As children bring their broken toys, with tears for us to mend,
I brought my broken dreams to God, because he was my friend.

But then, instead of leaving him, in peace to work alone,
I hung around and tried to help, with ways that were my own.

At last, I snatched them back and cried, "How can you be so slow?"
"My child," he said, "What could I do? You never did let go."

- Author Unknown

In a session today with a client, I had another realization regarding The Law of Attraction... and another reason why I experience some dissonance within when I read some of the popular conceptions about it. (This posting is one in a continual thread - See The Law of Attraction in the archives for more).

My heart tells me that there is a Force that guides my life. It is a Love beyond measure, and within it contains the Potentiality of my greatest good. I trust in this Guidance as, over the course of my life, I have learned that its Infinite Wisdom far exceeds mine. While I can dip into Its vastness in moments of clarity, I cannot pretend to comprehend Its Intelligence. I am but a small twinkle, a reflection on a body of water larger than any concept that a mind that rests in it can hold.

I have impulses and fleeting desires in the every-changing seasons of my life... and I may buzz within my very physical being (my cells) in order to bring forth experiences that I want. Such is the Law of Attraction at work. And yes... I experience one level of fulfillment; yet, my spirit may remains hungry. Why? Because I make the human fallacy to think that I actually know what's best for me on the highest levels. Perhaps I do. Perhaps at other times, I don't. But I am beginning to wonder...

What if I don't need to know?!

Today it occurred to me clear as day: What if in all this metaphysical mumbo jumbo, we have it all backwards?! What if I lived a life where it's really not up to me what will bring me the most joy, the most fulfillment, or the biggest paycheck?

Let's look at it in relationship to SHiNE.

The Law of Attraction = my desires are available to me to the degree with which I align with them. I pull my heart's deepest desires to me via my feel good vibration. = Some Effort To Feel Good


The Law of Attracting Fulfillment = true fulfillment is available to me to the degree with which I align with that which I am naturally most attracted to. My heart's deepest desires pull me towards a life where I am living my greatest good IF I am willing to allow my passions to guide me. = Little Effort To Feel Good

WHAT IF it's not that I need to learn to feel good in order to attract my greater good (whatever I think that might be)?... but instead, that by moving towards what inherently feels good I am, by perfect design, moving towards the greater good that already Life has in store for me. What if I just need to let go of the controls?

How is this different? It is subtle shift of awareness, sure... nevertheless, a liberating one! I don't have to magnetize my desires to me... my most heartfelt desires magnetize ME into Perfect Being. This is at the heart of the work of unleashing SHiNE.

For years a held a vision for the life that I desired. I had an picture of how I thought that would look... the specific pieces necessary to complete the puzzle, creating the image of fulfillment that I had in mind. In the career realm, I moved into a variety of positions that made sense and did everything that I could to make each piece of the puzzle to fit. I fought to feel good in circumstances that didn't. I battled with my mind that urged me to stay, even though my spirit withered. I created struggle when all that I longed for what ease in my heart. Eventually, again and again, I fell to my knees in despair and uttered a plea of surrender. It was then that my life transformed. When I said, "That's it! I give up!! I will stop trying... I will let go... I will follow the signals that I am provided... I will stop pretending that I have the formula for this miracle of a journey... and turn things over to The One Who Does." On these occasions, my weary body-mind literally fell to the floor and proclaimed: I give up knowing how. I am willing. I am ready. Show Me.

And each time my prayer has always, always been heard. After a good night's sleep and an ego sacrificed at the altar of Divine Wisdom, I am free of my agenda. Even then, I am usually looking in another direction at the time when Guidance taps me on the shoulder... it whispers to me (never with urgency, only as a gentle invitation): "See how the energy flows here... Ease... This is the way... Come, come this way, my dear." I have learned to go towards what moves me at the deepest level. I move eagerly now towards that which attracts me - not just superficially, but on a soulular level... the level of love and least resistance. And when I do... when I trust even the most minutely brilliant impulse, my life continues taking off in ways I might have never dreamed possible.

And your spirit likely strives for more out of life than what you can conceive in your own heart and mind. You may create a very satisfying life by feeling good... or you can allow an extraordinary life to create you by feeling God! There is no need to work to feel good... just follow what fuels the stirrings at the deepest core of you (whether it's an art class, a walk in the park, or a leap of faith). Let go of how exactly it will fit into your big picture, just trust that inspired moments always do - somehow.

Move towards what moves you. And trust the path of ease. And take care not to confuse ease with easy - sometimes our passion for brilliant living leads us onto a path to develop greater strength. Yet you will hardly notice in the end... as the life that emerges from such moments is truly glorious in every meaning of the word.

There is no effort in feeling good when you do what feels good to you.
The path of least resistance is the Journey of the Joyful Ones. Join Us.

October 2007

Autumn is a second spring
when every leaf is a flower.
- Albert Camus

September blew through me like a sudden storm. I am in awe that yet another month has passed so quickly. Yet the bloom of color outdoors is making October quite real. And my world continues to shift and blow with the autumn winds. It is a blissful ride.

This month, the message is simple. I invite you to be mindful of all that falls around you. Become intoxicated by your own sensations of this magical season. Smell how the air breathes a certain crispness. Taste the flavor of new earth freshly dampened. Take time to look up. Yes, up. The wisdom of the trees is beckoning to you from above. If you pause long enough, you will find yourself on a high of sorts, drinking in the colors of fall. And if you dare, reach out and touch nature with your dance by letting pieces of you - those you are ready to shed - rejoin the earth with the autumn leaves at your feet.

Free your warm summer heart.
May it quiver and shake to the surface
blossom in colors vast
and fall to the earth once more.

Falling on Purpose,
Candice

October 2007 - Book of The Month
Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life
by Thich Nhat Hanh

This month, I choose to share with you a pivotal book upon my journey of awakening. A simple book by a simple monk with a simple message... it changed everything for me a decade ago. Thich Nhat Hanh delivers his message of meditation, bringing it alive in ways that transcend a meditation cushion or temple floors. If you want to change the way you experience the mundane moments of life, you have to read this book. You will never do dishes (or look at a dandelion) the same again.


Excerpt:

The Dandelion Has My Smile

If a child smiles, if an adult smiles, that is very important. If in our daily lives we can smile, if we can be peaceful and happy, not only we, but everyone will profit from it. If we really know how to live, what better way to start the day than with a smile? Our smile affirms our awareness and determination to live in peace and joy. The source of a true smile is an awakened mind.

How can you remember to smile when you wake up? You might hang a reminder--such as a branch, a leaf, a painting, or some inspiring words--in your window or from the ceiling above your bed, so that you notice it when you wake up. Once you develop the practice of smiling, you may not need a reminder. You will smile as soon as you hear a bird singing or see the sunlight streaming through the window. Smiling helps you approach the day with gentleness and understanding.

When I see someone smile, I know immediately that he or she is dwelling in awareness. This half-smile, how many artists have labored to bring it to the lips of countless statues and paintings? I am sure the same smile must have been on the faces of the sculptors and painters as they worked. Can you imagine an angry painter giving birth to such a smile? Mona Lisa's smile is light, just a hint of a smile. Yet even a smile like that is enough to relax all the muscles in our face, to banish all worries and fatigue. A tiny bud of a smile on our lips nourishes awareness and calms us miraculously. It returns to us the peace we thought we had lost.

Our smile will bring happiness to us and to those around us. Even if we spend a lot of money on gifts for everyone in our family, nothing we buy could give them as much happiness as the gift of our awareness, our smile. And this precious gift costs nothing. At the end of a retreat in California, a friend wrote this poem:

I have lost my smile,
but don't worry.
The dandelion has it.

If you have lost your smile and yet are still capable of seeing that a dandelion is keeping it for you, the situation is not too bad. You still have enough mindfulness to see that the smile is there.

You only need to breathe consciously one or two times and you will recover your smile. The dandelion is one member of your community of friends. It is there, quite faithful, keeping your smile for you.
In fact, everything around you is keeping your smile for you. You don't need to feel isolated. You only have to open yourself to the support that is all around you, and in you. Like the friend who saw that her smile was being kept by the dandelion, you can breathe in awareness, and your smile will return.