Wednesday, April 29, 2020

MAY 2020: The Currency of Love


“You are truly wealthy when you have something that money cannot buy." - Unknown

Many think only of money when pondering abundance and prosperity. But few would disagree that the first abundance is love. But what do most of us really know of the true nature of love? Many have spent a lifetime learning what love is not. Now the challenge is on to really take ourselves individually, and as a whole to the next levels of love. Our poverty will not uplift, enrich, support or create life. But our poverty observed has the potential to enlighten and teach us, and help us transcend belief systems surrounding lack and limitation, and allow ourselves to receive and create a life of true abundance, filled with love and blessings of all things needful.

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The video recording will be available for playback after the event.
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Sunday Talks with Rev. Renee Bledsoe
May 3 - The Currency of Lovee
May 10 - Mother's Day Celebration - All Abundance of the Goddess
May 17 - Soul Power with Rev. Maribel Figueroa
May 24 - Prosperity Consciousness
May 31 - Desire to Receive in Order to Share

“Life in abundance comes only through great love.” ~ Elbert Hubbard

Throughout our lives love takes many forms, assumes many faces, and takes us places both inwardly and outwardly that stretch and grow us. Always opening us to experience the unloveable, to allow us to create the space for true love and true abundance to enter our hearts, and infuse our lives.When we realize and truly open to the absolute abundance of love, it has no choice but to outpicture in our lives. 

"Abundance is not something we acquire. It is something we tune into." - Wayne Dyer

As we fill our daily existence with more expressions and opportunities to show love the universe responds. Lack is released and old belief systems about love, spirituality and religion, divinity, sexuality, partnership, friendship and prosperity start to shift and move, quake beneath our feet.

"Whatever we are waiting for – peace of mind, contentment, grace, the inner awareness of simple abundance – it will surely come to us, but only when we are ready to receive it with an open and grateful heart.” ~ Sarah Ban Breathnach

As we come to the realization that we are love, by practicing the art of love, new ideas and needs come into play that support the desire to release limiting beliefs, most especially about money. Money seems to be the paper equivalent of dynamite. If we hold and handle it correctly, with consciousness, care and respect, it can be utilized to great effect... but one false move... and boom.... total devastation. As with all things of great power this is true. Yet, if we kill the messenger, we never get the message. So what is the message of money?

“People with a scarcity mentality tend to see everything in terms of win-lose. There is only so much; and if someone else has it, that means there will be less for me. The more principle-centered we become, the more we develop an abundance mentality, the more we are genuinely happy for the successes, well-being, achievements, recognition, and good fortune of other people. We believe their success adds to…rather than detracts from…our lives.” ~ Stephen R. Covey

As we heal our relationship with money, and understand the energetics behind the paper and metal, we realize that we have been practicing with real world playthings that allow us to see how we are handling our dynamite... before it could blow us to bits. And some of us do get blown to bits, and in the process are released from the stranglehold of the little ego and the cosmic belief systems that have come to be attached to the money wound.

"Abundance doesn't follow giving until giving becomes its own reward." -Jan Denise

Money, like all things of great potential  tempts and calls us out like nothing else, with the exception of sex. Yet, we cannot blame the temptor. For if we do, we fall prey to the perpetuation of the old belief systems that say that money is bad, sex is bad and as Neale Donald Walsch says.... having alot of anything is bad. Inherently this is both true and false. It is a paradox. For we are really handing it to ourselves, testing ourselves and working with our ability to release our selfish separate selves that are driven by lack.

"The universe operates through dynamic exchange… giving and receiving are different aspects of the flow of energy in the universe. and in our willingness to give that which we seek, we keep the abundance of the universe circulating in our lives." ~Deepak Chopra

Our soul's are stalking us. The different aspects of ourselves are weighing in, counterbalancing and allowing us to attenuate the expression of our soul in the physical. So the truth is that while you are lost in lack and fear, you may well stay there... or by sheer force of will manhandle your way to apparent wealth. But the underlying energies of lack will remain no matter what has outpictures. For we do have the ability to work our will through the distortion of whatever belief system we are running it through.

“The world is full of abundance and opportunity, but far too many people come to the fountain of life with a sieve instead of a tank car… a teaspoon instead of a steam shovel. They expect little and as a result they get little.” ~ Ben Sweetland

As we continue to learn our lessons about proper energy management, and continue to open up to the glory of our own soul, we will ultimately begin to find our place, amongst our people, the world, and the entire cosmos. When we open up to the limitlessness of our souls, we find that the soul and the spirit are not bound up in lack. Yes, the soul may throw limitation your way, but it is largely for purposes of exploration and learning. When the soul's expression comes to meet the desire to receive in order to share, a very big portal and vortex of power begins to open within the mind, body, heart and soul connection to Spirit. And suddenly one day through this new, high and vital energy our perception shifts, and we realize that the Light, God or Higher Powers, Love and Money are all connected.

“To live a pure unselfish life, one must count nothing as one’s own in the midst of abundance.” ~ Buddha

As the realization unfolds and we actually perceive this not only inwardly, but outwardly, as well,our earthly possessions of all forms, including our money, our talents, our work, our energy, our light and our love go back from whence they came, and our absolute desire is to use the great gifts we've been given, in service to the Light and to bring even more love, joy, abundance and peace, creativity to the planet.  Furthermore, we come to the realization that our abundance was always there, and that all we have done is released the belief systems of lack and limitation, not because we've been wrong... but because we are ready to do more, take on more response-ability to bring love, and to allow ourselves to belong to the world.

This is true love... and that is true abundance. We do not attract what we want, we attract what we are. The power that is within us is beyond our conscious grasp, early in our human development. But when it is time to fly and we find our compassion and love for life has given our heart wings.
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AFFIRMATIONS
I see all the blessings that are bestowed upon me.
When I can see my blessings, I am grateful.
I do the work to see the light in my life.
It is my hearts desire to connect with the light of my soul.
The light of my soul guides me to my true calling.
My true calling knows no lack or limitation.
I no longer see limitation as lack.
I fill my heart with love and peace.
As I create with my hands my life is infused with creativity.
My creativity allows for positive expression.
I send blessings for the abundance of the world.
I am happy for others who are abundant.
I feel abundant in the Spirit.
I allow the abundance of Spirit to enter my heart.
As the abundance of Spirit enters my heart I am overflowing with love.
I open to more creative and responsible ways to express my soul and serve the world.
I am a New World Server who brings the Light and the Love of Creator to the earth.
As we formulate, invent, and create new energy becomes available to us all.
Our creations are connected.
When I am creative, I silently give others permission to create.
I am abundant in all things needful, both spiritual and material.
I am open to receiving what is necessary to continue in my life's mission.
My life mission and my purpose are important to us all.
As I step into my life purpose, I am instantly abundant.
I give to others that which I value in my life.
I activate the desire to receive in order to share.
I turn my physical bounty into spiritual gold.
As my purpose is realized I become responsive to the needs of my mission.
Generosity of Spirit and Gratitude for life is my True Abundance.
My abundance is backed in spiritual gold.
The currency of love is true abundance.

Saturday, April 4, 2020

APRIL 2020: The Great Web of Life

The first peace, which is the most important, is that which comes within the souls of people when they realize their relationship, their oneness with the universe and all its powers, and when they realize that at the center of the universe dwells the Great Spirit, and that this center is really everywhere, it is within each of us.
-Black Elk

No one is an island. We are all in this together. We are connected. Even if we understand these things to be true from a spiritual perspective, as well as the physical, how do we reconcile our loneliness in a world full of 7 billion people? There is a big difference in "knowing" that we are interconnected, and living as if we are. That is where the rubber meets the road.

"And I saw that the sacred hoop of my people as one of many hoops that made one circle." - Black Elk

We are all craving something we cannot name in our relationships, a warmth, a closeness, an intimacy. Yet, often when we have made ourselves vulnerable in this way, we were hurt, abused or ignored. This had the effect of closing our hearts down for a time, until the pain of a closed heart became more painful than opening up again and risking letting others in. Or, when others opened up to us we hurt them, even inadvertently because we didn't understand how vulnerable they felt. In relationships where people are not taking responsibility for their own feelings either way, this leads to the inevitable shutdown, because we do not know what true intimacy looks like, and certainly do not yet possess a healthy sense of self. After all part of our journey here is to learn how to love.

“One can acquire everything in solitude except character.” ― Stendhal

Conversely enough, since we exist relationally, we cannot get a sense of self without the contrast of each other. So as we go into pseudo relationship, pretending to be connected, but truly not we still do not learn how to love.  For we are very busy blaming other people for our relationships and forgetting that we are the common denominator in every single one of our relationships. Sometimes we are fortunate, with enough practice, to see a pattern emerging. When that happens we have the opportunity to understand that our whole process in relationship has not been some random propensity for isolation and suffering, but to introduce us to lost parts of our psyche. When we can clearly see this and make these connections there is a true softening of the heart and a coming to compassion for what has been at work in our lives.

What should young people do with their lives today? Many things, obviously. But the most daring thing is to create stable communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured.” ― Kurt Vonnegut

We must remember that what occurs in the 1% or 3 dimensional/ physical aspect of our lives is giving us clues about what is going on in the 99% or unseen aspects. If we are to bring heaven to earth in our relationships, we must realize that there is a great unknown that wants to be revealed here through the mystery of our relationships. For, we did not come here to get lost in a one on one relationship and never experience the depths of love that come from loving humanity and this creation as passionately as we do our lover. Our soul will not let us rest until we love God/dess and have a real relationship with our divinity and our creator. Therefore apparent separation has been a part of our soul's evolution... and could be thought of at this stage as more of an involution, or the inward enfolding of the heart becoming centered from within.

“Lovers must not, like usurers, live for themselves alone. They must finally turn from their gaze at one another back toward the community. If they had only themselves to consider, lovers would not need to marry, but they must think of others and of other things. They say their vows to the community as much as to one another, and the community gathers around them to hear and to wish them well, on their behalf and its own. It gathers around them because it understands how necessary, how joyful, and how fearful this joining is. These lovers, pledging themselves to one another "until death," are giving themselves away, and they are joined by this as no law or contract could join them. Lovers, then, "die" into their union with one another as a soul "dies" into its union with God. And so here, at the very heart of community life, we find not something to sell as in the public market but this momentous giving. If the community cannot protect this giving, it can protect nothing...” ― Wendell Berry

Even as we come into community and truly connect with all our relations, we must connect not only spiritually, but also emotionally, mentally and physically. We must connect socially. We must connect from within, and from our heart fields unfolding. We must also connect etherically. Yet, we will not do this until we are ready for a kind of intimacy that outstrips anything we have heretofor known. This comes through a series of initiations. These are initiations of the soul and hearts readiness to truly love. But it is not just a readiness of desire, for their are certain structures and measures of character that must be present and whole enough to truly love, and to be a strong container for divine love, or agape to be held on earth.

"And I saw that the sacred hoop of my people as one of many hoops that made one circle, wide as daylight and as starlight, and in the center grew one mighty flowering tree to shelter all the children of one mother and one father." - Black Elk

The subtleties of true community in the modern world are being forged behind the scenes right now within our very own community, and within our hearts. For we are practicing the art of true tribal community every day here. True community is about much more than getting together and beating on drums... or even doing sacred ceremony. It is not just about anything we could physically "do" together. It is about the spirit and consciousness with which we gather. it is about an understanding that even when we are not physically gathered that we are still connected. This makes the gathering times that much more meaningful. It is about Cosmic universal Truth, that is abiding, and a reverence for the sanctity of life and this whole creation, including the unseen worlds.

