It's easy to forget that we are all perfect in our own design. Sometimes we muck it up with habits and choices that do not serve us.
Wishing well?
The Practice:
Bless.
Why?
Lately, I’ve been wondering what would be on my personal list of top five practices (all tied for first place). You might ask yourself the same question, knowing that you can cluster related practices under a single umbrella, your list may differ from mine, and your practices may change over time.
I woke up this morning feeling a sense of great loss, loss for so many things…the loss of civility in our country, the loss of life from Covid, and cancer, and guns, and innocent black men and women being killed, innocent protesters being gunned down, the violence in our streets.
The seemingly impossible divide between left and right.
The loss of stability and security.
The loss of freedom to hug our friends, and so much more.
Later, when I looked at my Facebook feed I found more loss.
Friends mourning the loss of loved ones, beloved pets, careers that were once promising that have disappeared.
Grief. Mourning. Fear. Uncertainty.
Before I knew a better way to communicate with the Divine, I used to pray a lot. I always believed in a power greater than me. I just thought that Power was following me around with a fly swatter.
I mentioned last week that I saw the world as ensouled, like I do today, every animal with a spirit, every blade of grass, rock or worm. So why did my prayers hardly ever work? I was serious about prayer! My prayers were so strong and so meaningful and so so so powerful!
Prayers are powerful and mine should work.
Not really, today looking back I know my prayers were totally lame, if you really want to know the truth.
And, here’s why.
My prayers were bargaining prayers—prayers of pleading spectacles of need and serious purveyors of lack.
This week’s Goddess message that jumped out at me was the goddess Sophia who represents Divine Wisdom. Her archetypal meaning refers to the wisdom that doesn’t come from integrated human experience, rather the wisdom given to us directly from Source- a higher wisdom, a higher ground from which to see that is greater than our human experience. So how do we access this, and what does it mean for us, when we do?
After this intense Scorpio Full Moon weekend, we’re offered a new beginning where we have time to integrate what we’ve learned keeping in mind what is ours to shift and also what is not ours. Divine Wisdom refers to how we manage our expectations and projections, and what we make things mean. Can we break through the illusion and surrender to what truly is?
Of all the prayers that best illustrates this is the Serenity Prayer.
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
The courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
If we look at this prayer in three parts, the first part is about surrendering to a Higher Power, acknowledging that we are seeking peace and help to radically accept what is in front of us and to recognize when we are powerless.
We all get preoccupied with where we’re not.
I mean, I get letters from people all the time with vivid descriptions of where they’re not. The amount of consciousness they invest in writing the letter to describe where they’re not…but every now and then, I get a letter and all it’s filled with is page after page of, “Ram Ram Ram Ram,” and I read every page. Every page. What else is there to write?
See, the process for those that have a scientific vent, that want it said that way, the process is really nothing other than completely reorganizing your cognitive map, so that you see the entire universe from another place – from your Divine Self.
© I put your affiliate link in the Shadow Process. The book link is just straight to purchase.
Although she passed away five years ago, my sister, the beloved spiritual teacher Debbie Ford, has left a powerful legacy with her new book, YOUR HOLINESS.
Through world-renowned medium, James Van Praagh, I received a clear message that she wanted to share with the world a life-changing prayer book. I had no idea that she had written such a book, but once James shared the messages, a quick search unearthed this beautiful, enlightening, and inspiring work.
What you may not know about Debbie and WHY she wrote this book:
Decades ago, Debbie was a drug addict.
At a certain point she knew that if she didn’t get help, she was going to die.
On the tenth day of her 4th rehab center, she was getting ready to run away in search of drugs. Instead, she went into a bathroom, with a very dirty floor, she got on her hands and knees and prayed, and God responded and gave her the strength to get sober.
Prayer, when cultivated consciously, energizes and guides us on the spiritual path. This talk investigates the difference between wanting, with its narrow fixation, and the prayer that arises out of our deep heart’s longing. We explore how living prayer, the prayer that arises from consciously inhabiting longing, can carry us home to loving presence. As John O’Donahue writes, prayer is the bridge between longing and belonging. ~ (a favorite talk from 2010).
Every week here at The Sunday Paper, we focus on Moving Humanity Forward. That’s our tagline, but more importantly, it’s our mission and our purpose.
