April 2014: All My Relations

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 tribal 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 community every day here. Tribal community is about much more than getting together and banging 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 06 - Tribal Community: All My Relations
April 13 - Spiritual Partnership - Celebrating 6 Year Anniversary!
               Potluck Immediately following service
April 20 - The Web of Life - Easter Service Church in Circle
April 28 - 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.
All are my relations.

EFT Tapping and Releasing Technique

EFT Tapping and Releasing Technique 10:00 – 11:30am, 2nd and 4th Monday, every month with Jenny Li Ciccone Joyful Journey – Mind Coaching Mind Coach - EFT Tapping and Releasing Technique Career/Life transition 

Discover/Unblock/Shift/Move Forward into a lighter and happier place – for meaning, purpose, joyfulness. Through my own life transformation, I receive and follow my call, to assist people for their career/life transition through mindset shift. I use self help tools - EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) and Release Technique, to help people discover their unaware negative mind patterns and hidden inner blockages; to release negative mind/emotion energy, and to shift and move forward into a lighter and happier place, with meaning, purpose, and joyfulness. jenny.ciccone@joyfuljourneycoaching.net www.joyfuljourneycoaching.net Phone: 239 851-5415

Goddess Shines Circle

"And for those who seek for me, know that seeking and yearning shall avail you not unless you know the mystery; that if that which you seek you find not within,  you will never find it without. For behold, I have been with you from the beginning; and I am that which is attained at the end of desire” ― Doreen Valiente

Join us as we celebrate a unique aspect of the Mother God energy each month. Come celebrate and explore the Divine Feminine within, that aspect of you that receives all the abundance and blessings that are at hand, that part of you that nurtures through complete acceptance of what is, and allows beauty to flow with passion and grace. Inside everyone, both man and woman is the Goddess in all her forms, the loving Mother, the pure Maiden and the wise Matriarch. This group is for women, and any man brave enough to venture in.

Meets the 4th Friday of the month.
Hosted at: Church of Spiritual Light, 1939 Park Meadows Dr. #1, Fort Myers, FL 33907
Cost: $10
Facilitate by: Rev. Renee Bledsoe

Introspective Art Workshop

March 29th, 2014 - Saturday 4pm
Join us for this powerful new monthly series, Introspective Art Workshop, facilitated by soul artist, Jeni Willing. This workshop is designed to help people utilize art and creativity to express and learn more about themselves, so they can reap the benefits of its healing power, and enhance their creativity in all aspects of life.

Not so much concerned with the end result, Jeni is more focused on the process of creating from the heart and soul. This helps us to get in touch with forgotten, lost or unclaimed parts of our own selves. Jeni has created special art projects that anyone can do, to help this process along. Everything is done in a safe and supported environment. All are welcome!

Next date: March 29th, 2014 - Saturday 4pm
Cost: $10
Facilitated by: Jeni Willing
Contact: Jeni 239-770-4736 or Rev. Renee 239-560-6314
Hosted by Church of Spiritual Light 1939 Park Meadows Dr. #1, Ft. Myers, FL 33907
To benefit The People Shine Project

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About Jeni Willing
Jeni discovered her love and talent for art when she was in elementary school.  As adolescence and high school approached, she began to deepen her connection to art, as it provided comfort and even an escape from the trials and tribulations of teenage life.  She found herself using art as a tool for self expression, and a constructive way to release and deal with emotions.  Jeni was motivated by the feelings of her own creative power and began taking more and more art electives in high school.  The more she opened and exposed herself to the world of art and the many media options, the more solid her foundation became for her future in art.  

Jeni had always been a person who loved helping others so in college she majored in Art Therapy and minored in Psychology.  This seemed to be the perfect way to combine her passions.  She graduated with a Bachelors Degree in Art Therapy, continuing on to graduate school where she earned her Masters Degree in Agency and Community Counseling.  While going to graduate school she worked as an Activity Therapist on an inpatient mental health unit while continuing to create through painting, sketching and sculpting.

