Unexpected Good

Many years ago our spiritual center gave away an "Expect a Miracle" pin. It raised questions about how could something that was expected be called  a miracle and if you expected it then it wasn't unexpected. What was it then? An ordinary?

I believe what those pins did was to make us aware of the good that is constantly around us. 

If good is already around us, why do we see it so infrequently?

I think there are several answers to that question.

First, you may not be vibrating or resonating at the frequency of good. For instance if you have a grievance against a neighbor, you may be blocking your good.

Recently a friend, whom I will call Sharon told me a wonderful story of forgiveness, cleaning things up and acceptance of prosperity. One evening after a trash pick-up day, she noticed tat her trash bin was up beside her door, not down on the street where she had left it that morning. She had not spoken to her neighbors for several years because they had had disagreements about their children playing drums at night. Now the drum player has long ago left home, but still there was friction between Sharon and her neighbors. On impulse, she went up to her neighbor to thank them for moving her trash can up closer to her home. The man answered he door loudly declaring that he would never touch anything of hers. Just then his wife came up, pushed him aside and thanked my friend for thanking her. They had a lovely thirty- minute conversation. A healing had taken place.

The next day, a prospective buyer came to look at my Sharon's home. While her realtor was showing her husband a different part of the house, Sharon complimented the woman on a unique pair of  antique gold earrings that she was wearing. The woman, a complete stranger until 10 minutes earlier, took them off and gave them to Sharon as  a gift.

I believe the two incidents are related. We live in a conscious mind that is universal, everywhere present. When we have something big or small against anyone, the possible and even probable good that might have been ours has no way to get to us.

On page 299 of  The Science of Mind, Ernest Holmes writes:

"From selfish reasons alone, if from no loftier reason, we cannot afford to find fault, to hate, or even to hold in mind anything against any living soul! The God of love cannot hear the prayer of the one who fails to love."

Another reason you may not be seeing more good could be you have not been clear about what you consider "good." For instance if you are more fascinated about what is going wrong than with expanded good, the Universe doe not have a clear order to fill. Is your television on a great portion of the time? Are you tuned in to sensationalism? The Universe can only give you what you want. It can't give you what you do not want. The Universe cannot read the word "not." 

This is a good day to let the past be past. Make amends. Be thankful for all the good in your life right now. Be thankful for your neighbors and watch the Universe say yes to you. Today is the best time to start.

Start Today to Let the Good In

I Love You.

I love you.

A simple statement.  Most of us reserve these words for those nearest and dearest to our hearts - family, loved ones, very close friends.  We'll often say "I love this" or "I love that" about stuff or situations that we like... but think about how often you hear the words "I love YOU."  We know by now it is not only romantic love.  The power and energy of LOVE is something much greater.

This past weekend I picked up a book that was sitting on my shelf staring at me as I sat on the couch, for some reason it caught my eye.  I really felt the need to pick this book up and start reading it, even though I had purchased this book over a year ago, was already in the middle of two other books and had plenty on my to do list.  Following my intuition, I picked up the book and started reading it Saturday afternoon and by Tuesday I had finished it!

The book is called Zero Limits by Joe Vitale.  It tells the story of Dr. Ihaleakala Hew Len who cleared a ward of the criminally insane using only the Ho'oponopono prayer and never actually seeing any patients in a therapeutic setting.  The ideas shared in the book are quite simple and amazing.  The suggestion is to take 100% responsibility for our life, and everything we encounter in it, and constantly "clean" our life experience and what we encounter by repeating the words of the prayer, addressing it to the Divine, or God. The words are simple but strong...

I love you.

I'm sorry.

Please forgive me.

Thank you.

So simple!  The power in these words is that they speak to the Divine in each of us, in everything really.  If each and every one of us were to take 100% responsibility for our life, bless everything and everyone with love and forgiveness, live life treating each other as the Divine expressions that we each are, imagine what a beautiful world we would live in - a world that truly works for everyone!

Now I find myself saying "I love you" to absolutely everything.  EVERYTHING!  People, places, things, situations, conditions, circumstances.  I choose LOVE.  I choose to be love, give love, recognize love, love love.  I am not even sure what that means sometimes but that doesn't matter.  When I simply repeat "I love you" quietly in my mind I am changing my consciousness, slowly but surely change is taking place.

Why bother doing this?  Maybe there are some things going on in your life that you don't like... doesn't matter what it is.  It could be your job, where you live, your body-perception, your relationships... we all have something that bothers us or we don't like.  My new practice is to simply repeat "I love you", quietly in my own mind, when I see or think of these things I don't like or don't want in my life.  I've heard it said that when you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.  Miracles happen!

Peace begins with me...  With you...  With each and every one of us...

I love you.

(Repeat often for an improved life experience!)

