dailydatewithgod

Our human capacity for kindness is tremendous!  If ever there is a doubt in my mind I simply need to look to the courageous actions of people who survive natural disasters or visit with the nurses at the hospital in which I work.  It is there within all of us. Sometimes, however we have a hard time providing that same kindness to ourselves.  The greatest kindness I can bestow upon myself is to be mindful of how I speak to myself.  I can be extremely harsh with the way that I speak to myself. When I realize that I would not be friends with someone who spoke to me that way, I can acknowledge the inadequacy of doing so.  It is an old fixed idea that somehow being hard on myself will motivate me to change or act differently, but it has never done so effectively and caused lasting change.  I come up short when I try to list the number of times that shaming was effective in causing positive change in my life.  Yet, like most fixed ideas there is a patterned groove in my brain that leans that direction. The quality of mercy that I see others engage in gives me courage that even when my thoughts are not there, I can act in contradiction to my thoughts.  That contradictory action then creates a new experience which shifts the pathways in my brain.  I ask God for help not to act based on my thoughts, but based on God’s thoughts.  Lord, show me what mercy looks like here.  God, grant me the courage to actpast my old patterned thoughts so they may shift into God-patterned thoughts.  My prayer for us today is that in the moments of merciless thoughts towards ourselves or others we lift our eyes to witness the merciful actions that are all around us and a testament to our God-like capabilities.  Make it a great one! Peace~Colleen

I first heard the term kindred spirits when I was ready one of my favorite fiction stories, Anne of Green Gables.  Talk about a woman who sees the world through such grateful glasses.  The way she would describe walking through the meadows was like you had stepped into an alternate universe.  She speaks of the people that she meets and senses a likeness of heart as being a kindred spirit.  They are people she comes across in many different places and circumstances.  Anne seems to see through the eyes of love to connect to something in these people.  It is as though her spirit looks to be joined to those who have a similar spirit.  Given that we all come from the same God, we are all kindred spirits.  It is only our ego that likes us to think we are so different and so unique and we have no connection to others, especially those we don’t like, are irritated by, or disagree with.  Those people, however, are probably the ones that we are more connected to.  I met a woman yesterday and while I was not in the best head space myself, I could see that there was an option to be irritated by how she was behaving–nothing seemed to meet her satisfaction, everything seemed to go wrong for her, she shared something positive with a frown on her face, etc.  My first thought was, “oh God, how long is this class?”  But when I heard myself say that, I paused and said, “God bring her love.”  I knew I could not do it.  But God can.  She is a kindred spirit too, because as the morning went on I could see she was just doing what she knew to do.  That is what we are all doing.  By the end of my time with her I saw a genuine smile and while I don’t think I had anything to do with it, I was grateful to see the light within her shine through her face.  My prayer for us today is that when we encounter our unlikely kindred spirits whom we want nothing to do with, we have the courage to ask God to be for them what we cannot.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

I used to think that if my outside world fit some kind of prescribed picture of what is expected (marriage, family, job, car, house, etc.) then I would be okay.  Somehow as a woman in my now 40s there is this notion that because I am not married with kids there is something wrong.  This is the message I get from society and from deeply held beliefs about what is considered “right” in the world.  If I continue to measure my sense of well-being or “alrightness” according to this I might as well give up now.  It is not that I do not desire to share my life with someone, it simply has not happened in the expected fashion.  I have to step out of the world’s ideas of what is okay and step into God’s ideas of what is okay.  If God wanted me to match some sort of societal, religious, or family expectation then I would.  But according to God, all is well in this moment and I just need to focus on being as close to him today as I can.  I am not lacking anything.  If I think I am lacking in anything then I am under a non-God illusion that something outside of me will bring about the peace and serenity and a sense of being loved for which my heart longs.  In my quietest moments with God over the years I have experienced a fullness of heart, mind, and soul that has brought me a greater sense of well-being than any job title, car, or relationship.  My prayer for us today is that we have the courage to ask God to show us just how well of a life we are living in this day.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

