Being Mindful Every Day

When the breeze blows, and the smell of the ocean falls over the land, and brushes my face, I think about being mindful.  We all fully expect to mindful or fully present when we are in meditation.  Yet, when I was sitting in my space the other day, Creator moved in and asked me to be more mindful everyday.  

My first thought was, “I am”.  And, I heard this booming laugh.  

And then I remembered that one of the teachings of Spirit is the understanding of “I AM”.

I then thought, what if I just say, “I am mindful.”

With that thought, a rush of energy lifted me and flowed through me.

Being mindful every day means that you are fully aware of what is around you.  It is paying attention to the small children, the homeless man, and the smell of smoke in the air.  It is finding that balance and shifting from being focused in your mind, on your own things, to shifting to the environment and seeing the inter-connectedness of all things.    It is being aware that we are not alone, and that we are part of the whole.

If you have the trait of being observant and paying attention, you are mindful.  If you are always in victim mode, you are blaming.  Being mindful is rewarding.  Try it.

Blessings, 

Judy

How Fast Do You Get Up After Being Kicked Down?

Sometimes it seems like life doesn’t treat us very well.  And, we all have stories where it seems like everything was against us, and yet we pulled ourselves up by the socks and we kept going.

I do some speaking from time to time, and I am always looking for good stories to tell.  One of my friends sent me this story.  It is so good, I thought that I would share it with you.  

Blessings,

Judy

Get Up

Bringing a giraffe into the world is a tall order. A baby giraffe falls 10 feet from its mother's womb and usually lands on its back. Within seconds it rolls over and tucks its legs under its body. From this position it considers the world for the first time and shakes off the last vestiges of the birthing fluid from its eyes and ears. Then the mother giraffe rudely introduces its offspring to the reality of life. 

In his book, "A View from the Zoo", Gary Richmond describes how a newborn giraffe learns its first lesson.  The mother giraffe lowers her head long enough to take a quick look. Then she positions herself

 Picture from National Geographic: Kids

directly over her calf. She waits for about a minute, and then she does the most unreasonable thing. She swings her long, pendulous leg outward and kicks her baby, so that it is sent sprawling head over heels. 

When it doesn't get up, the violent process is repeated over and over again. The struggle to rise is momentous. As the baby calf grows tired, the mother kicks it again to stimulate its efforts. Finally, the calf stands for the first time on its wobbly legs. 

Then the mother giraffe does the most remarkable thing. She kicks it off its feet again. Why? She wants it to remember how it got up. In the wild, baby giraffes must be able to get up as quickly as possible to stay with the herd, where there is safety. Lions, hyenas, leopards, and wild hunting dogs all enjoy young giraffes, and they'd get it too, if the mother didn't teach her calf to get up quickly and get with it. 

The late Irving Stone understood this. He spent a lifetime studying greatness, writing novelized biographies of such men as Michelangelo, Vincent van Gogh, Sigmund Freud, and Charles Darwin. 

Stone was once asked if he had found a thread that runs through the lives of all these exceptional people. He said, "I write about people who sometime in their life have a vision or dream of something that should be accomplished and they go to work. 

"They are beaten over the head, knocked down, vilified, and for years they get nowhere. But every time they're knocked down they stand up. You cannot destroy these people. And at the end of their lives they've accomplished some modest part of what they set out to do." 

- Craig B. LarsonIllustrations for Preaching & Teaching from Leadership Journal

Blessings,

Judy

About Greed and Envy

This is a channel that I did quite a while ago.  I deals with greed and envy.  After several discussions with friends about how the world is changing, I thought this might be of interest.

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Dearest beloved beings!  I/we are all so amazed at all that is happening in the way of the light.  I use the word amazed because it is something in your realm of understanding.  All of you seem to forge ahead and believe that you can do anything.  And, you can!  

