We Have the Power

I want to convey to you something simple and yet very powerful.

It uses the imagination. It allows for the truth that we are living our lives from the inside out. What we are inside determines what we experience as our world.

Yesterday, I was sitting on the couch crying when my husband came home. He came home three hours later than I thought he would. He went to his French class (as an American living in Quebec, he takes French classes) and then instead of coming straight home, he went to his friend's house and had lunch, talked, and ended up visiting for two hours or more.

While he was doing that, I was imagining that he was dead, killed suddenly in a car crash or something, killed so suddenly that nobody could have foreseen it, just like my brother.

My brother died in 2000, suddenly dead of a heart attack at the age of 43. He died so unexpectedly, seemingly in the peak of health and vitality, that when the authorities in Denver, Colorado, where he had been living and where he died, called my sister to tell her, she didn't believe them. She wanted proof.

I didn't know he had died for almost two days after the rest of my family knew. My father had died less than a month before and I had gone into retreat after spending weeks being so caring and loving toward everyone in my family. Finally, I wanted some time to care for myself. I lived in a remote area, on a mountain road and had no telephone land line, only a cell phone. I had turned off my cell phone so that I could be on my own, quiet, no demands made upon me for just a couple of days.

They kept trying to reach me and couldn't. So they called the police. The police came to my house. I could see them walking in from the gravel road, the one young officer already taking off his hat as he approached my door. I remembered then, so clearly and powerfully, how the young police officer who was my younger brother's friend had described walking up to my parents' door to tell them that Christopher had died back in 1996. He had spoken of the tell-tale holding of the hat in both hands, turning it round and round for something to do, for something to focus on while telling people that their loved one had died. And I knew why they were there at my door even before I opened it.

They didn't know that I had just lost my father. They didn't even know who had died. They told me that my family were desperately trying to contact me and that someone in my family had died.

I thought it was my mother. So soon after losing her husband of 47 years.... No, it was John. The one with whom I was most close. The one on whom I depended more than I could admit even to myself.

I wanted that time, then, in the days after I heard the news of his death, to be all about me. "Let this be somehow my time to be comforted and cared for!" was my plea to the heavens. But it was not to be. It was, as with Christopher's death, and the death of my father, up to me to be the strong one, the one on whom others depended. Even though I told them, "I can't do it this time...." whispered it, really, in a desperate attempt to find the strength and comfort from someone else for a change... even so, it fell on me to exercise the family dog, fly to Denver and deal with all of John's affairs, put my grief on hold until after the funeral....

As I sat on the couch yesterday, all of that was there within me, needing to be released, to be resolved.

When my husband saw me crying he did all the right things. (I didn't even know him in 2000 when John died so tragically.) He hugged me. He held my hand. He got a blanket from the bedroom and wrapped me in it. I could have written a message in the sky, "This man is so wonderful in the way that he loves me!"

But it wasn't enough. I was hurting and needing to find resolution for what had happened in 2000.

I went into the forest and sat. I got chilled sitting there and then came in and had a hot bath. I had supper. I sat by candle light and felt, and remembered, and felt some more.

Then, I realized that I could bring my wonderful husband into that scenario. I could IMAGINE him there, in 2000, with me, holding my hand, saying all the right things, doing all the supportive things that I was so desperate to have someone do. And so I did. And it felt so good. And it healed the hurt and terrified self that I was then. I literally felt as if I would crumble into madness, into catatonic madness in my unmet grief when John died. Instead, I did the dishes and walked the dog and took endless phone calls from friends of the family. In my imagined new scenario, my husband was there with me every step of the way, helping, understanding, listening. He said, "You're allowed to scream if you want to." He said, "You're allowed to feel so angry that you want to lash out and hurt someone, or hurt yourself." He said, "You are not alone in this. I am here. I am not going anywhere."

And then, finally, after more than twelve years, my needs had been met. I had imagined them being met, by this dear friend who happens to be my husband, and so they were. See, this is the key thing. When we imagine that it is so, it is so. On one very real level, it is so.

So, then I slept.