There are many different forms of power.  I find that I function best when I am connected to the ultimate source of power.  When I am charging through my connection to God my power supply is steady and reliable.  When I am charging to my ego, I find that my powerdepletes much quicker.  It is not an inadequate source of power but rather a limited source. The reason I often choose my ego as my power source is because I think that the greatest source of power does not carry that electrical current.  I figure I know best what God can and cannot deal with. I also will choose my ego because I have not experienced connecting to God with that part of my life.  I used to think that God was only concerned with the “big” stuff of life–life and death, big decisions regarding career and family, making big purchases, etc. But many years ago I turned to God when I was buying a pair of sneakers.  I couldn’t decide if I should purchase them or not because they were a bit more than I was used to spending, so I said a surrender prayer I had learned: “God if you want me to buy the sneakers, let me buy the sneakers. If you don’t want me to buy the sneakers, don’t let me buy the sneakers.  Remove from me my will, place in me your will.  Give me the power and the courage to carry it out.”  I paused, took a breath, and got the sense to buy the sneakers.  Those sneakers served me very well and lasted quite a while.  It seems silly but what I learned in that moment is that God is concerned with every single part of my life and wants to be the power source through which I am charged.  God created every little cell and atom in me, why wouldn’t God want to be involved in every part of my life?  My prayer for us today is that as we go through the day we stop and check in with ourselves to notice from where we are drawing our power.  Make it a great one! Peace~Colleen.

Life is about showing up.  When we show up things can happen, we can make decisions, we can share ideas, we can be in the flow of life. I think it was Woody Allen who said, 90 percent of life is just showing up.  If I believe that I am connected to Great Creator and I trust that I in my being am enough.  When God can use me as a channel.  I become the sacred vessel through which wondrous things can happen.  They can only happen in a way that I am suited to be because that is the gift that I am.  Being present is an acknowledgment that I am enough.  There is not something I “should” be or do or have.  I am adequate because I am in this moment with God. And because God has called me to be present in this moment I have the opportunity to be the best expression of God.  For some of you who may be an overachiever like me, just thinking, “I am adequate,’ starts a quandary of debate in my head about how that is ridiculous.  But that is my head that is talking, not my heart, not my spirit.  My head/ego always thinks there is something to prove.  But if the Creator of all creation created me as enough and loves me fully and completely, then what is there to prove?  Showing up means not being somewhere else in my head about how things “should” be or comparing myself to others or wanting to be somewhere else. Showing up means taking a breath and acknowledging that in this very moment, God is present in me and every one and everything around me.  In those moments when I think I want to not show up, I ask God for the grace to see through his eyes, with his heart, and his mind so I can bear witness to the love that is present in that very breath. My prayer for us today is that we be open to seeing the gift that comes to our heart-sight when we choose to show up and witness love.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

Each day, each breath is a new moment to begin again.  Each day each breath is a way to live in a new reality.  A reality where healing and love are a way of being.   One of the most intimate things that God has shown me is that when I am willing to stop trying to do everything on my own (play God) there is a whole world of opportunity and possibility that opens up to me.  In that moment of decision to engage with the world and collaborate as I am designed to do, there is a surrender of my ego and a willingness to learn from everything and everyone.  I have always described myself as someone who loves to learn, but I think until life handed me circumstances where I was defeated enough to admit all that I did not know, I did not understand in my heart of hearts what is means to really be someone who loves to learn.  It has been 12 years since I found myself in such a dismal place that my heart seemed incapable of ever opening up again, but miracles happen one day at a time and I am grateful that the spark of desire to learn still had a pilot light lit inside of me.  That little light propelled me to connect with others who would show me how to broaden and deepen the flame provided I be open to learning.  My prayer for us today is that we be open to experiencing learning in an area that we think we have already learned all we need to know.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

It is funny to me how certain conversations have become par for the course.  I notice when in social gatherings of all kinds there is a common conversation that everyone has that seems to center around what we are all putting up with.  In LA it’s often about traffic or the number of people here.  There is this underlying notion of that we are gracious enough to put up with it (Warning!: complaining conversation approaching!).  In Arizona it was about how hot it is or the crazy politics of the state.  I am sure in New York it is about other things.  I understand the dynamics of needing safe things to talk about with people whom you might not know that well.  I certainly don’t plan to walk into a room full of people whom I barely know and start asking a bunch of personal questions.  I have learned that we are programmed from cave man times to reflect on what is not working in our lives because it was probably something necessary to our survival. But we are no longer in fear of inadequate shelter or how to build a safe fence from the bear.  Our hearts long to share stories of triumph, laughter, joy, courage, peace, and connection to all.  Our minds operate on survival instincts.  The funny thing is that when we engage simply at the mind level of conversation we acquiesce to the common acceptable understanding of what we are supposed to talk about.  After a while the energy drains and we have not taken the opportunity to energize each other with our spirits. If on the other hand we engaged in a conversation about what we are grateful for about the traffic or what made us smile that day, we would notice a shift in the energetic level because we are contributing to the energetic spirit that resides within all of us and elevates our life experience that which is beyond just the mind.  So, why didn’t I do that at a party I recently attended?  Probably because I didn’t want people to look at me strange or accuse me of being Pollyanna (silly, right?)  Oh, and I didn’t check in with God, “what do you want me to talk or ask about tonight?” That’s okay, I am sure I will get another opportunity very soon.–do over!  😉  My prayer for us today is that we be open to finding a way to work our spirit’s energy into the next conversation by asking God for the courage to switch the course of the conversation.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

