dailydatewithgod

American children, every morning pledge allegiance to a flag and show honor and respect for over 200 years of a commitment to live by a set of principles set out in The Constitution. Most of us growing up stopped paying attention to the words after a while and could probably recite them verbatim even years later,.  The question is what are we pledging allegiance to when we wake up now?  What are the first words that cross your mind at the beginning of each day?  Words are powerful.  They shape our thoughts and our thoughts shape our feelings.  Our feelings and thoughts shape our actions. Our actions shape the patterns of our life.  Our patterns shape our character and our character shapes our destiny.  We show what we are respectful of and duty bound to by what we pay attention to and give voice to.  Even if that voice is only spoken in our minds.  The universe is listening.  We tell the world who we are, not the other way around.  When we are only busy surviving there is no time to look within, but my dear friends, we are too grown up for that.  Today, this very day, we are being called upon to take up the duty of responsibility for our lives and that begins with our thoughts.  My prayer for us today is that we grab hold of the courage that God has placed within our hearts and we pledge allegiance to the love from which we are born.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

The biggest lie that we tell ourselves that is that we have to do this all on our own.  Yes, in the end we are the one who puts one foot in front of the other.  We take the action but we do so with the support of something greater than ourselves.  We move in the direction in which we are guided from within.  We get that guidance when we slow down and cultivate that relationship with our Creator.  The Creator who designed us with intelligence, love, power, kindness, patience, strength, courage, tenacity, and so many more qualities.  It is when we experience a lack of those that we need to reconnect and be reminded that it is who we are and it governs our every move here on this planet.  Ultimately, everything happens and exists because of love.  The reason we find ourselves in collision or lacking guidance on where to go next or what to do is because we lose our connection to that source of love and rely solely on our ego to help us get there.  But even our ego’s end game is love, it just plays the game of ends justifying the means.  It is a little misguided.  That is why we can know that when we come into collision with other human beings, it is not personal.  We all have the same ultimate heart destination–to be reunited with our true selves which is love.  Sometimes we get lost on the path and forget how to get where we are going.  My prayer for us today is that we pause and connect when agitated or doubtful and ask for the love thought or action.  Make it a great one! Peace~Colleen

Have you ever noticed that we are certain about the negative outcomes and not so certain about the positive outcomes?  So if I am participating in life as it is, not needing to change or make anything better, then it is good to have doubt.  By having doubts, I am leaning towards the side of good things happening.  The key is to let go of the doubt when the gift appears in reality.  Having doubts is not a bad thing, in fact it is the spring-board to questioning and experiencing.  When we are certain about things we tend to close our minds.  If you were to ask most people about the things of which they are certain, they would probably tell you that there is some doubt involved.  So why not embrace the doubt instead of making it wrong?  There is no need to be plagued by it, but then again, I am not sure being plagued by anything sounds good. 🙂  Here is just one more area of our lives, of our thinking and way of being, with which we traditionally find fault.  If it is part of this life experience, why not embrace it as that and not give it any more energy? Like most things, we can just notice it, thank it for being here, ask what it intends to teach us and move on.  No thought or experience is our whole lives, it is just a moment.  Why not be in the moment in we are in instead of wishing it away?  My prayer for us today is that we see the gift of our doubts as opportunities instead of something else that is wrong.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

The tighter we hold on to things the quicker they seem to slip through our hands.  At least when we are dealing with non-physical things.  I know that if I hold my drinking cup tightly it is less likely to fall out of my hands.  But if I hold on tighter to the idea that my presentation is going to and must go perfectly, the more mess-ups I seem to encounter.  I am not sure why that is, but I think it has something to do with allowing me to experience the lack of control that is present in my life.  I used to think that if only I did the right thing, it would work out.  If only I said the right thing, the other person wouldn’t disagree with me.  I carried around the illusion that I was somehow in control of my environment and those around me when I behaved in a certain way.  It was not something that I was consciously aware of at the time.  It was only after years of taking a closer look at myself and my motives that I began to see it.  It is a desperate grasp for a sense of safety.  I needed that as a kid, but today what I need is to trust that no matter what happens, I am okay.  And I know that I am okay because God is in charge.  The challenge with gripping on too tightly to my fixed ideas and beliefs is that I am not open to the greater ideas that come from God.  My prayer for us today is that we be willing to loosen our grip on life as we know it so that we can ride the roller coaster of the master designer.  Make it a great one! Peace~Colleen

One of the greatest tools that can be practice is that of observance.  We humans are very observant. We have five senses that pull information from our environment and we have one element our mind that translates that information.  Perhaps we are meant to take in more than we put out.  Perhaps we are simply meant to observe more than we are to make decisions about what we see.  It is a freeing practice to simply observe things without making decisions or judgments about them.  The moment my mind decides that something I am seeing means something the story begins.  I have learned over the years that my mind does not invent too many different stories.  It usually takes what it is seeing, hearing, feeling, and makes it mean one of my core stories –it’s all my fault, it’s not good enough, there is something wrong here, I need to protect myself, etc.  The moment the story gets attached to what I am observing I am no longer present in the moment.  Having some space between the observation and the story is a gift of God.  That pause is everything. Life is 10% of what happens and 90% of how we react to it (what we make it mean).  It is my decision to latch on to the story.  It is a well-worn groove, but I can create a new groove and that starts with observation.  If I find myself acting and behaving in a way that makes me uncomfortable, I have two options.  I can immediately jump into berating myself about how I am acting and how did I let that happen and I should know better, etc.  Or I can take a deep breath and notice it and decide if it is working for me or not to continue in that fashion or take a different path.  One way leads me down the rabbit hole of my story of doing it wrong or “shouldville”.  The other way leads me to recognition, acknowledgment of imperfection, and power to choose to do differently from this point forward.  Somehow by having breathing time (date w/God) at the beginning of my day each day, I have developed a stronger muscle of pause and observation. This has allowed me to begin to create a new story.  My prayer for you today is that you may breathe and observe.  Tell judgment and condemnation to go for a hike today.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

It is hard to imagine a world that doesn’t flow with energy. Everything is in and is composed of motion.  Our breath goes in and out. The wind blows.  The ocean waves come to the shore and go back out.  The earth spins around the sun.  The bees buzz.  Hands join and disconnect. Everything is in motion all the time. So how is it that we humans find certainty in things being the same.  From moment to moment, nothing is the same.  That is the only real certainty.  We fall to the illusion that if it didn’t change, we will be okay.  Perhaps just the opposite is true.  How about, because things do change we are okay.  This is what allows us to know that we are alive.  The air we breath in and out is not the same as it was with our last breath.  We would not want it to be as our body needs fresh oxygen.  We are renewed and replenished by every moment of life if we are open to it.  It is only when we insist on holding on to things that we find ourselves in discord because we are fighting what is.  God is about creation and the motion of life is creation happening over and over again.  My most peaceful moments are those in which I am in the flow of life.  It seems almost effortless because I am not fighting anything.  I am not fighting because I am trusting that it is all working out just as it should.  I am not saying this is easy.  It requires letting go.  Letting go of our timelines.  Letting go of things being the way we think they “should” be.  Letting go of how we expected things to go.  Letting go of the idea that we have all the answers and if we don’t then something is wrong with us.  However, the gift in letting go is that we get to live and experience life with a sense of possibility, surprise and excitement. It means walking hand in hand with our God knowing that we have the courage and the power to face whatever comes our way.  Developing the confidence that no matter what happens outside of us cannot destroy us because we are connected to and draw strength from a power greater within our hearts.  Yesterday, when I had a moment of quiet in the desert in the afternoon just before sunset, I was reflecting on the joy of being in the moment.  I was delighted to receive the gift of two lovely butterflies (the symbol of transformation to me).  Through the process of a simple consistent connection with God each day I realized that my life looks nothing like it did 13 years ago when I moved away from the desert.  It has been a long road filled with many times of wanting to not be in my own skin.  But I would not trade one of those terrible challenging moments in the transformational process, for the joy of what I was present to right then.  That is how powerful it is to be in the flow of life, in the moment.  My prayer for you today is whatever you face, know that the courage and the power within your heart is yours for the taking and it will bring you into the flow if you just breathe and accept it.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

