Category: Soul journey

True Love

The word love sometimes loses its impact from overuse. We apply it to so many situations and recipients: people, food, places, experiences, clothing, cars, etc. In most of these senses, it signifies a strong preference or attachment of some kind. It doesn’t usually mean letting go or allowing, which is the greater sense of love. From a spiritual perspective, complete immersion in love is the highest attainment of a seeker on the path to self-knowledge and God realization. Within that experience, “attainment” and the path itself disappear in profound loving awareness. A deep light of unconditional love shines on everything and everyone, without expectation or judgment of any kind.

Such a love allows the world and others to be exactly as they are without prerequisite or paradigm. This is the way God loves—or whatever name you want to give the infinite consciousness that created the universe. God realization does not mean that you become enlightened or God-like. It means you fully realize that you are already enlightened, already God, and always have been. And so is everything and everyone else. God incarnates on this Earth plane to experience itself in an infinite number of forms. On the soul level, we know we are God; on the personality level, we see ourselves as human and thus flawed/limited. The soul exists in limitless loving awareness, and as each human evolves, they move closer to aligning with their soul and seeing the perfection in all things. They begin to love as God loves; they allow everything and everyone to be as they are.

This is the journey we are on now on this planet. The shift of the ages has placed us all at this time and place to open fully to the true nature of who we are. When you realize you are God and everyone else is too, separation falls away. Hatred and injustice eventually dissolve because there is no “other”; there is only One. You begin to observe the gradual evolution of a world into a more loving inclusive place. Every polarity and extreme is being lived out so that we may come back into balance and harmony. Humans often think the world and humanity are fatally flawed. We want to fix everything through our own efforts and attempts at control, based in hugely different opinions and judgments. But there are no mistakes in God. Every piece of this Earth puzzle is designed to fit together perfectly. The resolution has already occurred; we are just living it out.

That may sound a bit far-fetched or complex, but the day-to-day reality is simple. Love this world and everyone in it with all your heart. Your life is a fleeting experience of divine wonder and connection. Don’t miss it. Don’t miss the miracle of loving so widely that your awareness expands to include the entire universe, micro and macro. This is why you came here. You are God loving God in all its manifestations. And God is loving you through everything as well. You are evolving a planet just by opening your heart, by experiencing life as your soul. Loving awareness is the greatest gift you can experience and you can give. Look around you. Are you truly loving what you see? Do you know you are love itself?

There are no false steps here. Don’t worry about how to give or receive love. Just view every part of your life with wonder and joy. Imagine yourself as a soul seeing other souls, each one glowing with light and presence. The Earth and humanity are being reborn through your eyes and your heart. That is the miracle of true love.

New World, New Lives

The media these days is full of stories of angry disputes between individuals and groups over what each sees as “truth” in the world. Much of it has become centered on making rules/laws about everything from masks to voting restrictions, often from single-minded opinions or self-interest, not mutual caring and cooperation. It seems increasingly hard to believe in the possibility of peace on Earth. Some of us may recall past lives where entire civilizations were destroyed from such conflicts. We had hopeful visions of bringing back a lost world, without the power struggles. But what once was is done. Despite appearances, everything is new this time around.

As compelling as past-life memories are, we did not come back to Earth to recreate Atlantis or return to Eden. Nor to experience an apocalypse. This lifetime is different. Our souls have learned from those ancient experiences, and we carry that wisdom into our lives now. We are here to live into a completely new world, dreamed of for millennia but finally rising into physical form. We thought it might come in 2012, but that was just a breakthrough point. The global crack in unconscious robotic existence that COVID provided was the entry into a more expansive awareness. That open space in which we withdrew into our innermost selves opened the door to living from the heart and not the mind. Hierarchical social and political structures that divide us into warring factions will eventually dissolve. This time we are here to live in peaceful harmony with one another, a balance inherent in diverse circular communities and life-centered relationships.

What we are moving toward is the rebirth of a planet, the emergence of the New Earth. It is not always beautiful or engaging, but among the ruins of constricting lifestyles that emphasized competitive relationships and material possessions is a crystalline dimension of possibility and radiance. It shines brightly here and there and gives each of us hope that the vision we hold deep within us is not an illusion but rather a new beginning we have been evolving into for millennia.

This time we will get it right; we will not self-destruct or annihilate one another and the planet. Our blue Earth is turning golden, slowly but surely. The light of love is rising in the collective consciousness—a sparkling beam that will transform the world from singular self-centered living to connected soul presence. It may sound like a dream or a fairy tale, but more and more of us are seeing these visions of possibility becoming reality. We may not experience the full flowering in our lifetimes, but we are definitely meant to be part of the seeding and awakening.

