LIVING ON FAITH IS MY GROWING EDGE

When you change the thought, your reality must follow. You have the ability

to quickly change your patterns of thought, and eventually your life experience.

                                                                                                           Abe Hicks

When I woke up this morning, my first thought was how happy I was to be all snuggled in and warm.

My second thoughts were ones that Einstein assures me cannot be solved “with the same thinking that created them.” Often, I kick out those negative thoughts.

But this morning, and only for seconds, I dipped into thinking about a personal issue that created results I didn’t want. A second thought crashed in about a friend’s trouble. Following was concern for a global event.

That train of bad thinking was sending me off the rails before I even climbed out of bed.

That’s how the train of unwanted thoughts creates situations WE DON’T WANT. That I DON’T WANT. How many of you can relate?

Promptly, I kicked out that train of thoughts. I realigned with Spirit and my Faith in Spirit. “I am perfectly aligned” is a great affirmation.

I intentionally thought of five happy events. I watched my worry pack her bags and leave. I repeated my affirmations. I remembered things working out. I took a breath.

I sent love and mantrams to me, my friends, and to the global community. I thought positive thoughts. Realigned, I sighed. Here, at midday, things are in flow and alignment.

LIVING ON FAITH IS MY GROWING EDGE.

Recently, I’ve done inner work, cleaning out yesterday’s negativity. My new inner life is transforming my outer one. I still need, on occasion, to keep faith that the changes not yet here ARE coming. It’s my growing edge.

FAITH BELIEVES IN WHAT’S YET TO BE SEEN.

I once “talked” a disabled, abandoned VW bus into running. I then went on a 515-mile road trip. That same year my partner, a friend, and I were waiting to board a plane. From our stopover in Dallas, our friend, Jean, would fly to New York for the holidays. My partner and I were flying to my sister’s wedding. We had three hours once the plane landed to arrive at the church.

The announcement blared out: “Due to storms, this flight may be delayed.” Jean was thrilled. She was frightened of flying and hoped the flight would be cancelled. I strolled over to the desk attendant for a chat. Yes, cancelling the flight WAS a possibility. No, no other flights would get me to the wedding on time.

SPIRIT WANTS US HAPPY AND TO SUCCEED.

I took another stroll around the area. I quieted my pounding heart. I could not let my sister down. I was a Bridesmaid. I asked Spirit what to do.

Take a breath. See you arriving on time, safely. Breathe. Sit down. Keep the Faith. Lean into Faith.

Another announcement came: This flight might be cancelled. Jean was giddy. I quietly closed my eyes.

We were told to get on board three minutes before the decision to cancel the flight was to be announced. SHAZAM! The Universe OPENED the Gate.

LIVING ON FAITH is a practice. WHEN was the last time you LIVED ON FAITH, dear Reader?

CHRISTMAS IS A SPIRIT THAT LIVES IN MY HEART

The Christmas spirit — love — changes hearts and lives.

                                                                 Pat Boone

Christmas is a Spirit that lives in my heart. This past weekend I ate pie, shared stories, and wrote holiday cards with a dear friend.

We’ve shared this tradition of writing holiday cards over the years. But we also shared it often as three people. Robert was with us then. A year ago Robert passed on to that other shore.

Marie and Robert were married for fifty years. It would have been too abrupt to write holiday cards without first hearing Marie’s Robert poems, Marie’s and Robert’s Warp and Woof poems or Marie’s sojourn into new life.

Marie’s poems emerge from the bone and marrow of her soul. My heart gasps with Robert being invoked again as a living, breathing presence. He is gone...and not gone...as Marie invites in a new relatedness with her world.

Photo By Karla Boyd

At a particular rock and tree formation, Marie shared a special ‘Robert moment’. That was on our first walk. On other walks, we wended around trails and marveled at Sutro baths and Golden Gate Park gardens. On our last day, we delighted in seeing double crested Cormorants, a Brown Pelican; we shared secrets and sighed at the burnt orange sunset as the golden sun dropped into the ocean.

Photo By Karla Boyd

This past weekend, our conversations teetered at the edge of vulnerable intersections, and stumbled into unchartered waters and engaged Process as if a She. It's as if a Presence, a Soft Feminine Presence that lives within us all, called us out from mundane familiarity into embryonic encounters that engage a deeper flow with life. We opened more in its unfamiliarity. We are, to borrow Marie’s words, finding our place

in the flow, the every moving piecing together, coming together,

of things in their own way, in their own time, reassuring,

sustaining and satisfying.

Holiday cards finished, we sit at Marie’s dining room table as the last wisps of sunset become dusk. With the lights not turned on, we encounter a quieting intimacy.