There is a magical quality to beauty and vulnerability of how our breath works.  In order to keep our life going forward we must take in the present.  Literally, the breath in is about taking in and then letting go. It is an act of surrender, of openness, and of trusting that when we breathe in we will get exactly what we need.  When I was kid, we were out back swimming with our cousins and I decided I was going to help my younger cousin who was scared of going down the slide.  So I was at the end of the slide to “catch” her when she came down.  Having little knowledge of physics, I did not understand the speed or force with which she would be coming down.  Upon catching her I went under water when I caught her and in her panic she kept pushing down because she didn’t want to go under.  I started to run out of oxygen and took a breath under water.  Logically somewhere in my mind I knew that would not give me what I would need but I was 11 years old and my body just did what it does when it needs more oxygen.  I promptly swallowed a bunch of water and was now worse off then I was holding my breath. Thankfully my uncle and my dad saw what was happening and helped the both of us get to the edge and out of the water.  I still remember the sting of the chlorine in my lungs and the gasp of air that I made when my head finally made it above water to take a breath of oxygen–what a relief!  Some would argue that I am lucky I didn’t die, which makes me think that we each take our lives into our own hands each time we take a breath.  It is an act of faith to take that breath and we do so most of the time without thinking about it because it is how we are designed.  There is a trust mechanism built within us that allows us to be vulnerablemany many times throughout the day.  God trusts in us to do the most with the breath that we let in and out and we trust in God that what we need will come when we take in that breath. It becomes a dance.  My prayer for us today is that we be open to seeing the gift of the dance in our lives, starting with the next breath we take.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

Have you noticed there is a difference between attention and intention?  Perhaps it is easily distinguishable for you, but I realized recently that the idea of separating the two while in a present experience was possible. If my head is in what is happening right now, my attention is on the now and what is happening.  But if my intention was for it to turn out a different way then my attention is not on what is actually happening, but how it is not what I thought it would be.  If I create my intentions when walking into a situation by aligning them with what I feel my purpose would be in that situation then I can be attentive to what is happening because I am present as my being in that moment.  For example, if I go to work with the intention to be of service and help someone out then I can be attentive to my work as someone who is there to help.  But if I determine that my intention is to help in a specific way or only with a certain person or if a certain thing happens then I cannot focus on what is happening because I am lost in my imaginary world of what is supposed to be. Then I miss out on how the beauty of life unfolds.  I believe that God wants us to be.  Be love, be kind, be generous, be grateful, be authentic, be genuine.  We are given many opportunities to live out those intentions each moment of each day.  Being present in the moment as that intention I can give my attention to however the opportunity to be those things shows up.  My prayer for us today is that we be open to living from an intended life so that we can give our full attention to how that life unfolds today. Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

The quickest way out of a funk in the mind is to turn the focus to what you are grateful for.  Start with the basics and work your way forward into bigger things.  Things will go wrong, we will make mistakes, people and experiences will not meet with our expectations, but there is always something to be grateful for.  Sometimes when my head is really in the toilet, I start with a list that includes being thankful for my fingers and my toes, my breath, and that I am able to think.  If I can switch my focus long enough the energy I have focusing on what is going wrong begins to deplete.  The mind is an amazing tool, but we are not slaves to our thoughts.  We cannot control when negative or unuseful ones come to us, but we can choose whether to latch on to them or choose different ones.  My prayer for us today is that whether we are in a good space or a challenging one in our heads, we ask God for the courage to find as many things to be grateful in one minute.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen