Anyone who truly wants to experience love has to be ready to delve into ALL of love, the two sides of love.The one side you dream and fantasize about that is readily described in romantic novels, as well as the side that rarely gets mentioned, the side that encompasses unconditional love.
So what is love? Like anything in life, love is composed of it's opposites, to be what it is. Love, a feeling, an emotion, is probably the most written about topic of all times. Love, to many, is the feeling of God. The feeling of the Divine. The feeling that says "all is perfect, all is beautiful, all is well."If everything in life must have it's opposite to make it complete, to make it known, then love is also vulnerability, insecurity, and jealousy, for without these aspects of love, the feelings of being "perfect, beautiful, Divine and well", could not be felt.Identical to the thought that if we never had night, we could not experience day, if we never knew insecurity we'd never experience the security that love can offer. They must go hand in hand.
In my practice, I often share with clients that if they truly want to experience the deepest of love than they must be willing to also experience the deepest pain, loss, vulnerability and hurt that this quest for love may offer.Many of these emotions, the "other" side of love, can surface if we delve into the concept of unconditional love. Unconditional love is the other part of love that most of us give lip service to, but never really have the intention of practicing. To love someone unconditionally means exactly what it says, without conditions. I love you even if "you don't do as I ask,don't make the money I'd like you to make, don't have the body I want you to have, or don't communicate with me the way I want you to communicate". In other words, I will love you at the deepest level regardless of what you do or do not do.
When we start to love someone at this level, we can be assured that for a while, it will scare the heck out of us. We release our ego through the practice of unconditional love and move to a place of pure acceptance. We toss out the fantasy of having a partner that falls into a certain role, and accept the human side of their existence. This is where we often experience the dark side of our own emotions, fears and insecurities as we allow our partner the space to become their own person without limits or expectations. Again, the fantasy that we have created since childhood gets blasted away, and in it's place we become strong enough, and loving enough, to allow them to live the life they desire.Within this union, real love can exist. Within this type of relationship, we experience the deepest love for ourselves as we allow our partner more space to grow than they ever could have imagined.
When someone feels this type of love coming from you, the will often respond with the same depth in return. The kind of depth that will awaken a new sense of ecstasy within you that may just blow the doors off of anything you could have imagined.The best way that I have seen this happen is when two people come together and make a conscious decision to discuss this path of unconditional love as a goal that they would like to share. They can then regularly talk honestly about how they are each doing, in a non confrontational and supportive way. While it can also occur without consciousness, the chances of it lasting at this level becomes more of a challenge.
So, now the question lies with you. What do you want when it comes to love? Are you ready to experience the two sides of love in order to reach the zenith of Divine Union or unconditional love? Or, do you want to continue to hold onto the "fantasy love, fantasy partner" that our society continues to promote as realistic to obtain even though we know it is not?I'd love for you to make a conscious decision today, and then be willing to live with your notion of love. On the one hand is the superficial love filled with shallowness and disappointment from a lover that could never rise to your expectations. Or on the other, is a lover that feels free as a bird, and offers the same freedom in return as you both fly into uncharted territories. A love relationship that offers a connection unknown to most, carried by a current of vulnerability that will stretch you beyond your own wildest dreams. A love that guarantees a soul connection so deep when you make love, one that you could never have created in all of your dreams, even if all you had was time to dream. The two sides of love. The option is yours.
Whatever you desire, so it shall be.
Slow down.Love, peace, Rev. David Essel www.talkdavid.com
Posted by David Essel at 7:06 PM 0 comments Links to this post
Monday, April 27, 2009
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Sunday, April 12, 2009
My visit to the Catholic Church
So much has changed over the years when it comes to most of the major Christian churches, and that was evident during my recent work with a Catholic church in Syracuse N.Y.
My former elementary school, St Rose of Lima, combined with another local school St Margaret's, invited me to be the guest speaker at their annual workshop on Faith and Spirituality.
