Shoveling the sidewalk and driveway today. It was snowing like a busted pillow and I went out to shovel, thinking I could keep up with it. I finished one pass and turned around to see the pavement was quickly being covered again. “Hey!” I shouted to heaven, “I just finished this and you’re covering it up again.”

The only sound was “the sweep of easy wind and downy flake,” as Robert Frost wrote. That’s okay, I wasn’t looking for an answer. I think sometimes God just enjoys keeping company.

It‘s good to spend time meditating. There are countless ways to do it and all of them work. You sit in silence in a church. In a zendo, wearing comfortable, loose-fitting clothing. Outside in the garden with the sun on your back and insect sounds. On a treadmill in a gym. Chopping wood. Lolling in a hammock. Washing dishes. God transmits on all those frequencies and, if it has been important to you, you have put some work into tuning your soul’s instrument to receive that voice clearly on your unique frequency. Maybe you’re like Kyle Toffey who prays while driving. I like to have a notebook when God shows up, but that’s me. I have never gotten anything done in unison prayer, with everyone screaming and lifting the roof off. Others have meaningful experiences with it.

Orwell said, at age 50 every man has the face he deserves. This is somewhat true in that you have become a vessel made up of your laugh lines and your tears. Both your deadly lies and your secret integrities unknown to others are in there as well. All your deeds, nuances and brutalities, gross motor and fine motor. Your money and how you came by it. These become your face and the frequency that connects you to heaven’s inspirations.

A violin held just right in the wind, will hum. You resonate perfectly, so that when you hear God’s voice, it is unmistakable to your heart, and only you can hear it. The gal next to you hears God’s voice on a different frequency, based on the unique molecules of her existence. You gradually develop a way to hear the unmistakable signature of God’s voiceprint on the particular frequency that you have arrived at in life.

All these years I have been talking to God in my prayers. But I should have done more listening instead. A lot more.

Ironically, receiving inspiration is unrelated to happiness or comfort. Some of the most gifted and accomplished artists and the most authentic saints endured lives of constant physical pain and unspeakable heartbreak. Worse is that it’s not even about being righteous because some who have done everything right are miserably poor, and there are others in big houses who have children with straight teeth, but who’s hearts are blacker than the inside of a goat. This part I’ve never figured out.

The only thing that can save me is perspective. Perspective is everything. You can either feel you are sitting in a dark room passively watching a television preacher preach and feeling detached, dissatisfied, even angry, or you can be inspired to the mountaintops  and find realworld revelations you can use in your life. You can either feel you are bowing to heaven before an offering table laden with your material wealth, or you can feel you are bowing to fruit. It’s your call.

Prayer-slash-meditation can result in instructing you to build an ark or go there and do that. But the best prayer changes your perspective A change in perspective alters your paradigm, puts more colors on your palette, enlarges your catcher’s mitt, so then you can feel confident to take your own initiative to build an ark or go there and do that.

I want to be a violin in the wind. Each person who is one in heart and mind with heaven, is also one in heart and mind with every other person in the world who is one in heart and mind with heaven. And heaven is meant to be here and now.

I attended a seminar a few weeks ago on how the brain works, neuroscience.
The presenter Dr. Joe Dispenza spoke of his research into the brain and in particular his study of Spontaneous Remissions. This refers to cancer and other sicknesses, which were cured, when doctors thought there was no hope for them.

He identified 3 key factors in common with all the people he studied. On reading over these it struck me how close they are to our own teaching. Here are my notes. Can you see the similarity?

1) Spiritual Element – They believed in a Subjective Loving Intelligence, whom they would be able to make contact with and surrender their condition to. My will Your will – matching consciousness.

2) Attitude – My Emotions did this (this may also include preventing the body from repair) Thinking Feeling, Feeling Thinking Cycle. We become addicted to emotional states.

3) And most important! I HAVE TO RE-INVENT MYSELF through Thinking and Questioning. (May also be through study and counseling! – my addition)

The method he proposes for the above is a form of meditation, which athletes use “mental rehearsal” I also call creative visualisation or guided visualisation which I use with some clients. If we see the outcome we want, the body and circumstances can then move us towards that outcome.

