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Horizons Magazine

More about Andrea

MARCH 2002
Staying functional as you sit out dark times; trusting when there's
no evidence; helping friends reframe their lives; spiritual purpose; Abraham's
Placemat Process.  My dream about trusting - flying over the ocean!

Hello and welcome to the March 2002 issue of Horizons Magazine. Wow,
it's Spring, already? Hard to believe another winter has passed, yet all around
 me I see tender green shoots of new growth, evidence of the glorious growing
 season on its way to us. Even here in bright, sunny Florida, we get enough
wintery days that my dozens of tallow trees lose their leaves and stand stark against the sky. It's a real joy to see their new shoots of growth and it seems that one day they're bare and the next they've got leaves!

I find my life goes through cycles like that, too. One day I see evidence of nothing happening, and it may seem bleak, with nothing on the horizon. The next day, however, can bring all sorts of new opportunities that I did not envision before. I've learned to take the bleak, seemingly barren times and view them as incubation periods. Sometimes I even write about it in the form of a character in a novel I've half-heartedly started. I've learned that if I can keep my body in motion while my mind wants to steer me into a melancholy mood, well maybe I don't get out of the doldrums any quicker (tho I think I do!) but at least I don't have a pile of chores left undone at the end of it all. Just because you're feeling a little blue doesn't mean you can't eat healthy and get some exercise, indulge in candlelit bubble baths and get plenty of rest. It's not like you've gotta huddle in a corner, chain smoking Camels, chugging bourbon and eating rocky road ice cream at 2am. No matter how bleak our inner landscape may seem to us, we still have a choice to remain as functional as we want to be as we sit out the dark times, waiting for spurts of new growth.

In this issue, Abraham-Hicks gives The Placemat Process - an ingenious tool for keeping yourself on track when you've got lots going on and are starting to feel overwhelmed. Abraham suggests drawing a line down the middle of a sheet of paper, and on the left side, write Things To Do - Me and on the right side, write Things To Do - The Universe. On your side of the page, write only what you plan to take action on today. On the other side, write what you'd like the Universe to take care of for you, today, next year, 10 years from now. And then trust that something's been set in motion by your actions, and that it will bear fruit in due time. I can attest that this process works for me.

That's not always easy to do - trust that something is in motion when you see no evidence of it anywhere. Just as when you place a glass under the faucet and before you turn the handle, there is no evidence of the water that will fill your glass. Yet you know through personal experience that you can trust that turning the handle will consistently produce water for you, even though there is no physical evidence of it beforehand. Rev. Beth Head writes about quantum trusting in this issue: "The Universe is ordered. The planets are not colliding with each other. The trees are growing. Our body knows how to renew itself. There is evidence everywhere of a higher power. The everlasting truth is that whenever things feel out of order, all we have to do is remember to trust God."

I had a real memorable dream once about trusting. In the dream I was flying over the ocean. At first I was just flying, then I looked down and saw the earth below me. Then I got closer and saw the ocean, although I didn't recognize a continent. As I descended, I began to get afraid because it was the middle of the ocean and I'm not a strong swimmer. In the dream, I could feel real fear in my chest. As I descended and felt scared, I was standing upright suddenly and could feel small waves splash at my feet. I quickly said a prayer "help me deal with whatever is gonna happen" and I lifted my feet and I looked all around to see if I could see land. Suddenly I could see land, but way off in the distance. I quickly said a prayer that I'd make it to land and suddenly a row of tiles begin appearing from me to the land. I was afraid I would be stranded and suddenly I felt the tile I was standing on begin to sink. The tiles were just barely a few inches beneath the water's surface, and each one a long step apart from the next. I was afraid to move off my one tile, kind of frozen there, not wanting to step over the ocean part to get to the next tile. I noticed that whenever I felt afraid, my tile would begin to sink. Whenever I said a prayer, it came back up and I'd be on the next tile automatically, and a step closer to the land. This dream was a lesson to me about prayer and about trust. It was a reminder to me to pray as though everything depended upon God, and act as though everything depended upon me. And trust that God will sort it all out for me.

Suzanne Harrill writes this month on Finding Your Spiritual Purpose, and provides a Life Purpose Inventory for you. She reminds us that it's just as valuable a spiritual purpose to raise a child or help support others, as it is to lead a group or write a book. We're so quick to judge ourselves, thinking that what we do doesn't matter as much as what someone else does, or it is not prestigious or trendy enough. A friend of mine used to lament, "I'm just a cleaning lady" until I reminded her that she was a self employed business owner, and an enterprising entrepreneur to boot, having acquired a handful of commercial accounts and hired dependable workers to help her as she grew.

Sometimes all a friend needs is for you to help them reframe their lives for them, in order for them to see it clearly. We all could benefit by looking at things from another perspective. How do your parents see you? How would your mate describe you? How would your best friend or your children describe you? How do you think your boss and co-workers would describe you? Your mail man? Your hairdresser? If there's someone you love who is going through some challenges, help them out by letting them see themselves through your eyes, for once. Tell them what it is about them that you love and admire. Tell them where they shine and who else notices it. Remind them of their strengths. Go into detail. Encourage them to be more of what they want to be; inspire them in their dreams and you'll help them move closer to their dreams.

Alan Cohen writes, Those who love you are not fooled by mistakes you have made or dark images you hold about yourself. They remember your beauty when you feel ugly; your wholeness when you are broken; your innocence when you feel guilty; and your purpose when you are confused.

We've got an excerpt for you from Brian Weiss' new book, Mirrors of Time, talking about his use of regressive therapy and how stunned he was the first time he regressed a patient to a previous lifetime. "To my complete amazement," Weiss writes, " she went back approximately 4,000 years to a former life in the Middle East. At first, I thought that her memories were merely fantasies. But Catherine began to improve after that session, and all of her symptoms eventually vanished as she recalled more past lives while under hypnosis. Within a few months, she was completely cured-without the use of any medication."

We've also got an excerpt from Yoga Pure and Simple, wherein Kisen writes that the physical tensions we carry in the body are the results of both the circumstances we've met throughout our lives, and our reaction to them. It took me a long time to learn that it was seldom an outer circumstance that caused me problems, that it was instead my reaction to the circumstance that caused problems. It usually began with something or someone failing to live up to my expectations, and took off from there. That's always a good starting point for emotional distress - having dysfunctional expectation *hehe*

Well, it's my expectation that you'll love this issue of Horizons Magazine, and that you'll plant lots of seeds of your own this Spring. Email me with your thoughts and comments. Enjoy our offering this month. Hari Om.