It was quite an honor to be asked, as it had been a number of years since I had been there, and to bring in a speaker who just happens to be an All Faith Minister, was a beautiful sign at how the church has continued evolving.
What really blew my mind though was when they asked if I would do the sermon at the mass following my workshop! At first I was sure I was misreading the email!!
My sister, Marydiane Scheemaker, was the go between, as she's a teacher at St Rose. When she assured me that this was the case, that I would be doing the sermon based on a reading from the Gospel according to Mark, I was elated!
The nuns and teachers there, all 50 of them, including one of the priests from St Margaret's who was just an amazing man, were such a joy to work with, and overly supportive of my day with them.
Oftentimes, we pay too much attention to the media hype when it comes to all that is wrong with our religions these days, or from caustic comments from disgruntled congregants.
Or, worse yet, we only remember from our childhood what we DID NOT like about our religious upbringing, instead of what was beautiful about it.
I thank both of these churches for their open arms, and how they are changing with the times, without losing their beauty.
In our church, the Church of Spiritual Light, we relish the chance to honor many rituals from the Catholic church, the church I was raised in, as well as many other religious and spiritual rituals from a variety of faiths.
And do you know what?
They are ALL beautiful, ALL from God.
Love, Rev. David Essel
My former elementary school, St Rose of Lima, combined with another local school St Margaret's, invited me to be the guest speaker at their annual workshop on Faith and Spirituality.
It was quite an honor to be asked, as it had been a number of years since I had been there, and to bring in a speaker who just happens to be an All Faith Minister, was a beautiful sign at how the church has continued evolving.
What really blew my mind though was when they asked if I would do the sermon at the mass following my workshop! At first I was sure I was misreading the email!!
My sister, Marydiane Scheemaker, was the go between, as she's a teacher at St Rose. When she assured me that this was the case, that I would be doing the sermon based on a reading from the Gospel according to Mark, I was elated!
The nuns and teachers there, all 50 of them, including one of the priests from St Margaret's who was just an amazing man, were such a joy to work with, and overly supportive of my day with them.
Oftentimes, we pay too much attention to the media hype when it comes to all that is wrong with our religions these days, or from caustic comments from disgruntled congregants.
Or, worse yet, we only remember from our childhood what we DID NOT like about our religious upbringing, instead of what was beautiful about it.
I thank both of these churches for their open arms, and how they are changing with the times, without losing their beauty.
In our church, the Church of Spiritual Light, we relish the chance to honor many rituals from the Catholic church, the church I was raised in, as well as many other religious and spiritual rituals from a variety of faiths.
And do you know what?
They are ALL beautiful, ALL from God.
Love, Rev. David Essel
Monday, April 6, 2009
Friday, April 3, 2009
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Your Calling
| The Bridge ~ Reminder #67 Your Calling Your purpose is to be revealed to you so that you can spread your wings and cover this Earth with that which is your creation From the time that we were small children, we've been taught to mind our manners and to be like everybody else. We're told that it's respectful of others to practice certain courtesies, and that's fine, as long as we don't become slaves to what other people think or say about us. Taken too far, our conformity keeps us living in a subtle, but very real, state of fear. We become afraid of acting differently than everyone else around us. Even when our heart tells us to do something one way, our social consciousness screams out to do it another way, lest we draw too much attention to ourselves. And all too often, our fear wins out. To experience your highest calling, we must break the mold. We must do things not as others do, but as our heart bids us to do. It helps us to remember that we can have it all. We can have our cake and eat it too. It's entirely possible to combine what is helpful to others with that which is enjoyable to ourselves. The Buddhists call it living our dharma, while in the West we know it best as recognizing and following our calling. You know when you're following your calling. Everything fits snugly into place. Synchronistic events are everyday fare. Life gets easy. When you're truly being of service and living your calling, all of the guesswork is removed from your life. You're always in the right place at the right time. You feel different because your body is carrying a higher frequency that