Infrastructure

Close your eyes for a moment, and imagine how you would relate to the rest of the world if  LOVE was always moving through you.

                  Don Miguel Ruiz
 


The sun, the rain and the soil nurture seeds which have been planted, gracing them with the life force to bloom into brilliant blossoms. 

Propellers of planes in motion engage the natural laws of the universe, lifting and moving massive machinery effortlessly through the air.

The waves of our oceans methodically surge and swell, laying their burdens thankfully upon the sandy shore. 



We, also, are gifted with a spiritual infrastructure which has the authority to inspire, nurture, empower and sustain us as we traverse our lives.   It is Love which is our sun, our power.  It is Love that provides the wind beneath our wings. 
 It is Love whose rhythm moves us elegantly through our journey, aligning us with the Truth of the Universe and gifting us with the grace of surrender.

We do not need to engage in the weariness of "trying to make things happen", only 
a tapping in to the force which has created life itself.



                                                                                                   Marie Helena

                                                         

image from sitsshow.blogspot.com

The Amusement Park

By the time we leave our childhood behind and get on with issues of the "adult" world most of us have managed a trip or two to the glorious island of escape called
The Amusement Park. 


There we stuffed our faces with cotton candy while we waited in line to take our seats on VERY scary and unpredictable rides.  And why did we do this?  Because it was FUN! We screamed our hearts out and then turned around and doubled back for more.


Maybe we loved these "wild rides" so much because there is something in our makeup that loves the unknown... mercurial adventures, precarious positions, challenging perspectives.


Which brings me in a roundabout way to an interesting occurrence I had just this week. 

While sitting in morning meditation a few days ago I experienced a very unusual stream of imagery.  I often have images popping up during meditation and, in fact, they routinely do,  but this meditation scenario was the most delightful I have ever encountered.


Several Disney characters were whirling inside a powerful vortex, riding it downward at a very fast speed having the time of their life and shouting "Whee!".  


When they reached the bottom (as they all invariably did), they were bounced back up to the top and were each affectionately catapulted into a bed floating in space.  They were tucked into warm covers and were soothed, comforted and rewarded from their madcap adventure by having a nice, long rest.


The all encompassing feeling of this fantasy was one of fun and delight.  The Disney characters were All IN.  They had no question of their safety...of the road they were traveling or of the loving embrace (the comfortable, billowy beds) awaiting them at its completion.  The TRUST was implicit, palpable.  Its vibration provided a powerhouse of energy for this adorable and motley crew.


So, here's the thing.                                     

The vortex in my meditation feels like earth school.  We've all experienced the WILD rides of life when it took us some time to
B r e a t he, take it all in,  restore our equilibrium, gain perspective and choose our response, hopefully learning from the lessons being presented to us.


The Disney characters bouncing back up to the top and landing in a comfortable bed feels like a message that we are always looked after and deeply appreciated for our sojourn on this planet.

And the fact that the characters were all having such an exciting, fun time feels like guidance on how to look at earth school as an exercise in curiosity and wonderment because it's all an illusion.  Real as it may seem, earth school is the vortex playground for trying on various personas and life situations to see what we can make of them...and learn from them, all the while sending the vibrations of our new wisdom out for everyone to energetically tap into.

When WE (our Spirit Selves) watch the glorious adventures we have designed for ourselves as earth dwellers, the story of our lives becomes truly enchanting!




                                                                                              Marie Helena


roller coaster image from clipartist.info
Disney characters image from childcoloringpages.net
pillow image from wikihow.com


originally published November 15, 2013

The Chorus Line

           
                          

                                                     
                                                     Be mindful of your self-talk; 
                                             it's a conversation with the universe.

                                                           Brandon West



As a bevy of blue baby robins gathers outside the window for their early morning fraternizing and the sun streaks boldly in behind our bedroom curtains, the alarm persistently injects itself into our dream.  With a heavy sigh we clumsily sit up and place one sleepy foot in a slipper.  We begin to search plodingly for the other which has mysteriously slipped away.  "Here we go again," we mutter.  "Why does my day always start this way?"

