We are amazingly resilient. "Hope springs eternal," is a phrase often used to express how resilient we are. Going within, breathing deeply and affirming our flexibility and hope carries us through change. Creating such respite time in direct proportion to the severity of changes not only increases our hopefulness but provides for Earth as well. We are not accidental tourists on this fine planet, we are of it, created from its substance. We are Earth thinking itself. We are its consciousness.

Mother Earth is in labor. To understand the scope of Earth's labor and birthing, we are asked to look at a human mother giving birth and multiply that impact by the size of our planet. We can understand that as the pelvic bones of a mother shift, so do the plates of the Earth. As a mother's water breaks, so do the tsunamis break on our shores. As all the processes of human birth are considered in proportion to Earth's volume we can feel closer to Earth and less threatened by it.

We are sacred beings with a purpose, created here by our own will and determination to ride the tides of these changes, contributing as we are inspired and playing our parts as best we can. Asking for help from all of those who love us, invisible but so present, lifts us up and insures we manage our humanity with all grace possible. I am grateful every day to know this.

Breathing with you,

I am Phyllis, still Becoming

A Vivid Life

Happy Thursday Morning!

Sensing I might have some trouble sleeping last night, I put my attention on dreaming. And as I put my head on my pillow I wondered if I had a theme I might dream on, and Wisdom said, "Dream on your vivid life." What a lovely thought, so I did.

My dreams were far-ranging. I dreamed about my need to be in the energy of living things -flowers, people - and I dreamed about losing my briefcase and all my records. I also dreamed again about a woman who suddenly began speaking in a different language. A lot to think about.

Our vivid life. I wonder what that means for each of us. Of course, I can only answer for myself, and I am contemplating what that means from this day to the next. I already consider my life pretty vivid. My family is an interesting group of people who stay in touch and give me so much to live for. My friends and clients in the physical world are amazing people who lift me up, make me laugh and inspire me. My friends in Spirit are so present and supportive.

The other day I had a physical, full-body revelation of walking, walking unencumbered with my debit card in my pocket, free of any concern for physical things. I surely would have a way to go to make this my vivid life since I haven't been able to walk any distance since I injured myself a couple of years ago. But I am mostly healed and new walking shoes are on my list, so who knows. I have plenty of time to practice and spring is soon springing.

My vivid life, in a picture in my head, includes people and nature; thriving in service to people in such a rhythm that I know peace, ease. My vivid life is stimulating and simple. I realize that it means - today and tomorrow in a practical world - breathing and affirming my intention to live my vivid life. Consciousness will then inspire me to exactly that which serves me best and opens me to know with certainty what is my most vivid experience with others. My vivid life is living with each breath, vital and knowing.

I wish you all knowing your most vivid life, whether you now have it or are in discovery of it.

Happily, hopefully, heartfully,

I am Phyllis, still Becoming

Accountability and Dreaming

Greetings in Gratitude!

Accountability is on my mind this early morning. To many of us it means explaining, even apologizing. At least it means defining our motivations and outcomes; expressing ourselves to justify our lives or some part of that life.

I'm not against accountability, in fact a blog could be defined as a means to account for oneself. What comes to me this morning is how we define our actions in relationship to one another and to Earth.

The Dream Team set an intention to travel to Japan Sunday night, to support the country and its people in the wake of the earthquakes and tsunami. In one segment of my dream I was standing in debris and toxic muck. The children had to place to play, and I partially woke in tears. Wisdom reminded me not take this on, not to absorb it.

Once again I was in touch with a belief I have carried that to be of service means to sympathetically involve myself in the situation. I know better consciously, but the belief persists, so while I was offering my support to the Japanese, I was also revealing another layer of my belief. Service to others offered me personal benefit.

For many years I have known that balance in service is the ideal; that an exchange is essential or the one offering service is depleted. Receiving benefit, then, is not selfish, it is necessary to maintain life force. Exchange may be different for each person, but learning to identify what renews us is a skill that pays huge dividends for self and for everyone who is then served by our vitality.