It actually works in a very practical way. Joe explains about how our thoughts and feelings have an effect on our body chemistry, which changes us in a very physical way.

Meditation candle helps focus the mind

Every week our meditation & prayer group, of about 10 or 12 people, strives for that inner silence while gentle music plays in the background and the sweet smell of incence fills the room.  The guided meditation, which lasts for about 21 minutes enables the patricipants to share in a time of quiet and inner reflection while following the quiet voice of the group leader.  We close our eyes and are guided to – or some other place of the guide’s choosing – the sea where, facing out into the ocean, we feel ourselves carried on the sound of the surf gently lapping the golden sand.  Sea birds sing joyfully flying to and fro and while the wind is still we drift higher and higher into the realm of peaceful light.  Whoops! Wait a minute!  Did I say, “peaceful light?”  Clearly someone forgot it was supposed to be peaceful for as we all settled into our mystical inner worlds of peace and tranquility a flash of light and clap of thunder – enough to wake the dead, and even the sleeping, brought us all back to the world of reality.  Was it someone’s spirit meeting heavenly forces which reverberated through the group?  No such miracle!  Even as we met at the front door of our host’s house skies were dark and foreboding and the first rains were already starting to fall.  This was not going to be just any meditation night.  And so it turned out to be.  The meditation did, if fact go very well, but first we had to transcend the mundane world of fidgeting bodies, itchy cheeks and thoughts racing along like wild horses in the early stages as overhead a thunder storm did its very best to shake the quiet of our inner spaces.  So, as our meditation quietened the inner storm so the outer storm too was, eventually, quietened by our inner peace.

Our meditation is always followed by some sharing and then some unison prayer as we pour out our hearts for the sake of the world. Although our meditation and prayer were, ultimately, very deep, the sound of the thunder and the flashes of lightning was a stark contrast to our angelic experiences of the week before.

Last week, as we concluded our meditation & prayer evening with a unison prayer, one member of the group happened to look up and saw angels – each about eight feet tall standing next to each person praying.

Deep prayer surrounded by beautiful angels

Each angel was of a specific colour that seemed relevant to the person they were standing next to.  As the angels stood they did so with their right arms outstretched and their hands resting on the head of each person praying – one angel to one person.  Were they carrying our prayers to God?  Were they passing some unseen spiritual energy into our bodies?   We couldn’t say for sure but it was such a nice change to end our prayer, not with the usual someone asking who would like tea or coffee but with someone sharing their vision of angels towering above us filling us with light.  And then we had our teas and coffees.

What had began almost two months ago as an informal prayer gathering has gained its own momentum now, enhanced by the meditation experience and the sharing of our hearts with one another, there is a real sense of brotherhood and fellowship as we each look forward to our next meeting and time of sharing together.

Dear Sisters and brothers,
Recently when I do meditation and visualisation I immediately imagine heaven. I am in a huge field with flowers everywhere, and a very clear blue sky. People are sitting together being relaxed, and children are running around together. Everybody is happy and there is no hatred, jealousy, or worry about life at all. Just there is love, happiness, and care. They are all brothers and sisters who I know, and even my neighbours, and relatives. Everybody is smiling and laughing together. When I imagine this always tears come to my eyes and I absolutely want to go there. Then I think I should not be getting upset by or cursing the driver who stuck his middle finger up at me from his car.

When the kids need a quick snack I often make a small thick pancake about 10cm in diameter. I don’t use oil for this, so that the children’s hands don’t get all greasy and even it does not make any crumbs, so I don’t mind them eating it on the sofa.
120g self raising flower
60g sugar
1 tablespoon of honey or golden syrup
2 eggs
100ml milk

Break the egg and whisk it. Then add the sugar, and whisk until it is thick and pale. (If you have an electric whisker it is much quicker.)
Add all the other ingredients and mix well. On a heated Teflon coated frying pan pour roughly two tablespoons worth of the mixture into the pan.
Fry on a low heat and when you start to see a lot of holes on the pancake turn it over.
I like eating it with whipped double cream with sugar in it and also fresh strawberries on top.
Have a nice weekend