dailydatewithgod

Happy New Year!  Can you feel it?  The energy shift into a space of newness and unknown.  The spirit excitement at the cleansing of a new year.  We are standing at the opening of a beginning and we have no idea what awaits us this year.  Whether 2014 was a year you would like to forget or one that you want to repeat, it held its lessons for us.  The beauty of a new year is that it will hold the same for us.  There will be lessons–some hard, some easy.  There will be moments we wish to forget and moments we will want to last forever.  It all is what we make it mean.  So actually where we stand this morning at the beginning of a new year is the same place we stand every morning when we accept that first breath.  We say yes to life, to God, to the Universe on that first inhale.  In fact, we say yes until the moment we make our last exhale. What is occurring this morning is a collective attention on the newness, but it need not end three weeks from now when we realize we realize we are in the throes of this human life and don’t feel the newness anymore.  God is all about now and that now begins right now.  We can be in a space of newness anytime we decide even half way through the minute at 10:46 a.m. on January 16, 2015. this moment holds an opportunity to grow in love, be love, and convey the message of love for which we were designed. How we allow that to enfold is up to us. My prayer for us today is that we remember our ability to recreate a new moment of love by saying yes to God and step into newness at any moment this year.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

We can measure the value of our lives in many different ways.  As we come to the close of 2014 and get ready to embark on 2015 we can reflect on how we have spent our breaths one day at a time over the course of a year.  I have no idea how many more breaths I am going to get, but I hope that the ones I do have will bring more life, hope, peace, kindness, and love.  It may seem simplistic but nothing happens without the breath. When we stop breathing the game is over.  I often take for granted that I am breathing and moving until I find one of those things hindered.  This is why my relationship with The Breath of Life is so important to me.  Unless I remain connected to All That Is, I am likely to think that I can somehow master and control all my surroundings and that it is my job to do so.  On the contrary, my job is to breathe, show up, and be the love from which I was created.  This keeps me connected to God and to all.  We are all one, we are all children of God, we are all here because we are supposed to be.  How do I know that?  We are all breathing.  My prayer for us today is that we be willing to take five of our breaths today and think the word love as we take the breath in and out and just see if our minds follow our spirit.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

In this beautiful world that we inhabit there are many systems in place.  Natures’, society’s, family’s, and personal systems that guide our thoughts and thus our beliefs which are the basis for our decisions.  One of the great opportunities of living and growing is to question those systems.  Once our blueprints have been put in place in our formative years we have a set of guidelines.  Typically we go along with them until they come into collision with either something we want or something we witness as different.  Our ego mind however wants us to believe that it is not really okay to question those systems because we are dependent upon them.  Therein lies the illusion.  The only thing I am truly dependent upon is God.  All things of this earth–ideas, possessions, relationships, etc., but if my connection to God remains intact then I know I am right where I am supposed to be.  The good news is that a relationship with God does not require me to abandon all those other things.  The relationship allows me to collaborate with a power greater than me and enable me to survive when one of those systems shifts or breaks down.  If I am not only identified with that system when it falls apart, I do not have to fall apart with it.  I can be affected by it, question it, or determine if I am as much a part of it as I thought I was. I do not have to become nothing.  God is not nothing.  God is everything.  My prayer for us today is that when we encounter a typical way of doing something, we have the courage to stop and ask, Is this what God would call me to do or am I just doing what I have always done?  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

This crazy world we live in, the lives we are given each day with our breath, and every little moment all carry choices with them. Some choices are varied and difficult, others are simple and easy, and others have multiple stages to them.  When making decisions we attempt to balance the information we have in our minds with the sense in our hearts and the nudging of our spirits.  We look at things from our own particular perspective and perhaps we have an insight into others who might be impacted by our decisions.  There are multiple factors even in simple decisions.  Sometimes we can become paralyzed by these decisions.  We think we have to make the “right” one or the one that someone else won’t question.  One thing that I am continually given opportunities to learn is that God sees decisions as something different from my mind’s perspective.  My mind looks for the right or wrong result of a decision.  God looks at the process and if I am given a chance to learn and grow in love as a result of the process.  My prayer for us today is that we be open to being in the process of whatever decisions we make from what words to say to what money to spend, or even how to think about something.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

aaaaaLooking at the design of nature we see that it functions with a smoothness that is awe-inspiring.  Life seems to keep moving forward.  The seasons unfold one right into the other.  There are growth times and harvest times.  There are times of restoration and hibernation.  And when that particular phase is over the next one begins.  All this happens without much thought or involvement on our part.  It is as though a Higher Intelligence is guiding this beautiful experience of life and death.  Is it possible that this same Higher Intelligence is operating in our lives?  Actually, the question would be, who are we to think that the same Higher Intelligence is not connected in our lives?  Nature also has this quality of dependence that happens rather effortlessly.  The plants depend upon the soil of the earth to be fertile.  The earth depends upon the rain for water and the sun for light so that it can be fertile and receive the seeds that are planted.  The seeds rely upon the wind to carry them to fertile ground and so on.  Aren’t we just as connected to people and things around us for our growth?  Growing up my friends and I went through a phase of fascination with folk music and we came across the work of Simon and Garfunkel. Their song, “I Am A Rock” stuck out.  We used to sing it at the top of our lungs.  I remember thinking, wouldn’t things be easier if I was? As the song says, “A rock feels no pain and an Island never cries.”  But what if the pain causes us to wake up and move in the direction needed to ultimately relieve the pain?  What if the crying causes us to cleanse from the inside out and see through clearer eyes?  The Grand Design of our lives seems to have a way to make use of all things, not just those that we deem as worthy.  It would seem as though nothing is wasted in a spiritual sense.  All can be used to foster growth through love and openness to learning.  Maybe if I remember that my dependence on God’s perspective of life allows for me to see value where my mind has placed none. Then I can be set free from feeling as though things are a waste.  It is as though God allows for creation at every turn.  Nothing comes from nothing.  The Author of the Grand Design develops the next thing or experience at every turn.  My prayer for us today is that we be open to what can be created from that which we have deemed a waste in our lives.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

As we close out this year and ready ourselves to enter into a new one there is a heightened awareness regarding where we have been and where we are going.  This time of reflection isn’t just about the list of top tens of the year but a chance to look at who we have been over the last year.  God calls us each day to be aware of who we are being.  Not just what we are doing or what we have done over the last year.  This is not to diminish the importance of accomplishments but the true measurements of the quality of our lives is in how we spend our energy during the doing.  We are human beings, not human doings.  I can achieve many things throughout the course of a day, but if I shut down my heart and my essence to do so, what have I really brought about?  God designed us out of love to be love for the world.  When we are motivated by that essence of ourselves we can attain the impossible but not because we force things or operate super efficiently like a machine.  Each date with God begins for me with a letter and in that letter I ask God to help me accomplish what He would have me accomplish this day.  It is a simple surrender or at least attempt to surrender my ideas of what is important.  I trust that whatever I am able to do that day is exactly what needs to be done given that I stay focused on God and who I am being.  My prayer for us today is that we be open to trusting that we can do more than we thought possible if we focus first on who we are being instead of what we are doing.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

There is the experience we are having on the surface of our lives.  What things looks like, what things we are holding, the conversations that are taking place, the things we own, the titles we have, etc.  Behind and beneath all that is the energy we embody, the subconscious thoughts and conversations we are having, the way we are being that pervades all the rest of our experiences.  The more we begin to pay attention to the layer beneath the obvious one the more we can actually shift the experience we have the surface layer.  The underlying factors are where the work of the heart and the spirit occur.  The surface layer is the one where the ego thrives.  One is not better than the other, it is simply a choice.  My prayer for us today is that we be open to living from our heart layer for some part of our day and just notice how our experience of being differs from the rest of our day.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

A light that shines in darkness is the brightest of them all.  A light that dispels the darkness is the most powerful.  A light that rekindles other lights is magical.  We all have a Great Light that is within us.  It is this light that connects us to All That Is.  Sometimes things happen in our lives that cause us to question whether there is any light left within us.  All we see around us is darkness and we think that our outer world is a replica of what must be happening inside.  And yes, what we see in our world comes from the mindset that we are carrying at the moment we are looking.  However, it is important to remember that just because we feel like we lost the connection to our light, does not make it so.  The Light Within Us comes as part of the deal.  It is the Light of God that we can never be separated from.  I remember many years ago when I was in one of the darkest times of my life. I was facing some challenging circumstances in addition to dealing with a broken heart after falling in love for the first time.  It took a new friend who saw the light in me for me to realize that it had not completely dimmed. She came to my window as it were and showed me the light of the moon inside of me.  By her pointing out to me the light in me and sharing her sight with me, I came to believe that it still existed. The light in her that she was connected to allowed her to see my light.  Slowly I became willing to look within to find more light.  By helping me rekindle my light with hers, both got brighter.  Though we have since moved our separate ways, I will never forget her or many of the other people (Angels) whom God placed in my life to remind me of the Light and rekindle it within me.  We have the opportunity each day to either remind someone of their light or their darkness. Sometimes we think that by acknowledging the light in other people it takes away from ours, but it does just the opposite.  The light builds and the brightness extends because it comes from God.   My prayer for us today, just as a little child of light was born into darkness many years ago reminding shepherds in a field of their light, we choose to remind someone too.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

We all have within us the capacity for great love.  It is when we are living in that capacity that allows us to feel fully alive.  When we embrace God, that which we know and that which we don’t, we get a glimpse of the spark that ignites all of life. In the Christian tradition this night is one of the holiest of nights. It is told that angels were singing with excitement at the birth of a newborn in a nearby stable.  He was foretold in the scripture as the King of Kings.  The strange part is that most kings are born in castles and grand palaces, not in barn yard stables with the animals still in it.  Nothing about the beginnings of this child speak of the grandeur of which his titles were placed.  So maybe that is how God works.  When we are busy looking in palaces and temples, God is hanging out back in the stable while the angels are singing in the fields.  God is beyond expectation.  God awakens in the deep recesses of our hearts in a way that can be missed unless we are looking in the right place.  This doesn’t happen just once a year, it happens every day, multiples times during the day, every time we take a breath.  My challenge is to remember to find God in the most unassuming places of my heart and mind and thus my outer experience which I filter through my heart and mind.  My prayer for us today is that we be open to searching for God in the spaces and places that we would least expect God to be and who knows, maybe we will hear the angels singing.  Make it a great one! Peace~Colleen

This time of year in United States people are buzzing with excitement and anticipation.  It is hard not to pick up on it.  All the people in Santa hats. signs of good will, and blessings in a new year.  Whatever the reason that people have for involving themselves in one of the many traditions around Christmastime, it has the potential to bring the energy level up. Or we can look at this time of year as craziness and excess, inconvenience and unmet expectations.  It is entirely our choice how we want to see it.  I think deep down it comes from our hearts that want to feel connected. We just sometimes lose sight of the fact that we don’t have to have an outward reason to connect.  We are capable of these things all the time.  The sacredness of this season is the power of a collective group of people who are chosing to take time out to do so.  When more than one person takes action in a specific direction energy shifts in that direction much quicker.  My prayer for us today is that we chose to jump on the band wagon of good will for our own lives so that we may contribute to the good will of all those who feel on the outskirts because they don’t think they are part of us all.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen