Seeds in the Wind -- Fate vs. Chance

Some palm readers believe that one’s future should be read from the lines of the right hand, as opposed to those in the left which are, they say, the lines of birth – the original blueprint of our destiny that was drawn prior to our arrival on earth. According to that theory, we are provided with two maps: one which reflects the plan we made before being born, and one – the right hand - which reflects the choices we will make during our journey. We meet different people, enter new doors and close others; are the events we live from day to day coincidental? Or are they points already charted on the map of our existence?

In my opinion, there is no such thing as coincidence; I believe we are born with a precise path to follow, which allows for slight revisions as we walk through life. We are taught that humans have a gift of free will, but do we really?

If one considers the concept of time - and truly ponders on it – will realize that there is no such thing; time is merely a manmade illusion born out of sheer need to organize our existence through our limited five senses. Time is needed by our ego - which is born from our earthly body - but serves no purpose to our spirit, which is connected in nature to universal energy and is, therefore, timeless, ageless, birthless and deathless. Past, present and future are one, and are only separated by the need the human mind has to be in charge and control unfolding events. According to this theory – if time is simply an illusion – things which are to unfold tomorrow already happened yesterday; we just have not reached them today. Many of the stars which shine brightly in our skies today have likely been dead for hundreds of thousands of years; their distance is just so great, that their light took that long to reach us and become visible to us.

Universal perfection does not allow for mistakes; we are born to the family which will create the perfect environment for the growth of our spirit, and meet countless people and situations which will support the lessons we need to learn. That said, the journey our soul chooses to embark on can sometimes be a bumpy ride, and it will take the strength of our spirit to understand the necessity of each experience and roll with the punches. We may be born to abusive parents, meet people who only seem to create obstacles, run into predicaments which will test the strength of our resolve; yet, when all is said and done, each of those situations will have taught us something, and our test truly is one of understanding the greater, unexplained importance of each occurrence.

We are the seed the wind of destiny is blowing around. We may land on fertile ground right away, or we may be deposited on barren environs for a while, waiting out our turn to be swept again toward greener grounds; or maybe we will die there, as our charted mission is that of drying in the sun and support the hungry bird who’s looking for nourishment to perpetuate its own soul agenda. Whether our goal is that of taking center stage or merely operating the curtain ropes, our stay on earth – and that of other living beings - are all equally important, and have great value in the greater scheme of things. We are all but a drop in the vast waters of the ocean, but all together we create something powerful and beautiful, which will carry on the timeless tune of creation.

Anatomy of a Gift

Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.” ~ Proverb of origin unknown

Although this wise, old proverb hints at the fact that we shouldn’t judge a gift by its monetary value, a few days ago I couldn’t help but come up with a slightly different interpretation for it.

A week ago, I woke up to a terrible head cold – sore throat, stuffy nose, body aches, and all the necessary garnishes to make me feel utterly miserable. Not being a fan of medications unless absolutely necessary, I decided to treat myself to some of our old family recipes, enriched this time by the suggestion of an herbalist friend. I drank ginger tea throughout the day in addition to several teaspoons of homemade Four Thieves vinegar – for those who don’t know what it is, Four thieves vinegar is non-pasteurized vinegar in which certain herbs known for their anti-bacterial and anti-viral properties have been allowed to steep for six weeks.

True to my beliefs that a well-aligned spirit is meant to live in a healthy body, I also dedicated a little extra time to meditation, visualizing health and vigor even if I felt like death. I focused on illness being the illusion, and good health being my birth right.

Something worked. Although I’ve had good results with all the above mentioned methods I the past, I don’t think I’ve ever been able to fully heal from a nasty cold in twenty-four hours until now. When I first got out of bed the next day, I was slightly surprised that my body was not aching and the chills were gone, but as the day progressed, and all other symptoms began to completely subside by lunch time, I questioned what had happened.

Old lore tells that a cold takes three days to come on, three days to stay, and three days to go; this cold, however, took the express train out of town. What killed it? Was it the vinegar, or the ginger, or, maybe, the meditations? Really, it could be any of those things or none of them at all, but what mattered is that I was no longer sick.

That’s when the proverb of the gift horse flashed through my mind. One of our greatest blessings and curses is our never-ending necessity to question everything. We feel the compelling need to qualify and quantify everything, often looking for flaws that can confirm our doubts.

When we receive a blessing, we can’t just accept it for what it is; we need to find out who did what, why they did it, and how it happened; by doing so, we dilute our gratitude for the blessing received. If we ask for help getting out of a flood, it doesn’t matter if God Himself lowers His hand to pick us up, a neighbor comes with his fishing boat, or a large log happens to float by us at the right moment; what counts is that we are safe and should use our energy to send out vibes of gratitude rather than worrying about the technicalities leading to the gift.

I quickly wiped my own thoughts away, and thanked Spirit for the help, elated to feel healthy and inspired. Once again, believing truly saved the day.

When the Walls Start Crumbling Down

“Letting go doesn’t mean giving up, but rather accepting that there are things that cannot be.” ~ Anonymous


Christmas Eve was the day for a little home-building at the Carrington-Smiths. As we do every year, we purchased three gingerbread house kits – one for each child – extra icing and candy, and plenty of little extras to add to the decorations.

Thursday morning, the kids could hardly wait through breakfast to get started. We set all the supplies out on the kitchen table and proceeded to open the kits. To our disappointment, the walls in one of the kits were broken. “No fear,” I told the kids feeling more ambitious than normal, “we can try to fix the walls with a little icing before we set them up.” It sounded like a fun project to tackle…my son held the broken pieces and I squirted icing in between them; we then pushed the pieces together and waited until they dried out. By the time we had “glued” all the walls – each was broken in three or four pieces – I was halfway glued together myself, and certainly wore enough icing to be certifiably decorated for the holidays.

We finally set our fixed walls on the tray. It took but a handful of seconds for the whole structure to collapse. My kids looked at the house and then at me in horror, and tried to guess my next reaction. Indeed, my thoughts battled between throwing the blistered thing into the trash and trying again; finally I made a decision: Was there really a point in forcing together something that obviously was not meant to work? I could try to glue the pieces together one more time, but if they fell out once, they were probably going to crumble under the weight of the roof again. It was time to count my losses and go back to the store.

When I pulled into the parking lot, I was immediately reminded of the reason why I never go to the store on Christmas Eve – the parking lot was full and people were acting as if we were storing bunkers in preparation for a nuclear explosion. After being blessed with a parking spot – compliments of a lady who left when I got there – I made my way into the store. I went straight to the table where the gingerbread house kits were displayed, picked one up and headed toward the cash register. As I got ready to get in line, the automatic doors of the store opened to allow a lady in. She took a few steps toward the produce section, and then she thunderously yelled: “Happy Holidays, everybody!”

Serial killers could have been shopping that day, yet she didn’t care – her spirit was just too full of joy to be selective about the people she sent good wishes to. Watching that display of pure and unconditionally positive energy made me smile and it made my trip to the store quite special. If I had stayed home and continued to force together pieces that no longer fit, I would have missed this beautiful moment.

Sometimes we feel that by letting go of something that no longer works we are giving up on it, but in reality we are only accepting the fact that some things are just not meant to work. When the cracks are too deep, and efforts to fix the situation have failed, it is best to let go and make room for something new. The new gingerbread house only took a few minutes to put together since the walls were healthy and strong, and once the kids finished decorating it, it turned into a little masterpiece. The walls we weren’t able to use also went to serve a good purpose – we spread peanut butter and sprinkled birdseed on them for the wild animals living behind our house. What started as a disaster turned into a fun lesson to learn, and in the end we all had a wonderful time.

The Driver Behind the Wheel

We often associate cars with the people who drive them. On occasion, we assume we can judge the lifestyle of someone just by the type, or condition, of car they own. In fact, the majority of people who want nicer cars don’t want the cars because they offer more comfort, but choose them because of their value as a status symbol.

Associating a car to a driver is the same as associating our body with who we really are. Our body is but a vehicle our soul uses to exist on this plane, no more, no less. The type of body we have, the physical dents, scratches, and occasional mechanical failures do not reflect on the silent self who dwells quietly within the confines of the vehicle. Although we are responsible for regular maintenance and general care, we cannot prevent certain “accidents”.

The driver is still the same person, whether the car runs smooth as oil, or sputters like a buffalo with asthma; whether it is a shiny Mercedez or a faded Oldsmobile. What counts is that the driver realizes the car is simply an object, a mean of transportation from point A to point B; regardless of how beat-up or how unfashionable it is, it is a bundle of metal and glass which has only one real mission: that of allowing the driver to move and function within the environment he lives in. If someone dents one of the doors or scratches the paint, they have not scratched or dented the driver.

Understanding this concept is essential in our assessment of all that affects us. If we take an honest look, most events, people and “life storms” only affect our body, or the very same feelings that are born of it. Most often, that which is crushed in a confrontation is our ego. Sensations born from our ego, such as pride, vulnerability, fear and pain, are not related to our spirit. Our spirit cannot be injured, broken or killed, as it is birthless and deathless; it lives quietly within the folds of our heart, observes everything, and records each experience.

Remembering this simple analogy can help us when dealing with a painful ordeal, and can help guide us toward making sound decisions. When we stop at a dangerous intersection, it would be foolish to allow our car to decide which way to turn. We, the driver, must assess the best path to reach our destination safely. We can do that by listening to ourselves, being careful to note that the guidance is coming from a place of unconditional love rather than from one ruled by our ego. And if our headlights shine clean and bright, we might even be able to guide another soul who’s lost in the darkness of the night.

The Tree That Was Upside Down

“Flowers always sprout from seeds protected by the darkness of the earth.” ~ Author Unknown


Yesterday, a friend sent me a beautiful picture via e-mail. It depicted a person standing by a very large tree, under the moonlight; the tree was mirrored on a body of water in front of it. Although I was instantly stunned by the breathtaking beauty of the photo, something about it caught my eye in particular – the top of the tree was the lowest point of the mirrored image.

For decades now, it has been speculated that our outside world is but a mirrored reflection of our inner world, and that the real self lives beyond our consciousness and observes our daily experiences to learn from them. If that’s indeed how things work, and we compare the picture of the two trees to our dual selves – inner and outer – then the tree and the body of water would be equal to our inner reality, and the mirrored reflection would represent what we see and manifest in the outside world. In this case, what we consider the “lowest” part of the reflected image is in fact the highest part of the real tree.

When we apply the same analogy to life occurrences, it is easy to see how the lowest and darkest moments in our lives can often be the highest points our spirit can reach. Our soul is not affected by greed, fear, pride or doubt, and it evolves whenever we learn a lesson in humility, compassion, forgiveness, or unconditional love even if we struggle through the process of learning.

When life doesn’t indulge our illusion of control, we can choose to take one of two possible paths – we either understand the meaning of what’s truly important, or we bury ourselves even deeper into a self-dug, ego-induced grave. Either way - and whether we realize the value of our experience or not - our soul learns from the choices we make. Thus, the lowest point in our lives IS the highest point our spirit can achieve, and our darkest moments are often a shortcut to see the light.

Just as flowers couldn’t sprout if left on the surface of the earth to dry in the sun, our spiritual awareness would not prosper if we were never left in the dark.

The Hidden Key

“Sometimes questions are more important than answers” ~ Nancy Willard

I recently asked a friend to paint a portrait of Elegba, the Saint of doors and crossroads, to display in my living room. When she brought the painting over I was speechless at the quality of it – the spirit is shown as a gentleman walking gingerly toward a natural crossing in the midst of a bayou, looking over his shoulder with a peaceful smile as he holds a silver-tipped cane in his hand.

The day she delivered her work (shown here), Pam told me she had painted a small skeleton key – about an eight of an inch in length – somewhere on the painting, but wouldn’t tell me where it is. Needless to say, I have stared at the blessed thing for hours, looking for the key with no avail.

Yesterday, while talking on the phone, I jokingly asked if she is ever going to tell me where the key is, and her reply was: “It’s there for sure, but if you can’t see it, it is probably because you are looking for the obvious. Solutions aren’t always obvious.”

She explained that while painting, she felt compelled to add a small key, but as soon as she did, her brush accidentally hit it and it became hard to see. She thought of fixing it, but immediately felt very strongly against it.

Having a key on this particular painting is very symbolic, as the spirit portrayed is known as the keeper of doors, and his seal is usually represented by an equally-armed cross with a skeleton key intersecting one of the arms. The four arms of the cross represent the directions one can walk, and are each associated to elemental forces, with the middle point being the home of Spirit. The key symbolizes that only one of the paths leads to solution.

After hearing what my friend told me, I realized that I really don’t need to know where the key is – I don’t have to see it to know it is there.

I thought of her words as well…’solutions aren’t always obvious’. We run around in circles, looking as hard as we can for a solution we can validate through our senses, but one isn’t always readily seen. Sometimes, stepping back a little and taking our focus off the problem allows us to see a greater portion of the picture, and thus the right path to walk.

So I’m no longer looking for the key, although a part of me struggles not to scan the painting whenever I walk by it. All I need to know is that a key is there; someday it will hopefully sparkle through the moss-dripping branches of the ancient trees.

Taking Back Our Power

“Love is supreme and unconditional; like is nice but limited.” ~ Duke Ellington

Someone sent me an interesting e-mail a few days ago, which I felt I should share. It spoke of dispensing love to all, but particularly to unconditionally love our enemies.

“Jesus said to love our enemies. It's difficult sometimes to get our arms around that concept in our daily lives - when someone ticks us off or says something that insults us, or insults what we believe in or someone we care about. In his book "Jesus and Non-Violence, A Third Way", Walter Wink says that love of enemies is the recognition that our enemy is too, a child of God. "When we demonize our enemies, calling them names and identifying them with absolute evil, we deny that they have that of God within them that make transformation possible. Instead, we play God."

Loving our enemies in indeed a challenge; it’s easy to give in to the temptation of doing otherwise, but if we do so, we are only shutting the door to new opportunities for ourselves. It is okay to be angry or upset when something happens, or someone does something wrong, as the power of that anger is often the force that drives us out of apathy. It is, however, quite detrimental to hold on to that anger once the situation has lived its life cycle.

Inside each of us are two intelligent minds at work – one, the rational mind, analyzes all the wrongdoings and keeps track of ego bruises; the other one, our soul mind, forgives all, for it knows that the light of others is the same as our own. By denying that this eternal light exists in others we break the chain of connection that naturally exists among all living creatures, and we isolate ourselves from the source of energy of the Universe.

Once we become disconnected – and our spirit mind is no longer being fed by unconditional love - we feel depleted and tired, and begin to entertain feelings of self-doubt and fear. Because the energy running through our spirits is the same, once we wish something positive or negative on someone else, that energy mirrors back on us. Equally, by forgiving others we forgive the parts of ourselves we may not be able to reach otherwise.

Forgiveness does not give our enemies license to hurt again, nor does it excuse the acts already committed, but rather it frees us from the influence those acts still have on our lives, and gives us back the power we forfeited in the past.

Forgiveness is the lighter we loan to another soul to light their inner flame, while kindness is the fuel that keeps the fire alive. By forgiving we cripple the ego of those who hurt us.

If we refuse to forgive and be kind we lose the right to complain when our enemies continue to walk in darkness and step on others on their blind journey. Shadows can only be dispersed by turning on the light.

Spirit In All

“The Light of Spirit surrounds us; the Love of Spirit enfolds us; the Power of Spirit protects us; the Presence of Spirit watches over us; Spirit wells in us. Wherever we are, Spirit is, and All Is Well.”


