dailydatewithgod

We as human beings are so sacred that we cannot help but create specialness and sacredness out of the simplest things.  It is an expression of our spirit to make holy the experiences that we have.  Without even realizing it we express our deepest selves when we invite ritual into the moments of our lives.  The Christmas holidays are just one of those times.  It is easy, however to get caught up in the madness of the physical representation of that spiritual ritual.  We worry about what gifts to give and who to spend time with and what it will look like.  We get frustrated with lines and traffic around shopping malls, the booking of flights and hotels, and who needs to be sure to be at our celebration of the holiday.  In the Catholic Christian tradition the weeks leading up to Christmas are known as Advent.  It is a time of preparation for God made manifest in the word, i.e.-the Birth of Christ.  The people are called to prepare their hearts for this incredible coming.  Our spirits, whatever our physical religious expression, call us to the same thing whenever we look to invite a greater consciousness, a God-manifest experience into our lives. We all know this experience deep down within us.  In order for our hearts to be ready to take in such an experience we need to clear out that which is the opposite of love.  It is a time of acknowledging those elements of lack of love that lie within our hearts and ask that God show us how to remove them so that we can create a stable space for the full experience of God to give birth in our hearts.  When I am holding on to a lack of love, an unwillingness to let go of my ideas of what should have been, I am closed off to the full expression of love in my heart.  Therefore my preparation of this time is about letting others and myself off the hook.  I am choosing to take this time to honestly look at that which I am holding on to that does not match the truest experience of God made manifest in my heart. I humbly acknowledge that I don’t even know sometimes that which I am holding on to. Part of my preparation is asking God to kindly show me that which I may not want to see.  When we spend our date time together I rest my head on his shoulder and say, I am here because I want to experience more of You, show me what I can do or be to make that a reality and then I listen.  I know that God will show me if I keep my heart and my eyes open and I will be given the courage to trust and let go.  My prayer for us today is that we are all given the courage to prepare our hearts and spirits for the greatest expression of God made manifest this holiday season so that it may truly be a time of joy and peace.  Make it a great one! Peace~Colleen

Have you ever watched the way the wind flows through the trees?  The way the light flows through a skylight? The way the waves come again and again to edge of the shore?  There is this silent flow through which life is happening all the time.  The wind moves freely.  The light beams freely. The waves move freely.  There seems to be nothing to prevent any of those elements from doing their thing. Not the tree, not the glass of the skylight, not the shore full of sand.  What if we were endowed with this same freedom to be who we are?  What if the idea that we are stopped by things outside of ourselves was only an illusion or an excuse? How might we be different from who we are being right now? When I am aligned with a sense of purpose and a feeling of safety and love, I am free to be me in the world.  It is only when I am in this space of connection with God that I am completely free.  It is as though I am not worried about buying into what the world thinks.  I am driven by being who God wants me to be.  Who I know myself to be.  There is nothing more freeing than that and it can happen in the smallest of ways–when sitting in traffic, washing the dishes, laughing with a friend, hugging a family member, crying on the phone after a frustrating experience, or telling someone I love and appreciate them.  These moments of freedom are not hindered by anything because within them they are full expressions of myself–good and bad, right and wrong, perfect and imperfect.  I just am in that moment.  No judgment.  No expectation.  No other place to be.  My prayer for us today is that we pay attention to those moments of freedom, breathe them in and then make note of where we are in our hearts and spirits in that moment so we can create more of it.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

As we embrace a new day with our breath we are given endless opportunities to go with our ego programming that was set in place at a young age or choose to go down a different path.  Our programming consists mostly of beliefs shape our perspective on life.  We see things as right or wrong, good or bad, worthy or not worthy.  We assess each situation in our minds and determine which category it falls into.  When we experience something outside the categories that exist we often do not know what to do with it and it wakes us up.  We typically see these things as problems or irritations and react to them in that manner.  But what if they are gifts of awareness dressed in unlikely packages?  What if they become the invitation to go into the heart and spirit and see with a different set of beliefs?  God calls upon us each day to start anew with him.  We are invited to take up this invitation and create new beliefs based on the realities of spirit.  We are encouraged often through what we see as random or unwelcome happenings to set a course on a different pathway and be present.  My prayer for us today is that we choose to take one of those irritations or unwelcome occurrences and with God create a new belief through which to see our reality.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

When we look at nature we are given a blue print for how God looks at growth. One things stem from another.  A seed is planted and it grows in a nurturing environment.  Then it is pruned and picked and used for its purpose or it grows over time and produces fruit.  The foundation must be healthy in order for growth to occur.  Our foundation must be healthy in order for growth in love to occur.  When we look at our own life’s beginnings we may see things that were not fertile ground and may have had experiences that caused us to wilt and parts of us to die.  But that is because we were not drawing from out true foundation.  Our true foundation is LOVE.  That is what we were created from, for, and by.  No matter how many things were laid on top of that, does not take away that when we get to our roots, it is what we will find.  We get waylaid however when we begin to take a look at what has been placed on top of that in terms of thoughts which got repeated and became beliefs, experiences, and musings about who we are.  Our ego does not want to let go of the story that it created on top of our true foundation because it cannot grow fertile in the idea of interconnectedness.  When we connect with God we see that who we are is so much more than our ego, who we are is that love in which we are truly grounded.  Most importantly God continually offers to be a companion in our road to get back to our roots.  We are not alone.  My prayer for us today is that we remember that God is not afraid of what stands between us and love and so we can ask for the courage to face that which is not true.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

There is something very poetic and moving about just hearing the word healing.  Somehow through its very essence it creates a space of love and comfort.  I have come realize that healing is really what is needed more than anything.  Not fixing, not manipulating, not pretending it doesn’t exist, not judging, not comparing, just healing.  It conveys the idea that once it, whatever it is, is brought into the light, the warmth of love can restore it to its natural state.  God calls upon us to awaken to healing in our own lives. What are the ways that we feel broken, beaten down, worn out, a lack of love?  Are we willing to bring those thoughts, feelings, ideas, situations, etc. to God who will shine the light of love and restore them to wholeness?  The hardest part about healing is the admission that we cannot heal ourselves.  However, God does not make it too difficult.  God simply invites us to come into the light and show our hands.  Then God can place his hands inours and send the healing to and through us.  My prayer for us today is that we be willing to step into the light and show our hands so they may be healed.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

Each day is a new beginning and when we begin the day receiving the breath that we are given by God we are most open.  We probably have not yet had too many ideas yet of how things should go or what needs to happen so we are open to receive more than just a new breath with God.  This is why I picked this time to have my dates with God.  I figure if I wanted to be open to what God has in store for my life, I am more likely to be open and willing to listen before I have let my own mind clamor with its own ideas.  My prayer for us today is that we be willing to spend one minute of our day with God before all else begins.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

The world is filled with so much beauty and gifts that when we stop to be present to it our mind can feel overwhelmed.  Life is infused by The Great Creator with such passion that it is beyond our understanding.  We experience it in the moments that we allow ourselves to be present in our hearts.  We notice it in the times when our minds are quieted.  We breathe it in when we pause long enough to feel the breath come through our bodies.  It is there for us all the time.  We can be a companion to passion any time we want to be.  It only requires a willingness to let go and be in the moment.  Our hearts pound with excitement for life when we take new oxygen in.  Why wouldn’t our spirits be doing the same thing when we take in passionate love of creation?  My prayer for us today is that we be open to spending time in a moment of passion so that we can open the eyes of our hearts to the beauty that is within and around us.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

The Love of God has no bounds.  The Love of God has no place where it cannot exist.  It thrives in the space and places where it is allowed to live and breathe and move.  When we align ourselves with God we get a taste of this love.  When we reside in our true selves we can be this LOVE.  Even so, what we experience is only a fragment of what is possible.  This is how LOVE transforms.  It shows up in ways that are beyond our understanding.  LOVE creates situations that we think are impossible.  It is not even within our realm of ego thinking of what is possible.  For that reason, I need to be connected to God in and through my life so that my mind can align with what is possible.  We live in a world of limits that focuses on what is different and not possible.  This comes from our ego’s understanding of the world.  We only need to be limited by our ego’s view to the extent that we want to handle everything on our own.  The unknown is scary to our ego because it is outside its capacity, but our spirit rejoices the moment that we are willing to step into the unknown.  People do it all the time and often it isn’t until afterwards that they realize what they have done.  Somehow, some way, there was a force inside of them that granted them the courage to step into the unknown and taste the immensity of All That Is.  This courage is within all of us, if we ask for it.  A common prayer for me is: God grant me the courage to (let go of my fear, have this conversation, believe that You are who You say You are, feel the feelings instead of running from them, act instead of react to this situation, be in this moment), and align my will with yours.  When I am willing to step into the immensity of God’s will, remarkable things begin to happen that were not previously possible according to my mind.  My prayer for us today is that we have the courage to ask for the courage to let go of our will and be aligned with God’s will so that we can experience the immensity of the power of LOVE in the moment.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

Thomas Jefferson said,  “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.” Each day we are given the opportunity to choose life or to choose death.  Most of the time it does not come to us in such a dramatic manner.  It is all the little decisions of what to say, where to go, and with whom to interact.  We are given the choice each time to act in such a way that generates more life or destroys it. We can also choose to be awake when we do so or go by our programming which requires little presence and choice.  God invites us to create from a place of choice and strength.  With each newbreath we are given a wake up moment to our day, to the present moment.  We notice the moments that take our breath away–in good ways and bad because they really cause us to pay attention.  But what about all the littlebreaths in between?  What do we do with those?  Do we focus on thoughts of love and creation?  Or do we focus on thoughts of separateness and death?  Being vigilant means noticing, not judging, the thoughts that take up space in our heads.  It means noticing not judging the ones that we place meaning on (put greater energy into) thus creating feeling.  It means noticing, not judging, the feelings that we are making decisions to act from.  It means noticing, not judging, the character that we have developed as a result of the actions that we take in our lives.  True freedom then lies in being aware of the thoughts and asking God to align them with the Greater Good Will so that they ultimately create more love and life.  My prayer for us today is that we have the courage to vigilantly notice, not judge, the thoughts that go through our mind that we latch on to before we put meaning, feeling and action based on them.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen

There is something so simple and yet so powerful that occurs when we speak things.  We take our thoughts and put vibration (sound energy) behind them.  This creates a live expression to our words that then carries them into the universe.  When we speak we create.  Before having spoken they are still thoughts in our heads and we have tons and tons of those all the time. Words are very powerful.  Think of how long we have associated the word red with the color.  Seems simple enough but once the label was placed on that color it took hold.  What thoughts do we give energy to by speaking?  What does that create in our lives?  Florence Scovel-Shinn said that our word is our wand. We create what we speak into the universe.  This is where we get the idea of self-fulfilling prophecies.  Once we have placed energy behind our thoughts and taken them outside of our head the are carried forward.  Words can be used to harm or to heal.  One of the most fascinating qualities of Jesus that I have noticed along with many other wise people is how they usually pause before they speak.  They consider carefully that which they want to create in the universe and then they do it.  It makes me wonder how many things I say out loud without considering the energy I am placing behind it and what it might create.  My prayer for us today is that we have the courage to pause before putting energy behind the thoughts in our heads so that we can create that which will bring love and healing.  Make it a great one!  Peace~Colleen