CHAPTER ELEVEN
A Work in Progress
Finding Peace Within the Chaos
With another week behind us and the weekend ahead, we reflect on how we got here. Whether in bliss or chaos, we made it…and are here to enjoy! If chaos gets us through the week, it is time to relax and learn from the experiences of our days. If bliss was there all along, rejoice and enjoy the magic…let it carry us into the weekend.
Whether daily reflection or at the end of a week, monthly retreat or yearly excursion, it may give the body and mind a healthy dose of needed medicine. Taking time to heal mind, body and spirit — renewed self-restoration is carried out into the Canvas of Life.
Taking Me Time
Healthy ‘Me’ time leads to Happy ‘We’ time. How often do we witness someone continuously giving and then complaining of tiredness? Why do they not take a day to themselves? We often get so deep in what we love that we forget to take necessary “Me Time.” Take a break today and enjoy the Very Best’ Me’ Time!
A dear friend shares a daily message and reminder to take the necessary time for self. Reminding others, “there is no rush, take your time.” Thank you, Jean, for sharing this wisdom and reminding us to take necessary ‘me time,’ may the message be heard by ‘the others’ and may we learn with each new step.
Well, today is my day for ’Me Time.’ Taking time to reflect on my days, clearing my head of the 10,000 things, I return to balance. In my reflective times, I often call on a teacher or spiritually wise person. When I reached out to a friend, she stated, “Feed them Bananas!” Her words were exactly what I needed to hear. Taking her advice…I reached for the bananas, and they were pleased. The monkey mind often takes over, but with a few bananas or quiet time, even the loudest monkey minds bow to our spirit of knowing. Have you taken ‘me time’ recently, feeding the monkey mind with necessary quiet time?
Stepping into the Canvas in Silence, contemplating nothingness…In nothing lay everything. Neglecting ourselves, we fall into a dire need for stillness, yearning to silence the thoughts of past, present and future. If we ride the cyclical roller coaster of life, we will find that darkest time just before dawn. Whether daily, weekly, monthly or every quarter, emotions unnoticed take control of our daily thought. Be aware of the signs leading to silence, heed their call and take the necessary me time. If stressors of the day have gotten to you, then it is time for a quick five-minute retreat. Until available time alone, in the Canvas, we can take mini-retreats into ourselves…allowing the present strongholds of our days to pass.
I often take a few minutes to myself throughout my day. Never telling anyone where I am going, I retreat to a sacred place within…quieting the ’10,000 things.’ It may not be easy at first, for we are trained to think we need to keep busy…give it a try, and see how much happier and lighter you feel.
Take a moment for yourself. What do you notice? What thoughts are traveling through your mind? What does your heart speak? And what to do in laying ground before us?
Mirroring That Which We Already Know
Messages come to us in many shapes and sizes, but the most exhilarating is the direct messages that enter our quiet place. Whether angels exist or not, spirit guides among us, or the Lord speaks directly into our ear; we cannot excuse the direct messages we receive.
A little reflection will show us that every belief, even the simplest and most fundamental, goes beyond experience when regarded as a guide to our actions. ~William Kingdon Clifford
When we are down, a friend may appear, or a mailing of good news may arrive miraculously at our doorstep. As long as we ask for assistance…help will always arrive when needed. The trouble is we cannot always understand the messages upon arrival. Many ancient teachings have spoken of ‘next steps’…we must enter our quiet room to contemplate our current status. Sitting quietly, the answers arrive.
The quiet room is not a physical place but a spiritual place residing in every one of us. It is a place where all answers are kept. There are teachings referring to this place as the Akashic Records. The Akashic Place is at the level where all souls and all records are kept. If one practices quietude, they gain easy access to their answers…the answers of the Universe. Housed in a sacred place of self, we gain access through contemplation and search for truth.
As we look out into another day, we have a choice to remain in misery or go beyond misery created by self. We are meant to be happy and free, free of attachment. Mainly free of fear and anger and any attachment to thinking, we have all the answers or attached specific outcomes. How does one get there? Look beyond the shortcomings and expect greater things to come our way. Light will surely shine again if one is currently lying in the shadows of darkness, allowing it to pass. Don’t give up, don’t just sit there…get up, take a step and trust all will be good once again. Our very happiness exists within the confines of our minds, and we can choose to dismiss it or accept it no matter the circumstances.
Even within our hectic schedules, finding peace within the chaos is attainable. ~Ani Po
Stepping into the Canvas as if we already know. Realizing that we know very little, we begin to see everything we need to know. In our stillness, we hear a mighty roar within. In our darkness, we receive Light. With each step, easy or not, see the lessons before us…see the beauty that flows through the Canvas of Life. With every step after that…easier and easier it becomes…
Beyond The Veil
Removing the masks of who we thought we should be, getting to our authentic selves, we find who we truly are. Often we put on a pretend persona to appease another person, mostly to an attachment to how we feel we should be perceived. It is time to remove the veil that covers our true identity, allowing our playful side to return.