Hmmmm.  Trouble already...and the day has just begun,  "Now what else will go wrong'" we might wonder.


But let's just imagine that same scene of our morning reveille played out with a few significant changes.


As a bevy of blue baby robins gathers outside the window for their early morning fraternizing and the sun streaks boldly in behind our bedroom curtains, the soft sounds of a ballad from our clock radio lead us gently from our dream-state into reality.  We take several relaxing breaths, s t r e t c h and slowly sit up, placing one sleepy foot into a slipper.  We smile contentedly at its warmth and search curiously for its mischievous mate.  "Now where are you hiding today?", we humorously chide.  "You guys are always up for a game of hide and seek."

Interestingly, how we choose to greet the day plays a very important role in what  happens next for us.  Turns out those first moments of the morning send an important message which helps determine what we will find unfolding.


Every thought we think, every feeling we feel, every word we utter is being delivered unfailingly and with distinct ceremony to the watchful and waiting Universe and whether that message is a "grumpy" alert or a ""fun and friendly"vibe, we are calling in our order for more of what we are already portraying so eloquently.


We always get more of what we passionately express, attracting vibes which match that resonance.


The key point here is our passion, those feelings of deep caring and emotion.  Are we choosing to invest our energy, to place our attention on what feels like it is not working well as compared to affirming the beauty and joy surrounding us?


And do we "see" what we expect to see because we have experienced it so many times before because of our mind-set?  And, if that is so, what kind of expectations do we hold?  Bruce Lipton, developmental biologist, tells us what we believe is what we will experience. 


So the question is what, exactly, is our Biology of Belief?  Are we choosing to emphasize, believe in, affirm what feels like dissonance, ignoring symmetry and beauty?  Has this choice become the author of everything we experience?

 
What if we "expected" delight...mischief...fun...beauty?  Would we find it?
Perhaps the robins outside our window are waiting for us to join The Chorus Line.


                                                                                                            Marie Helena



image from www.ethknits.co.uk
 VPCL703-Chorus-Line.jpg


originally published May 4, 2014

The Very Special Grace of the Tulip

 
During the spring and summer months of the year I love to keep a tall, clear, glass vase of beautiful cut flowers on the counter in the kitchen. 

I pass by them frequently and they never fail to bring me joy.  There is, however, a particular flower that not only reveals to me its color and shape and exquisite design, it also impresses upon my heart the mystery and glory and the wonder of  staying-in-the-flow. 

This lovely flower is the tulip and watching it work its magic is almost mystical.

The first time I noticed that tulips have this special quality, I was amazed at what I witnessed.  Unlike all other flowers... when they are cut and placed in a vase of water, tulips do not stop growing.  Their life force is so strong that they continue to lengthen and expand and, as they do, they form a lovely arc over the vase.

This beautiful tulip dance reminds me of the grace of surrender (trust in the perfection of the moment), of the beauty of bliss, of the sheer joy of being alive and  B R E A T H I N G.

Nothing...not even the experience of being separated from its root...prevents this blossoming forth.  You will not see a freshly cut tulip sadly grieving the separation or losing its vitality because circumstances have rearranged its life.

This flower seems the physical incarnation  of  the beauty of a soul which trusts and embraces "what is", holds space for it and continues to radiate wonder.


                                                                                        Marie Helena
          

image from www.kathleenpequignot.com
Kathleen Pequignot Fne Art:  January 2005


originally published April 30, 2014

Easter Morning Journey

It's Easter Sunday and the most beautiful occasion to experience a connection with the earth and its countless earth-dwellers.  

This morning I awakened to a wonderful impulse streaming into my consciousness.  

The impulse was to spend the day in the state of EXPANSION except, of course, for the moments when I was directly engaged in a specific activity.

First, let me give you a little background on this concept of expansion.

Shortly before Christmas I was involved in a car accident and, after the physical healing was well underway, my body began to experience multiple episodes of post-traumatic stress.  

These proved to be a huge challenge and I had to learn how to embrace and work with these experiences so that my body could RELEASE the trauma it was carrying.