(collage created by my cousin Nicole and her two lovely daughters, Tegan and Maslyn)

For more information on the prayer, the book, or the author... Google it!!

My $10,000 Miracle

The sinking feeling of the last two weeks set in.

I had lost my wedding bands with one mistake...the mistake not being in the present moment and trying to multi-task.

...as I sat driving in my car, I was mad at myself for the wild goose chase I'd just put myself through looking for my lost wedding bands...

After 2 1/2 weeks, I had made one final affirmative prayer asking for a miracle.  During my meditation following the prayer, I heard, almost audibly, "Go to San Clemente."

How could I be so dumb, I thought, the scene of where I lost the rings in the cosmetic bag that had NO identification in it whatsoever...gone for good (or so I thought) in the middle of Del Mar street! Am I really going to go all the way down there and look for them?

Being the intuitive girl I am, I decided to follow my intuitive message and went.

As I drove down the  busiest street in San Clemente, packed with the summertime lunch crowd, I looked for a parking spot. 

Hmph! I thought....I truly have lost my mind thinking I'm going to get ANY kind of parking near Del Mar.

But wait! What was that? 

Holy, crap (although, I did use another, more colorful word), that's the VERY spot I parked in when I lost my cosmetic bag out the door 2 1/2 weeks ago! I pulled in...

...O.K. Universe...I'm listening!

I went in to four businesses, the first being Nick's restaurant recounting my stories to the managers and employees and getting a big fat "I'm sorry, we don't have it" at each one.

I left my name and number with them, and chided myself for being irresponsible and a hopeless optimist for trying to find unidentified rings 2 1/2 weeks after losing them. I still hadn't told my husband fearing some ungodly reaction...which, I couldn't even fathom because he's not an "ungodly reaction" kind of guy.

As I got into my car and drove through Capo Beach,  I tried to re-affirm a more positive opinion of myself, and then, the phone call came...

...it was Liz, the manager from Nick's Restaurant.

"Vidette," she said, "I was looking at our company database at our corporate offices. We photograph and log in everything that is sent in, and I see a bag that looks like yours."

My heart dropped.  More out of fear that maybe it sounded like my bag, but would end up not being it.

She went on, "In the notes section, it says that it was brought in by someone who had found it outside of our restaurant almost three weeks ago.  I didn't remember logging it in because it was logged in by my assistant manager."

It HAD to be mine!  But what if whoever found it saw the rings, stole them, then handed in the bag?

I made arrangements to go pick up my bag the next day.

When I arrived, I was handed my bag.

I opened it up as I held my breath.

I moved the breath mints, the lip gloss and lipstick out of the way, and peered down to the bottom...

...and there they were.

My rings were safely snuggled down between all the other beauty items.

I welled up in tears, thanked the receptionist profusely, got to my car and said a prayer of gratitude.

Later that night, I reflected on the lessons learned:

1.  After telling my  husband the whole saga, he was surprised to learn that I was so afraid to tell him and toiled for almost three weeks over it.  He told me he would have been bummed, but then asked what I feared he would have done if I would have told him.

I don't know, was my answer.

I toiled for weeks over something that wasn't even reality.  I feared something that didn't even happen and also wasn't sure what I was fearing about telling him anyway.

2.  People are really good.

I immediately went to the "thief" that would find the bag and steal my rings.  Just like when I have lost my kids in Costco (three times now), I think about the child-molesting kidnapper that may find them and take them, rather than the good people that would find them, announce that they had been found and hand them back over to me. (which is what happened...everytime!)

Instead, I realized, once again, that there are more good people in the world then nasty people.

I figured out that my cosmetic bag had to go through about five sets of hands before it got back into mine....the person who found it, the hostess at Nicks, the manager who checked it in, the driver who drove the lost and found items to the corporate office, and the receptionist.

Five good people who either looked in the bag and left it's contents or didn't bother to look at all knowing it wasn't their bag.

3.  The biggest lesson for me was the power of affirmative prayer and the presence of miracles in my life...everyday.

I pray to the Universe, affirmatively, everyday.  I give thanks for already having the things in my life I am praying for.

I don't beg for them to come.

I simply give thanks for them being in my life.

I pray for small miracles like a rock star parking space or my favorite song to come on Pandora.

I receive those miracles almost daily, which over time, has truly built my faith.

But I also pray for big miracles everyday like world peace, the chance to make a difference in the world, the health of my kids, etc...and after this saga, I prayed to find my rings when there was NOTHING that looked as if there was a chance of getting them back!

I got my big miracle on this day.

If there was a sliver of my mind that wasn't completely filled with faith in prayer, it certainly was filled with the realization of this major miracle.

I used the value of my rings in the title of this post, not because I want to brag, but because I wanted you to click and read and money makes people click.

I wanted you to know the power of praying in gratitude for already receiving that which you desire.