attracts others to you. The people you're supposed to be working with always show up, as if by magic. Your whole world becomes a delight to live in because you're committed to doing the work that your soul calls you to do. It's clear that many of us are realizing that we made an agreement before we came into these bodies, that we would come together at a certain time in order to bring light and love onto this planet and to usher in a golden age. Some have forgotten and some just have a feeling, like an inkling of a long-lost dream, that there really is a reason for us to be here now. In either case, on one level or another, we are all experiencing a movement toward looking at life from the perspective of the soul and the soul group - a perspective of having made agreements and arrangements to come here and meet together with other souls and soul groups - and then join together - so that we can assist in raising the vibration of this planet. This is what is being remembered at this time; and it is this movement which will, in fact, bring the golden age into manifestation. From The Highest Light Teachings My Intention for today is: Source: The Bridge - Intenders fo the Highest Good |
Friday, March 27, 2009
The Alchemy of Addiction
by Renee Bledsoe
Addiction typically makes us feel weak, out of control and self-destructive. We think that we have no will power and are weak willed. We may even think we are unredeamable, a lost cause, blocked, too far gone, hooked, out there, too weird, stupid, ignorant, broken and possibly just plain dumb. I would agree that if this is how we are feeling, then this is in fact our reality. Yet even these lower levels of reality have doorways into new tracks of thinking. For there is nothing that can help us jump track quicker than overwhelming pain, doubt, fear and humiliation which can often give us a glimpse of another world, even if it is something that we can't quite put our finger on yet. Because there is much more here than meets the eye and somewhere in our heart and soul we know it. There is a mystery here and it is begging to be solved. Our soul is trying to get our attention. And if we will sit with and be still and let our spirit communicate with us in language and symbol, rather than through our own bewildering behavior and polluted thoughts we will start to see an alternate and even a parallel reality...not in some metaphysical airy fairy way, but with our physical eyes and even our logical mind!
In the concrete levels of reality we may be doctors, lawyers, accountants, janitors, librarians, college students, homemakers, technicians, life coaches, psychotherapists, financial planners, soldiers, teachers, self-employed or unemployed. We may drink, take drugs, get depressed, overeat, under eat, work too much, volunteer too much, give too much, take too much, try to control everything, get cancer, steal, rape and kill. But amidst all that even in the lower levels, the good, the bad and the ugly we are also lightworkers, angels incarnate, bodhisattvas, shamans, exorcists and alchemists. We are human. We are divine. Above all we are healers in whatever it is that we do. Many of us, however, may have started to notice that the vanquishing of one addiction leads to ever increasing levels of sobriety in multiple arenas of our life. And if denial is allowed to continue to peel away we may be staggered at the sheer volume of layered and hidden addictions that are often covered in "goodness" and repression. Crafty, resourceful and clever are we! Yet as we bravely continue to face our darkness, some can see the addictions peeling away often in quantum leaps as we excavate our soul and bring in the Light. And this is where our treasure is buried.
Addiction is the path of the earth/spirit warrior. It's what we came here to conquer. It has taken us thousands of years to even recognize and understand our "foe". All darkness and negativity arises out of the addictive process. We walk into this battle in spite of our fear, not because we don't feel it, but because we know that who we really are and what we can evolve into makes it necessary to engage with our own personal Armageddon. Some of us have seen what is on the other side of our pain and fear and we have been forever changed because of it. We have taken our base metal, our base nature, and allowed it to transform us into something very precious. We have transmuted our darkness into golden light. We emerge victorious in complete freedom. We are freedom fighters of the highest order, but we do not resist our enemy. We turn it to the Light and use it against itself. We tune the frequencies of addiction, compulsion and codependency into their opposite spectrums of devotion, sacred ceremony and unconditional love. We see the interplay of shadow and light and we honor our personal paths to freedom. Our mission, quite simply, is to free our spirit and soul to manifest on the physical plane and to evolve into our full human potential to create a life worth living.