“A proper community, we should remember also, is a commonwealth: a place, a resource, an economy. It answers the needs, practical as well as social and spiritual, of its members - among them the need to need one another.” ― Wendell Berry

True tribal community is about resonance and a harmonic convergence of souls. It is about absolute abundance of all things needful both spiritual and material. When we are ready to be on the path of love and release ourselves from the severity and the suffering path, we will come into true community. For it is here that life lessons are no longer learned through unconsciousness and malevolent shennanigans. Lessons are learned through true love. We live by the golden rule, and that is to treat one another as we would like to be treated. But the jewel in the crown is that the members of the community have and understanding of their own divinity and they have or are rapidly abolishing any distortions around the way they want to be treated.

“Without God man neither knows which way to go, nor even understands who he is... One of the deepest forms of poverty a person can experience is isolation... Poverty is often produced by a rejection of God's love, by man's basic and tragic tendency to close in on himself, thinking himself to be self-sufficient or merely an insignificant and ephemeral fact, a "stranger" in a random universe...The human being develops when ... his soul comes to know itself and the truths that God has implanted deep within, when he enters into dialogue with himself and his Creator... It is not by isolation that man establishes his worth, but by placing himself in relation with others and with God.”  ― Pope Benedict XVI

True tribal community must emerge... naturally and organically, as a result of a recognition of a deep common ground in complete wholeness. Any one of the aspects missing will not build true community. We may not be an island, but we are certainly asked to go deep within, to make friends with solitude and to learn how to love and relate from the inside out. It is our community, these faces of God/dess that have helped us to defy gravity from within and allowed our individual souls to soar for all to see, experience and delight in. As this outpictures, the true community is not only there to support... but the real story is that they have been a part of the midwiving of each of us as a soul, all along.

“Men are free when they are obeying some deep, inward voice of belief. Obeying from within. Men are free when they belong to a living, organic, believing community, active in fulfilling some unfulfilled, perhaps unrealized purpose. Not when they are escaping to some wild west. The most unfree souls go west, and shout of freedom.”  ― D.H. Lawrence

Sunday Talks with Rev. Renee Bledsoe
April 05 - The Web of Life
April 12 - Easter Service: Awakening the Christ Consciousness - Celebrating 12 Year Anniversary of CoSL
April 19 -  Spiritual Partnership with Rev. Maribel Figueroa
April 26 - Heirarchy of Light

Affirmations

I am an integral part of my spiritual community.
I have something unique and precious to bring to my people and the world.
I allow myself to risk for love by being love.
If loving is my aim, then the very act of risk is the accomplishment.
I dare to love with my whole heart.
My love is my protection.
Divine love is my guide and my glory.
When I am truly loving, it is easy to allow others to be free.
My true community comes together on all levels of being.
My true community provides a safety net and a support structure so that each of us can flourish and evolve.
As I evolve, the love of my people slows me down and helps guide my choices for the highest good of all.
I trust in the light of my soul to guide us all to our greater good.
I am the light of my soul.
Spiritual partnership brings me onto the path of love.
I step fully onto the path of love and learn my life lesson through love and creativity.
I desire to receive in order to share God's love.
True community brings absolute abundance in all things.
There is always someone in my community who is willing to lend a hand.
I am of service to my community, as my soul's work is revealed.
I learn about how to be of proper service in true community.
I take my own council first through writing and meditation.
After I take my own council, I am open to receiving the wisdom of my community.
The small medicine wheel gives me the forum to receive the council of my community in a safe and sacred manner.
The small medicine wheel allows a holistic, synergistic message to emerge through the power of our kindred spirits.
I am victorious in love.
I am learning how to love like God/dess loves.
I am listening to my soul, even as it slowly and silently emerges.
The divine I AM presence within me comes forth more easily, as the oversoul of my spiritual community is revealed and strengthened.
I see my place in this world and am willing to take this rightful place.
I die the little ego deaths everyday if necessary to come into oneness with my tribe.
We are all connected by the creators love.
I see that love is the great connective force of this creation.
I am a loving, harmonizing force for good in the world.
I am connected soul to soul with all life.
I am awakening into Christ Consciousness.
All is my relation in the Great Web of Life.