Our "dreams" are producing results I did not expect. In this instance, I further released an old pattern of self sacrifice. I am better served - and serve better - when observing objectively. Wherever we feel most vulnerable we are more likely to lose our perspective and slip into sympathetic involvement. Empathic exchange is our goal.

When I am involved sympathetically I am really judging the situation and the people involved as if I know what is best for them better than they know themselves. I do this unconsciously, but the effect is the same. And if I slip into that involvement, I am assuming I know their plan and have reason to intervene. I cannot know anyone else's Plan. It is perfect, no matter how messy or hurtful it may appear to me. I have no business inserting myself in the Plan of anyone or anyplace. Loving and objective support as I am inspired honors the perfection of the Plan in place for each of us and for the evolution of the planet.

Another wonderful benefit is appearing from The Dream Team. People who have heard of our dream experience, but have not "signed on," have become part of our collective dream stream.

Consciousness takes over. We are all linked and collaborate at levels we may never understand. Earth benefits and each of us is richer for having, however unconsciously, become involved in support of it. A person does not need to prove accountability to serve the planet and its people.

My first vision of The Dream Team growing and expanding is happening. The surprise is that it is evolving far out of my sphere of awareness. Each of our 30+ members is a seed in Consciousness, and we will never know what service we do by sharing the idea of service through intentional, collective dreaming. The intention spirals out, engages intuitively and produces more than we can know. I take a deep breath and know this was always the Plan.

Another note: If we did not know it before, we are now learning that what we have called dreaming previously is so much more than a personal experience that may or may not be important. Dreaming can be a directed, productive extension of Consciousness. Consciousness always knows what is perfect exchange; what is in alignment with the Plan and always respectful. Far beyond accountability, intentional dreaming proves itself.

Breathing and Dreaming with you,

I am Phyllis, still Becoming

Magic

Happy Day!

Opening to this day, greeting everyone who loves me, I am expressing thanks for this perfect Thursday and for Mom, who is strongly celebrating her 91st birthday!

I am also observing a new thought about magic. Yesterday, considering life in general and some delightful events, Wisdom said, "Magic." And I felt it as a concept I had not considered before, so as I write I am exploring what more Wisdom may have to say about it.

The Magic of Creation is in every event, every condition, every pattern, every everything. When I first heard this reference to Magic yesterday, being the person I am, I wondered how I would/could understand it. Then I had to laugh at myself because the answer was so obvious: explaining anything as "Magic," IS the answer. And it means another level of surrender without understanding. Can I just let it be without feeling I have an obligation to understand it and to explain it to others? I am back at square one: Breath.

I am released from the logical or even metaphysical trip I usually take to get inside of the thought or concept to disseminate it. My curiosity has usually taken me on a trip that ultimately, Wisdom says, is an endless journey without a destination. The depth and intricacy of Creation is so great that we cannot get an answer. Creation is so far outside our ability to understand it that, finally, maybe our best option is to name it, "Magic," and certainly to surrender. Surrendering to what we cannot understand is the key. Another level of surrender. Simply to be. Breathing.

Now I wonder how long this blog will have any meaning. I could just log on each day and say,

"Breathe." Will be interesting for me to see where I go from here.

Until the next breath,

I am Phyllis, still Becoming

Spring Rain and Surrender

Good Morning!

It's early on Tuesday and raining, with thunder, so I am up for a while and grateful to be listening to the first Spring rain on my roof while contemplating a new level of surrender.

I wonder at the complexity of our mind/brain connection. My last dream with The Dream Team was a significant journey into exploring the mind by isolating a thought. I had realized that a thought could be projected into a space in front of me and its source, its dimensions, all of its qualities could be studied. Together with other members of the team, we made progress and were excited at the prospect of understanding Consciousness. I was filled with hope that I could satisfy a deep passion of this lifetime, even as I woke up.

Now, with another level of surrender knocking at my door, I consider this dream a really important and interesting element in my journey to surrender this pattern of seeking comfort in accounting for things.

We're taught to be responsible, to identify what is needed, then to track how that need will be filled. I think about our early ancestors. At survival level, basic cause and effect governed human experience. People got hungry, determined where food could be found, went out and killed it or gathered it. This essential survival mechanism continues in our lives. We've expanded and complicated our process of survival, but the brain makes the same link between need and satisfaction of that need.

The bills arrive and we look to our source of income and whether they compute. We need something extra and plan how we will supply it. Much of our energy is dedicated to surviving by these computations. I've been on this journey to live in ease with my financial circumstances for some time and have achieved more ease than I would have thought possible. Now I've realized my System is opening to a new level of surrender.

At this new level of our evolution, I look to our brain function to identify the cause of any dis-ease. Complete surrender means that I cease these genetic calculations, that I release my cause and effect brain function. And that is my intention; to live with ease in the flow of Cosmic Consciousness that ceaselessly and inevitably provides.

Other people have certainly achieved this level of surrender, so I know that pattern is out there in Consciousness to support my goal. Taking this opportunity to consider my brain function will help, I know. And now to surrender even this logical process, to accept it and move into Consciousness to allow it to inform my intention. Surrender. Again. Simply to BE.

Until next time,

I am Phyllis, still BE-coming

It's In The Details

Grand and Glorious Day to you!

Sheer happiness happens when the details in any day converge to support my choices and my actions. Isn't it wonderful to have days like this? The farther I go the farther I get. I can remember that my theme was, "The hurrier I go the behinder I get." Of course, if I let myself run willy-nilly I can still feel that way, but I love living increasingly in the synchronicity of the intuitive life. And that includes paying attention to the details - without attaching to them.

Details are not random. Any thing that catches my attention is part of my daily fabric. Any small thing, seemingly unrelated to anything else, can later reveal a pattern or become, by itself, a message that only occurs to me later. Everything is its own distinct color in the weaving of my life.

When people come for a session and notice the fabulous amethyst geode in my office, I know Barbara is present. It was her daughter who purchased the geodes for myself and other people who are close to Barbara. Not everyone notices, but when someone does, I believe it is Barbara's spirit they see. It's an opportunity to acknowledge Barbara and thank her once again.

My grandchildren are so often messengers in my life. Life is busy when I am with them and it might be easy to overlook the gifts they bring me. But when I breathe and notice, the light is brighter and the richness of their spirit obvious. They reveal to me the kinds of human beings they are by the questions they ask and the details they ask me for in the stories I tell.

But less obvious details of life tell me so much. Attention on anything means something. When we breathe and allow that attention to carry us forward, more is revealed and life is richer.

We know dreams have meaning in the details, but we may dismiss details that seem unimportant. Everything in a dream has meaning. A wise teacher once told me that every dream has 7 layers of meaning. In that perspective, every nuance is a part of the message. How did it make you feel? What was it related to? Was it, in fact, a factor that your Consciousness used to communicate to help you work through another layer of your life?

Life used to feel crowded and distracting. Now it feels abundant and significant. Gifts are imbedded in every event, every experience, every phase of life. We are richer for them.

Until next time,

I am, Phyllis, still Becoming

Soup to Nuts

Happy Day Everyone!

Soup. I used to think there were rules about making soup. My brain would direct me to each ingredient; so much of this so much of that. I was a tentative cook. Recipes were important, and I'd get nervous about changing anything or trying a new recipe. I'm still not as comfortable in the kitchen as my mother and sisters are. But soup now has no rules. A little of this, a lot of that, and oh my I enjoy my soup more. I have broth cooling in the fridge now, just waiting for me to throw caution to the winds and everything but the sink into my soup pot. It smells delicious.

My life had so many edges and angles previously. And I used so much energy getting from here to there. I realized only recently that I was sometimes still on task for the phone or the doorbell to ring. Managing this building was still an internal memory that kept me a bit on alert, just enough to satisfy some old pattern, but now gratefully gone.

When I choose now to stay in my robe I can relax to my internal clock, meditating spontaneously, napping when I need it. Yet, on a day when I am expecting no one but I am moved to meticulously make my bed, I soon find that the rhythm of my day brings me guests - voila! And Wednesday those guests included a photographer of all things! Doing a favor for our building manager was not a stretch because I was moved by my internal voice to take care of tasks as I see them, rather than structure my life within a schedule of shoulds. What a relief!

We're perfect. System/Wisdom/God lives in each of us. We can hold to structures and rules and use our energy to manage meticulously the edges of our lives. No harm, no foul. We all get to decide. Games do need some rules or there would be no game, but what rules do I still need and which might be released in favor of ease. I still need a calendar and notations for a schedule that involves other people. But I need breath more. And not checking the rulebook instinctively as I used to means unclenching and ease.

Living this way may appear a little nuts. But whose rules are more important than yours for your life and mine for mine? Breathing and allowing, not even asking, but allowing my System to lead me, proves perfect. Trusting myself has always been the goal, whether making soup or exchanging with a client, deciding what gift to buy or whether this is a good day to post to this blog.

Here, today, the sky pink with the rising sun, laundry in the dryer and making a pot of soup I am content. I'm spending the weekend with Anita and celebrating my daughter-in-love's birthday tomorrow (mmmm grandgirl hugs), then flying Sunday night with The Dream Team.

What a lovely recipe. I am grateful.

Until next time,

I am Phyllis, still Becoming

Circles in Consciousness

Good Morning!

I haven't had much sleep, but one of the lovely things about semi-retirement is that I can take a meditation nap later. And the meditation parts of those naps are some of the most important connections in Consciousness I've ever had.

Two themes in my dreams are worth exploring: Electrical connections and circles. The dream was about people finding their perfect place in the world, a place where they vibrated naturally and that also meant finding people who were of the same electrical current.

We are electrical beings. Remembering that we are, we recall our need for water. God told me many years ago that there were only three rules to living a good life: "Breathe, Drink Plenty of Water, and Love Yourself." As I seek to live these better, those rules of life have expanded to inform me about all the ways we live well, but right now "Drink Plenty of Water" is on topic.

We know that our organs all work better with the right amount of irrigation. Another motivator is that electricity is conducted best through water. So as electrical beings we vibrate best, meditate best, dream best, intuit best, focus best, study best, think best, learn best, live best when we have satisfied our thirst. It's a wonder I got through college, living as I was on quick gulps of water from those awful fountains. Bottled water was not yet in vogue in the early 80's, so studying was a labor. The university is not the place where I learned the basics of life. Ironic.

With generously irrigated systems we vibrate at the frequency that informs us when we are with the people who nurture us and in the places that support us. In my dream, people were touching one another to feel how they were connected and talking about the "right" place in which to live. We were in a restaurant and there was plenty of water. And the dream included messages of transformation.

My week has been more amazing than usual. Monday was a day of personal transformation. I'm aware that having expanded my Consciousness to a new (for my human self) Cosmic language, I am changed and able to shift into that place to achieve whatever will serve me best. A primary effect is realizing I can do service without taxing my physical system. Just believing that I did not have to suffer physical symptoms while doing service work was not enough. I carried the planet in my body and manifested symptoms accordingly. So I asked for/gave permission to recall, a remedy to release old patterns and to live in a new vibration where I thrive. And here it is! I am still practicing all the ways this new vibration alters the quality of my life, and I am grateful.

This is a time of transformation. Others have reported their own expansion into new dimensions of themselves and The All That Is this week. Transformation is best accomplished by expecting nothing and allowing everything. Breathing, drinking water and loving/trusting self is the foundation. There is no other formula I can offer you to find your own expansion, if you indeed want it; only the suggestion that the time is ripe for all of us, and our attention placed lightly on it - and breathing - will produce whatever is perfect for each of us.

The other thing that has come up this week is Circles. Both my church in Duluth and the U.U. church we attend here are focusing attention on Circles - now and at the same time. I love this. Conversation circles are the theme at the U.U. church and are expanding into what the ministry intern is calling "small group ministry." In Duluth they have initiated "Circle Services," which promote conversation that changes the frequency for people involved and offers support for many new ideas.

Circles are as old as our civilization; their dynamic supports expanding Consciousness and with mutual intention raises vibration for the individual as well as for the group. We are tribal for a reason. We were not created to live as one individual here, another a hundred miles away. I love my alone time, but it is in connection with others that I realize my personal vibration is recognized, is reflected back to me, and I do the same for others.

Thank you all for connections here, for this circle of Consciousness in which I expand and Become.

Until next time,

I am Phyllis, still on that journey

Branding is Not Binding

Greetings in Gratitude!

Lovely the way the Universe works to support what is on my mind. This morning on CNN one topic was "branding." Using Coca Cola and Lady GaGa as examples, branding is the advertising method to make a product or person most marketable. Searching for work or insuring a current job, the use of branding communicates strengths and presumes employers will lean toward the person who is clearest in identifying or branding themselves.

How do we brand ourselves? Is it possible that when we feel others do not appreciate us or misunderstand who we are that it directly relates to how well we know ourselves and how secure we feel in telling others who we are? There is a flip side to this that I'll get to next, but first let's think about branding ourselves.

It's common in our human journey that the person most affected is the person least aware of what brought about an unwanted outcome. We may be oblivious to how we come across to others. The formula for this is something we've talked about before. Wherever I see a symptom in my life, a situation in which I feel misunderstood or the outcomes are not what I want, it's my responsibility to breathe deeply and to ask System/Wisdom to inform me.

You and I are in charge of our scripts. We write them, and isn't it just like us to then argue that someone else isn't reading them correctly! No, we each write our own script which includes the way others interact with us. If they are not recognizing who we are, the reason may well be that we are confused in the way we're "branding" ourselves. Am I clear? How can I be sure unless I breathe and ask my System/Wisdom to clarify how I am communicating my intention, even my identity.

When we breathe and surrender our emotional reaction and mental busy-ness we can intuit what will bring self around, not to sacrifice to the will of another, but to realize whether the premise on which we stand is what we really mean to say to others about ourselves. Has ego, however unintentionally, disguised our clearest intention? It's really common, and the only evidence we need is right in front of us when other people rattle our cages, blocking our way.

Another aspect of "branding" is karmic. I've been facing this lately and struggling with the consequences. Long before I came into this human costume, my soul wrote a script that I've apparently carried along throughout many lifetimes. The script includes an altruistic intention to serve the planet. The flip side is carrying a belief that my physical system is vulnerable to the stressful changes of Earth. I've carried the stress in my thyroid, my kidneys, my skin, my digestive system, my knees, my feet. Yes, that's a big part of who I am and how I feel.

Intense physical symptoms have brought this script to my attention, without a doubt telling me that there is some Wisdom of which I've not been aware. I've known for many years that I feel the planet's stress in my system. What I had not fully explored is that service of this kind is not meant to compromise our health and well being. My belief that service outweighed personal well being was so strong that I had not faced the consequences.

The old message I received long ago has come back to inform me: "Sacrifice Contradicts Creation." And this was never intended to be our goal. We have explored sacrifice in contrast to our potential to live in wholeness. Learning this, we can change our script.

Since realizing the impact of service to Earth and the hidden depths of my beliefs, I've traveled through a few of the layers of my old script. I have intentionally released my karmic masculine and invited the adolescent stage of the balanced Masculine into my pattern. I have spoken to my System, breathing and giving permission for old beliefs to fall away, making way for a healthy system. I've asked for all the help available to me. Surrendering, I can accept all the support to penetrate my physical, mental and emotional bodies. This takes practice, and I continue to discover the means to achieve wholeness/balance.

We are tweaking our beliefs. We are checking out the way we have "branded" ourselves. It's an exciting and challenging time for all of us. Breathing and asking for help, surrendering and allowing support to reach us, we serve best, and achieving wholeness serve all the better.

Until next time,

I am Phyllis, still Becoming

What Are You Trying to Tell Me?!

Good Day!

Exploring again the ways we are learning these days, I am struck by the emphasis on subtle imagery, coming so naturally into awareness that we might dismiss it.

Consciousness, it seems to me, is revealing itself in whatever manner will serve us best, each of us in our own way, of course. It's so delightful that we each learn differently, which means that as we learn from one another we are best served by listening; not by asserting our perspective as if it is paramount, but leaning into the truth of any other person just as far as it serves us, then releasing what does not.

All people have value, and all perspectives are essential to the Whole. Trained as we are to judge, that has come to mean measuring our truth against the truth of another as if one is bad, the other good. Judging still serves us. If I do not use my discretion while listening, I become a sponge without self-determination. But taking it to the level of disregarding the value of another person or their ideas limits our capacity to learn.

Walking around every day we also "hear" messages our Consciousness introduces that we can ignore or judge or put into action. It's always been so busy in there - in our heads - that we may assume a lot of it is random. Nothing we "hear" is random.

It is true, we may find it difficult to discern whether we are hearing a logical thought pumped up by an emotional reaction, or Wisdom. Anything that comes into awareness has meaning. Is it a symptom of the physical, mental or emotional that is prompting us to attend to ourselves? Just because it comes from that density does not mean it is meaningless. Wisdom provides for us in many forms. Perhaps the most important thing we learn is how to discern where it comes from, which helps us to live intentionally instead of just reacting. Practice until we trust ourselves more means breathing.

And what comes from Wisdom may come through many different channels. To get your attention, Wisdom comes in an image, floating through awareness. It may come again to assert itself, through a comment from a friend, in a television image, from a book. It repeats itself in an attempt to grab our attention. It gathers and becomes something we cannot ignore. Wisdom, after all, is our own, not directed by some outside force. And our Wisdom knows what we need, what will serve us best, how we can thrive.

Sorting out how it will serve us requires breath.

As an image floats into awareness, a breath sustains it and expands upon it. Reacting with logic may delay the message or suppress the meaning until we allow it to come again. Breath is the means to sustain the Wisdom and allows us the space to receive more of its substance . Will I be a Reactor or a Director. Only I decide. And only breath brings the Wisdom into focus.

Related to this is how our commitments affect the quality of our lives. I'll explore that soon.

Until then, breathing and learning with all of you,

I am Phyllis, still Becoming

Gratitude

Greetings in Gratitude this Morning!

I woke in a state of gratitude, so I'm grateful first for the dreams that lifted my Spirit and gave me the insight to write about it this morning. I am also grateful for the insight to watch Joyce Meyer this morning; a perfect extension of what is in my heart today.

My travels around the world in dreamtime bring forward awareness of how others live, how they celebrate, how they suffer and how my life stands in contrast to the lives of others.

I believe that we are all created equally in Spirit. And I believe that the life experience in which we create ourselves is perfect, however others or self might judge it. My soul has chosen to live in squalor, as an orphan, as a warrior, in power and in helplessness. All of it is necessary for my soul's progression. So I am grateful for all that creates the person that I am, from other incarnations as well as all the people and parts of this life.

I don't stand in front of my stove each day grateful that I don't have to cook over a pit in the wilderness. But I am grateful for that; that in this lifetime I create a warm home and the means to dress and feed myself and provide what I need. I have not always believed that I deserved a good life, but I do now, and for that I am grateful because what I believe I create. My Creator has invested in me free will and the energy to take action. This partnership manifests itself in all that I enjoy and all that I share with others.

Tuning in to Joyce Meyer this morning lifts me up to a new level of gratitude. Over the years I have contributed according to my conscience and my means. I've learned to trust myself and to give more intuitively. What Joyce had to say today has made a difference in how I will go about giving.

Her message was about walking around in the world prepared to give spontaneously wherever and whenever we are inspired. Instead of hunkering down and steeling myself against high grocery or gas prices, to be grateful that I can buy gas and, breathing, be aware of where I can offer a gift card. This means buying them and according to my inspiration, giving a card instead of money, which can be awkward. In my personal philosophy, that means doing so without disclosing to others what I've done. This is my goal. I am in a state of Becoming.

Our giving does not have to cost money. It means a phone call to a grieving friend, smiling when we feel there is no reason to smile, giving the world our energy, holding a person or a country in the Sacred, with intention and gratitude. For me it means giving, not in sacrifice, but through inspiration. And that means breathing to be in touch with what Wisdom shows me in the moment, in the perfect interaction.