Jeni had her first real healing through art immediately after her grandfather passed away.  She was extremely close to her grandfather and was experiencing a tremendous amount of grief and sadness.  She wanted to honor him in a way she had never done before and was called to paint his portrait for his funeral.  The night before his funeral she began painting.  She had painted portraits before but she knew in her heart this one was going to be something far more powerful than she had created in the past.  The process was deeply and profoundly beautiful and healing.  She typically use acrylic paints and this time was no different.  She had a cup of water to use when blending and extending the wetness of the paint, and also for rinsing and cleaning the brushes.  Never did she use the cup of water for the purpose of painting, only for the rinsing.  As she began painting this angelic image of her grandfather appeared, the tears flowed from her eyes so perfectly that she was able to use her own tears as she would have that water.  For the first time in her creative life, Jeni's hands and creative actions were being directed by something far greater than her mere physicality and inherited talent.

No amount of art training or education could have prepared her for that spiritual and cathartic experience.  She was not the artist, She was merely the instrument for this amazing piece of art work.  She stood proudly the next day at her grandfather's funeral with his life essence present in that portrait she had just painted, and everyone who attended knew he was there.  Until a year ago, that was the last painting Jeni had completed.  The power of the process, clearly warranted a period a recovery, 11 years of recovery.  She slowly began to reopen her creative channels. Once she accepted and embraced the reality of her gift, and discovered that it is not only for her but also to share with others, the channels and her true purpose emerged.

Jeni wants to show people the healing power that this type of creation can provide.  It is her desire to teach people how to utilize art and the creative process to reach those aspects of their soul that need to be healed. She believes that the creation process is the most important part of the art.  The process itself evokes emotion, deeper understanding and allows the soul's truth to be spoken without words.   By creating art, the soul can be acknowledged seen and heard through a visible and tangible experience. The soul will find a way to be heard. To honor one's soul is to listen to its calling.  Jeni's soul stalked her for 11 years before she listened.   It is her hope that she may be able to provide a key that will unlock the creative spark in those that desire a new and exciting adventure in healing.

Learning How to Love Recovery Group

Join us for this twice monthly meeting (2nd and 4th Friday's) as we provide education, inspiration and support in learning how to love in a healthy way. We address codependency patterns, love addiction, relationship addiction, self-care, self-love, boundaries, assertiveness, anger/passive aggression, honesty in relationships, energy and hidden hooks, guilt, shame, family of origin, betrayal bonds, personality disorders, anxiety, manipulation, empathy, intuition, marriage, friendship, partnership, career and work, finances, gender, sexuality, spirituality in recovery, esteem building, mindfulness, meditation, and personal growth. Each meeting we will focus on a specific topic.

This group is open to the public and all are welcome. Though this is not a 12 step group, we will employ some of the rules associated such as no cross-talk and sharing limits. This is  a positively focused group designed to uplift, educate and inspire. There are many other groups and forums for venting. It is our intention to hold space for people to come out of their old paradigms and into new ways of thinking and discovery about relationship, while coming into the present moment. We encourage thoughtful and intelligent sharing and input that is intended to reveal experience, strength and hope.

Facilitated by Rev. Renee Bledsoe
Cost: $5
When: 2nd & 4th Friday 6:30pm
Location: Church of Spiritual Light 1939 Park Meadows Dr. #1, Ft. Myers, FL 33907
to Benefit the People Shine Project

March 2014: Myth, Mystics & Creativity

MARCH 2014: Myth, Mystics & Creativity
“I never made one of my discoveries through the process of rational thinking” ― Albert Einstein

If knowing thyself is the key to life, one of the most important bits of knowledge may very well be to know what inspires us to create. What moves our souls? Sparks our creativity? Gets the ideas flowing and the heart glowing? Even if we don't exactly know, the next most important question would be... is there a willingness to explore?

“Around here, however, we don't look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things, because we're curious...and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.”  ― Walt Disney

All too often when on the spiritual path, especially as mystics who thrive on our connection to the mind of God, we sometimes don't focus on the heart of God. We forget about the Goddess. The Spirit, the lightning bolt of inspiration might fuel our visions, fill our senses and portend the ineffable, but in order to truly capture the essence of God in the physical senses we must have a sacred container to be able to connect where it counts... right here on earth! For the mystic there is truly only one logical conclusion to this conversation, as we go deeper and deeper into the divinity, we find that some form of art gives us the outlet that we need to express the inexpressable quality of the divine in the physical.

“Creativity takes courage.” ― Henri Matisse 

The role of myth and archetype, as well as angels and masters can become a tremendous influence for our creativity. These are fantastic jumping off points into the mystery void of creation, as they contain universal themes and also hold clues about ancient memories. Go with what tickles your fancy. Don't be afraid to allow whimsy and nonsense to tease out some serious art! The wonderful thing about art, contrary to popular opinion, is that you really can't do it wrong. For it is personal expression, and art does not live in time and space. Art is the language of the soul.

“The painter has the Universe in his mind and hands.” ― Leonardo da Vinci

We are all artists. We may not have fully discovered our art, but that doesn't mean that it isn't in there. And if we have discovered something of it, that does not mean that it won't change or evolve. The artists touch  is something to apply to every single aspect of life. Art is not only beautiful, touching and inspiring, it is also deeply healing. In many ways artists are healers, especially if they can get in touch with their own soul through their art. There is nothing like that moment when we see a work of art and feel the recognition of a kindred spirit resonating with us. This is true joy as our own soul is reflected back to us in a way that articulates somestimes something lost in ourselves. We are so grateful when our deepest, innermost soulful notions can find expression. there is a soul satisfaction in this, an understanding of the kindred spirits, that might well be an art form unto itself. The art of Kin.

“There are painters who transform the sun to a yellow spot, but there are others who with the help of their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into the sun.”  ― Pablo Picasso

One of our biggest blocks to creativity is what we think about how we feel. All too often I have seen serene, happy people become critical, anxious, and self-effacing during the creative process. Some of that is an over-active inner critic, or triggers from childhood, but much of it is discomfort with long suppressed sexual energy, as the creative process is re-engaged and re-routed into the form of creating art. For sexual energy and creativity go hand in hand, and often the baby has been thrown out with the bathwater. As we have repressed and misunderstood sexuality, as we have been immersed in the world of control, we have metered and rationed the very energy that we need to create with.

“The chief enemy of creativity is good sense.” ― Pablo Picasso

Working with our artistry is crucial to ultimate healing, and our soul's emergence and evolution. No matter what we are creating, the very act of relaying that creative energy into a new channel sends a powerful message to the psyche. Even the smallest project could have big energy opening impact on other aspects of our life. Allowing the soul this expression pleases the Goddess within, and the muse will smile upon us, as one flash of inspiration gives way to a whole series of lightbulb ideas, and then another, and another, as we continue to give ourselves creative license.

“If you're not prepared to be wrong, you'll never come up with anything original.”  ― Ken Robinson, The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything

As we develop the courage, the strength and the confidence to tap into our imagination and activate our imaginal cells, that part of us that looks like a question mark, we influence the power of our soul to come forth. They mystic within, the part of us that braves the mystery of our own selves is never happier when the fear of going into the void of creation is richly rewarded with synchronicity, divine conversation and inspirational wisdom. It is through this way of being that we can turn our entire lives into a masterpiece, especially if we allow ourselves to keep finding new avenues or going deeper with the artistry of our self-expression.

“To be creative means to be in love with life. You can be creative only if you love life enough that you want to enhance its beauty, you want to bring a little more music to it, a little more poetry to it, a little more dance to it.”  ― Osho

It is through this trust in ourselves as creator gods in the making that we truly can come to know God, and actually find expression for divine love. As we allow the mind and the heart of the higher powers of the universe inspire and guide us, our creativity takes on new meaning even to ourselves, offering brilliant, out of the box solutions to long standing issues and concerns not only in our lives, but in the world, as we tap into the prodigy within. He or She is in there. We have only to keep exploring and allowing that one to emerge into the light of our soul, and fearlessly enter the unknown. As they say, keep on until you surprise yourself.

“There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and will be lost.” ― Martha Graham

Sunday Talks with Rev. Renee Bledsoe
March 02 - Myth, Mystics & Creativity
March 09 - Unlocking the Soul
March 16 - Sacred Altar Church in Circle - Fae Realms
March 23 - Courage, Strength and Confidence
March 30 - Soulcoming

March Affirmations

As I go into the depths of my soul, I am inspired and restored.

My true creative powers come from the realizations of my God Self.

My soul is a Great Mystery to me.