         Photo By Karla Boyd

“Today, I realize how much of your careful arrangement of everything reminds me of my grandmother.” Christmas Spirit has engaged Marie and I all weekend. Christmas Spirit: A LOVING Presence unfolding warming encounters in soft, sparkling radiance.

“I felt Christmas Spirit when I was with my grandparents,” I say near the end of Marie’s and my time together. When I was five, seven and ten, alone or with a friend, spending a week with my grandparents in the summer, Christmas was there.

When alone, I’d sit at the breakfast table with my grandparents. After eating, Goldie would ask, “What do you want to do today?” Christmas Spirit lived in the ordinary way we designed a trip to the local swimming pool; or travels anywhere with my grandfather when my grandmother needed some solitude. It lived in my walking alone to the corner store to buy dinner preparations.

That common conversation of three souls unfolding our day never let us down.

My grandmother’s hearing was impaired when she was three years old. On occasion, my grandparents sat on their front porch rocking. “Karl, what’s that sound,” she’d ask. “Oh, don’t get excited, it’s just the kids climbing out the bedroom window onto the roof, listening to our conversation.” We’d scramble back into the room. I can still hear my grandfather’s laughter.

My grandmother and I would sit in a swing on the side porch, my bare feet bouncing off the wall of the church next door. My grandmother never meddled but was interested in everything I said. We spoke of simple things in the most extraordinary way.

Close to dinner, my grandfather conspiratorially called me into the pantry room. He’d reach into the cupboard and pull out sugary orange slice wedges. “Don’t tell your grandmother, now.”

Christmas is a Spirit that lives in my heart. It’s evoked every time a moment is freed into life’s deep rhythm. It’s an everyday, ordinary time made sacred.

What about you, dear Reader, have you discovered Christmas Spirit living in your heart?

LETTING MY HEART LEAD THE WAY

     We know a great deal about what leaders do and how they do it. But we know very little 

      about the inner place, the source from which they operate. And it is this source that 

      "Theory U" attempts to explore. When leaders develop the capacity to come near to

      that source, they experience the future as if it were "wanting to be born" - an 

      experience called "presencing." That experience often carries with it ideas for 

      meeting challenges and for bringing into being an otherwise impossible future.

                             Otto Scharmer author of Theory U and Leading From The Emerging Future

This morning I told a friend, “I need to get off the phone and let my Muse show me my next blog. I’ve no idea where it’s coming from." This year’s sojourn has been about what Otto Scharmer calls "letting come an emergent future." 

It’s quite the adventure living into this freedom. It's about breaking the chains of traditional thinking. It's about trusting my heart to lead me. 

Some of my most life-altering moments have been when I let my heart lead the way. Since I was a child, I always wanted to be near chimpanzees. I shared this one day in a group. Well someone knew someone who had recently gone to a chimpanzee sanctuary in the United States. 

"Oh, boy." 

A phone call later, I was speaking with a woman thought to be the sanctuary founder. Turns out she wasn't in charge of a sanctuary at all. She arranged African Safaris."Had she ever arranged a trip to a chimp sanctuary?" Well, yes she had. 

That's how I found myself on a plane to Zambia, Africa, the home of Chimfunshi. Talk about experiencing a future "waiting to be born." 

Shelia Siddle with an orphaned chimp

With nothing more than their heart’s dedication, the Siddles created the largest Chimpanzee Sanctuary in the world. Inspired and on fire, I saw my new future birthing before me as I hung out with the chimps. I saw the Siddle's sheer innovation, freshness and native leadership.

Chimfunshi chimps; photo by Karla Boyd

I had listened for years to the suffering of animal rescue workers: they were burnt-out and in need of new ways. In Africa, I saw how to move beyond the old paradigms that perpetuate more suffering. On that auspicious journey, I was called to offer leadership development work into the animal steward community upon my return to the states. 

Last week, I wrote a blog, Change Your Vibration And Tell Me What You Want. It's a request to publish positive media images and share what IS working. It's what made the Siddles natural leaders. It's what let me trust my heart and get on a plane to Africa. 

After I hung up the phone with my friend, a rainbow appeared on my walk. Back home, leaning into the unknown, I found myself opening to a link about positive news stories. Harmonyfund.org and Laura Simpson's “Unique Blue Sky Approach” caught my eye. In perfect synch with last week 's blog message were these words:

     We do not expose our supporters to graphic photos of animal suffering or distribute

     dire forecasts about animal suffering. Instead we focus on a spirit of joy and 

     determination as we pursue essential operations to provide food, veterinary medicine, 

     shelter and protection from cruelty for animals worldwide.

Harmony Fund photo

That is how I believe we move into our best futures ... flowing with the threads of where our hearts are leading us. 

So when, dear Reader, did you last follow your heart?