What do you do when your 19 yr. old calls you sobbing from Sicily: ATM card doesn’t work, no one speaks English, dead computer power cord, too much bread and I wanna go home?
Well, if you’re anything like me, you clutch your stomach, feel your heart start to race and unleash a million thoughts ranging from panic -my- baby’s -in- trouble to resentment, anger, worry and back again – the lower end of the emotional guidance scale for sure. I heard the baby out there wailing and,like the mourners at tribal funerals, I started to wail in sympathetic concert.
Until I heard the wake up gong of my inner guides shaking me out of my vibrational swamp and reminding me that: “To hold someone as your object of attention while you’re connected to Source Energy, is the greatest gift that anyone could give. When you’re not happy, you don’t have anything to give…” (Abraham-Hicks)
So, in order to become “mom to the rescue” it took Abraham-Hicks to the rescue, and Byron Katie to the rescue along with Eckhart Tolle to the rescue. They are all on my team – like a fabulous string trio gently guiding me to keep my focus on feeling good, being here now and reminding me that without my stressful thoughts “all is well”. I can see so clearly that tossing and turning and churning isn’t doing my daughter or me a lick of good. I know that staying calm, focusing on the outcome I want for my daughter and on how I would like to be feeling as I deal with the details – is the best way to float downstream toward getting everything straightened out in an easy and relaxed manner. I can continue to enjoy my life, be productive and this will help my daughter refocus and enjoy being alive and well in Italy. What a radical concept!
I love being steeped in all this radical paradigm shifting energetic gymnastics. It’s a great metaphysical workout. I don’t have to get myself to the gym because I am always in the work-out room of the universe throwing balls, lifting weights, flexing my muscles and becoming ever more flexible and able to stop on a dime and pivot like a prima ballerina.
My daughter will or will not have a great time. I can only create in my own arena but I know that how I am has a big impact on her and that my good vibes are contagious and call the same forth from her. As hard as it may be to maintain my set point when she’s down – I know for sure (like Oprah) that it’s the formula for me to be the the best Law of Attraction Mom a girl ever had.
It’s a government holiday here in the Virgin Islands. There are parades and happy children in Puerto Rico, Spain and in the Barrio’s of NYC. Epiphany also happens to be one of my favorite days and I never really understood why until today.
I just discovered that Epiphany comes from the Greek word meaning “to manifest” or “to show”. As a Christian feast day it celebrates the revelation of God in human form and I’m adding it to my Law of Attraction vocabulary right now. Its a chance to celebrate the manifestation of our thoughts into things – that “fall down on your knees in awe-ful thanks” for what has been revealed and made real.
It also takes me back to when we got a television way back in the 50’s. The first program I ever saw was a production of “Amahl and the Night Visitors” – the delightful operetta by Gian Carlo Menotti about the visit the Three Kings paid to a poor family en route to Bethlehem. I listen to it every year over the holidays and I always cry when Amahl, the poor crippled boy-hero decides he wants to take a gift to the child and accompany the Kings as they follow the star. When he offers his only possession, his crutch, he discovers that he can walk, dance, jump and sets off with the Kings in song.
So, today is the day when we arrive at the place where the miracle has occurred. Our thoughts have taken on form and we are bowled over and bearing gifts. A crutch, myrhr, gold, frankincense, a bicycle, a wing and a prayer. Let us honor the manifestation of all we desire in baby form with love and tenderness and with our gifts of love. It’s an after birthday party and we are all invited.
The holidays are drawing to a close. The kings are almost at the manger and our celebrations of light, birth and renewal are giving way to days that are growing lighter and to our focus on what’s new and next.
It’s so easy to get lost in goal setting and resolution making and breaking that we forget that the secret of being present and giving thanks is the richest fertilizer for the soil in which our dreams are already taking root. It’s a mind-bending paradox that suggests that the best way to position us to achieve our goals and fulfill our desires in the imagined future is to be fully present to our lives right this minute. It’s the old Be Here Now of Baba Ram Dass, or The Power of Now (Eckert Tolle) or “The kingdom of heaven is at hand” (The Bible).