And this morning, I woke up and did it again. This time, I was addressing the child I was so many years ago and saying, "You are a good, sweet person and will have a life of joy and self-fulfillment." Only this time, I as I am now, was saying that in my imagination to the child that I was then. And it felt so good!

As we imagine it, so it is. And the future is the past healed. That last line does not come from me, it comes from Tobias, channeled through Geoffery Hoppe. You can find the messages, many of them, at www.crimsoncircle.com

I imagine now that I am surrounded by good, wise and true friends. And I am.

As we imagine it, so it is.

Use Your Imagination

Yesterday I posted on a message board a description of an experience I have had. The experience was a powerful one for me. It was not a physical experience. It was a non-physical experience. It involved my imagination.

Our imaginations are creative and enrich our lives, especially now when we are beginning to open ourselves up to the non-physical more and more.

My post received a response which basically attempted to inform me that I was mistaken. It was 'all me' and did not involve any other being. I was describing an experience of conversing with the soul who would have been my twin. My mother miscarried one of us, carrying me to term and giving birth to me as a healthy but underweight infant. My mother couldn't carry us both and so my twin aborted. My mother told me that she thought she had miscarried me when she was pregnant with me, and then she told me that she believes to this day that I was one of two inside her womb.

Lately, I have been conversing with my twin as would have been and these conversations have meant a great deal to me.

I posted about this and another person on the message board told me that essentially it was 'all in my head.'

Well, I conversed with my brother after he committed suicide, so I guess that was 'all in my head' also. I conversed with my father after he died, conversations that helped us both, but I was 'only imagining' these conversations, I suppose.

Don't let what you've heard in the past about the imagination, about how it isn't 'real,' and it's all 'in your head' stop you from using this most powerful tool.

I have had imaginary conversations with people which then played out in the physical world; these conversations were very helpful to me. I have had imaginary conversations with people who have passed on to the other side and I truly believe that those conversations actually occurred and were beneficial to both parties.

Your imagination is your ticket to the non-physical realms. That is where the angels live. That is where Yeshua aka Jesus the Christ resides. That is where God can be found. So, do we cut ourselves off from that which is imaginary within us because it 'isn't real,' or do we trust our imaginations as a powerful and important part of us that is now coming into the fore as a tool in this new age?

Personally, I choose to trust that which I experience in the non-physical world. It is wonderful, life-enhancing, life-enriching, magical, joyful and loving. It is sometimes ecstatic and blissful. And it is a part of me, this imagination.

I choose to honour all of my experience, including all that I can possibly imagine, including every conversation or interaction with a non-physical being. All of it! ALL of it!

From Within Outward

It used to be that I was focused on the world around me and would find time to focus inward. These moments of inward focus were cherished and felt delicious and nurturing.

Today, I realize that my focus must always be on what I am within. More than that, what I am within is determined by my intention.

If I intend to be a manifestation of divine love in the world, then I will be. This is the way of things now.

If I intend to be joyful in the moment, then I will be.

If I have no intention of how I will be from within, then I will default to whatever is feeding my thoughts and feelings in the external world. So, either I determine my being, or the physical world that surrounds me determines my being. And this is happening moment by moment.

I choose to determine my being from within, through intention.

I used to mark holy days on the calendar, the solstices, the equinoxes and a few other holy days during the year, by being very mindful of my being from within. I would emanate the love for ALL and the deep honouring of ALL that I truly am on those special days.

When my father died, and we had a service for him in a church, I sat and mindfully emanated my love for my father, my honouring of him, of his life, and my full presence in that place for that time.

It is time now, for me at least, to become this mindful emanation through my intention in every moment, every day.

Thus do I begin to live my life in a new way; new for me, even though I have lived so carefully for so many years. I begin to live from within outward.

Are You Struggling?

I have a friend who is really struggling these days. Everything seems to be falling apart for this person, including his career, finances, home situation and health.

If you are struggling these days, this post is written to offer you some concrete steps that you can take to improve your life from this moment forward.

If you are not struggling, but you know someone who is, please pass this on to that person; we can help each other easily these days and when we help each other, we change the world.