We can spend our whole life appeasing others while never finding happiness. Or appease ourselves and live happily ever after. A word of caution…when one steps out of the ordinary, they are borderline extraordinary, becoming a self-inflicted abomination of global thought. What are you waiting for? Please do it now! Others often see the extraordinary as crazy…ignore them and be one hundred percent authentic…you!
Pretending to be someone you are not…only leads to pain and misery…Just be you! ~Ani Po
Stepping into the Canvas as an original. There is no other like you, and there are no numbered copies of you. Becoming an original print for others to appreciate or interpret into their own beliefs. Be your authentic self regardless of the interpretation of the gallery you find yourself in. No one else can do it quite like you…you are a masterpiece!
Spiritual Exercise: A Work in Progress
1. The Beginning
In the beginning, was the Word and the Word was with Creation, and the Word was Creation. Even in ‘the beginning,’ it was with a word or thought. Divinely written upon the hearts of man, carried out by spirit, it is so. We think; therefore, we step into our actions, Paving the Way.
We are a work in progress, and with a little practice shall see we are at the center of the Universe, a spark of a divine universe and the whole of the whole Universe. Universal thought created in sacred space…becomes so and is one with Creator.
Our first thought shall be of change, contemplating how change may look and setting forth these changes.
How does tomorrow look for you? Will you remain in the same situation? If you could change how tomorrow looks, what would it look like? How can we attain the change?
Let us take a look at what our day may look like…
What would you do first if you had unlimited funds and could do anything you wanted?
If there is one thing that you could change, what would it be?
So many questions to ask oneself, but the biggest is whether or not we can let go of what we fear the most…our past. It took a couple of years for me to come to this realization…everything, I mean everything leading up to this place in time, has molded us in some fashion. Whether positively or negatively influenced, we are molded into the person we have become. Do we like what we see? Then congratulations, you have found true happiness! Raising an eyebrow at which we see, what is it that we would like to see change? Time to take charge of self-talk, self-thought and make necessary changes.
For me, it was necessary to forgive myself and those around me who may have caused pain or suffering in some fashion. I say this lightly, as true suffering is an illusion of self and lives within the confines of our mind. We suffer only by the mere thoughts of suffering. However, when we are young, it is difficult to comprehend the abuse that we endure. Whether we came from an abusive family scenario, an abusive relationship or mere observation of an abusive reality daily, we can partake or embody these thoughts or walk gently, kissing the earth in peace and love. As we grow older, we let go of the pain instilled within our thoughts…allowing freedom to ring out louder and louder each day.
Through careful contemplation, we see through different eyes. Like a kaleidoscope of truth, we see reality unfold into myriad realities…never really knowing which is real or dream, just allowing the feeling of being true to self to flow through. Taking the necessary time to ponder the daily routine allows change thoughts to come forth. Within our sacred timing, divine results are witnessed.
2. The Journey
The journey is the distance between the dashes. Often on tombstones, there is a dash between the day we are born and the day we transition from this plane of existence. What we do with our dash is completely up to us. What do you want it to be filled with? Happiness or misery? From the beginning of this place in time, we can let go of what we thought was real and adopt what was once fantasy as real.
Further yet, we can ‘just be.’ There is no attachment to happiness or misery, just being in a state of awe and allowing what is to unfold before us. As the unfolding proceeds, we adjust our Steps within the Canvas of Life…remaining in a state of awe.
From the beginning to the very last, happiness is found within the Canvas of Life that defines our dash or journey along the way. ~Ani Po
With the ability to enjoy the shadows of our death, the painful process of letting go, and releasing all fear to the divine, we are given hope in a life filled with mystery and awe. For it is within our forgiveness that all are forgiven. It is within our enjoyment that others shall find their own.
We have the key to happiness, and it resides within our hearts. Look within, and it shall be revealed. As cliche as it sounds, knock, and the door shall be opened. It has been written before and shall continue to be so until the last pilgrim accepts the challenge of self-realization.
3. The End
From the very first step to our last, we continue contemplating what if or what might be. However little or no attachment at all, we shift to more of how we can serve…forgetting about the self. Not sacrificing or giving up our power, but realizing we have an unlimited source of power…freely given to us to share with all the world. We have a self, and collectively, as a whole, we are the self. As we heal on the cellular level, the whole body is healed. When we see humanity as an extension of self, we begin looking for more ways to understand true happiness. A reality of ‘I’ to ‘We’ is born.
Whenever we have an ‘aha’ moment or moment of truth, we come to a deeper place of knowing. We pause for a moment of reflection, and without question, we return to our daily lives, noticing the smallest details as the grandest of miracles. Through our journey towards happiness, we share this happiness with others along the way…allowing the dominoes to fall as it was written.
Through our journey, others will see endless possibilities, and others will see crazy and foolishness. Does it matter what ‘the others’ think? I choose the crazy and foolishness…that is where happiness resides. Have you ever seen a serious person happy? Or is there a little bit of crazy within? You decide…