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What’s Hiding in Plain Sight? – Richard’s Commentary
Rosemary’s messages always contain truth for me. And they often challenge me to go deeper, to examine, to look for the hidden message, often staring directly at me when I “have the eyes to see.”
Tonight as I write this I am spending it in my family farmhouse in Wisconsin. I’m not sleeping in my old room but in the guest room just adjacent to that room I spent hours in and dreamed my boyhood dreams. And with every experience on this visit, I am looking deeply for the lessons.
I am particularly struck tonight by these words from Rosemary: “Sometimes people think they are missing something, or broken and need to be fixed. Sometimes they feel they are not complete and are looking for someone/something to complete them.” I’ve often felt that I left part of me in Wisconsin when I moved away more than 40 years ago. I first left “home” right after graduating from the University of Wisconsin; I traveled to Ethiopia as a Peace Corps volunteer and stayed away for two years. I returned “home” for a couple of years but then left for good in 1972.
Of course there were many visits back “home” while my parents were alive. I now have two brothers who still live here on the family farm; I’m staying with my middle brother on this visit. And here’s what I have found: this is not my “home” and I can find no piece, not even the smallest piece of me here anymore. Does this mean I’ve grown up? Well, many would say I’ll never grow up; but perhaps I’ve finally, after all these years, found my true home. It was hiding all this time in plain sight!
This does not mean I no longer have a part of a Wisconsin farm in my heart. It does not mean the memories of growing up wild and free and at home on this then sprawling dairy farm are gone and forgotten. What it does mean is my home is inside me. It’s not a place, nor a time, not even relationships. It’s a beingness that was, is and always will be there as an integral part of who I am. It’s a home I can experience anywhere and any time. It’s always with me, right there in front of my eyes.
And this confirms another piece of Rosemary’s article. She wrote: “You are complete RIGHT NOW!!! You don’t need to be fixed or completed. Everything you NEED is inside you now.” My home is inside me right now; all of it. I don’t have a piece in Wisconsin, a piece in Colorado and a piece in Maryland. It’s right here.
This gets at wholeness. Home is only one part of that wholeness. Relationships are another part and that begins with the relationship we have with ourselves. Can we find the home inside if we never visit there? If we avoid an inner examination of who we really are, can we find any form of completeness? If we don’t have a good relationship with ourselves we may never find home!
It’s taken me 68 years to come “home” and discover I’ve been home for all of those 68 years! Do you know where your home is? Can you come home again?
ROSEMARY’S EXPLORATION: What’s Hiding in Plain Sight?
Are you thinking that something is lost or missing and that you don’t know where to look for it? What part of YOU are you searching for?
Sometimes people think they are missing something, or broken and need to be fixed. Sometimes they feel they are not complete and are looking for someone/something to complete them. I call this the ‘Jerry Maguire Syndrome,’ from the movie that proposed this idea.
Let me set the record straight. You are complete RIGHT NOW!!! You don’t need to be fixed or completed. Everything you NEED is inside you now.
I can hear the objections starting to pop up. Do you feed the ‘if only’ complex that your mind tries to get you to buy? ‘If only’ I had more money. ‘If only’ I had a new relationship. ‘If only’ I had a better job. ‘If only…’
If there is something in your life that seems to be working in a way with which you are unhappy then you need only to look within yourself for solutions. The Field of All Possibilities is not out there somewhere, waiting to be discovered. It exists within you.
I’ve had some moments recently where I’m surprised at what was blocking me in that moment. It can be as simple as a ‘letting go’ of an old idea, or an embracing of a path of joy instead of a struggle. But nothing outside could change until I changed on the inside.
One client I work with had an ‘aha’ when we connected her to a new way of looking at a project before her. It became exciting instead of stymying and she smiled her way into it. With another client we did a visualization exercise and connected her to an image of her essence that had come up in the past and she felt empowered now to embrace that part of herself.
What you might be looking for doesn’t have to be outside of you. Look inside. What have you ignored or disowned and become blind to? What can you change about the lens through which you look for solutions?
I believe that everything you have done up to this point is perfect for the lessons you have had to learn. That doesn’t mean that there haven’t been bumps in the road but they were necessary lessons rather than mistakes. Even if you think you would have done something differently, you are looking from a vantage point with more information than you had in that moment.