Is it coincidental that in the English language Home, Here, and Heart all begin with H?  Years ago I came across a book entitled, “Wherever you go, there you are”.  I never actually read the book, but the message I got from the title was that it wherever I travel, I bring me with me. Even if my outsides changes it is my inside that determines how I am seeing my outside world.  The more I travel a spiritual path and draw closer in relation to God with a willingness to open my heart to the light of love, the closer to home I get.  The more connected I become to love.  If I believe that I was created in the likeness and image of God who is love, then I must reconcile that it is the essence of who I am and who you are.  When I am looking at myself, at the world, and those around me with anything but love, then I am disconnected from reality.  I am not here.  Life is fraught with challenges. Some are simple like an annoying person driving slowly in a parking lot.  Some are complex like forgiving a loved one for betraying you.  Each day we are given situations of challenge to indicate how far or close we are to love.  We all know those times when we feel connected and closest to love because those challenges don’t seem to faze us.  It is on the days that we find them most challenging that we are called to reach closer within ourselves to connect with the peace of who we are.  It takes practice and the growth process is uncomfortable, especially for our ego survival mind.  I am willing to walk through the discomfort because I recognize that the other side of pain and discomfort is new life.  Ultimately right here, right now, in my heart, I am home with love. Whatever leads me away from the home of my heart is my greatest challenge and my greatest gift.  It is when I return home that I can appreciate the time away and the gifts it has to offer.  To everything there is a purpose under heaven.  My prayer for us today is that we be willing to see our challenges as a step on the path home to our heart of hearts.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

Thomas Jefferson said, “The price of freedom is vigilance.”  It seems like a big price to pay for freedom, but I think that is because we take freedom for granted.  And I am not even talking about freedom in political terms.  I am talking about personal freedom.  We think that we are free in our minds but as we begin to wake up to who and how we are being in this world, we see that we are largely a result of automatic programming.  I realize that this can be hard to swallow especially if you are still asleep.  On some level we are all still asleep, as I do not think it is possible to be fully awake all of the time.  Nor do I think that we are meant to be fully awake all of the time.  If we were, we would not need God and we would not need each other.  God gently awakens us in our hearts. When we are awakened and get a taste of the connection to the divine through which we are born, we align ourselves with our power and begin to see possibilities.  Our work is in coming back to and refocusing on the possibilities and not falling prey to the certainty and doom that we need to protect ourselves that our cave-man brains are programmed to play.  This is the vigilance–the willingness to be open to things we cannot see in our own minds.  Things that only a mind greater than us (God) can see.  My prayer for you today is that you have the courage to ask to be awakened to a new possibility in your life and hold the space of hope for things unseen.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

For most of us, knowledge of true physical thirst is something we will thankfully never have to experience.  Definitely something to be grateful for but it makes it sometimes hard to understand what it is like to yearn for a freshness or long for replenishment.  Most spiritual people have experienced a desert time in their lives and perhaps you have too.  It is a time of dryness and going without. It is a time of deprivation of water of life and a longing to be refreshed.  It provides a greater appreciation for the simple things of life such as water and cool air.  Having grown up in the desert and been out on a hiking trail without enough water, I have experienced some of this physically.  I still remember the day of fasting we had in school.  To raise awareness for hunger in 5th grade we all agreed not to eat for 24 hours–I didn’t think I would make it. 😉  In my religious practice fasting is used regularly as a preparation for greater connection with God.  While uncomfortable at first, there is something very primal about going without basic necessities of food and water that bring into focus what is really important in life.  We all experience times of emotional, spiritual and mental dryness.  We have times when we cannot see the forest through the trees or feel abandoned by all that we know and love.  And while we often shake our heads or scream at the universe, if we are open we notice a quietness that is present in our hearts.  Out in the desert we are able to see more clearly where we stand with our relationship with God and with ourselves.  When we are alone and dried out, there is no where else to run.  It is then that there is space for God to enter.  Actually, since God is not outside of us it would be a drinking from the fountain of love within our own hearts.  My prayer for us today is that we pause and acknowledge an area of thirsting in our lives so that we might have the courage to go to the well within.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen