Free Floating

What would it feel like if it never mattered if anyone agreed with your opinions or positions? If every time you voiced a thought or took an action, there was no concern for how it was received, if you just enjoyed having and sharing it because it was yours? Can you imagine being completely uninvested in whether or not someone thought you were smart, relevant, correct, or even kind? WHOA! Freedom!!!

This question came to me as I worked with cutting cords of attachment, i.e. energy exchanges created between ourselves and others. It occurred to me that any investment or need for a return on our interaction (thoughts, words, ideas, positions, etc.) has to do with giving power to another through needing something from them: approval, love, acceptance, safety, position, power, etc. This is completely different than a free exchange of opinions and ideas, which is great. I'm talking about the need for those ideas to be received in a particular light, which is brokering an exchange of power, and which always costs us (and them!). This energy exchange is also rooted in a lack of unconditional love for ourselves. If we fully loved ourselves, would it ever matter if someone agreed with our position? Would we need the power of their approval if we gave it fully to ourselves 100% of the time?

As I played with this, walking along with the dogs and my husband, talking about this and that, I felt my energy patterns come apart. What had moments earlier been a taught string of underlying strategy was now a bunch of loose ends blowing chaotically in the wind. WOW. So much energy running in those cords, in those needs. I felt shaky, like my blood sugar had suddenly plummeted. So I breathed. I grounded myself energetically into the core of the earth and into the vastness of the heavens. I opened to that crazy, unhinging sensation saying, "More. Yes. I'm having this."

As I thought of sharing this with you, I looked through my heart pictures folder (which now numbers nearly 1,400 :) and saw this one from a recent trip to the Little North Fork of the Santiam river. A point of heart light floating in space surrounded by a thousand river jewels, simply being its brilliance amidst the incredible beauty of the rest of the world. I love you.

High and Light

Sweet, light vibrations of mountain love.

and the earthly context - top and lower right are the 2nd picture above, lower left is #3.
Grand Teton National Park

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

 

Human or Divine? Yes.

This black-tipped shark was in captivity in a pool at the resort where I stayed in Hawaii this past June. They had sea turtles on the grounds, too, and someone informed me that they release the turtles after three months and bring in different ones, so no turtle remains captive too long. I hoped it was the same for the shark. He swam back and forth, back and forth in his small pool, anything but peaceful, and definitely not free.

Sometimes this is how I feel being in a human body. Miraculously, when we incarnate, we take the expansive, eternal, divine energy that we are and confine it to this tiny, limited form, hang out here for a while, and then return to the infinite spaciousness that is our natural state. But this conundrum has been unwinding for me lately -  I realize I have so much resistance to being human! My divine self knows nothing but love, nothing but freedom and joy, and then I come here as a human and do all the things that humans do - strive, struggle, hurt, cause pain... all sorts of constriction that makes no sense to my divine being and that is totally at odds with who we are. Or is it? If it's all the One, if we are that One, then we include all things. I see that once again I'm experiencing the pain of separation, i.e. duality, which is the name of the game on planet Earth, but which isn't really real since we can never be separated from ourselves, our divinity, or each other. What a weird game, though!

So lately I'm feeling into forgiving myself for being human. At least, that's my human perspective.  My divine self gently shakes its head in the knowing that there is nothing to forgive.  It stands with infinite patience waiting for me to recognize I still am and always have been this infinite God energy. There is no way I or anything anywhere can be anything else. And in the acceptance of the strangely broken-but-not-broken, conflicted-but-perfect human that I am, I begin to feel a joy in being in this body, in having these experiences, in riding the wave of this amazing adventure. Sometimes I may show up as a shark (or someone may be one to me), and that will simply be what is. Sometimes I may be the heart, watching the shark swim by, and that will be what is. And I will let my divinity love on my humanity with the eternity that it is, folding all into the sweet oneness of Is. There is only this One, this God that we all are. Hello, little human, hello, god-self. Hello ego, hello divine knowing. Hello shark, hello divine Heart. Here we are. We are the same.

River Love

So much water play in our lives lately! Yesterday we went whitewater rafting on the Snake river, and every time the brilliant, cold water splashed all over us, I squealed with delight. I guess you know by now I really like mountain water. :) These photos were taken the day before at the river that feeds into Jenny Lake at the base of the Grand Tetons. I always feel so much life in the water itself, just so much beautiful, light vibration beaming out the love of creation. So sharing again! :)

The last one looks to me like a puppy head and a bunny sailing through the current, the bunny holding its heart out front. I'm so grateful every time I let my beautiful heart lead. Don't get me wrong, I love my mind, too, but it really feels like the logistics master while the heart is the universe sailer. So yes, little bunny rabbit, I'm with you!

Water Colors

I love photographing water so much, and the water at Opal Creek is some of my favorite. I didn't know two of these hearts were there when I snapped the shot. I love to  set my camera on sport shoot, point at the water, and just let it fly. When I look at them later it's like opening presents - all the surprises show up and art just unfolds on the page in front of me. Amazing.

The colors in the water of Opal Creek are magical... something about that glacial run-off and snow melt - the beautiful, clear blue-green is just so amazing.  We drank it in all day, so I thought I'd share some of the pristine and powerful vibration with you through these photos. LOVE YOU!!!

Heart Splash

Isn't life amazing?

❤️

Your Opinion Doesn't Matter!

Our minds have constant opinions about everything - call them perspectives, judgments, points of view, whatever you like. The mind reflexively sorts, decides and pronounces. Today after a frustrating visit to one of my husband's physicians (films lost, phone calls not answered, attitude of blame from the doctor, etc. - there's always a story, isn't there?), we decided it was time to receive this particular kind of care elsewhere. As my mind sorted through the morning's events, looking to shore up my decision so I'd feel "right" about it, I found myself weary of the "right" game, which is always a loser. As a friend said recently, "you can be right, or you can be wrong, or you can be free" (thanks, Zach), I knew we were going to switch doctors, so why keep mentally going over the info?

And then I decided to ask myself this question: Does my heart have an opinion about it? And the answer came quickly - a resounding "No!" So funny! My heart only had an awareness, and that awareness helped lead to choice and action, but it had no opinion, judgment, pronouncement, or need to be right. I laughed out loud when I realized my heart never has an opinion, just awareness. Likewise I realized my mind never has awareness, only opinions! So I asked my heart what it knew about this doctor, and again, a clear answer came: I love him. That was all. We wouldn't choose to receive his care any more, but I loved him. And I felt grateful for the amazing gift he had given me through this awareness that my heart never has an opinion. Through him, I was led to understand that my mind can never love unconditionally and that the pure awareness of the heart is the only path to love. Amazing!

I wasn't sure if this photo "qualified" (cute little mind!) as a heart photo, but I bet you can see it. Mostly she captured the spirit of freedom and movement I felt upon tuning into this expansive, playful and grateful heart awareness. Infinite love to you -  in the spacious awareness of your beautiful, boundless hearts.

Order Up!

I've been waiting for this one. You see, a while ago I put in my order for a heart-shaped Queen Anne's Lace flower, so I knew it was only a matter of time. Sometimes the angels just need a little space to rearrange the molecules. :) And once we put in an order, like at a restaurant, there is no need to put it in again and again. Every whisper of a prayer is heard, every thought is  received and met in kind by the universe.

Queen Anne's Lace normally grows in a circular, fireworks pattern. So far I've never seen it in any shape but that.

Here's one: 

That is, until now! A heart find like this is the kind that delights me - the one that isn't supposed to be there, the one that doesn't fit the pattern, that defies expectations and grows into love against all odds. Like the people who always feel like they don't fit, and that they aren't a part of anything, only to discover they are brilliant in their uniqueness, and that they are exactly the gift the world needs.

Today I celebrate the love in you that hasn't been received by the world, and the parts of you that weren't greeted with love. I celebrate the amazing and miraculous gift that is you, the spark of energy without which the world would be much less brilliant (whether the crazy world knows it or not). Thank you for breaking the mold!

In the Flow

Control is a mechanism we use to keep ourselves safe, probably because life has dealt us some pretty nasty surprises. Only how well does it work? If it worked, the world's best (worst?) control freak would have the most blissful, smooth and abundant life. Oops... And then there's the piece about control only being pretend, since it isn't possible. Funny how often we forget that.

Life is flow, and love is flow. Control is a flow inhibitor. So the very mechanism we use to keep ourselves from harm actually prevents us from being in the flow of love, which is where infinite freedom, peace, and safety are found. Kind of amazing, isn't it?

Wishing you sweet, infinite, and adventurous flow today and every day. Here's to a great ride.