Groundhog Day Revisited

You are here to learn from experience and create yourself over and over again.

Paradigm Shift

In the movie Groundhog Day Bill Murray plays a weatherman who is assigned to cover the annual emergence of the groundhog from its hole.  He finds himself enfolded in a blizzard that he didn't see coming and relives the same day over and over, experimenting with his actions and reactions each day, eventually evolving into a Higher version of himself.


On a primal level,  this is the story of every man's assignment in earth school.  We run into "blizzards" we didn't see coming and eventually learn to surrender to what IS happening...or not.  The choice is ours.  We can flow with the energy or push against it with resistance.  Our work is to choose a reaction or response to each blizzard and see if we like how it feels to us.  If we don't like the feeling we get from our choice of action or reaction, we can choose to do something different and see how that feels.


Like Bill Murray in the movie, we have unlimited opportunities.  And it is very interesting to note that after some experimenting and experiencing of the consequences, Murray ultimately decides to become a Higher version of himself.  Given the opportunity to respond in any direction, he chooses the path of generosity and caring.  This choice brings him delight, leading me to conclude in this analogy that we are happiest when we follow the impulses of the heart.


Groundhog Day is a traditional holiday celebrated on February 2nd, but we live our "Groundhog Day" on a daily basis and that is a good thing for we get endless opportunities to become the next, grandest version of ourselves.


How best to evolve and find peace and serenity?  That is a question we all live with. It is my belief that we ARE MADE from love, that we in our essence ARE love and that when we ACT FROM love, we sense and enjoy our true nature.


Dennis Waitley, American motivational speaker, writer and consultant, has a beautiful prescription for this question.  Waitley says:

Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace and gratitude. 


Regardless of how entangled we get in our own snowstorms and blizzards, how lost we might feel during moments of fear or distress… the simple formula of love, grace and gratitude feels like the way of Providence bringing us home to ourselves.

                                                          Marie Helena


image from mycutegraphics.com

The Pillow of Love

 

Imagine the feeling when your head first touches your pillow and you sink into that beautiful serenity, calmness and ease. At that moment, when you allow yourself to embrace the support and blessing of this gift all seems right with the world.

Besides the joy of relaxing our bodies and our minds, this pillow also holds the promise of even more sustenance. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could make all of our decisions and choices from that beautiful place of peace!

Instead of feeling the stresses of the day, the unfinished business we are carrying with us, the bone tiredness from perhaps pushing our bodies beyond the boundaries of balance…we would feel AT EASE.

And when we are at ease we are much more connected to our heart center and can act from that intuition. We can observe the world around us and ourselves with loving, compassionate eyes. We can enjoy the sprinkling of moonbeams that falls gently on every moment, helping us to see with our soul eyes what is really happening. 


The moonbeams are ALWAYS there… if we only choose to access them.And the reality is that ourpillow waits patiently for us. It may be manifesting as a gorgeous down filled object waiting with anticipation for us to access its pleasures, but the pillow is really LOVE.  

 

 And, if during our day, we made all of our choices as if our heads were resting on that pillow, that place of welcome and peace, what would our decisions look like?

Would we be able to see the bigger picture? The pain behind someone’s angry words? The choices we clearly have in front of us that would nurture our bodies and souls and also the choices which would distract us from that loving path? Would we view ourselves and others with caring and compassion? And act on that compassion with our words and actions?

Seems like it would be so much easier to choose a higher path when we feel rested and comfortable and at peace.

This pillow feels like a priceless gift to us...and we already have the opportunity to access it every moment of the day.

We CAN recognize that LOVE is our pillowand let its wisdom and discernment soften our hearts and ease our souls in this life journey we have so ambitiously embarked upon.

                               

           

                          Marie Helena                                                                               

                                                                                                 

  

 

image from zazzle.com 

Releasing Pain

When I truly understand 

And accept 

That I am ATTRACTING

That which irritates 

And annoys me, 

I look to MYSELF 

As the SOURCE 

And I undertake RECONCILIATION  

Of this unhealed pain.

Mystic Marks:  Bookmarks for the Soul

image:

The Healthy Way to Forgive Yourself

greatergood.berkeley.edu

The Writing Team of our "Glee"

Several years ago the highly acclaimed TV musical series Glee proved so popular that it  generated a series spin-off called The Glee Project.  

On this show young performers who were talented singers, dancers and actors competed for the honor of being a guest star on several episodes of Glee. 

The talent and skill levels of the competitors were naturally of paramount importance but so was the question of whether or not Glee's writers felt inspired to write a story for the character that a performer represents.

The question which was asked each week by the writing team was:  Can we write for this character? 

 

Fortunately, in the STAGE of our lives, we do not have to be concerned about whether our writing team can write for us.  

The Divine Universe is ALWAYS ready to write....to gift us with impulses, ideas, opportunities and experiences that help us manifest what it is that we DREAM about. 

And when we dream (hold a conscious intention) and then release the dream to the Universe, we only need to be alert and watchful for the most amazing and beautiful impulses and opportunities to arise which move us with grace and ease toward the fulfillment of our dreams. 

The  clues and synchronicities which appear may be subtle but if we harbor the curiosity and tenacity of the detective we WILL find them. and the more we experience them, the better we get at detecting their presence.

For example, I have received some beautiful encouragement for my desire to experience my life with simplicity and ease.  A lovely example of this occurred one very special evening as I attended a wedding on a beautiful cliff overlooking the shores of Lake Michigan. 

As a special gift to the guests the bride and groom had gathered small, flat stones from the shore and written a different inspirational word on each stone.

Every guest was invited to select a stone and take it home after the reception.  The stones were arranged as adornments on many different tables, nestled among beds of green leaves. 

The very first stone I picked up had this word written on it:  "easily".  

I knew the synchronicity of the appearance of this word was an offer of inspiration from the Divine Universe to encourage me in my intention.

I get these kinds of messages of encouragement daily...from something I read on the Internet, from a song I hear playing, from an offhand comment made by someone close to me or even a stranger.

And the more I relax and trust in this wonderfully Divine arrangement and don't attempt to "fix" things myself...the more I choose to float on the river of life, accepting its flow whatever that may be,  the easier and faster they manifest.  And lately they have been manifesting almost immediately.  The process is so easy, it is astounding...and so very joyful.

And, in response to this amazing grace, I say, "Thank you and I'll have more!"

THIS is what we are designed to do on our earth journey.  

We are designed to hold conscious intentions, release them to the Divine Universe with no attachment regarding the journey by which they may arrive...and then stay alert for the surprises to come.  And, when they do, receive them with a full and grateful heart and follow the direction in which they lead us.

We are truly Co-Creators with the Divine Universe and this glorious experience is meant to be joyous and full of delight.  The writers of our "GLEE" await our focused and conscious dreaming.  Are you ready?

                                       Marie Helena

                                                                                                                    

Through the Looking Glass

The behavior we display to others when we are IN OUR POWER is usually strong, positive, considerate and compassionate.  

This behavior represents our very best self and is a JOY to behold.

However, when we are especially stressed by life's challenges or very low on energy because of certain  burdens or unresolved issues, our behavior can look very different.

Everyone experiences these times of dissonance as we struggle with the difficulties of the moment and, during these times, we may display some not-so-attractive behavior. 

What a beautiful GIFT it is, then, when someone close to us can recognize that we are not at this moment our naturally bright and loving selves and may be challenging or uncomfortable to be around BECAUSE we are in pain or have overextended our energy and not listened to and honored the messages of our own body.

How wonderful to have someone in our lives recognize that when we display this kind of behavior, we are in distress...to have someone have a strong sense that  this is not the person they know us to be.

How easy is it for YOU to see through someone's moments of tumult and turmoil and connect with the beautiful soul underneath these outer (and often frustrating) trappings? 

Can you hold an image of love and caring when the words you hear seem so different?  

If  you can, what a beautiful gift to extend to someone...to be  able to honor their soul and spirit even while it labors under the duress of these difficult moments!

Here is Spirit's guidance to help us through this challenge:

Keep the highest/best moment you have ever had with that person strongly in your heart.  Know that this is what he is capable of and that some distress has intervened between that experience and what you are currently seeing.  Tell that person you sense that he may be encountering some stress and and offer your support if the person would like this from you.

Whenever  someone's light is not shining through, it is being obscured by unresolved pain.  We can recognize and minister to that pain by our LOVING ACCEPTANCE of however that moment is showing itself to us.

