Are You Headed In the Right Direction?

The question asked of most children is: ‘what do you want to be when you grow up?’ Most of us have no idea unless we have been coached. We assume we will be adults. Add pressure from our culture for individual achievement and the more confusion grows. In the 3 dimensional world there are signs along the roadways that warn us if we head in the wrong direction, but indicators as we travel the path of spirit are much more subtle.   

I recently had the privilege to address a class of University students. In the question time after my talk most of the students wanted to know about my becoming a writer: “Did you always want to write?” “How did you decide ..?”  I couldn’t really answer their questions; I could only take them on my journey.                                                           
                                                               
Writing was my mother’s thing. She loved words. Me? I would rather forgo a gift than struggle through writing a thank you note.  Extracting my own teeth had more appeal than sitting in front of paper. As I entered high school I still had no sense of direction.  After school hours were tied up in care-taking four younger brothers for two working parents. There was little opportunity for  influence, nor dreams of anything more than growing up and leaving.

The universe will not allow a void. Without some mental road map, nature will provide your career. Being the mother of 3 was a mix of joy and more of those teeth pulling moments. Thankfully, the joy outweighed the dental threat. It was a need for extra income plus a desire to be more than someone’s sister, wife, or mother that became the catalyst to move me forward. Working exposed me to various career fields and my world began to expand.

Still, writing never crossed my mind. My resume grew with various work experiences. Sometimes I worked for others and occasionally for myself. When the effort seemed more work than pleasure, I moved on. Sometimes I wondered what was wrong with me that I did not stay put. Little did I realize that I was learning and becoming under the influence of spirit.

Like most, the age of forty awakened a desire understand the mysteries of life.  I expanded my education and came to realize that helping others nurtured my soul.  I studied to become a Naturopathic Doctor, later adding a doctorate in Metaphysics. In my dictionary, a doctor is a teacher. That is how I began helping others.  Writing became a tool to expand the circle of helping.

 I never decided to be a writer; I evolved. Those years of stumbling through the wilderness were actually under Divine guidance until I could see the path. There were always signs but my mind could not read them. However, when it was time, I met a literary agent on vacation. She told me, “Keep writing.”  As final re-enforcement of her words, my first two books won literary awards.

If you ever feel lost on your spirit path, stop and  look back. In retrospect, you'll recognize the signs.     

 

Charity and Compassion

It was during the years I lived in Florida that I first began seeing men standing at intersections holding signs that read: Will Work For Food. At first, it was shocking in its newness; afterwards it became a personal conflict. I would often overhear groups of people talking about what a racket it was. They would say that limousines delivered the men to various corners. However, I had not seen this; could it be true or a lie? Then one day I was driving home from the grocery store. A man with a sign approached my car while I was stopped at the light. He was holding his sign to my window and looking in my eyes. I had to make a decision, it was no longer a matter for debate. It was there in that moment the world became silent. All the voices and arguments were gone. I had clarity. It was not my responsibility to decide if this man deserved my help or not. He was asking for food; I gave him a loaf of bread.  

What a relief and blessing it was once the decision was made. It is not my responsibility to judge whether someone else deserves to be helped.  When someone asks, give what they ask for. I did not give money, he asked for food. Where I live in Honduras, there is very little financial aid for those with physical limitations or the very ill. Often I’ll see a mother with a invalid child holding her hand out while standing outside a grocery store, a blind man with a brother or neighbor helping him request donations at a traffic light. There is generally some handicapped person in  a wheel chair holding out a jar at an intersection. People from other cultures can find these sights disturbing but within the culture here, there is a quiet understanding.

Those who have help those who cannot help themselves. I see it in so many levels here. If your life is blessed with a car then you financially aid those that are walking blind or in wheelchairs when they stand asking for help. If you live in a nicer house with a number of electric appliances, you pay the highest rate for electricity so that the poor who use little receive their electric free. The emotional benefit is a wonderful feel-good. There is also the added benefit of being free of guilt or shame in having while living amongst those who don’t. The benefit that comes on the energy or spiritual level is the highest reward. It is what is often referred to as The Golden Rule.

Applied Energy

When my husband and I moved to the Big Island of Hawaii, we bought a house nestled within an acre of jungle. On the edge of the house clearing stood an avocado tree of questionable age. Neither my husband nor I were fans of avocados and this tree was lanky and twisted from fighting for space in the sun. During our first 3 years, it had bore only a handful of fruit so we planned to cut it down sometime in the future.

Our house also had an above ground water catchment tank. It is a common practice in that area to collect rainwater for household cleaning. In times of drought, water must be bought by the truckload to fill the tanks. A truck holds 5,000-gallon or 2,500 gallons. If you order 5,000 gallons and only need 4,000, you pay for all and the driver dumps the remainder on your property. We had this happen once and the avocado tree received the excess gallons.

People familiar with growing avocados know the trees do not like soppy wet soil; it is sure death. Since we had no attachment to the tree, it was not a threat. However, friends that came by a few days later were devastated that we would allow a food-producing tree to die. They wanted to “save” the tree with blessing. Trying to explain our less than positive experience with tiny, hard avocados made no impression so  I gave them the go-ahead. They could have all the future fruit it bore. It seemed easier than trying to explain the fruitless history. 

The two women stood with their hands on the tree’s trunk. They spoke to the tree telling it how beautiful it was and how much they loved it and its fruit. They ended their 2-minute blessing by wishing the tree health and happiness. That year our tree gave us over 2-bushel s of beautiful and perfect avocados. 

I have been a student of subtle energy and energy healing for years before that event. I have used energy to help people and animals regain health. However, I had never thought to apply the idea to the tree. It was a wonderful lesson and I have since saved other trees from trauma, using the same process. It makes me wonder what else I am accepting as normal instead of offering healing. I find myself wondering why we, as a species, are not using the same healing force to shift the planet from hardship into harmony. If a tree can receive and respond, surely others of our own kind can. It only takes making a daily practice of thinking thoughts of kindness toward others; offering prayers of love and sincere wishes for well-being. What a beautiful example to teach and legacy to leave grandchildren and future inhabitants of our planet. 

A change in the way we look and things and applying positive energy will create a healthy planet.

To change your circumstances ...

To change your circumstances you must see beyond your present condition. That statement affects every aspect of our lives; the physical, emotional, and mental. It means that conditions of health, career, finances even relationships can be improved once we decide they should be different.

Two men looked out of prison bars;
one saw mud, the other saw stars. -MaryKayAsh-

Manifestation techniques such as the Law of Attraction, Positive Thinking, Treasure Mapping and others are rooted in this simple understanding; that what you think about, you bring about.

Creating a mental picture of what you desire has to become a priority. Once our minds give fertile space for this picture to grow, we, then, need to experience it. Allow yourself to sense how wonderful and satisfying it feels to have it. Store those feelings away in your memory bank so they are easy to experience over and over again.

Be cautious about reading all the negativity in the papers, listening to news media reports or the woes of compadres around the water cooler or you might find their perceptions influencing yours. Erase any negative images that try to over-ride your positive new image. Guard the created image as though it were a sacred object, because it is…it is your future. Nothing can change without that new imagine.

The next part is the “walk in faith.” Believe in yourself and know that you are part of a bigger picture than you understand. Hold the new image but do the daily things needed to ALLOW your new future to be born.

I think there is something, more important than believing: Action! The world is full of dreamers, there aren't enough who will move ahead and begin to take concrete steps to actualize their vision.- W. Clement Stone –

What will you change? Tell me.