Addictions are simply pointing out to us how much freedom we are willing to allow ourselves. Addictions whet our appetite for true freedom and make us hunger for something more. They give us a peak at our capacity for passion, devotion and true love. Addictions will ring our bell. And the bell tolls for each of us, for our connection to our highest self, the part of us that is limitless and free. These are not just any bells, but wedding bells heralding a mystical marriage, the union of our body and spirit. Our soul is knocking at our door, like an ardent lover come calling and asking for our hand. And it won't let up, because this is a divine union that no man can put asunder, not even ourselves.
Addiction is the ringbearer of our soul, cavorting down the aisle, maybe shirt tail askew, but nevertheless, bringing the ring. And in the marriage lies the paradox, for at the moment of joining and commitment something new is born self to Self, like Beauty and the Beast. Something so grand, so magnificent that it remains unnamable until that very moment. And that something is a new version of our former selves that may be barely recognizable to our own earthbound eyes. This is the promise of the union. And in that moment we come to know that there is no other way but to let freedom ring. Resistance is not only futile, it is not necessary. For this is not about being safe, this is about being free. This is not about fear, this is about overflowing, never ending, eternally abundant love. And this love can only be experienced in true freedom.
Once this fight for true freedom, not just sobriety is engaged, the mundane ceases to exist and the exhilaration of the true nature of the heart and soul begins to take root. So when we reach this place, and make our way through hell and back and see what awaits on the other side of addiction and crisis, we are transformed into freedom fighters who come back to run rescue operations on those who still suffer. And we come back not out of duty or obligation, but because we have been re-programmed through the circuitry of our heart and soul to assist others on their journey to the other side, because what we have seen, what we have become, what we carry back with us is this amazing grace which now clings to our body and soul like a new garment.
We know that if nothing more than through a smile, a kind word, a hug, a listening ear we carry within us the unspeakably rare and precious antidote to all addiction: compassion, forgiveness, unconditional love and self love. This is love incarnate. Many of us are invisible warriors, no longer engaged in codepent "fixing". We understand the art of doing without doing. We understand power versus force at its truest essence. For us, a smile is no longer just a smile, but a way to set body chemistry aright, to shine a ray of love out into the world and a sign of affection for its witnesses. It is a beam of love projecting and connecting to sources by most unseen, triggering an avalanche of support and energy. A thesis could be written on the power and beauty of a single smile if we only knew. This knowledge, wisdom such as this, quietly integrated into a life is what makes all the difference. Awareness of simple, quiet, unsung everyday miracles, is the lightworkers way.
As we unveil our power the implications of this at first looms large. For we now know that we are a healer and a lightworker and we know that this is what we have resisted all along. And we know that this is what was being born within us, honed and crafted in the womb of our soul. Finally, we begin to see the power and the glory of the kingdom accessible through our spirit made manifest in the flesh. And we now know without one shadow of doubt that we are divine. Before these words were at best allegory and at worst not applicable, now this concept is self-evident because it has been cross-stiched and interwoven into our experience in a manner as radiant and dependable as the rising sun. And what's more, because we know who and what we are, we now know that human...all humans....even the drunks, the robbers, and the junkies are also, divine. We know that even when WE were at our worst we were still divine.
Our soul starts to tickle us with inklings of the limitlessness and the possibilities. And when we realize that we have tracked our personal mystery down and jumped into an alternate reality, something clicks inside of us and life becomes an amazing adventure. Pain and suffering no longer have the bite they once had, perceptions are clearer, thoughts are purer and love is truer. Life is good, even when weird things are happening. Being human isn't what we thought it once was at all. And we are sobered to realize that there is always going to be more. And the knowledge that we are standing on the shoulders of the way we used to be brings us tears of gratitude. And the knowledge that one day we will stand on the shoulders of the way we are now gives us the three things we cannot be without: Faith in what we cannot now see, Hope that there is an eternal will to good at work in the world, and Love and appreciation of all creation, including and most especially ourselves. And this changes everything, even as it changes nothing.
This is the path, the path of addiction, a sacred pathway to healing, enlightenment, empowerment, wisdom and awareness. We find that this dirty, humble road we've been traveling has been swept clean to reveal just below the surface a street of gold. The wheel comes full turn, the snake is eating its tail and worlds are without end, kingdoms and places in the soul as yet to be discovered beckon us on to adventure. The process of addiction has alchemically changed our soul. Quite simply our addiction has helped us give birth to a new consciousness and opens the door of everything that has been waiting inside of us. It activates our ability to create the reality of heaven on earth. This is the Alchemy of Addiction.
Addiction typically makes us feel weak, out of control and self-destructive. We think that we have no will power and are weak willed. We may even think we are unredeamable, a lost cause, blocked, too far gone, hooked, out there, too weird, stupid, ignorant, broken and possibly just plain dumb. I would agree that if this is how we are feeling, then this is in fact our reality. Yet even these lower levels of reality have doorways into new tracks of thinking. For there is nothing that can help us jump track quicker than overwhelming pain, doubt, fear and humiliation which can often give us a glimpse of another world, even if it is something that we can't quite put our finger on yet. Because there is much more here than meets the eye and somewhere in our heart and soul we know it. There is a mystery here and it is begging to be solved. Our soul is trying to get our attention. And if we will sit with and be still and let our spirit communicate with us in language and symbol, rather than through our own bewildering behavior and polluted thoughts we will start to see an alternate and even a parallel reality...not in some metaphysical airy fairy way, but with our physical eyes and even our logical mind!
In the concrete levels of reality we may be doctors, lawyers, accountants, janitors, librarians, college students, homemakers, technicians, life coaches, psychotherapists, financial planners, soldiers, teachers, self-employed or unemployed. We may drink, take drugs, get depressed, overeat, under eat, work too much, volunteer too much, give too much, take too much, try to control everything, get cancer, steal, rape and kill. But amidst all that even in the lower levels, the good, the bad and the ugly we are also lightworkers, angels incarnate, bodhisattvas, shamans, exorcists and alchemists. We are human. We are divine. Above all we are healers in whatever it is that we do. Many of us, however, may have started to notice that the vanquishing of one addiction leads to ever increasing levels of sobriety in multiple arenas of our life. And if denial is allowed to continue to peel away we may be staggered at the sheer volume of layered and hidden addictions that are often covered in "goodness" and repression. Crafty, resourceful and clever are we! Yet as we bravely continue to face our darkness, some can see the addictions peeling away often in quantum leaps as we excavate our soul and bring in the Light. And this is where our treasure is buried.
Addiction is the path of the earth/spirit warrior. It's what we came here to conquer. It has taken us thousands of years to even recognize and understand our "foe". All darkness and negativity arises out of the addictive process. We walk into this battle in spite of our fear, not because we don't feel it, but because we know that who we really are and what we can evolve into makes it necessary to engage with our own personal Armageddon. Some of us have seen what is on the other side of our pain and fear and we have been forever changed because of it. We have taken our base metal, our base nature, and allowed it to transform us into something very precious. We have transmuted our darkness into golden light. We emerge victorious in complete freedom. We are freedom fighters of the highest order, but we do not resist our enemy. We turn it to the Light and use it against itself. We tune the frequencies of addiction, compulsion and codependency into their opposite spectrums of devotion, sacred ceremony and unconditional love. We see the interplay of shadow and light and we honor our personal paths to freedom. Our mission, quite simply, is to free our spirit and soul to manifest on the physical plane and to evolve into our full human potential to create a life worth living.
Addictions are simply pointing out to us how much freedom we are willing to allow ourselves. Addictions whet our appetite for true freedom and make us hunger for something more. They give us a peak at our capacity for passion, devotion and true love. Addictions will ring our bell. And the bell tolls for each of us, for our connection to our highest self, the part of us that is limitless and free. These are not just any bells, but wedding bells heralding a mystical marriage, the union of our body and spirit. Our soul is knocking at our door, like an ardent lover come calling and asking for our hand. And it won't let up, because this is a divine union that no man can put asunder, not even ourselves.
Addiction is the ringbearer of our soul, cavorting down the aisle, maybe shirt tail askew, but nevertheless, bringing the ring. And in the marriage lies the paradox, for at the moment of joining and commitment something new is born self to Self, like Beauty and the Beast. Something so grand, so magnificent that it remains unnamable until that very moment. And that something is a new version of our former selves that may be barely recognizable to our own earthbound eyes. This is the promise of the union. And in that moment we come to know that there is no other way but to let freedom ring. Resistance is not only futile, it is not necessary. For this is not about being safe, this is about being free. This is not about fear, this is about overflowing, never ending, eternally abundant love. And this love can only be experienced in true freedom.
Once this fight for true freedom, not just sobriety is engaged, the mundane ceases to exist and the exhilaration of the true nature of the heart and soul begins to take root. So when we reach this place, and make our way through hell and back and see what awaits on the other side of addiction and crisis, we are transformed into freedom fighters who come back to run rescue operations on those who still suffer. And we come back not out of duty or obligation, but because we have been re-programmed through the circuitry of our heart and soul to assist others on their journey to the other side, because what we have seen, what we have become, what we carry back with us is this amazing grace which now clings to our body and soul like a new garment.
We know that if nothing more than through a smile, a kind word, a hug, a listening ear we carry within us the unspeakably rare and precious antidote to all addiction: compassion, forgiveness, unconditional love and self love. This is love incarnate. Many of us are invisible warriors, no longer engaged in codepent "fixing". We understand the art of doing without doing. We understand power versus force at its truest essence. For us, a smile is no longer just a smile, but a way to set body chemistry aright, to shine a ray of love out into the world and a sign of affection for its witnesses. It is a beam of love projecting and connecting to sources by most unseen, triggering an avalanche of support and energy. A thesis could be written on the power and beauty of a single smile if we only knew. This knowledge, wisdom such as this, quietly integrated into a life is what makes all the difference. Awareness of simple, quiet, unsung everyday miracles, is the lightworkers way.
As we unveil our power the implications of this at first looms large. For we now know that we are a healer and a lightworker and we know that this is what we have resisted all along. And we know that this is what was being born within us, honed and crafted in the womb of our soul. Finally, we begin to see the power and the glory of the kingdom accessible through our spirit made manifest in the flesh. And we now know without one shadow of doubt that we are divine. Before these words were at best allegory and at worst not applicable, now this concept is self-evident because it has been cross-stiched and interwoven into our experience in a manner as radiant and dependable as the rising sun. And what's more, because we know who and what we are, we now know that human...all humans....even the drunks, the robbers, and the junkies are also, divine. We know that even when WE were at our worst we were still divine.
Our soul starts to tickle us with inklings of the limitlessness and the possibilities. And when we realize that we have tracked our personal mystery down and jumped into an alternate reality, something clicks inside of us and life becomes an amazing adventure. Pain and suffering no longer have the bite they once had, perceptions are clearer, thoughts are purer and love is truer. Life is good, even when weird things are happening. Being human isn't what we thought it once was at all. And we are sobered to realize that there is always going to be more. And the knowledge that we are standing on the shoulders of the way we used to be brings us tears of gratitude. And the knowledge that one day we will stand on the shoulders of the way we are now gives us the three things we cannot be without: Faith in what we cannot now see, Hope that there is an eternal will to good at work in the world, and Love and appreciation of all creation, including and most especially ourselves. And this changes everything, even as it changes nothing.
This is the path, the path of addiction, a sacred pathway to healing, enlightenment, empowerment, wisdom and awareness. We find that this dirty, humble road we've been traveling has been swept clean to reveal just below the surface a street of gold. The wheel comes full turn, the snake is eating its tail and worlds are without end, kingdoms and places in the soul as yet to be discovered beckon us on to adventure. The process of addiction has alchemically changed our soul. Quite simply our addiction has helped us give birth to a new consciousness and opens the door of everything that has been waiting inside of us. It activates our ability to create the reality of heaven on earth. This is the Alchemy of Addiction.
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