The issue that we see is that which you call “greed”.  It seems to strike many of you, and it seems the more stuff that you have, the more that greed sets in.  When you see what others have, you want it too, even if it is not your path.  Wanting what others have is that emotion called “envy”.  It is what keeps many of you from walking fully in the light.

How do you recognize envy?  Look into yourself when you want what someone else has.  Ask yourself questions.  Is it a good tool that would make my life easier?  If yes, then it is probably not envy, but clear thinking.  If you find, however, that you are not asking questions and that you are making up judgemental reasons why that person has something that you  do not, then you are experiencing envy.  

Let it go!

Blessings,

Judy

Zebra Talks About Black and White

Zebra pops in and out of my dreams from time to time.  And then, she will show up on an advertisement, or on a book, or in an email.  Zebra is a spirit messenger for me.  The other day, she came into a dream to talk about “things”.  And, we ended up talking about black and white.  

In our world, humans call things black and white if they are opposites and seem very obviously defined.  

Zebra calls their black and white the total effect of light.  She says that they are creatures of Light, and beloved of the Angels.  She went on to say that the black and white effect gives Zebra the ability to cross easily between dimensions.  And, Zebra can hide in the dimensions and this dimension by blending their black and white colour.  

Zebra invites you to ask her to come to you in meditation so that you can see the effects of the black and white colours in different worlds.  She will gladly let you travel with her.

Even the youngest Zebra has the same black and white colouring.  Often, small animals have different colouring then the parents.  From the beginning, young Zebra is able to walk through dimensions and time and space.

 

Blessings,

Judy

How To Understand Emptiness - From Buddhism

I was doing some reading in my studies on Buddhism, and I found this interesting quote on emptiness.  Since it resonated for me, I thought it might resonate for some of you, as well.

Many blessings,

Judy

Emptiness is a mode of perception, a way of looking at experience. It adds nothing to, and takes nothing away from, the raw data of physical and mental events. You look at events in the mind and the senses with no thought of whether there's anything lying behind them. This mode is called emptiness because it is empty of the presuppositions we usually add to experience in order to make sense of it: the stories and worldviews we fashion to explain who we are and the world we live in. Although these stories and views have their uses, the Buddha found that the questions they raise—of our true identity and the reality of the world outside—pull attention away from a direct experience of how events influence one another in the immediate present. Thus they get in the way when we try to understand and solve the problem of suffering. 

- Thanissaro Bhikkhu, "What do Buddhists mean when they talk about emptiness?"

 

You Be You!

 

A common issue that comes up with clients when I do coaching on spiritual blocks is the problem of the individual doing what others want instead of what the individual wants.  In some cases, the controlling force is parents or a parent that will with hold love, money, support, if the individual does not do “this”.  In other cases, the controlling force is a spouse or partner.  Sometimes, it is the family or community culture and expectations.  Sometimes, the issue is a controlling religion.

Regardless of the influence, all of us have to be ourselves to be in balance and to be healthy and happy.  Our nature is that we want to pursue what we like and what we are interested in.  For some folks, they never find what they like or are interested in because they do not have the opportunity to do so.  Young animals and birds simply follow their instincts.  For some, they stay with the pack or with the herd.  For others, they go out alone and explore the world.  People should have the same opportunity.

You be you!

Blessings,

Judy

Likes and Dislikes

The following piece comes from a vision between being asleep and awake.  

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Many of you say prayers everyday.  You ask for this and for that.  You ask that someone change what they dislike to something that you like.  You ask to be right!  In the greatest designs, the likes and dislikes are choices that you are able to make that will help your Spirit move in a certain path.  Indeed, you follow a blue print laid out long, long before your birth.  You have agreed to step forward on the path.

Your likes and dislikes make you unique, the way different paint colours on the wall make a house unique.  It gives you definition.  It is neither wrong nor right.  It allows you to see how others accept the situation or environment.  What you like begins with what is in your DNA.  It also is influenced by what you see and what you hear.  These two senses will influence how something tastes for you.

Let these differences be celebrated!

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Blessings,

Judy