Classroom Notes

 

I don't know how it works like this!  I write some thing and at the time I'm writing it, I'm quite sure I know the material ... or at least I know it well enough to say it!  Then, in this little classroom of mine, comes an exercise in life where I have an opportunity to apply the thing I have just learned. 

Sometimes, I apply it and I am filled with that feeling a person gets when they swing the bat and before the ball has even left the stick, they know they have hit a home run!  I love those glorious moments! 

Other times, I do okay on the test, but I wish I would have done better so I check back on my notes to review the chapter we just covered.

This week while walking in the woods, surrounded by fall's first blush under a clear blue sky, I couldn't help but smile thinking of the things I had written or said earlier this week.  

There's comfort in knowing that The Great Teacher knew before I knew what Chapter I was on.  Perhaps, you will smile too at the irony of it all ...

 

Last week, my notes said ...



COUNTING OUR SISTERS TEARS

Women have wept at the start, the duration, and the end of every single war, every skirmish, every battle, every act of terrorism, every gang fight, every drive-by shooting, every bombing, every violence committed against any one of us.
And while our sisters weep, where are you?

NAVIGATING THE STREAM ... GOING WITH THE FLOW 

That doesn't mean we don't have a choice in what we do.  We did and we do.  We chose THIS place!  If this is where we are at ... we must be here for a reason ... so let me look around and see what there is to see ... What lesson does today hold for me? 

There is no reason to lose our peace or give up our joy by getting bogged down in regrets or guilt or worry!  Relax ... ENJOY the moment.  Quit looking back ... Put down the map and the plan book and the to-do lists and look around at this BEAUTIFUL day!

 

It's your's to do WHATEVER you want with it!  Make it a good day!

Footnote:  Just as I finished my thought, I took a break to read some of my emails, and this was in this morning's mail!    

" ... Going with the flow means that we are aware of an energy that is larger than our small selves and we are open to working with it, not against it.

Many of us are afraid of going with the flow because we don't trust that we will get where we want to go if we do. This causes us to cling to plans that aren't working, stick to routes that are obstructed, and obsess over relationships that aren't fulfilling. When you find yourself stuck in these kinds of patterns, do yourself a favor and open to the flow of what is rather than resisting it.

 

Trust that the big river of your life has a plan for you and let it carry you onward ..."

How cool is that?!!!  I get goose bumps every single time THAT happens ... where I am thinking, writing or talking about a thing and I pick up a book or read an email or see a magazine article that adds to the thought in the most beautiful way ...

 

Every SINGLE day has something new for us to learn ... if we just go with the flow.  Keep our eyes open. 

 

What TRUTH will float your way today?


AWAKENING THE INNER WARRIOR

Yesterday, I read about going with the flow and today, I read about awakening the inner warrior!  Somehow, that makes sense to me because life is a balance between the two.  Trusting that your life is unfolding as it is supposed to creates an inner peace and calm, a reservoir of strength.  But, there are times when you are called to defend yourself, your family, your friends, even your country.  My Mom used to say, "If you don't stand for SOME THING, you will fall for anything."

I have two sides to me, and you probably do too? ... The side that is capable of walking away from insignificant and unnecessary drama ... and another side that is ready, willing and able to throw my hat in the ring!

A warrior is someone with the strength to stand up for what he or she believes; someone who perseveres in the face of challenges and obstacles; someone who speaks and acts in the service of an ideal; someone who protects those who are too weak to fight for themselves.

The warrior archetype is alive and well in me ... but warriors know who the REAL ENEMIES are ... and sometimes, the enemy is me!

... What tools are worthy of a Successful Warrior?
   

Courage, Wisdom, Integrity, Hope, Faith, Discernment, Intuition, Empathy, a working Knowledge of How To Heal yourself and others, Love, Joy, Patience, Kindness (not everyone is your enemy), Goodness, Kindness, Self-Control ... to name just a few, but you can probably think of a few more traits ...

There is a hero in all of us ... an inner strength at the core of our being ... It's the part of us that rises up to protect ... We really can be our own hero!

God grant me the Serenity
to accept the things I cannot change

The COURAGE TO CHANGE the things I can
And the WISDOM to know the difference

  

TOUCHED BY THE SHADOW OF HAWKS

(I wrote about watching two Red Tail Hawks playing in a piece of sky over my yard that day) 

Hawk Medicine  ~  The Power Of Perspective

Hawks have the power to soar high above the earth, giving them a perspective previously only available to the inhabitants of the heavens above. Because of this, people from various cultures throughout history have seen them as messengers of spirit, bringing wisdom from the heavens and the value of their higher vision down to earth. From their vantage point, riding on the wind and sunlight, they remind us today that there is a bigger picture to be seen. When we get bogged down with the details of what is right in front of us, hawks help us remember that we are part of a larger plan and that everything fits together beautifully and perfectly ...

