And so this is Christmas ...

OK … here we all are, the season for giving and receiving is upon us once again.

So, what’s it like this time of year for you? Are you happy to be celebrating or do you question its relevance or significance these days?

It’s actually the perfect time to relax and deepen into a fuller appreciation for what is real and true by listening to all that’s being offered. In his beautiful book “Seven Thousand Ways to Listen” Mark Nepo offers just this, the infinite ways we can allow the world to touch us and move through us by listening with all our being.

“Deep listening,” Nepo says, “is a form of gifted receiving.”

And isn’t this so? We usually feel at our lightest, we feel the most inspired, aligned and attuned when we are at one with That which whispers through our hearts. When we listen in this way everything makes sense and feels perfect just as it is. This could also be called the “Gift of Presence”, and whenever it presents itself in our lives we always feel blessed and grateful.

As we go about our Christmas and New Year’s celebrating, we could take this as another opportunity to dive a little deeper in the company of loved ones around us. Instead of simply gifting presents we could offer our own presence, making ourselves more available to all our family and friends. Surely this is what these gatherings are really all about.

And, there’s also that after effect that happens when all the celebrating ends. Here lies another opportunity to deepen. Instead of getting caught in the collective dullness hangover, wondering what all the fuss was about, we can simply sit with what is and allow the call to our next cycle of growth to meet us in our listening.

And, it’s good to remember that it’s all a gift of giving and receiving, every single breath we take is a gift. Remembering this gives us the willing heart to move forward no matter how life appears or presents itself.

In conclusion, here’s Nepo again:

Let the gifts stitch or cut the web

Let what needs to come together or break apart

Come together or break apart.

Let the miracles, even the ones we don’t want or see, unfold.

...

...

Only the Love is Real

Only the love is real ... When everything else drops away, through either willingly letting go or through having it forcefully taken away from us, all that remains is the love ... Pure, clear, constant, ever-present, joyous, precious ... So very precious.

No matter what story we carry, how good or bad everything feels ... Behind it, at the back of it all is this perfect love.

As we get older, the stories we harbour may become more ingrained but if we dare to step back from them for a moment ... We easily see that it's the love that allows them to be.

My mum has dementia. She cuts and pastes together memories of moments in her life that have made an impact on her. Every time the story is retold, it's a little different, she adds another piece from another place and time in her life, creating a "new" mind-loop to be caught up in. Then as soon as she's had her fill, of laughter and of tears ... She slows down and stills back into the emptiness ... And ... The love is there. The truth of her is this love ... The truth of  us all is this love.

Watching my mother slowly lose her mind reveals to me how we all operate ... We too cut and paste the thoughts and feelings of our past and create a "memory" across the screen of the moment. It feels so very real, so very true ... But it's just as unreal as my mother's dementia fantasies ... The only difference being that we believe our "cut and paste" jobs are more sane or coherent somehow. But, it's all a story ... A creation that spellbinds us too.
...

If seen through we will be free to simply allow the love to shine through, as it always does anyway.
This is our purpose here, to dream our dreams, cut and paste our memories, then see clearly once and for all that's all we've ever been doing ... And catch a glimpse of the love that is left ... The only thing that is real and eternal. And if that glimpse is profound enough, it will continue to awaken our hearts, right through to the very last breath we take ... Where only the love will remain.
Only the love ...that's all there ever is, was , or will be.

Only the love ...

Playing Inner Scrabble

In a dream  the other night I was playing a game of “Inner Scrabble” with a small group of people. We had all picked our seven letters, then arranged them into words. This was similar to the normal game of Scrabble, but we didn’t win or lose by the word score, but by the word’s true worth, it’s meaning … and everyone could be a winner.

One person in the group complained that they had a bad batch of letters … “You picked them,” I said. “But you can exchange them for another set if you want to.”

Life’s a bit like this: A bunch of letters drop into our world … we can choose another set, or we can settle for what’s arrived, making the most of it. No matter, it’s ultimately up to us to creatively arrange the chosen letters into words … these words become thoughts …which then become actions … which we then experience as our karmic journeys … our very lives.

We can work with the first set that pops up and create wonderful lives … if we learn how to live … or we can keep forever trying to get a better set, a more perfect set of letters.

But, it’s not the letters, but how we arrange them that counts. Sometimes, a “bad” batch can create miraculous results … winning right through our lives. At other times a “good” batch can deliver one misery after another.

It’s not about the letters, it’s how we arrange them that counts.

So, here we go … let’s say you pick the letters “V” … “I” … “L”... “E”…

What would you make out of this set?

1.       Vile?

2.       Evil?

3.       Veil?

4.       Live?

Same 4 letters … such different outcomes.

So then you receive the letters “G” and “O” …

Add these to the letters above and see where it takes you … I’d take it here: LOVING,

with a letter “E” left over to become whatever it chooses to be.

If a “B” happens to show up, you are home.

Be Loving …

We create it all.


PS Did you notice that I didn't pick the letter "N" above? Ah ... no matter, I didn't either until after I wrote this. Again, it just  goes to show ... It's not about the letters or how many, but how we arrange them.