So when you see news reports of hatred and violence in the world, think of it as the death throes of an old world and a futile attempt to shut out change and transformation instead of embracing it. There is a more compassionate and loving kindness that is gradually gaining momentum and visibility in the collective. Many of the new generations are already living in this dimension, this vibrational field. The old ways have become invisible to them. As consciousness has evolved through millennia, it has increasingly opened our minds and filled our hearts. Each one of us, in every generation, back through the decades to the present day, is playing our part. Imagine a new life and a new world—and live there. Now.

Losing Someone You Love

Last month, a friend I’ve known most of my life passed away after a recurrence of cancer. It was not entirely unexpected, but it happened suddenly and was deeply shocking. I thought she would always be there—an unspoken assumption many of us probably have about close friends or family. We never imagine that they won’t be in our lives. Yet she was gone. And even the most profound spiritual beliefs about life after death cannot entirely prevent the initial heart pain of losing someone you love.

Teddy and I met in college in San Diego in the late 1960s. We were “flower children” together, going to student demonstrations and be-ins and finding our way during a time of radical social change and personal transformation. After graduating, we lived together in San Francisco and then traveled around Europe for five months. We knew each other’s parents, boyfriends, and first jobs. Eventually I moved to the Boston area for graduate school in women’s literature, and Teddy got a degree in art therapy in SF. I returned to the West Coast after a few years but then moved once again back to Boston. Teddy moved to the East Bay and continued to live an alternative life as a dancer, poet, musician, and art therapist. In New England, I was active in the feminist movement, came out as a lesbian, and wrote for various publications.

No matter where we lived or what we were doing, we always remained close friends, “kindred spirits.” Our lives intertwined even from a distance. I met Ron, the man she married and who was by her side at the end of her life. And she met Anne, my life partner, when we visited California. I can still see Teddy’s face filled with such joy as she looked lovingly at the two of us together. In 2014, she flew to Massachusetts to play the flute at Anne’s and my wedding. Having her present was one of the most beautiful, touching parts of that day. Among other songs, she played Joni Mitchell’s “Circle Game,” which we had listened to many years before in college.

Everything does come full circle in life, and everything is ever-changing. If you embark on a spiritual path, as I did (and Teddy did, with her Buddhist practice), you learn impermanence and letting go. “Forever” is a truth, but only within the continuing soul consciousness beyond one lifetime. As a human being, you are born, and your parents love and launch you on your journey around the circle. Mine were the backbone of my life and so much a part of who I became. I feared their deaths all my life; yet when they passed (and I was with each of them), it became one of the deepest spiritual experiences of my life. And so with Teddy’s transition. I knew she was “gone” here in this dimension, but I also knew her spirit could never entirely vanish. On some level, I was comforted in knowing that she, and others I have loved who have died, are “on the other side” of a very transparent curtain. They have not disappeared into a void where I can never again reach them.

The week after she passed away, I could feel her presence unconnected to a physical form. Memories of our shared experiences flowed through my awareness in wave after wave. My human self couldn’t believe she was actually gone, but my soul knew she was still present. This is one of the ironies of life. We understand on some level that people we love are eventually going to die, but when it happens, it is so hard to assimilate. This is part of the soul’s experience in a human body: the appearance and seeming disappearance of life. Loss and grief are so real, so heart-breaking, but in the process we learn that nothing and no one is ever lost, including ourselves. Gradually, over the course of a lifetime, we grow in wisdom, until finally we accept all of life. We learn that death is an open not a closed door.

Or that is my belief, my trusting. That is what my soul, and God, show me is spiritual truth. And the longer I live, the more expansive that awareness becomes, the more I open to whatever comes, in this world and beyond. For ultimately, there is only love in this universe—divine love and human love. And they are one and the same. Indeed, that was Teddy’s last text to me from her hospital bed, just before she transitioned: LOVE. The essence of our friendship and the wisdom of a lifetime. I carry it with me in my heart, always.

You Are a Vortex

Most people are familiar with the word vortex in relation to energy centers at Sedona, Arizona, associated with various points in the physical landscape there, such as Cathedral Rock. These are believed to be places where powerful spiritual connections can take place. Other well-known energy spots, or sacred sites, are at Stonehenge, Machu Picchu, Haleakala Crater, the Great Pyramid, and the ancient Maya cities of Tulum and Tikal, as well as the underwater Atlantis Road near Bimini.

Not all vortexes are famous though. You may live close to one or more, as I do (I believe nearby Mt. Auburn Cemetery is a sacred energy vortex). Vortexes can take many forms and spark a variety of experiences, physical and nonphysical. At Mt. Auburn (and other places like Machu Picchu and Tikal), I have felt connected to something greater than my physical body, beyond time and space. Each sacred site I have visited unfolds into an interdimensional journey; the very quality of the light is extraordinary, heavenly. And this is how I have come to perceive vortexes: places where an intense flow of energy back and forth links the two dimensions of Heaven and Earth.