One of my goals for ’09 is to be present as much as possible. What this means to me is that when I notice that I am driving around ruminating about this or that or worrying about him or her and dwelling on past events that have bugged me or future events I am concerned about – that I stop, take a deep breath and bring myself back to the moment – look around and realize that without those thoughts, life is pretty good and I am fine in ’09. When I can quiet those “monkey mind” tapes that are the constant background chatter going on in my head, I get a glimpse of a very peaceful and beauful place in which I live and exist – inside and out. So much so that I think, “What was all that fuss about?”
Last year I enjoyed a visit from college friends and we tooled around the island and spent hours sitting on my deck celebrating our long time enduring friendships and laughing a lot. One day when we 3 had left my house and were sitting in my car, I realized I had forgotten something in my cottage. I got out of the car, walked back to my front door and put the key in the lock. When I turned it and opened the door I was struck by how my one room cottage glowed in its fresh coat of buttery yellow paint mixed with sunlight and the sea. My little poodles were already set for the day sleeping, and the place had a feeling of deep peace and silence. I didn’t want to disturb anything so I got my forgotten item and tip toed back to the car. I was laughing as I said to my friends: “Wow, my home is so peaceful when I’m not there!” It felt like a little moment of enlightenment and I have remembered and treasured being hit by the peace and light of my home in my heart.
We all have a peaceful place full of buttery light that nourishes and refreshes us and reminds us that there is nothing to be, do or have. We just have to take a deep breath, turn down the volume on our constantly chattering minds, look around and tip toe into our place of joy and enlightenment – even if its just for a brief moment to start with. It’s the pause that refreshes and transforms.
I wish you a year full of such moments; a year full of inspired actions rather than frantic TO Do Lists. My wish for all of us in this New Year is the gift of being present and of realizing that YOU in the NOW are the best gift you’ll ever give or receive.
This holiday, I set myself free, I set my daughter free and I had a great Christmas. Instead of insisting that we celebrate the way I thought we should, I told my daughter that I didn’t want to make her feel guilty and I didn’t want to feel angry or disappointed so, I was setting us both free to do what we wanted. We arranged to get together to share our gifts with one another and I decided to spent the day at the beach – I mean, the entire day. I started with an annual beach pot-luck brunch – a trip home to open gifts, and then back to the beach. Several friends cooked a turkey. I brought an arugula salad (from my garden) and a cheese cake and we had a feast at Magen’s Bay. We enjoyed the sound of the surf, walking on the sand and playing music and singing songs until it was dark and we realized we were the only ones left on the beach. It was a perfect day.
My daughter spent time with me, some time with her father and with friends. She went to the annual dinner we usually attend together. She brought one of her famous cheese cakes. I love that she is grown-up enough to know her own mind and to show up as her unique, gorgeous, grown-up self.
No disappointments, no guilt, no expecations that din’t get met. I tuned into the spirit of what the holidays really mean to me. I highly recommend it. This setting yourself and your loved ones free. Law of attraction in action at the beach – feeling good goes forever!
The more I talk about 2009 as THE FINE and EVERYTHING’S FINE IN ’09, the happier I feel – right now. I know from first hand experience with the Law of Attraction, that “thoughts create things” (Mike Dooley) – so my upbeat thoughts about 2009 are infusing my vision for the new year with heart. And what’s even better is that it’s making me feeling really good – right now! Its that old song and dance number, Now and Forever (or did I make that up). I don’t know why its such a stretch to really GET it? It’s as though you don’t get to enjoy dinner, but you have to eat it to get to the desert. Either skip dinner and head straight for the goodies or realize that the meal is fabulous and to be savored and it will guarantee that whatever is next will be appreciated and savored because that is what we are practicing – appreciating and savoring and setting ourselves up as vibrational matches for all we desire.
By the way I got up this morning and, surprise, surprise, there was a gigantic Rainbow – a full half circle and it framed my house and melted into the sea at either side. It was so big I couldn’t capture it all in the photo frame. I went running up my driveway to get to a better photo-op vantage point and called to my neighbor “Rainbow, Rainbow”. She came out and we agreed that it’s going to be a great day! Every day a Rainbow!