My advice to my friend, is the advice that I will give to anybody who is struggling.

First, the easy part. Drink a lot of water every day. Breathe deeply and slowly for fifteen minutes every morning or evening, or both. Eat lots of fruit and vegetables. Move your body every day by going for a walk, moving your arms and legs in any exercise routine, or dancing a bit right there in your home.

Now, the more challenging part. Replace negative thoughts and feelings with positive thoughts and feelings. Monitor your feelings. Feelings lead to thoughts, which then increase the feelings. For example, if you are feeling resentful, you will have thoughts about the things that you feel resentful about, which will increase your feeling of resentment. Then your thoughts will become even more a litany of reasons why you are resentful. It is the same with anger, with sadness, with feeing victimized by a world beyond your control and so on.

Replace a feeling of resentment with a feeling of acceptance. Replace a feeling of anxiety with a feeling of trust, or of gratitude for one thing.

This is the challenging practice which is of utmost importance at this time.

You see, our feeling state, our state of being, creates our next experience. That experience then creates the next experience and so on. We always create from this moment. We always create from our feelings, which impact our thinking and our experience of life.

When we realize that we always have a choice about how we are feeling, no matter what is happening around us, we can begin to create our next moment not from the struggles we have been experiencing, but from the feeling of hope, gratitude or trust that we are choosing. This makes our next moments feel better, which makes it easier to continue to create feelings within ourselves that are uplifting, empowering, encouraging and enlivening.

Eventually, and it doesn't take very long, we look around and realize that we are feeling much better and that our situation does not require struggle any longer. We can then feel gratitude, joy and appreciation for our experiences and continue to create from these feeling states.

Ultimately, when you are feeling love for yourself, joy in your being, appreciation for all that you are experiencing and gratitude for all that you see around you, you will create for yourself a life of joy and gladness. This is always done moment by moment.

Begin with the simple steps that I have outlined above. If you have any questions or would like more information, feel free to contact me through my website at www.beautifultangle.com.

The Way Forward at This Time

Imagine that you are standing in a new territory. The land around you is not so very different than what you have known, and yet, you are on new ground and there is a different feel to things than there has been.

For me, there has been a great deal of shake, rattle and roll lately. My sense of self has been shaken. My inner peace has been rattled and I have been tossing, turning and rolling from side to side in my bed late at night.

The way forward for me at this time gives four suggestions to you.

The first suggestion is to drink a lot of water. I have been craving water, and the more clear and pure the water is, the better.

The second suggestion is to center yourself in your heart, now more than ever before. The mind does not serve us well at this time. Focus on your heart's feeling, your heart's desire and create your moments from there.

The third suggestion also helps greatly to remove our attention from the mind and from words, and to move into the creation of our heart's desire. Make sounds of toning. Yes, I do this with ease now, having done so for many months. But you can do it too. Just let sound come out of your mouth. Feel your throat and your throat chakra open. Imagine a pure blue light, touched with gold, dancing within your throat chakra. Then let sound come out of your mouth. No words. Tone and sound. Do it in the car when you are alone. Do it in the shower. Do it in the world when either no one is around to hear you, or there is so much noise that no one will hear you above anyone else.

This brings me to my fourth and final suggestion. Go outside into nature. In the city, go to the park and touch a tree. Touch it. Looking at it is good, but touching it is better. In the suburbs or rural areas, go out as far as you can away from roads and buildings. Listen to the Earth. Feel the Earth. Rejoice. Touch trees, snow, water, ground.

Here in southern Quebec it is very cold these days. The snow lies thick on the ground. I go out every day, no matter how cold it is. It feels imperative.

These suggestions I make to you because these four simple things are helping me tremendously at this time, as I navigate a new age and a new world.

Center within your heart. Sound from your throat, which will immediately take you out of your thoughts and mind's chatter. Drink a lot of clean water. Go out into the natural world and literally commune with nature every day if you can.

Check in with your feelings often through the course of the day. If you find these suggestions helpful to you, you might pass them on to others. We are all in this time of transition together.