Are Your Choices Magical or Mundane?

Clear the mists around your Avalon.

I remember reading "The Mists of Avalon" over winter break. My roomates were home with their families and I had the apartment to myself. While the snow fell outside I was warm and toasty eating bread smeared with butter and honey just like in my book on the mystical and magical court of King Arthur.

The mists shrouding the Isle Avalon grew and thickened as the beliefs in the old ways were abandoned. The magic was becoming lost and forgotten as the isle slipped deeper and deeper into the fog.

How we long for the magic and "supernatural" in our daily lives. We love to exchange our stories of dreams and experiences with psychics, healers, and shamans, to recount the butterfly that flew by just when we were thinking of a loved one we have lost. We long to have that undeniable, authentic experience to prove to us beyond a shadow of a doubt that Spirit exists and is alive and well in our daily lives. We can't get enough reassurance that those we have lost continue on and are somehow still connected to us in consciousness. We long for magic.

I do. We all do.

I want my dreams to be vivid, even lucid.
I want my experiences to be intense and authentic.
I want to feel close to those I have lost.
I want to feel that my ancestors are here with me.
I want to know that I live in a supportive living conscious universe that accepts and loves me unconditionally.

But what I learned this week is that Spirit is a two way street.

You have to sing out and with all your heart.
You must dig deep and be true in the most seemingly mundane of ways.
You have to get your ego out of the way.

You are called to be present.
You are called to fully participate in life.
You are called to recognize the magic and potentcy of all that is around you.

My daily life is more filled with tupperware dishes than abalone shells, but it's just as profound.
I probably won't find my animal totem from a Facebook quiz but I will find Spirit if I choose to recognize and participate in Life itself.

I choose to take time to listen.
I choose quiet mindfullness over mindless internal chatter.
I choose to reprioritize my day and spend time connecting and being grateful for the gifts of Mother Earth.
I choose to put down the digital devices and be in the moment.
I choose to clear the fog.

I meet people who are such bright lights that just being around them makes me exuberantly happy.
I find myself wanting to be more prepared, more present, more thankful, more true.

I know that every moment is precious.
Every moment is a Divine gift.
That not everything can be explained with words.
Not every answer can be found in Google.

Some things you just have to sit with and revel in their very existence.
To know that magic abounds.
To clear the mists around your Avalon.

Be quiet.
Be true.
Send your prayers.
Sing your songs.
Listen with your heart.
Be grateful.
Hold your vision.

And know.

THE HEALING POWER OF MUSIC

There is no question in my mind about the healing power of music.  Whether I'm listening to it, writing it, playing it, or singing it, there is an inner healing occurring both at the cellular level and at the soul level. Although I haven't had any recent physical challenges to overcome, I have certainly felt my own emotional healing occur from music.

A few months ago, I was experiencing a challenging time in my life.  It felt like life was coming at me from all directions and I could barely breathe, let a lone cry! All along, listening to calm, meditative music on a regular basis kept me sane but I was still far from healed. Because I am a musician, one of my responsibilities is to sing on a regular basis, and this definitely brings my spirits up each time, but there was still a huge hole.

As days and weeks went by, and daily I passed those 88 keys on the way in and out of my house, never sitting down in front of them to caress their beautiful ivories, it finally came to me in the shower (where most of my revelations happen) like a ton of bricks! The question screamed to me in my mind, "When was the last time you sat down at the piano and played?!" Immediately after drying off and getting dressed, I sat down on the hard wood bench, blew the dust off of some of my old pieces of sheet music, and finally moved those rusty ol' fingers. I must admit, the fingers were not dancing off the keys at first, but thus the journey back home began.

Music did its healing work and now I will always remember the power it has to make the world a better place.

As a way to give back and share this healing experience with others, I will be co-facilitating a music event at the Center for Spiritual Living Capistrano Valley on Wednesday, April 2, 2014. The evening will begin with a community potluck at 5:45pm (bring your favorite dish to share), and then will commence with a "Community Hootenanny" from 7:00-8:00pm. We are asking everyone to bring an acoustic instrument or percussion to play (there will be a limited amount of extra percussion instruments available for those who do not bring one.) This is an evening for the whole family, so come down, bring the kids and some of your friends for an evening of fun, food, fellowship and music!

“Where words leave off, music begins.”   -Heinrich Heine

You! Center For Spiritual Living Sunday Service

Today I expect more and even more for myself than I previously did. I deserve to give, to receive and to create with all the abundance of Spirit to support me.

Camp: Here I go again.

Gearing up for camp

Of course it is no coincidence that the day before my new camping adventure, now with my son as a boy scout, "The Joyous Living Journal" has the entry named, "Buzzards, Bats and Bumblebees.  This reminds me that circumstances may occur and all I have to equip myself with is myself, and my limited thinking. I use all of my human self to reference past experiences to know what to do in this moment.  What I want to realize is how to use all of my Self and know that I am unlimited and can not be contained in this human body.  I expect a miracle to happen and I look for them. I seek them out knowing that whatever fears or doubts I may have in regards to life, these thoughts are only contained in my small mind. The unlimited mind is so much more vast and ready to accept all of what life has in store. Getting out of my own way as I face the space of nature, I am now in action, not just in a place of thinking or dreaming of what it looks like. I am living what is. Each time I experience myself in nature, I become more and more comfortable with my true Self and my place in this world. Thank you Earth, thank you Sun, thank you Moon, thank you all creatures who make me realize that I have a place in nature. I am mustering up the courage to Be Prepared (as is the Boy Scout Motto). As always, prayer is welcome, as my son told me this past week, "I hope I survive March 29th." This is definitely the prayer for both of us. And So It Is. Amen. Namaste.