Everything that exists is love expressing itself the best way it knows how.  Sometimes thatBEST WAY is cloaked in pain and a generous heart is needed to LOVE WHAT IS!

                                   Marie Helena

image from

Through the Looking Glass

students.ou.edu

The Hearts of Children 💗💗💗💗💗

The coronavirus.

Are we going about this all wrong? Counting… tracking… isolating… using masks and ventilators in an effort to fix a problem without looking at what is really causing all of this havoc?

Something is not right with the world. And the world “knows” it. 
This beautiful oasis was created for joy and celebration. But the energy of dissonance in the world has reached a point of critical mass.  We’ve felt the warnings through climate change and spectacular natural disasters.  Still we forge ahead unwilling and, even perhaps, unable to fully recognize the effects of our behavior.  The earth must now express a fundamental truth that is being ignored.  And it is doing this in Intense, disastrous, LOOK-AT-ME fashion telling us that it is past time to return to the innocence of little children where the world is the beautiful playground it is meant to be.  Where the world is a lovely place to discover new things. And to get to know people. And to understand them. And play with them. To play TOGETHER.  To look at all of our different personalities and cultures and work ethics and merge them into a working model of delight and appreciation and celebration.  To embrace the wisdom of playing nice. 

In his book, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, Robert Fulghum gives us advice that resonates even in our adult lives:

Share everything.
Play fair.
Don't hit people.
Put things back where you found them.
CLEAN UP YOUR OWN MESS.
Don't take things that aren't yours.
Say you're SORRY when you HURT somebody.
Wash your hands before you eat.

And, he goes on with some additional recommendations.

Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you. Live a balanced life -‐ learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some. Take a nap every afternoon. When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands, and stick together.

Fulghum believes we all learn these rules in kindergarten.  But, somehow, it seems, we have managed to forget them.

It’s time to remember.  And, if it’s hard to remember then, perhaps, it’s worth the experiment of trying to do it anyway and then watching what happens.  We already know what happens when we don’t play nice.

Why not do something different and see what that does?  If we were truly curious and not attached to our own, fixed ways of doing things, perhaps we could enjoy wondering about all the many things we could learn from each other and, thereby, return to the beautiful, pure innocence of our childhood where everything seemed possible and interesting and every child had the right and the opportunity to join the playground.  No matter whether he/she agreed with us...or did things our way.

Each new person on the playground brings a different view and it is exciting to learn about it and see if parts of it would mesh with our view.  And, if that doesn’t happen, we have just gained valuable information about how people can be affected by the circumstances of their lives.

Through this interaction, we grow in wisdom and experience.  Perhaps we even figure out how to help the souls that are having trouble healing.

We are meant to be joyful creatures, curious souls, eager to learn about each other.  Amazed at the beauty of soft, loving eyes, the wonder of a strolling child and the forthright tears of a broken heart seeking
to mend itself. 

We are meant to see the sunshine in the daffodils.  The birds celebrating their flight.  To hear and understand those on this journey with us.  To express caring and compassion to 
individuals whose actions clearly come from their unhealed pain.

It’s a good place to be.  It feels warm and beautiful.  And peaceful.

Please...please let us study our beautiful little children who see themselves as capable of EVERYTHING.  Who have not yet learned to be afraid that they are not enough and are not engaged trying to become their version of “enough” by having their view prevail in every moment. 

Let us find the Beauty that is everywhere. The beauty in our own hearts and in the thoughts and feelings of others.  The natural symmetry of the world and, equally, the fascination that exists in the complicated journeys of all of its inhabitants. 

Can we at least imagine this… visualize it… desire it so strongly that we can manifest it for ourselves? This is what we are meant to do...to find our way back to the innocence of childhood… to this precious place of peace.

The actions of each one of us touch so many others.  Can we begin to imagine sending love and compassion to EVERY fellow sojourner for the pain and distress he may be suffering instead of telling him why we think he is wrong?

If change is what we want, this is how we get it.  If we understand and express our compassion for an individual whose negative actions clearly come from his pain (as they always do), he is then freed up to examine his own choices without the burden of having to defend them and now has an opportunity to see the picture of his life with new eyes.

We’ve tried arguing, fighting, manipulating , bargaining all in an attempt to prevail.  We all know where that gets us.

