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