So I am off to my perfect day, and you know, that's how I now start my days: "Thank you God for this perfect Tuesday." And thank you all for this opportunity to share some of the best parts of me and the parts that are still Becoming.

And so it is, and so I am,

Phyllis, still Becoming

Exploring Consciousness

Good Morning!

When I write, my tendency is to write the second paragraph first, which reveals to me the first paragraph so that I can complete my thought, and this is what I realized I'd done again about expanding Consciousness. So here we go, the first paragraph....

My belief that Consciousness is one body of energy has not changed. But when we talk about expanding Consciousness I believe also that we might try to understand this great unknown by talking about what it is for each of us. I am going to talk about this as if it is the only truth, but want you to understand that I offer what I believe or know about at this time in this place - always exploring what more it might be, always curious about the most curious thing of all.

We are each born in our own stream of Consciousness. In spiritual terms, we might say we are born with our own unique link to God/Creator. As unique beings we are contributing to the expansion of Consciousness simply by being human. As humans who have curiosity and desire to know more of ourselves, we become intentional explorers and fulfill themes of the human condition unique to our personal Plan.

When I took the Avatar course, I thought I would advance in the program to the Masters course so that I could deliver the program to other people. I admired the principles of Avatar, guiding people to living deliberately, recalling self as Source. Then I had a vision of the Avatar stream of Consciousness, parallel to of my own path of exploration and knew that they were both of value, and they were not the same. So I credit Avatar with helping me to expand my personal Consciousness and to accept that my path has equal value.

Another event opened doors in Consciousness. Back in 1995, I was sitting in the Forest Lake Perkins Restaurant one night waiting for my friend, Michael, to arrive. Staring into the night sky, my body suddenly felt like a spoon slipping through Jello and I was in a place so foreign to me I was disoriented. I was sitting on the ground, leaning against a rock and it was soft. A guide was holding my hand, and I realized later it was Christ. He said, "You are safe. Look around. I'm right here." This place is The Garden, a location we find when we die. The colors were unlike any I'd ever seen, multidimensional and I could taste them. Everything was effervescent and so lovely I could not take it all in. I don't know how long I was gone, but suddenly I slipped back and, plunk, I was back in Perkins.

I relate this to consider the many ways we can explore Consciousness, thus expanding our personal stream of Consciousness. This was a trip I took, like a trip you might also take.

It was not a vision. A vision, to me, is a shift in Consciousness; expanding into perceptions that enhance our life experience. My trip was physical. When I have a vision I feel a subtle shift and my attention is on an alternate perception. Taking a trip out-of-body is a physical experience. These trips I have taken move me physically, and I can feel my return as a jolt back into my body, though I have no sense of absence while I am traveling. I always feel disoriented when I return. This is a bit startling when it happens while I am driving, but I am told that I am more competent behind the wheel when I am not conscious!

Another kind of travel is more startling. Being transported from one place to another while driving, suddenly finding oneself in a distant location when no time has elapsed, has happened to me, to my son (thankfully I was on the phone with him when it happened so that we could verify the experience) and to some other people I know. Impossible? No, this kind of expanded Consciousness defies logic but is verifiable.

Another exercise in expanded Consciousness is just as remarkable. I have more than once occupied the same place at the same time as another person, yet neither of us can find the other. The details are too lengthy to report here, but this has been verified as well. Coming back into the 3-dimensional world from such an inter-dimensional journey is startling for the people who happen to be present when I pop back in. When in my car, I am the only observer, but when out walking in the world, others become involved.

All of these expansive experiences are worthy of considering because they illustrate that we are not limited to this body, and the more curious we are, the greater the chance of exploring these examples of expanded Consciousness.

We are becoming inter-dimensional beings. The more of these journeys we take, the more alternate aspects of ourselves we explore, the more expanded the Consciousness. We are all contributing. Each unique being explores his/her own stream and changes the physical world by expanding Consciousness. We can only minimally appreciate the value of all we explore and contribute now. What a trip! I am so glad to be taking it with all of you.

Until next time,

I am Phyllis, still Becoming