Let’s be curious children once more.   Let’s recapture and this time keep the precious experience of feeling the invincibility of love. 

Ultimately, the coronavirus is no match for the hearts of children.

                                              

                                            Marie Helena


Image:  imree's Paris Balloon Girl Painting ...pinterest.com

We Are Powerful Beyond Measure

I was a part of a global experiment when the waters of Katrina decimated the beautiful city of New Orleans.  People around the world (linked together by the internet, a true, contemporary gift of consciousness and unity) all prayed together for the cleansing of the waters contaminated by Katrina.

Three weeks later I noticed an article in U.S. World Today commenting that authorities were mystified to find that an analysis of the water from Katrina yielded no more sediment than what would be found in an ordinary storm.

And, now, we can pray together for COVID 19 to dissipate and for the emotions causing the insurrection of our government to be healed.

                                      Marie Helena

       

“Our deepest fear 

is that we are powerful 

beyond measure.”

              Nelson Mandela

                                                                               

image from pinterest

The Divine “Nudge”

Sometimes we find ourselves in a holding pattern in our life poised in a place where the stress we encounter is consuming so much of our energy.  

And we are aware of the price to our well-being but for many reasons we stay there because there are multiple factors involved in making a change.

And then...

The Divine Universe who has been watching us with beautiful, loving attention gives us a "nudge"...one that we cannot ignore and this nudge presents us with the  opportunity for some very important work...challenges that test us to our core.  And we have to summon up our courage and strength to "deal" with these surprises. 

But these surprise-gifts are well-planned and beautifully chosen and ultimately they jettison us onto a new path of growth and discovery, clearing out what is in the present picture of our lives and creating space for a new and a-ma-zing transformation.

 

We ARE well-loved and cared for.  The gifts of the future only await our discovery and they will happen in the perfect time for us.

Know deeply in your heart that the perfect moment will come and watch for and listen to all of the promptings to action that will show themselves and move you in that direction.

There are no coincidences.  Only LOVE watching ever so gently over us.

                                                                  Marie Helena

image from watton.org

Gifts from the Universe

 

I express my DESIRE to the Universe, 

Release my EXPECTATION 

Of HOW it will appear 

And wait for the GIFT 🧚🏾‍♂️to be delivered to me.    

💙💜🧚🏾💙💜🧚🏾💙💜🧚🏾💙💜🧚🏾💙💜🧚🏾💙💜🧚🏾

 

The simple beauty of Synchronicity 

Signals a DIVINE  UNIVERSE 🌍 

Embracing  the hopes and dreams 

Of my H IGHER  SELF.  🧚🏾

🧚🏾 Mystic Marks:  Bookmarks for the Soul

image:  Jai Jagdeesh - In Dreams (You are Loved)

Releasing Pain

Before I release any personal tension that is troubling me I BLESS it and THANK it for giving expression to unresolved pain being held in my body.

Mystic Marks:  Bookmarks for the Soul

Speaking My Truth

When the Messages I give to others 

MATCH the Messages  💗 of my heart…

My body and spirit begin to HEAL ❇️

And my joy awakens.  

🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷

I speak my truth 

So that I can keep my Heart 💗

FREE  TO  FLY.  🧚🏾‍♀️

I listen to your truth 

So that you Can Join Me.  🧚🏾‍♂️

🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷

Mystic Marks:

Bookmarks for the Soul

image:

Watercolor

heartpinterest.com

A New Year, A New Day, A New Me

                                  

I delight myself with the Gift 

of  peaceful slumber.
I awaken naturally
when I am ready
to experience
the Beauty of a New Day.

Mystic Marks:  Bookmarks for the Soul

My Body

I can speak to my Body and Know that it will HONOR whatever Intention I express.   

          Mystic Marks:  Bookmarks for the Soul

image from pinterest

Painting : "Pensive Young Woman" (Original art by Nancy Calcutt)

BEAUTY

I continue to be amazed at the BEAUTY of the softness of loving eyes, the WONDER of a strolling child, and the forthright tears of a BROKEN heart seeking to mend itself.  

 

The most beautiful Legacy that the Universe bestows upon me is the MAJESTY and MAGIC of the PRESENT  MOMENT.     

                                    Marie Helena

Mystic Marks:  Bookmarks for the Soul ❇️

image from wallpapers.com