Sunday, September 4, 2016

Open Heart to Kindness


 "When you lend a hand, you open a way for your heart to touch the heart of everything. This is a wealth that only grows. While those we help may leave or die or simply grow into their own beauty and be loved by others, the closeness uncovered by kindness turns to light in the body, until the closeness generated by kindness makes a lamp of the heart." ~ by Mark Nepo, Seven Thousand Ways to Listen

This is a profound reflection of what is true about relationships and how the Divine can work within and without to create peace and harmony. Isn’t that the purpose of life? We never know what we are learning in the midst of giving or receiving kindness but when we step back and reflect, we are changed. 

I have been blessed to be the recipient of great kindness from others. Nurturing the friendships that I have developed over my lifetime has provided so many blessings! Long ago I recognized that tending to relationships with those who also value kindness resulted in trusted friends who I can process and grow with. There are times to give and times to receive. The key is an open heart and a willingness to take risks with your heart.

I want to open my heart to kindness. I want to give kindness freely and receive it equally! I want to experience joy and love and laughter with people I cherish. I count myself lucky to have so many kind and loving friends who value my presence and whose presence I am continually enriched by. Each friend is a unique flower in my garden I am so grateful!

May each of our hearts find others to open our hearts to "until the closeness generated by kindness makes a lamp of the heart".  

Saturday, April 30, 2016

Another Crossroad

Another crossroads is beginning to take form ahead of me. There’s no rush but I can feel the energy shifting and recognize the mix of fear and excitement within. I’ve been here many times over the last 66 years and some crossroads have brought tears and immense grief while others have manifested profound joy and fulfillment. All have led to evolution and transformation.

How often do I coach others in releasing their fears during a critical point in their life? How often do I encourage them to see the beauty in the transformational process of spiritual alchemy that leads them to a powerful transformational turning point in their life? How often do I ask them to allow the magic of Divine intervention to move fully into their situation and let go of outcomes? Daily!

Crossroads: a crisis situation or point in time when a critical decision must be made; critical point, juncture, convergence, intersection, overlap

So it seems that I am being reminded that life, especially a spiritual life, is not stagnant. Life is a living, evolving process and each crossroad brings the invitation to expand and grow! It is never about going back. Something bigger and better is calling us forward but we must accept the invitation. 

Change is peeping over the horizon with an invitation to consider what is waiting to be dreamed into being in my life. There is no certainty about the outcome. There are infinite possibilities ahead. All that is required of me is to open to new ideas and possibilities for personal and collective growth. As my work expands, so must I. My soul is calling me to consider new dreams. I choose to embrace the alchemical process of transformation and evolution that has guided me for all these many years. I choose to allow this process of change and expansion that is only an embryo within now - I choose to let it root and grow.

What crossroad is inviting you to expand? What adventure is beginning to take form in your life? How will you meet this challenge? Will you move forward, allowing a new dream to manifest in your heart? Or will you hide out of fear of the change that is calling you?

Be fearless! Embrace new possibilities! Grieve what is leaving and then allow the alchemy of transformation that comes when we receive the challenge! It is what we become that changes the world and each invitation to grow and evolve is not only a healing for our own soul but for the soul of our beautiful planet too!

Blessings of peace, love and light,
Gretchen