Hawks were thought to be able to look directly into the sun and see what is not visible to the rest of us. Using our spiritual vision, we too can look deeply into the inner light that guides us, seeing clearly what is not visible unless sought: our personal truth glowing within us.

The hawk's ability to live on land but visit the sky is a good reminder for us all. They remind us that their strength and survival comes from communing regularly with the spirit and bringing the guidance received into earthly affairs.

Recovery requires that we GET REAL with ourselves and others.  We begin to live a more ordered life on the edge of a much calmer sea  ...  When I am less consumed with my worries and troubles, my intuition and perception is able to stretch much further than it ever has! 

I'm telling you the absolute TRUTH.  It's like Gandhi said, IF YOU WISH FOR CHANGE, BE THE CHANGE!

I am a quite ordinary woman who has found the most extraordinary life and I want to share the possibility of such a life with you ... because HEALING is possible for all of us. 

THANK GOD, IT'S FRIDAY !!!

"Intelligence could damage me if thought wasn't experienced with emotion and wit wasn't tempered with COMPASSION."

                                                     - Author, Kay Gibbons

(Here, I am acknowledging that there are bad people on the Internet.  I have seen them before so why should I ever be surprised to see one again?  It's the Internet!)

When I first came to the stream, I had met some pretty mean people on-line, people who play games and do hurtful things just because they can.  They are anonymous bullies ... who use the fact that you don't know them and can't trace them ... to say and do all the things they'd never have the courage to say or do if they were standing RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU.  The first few times I was contacted here, I wondered if some of you were one of them, playing a trick on me ...

(switched from talking about the Internet in general to talking about you here) 

Your words and your images are so beautiful!  Your words inspire me.  Your words encourage me.  Your words challenge me.  Your words cheer me.  Sometimes, I feel like a little kid, listening to you tell me a story, and I can't wait to see how it will end!  I just know it's going to be good!

Do I love you like your mother?  No.  Do I love you like your best friend?  No.  Do I love you enough to say a prayer?  Yes.  Do I love you enough to help you if I can?  Yes.  Do I ask you for anything in return?  No.  You already gave me the greatest gift.  You shared a few moments of your heart, and you have such a GOOD heart!

So,do I mean it when I say I LOVE YOU?  Yes.  Absolutely.  Who wouldn't love you?  You're WONDERFUL!

Repeating what I said last week, you all make me wonder what would happen if we all listened to the people in our lives as well as we read the stories here?  How much better would our worlds be?  Think of the bridges that would be built and the walls that would be torn down!

You taught me that my hurt might be different from your hurt but getting over hurt is the same for all of us. 

Just recently, I read:

Don't we know, only too well, that protection from pain doesn't work, and that when we try to defend ourselves from suffering, we only suffer more and don't learn what we can from the experience?

The protected heart that is “never exposed to loss, innocent and secure, cannot know tenderness; only the won-back heart can ever be satisfied: free, through all it has given up, to rejoice in its mastery.”

My heart was broken.  Your heart may have been broken too?  But you and I can heal!  I understand what they mean when he wrote about the "won-back heart" because I worked really hard to win back my heart and my soul.  That broken place was not going to be where I stopped!  Brokenness can be just the beginning we need to get into those deep places we have spent years trying to hide!

It's okay.  Don't be afraid.

Our creator placed all the riches we seek inside each of us, but sometimes, it takes an avalanche or an earthquake to shake us all the way down to our foundation so that we can see the riches that are inside of us!

Being a victim of abuse was my earthquake.  Losing a loved one or even losing a dream could be your avalanche.  But that horrible place is not the end.  It's the beginning.  It is the way for us to get our "won back heart"!

Celebrating our journeys and the chance to share this part of the journey with YOU!





LOL ... I really need to quit day-dreaming in class!

 

I don't know if you can read my notes and see the same things I see ... but what I saw when I read back over my notes was that there really is a plan to my life ... to all our lives.  The being that I call God is planting truth and instruction before I even know that I know it or need it!  Sometimes, I remember every word.  Sometimes, I don't ... but because He loves me, He keeps on planting His little truths ... It's humbling to know that He cares that much for me ... AND awesome to know that He cares that much for ALL OF YOU too and He does it all at the same time!

 

Maybe, that little voice inside us is the part of us that logs and saves those truths for when He knows we will need it?

This week, He used all of you to remind me that because He is planting little seeds of truth and instruction in you too ... that when I get scared, I need to trust that you are there to see the thing I might not see ... even when we don't agree ... that we are sharing this classroom for a reason bigger than you and bigger than me or we simply would not be there.

I am not suggesting that we all bend to each other like floppy, wilted plants!  I am suggesting that this is His garden and He knows ahead of time when we will need to stand in each other's shade.

Thank you for being here with me this week.  I learned from all of you.