Many people involved in “spiritual” work believe they have a Purpose. Not a fleeting desire, but something that directs and drives them from deep within. This group divides roughly into thirds: 1) God sent me here with a mission; 2) From exploration I have found this Grand Design that is working through me; 3) I agreed to this incarnation and came here under a Soul Contract for this exact life.

Purpose. And for my purposes here, what I’m presenting would cover all of those points of view.

Do you have – need, want – a Life Purpose? What is a Life Purpose anyway? The Internet definition is: “Your life purpose consists of the central motivating aims of your life—the reasons you get up in the morning. Purpose can guide life decisions, influence behavior, shape goals, offer a sense of direction, and create meaning. For some people, purpose is connected to vocation—meaningful, satisfying work.”

I don’t know about you, but lately, it seems that everyone I know is totally stressed out, not just from their own lives, but from the “frequency in the field” – hurricane disasters, political nightmares, money worries, illness, etc.

Even if you are safe, dry, and your life is peachy right now, chances are you are picking up on the energies of those around you.

It’s almost unavoidable.

This is why I’m such a big advocate for all of us to become daily “pleasure puppies” and find ways each day to consciously choose to reduce our stress levels and add more pleasure.

"America is an idea. America is the greatest idea that the world ever came up with." — Bono


I just love that quote from Bono because it's so true. America is definitely the greatest idea that the world has ever come up with. 

Now, that doesn't mean our nation is perfect. It doesn't mean we don't have problems. It doesn't mean that we shouldn't keep striving to do better. It just means that the idea that defines the bedrock of this great nation is still the greatest idea ever. May we not lose sight of that.

America was founded upon an idea. We were also founded by people who took a stand. That's our heritage, and it’s part of what makes the idea of this nation so great.

This week, there has been a lot of discussion about taking a knee and locking arms. There has been a lot of discussion about how to respect our flag and our “National Anthem,” about how to acknowledge and address racism, and about how to define what it really means to be an American.

Every year at the end of March I get excited about planting my garden. Whether the Midwest air has turned a corner toward warmer days or the threat of frost hasn’t quite left, it doesn’t matter. Once April is in my sights, I start thinking about what I want to grow in my small garden for the season. It’s a ritual I’ve enjoyed every year for more than 10 years. Watching the fruits of my labor (yes, pun intended) blossom into something nourishing for my family served me a tremendous amount of joy. The garden is where my youngest daughter and I experimented with different varieties of tomatoes, tried our hand at growing watermelon, laughed when we pulled vines from the ground and discovered potato-like roots (tubers, for those of you wondering), and were genuinely shocked the first time grape tomatoes grew from the previous years’ fruits that we left rotting away over the winter. Working in the garden was a new experience every year.

 

Unfortunately, though, time marches forward.

 

The trance of unworthiness is sustained by our aversion to the dragons – the difficult emotions and related behaviors that are a deeply conditioned part of the human experience. In this talk we explore the awakening that is possible as we recognize our reactive patterns and instead of judgment, offer a loving and healing presence (a favorite from the archives).

Dear World,

Let’s all take a moment of intention to send love and prayers to Las Vegas, and all of those places on the planet that need love. (Houston, Charlottesville, Mexico City, and more.)

This is a wake up call, and we can no longer push the snooze button.

More than ever, we must all now step up and vote for Truth and Love in our lives. With every thought, action, intention, we are co-creating our world and future.

We can let the outer circumstances determine who we are going to be, or we can consciously choose love. Each time we choose negativity or indulge in reactivity, we reinforce the current reality.

It doesn’t matter what you do for a living in or where you work – everyone is looking for productivity tips to get more done. Everyone is looking for ways to get their jobs done faster, easier, with fewer headaches. But, what if I told you that true productivity doesn’t just come down to making a task list and checking things off when you finish. It takes more than that. True productivity lies not only in how you manage your time – but in how you manage your mind.

 

So follow these 5 uncommon tips to become an all-around more productive person.

If you’ve been following my posts about Oracle School you will know and hear me say some strong things about working with oracles and how asking “what’s going to happen” is about giving away your power instead of being empowered to choose, to intend, and to see who we can become in partnership with Spirit.