I did this work by  practicing sitting quietly and observing my body as the physical symptoms moved through it...observing them objectively, with no judgment...tracking their movement and how they changed their expression over time.  

This I was very willing to do and, after practicing this for awhile,  I found that when the symptoms finally abated, i naturally moved into a state of expansion (openness, airiness, weightlessness, pure peace and harmony).  

This state felt WONDERFUL...so wonderful that sometimes I didn't want to leave it.

As time went on, I found myself often choosing to engage this process leading me to expansion whenever I became physically or emotionally distressed. 

 
.
But this morning things were different.  

I felt a very strong impulse and yearning to engage in EXPANSION FOR ITS OWN SAKE (and not because of any problem I was experiencing).  And I wanted to enter into this state immediately.

It was soon after the recognition of this feeling that I discovered how the Divine Matrix was working to bring me to this place of peace.

And here we get into more back story.
 
Blogger statistics which are available to individual writers reveal the location of countries which are reading their blog.  I already knew from my statistics that people in ninety-five countries had read my blog but it had been a long, long time since a new country had shown up on that list.

This morning when I went to check the stats I saw that a new country was reading me right at that moment and it was one I had never heard of before.


It was the Maldives, a group of about 1,200 islands, separated into a series of coral atolls, located just north of the Equator in the Indian Ocean. (Only 200 of these islands are inhabited.)

And here is the astounding thing about the Maldives showing up in my blog statistics. 

As I researched this country I  learned that many of the the tropical atolls and islands In the Maldives are simply gorgeous, with swaying palms, white sandy beaches and deep-blue lagoons.
 
Now, if I had to come up with a physical, earth-bound description of what EXPANSION might look like, I would say the Maldives are it.

 

Here is the exciting discovery I made:  

I felt the peacefulness of the Maldives (where someone was reading my blog) coming into me through my waking impulse to enter into expansion.
 

Wow!

What a fantastic connection...and how wondrously beautiful...the Divine Matrix showing us yet again that we are ONE... all of us living facets of the same experience...all of us coexisting in a lovely harmony of the heart...separated by distance but ministering to each other and sharing our journey by reaching out and through time and space, expressing the Oneness of Everyman.


 

Today, Creator...help me to recover my awareness so that I can see you in everything I perceive with my eyes, with my ears, with all my senses.  Let me perceive with eyes of love so that I find you wherever I go and see you in everything you create.  Help me to see you in every cell of my body, in every emotion of my mind, in every person I meet.
        
                                                                                          Don Miguel Ruiz



image from experienceproject.com

Game Changer

Accept that what other people do or say has absolutely nothing to do with you...absolutely nothing.

                    Ken Lauher

Hmmmmmmmm.  That's really a major GAME CHANGER, isn't it? 


Here's the logic behind this statement. 

What a  person says or does is a really an authentic expression of how he is being affected in this moment by the circumstances, influences and events of his life...and that is exactly what his message tells us. 


It's a state of the union kind of message.  And his reaction or response to these circumstances, influences and events is determining   
IF, WHEN, WHAT AND HOW his message will be delivered and how the events in which we interact with him will unfold.

This is a VERY important piece of information for us to have because this awareness can alter what his message FEELS LIKE to us.

 
WHAT IF every time someone spoke to us we viewed the encounter as a fascinating checkpoint of what is transpiring in this person's life?
 

The information we receive from the interaction would still be FOR us but in a much different way than we had expected. 

It would be information ABOUT the other person and that information (intellectual, emotional, etc.) would help us choose how we might wish to respond...what we say and in what manner we say it.   It would surely be signaling very clearly  whether the person has a need for compassion, support, understanding or assistance.

This would be a MAJOR SHIFT for us 
               from 
"what just happened to me" and "how that made me feel" 

                to 
"what can I observe about you and what you might need from me". 
 

And while this process is going on we would still  be able to learn what we need to know...what is going to happen, is happening ...or not...BUT we would be learning it from a different perspective.  

It would be other directed...and possibly action oriented.  