Many say the sacred sites around the world are all energetically connected to one another via ley lines, or meridians, that form a grid upon the Earth. My sense is that this energetic network stretches out from Earth to include the entire cosmos. And we as human beings who inhabit this planet are part of that network. We too are connected energetically to the cosmic grid and to one another. What is called psychic awareness, or second sight, is a manifestation of this connection. We all know things that defy rational explanation, that seem to have no basis in fact. Yet they are true at a deeper level. We are not just our bodies; we are much more. And our inner senses stretch far beyond the physical. We have so much to learn about ourselves and the universe during this time of planetary shifts in consciousness.

What we are discovering is that we too are vortexes. We channel cosmic energy, as do the trees, the mountains, the whales, the birds, and all of Nature. Our Earth is alive with energy, and our physical bodies are conduits for connecting that energy to the higher dimensions and receiving divine energy in turn. We are not alone on this planet. The energy of God, or Source, flows through us in every moment. And now is the time in history when we come to realize our great potential as human conduits and angels upon the Earth. We did not just come here to live a one-dimensional life and die. Collectively and individually we are coming into fully embodying human/divine presence in the world. We are evolving not only for ourselves but for the entire universe. Did you think you were alone in your life and in the cosmos? Far from it. We are part of a multiverse of energy that is continuously pulsing light codes. Every one of us is a transmitter and a receiver.

I often feel that vibrant energy when I walk in Nature or gaze up at the sky. I also feel it meditating in my living room or looking in the eyes of another human soul. We are souls above all else. Our physical bodies are temples that house our souls, and these temples are the vortexes that connect all of us to the vortexes of the Earth and to one another. The infinite universe is within us as well as outside. I can’t give you “proof” that this is true, but I know it deep within me. My mind can know physical reality, but my soul knows the music of the spheres to which we all dance within our lifetimes on this planet. We are points of awareness, we are radiant lights, stardust. We came here to shine the light of love in our hearts and to connect with one another and God at the deepest possible level. Stop for a moment in your busy life, take a deep breath, and remember who you are.

Life Review: A Preview

When you reach the end of your life, you won’t look back and wish you had made more money, owned a condo in Aspen, or won a Pulitzer prize. None of that will matter. What you will see is all the people you interacted with in your lifetime and how you affected them. In a split second of life review, you will experience yourself as others experienced you and how they felt in being with you. You will know firsthand the love, caring, hurt, or thoughtlessness you energetically transmitted through your words, thoughts, and actions. Your lifetime effect on everyone and everything (including animals, plants, etc.) will be God’s gift to you at the moment of your transition out of the Earth dimension. Instant karma.

How do I know this? Well, of course, nothing is completely “knowable,” but I feel the truth of it in my soul. Those who have had near-death experiences describe life review, as do great wisdom-keepers in many traditions. As the years go by, I am also starting to experience moments of this kind of intense feedback about the effect I have in my life. I often feel inside me the reaction of another to my words or actions. My energetic presence bounces back to me in every moment. I can either deflect and ignore it, or I can receive it as a divine GPS system which guides me to greater kindness and compassion.

This is what life is all about. We have a vast number of experiences, individually and interpersonally, which help us to evolve into deeper alignment with who we are at the soul level: pure loving awareness. We—meaning our souls and God—designed our lives for this purpose. The evolution of humanity and a planet, foretold for millennia. And the end-of-life-review is part of that evolution. A life review that is now edging backward into our lives before the moment of death to show us that the wisdom and perspective that come at death can also inform our lives now, if we are open to it and fully allow it.

It’s like climbing to the top of a mountain or flying in a plane at 35,000 feet. The Earth is spread out below you and you see that you are only a tiny part of something so huge it is beyond imagination. Infinity presents itself to your consciousness. Indeed, your consciousness is infinite. When you open the door to that expansive awareness, you begin to see with the eyes of the soul, as God sees. At the center of everything, including you, is pure love. When you can see that clearly and live as that, you have fulfilled your human purpose. Every one of us here on the planet now is on that journey of remembering and fully embodying who we are. Our hearts are guiding us.

As each day passes, I feel a greater sense of the impeccable timing of our Earth journey and our human evolution. We are awakening more and more, and as we awaken, “life review” becomes not solely a final look at a life before dying but also a moment-to-moment feedback loop that shows each of us how closely we are aligned with the love within us. The things that don’t matter fall away, and we live life knowing that what you feel, I feel, and vice versa. At the deepest level, there is no separation. There is only oneness. And as far as you can see, a rainbow of light.