So many unexpected events and experiences have arisen in the process of moving from Massachusetts to Florida, everything from the sale of the house where we rented there to finding a condo here that far exceeds anything we could have imagined. Probably the most surprising pop-up occurrence was finding out that I had to have my name legally changed in order to obtain a Florida driver’s license. What?! Well, you see, my mother named me “Peggy,” but she used “Margaret” on my birth certificate because the former was traditionally considered a nickname for the latter and not the real name. Of course, today no one cares much about that tradition, and you can name your child “Redwood” if you so choose.

I know this can be a very controversial topic… I’ll share my thoughts on it below and I would love to hear your thoughts as well on this statement:

If there is no source of illness, why are there so many sick people? It is because they have found lots of excuses to hold themselves in vibrational discord with wellness. They are not letting it in. And when they don’t let it in, the absence of it looks like sickness. And when enough of them do it you say, “Oh, there must be a source of sickness. In fact, let’s give it a label. Let’s call it cancer. Let’s call it AIDS. Let’s call it all kinds of terrible things, and let’s imply that it jumps into people’s experience.” And we say it never jumps into anybody’s experience. It’s just that people learn through trial and error, and — through banging around with each other — patterns of thought that don’t let it in.
—Abraham

So, they way I see it, and I remember when I first heard this concept, it seemed too far off, not true and I had a lot of resistance to it. However, over the past 20 years I have come to learn, through experience, that it is VERY true. I see it everyday, not only in my own life experience but in that of my clients and students. To simplify it, I would say this…

We can see that a lot of our spiritual practices are moving us from ego to soul. We’re clawing our way up and out of the darkness.

It’s a darkness which turns out to be not dark at all, but it seems shadowy from where we’ve been. So we claw up, and then when we’re at soul, and we’re established in soul-ness, we start to have that beautiful dialogue that Rumi and Kabir speak about, we’re intimate with the Beloved, with the guest:

“Where are you, old friend? Where have you been? Where can I find you? I hunger to be with you.”

It’s no longer a practice now. It’s like making love, a celebration of the many with the one. You’re constantly “Ahh, ahhhhhh.” I can only invite you to read that poetry to feel that the separation of you from all of it is not a mistake. It’s not a failure. It’s part of the dance of form and formlessness, so that you are “the One” and you are also “the many”.

Compassion is hard wired in our organism, and can be cultivated. This talk helps us identify the blocks to compassion—our outmoded survival equipment—and using RAIN, offers practical guidance in mindfully attuning to others’ emotional experience and awakening our natural tenderness and care. This talk includes a short introduction to the meditation: The RAIN of Compassion.

Empathy is the ability to feel what other people feel… compassion includes empathy, and it also has the quality of caring and concern that wants to help. Compassion means “to suffer together,” but it is really defined by a quivering of the heart that wants to help…

Compassion is our evolutionary potential. We have a capacity for affiliative care, to tune in to each other and to care about each other. And, really, this capacity is the hope of our world…

Sometimes your viewpoint can cause unnecessary suffering. When you see the past as experiences that were done to you, then you become the victim. When you take the stance that that person did this to you, he said that to you, she thought that about you, you view life in a false way. No one is ever doing anything to you. No one has that power. Everyone is showing up exactly, yes exactly as they must show up FOR you; for your evolution and expansion and realization.

This is quite difficult for some to believe, especially if you experienced abuse and trauma at the hands of another. Everything in life is happening for your awakening. It is you that places a limited judgment upon it and by doing so you set limitations upon yourself. These limited judgments disempower you. No one can disempower you except yourself. It is a choice stemming from the viewpoint you attach to your past.

The answer to dying is to be present in the moment. And the way in which you die is by being conscious at the moment of dying and saying, ‘Right! Look at this! Far out! Look at this energy!’

Be fully conscious now. People say to me ‘Is this the Aquarian Age do you think? Do you think the Apocalypse is about to occur? Are we in the dark as part of the Kali Yuga? What do you think?’ And I say ‘I have no idea!’ ‘Are the dark forces going to win? Is somebody going to push the button? Have you noticed that as you go around the world the tremendous resurgence of the living spirit?’ All I say is that as I get higher I notice highness every where I look, but that’s just my projective system I don’t know what’s going on out there. But the further point it that I don’t care, that’s my predicament. I’m not waiting for the Messiah, I don’t care whether there’s an avatar or if there isn’t an avatar.

• Are you feeling overwhelmed?
• Are you beating yourself up because you’re not doing what you said you would do for this year?
• Are you overloaded at work so much, that you don't have time for yourself?
• Is your mind running, running, running with negative thoughts, which can so easily become self-destructive?

Firstly, it’s important to realize that your soul has been trying to get your attention – possibly for a long time! As a psychic and a medium, I believe that most of the drama in our lives manifests when we don’t live in accordance with our inner-guidance. Your soul knows what it wants and what it needs. If you’re not in alignment with it, then your life can easily become off-balanced and the outside world then manifests what’s happening on the inside.

I often talk about how suffering arises from the unseen, unfelt parts of ourselves. Only when we become aware of what is here and bring presence to what we have been running from can we discover wholeness and freedom.

The same is true when we explore our relationships to each other and the world. We cannot be free if we are pushing anyone out of our hearts. If we are discounting, rejecting, or turning away, we are not living from our wholeness. It creates suffering. When we live in resentment, we have separated ourselves and pulled away from our belonging.

A word, a name of God, or a spiritual phrase that is repeated over and over again is known as a mantra.

The practice of mantra is an effective way to concentrate your mind. But as important as concentrating your mind is what you concentrate on. Although the mind can focus on anything, only certain words can qualify as a mantra. A mantra must connect you with the sacred. Most of them focus you on God through repetition of a divine name. A mantra provides a boat with which you can float through your thoughts unattached, entering subtler and subtler realms. It is a boat that steers itself – to the threshold of God.

The use of mantra sets up one thought, one wave, that repeats over and over again, dislodging your attachment to all other thoughts, until they are like birds gliding by… Offer all your thoughts as a sacrifice to the mantra. If you think, “This isn’t going to work,” take that thought and imagine yourself offering it to the mantra on a golden tray with a silk handkerchief, incense and a candle. Offer it as you continue to repeat the mantra undisturbed. Keep offering your thoughts, your doubts, discomforts, boredom, even your sore throat.

I hope you had a wonderful Fourth of July weekend. I have been in Greece for the past week or so. Although I have done a lot of traveling this year, my trips, although amazing, have been full of early morning wake-up calls and jam-packed itineraries. This trip was a true vacation, especially the last five days in Mykonos. I got up on my own accord and my biggest decision of the day was which beach club to explore. I enjoyed a wonderful beach read and basically flowed into each moment, one moment at a time.

Although most people like to stay connected when they travel, I reveled in the delight of disconnection.

Generally identifying myself as a person who loves structure and thrives on my ability to multi-task and accomplish so much in a day, I was shocked at how good I was at doing nothing! And I enjoyed it! Yet somewhere in between my third beach club and seventh Greek salad (yes, I was enjoying a feta-thon!), a very cool thing happened. As my life got quieter, I was able to hear a voice I hadn’t connected with in a while. I was able to hear the whisperings of my soul.