If you feel that you are struggling right now, then take yourself forward 90 days and look back at now to see how you solved the problems.
Your inner self knows the answers and can reveal them to you when you are ready to see them.
Whatever you think is hiding from you is in plain sight when you have eyes to see!
PS: Are you ready to find what’s hiding in plain sight? Are you ready to unlock the mysteries you carry? Do you want to hear mystic messages specifically for you? Apply for a FREE Discovery Session with Rosemary! Apply Here
ROSEMARY’S INSPIRATION: Hiding in Plain View!
Rosemary’s “Two-Minute” video for the week: Hiding in Plain View!
PS: Are you ready to find what is hiding from you? Do you want to hear mystic messages specifically for you? Apply for a FREE Discovery Session with Rosemary! Apply Here
Adjusting Our Tolerance Levels
In yesterday’s post I wrote about tolerance and my view of what tolerance, what we come to tolerate, means. As a follow-up I want to explore today how to set those tolerance levels for optimum effect and performance.
Why? Because when we tolerate things to an extreme it drains our energy. When we are lax in our standards, when we tolerate something beyond a reasonable level it saps our strength; it depletes our ability to cope and to move through life with ease. And we may overlook important lessons if our allowances are too lenient.
But there is another side to this tolerance coin as I mentioned yesterday. We can also set our levels too high, our expectations too demanding to the point of spending too much energy holding ourselves and others to that high standard. Again, we lose energy, in this case actively.
So, where’s the balance? How do we determine the best level of tolerance in a given situation? This goes to the heart of values. We first assess our values, list them and prioritize them. For our highest values we establish an approach to live by those values. And we set boundaries around these values (we may even do this subconsciously based on our life history, family of origin, socialization, beliefs, etc.). The boundaries become our measures of tolerance, both for ourselves and others.
Here’s an example: I was outraged a few days ago when I learned through a news report that three US Congressional Representatives, led by Michele Bachmann, traveled to Egypt and made a speech about the turmoil there and praising the Egyptian military for its actions to overthrow the elected government. They did not have their facts straight, they did not speak well, stumbling over their words, and their general demeanor seemed typical of the superior, high-handed western approach. I had to bite my tongue not to explode in reaction to this total misrepresentation of facts, American ideals and me as an American. Did I expend too much energy on this? Certainly! Why? Because I set my standards too high for politicians these days. Let’s be real: there is a very good reason that our US Congress has one of the lowest levels of approval in history!
OK, so what do I do about this? I have several choices: 1) stop believing that the representatives in the US Congress actually represent me; 2) stop expecting these representatives, and senators, to have much in the way of standards; 3) relax my standards on what it means to be a) an American b) an elected representative c) a politician d) a participant in a democratic experiment; and 4) lower or even remove the notion that living in a republic is a useful value!
Sorry that sentence got a little complicated but I think you get my drift here. I can lower my expectations of how I think a member of the US Congress should behave, especially internationally, and save a lot of wasted emotional energy worrying and railing about it!
I use this example to illustrate my approach to the process. I chose a value of lower priority in my scheme of life to keep it light. My practices, on the other hand, are high on my priority list. And I spend a lot of energy on these practices. They keep me both grounded and connected to what is real. They offer me a way to assess and reassess these values that are so important as a gauge to adjusting my tolerance levels. Values change with the flow and evolution of life and consciousness. Tolerance levels rise and fall with lessons learned.
Do your practices help you adjust your tolerance levels? Do you have a way to assess your values and apply them consciously to the events in your life? What is your approach?
Happy Birthday to YOU!!! – Richard’s Commentary
And I can also say Happy Birthday to the Moon today! She is new in Virgo. This just occurred at 7:38 am Eastern time.
Do you celebrate the New Moon each “moonth”? Are you aware of the phases of the moon and her travels through the night sky? The Ancients paid a great deal of attention to this goddess of the heavens. She lighted the way of night travelers, guided the seasons and times to plant, provided a calendar, effected tides and seafaring, and offered a rhythm to life and the basis of myth and wonder.
From modern research we know that life would be very different, if it existed at all, if it weren’t for our moon. Her influence on the planet and our lives is profound. So, I pay a lot of attention to her phases and my interaction with her. If you’ve been reading my posts for a while you’ll know, for example, that I cast an I Ching Gua (a hexagram of yin and yang lines) at each new moon to divine an energy for the up-coming month. (I’ll post that tomorrow.) I also celebrate the new moon as a new beginning, as a birthday of sorts, very much in keeping with Rosemary’s message this week. So, on this new moon day consider her advice:
Happy Birthday to YOU!!! Today is your birthday. You get to choose who you are today, right now, in this moment. You don’t even have to be the same as you were when you woke up this morning. OR you can decide that you like the YOU who woke up and you re-decide to celebrate YOU! Either way, it’s your birthday today.
It is a good time to start something new. I’m going to plant some fall vegetables in my garden today. And Rosemary and I are going to review our business plan and model to determine what’s working and what can be improved. It’s a new day as well as a new moon!
And this new moon is in the sign of Virgo. This too has special meaning. A dear friend and astrologer, Gloria Hesseloff, titled in her newsletter for the New Moon: Work is Love made Visible, using a line from a poem by Kahil Gibran. The Virgo Moon calls us to a higher work. Gloria writes:
Virgo energy challenges you to release any obstacles to finding your sacred work. Integrating this goal with the radical changes that Pluto and Uranus are demanding of us right now, ask yourself, “What changes do I need to make to my daily life routines and patterns (Virgo attributes) so I can be an instrument of the Divine?
Virgo energy asks you to become highly competent in a skill that is of value to others. Then generously offer it as your high service. Your specific gifts are truly needed at this significant moment in history.
Today is your birthday! Celebrate with me as I celebrate this New Moon and “the first day of the rest of my life”! We are always at choice. I choose to make my love visible through my work.
ROSEMARY’S EXPLORATION: Happy Birthday to YOU!!!
People sometimes believe that they can’t change. My wonderful Mother used to say, ‘I’m too old to change.’ But in her 60s she studied Transcendental Meditation and started to meditate. She also adopted an attitude of ‘NMP – Not My Problem’ that freed her to relax about feeling responsible for everything and everyone around her. When we said that she had changed, she replied, ‘I didn’t change. I just changed my attitude!’
Every day, no matter how old or how young you are, you can adopt a new way of thinking, especially about yourself and who you are. Every morning is a rebirth, a new start, a ‘birthday.’
When you find yourself stuck in a rut, or not sure what your next step is, remind yourself that you are always at a point of choice in your life. What benefits are there to staying in that rut? Do you really not know the next step? Or are you afraid of what it might ask of you and, therefore, you choose not to seek help in identifying it?
Happy Birthday to YOU!!! Today is your birthday. You get to choose who you are today, right now, in this moment. You don’t even have to be the same as you were when you woke up this morning. OR you can decide that you like the YOU who woke up and you re-decide to celebrate YOU! Either way, it’s your birthday today.
Celebrate who you are at your very core, the Light that was inside you when you were born that shines into the world because you are here today. Remember that your circumstances are not you. Remember that the people around you are not you – they are mirrors to help you grow.
Every day is an opportunity to grow, to learn, to be compassionate, to share, to shine your Light. Every day is a choice – to be happy, sad, contented, upset. Every day is a chance for renewal – of yourself, your relationships, your circumstances.
Every day is your birthday.
So when you wake up tomorrow, decide to en-JOY the day. Reach inside for the Light and the Joy that resides in that Light and shine. Happiness can rest on circumstances, but Joy is ever-existing within the Light. Touch it.
Celebrate YOU!!! We are all so glad that you showed up on the Planet now. Thank you!
Remember to give of yourself as well as to receive. When you choose to en-JOY your day, your smile will shed the Light on those who need it. You’ll have plenty of JOY to share with others so share it.
Happy Birthday to YOU!!!
Letting Go of My Obsession with Time
In my post yesterday I wrote: “I am learning to let go of this constant obsession with time.” This is not easy. As many of you readers know, one of my practices is “Daily Pages” as recommended by Julia Cameron in her Artist’s Way. Almost every day I begin those pages with some reference to time: the date, of course, how late in the week/month/year it is, how late in the morning I am writing, or how I had to skip pages yesterday because I was too busy. It truly is an obsession. And I wonder if it is getting worse as I get older.
