Author Archives: Andrea

It’s cool when you wake up to who you really are

Interesting how you can go your whole life and have people treat you one way and you think that is how life is and that is who you are and then suddenly you wake up to how life can really be and who you really are, and it’s so much better than you ever dreamed of?

The Awakening by Sonny Carroll

There comes a time in your life when you finally get it.  When in the midst of all your fears and insanity you stop dead in your tracks and somewhere the voice inside your head cries out- ENOUGH! Enough fighting and crying or struggling to hold on. And, like a child quieting down after a blind tantrum, your sobs begin to subside, you shudder once or twice, you blink back your tears and through a mantle of wet lashes you begin to look at the world from a new prospective.  This is your AWAKENING!  You realize that it is time to stop hoping and waiting for something, or someone, to change or for happiness, safety and security to come galloping over the next horizon. You come to terms with the fact that there aren’t always fairytale endings (or beginnings for that matter) and that any guarantee of “happily ever after” must begin with you. Continue reading →

The lighthouse never sleeps

My real life, longtime friend and spiritual brother Frank Lorie is a bright shining example of how someone can live with decades-long chronic pain and keep an uplifted and positive outlook on life.  He wrote on Facebook today:  “It’s 4:00 in the morning and it may as well be 5:00 in the afternoon.  Sleep is not to be again this day, but maybe I will get in a nap later.  Back a few years ago the loss of sleep had a greater effect on me, but I have since come to deal without it much better.  Pain sucks… it is debilitating and can bring out some pretty negative feelings.  It also can make one appreciate many things to a far greater extent.  There is a positive way to look at just about everything  : )

I commented, “Frankie, the Universe had to find some way to keep you awake so the rest of us have a lighthouse that’s constantly on 🙂  He knows you’re fit for the challenge.  I love you so much I could squeeze the stuffin outa you, my brother (hug) Thanks for being the light that’s always on.  You can sleep when you’re dead.

Daily exercises to be more patient, more tolerant, more joyous

Ever wish you were more patient, more tolerant, more joyous?   Wish you could become peacefully serene just by wishing it so?   With a little practice, you can consciously invoke any quality you wish to acquire.   During daily meditation, take a few extra minutes for the following:  Imagine yourself in a peaceful, serene setting, being very relaxed.  Breathe in the relaxation and serenity and feel it all through your mind and body. Then imagine yourself in a stressful situation, one which calls for you to act with patience, tolerance and understanding:  i.e., with a bad driver, an angry child, a frustrating boss. Imagine yourself acting appropriately and displaying the desired qualities. Place yourself in another stressful situation, one that is likely to come up during the day; envision yourself acting appropriately and again displaying the desired qualities.  Take note of how you feel during the exercise.  As you continue this daily meditation, you are preconditioning yourself for appropriate action, so that when a stressful situation occurs, your response will be automatic.  This exercise can be used to invoke any quality you may wish to acquire.  Remember to give thanks for the opportunity to learn a new quality. Continue reading →

Monday’s uncluttering

I spent the entire day yesterday uncluttering.  Here’s what I put on Facebook:
What am I going to be for Halloween? Clutter free! I just cleaned out the linen closet. I should have taken all these pillows to the Melbourne Free Market when I went Sunday.  Aaaarrrgh!  The linen closet would be much more empty if I didn’t use it to store all my “sheets to cover all the plants in case it freezes.”  Note to self: stop buying light bulbs and batteries. Now.  I need to find somewhere else for the tall filing cabinet to go so I can get it out of the back office. If I took down my dining room cabinets and reinstalled them 2” higher I would have lots of options.  Hmmm, I just went thru the cabinet and I can probably 86 about half the files, yikes, shredder here I come.  I’m thinking I don’t need the film – yes film – from the 90’s Horizons Mag covers, Nor the hard copy files of the writers and speakers from way back then. Continue reading →

THE WORM’S WAKING by Rumi

This is how a human being  can change:  there’s a worm  addicted to eating grape leaves.  Suddenly he wakes up, call it grace, whatever, something wakes him, and he’s no longer a worm.  He’s the entire vineyard,and the orchard too, the fruit, the trunks, a growing wisdom and joy that doesn’t need to devour.

Oh happy day

I posted a link on Facebook to Edwin Hawkin singing Oh Happy Day and said, “I love receiving good news. ”  Then I thought, ” Oh heck, I love bad news, too.  ‘sall good, right? Like, if we’re in the midst of God’s will, how can we not rejoice?

If it’s not happy yet, it’s not the end

I just got a neat msg from someone: “I wanted to take a moment to thank you , as you predicted I received an Angel on earth to bring me the information I needed to move on with my problem it happened yesterday again thank you.” I love happy endings. Oh, and if it’s not happy yet, it’s not the end.

What does it matter if it’s come before? Love is the river

Domino asked, “What am I supposed to think?   I met Brad when he began a week long affair with my roommate, the married Tina.  When Tina came home 3 days later, she told me she’d found her soul mate, they spent the whole weekend talking about spirituality, they’re madly in love and she told her husband she wanted a divorce.  By the 8th day, Brad told her they’d made a mistake.  Their first conversations were about how much she wanted to work things out with her husband and Brad’s thoughts kept going back to that.  Tina felt hurt and played.  So what am I supposed to think,” Domino asked me, “now that Brad has been coming around and saying to me the same things Tina told me he said to her?  You said sometimes your heart opens wide for one person and another falls into it, is that what happened for him?  Is this a rebound, is this his M.O.?   What am I supposed to think?”   Continue reading →