This week a sense of deep gratitude and love overflow me.
It is Spring in The Netherlands, the birds are singing, the sun caresses the earth, everyone is coming out of their hidey-holes and life just seems to flow more freely. And I feel giddy and full of life and energy.
A hazy shade of Winter
The past weeks in the extreme cold (for The Netherlands and time of year) was so good for me as it helped me focus on what is important. It slowed me down and helped me feel compassionate towards those in much worse situations. I had my little pity party and I opened my eyes to people who live on the streets, who work outside all day, who have no food to eat, who are ill, who are depressed and those who no longer see a point in living. And it also brought a lot of appreciation and gratitude towards little old me as I opened myself up to seeing the beauty in ice and cold, instead of fighting it like I usually do. I actually quite enjoyed watching people ice skate on the canals and being cuddled up under a blanket with a hot water bottle. It was all about shifting focus and perspective.
Are you experienced
Instead of cursing the fact I don’t have heating at home, I felt so much gratitude for what I do have, like a roof over my head, food to eat, warm clothes to wear, a job (with heating, indoors), my health, enough money to entertain myself with books, travel and other pleasurable distractions. I am grateful for the warm and kind people in my life and also the people that challenge me to become even more rooted in my own strength. I am grateful to breathe, to feel (even frost bite), to experience all senses in this giant play on Earth. I am grateful to root in, as I feel more connected to this Planet than I have in very long time. We are all that Divine sparks, coming here to this planet to experience.
Hang onto your hopes my friend
That’s an easy thing to say
But if your hopes should pass away
Simply pretend
That you can build them again
Take a moment to pause and feel how blessed you are. Now don’t do the comparison game, but focus on you, your life, what you have a this present moment. What are you feeling when you reading this message? Are you not enjoying a multitude of blessings just by being here? If you can’t see it, I invite you to open your eyes to the blessings that are all around you. Once you notice them, there will be more for you to be seen and experiences. It is all about shifting your focus. We as humans are so distracted and no wonder, there are forces at play that do their damn best to keep us looking the other way. To keep us stuck in the rat race, in the game. Well it is time to shift. To refocus, rethink, redo, readjust. Retrograde time is perfect for this. So stop. And notice.
Keep going
Be grateful for you. I am. I am so grateful for you. For giving a f..ck, for showing up. For trying to make the most of it. And you know what that is all we can do at this moment. Try, try, try. Action. Perhaps falling over. But getting up and trying again. This is not a time to give up. This is not a time to doubt, or to feel sorry for yourself. And yes none of us deserve any of what we have gone through, but we don’t know the larger scheme of things and we are still here, cuts and bruises and all. And we more the beautiful for it. We didn’t give up. We believe, we keep going.
A certain mysterious quality reveals itself and cradles us within an intimacy with all of existence. This is something that many people are looking for without even knowing it. Almost everybody is looking for intimacy—a closeness, a sense of union with their own existence or with God, or whatever their concept of higher reality is. All this yearning actually comes from our longing for closeness, intimacy, and true union. When we open to life in this way, we begin to find an inner stability simply because we’re no longer at odds with our experience.”
― Adyashanti, Falling Into Grace
Amazing Grace
Deep down we feel that there is a power called Grace that guides us along. We feel we are not alone and part of a greater power. Do not fight the blessings of Grace, but be open to receive it. For you deserve it. Not from an ego, little Self deserving, but because you are a spark of Creation. We don’t need to do anything to receive Grace, we just need to stay connected, not striving for an end result or fixating on a specific outcome. The key is trusting that you have a unique purpose and follow the breadcrumbs then life becomes all of itself, and you being to see all of it as the true soul’s journey where joy and freedom are sometimes accompanied by their shadows.
“Everything, in its way, is a gift—even the painful things. In reality, all of life—every moment, every experience—is an expression of spirit.”
― Adyashanti, Falling Into Grace
And it is op to us to decide which game we play together. The Pain and Suffering game or the Joy and Bliss game. Don’t you think we have played the first game long enough and isn’t it time to experience something else? So let’s throw the board of the table and start fresh. It is time to experience and be true unconditional love. All of our lives are proof that our spiritual nature contains everything at once—that we can become clear or confused, that we can act loving or cruel. How we act and feel depends on how awake we are, and how much we experience that silence, that peace, within. We are sparks of the great Divine, we are connected to Source and that is our magic and it is in everything and everyone, we are part of this Living Light and we co-create with it. It is time we remember magic and use it for good. Instead of subconsciously co-creating this giant prison together. Let’s no longer play the fear game.
We are blessed. Let awe and gratitude guide you now.
May the Long Time Sun
Shine upon you
All love surround you
And the pure light
Within you
Guide your way on
Guide your way on
We can do it, I believe in us. I feel it.
I believe in miracles. I believe we create magic.
Do you feel it?
Much love and gratitude, shine on!
Look around
Grass is high
Fields are ripe
It’s the springtime of my lifeSeasons change with their scenery
Weaving time…
