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Horizons Magazine

More about Andrea

JULY 1998

Change Is In The Air
Wow, changes are happening. According to Edgar Cayce, July 1998 will see
many phenomenal changes all over the earth, in the form of intense weather
patterns, more storms, volcanos, earthquakes. "Earth changes" doesn't mean
 we have to be washed away in death and destruction, although that's the picture
 many media producers would have you believe. Would it feel just as "devastating"
 if it were a gentle, cleansing flood, still leaving our houses half full of water forevermore? Wouldn't we think that was a tragedy? Personally, I think we'd be getting off easy.

Tragedy or A Second Chance?
Wouldn't everyone feel more a sense of brotherhood with neighbors who have suffered the great tragedy with them? It could truly be the dawn of a new age, where we see each other on the planet as sisters and brothers, and strive with them to build a new and loving community around us. Oh, friends, I don't see horror, grief and sorrow being the result of Earth changes in our lives. I see a promise for a more awake and aware, friendly and loving tomorrow.

We Can Always Divert Trouble
The best part might be this: If every event that happens is merely a physical reflection of a lesson to be learned, then once we figure out the lesson, the "challenging event" passes. Just so, I believe, and it's been my experience, that I can divert or avoid having to experience trouble if I can learn the lesson ahead of time. So it might be as simple as this: If you can begin now to cooperate and live as a loving sister or brother to everyone you come in contact with ~ your friends, family, your co-workers and adversaries, you help us "push away" any big hurricanes or storms that might be headed our way. After all, the earth is alive, and we are a part of it. Who knows, it just might be that easy! Lessons don't always have to be hard. And then, even if the bad weather hits, we've at least created a more loving atmosphere to live in.

Trust and Have Faith
Trust that all will be well with you and yours, and know that it will be. We're experiencing more storms, so be prepared for a little more wind than normal. This doesn't have to be a big deal as long as we prepare for the hurricane season a little early. Get some bottled water stored away, have an alternative means of lighting and cooking, keep lots of rope on hand and make sure you've got a good book to keep you occupied while the computer is down! I've got a few ideas on books for you.

My Gift to You
There are so many good books out there, literally hundreds of books on every subject imaginable, I see my role as a gatherer and sharer of information that is already available. A stage on the path of most lightworkers is feeling the urge to write and share their insights with others, "having to get the information out." I'm always coming across terrific volumes of metaphysical and spiritual insights, some that are new and many that were written long, long ago.

My Favorite Writers
Since like attracts like, I assume that whatever I'm dealing with in my life is also reflected in those who share my experience and life with me, and that they are having the same kinds of challenges and joys that I'm having. So when I come across a teaching or a writer that particularly touches me, I can't wait to share the info with others. I recommend to everyone I know, to read anything by Doreen Virtue, Alan Cohen, Louise Hay, Wayne Dyer, Deepak Chopra, Andrew Weil, Jonathan Robinson and Ram Dass. These writers all write simply and uplift, without pomp and circumstance, giving us wonderful behavioral guidelines to consider incorporating into our own lives, in order to improve our quality of life and understanding of those around us. In sharing tidbits of my practice and what I find inspiring, I hope to inspire you. In that spirit, I've read and reviewed Never To Return by Sharon Janis in this issue and am sharing the Prologue with you on page 13. I thoroughly enjoyed her account of living 10 years in a monastery and then working for the Hollywood film industry. This would make great summer reading, Sharon is a great storyteller and Never To Return reads like a novel.

Airport Layovers
I spent a few days last month in New England, actually, 2 days there and 2 days traveling and hanging out in airports! I usually love layovers, it means extra time to think or not think, to meditate, to practice radiating love to others, to study energy fields, to offer contrasting thoughts in reply to hearing the often angry and impatient words of weary travelers.

Counteracting Negative Thoughtforms
When I hear angry or critical words, I like to "counteract" their entry into the global mental plane by reversing the thought within my own mind and offering it up, while saying a prayer for understanding for the speaker. When babies are crying and mothers are harried, I kind of nonphysically project myself into the body of the weary mother, and hold her child for her, and cuddle and coo the crying baby, which I then imagine gives a moment of rest to the mother. Whether it really happens or not, I don't know; but I always witness the child settling down if my full attention is on them.

How Arrogant Can You Get?
Ha! Arrogant of me to think I had anything to do with a baby settling down, by merely projecting thought and intention, huh? Actually, it would be arrogant of me to think that my thoughts didn't affect other people's experiences. It would be a scary thought to think that we are at the mercy of what those around us think, except for one awesome and wondrous fact: Your own vibration follows you around everywhere you go, and you are the one in charge of how you think, how you act and how you react in every situation you encounter. You can, through conscious and loving intent, train yourself to strengthen and raise your own vibration, your own frequency so to speak, and thus set the tone of your future experience. And best of all, you shouldn't need a $300 workshop to tell you how to do it. There are so many wonderful writers out there. Read their words, be inspired and empowered by their words. Reading about the spiritual practice of another always inspires me to deepen my own.

I'm a Woman With a Vision
A friend and I were talking about our goals the other day and I told her, "My main mission in life right now is to reconcile all the "new age shakti" with valid spiritual practice." To me, this means reading much of what is currently available as far as personal growth and the movement toward conscious evolution, and reconciling it all within my own heart and being able to apply it to my own daily practice. I'd like to see every person empowered to be all they can be. There are men and women around each of us who feel trapped in jobs, relationships, responsibilities, and who are so down-trodden, their lives feel empty and meaningless to them. They feel absolutely alone; they feel unloved, punished and guilty. It is to these I'd like to send dozens of guardian angels, in the physical guise of the people around them, to look into their eyes and at least smile, as if to say, "Hello, friend, I see you in there!"

Power To The People
People deserve to be acknowledged and people deserve to feel they are powerful beings. I smile and wave to road workers that hold up construction traffic to let me pass. I let everyone cut in line ahead of me in traffic, I just laugh and let them all in. When someone looks especially nice, I compliment them, I tell them, "that's a great dress," it matters not if I know them. I smile and talk briefly to strangers all the time. As A Course in Miracles says to remember, "with everyone you meet, it's a holy encounter." Treat every grocery clerk and bank teller with friendship; send love to the cop who gives you the speeding ticket; honor your landlord's trust by paying your rent 3 days early. There are a lot of things we can do every single day to make those around us feel more confident, more powerful, more loved.

It's The Same Struggle
We're all going through the same challenges, which you know by hearing the stories and complaints of everyone around you. Going through meaning dealing with psychologically and emotionally, what we perceive our "struggle" to be about, what the underlying symbology and remedy might be, how we're reacting to it, or how we're dealing with the consequences of our decision NOT to react to it. That's how so many people approach life, they fail to act when given a choice, and later lament the consequences of having not acted. Yet they fail to act time and time again, and somehow don't connect the dots to foresee the consequences, or learn how to deal with them.

We Think We Don't Know
Just as often we think we don't know something, but in reality it's just that we'd never before given thought to it. If we spend just a few moments thinking on just about any topic, asking ourselves, "what do I know about this topic," we might be surprised what information springs forth from within us, information we can verify and validate in any number of ways. We know much more than we think we know.
We also sometimes think we know something, when in fact we don't know it at all. And to make it worse, we think we know it, so we don't take the time to contemplate so that we really can know it. I'm reminded of a story which Ram Dass accounts in his classic, "Journey of Awakening," about a group of monks who one day noticed that a crazy yogi had climbed to the top of their prayer flag pole, so they surrounded the pole and chanted the Heart Sutra, and coming to the end, said the words, "By the power of our words, we beseech that this evildoer may come down," at which point the yogi slid half way down the flagpole. They then ended with "By the power of our understanding of these words, we beseech that this evildoer may come down," whereupon the man climbed again quickly to the top.