I am comfortable with mystery and excited to learn more about who I am.

I am curious about the world and enjoy experiencing this creation.

I am willing to step out of the box with my creative endeavors.

My life become a masterpiece of my divinity.

I see beauty in everything.

As I look through God's eyes, I witness miracles of creation every moment.

I allow myself to be inspired by others and their art.

I inspire others with my art.

I bring the sacred into the artistry of my life.

I create with my hands something beautiful.

My hands are the extension of my heart.

I address the critic within by making art anyway.

I identify where the critic is coming from and send lovingkindness.

I listen to suggestions to improve and further develop my art.

I collaborate to create art.

I look for inspiration in unexpected places.

I stock my life with chances to be inspired by other creative people.

I soak in the beauty of life.

I am moved through my emotions to creative expression.

I allow my emotions to heal through my creativity.

Art infuses my life with creative solutions on every front.

Every day is an opportunity to create something beautiful.

I enjoy sharing my art with the world.

Art can heal my life by putting me in touch with my soul.

Art reveals the mystery of my soul.
My art and the art of othes helps me connect and communicate with my own great mystery.

I am a creator God in the making.

In truth I am creating all the time.

I am willing to look at what it truly is that I am creating.

Do I create joy and beauty, or do I create suffering?
The more I understand my powers of creation, the more I am inspired to be creative.

I am willing to become responsible for what I create.

I am a creative expression for the divine Will to Good.

My life is my art.

February 2014: Love Is A Verb

“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.” ― Rumi

The overwhelming urge to take stock of ourselves at the beginning of a new calendar year can often find us casting a harsh eye upon our lives. Often we are moved to make resolutions and enact new life plans and goals that will get us the results we are looking for because we are fed up or disgusted by the way things have been. And while it is true that discontent and discomfort are great teachers, it is also important to think about how we can open up to more love, more prosperity, more peace, more respect and more personal power from a creative, empowered, energized and loving space.

“In your light I learn how to love. In your beauty, how to make poems. You dance inside my chest where no-one sees you, but sometimes I do, and that sight becomes this art.”  ― Rumi

First of all, it is important to understand that anything outside of us cannot truly give us those things that we are seeking in a way that is whole. It is an inside job. If respect is won because we invoke fear in others, that negates the other things that we need and want such as love and peace. If peace is won as a result of denial, the cost might be our own self-respect and a decrease in personal power. Force and the use of personal willpower carries with it a great price. Love and allowing opens the energy for all of our human needs and heart's desires to cohabitate and harmonize. This is an opportunity for our inner team to learn how to play together, to balance and synthesize sometimes what appears to be conflicting needs, through our higher power.

“Everything in the universe is within you. Ask all from yourself.” ― Rumi

We must first bring into our field the energy of what it is that we want. If we want more love, we must be more loving... right now... not when we get a new partner... but now. The things that we do, the goals or intentions that we make, if done because we want to create love or peace or prosperity, become more of an allowing. Once the intention is made, and it is surrendered to the powers that be, in love, we step aside and get out of our own way. This is truly using the powers of creation as they are intended.This is Doing Without Doing, and engaging in the Art of Allowing.

“What you seek is seeking you.” ― Rumi

This allowing surely is not accompanied by motionlessness, but rather an acknowledgement that we are working with subtle and profound energies called love and light, and that these forces don't need our constant nagging or pleading to come into effect. After all, these are omnipotent powers that respond according to universal law. If anything appears to be arbitrary it is because there is another belief system that is over-riding it... or something that needs to be released in order to allow the new in. The laws of the universe tell us that if we ask, then we will be given. Yet my question is, Do we receive what is given? Do we notice how the universal powers are trying to deliver our desires to us?

“Knock, And He'll open the door. Vanish, And He'll make you shine like the sun. Fall, And He'll raise you to the heavens. Become nothing, And He'll turn you into everything.”  ― Rumi

As we start to think and feel more into what we would like to create from love, we find the need to focus less and less on what we do not want. This is a turning point when this begins to happen regularly. In unconditional love, there is supreme wisdom. For it is not bound by the desire for a specific result, which holds the objectivity that can help us to break out of old patterns and see new solutions, ideas and opportunities. As we allow our creations and relationships this sacred space, there is so much love, that the beloved, whatever or whoever that might be, is afforded the room to grow even potentially beyond our wildest dreams, and blossom into something we wouldn't even have known to ask for.

“A thousand half-loves must be forsaken to take one whole heart home.” ― Rumi

In love, we become fluid, like water.... and once we are set in motion... love is an eternal abiding action, like the waves of the ocean lapping the shore, even if we are apparently waiting or holding still. The river of love within continues to flow out, much like the energy that patiently coalesces within the seed, as it sprouts later for all to see that there is a period of silence, which will produce something tangible. Love was at work during the entire process, we find out after all.

“Reason is powerless in the expression of Love.” ― Rumi

Learning to love the process, the journey is what love is all about. It is not love if we are sending negativity to some aspect of ourselves, or if we have an "if/then" mentality. The universal laws do not support these hard lines. Sure, we can make things happen and it might appear that we have outrun these laws, but we end up with the unending job of controlling our lives, and instead of commanding our ship, we end up holding the bag on everything. This gives us little energy, inspiration and time for true creativity.
“Be empty of worrying.Think of who created thought!

Why do you stay in prison When the door is so wide open?” ― Rumi

As we open up to greater love and oneness, we understand that there are parts of ourselves that we have barely given a voice in our life, namely our own soul. As we begin to make conscious contact with our soul, a world of wonder awakens within us. And we are moved. For love that comes through the soul moves us to take action, even if that action is to be still and know that God is within us. Even if that action is listening, praying, and meditating. Being still and doing nothing are not the same thing. And so it is through these small silent acts that we can hear the voice within that holds the greatest wisdom and insight of all... our higher self.

“The minute I heard my first love story,I started looking for you, not knowing how blind that was. Lovers don't finally meet somewhere. They're in each other all along.”  ― Rumi

It is from this space that we can begin to hear and actuate the whispers of our own soul and bring ourselves truly alive. For love and light are our animating forces, what scientists call electo-magnetic energy. The truth be told, no matter what we call these forces within, so long as we recognize that all that we experience is a dance, a flow of energy, a juxtaposition of these two, we will have the understanding that will open us to the next levels of love. If Love is a verb... what do you love? And How does love move you?

“This is love: to fly toward a secret sky, to cause a hundred veils to fall each moment. First to let go of life. Finally, to take a step without feet.” - Rumi

Sunday Talks with Rev. Renee Bledsoe
February 02 - Love is a Verb
February 09 - Sacred Altar Church in Circle - Languages of Love
February 16 - Love, Compassion, Understanding & Forgiveness
February 23 - Let Go, Let Love

Affirmations

I allow myself to feel my feelings.

As I acknowledge my feeling I break with denial and shatter illusion.

My feelings and thoughts are messengers.

I let go of what I think about how I feel.
I honor the sensations in my body and listen to their message.
I continue to purify my mind so that I can properly interpret and honor my feelings.

My body is a sensitive instrument designed to express love and to create.
The unloveable need love most of all.

I love and accept the unloveable parts of myself.
As I accept all of myself, I am healed in the light.

My job is to gather the realization that I am perfect and whole.
I have taken the burdens of my family and humanity's karma to turn to love.

I am strengthened by my love.

What I love is strengthened by my love.

Love is a beautiful gathering of energy.

As I build the energy around something, I create love.

I protect my love in sacred space.

I allow love to move me, touch me and fill me.

True love results in devotion.

Devotion is commitment through free will and love.

Love is Free Will.

Let the Light reveal Love in my life.

May my languages of love expand and grow.

May I receive love from all directions.

Love lifts me up, energizes and inspires me.

Unconditional love has no agenda other than to be love.

I unconditionally love myself.

I apply love and compassion first to myself, before I can truly give it to others.

Love and compassion are a part of who I am.
As I allow love to live through me, what I offer to the world is filled with light.

Love and light dance within me, each revealing the other.

Love is the container for my brilliance.

Love is the great equalizer.

Let my love be as great as my light.

I am in service to the light of my soul.

There is a great love that has given us life.

Life is Love.

As I remember more of myself, I remember the love.

I extend love and kindness to all.
Love moves me to create good in my life and for the world.

Love is a verb.

I am love in action.