Not too long ago I discovered a slice of Paradise near my house. I had arrived too early to meet a friend at a local park and, since it was a beautiful day, I decided to get out of the car and take a walk. As I ventured down the trail, I saw a wooden bridge breaking off the main path, so I decided to follow it. The bridge led to a swampy area tucked behind the woods, one I never knew was there.

The sight was breathtaking. Due to heavy rains of late, the body of water appeared swollen and pregnant with life of all different types. No matter where my eyes rested, something moved – from tadpoles to insects and even a few snakes quietly soaking the warmth of the day atop of rotten logs.

I sat on the bridge and listened. The many voices blended into a primal song, interrupted only by the incessant call of a lone bird perched on a branch nearby. The air smelled earthy and slightly musty - the result of decaying wood mixed with the fragrance of new growth exploding all around.

Somehow, although I was alone, I didn’t feel that way. I lied down on the bridge and looked up toward the skyline, noticing how some of the trees had bent and were now curving toward one another, their branches and leaves eager to connect - some of them close enough to resemble hands joined in a silent prayer.

Those trees piqued my attention. For an instant I felt protected and safe, tucked away from the rest of the world and able to open my heart to the beauty of Spirit manifesting all around, if only for a brief moment.

In that flash of time I knew I was one with all there is. No hierarchy or race supremacy – big or small, young or old, in that natural setting I was no different than the beetle carefully making its way around a thorn bush.

We are taught that the human race is superior to other animals, and we are able to control our environment to fit our existence, but in reality that’s nothing more than an ego fix. Viruses defy our advanced science and morph into new forms we can’t control, and natural events have the power to wipe away human structures –Nature only allows us to cling to an illusion of control, but reserves the last word to remind us that in the end, we are just another form of creation.

I was always taught that all life matters, regardless of what it looks like. Just because we can’t see the greater picture we can’t assume we have the right to decide the worth of another aspect of creation. We are all part of the One, and the One is part of All. And that is all we need to know.

Namaste

"I honor the place in you where Spirit lives. I honor the place in you which is of Love, of Truth, of Light, of Peace; when you are in that place in you, and I am in that place in me, then we are Truly One." ~ Author Unknown


The first time I heard the word “Namaste” was in a chant on tape I had purchased as a meditation aid. Although the vibrations of the word were very peaceful and definitely a mood enhancer, I had no idea what the word itself meant. I decided to do a little research on Namaste – what I found definitely made me appreciate the moment I purchased the tape.

Namaste is a beautiful expression which represents the belief of a Divine spark being present within each of us. Interpretations of this word include: 'The God in me greets the God in you", or "The Spirit in me meets the Spirit in you". Regardless of definitions, this very amazing word clearly states that we are all connected as one, and we should recognize and acknowledge that Spirit in each other. Granted, sometimes it is hard to see that spark in others. It can become so deeply buried under layers of earthly illusion that we readily assume some people have lost their light. Yet, they never do. As long as a breath of life exists within the body, the light of Spirit is ever present.

For some the light has become so dim they can no longer identify it within themselves, and may need the light of others to guide them back to the source. With the flame of one candle we can light a room full of them, if we pass the flame around. There is no reason why people can’t do the same. Each of us has that power. And what about those people whose only purpose in life appears to be that of creating strife and heartache? Are they a faulty product of the mind of Creation, or is crossing paths with them simply a test we must surpass before we strengthen the flame within ourselves?

Being able to recognize the presence of a Divine spark in all is exhilarating in the least. Our ego pushes for us to become isolated through fear, doubt, earthly judgment – sharing such a bond with all faces of creation is synonymous of never being alone.

No matter who crosses our path today – nice or bitter that they may be – let’s make an effort to greet them with “Namaste”. We do not need to do so out loud or overtly, but can just whisper it to ourselves. Their ears may not hear us, but the Divine being living inside of them will acknowledge the greeting, and will certainly nod in recognition of having met a kindred Spirit, if only for a moment.