I wanted you to know to expect miracles everyday...big ones and small ones.

If you are unsure of how to pray affirmatively or are unsure of whether or not you can expect miracles, start with small ones to build your faith.

Start with parking spaces, "I am so happy and grateful to have the perfect parking space open up right in front of this store" and KNOW it will happen.

The more it does, the more faith you will build in affirmative prayer and in small miracles.

It will build your faith in big miracles and when you pray with faith in the outcome already being so, truly, my friend, big miracles will happen everyday for you!

Happy B-I-G miracle-making!

*** I want to hear YOUR miracle stories!  Share them in the comments below and help me spread the faith in expecting miracles.***

So Many Blessings!

Dr. Emoto and I  after the water blessing

On Thursday I joined fifty or so like-minded people to participate in a water blessing of the ocean at the south end of San Onofre Beach nearest to the nuclear power plant. The blessing was given by Dr. Masaru Emoto, whose molecular pictures of water we studied in our Beyond Limits class earlier this year. For those of you unfamiliar with those pictures see his book Hidden Images in Water. 

Dr Emoto spoke briefly in Japanese, then his speech was translated into English. Due to the close surf and the large circle, it was difficult to hear his entire message but we felt it in the blessing. He asked us all to face the ocean and pray for the water between San Onofre and Japan. Then he did a call and response chant in Japanese. (We all did the best we could but I think our English-speaking expression did not very accurately reflect his intentions.) We all om'ed together. Then a minute of silence. Then he asked us to repeat after him, the words of the Ho'opononpono Blessing of Ihaleakala Hew Len that Joe Vitale made famous.

Remember the story of Hew Len who was a director of an asylum for the criminally insane.  The inmates were violent. The workers were stressed, fearful and watchful. The staff had no morale. Everyone feared for their lives. The workers were drug and alcohol addicted. When they walked down the hallways they would walk with their backs against the wall so they could see everything on either direction. The staff were often absent due to sickness.

Dr. Hew Len was a new director. When he had only been there for a few months, the staff started relaxing and enjoying their work. The patients seemed to be calmer. Then the patients started to get better. One by one they were released from the institution until finally they closed the institution.

What kind of miracle work did Dr Len Hew do? What kind of psychological techniques did he know? How did he accomplish this huge turn-around?

He never saw a patient.

He didn't do any therapy.

What he did everyday was to take the file of each patient and bless the patient with the Ho'oponopono Blessing. This blessing is very easy. It is the same blessing Dr. Emoto used for the water that Hew Len used on the mental patients. In Dr. Emoto's words it is:

Water, I am sorry.

Water, please forgive me.

Water, I love you.

Water, thank you.

We repeated it three times. Then he sang a song to us and asked us to sing something into the circle. Nobody seemed brave enough to do it. He said that there was a melody everybody knew. He asked us to just sing La-la-la to "Ode to Joy." He kept the pitch low and sweet.It was beautiful, simple and transformational. 

How blessed I felt that I had been invited to the blessing, that I had time on my calendar to do it and that we have further proof that in this Universe (uni-verse, one song)we are all connected.  Our positive thinking and feeling not only effects us but the world in which we live.

If there is anything that you are troubled by, I recommend chanting the words of Ho''oponopono silently for five minutes or so. You will know when you are complete because your energy about the situation will have changed. You will see with the eyes of Love.

To find out more about Dr. Emoto's work, check out his book on Amazon.com. 

To find out more about Ho'oponopono,check out the book Joe Vitale and Hew Len co-authored entitled Zero Limits.

The 3 Words that Changed My Life

Miracles happen everyday...if you notice them.

They can be small or the "miracles" that are shared on mass media...the big ones.  The unforeseen unbelievable ones.

We can ask for miracles, however, I recently ready three  words that changed the way I approach everything...EVERYTHING!

I was reading Carolyn Myss's book, "Anatomy of Spirit" and three words J-U-M-P-E-D off the page at me as if they were screaming at me to notice.

"MIRACLES WITHOUT RESTRICTIONS"

I knew immediately what that meant.

I have been praying for my own miracles, but when doing so, I dictate "how" they should be and what they should look like.

For example, "I am so happy and grateful for receiving the $13,000 I need for a PR agent."

I realized that I had been restricting my good.  I have been telling the Universe HOW my good should show up when, in fact, it's completely out of my hands and I just may be limiting or restricting my good by saying exactly what I want.

Instead, I pray for exactly what I need that will perfectly move my life forward with my highest good at hand.  

My prayers for miracles were restricted by my own ideas of what my highest good is....and how can I possibly know that?

I can't.

So instead of dictating my own highest good, I simply pray for miracles without restrictions  and know that what the Universe has in store for me is MUCH more than I can even plan for myself.  

Namaste.