Let's Carry This Forward!

I am basking in the joy of new hope that we all felt on Tuesday, Inauguration Day. Many of us have been feeling this since Nov. 4th when Obama won the election. The feelings have swelled and intensified. It feels like our country has come together like never before. It is amazing that close to 2 million people were gathered together in Washington and there were no arrests. That is a miracle!

My brain tells me this feeling won’t last. I remember back to September 11th and how our country came together. It was a different feeling, certainly not one of joy and hope, yet we came together as one. That feeling faded, however, and life went on as usual. Oh, we were never quite the same after that, but we lost that loving feeling.

As I write this, I am watching a pre-inaugural celebration that I somehow missed. It was called We Are One and was a huge celebration that took place at the Lincoln Memorial, I think the day before the Inauguration. There were lots of musicians performing, and the music was so inspiring I stood up and danced with my cat Callie in my living room. This is a feeling I want to hold on to. This is something I want to carry forward into tomorrow and the day after that, and the week after that, and the month after that.

President Obama has said that he cannot do this alone, he needs us. We are being called to take part in our country and in making sure that this hopefulness manifests into reality. I’m sure our president will give us lots of opportunities to get involved. I just emailed him an idea, and am so delighted that he has provided avenues and opportunities for us to be heard and involved.

This is our country. Regardless of what happens tomorrow, or the next day, or what our President does or does not do….even if he disappoints us…I want to keep this feeling of hopefulness and optimism alive. Let’s carry this forward. We can do it. It’s a choice we can make every day. It’s not up to only our President, it’s up to us!

America's Song

I wanted to share this music video, in case you haven't seen it already. It's called America's Song and was composed by David Foster and Will.i.am and commissioned by Oprah. I found it very inspiring ... I am so proud and happy to be an American!.

The Power of a Dream

August 28, 1963, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, Martin Luther King Jr. gave his ‘I Have a Dream’ speech. He had a powerful vision of a world where all Americans would be treated as equals. He dreamt of a time when all of life’s benefits and freedoms would be available to all people regardless of color. He said, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.

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I believe strongly in the strength of dreams and in the power of intentions. This idea has been around for centuries and there have been numerous books written on this subject, yet it feels like an idea whose time has finally come to our world in a very big way.

Tomorrow, the very first black American will be sworn in as President of the United States. Barack Obama was only 2 years old when Martin Luther King Jr. shared his dream, and tomorrow as he takes his oath for the highest office in our Nation, he will do so as proof of the realization of that dream. I am thrilled to be alive to witness this momentous time in our history.

I am also excited to share with you that the power of a dream made manifest is available to all of us. There is tremendous power in a dream that is shared. Martin Luther King Jr. wasn’t the only one holding that dream, but he was the one who put words to the vision and spoke them out. Tomorrow Barack Obama will share his dream for our nation, and I’m pretty sure he’s going to call on all of us to help make it come true.

Help shape your world and our world. Get in touch with your dreams and your visions…for your own life, and for our world. Say your dream out loud. Write it down. Share it with others. Speak the word and it shall come to pass.

Every Moment is a Choice

Today I am listening to Wayne Dyer’s live lecture recorded from his “I Can Do It” conference in Las Vegas. I have heard him speak many times before, and I have used his material time and again in my sermons, but for some reason I am mesmerized this time. Perhaps it is because my soul is hungry. I have missed being in ministry where I am immersed in these principles and constantly called to live them and push past the edges of my boundaries.

Wayne reminds me that we do not manifest what we desire; we manifest what we are. That is such a powerful thought it deserves repeating: we do not manifest what we desire; we manifest what we are.

If we are not manifesting what we want in life, then what needs to change is not something in the outer, but something inside of us. If we change our mind, we change our experience—we change our world. Of course, I already knew this, yet it never hurts to be reminded now and then, and Wayne does such a great job of explaining it so simply.

Wayne has written a new book called, Excuses Begone. I can’t wait to read it! He talks about another book The Biology of Belief, written by Bruce Lipton (another book I want to read) in which Lipton tells us that our DNA does not control our biology; rather our DNA is controlled by signals from outside the cell, including messages emanating from our thoughts. So, no longer do we even have the excuse that our genes, or our biology, or our body controls us. Well of course, none of this is new. Charles Fillmore, co-founder of Unity taught these principles 100 years ago. Yet it’s so great that these ideas are now wide spread and even showing up in our scientific community.

We do not manifest what we desire; we manifest what we are. So what are we? What am I? What am I choosing to be in every moment? Every moment is a choice. In one moment I might be choosing to be great, and in the next moment I might be slipping into smallness. If you want to know which you are being in any moment, look at what is manifesting in your outer world. If you don’t like what you are seeing—choose again. Isn’t it great that we can make a new choice in each and every moment! You don’t have to wait for a new year…you can change the thoughts and beliefs and feelings you are holding right now in this moment.

Wayne says, “In every moment you have this choice: you can be a host to God, or a hostage to the ego…your choice.”