Not only would it give us an opportunity to pay generous attention to someone else, the fact is that when we sense the emotional need of another and respond in a way that supports that need, our dialogue and conversations play out more smoothly and the other party feels gratitude for our caring and may even choose to respond to us in kind.

Being open to observing a person and learning about the space he is in would serve everyone well.  

In particular, we would no longer SUFFER from feeling hurt by the message itself or the way the message is delivered because we would know that the message is not an attack on us but rather  a behavioral transcript in this moment about the messenger himself.
 

Here is a place where Higher Self can offer us some BEAUTIFUL GUIDANCE as we exercise patience and show support, love and caring.


The question is:

Can we make this leap and view each person as a mystery...unfolding...and bless our role as witness to and supporter for that revelation?

                                                                                       
 
                                                                                              Marie Helena




image from stushieart.com

originally published June 26, 2012
 

More Than the Magic

Several years ago I found myself watching a PBS special presentation of Andre Rieu - Live in Dublin.  

For those of you who haven’t heard of Andre Rieu – he is a violinist/conductor/showman of world renown who usually gives concerts only in Europe but on that day I realized he would be appearing in the states that spring in Detroit.  I was elated to learn this because I had seen several of his concerts on PBS and, in fact, owned several DVD’s of  the concerts and nearly all of his CD’s.


Andre Rieu's music and the enchanting way he presents it speak to my soul.  The camera work  on an Italian production I’ve seen, for example, was amazing - simultaneously capturing the soulful artist center stage, the sweep of an enraptured European audience amid the beauty of an Italian piazza in the moonlit night and a close-up of a grandfatherly gentleman listening to Andre with emotion-filled eyes and a tear sliding down his face.  The thought of being a part of all this was compelling.  Just as I made a mental note to call about tickets the next day, I heard the TV commentator remark that the concert had been sold out, but that a local university was holding a block of tickets for its contributors.


I noticed the number of available tickets was rapidly decreasing each time the concert was interrupted by the broadcasters to make a sales pitch for contributions.  Suddenly, someone was saying there were only ten tickets left and I realized that if I didn’t act now, I would lose this glorious opportunity.  I picked up the phone and suddenly found myself making the $250 contribution to the university, ensuring my attendance at the fabulous concert.

My impulsive decision amazed me.  I had often wondered if  I could be so moved that I would spend the kind of money concert tickets usually cost.  And, here I was, making a $250 contribution to get me to that moment.  God bless the magic that moves us out of our every day lives!


The Andre Rieu concert in Detroit I so anxiously awaited that spring was held at the stately Fox Theater.  When I arrived that evening,I fond it teeming with people streaming into the lobby.  As I found my seat I was mesmerized by the ornate and delicate beauty of the theater’s ceiling.  I was thrilled to be sitting up so high.  Meanwhile, I had been muttering periodically to myself about not having remembered to bring binoculars, but I put that concern aside when Andre and the Johann Strauss Orchestra took the stage, individually marching up the center steps with great ceremony to the strains of “Entry of the Gladiators”. 

Dressed in ebony tuxes and elegant, iridescent gowns, the members of his orchestra looked ready to play for the Queen.  The audience members at the Fox Theater that night numbered five thousand and you could feel the anticipation and excitement in the full house as the maestro raised his violin.  Behind him sat his talented orchestra, heavily favoring violins and cellos, but the evening would prove they were very capably balanced by the brass and drum sections.

As usual,  the maestro immediately struck a warm and convivial note with the members of his audience, including them in his commentary and especially in his musical pranks which were sprinkled throughout the evening.  He and his orchestra and performers were treated to several standing ovations.  Three female soloists (two from Brazil and one from Holland) were flawless in their presentations.  I could not believe the fabulous acoustics in a theatre of this size. As they performed, the obvious delight of the maestro, the orchestra and soloists hung rapturously in the air.  At one point, Maestro Andre passionately proclaimed the Strauss family responsible for the best waltzes ever written, as he proudly introduced “The Blue Danube”.

Sitting next to me during the performance was another university supporter who had an injured back from a car accident.  I lent her my lumbar cushion which I had brought with me but didn’t need at this point and she generously lent me the use of the binoculars circulating within her party.

The magic continued until the last waltz played was hailed with a burst of colorful balloons from what seemed like the miles high ceiling.  I do not know what was more touching…the music or the joy of the people performing and listening to it.  I was so thankful for the intuitive leap which had prompted me to make the contribution and secure the accompanying concert ticket.


After the performance I hurried outside, hoping to get one of the first cabs I expected would be lining up in front of the theater.  As I looked around, I saw no cabs but instead what looked like a blockade of buses.  (The performance was being presented exclusively for patrons of PBS and it seemed many members of the audience had traveled to Detroit in their respective group transportation.)  Furthermore, there was apparently some sort of minor fracas going on between a policeman who refused to let the cabs double park because of the danger to patrons who might be running out in between buses and the doorman in red tails and black top hat who was trying to find cabs for the patrons.  

A few moments later the handsomely attired doorman confided to us affectionately that the policeman was causing him a great deal of trouble but he promised to help and smilingly continued to search for one of the cabs which he promised were even now circling the block.  Eventually, the two uniforms struck a compromise and the policeman promised to keep all of the buses away from the theaer entrance at the next performance.

Finally, a cab was found and I climbed into a back seat that was VERY tightly wedged behind a barrier separating me from the cab driver.  As the cab pulled away, I tried to engage the driver in some casual conversation about the traffic and endless construction and he told me in a voice heavy with contempt that Detroit was the worst place in the world in which to live.  He then announced that no one there was human.  When I asked him why he felt this way, he could only repeat his comment two or three more times and shake his head.  Feeling his pain, and because I make it a practice to be especially considerate to anyone whose pain is transforming his life force into cynicism, negativity or depression, I gave him a $7 tip for the five minute cab ride, but he seemed not to notice…or to care.

I was struck by the significance of the glorious festivities ending in this way and felt there was most definitely a lesson here.  That evening I had encountered so many faces of humanity:  the artistic genius of Andre Rieu, the joy and talent of his orchestra and performers, the elation of the audience in hearing the concert, the generosity of the woman in the next seat who lent her binoculars for my enjoyment, the jolly red-tail coated doorman, the policeman who eventually came to a compromise with the doorman regarding the “lost” cabs and, finally, the cab driver whose aura (had I been able to see it ) must have reflected the darkness of the night and of his psyche.  In the midst of the artistry, joy and exuberance of those attending and performing at the concert, here was this lonely, lost cab driver who seemed as if he had no drop of hope in the world to sustain him.

I pondered the amazing parade I had witnessed that evening and considered what part we had all played in this drama.


We are all responsible for the gifts and pain of the world.  Just that past week I had heard Carl Franklin, an international speaker with over thirty-five years of spiritual/metaphysical research, teaching, lecturing, and counseling, remark that reality as we experience it is shaped by mass human consciousness via the quantum field.  There is no speed limit here, he said.  The speed of thought is instantaneous.


In reflecting on this I asked myself what kind of thoughts and emotions have we all been projecting into the cosmos?  What caring and concern?  When have we ignored the suffering of humanity?  When have we answered its call?  We (every one of us) helped bring the joy of the glorious and amazing music to its manifestation at the concert and, equally, we helped shape the tragic sadness of the cab driver I encountered in the night.


We have all contributed to the collective energy which produced in the same evening the higher vibrations of exquisite artistry and, simultaneously, the lower cadences of hopelessness and despair.  The concert, I feel, represents the awesome joy that is possible and the cab driver the pain that must not be left unattended.


I received more than the gift of music the evening I attended the concert of Andre Rieu, more than just the magic.  I was also given a reminder of our common brotherhood and the responsibility of adding joy and love and, most especially, compassion to life.  As always, my intuition has been my great teacher and friend…and, in this moment, a conscience for humanity.


                           
                                                                                           Marie Helena




orchestra image from galleryhip.com

cab image from chachadiaries.blogspot.com