This may seem contradictory given I have built my reputation over 30 years on predictive accuracy as an intuitive although I have always maintained that I am only looking at probabilities and never absolutes.

I do not believe in absolute determinism.

If I did I would not be where I am today since a number of well known intuitives in the past have predicted things that had I continued on the path I was on would likely have happened.
I changed and the vantage point changed, the predictions changed because my choices changed.

There is a song in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton in which the character Aaron Burr says, “Death doesn’t discriminate/Between the sinners and the saints./It takes, and it takes, and it takes/And we keep living anyway…./If there’s a reason I’m still alive…/I’m willing to wait for it.” I found this to be one of the most moving and human moments in the show. I felt his pain and longing deep within me. We all could speak some variation of those words, really. Sometimes you wonder what life is about, why people have to suffer, and what the point is to your being here at all. Yet, you continue; you wait, hanging on to something inside that tells you that you are here for a reason, even if you can’t seem to see it clearly.

 

Yes, you are here for a reason. We all are. Sometimes we catch glimpses of it, a momentary peek at the big picture, but the curtain drops again, and we become distracted with the day-to-day worries and preoccupations of life on Earth. Still, an inner wisdom—call it soul awareness—carries us forward throughout our lives. This part of us knows that life is not meaningless. There is something greater that holds us in a gentle embrace of loving connection. We are beginning to experience the presence of that connection more and more as our individual awareness expands and our hearts open. Some call it God, some call it universal consciousness, some call it just “mystery.” It doesn’t need a name or label. This Presence is with us always, whatever we call it or don’t call it.

My preference is for stability. But nothing remains constant. As the inevitable challenges of life confront me, at the deepest level I know I am constantly evolving into more. And yet that seismic shift can feel radically uncomfortable because paradoxically, all of the events that are unfolding are serving to shake me loose of the need for stability. Recently, nature in all her benevolence slapped me upside the head with a tangible reminder of how to release control and embrace surrender in the moments when I am most afraid.

My life has been lived in the eye of the storm literally and figuratively over the past 12 months We are approaching the one-year anniversary of our precious two-year-old, Celeste’s, catastrophic heart failure. And today marks two weeks since the most powerful storm in the history of the Atlantic, Hurricane Irma, plowed through our Southwest Florida community.

I already know the obvious question… why didn’t we get the Sam hell out of Dodge in advance of a Category 5 hurricane?

The other day, my daughter said to me: “Mom, do you ever stop thinking? Does your mind ever turn off?”

Trust me, this was not a compliment.

I laughed and explained that, yes, my mind does turn off when I meditate in the morning (or, at least, I try to turn it off). But the rest of the day, I’ve gotta say… it’s thinking. Like, a lot.

This week, I found myself thinking about the tragic earthquake in Mexico City. As I read story after story, they broke my heart and reminded me yet again how fragile our lives can be. (Learn how to help here). So, if you have an outstanding beef with someone—a person you once loved, or who was once your friend—try to resolve it now. Time is precious, and our world is fragile.

Sometimes hope is what you need.

 

If you’re human, you’re going to come across at least one period in your life when you’re down and out. A time when it feels like life is against you. A time when monetary funds are depleted, your friends are nonexistent or your direction is blurry.

 

During this period there will be times when the stars seem to align and out of the blue synchronicity happens. It seems like your prayers have been answered and the solution you were waiting for appears. Your outlook has brightened and you feel hopeful and inspired. You proceed accordingly; thinking there is no way that things can’t work out at this point, especially with the ideal solution right in front of you.

 

Human beings are the only living creatures who can manage their own evolution. We can decide to progress and grow or to devolve and ultimately destroy ourselves. This isn’t a Darwinian proposition. Darwin’s theory of evolution is based on the struggle for survival where two factors dominate: being able to mate and to find enough food. Homo sapiens escaped those factors (for the most part) in recent times. Our evolution moved from primitive survival needs into the realm of consciousness.

 

This turns out to be the most fascinating aspect of being human, and not just in the abstract. Current planetary crises, from climate change to famine, epidemic disease, and overpopulation, starkly inform us that we are not managing our evolution well. A rogue state like North Korea holds up a mirror to our propensity for irrational violence and self-destruction. In short, managing our evolution means that we must learn a new way to manage consciousness. How did we get here and what can the individual do about it?