So, I am working on this obsession. Yesterday I wrote in my pages on how I was going to let go. I was writing in the context of settling in to our new home and how it was going to take – TIME – of course! Here’s an excerpt:
It is clear that my relationship with time needs to change. I am very serious about this. I don’t know if I have to learn an indigenous language without the “to be” verb. I’m sure it would help. But this seems to be an intellectual exercise. What I need is to experience time as a native. I need to sink into time and live in it rather than through it.
Time is like a lake or a pond. It extends out in all directions. Events are like pebbles tossed into the pond. They ripple out, like echo rings. They may even bounce back when they reach the shore. And the pond returns to its serene state after a bit, smoothly available to the next event. I am the pond and I am the pebble. I am the ripple and the echo.
All this is inside, an internal vibration of consciousness. There is no beginning nor end to it. It is simply there as a phenomenon of awareness. It is all inside. It is nowhere else. It is a single note or an entire symphony, a cacophony of noise or a harmonious orchestration of experience.. It is up to the mind to filter and sort, to decode all the signals into a stream of intelligence.
But it’s all there, right now in this moment, to translate into meaning. Time is but one mechanism by which we translate the signal. It doesn’t have to follow in a linear fashion. It can spiral, it can circle or vibrate to and fro. It can echo and bounce. It is a matter of tuning the translator so we can grasp meaning from the noise.
My tendency is to stretch the noise into a straight line; I can look along this line and see a beginning and end. I take some comfort in this view. But I am uncomfortable with this notion of “end”! This limits time for me. It creates this notion of commodity that can become scarce and run out! This is precisely what I want to change.
I need to retune my translator. I need to view time as a spiral that circles and climbs. Everything circles! From spinning subatomic particles to the spin of galaxies and the Universe, the circle is eternal. “what goes around comes around” – Karma! Does the spiral have a linear motion? Or is it an ever-widening series of circles? This returns me to the question of direction. Does time have one?
The Buddha would say there is no getting off the wheel of Samsara until all desire is eliminated. Surely the desire for more time is one of the first desires to go! And when it is released the notion of all time is here, right now in this moment, gives me all the time I ever need!
As with everything in life, this retuning of my translator through which I view this human conception, time, requires practice. It is an inner practice. I am fortunate to have a guide in this who sets an example of a different way to view time. Rosemary’s article, The Karma of Time addressed this subject this past Wednesday.
How do you view time? Is it straight or does it circle or spiral? Does it have a direction? Does it go anywhere or is it more like a pond, resting quietly, waiting for events?
What Would You Do? Do It Now! – Richard’s Commentary
I don’t feel old! OK, I did just move through my 68th birthday. By many standards this is at least approaching “old.” My grandkids think I’m old, but even they are polite enough not to say so unless asked directly. They see us in action and know we move through life with a lot of energy, a lot of vitality; good qi drives us!
But maybe these days it doesn’t require attainment of a certain age in order to get this message: “do it now!” This past Friday in our Qigong class the teacher, who is also an acupuncture practitioner, reflected that she was seeing way too many patients coming to her with a “pre-cancerous” diagnosis. A good, younger friend was just told he had a lymphoma; another good, younger friend just completed his treatment for prostate cancer. And I just scheduled a bone marrow biopsy to determine why my red-blood cell count is diminishing.
So, the admonition in Rosemary’s message: There is an urgency about the energies around us today. We each have a reason that we were born into this time on the Planet. Have you discovered your purpose? Are you clear about what you are to be doing now? If not, then that is your work today really does ring true!
First the “urgency”. I do feel this energy and it’s not just because I am in the midst of diagnosing a health condition and am surrounded by others going through a similar process for one ailment or another. There is a building sense that things are not right, that there is a potential building to create a shift, and not necessarily a gentle shift! Rosemary and I both have been writing in our blogs about this energy for transformation. Many of our associates are also feeling this energy. It is manifesting in many way, not just through disease. Many are feeling the dis-ease of our times, whether it is in the form of political, social, economic, or health issues. We seem to have come to a place where things our “out of kilter.”
Rosemary’s advice is to “discover your purpose.” And then “do it now!” And no, I don’t think time is necessarily running out; I don’t sense that my life is threatened by whatever malady I have that needs a diagnosis. This urgency is born of the sense that the energy of transformation needs a response. And the best response is in the direction of our purpose.
I have had my hands read by one of the best in the business, Baeth Davis, and by some of her students and others who have studied Scientific Hand Analysis. My life purpose is revealed in my fingerprints. I have lots of “loops” which means I am in the school of love, my lessons are about love and my purpose is love. (So, it’s not unreasonable that I would write a blog entitled Men and the Goddess!)
My purpose is to connect people in community with each other and with the divine. I am a builder of connections so people can experience and express both human and divine love. And over the years I have done this in many ways, through several approaches.
Since I know my purpose and I have been working at it, why this urgency? What is my lesson in the ailment I am being urged to diagnose? For me the message here is to remember my purpose and work as diligently as possible at it. It is more a positive reminder and a gentle push to keep going, keep building community, keep working on the vision Rosemary and I have for a Center of Light and Love.
Do you have this sense that the energies of change are breathing down your neck? If so, and I know many of you know exactly what I’m writing about, then what are you doing about it? Do you know your purpose for being here on the planet at this crucial time in human history? Are you going about that purpose as diligently and energetically as possible?
I second Rosemary’s admonition: “Do it now!”
PS: If you have never had your hands read, if you are struggling to know what your life purpose is, if you too have this sense of urgency that the world is changing and needs your response, then consider getting a scientific hand analysis by Rosemary. She is one of the best because she adds her talents as a Channel and a Medium to the analysis work!Click Here for more information.
ROSEMARY’S INSPIRATION: Are You Waiting?
Rosemary’s “Two-Minute” video for the week: Are You Waiting?
PS: Don’t miss out! Rosemary’s very special price on a Reading with her is available in August only. Purchase Here
ROSEMARY’S EXPLORATION: Moving Forward
With each sunrise your new day, your new life, begins. Every morning is an opportunity to make new choices about the direction in which your life will lead. Do you consider this when you wake up?
Or do you start your day with complaints? About not enough sleep, or aches and pains, or a long to-do list?
At this time in human history, you are being asked to step into your power and your purpose and propel yourself forward in the direction of your dreams. Yes, it is your dream and your vision of your future that pull you into that future. You can move into that vision or you can choose to stay in your present, fighting against the energy to move forward.
Believe it or not, it takes more energy to stay stuck than it does to move forward. You must fight the strong current of the energy of the Universe that wants to support your forward movement if you would keep everything as it is. When you surrender to the forces that carry you forward on your personal journey you will find the fulfillment that we all seek.
Decide today that you will choose to move forward in your life. When you wake up tomorrow, start your day with the thought, ‘How can I take a step forward along my path? What can I do today that helps me to grow, to advance in my consciousness, to understand something I’ve struggled with before, or to live my purpose more fully?’
This first decision is the hardest part. It’s much easier to pull the covers over your head and go back to sleep, literally or figuratively. But now is not the time to sleep. It is the time to awaken to the wonderful opportunities that abound in front of you.
This is not the time to look at the past and judge yourself harshly for not doing/doing something in the past. Today is a new day. Give yourself a pat on the back for opening to the awareness that there are opportunities in front of you and for making the decision to move forward in your life.
I recently came upon some notes from a while ago where I struggled with a problem that has cropped up again for me. Sometimes I think, ‘Haven’t I already dealt with this one?’ The answer I receive from my guides is often, ‘Yes, and now you have the opportunity to delve more deeply into this issue and to move yourself even farther forward.’
Our personal journeys are not linear – they do not go forward in a straight line. They spiral, around and around. And, if we are moving forward in our personal growth, we are able to see from a new perspective with each return of the spiral, to understand in a new way what we couldn’t see before. This is moving forward along our path of personal growth in consciousness.
Once you have awakened you cannot unlearn what you have learned. You might try to stand still but the energy within you leads you to move forward.
Keep growing. Keep moving. Reach in front of you for help from someone leaping ahead. Reach behind you to help someone who is moving more slowly.
Keep moving forward.
Men and The Goddess 