As for me, I’m going to find more and more ways to be a host for God. I realize that I don’t have to wait for a church to manifest for me to be in ministry….I am in ministry right here, right now.

For more on Wayne Dyer click here: http://www.drwaynedyer.com/enews/signup_thanks.php

Deepak Chopra

Well I'm watching Ellen Degeneres and Deepak Chopra is on. She asked him if he had a New Year's Resolution, and he said "to embrace uncertainty". I thought in light of my previous post on the movie Doubt, that this was so uncanny!

He is also asking people to make a vow of nonviolence in their thoughts, speech and action. This includes not complaining or criticizing...wow! Can you imagine how our planet would shift if everyone did this? If you want to know more or want to join in and make the vow, go to the website: http://itakethevow.com/

Part of the vow is getting more people to join in the vow. If you are joining, leave a comment here and let me know.

Doubt

Even though it is called Doubt, the new movie with Meryl Streep is more a movie about the dangers of “certainty”.

The word doubt means to be undecided or skeptical. One might think that being certain about something would be admirable, at least that’s what my husband used to tell me. He was frustrated that it took me so long to make up my mind. Often it is beneficial to be certain…there is tremendous power in Intention and clarity. However, what I have found is that there can also be great wisdom in uncertainty, especially when it involves others.

Sister Aloysius (Meryl Streep) began to have some doubts about Father Flynn (Philip Seymour Hoffman) when he paid personal attention to a student. In and of itself, having doubts is not a bad thing, yet she didn’t act like a person who simply doubted. She acted like a person who had her mind already made up. She didn’t have any proof, but she had her certainty!

When we are certain we are locked into a position, and then we look for evidence to support our entrenched position. If we are uncertain, then we remain open to exploration and to discovery. In certainty we are invested in being right. In uncertainty we are not attached to any outcome.

I admire Meryl Streep and think she is a great actress, although her character in this movie is not easy to like. She does a great job here of playing a stodgy nun who seems to find her purpose in making others miserable. She also has a history. She has had an experience with a priest in the past and so she brings that to her current situation.

All of us do that. We bring our past into the present and it influences our choices. Sometimes that is beneficial, and sometimes it isn’t. When is it right to move forward in certainty, and when is it important to do nothing and remain in doubt? That is the question this movie explores.

I really haven’t given away anything that wasn’t shown in the trailers. You will have to watch the movie to find out how it ends….I was a little surprised, but then again I really wasn’t. The ending made perfect sense to me. This movie is one that leaves you pondering. There is one thing I was not in doubt about: I loved this movie!!

Here’s the trailer in case you haven’t seen it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hpa37qaOp80

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

I don’t know of anyone who likes growing old. Oh, most of us have made peace with it. Many of us, myself included, would not dream of going back to those unenlightened teen years. I rather like the person I have become; yet there are times…today for example with spasms in my back and joint pain, when I’d love to have a much younger body.

What if there was a clock that went backwards?

It has some appeal. I could go back to that younger body. I could go back to when my husband was still alive. Who wouldn’t like that scenario? However, the clock would keep turning and eventually it would revert back to before I even met him and then there I’d be without him again.

What if the clock only went backwards for you while the rest of the world kept going forward? What if you were born old, wrinkled and feeble and then proceeded to age backwards? It’s an interesting and intriguing thought and one that the movie The Curious Case of Benjamin Button explores.

Benjamin Button (Brad Pitt) was born with the body of an eighty year old. He was raised in a nursing home and his first steps were taken from a wheelchair. Yet even with an old body, he still had the innocence of a child. He doesn’t come into the world with the maturity or wisdom of one who has lived those eighty years. He must still learn to speak and to walk and to read and to write.

This movie isn’t about wishing one were younger or longing for the past. It really isn’t even about living life backwards. If Benjamin had really been living life backwards then he would have gone back through the birth canal and become a fetus again. If you saw the movie, then you know that is not what happened.

No, this film did not make me want to live my life backwards, but what it did was give me a greater appreciation for aging and the elderly. Everyone loves babies and we ooh and aah whenever we see them. The old, it sadly seems, we mostly ignore. Maybe that is because babies remind us of possibility and joyous times, while the elderly remind us of where we are headed and don’t want to go.

In this movie, however, the elderly are treated with loving respect. Benjamin is raised with the elderly and we quickly see that the very old and the very young have quite a lot in common. They both need diapers. They both need help walking and eating. They both speak without monitoring or even caring whether the other person is interested. There is an elderly man in the film who had been hit by lightening 7 times during his life, and he tells people over and over and over again.

Except for aches and pains, and more life experience, the elderly are very much like infants. Perhaps that is because they are both so close to Spirit. Babies have just emerged from this other Spirit world and still remember who they are and where they came from. You can see it when you look in their eyes. The elderly know that they are almost there too, and perhaps are already hanging out sometimes in that other dimension.

While I’m not always happy with my aching, changing body, I am learning to embrace this process we call aging. I think after this movie, I will never look at the elderly quite the same again…