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