Energy Travels

It is appropriate that as I sit here writing, I’m listening to the wind blowing outside. For a while now I have been thinking about storms and energy. Then the other night we had some powerful thunderstorms that brought the thoughts back to me.

We were sitting on our porch watching and listening to the storm. The lightning flashed and we counted; one one thousand, two one thousand, three one thousand, four one thousand and on.

I don’t know how accurate that measurement system is for judging the distance of a thunderstorm but it makes me think. A thunderstorm can be miles away and still I can see the flashes of light. That light, though miles away, lights up the sky where I sit watching. Even though the clap of thunder originates miles away, still that sound travels all the way to my waiting ears where I react to it.

Then as the storm gets closer, my experience of the light and the sound intensifies. Later that night with a storm directly overhead the streaks of lightning that lit up the sky made me shut my eyes because of the brightness and the explosive sound of the thunder directly overhead made us all jump and made our hearts beat faster!

Once in my life I saw lightning strike a palm tree across the street from where I stood. It was like experiencing an explosion. There was a huge percussion and the palm tree burst into flame. It was frightening to witness the power of the storm and its potential for destruction from that close and from an exposed spot under a metal canopy at a gas station! Not only could I see and hear the lightning, but at that point you could also feel the electricity in the air.

As I have been pondering all this I have been looking at it from the perspective of energy. The energy of the storm can be seen and heard and felt, as the windows rattle, from miles away and what you see, hear and feel intensifies the closer you are to the storm. Or from the larger perspective, the energy of the sun can be felt from millions of miles away and can even burn your skin depending on how close we are too it at any given moment.

What all this made me wonder about is the energy of human emotions and how they touch our lives.

I’m sure we have all experienced the energy of someone’s anger. Have you seen a child cringe in the face of someone’s anger, as if shrinking from the clap of thunder or flash of lightning? Have you witnessed a fight from a distance but still could feel the intensity of emotion? As your own storm of emotions has risen have you seen how it impacts those around you?

We have all seen the power of the storm and we have all seen the power of anger. What then about the power of love? That’s what all this set me to wondering about. What if I allow the energy of love within me to expand and grow in intensity? How far out would that love reach? Is there no limit to how far it can travel, to how many hearts it could touch? What if the source of love within me could be seen for miles, like a flash of lightning? What if the sound of unconditional love was loud enough to reach your ears in the next town or to be heard across the universe?

The natural world is such a wonderful and clear teacher for me. As so aptly demonstrated by the storms I have been witnessing, energy travels. And with just a glimpse of our sun after a storm I was reminded that energy can travel across great distances. All of this has left me with the question; knowing its ability to travel, what energy am I allowing to travel from me? And better yet, what will I do with this incredible opportunity and responsibility that being alive offers me?

Only Love Can Do That

In this country and in our world today, it can be so easy to become frustrated and angry by what I see and hear. It’s a simple thing to then give in to that frustration and so let it become the lens I see the world through, which in turn, in my opinion, only adds to the anger and frustration in the world.  When I read about or see the way members of our human family treat each other, it’s easy to think that is how everyone treats each other. When the majority of what is reported on in the media is sensationalized (hell, even weather.com  has all sorts of articles about tragedy as if that is all nature produces) and focused upon the negative it can be difficult to remember that I can change the filter on the lens I look through.

I could easily give in to the frustration and despair that there is nothing I can do to change the world around me, and believe me, I have days like that. On those days especially, I have to consciously remind myself that even though it’s not reported in the news, every day, every moment there are people all around the world working to bring peace, treating each other with kindness, creating their world from love. Some are working in big ways like the Dalai Lama or the Elders group and some are working in small ways in their own lives with small acts of love. I remind myself that those small acts of love make ripples. That love moves out into the world and touches others, one person at a time. That’s what I remind myself of, that a small act of love that touches one heart actually touches many hearts. The love that I offer one person, may then remind them and so they offer that love and kindness to another, who then offers love and kindness to another, until one day all those ripples of love reaching out actually meet up as they extend out all over the world and the world is awash in love.

The trick is to not just offer it to those I love, those I find it easy to offer love to, but also to offer it to strangers or to those I have challenges with; to everyone equally. I’m sure I will have days when it’s easier than others, but on those days I will remind myself of the words of Martin Luther King, Jr., “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” Only love can do that. We witnessed what love could do through the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. and countless others who chose love in the face of violence and so changed this country. Only love can do that.


Yesterday, a young man in front of me in line at a store jumped out of line to put an item back and to pick up something else. When he came back he headed toward the end of the line. I smiled at him and said, “Do you want to jump back in where you were?” He looked surprised and grateful and stepped up to the counter. I don’t know what that small act of love and kindness did for him in that moment. Maybe all it did was let him feel seen for a moment, let him feel kindness, let him feel community, let him feel cared for. Only love can do that.  

That is where I will begin. I will remind myself that only love can do that, that it begins with one simple act of love.

For Our Daughters in Nigeria

I can’t reduce it to a meme or a hashtag. I understand the intent behind it and it’s well intended but I simply can’t. They are human beings, they are someone’s daughters and sisters, they are my daughters, they are your sisters. They were taken, they are being sold, they are being raped, they are being married against their will. Why? Because they wanted to learn, because they wanted to live their potential not hide their light. They are being used as pawns in a global game of fear and the inhumanity of that appalls me and I can’t reduce it to a catchy phrase. No hashtag can contain their pain or the loss their families feel. The only thing that can contain it is the outstretched arms of our love. The only thing that can reach them now is our global, resounding no. Not this time, not our girls, not our family, not our world.

We will not be held hostage by your hate. We will meet your forces with the forces of love. We will meet your fear with forgiveness.

We can do this because we know you are also part of our family, a part we don’t want to look at, or own. But it is time for our family to come together as one and heal. To call back the ones who have strayed into darkness. To surround them not with the arms of war, but with the open arms of love, to surround them with the light of that love so that there is no darkness to hide in, so that the truth is illuminated.

We are one. They are our daughters. Release them. Then let us all heal together in the light.

Original Self

I haven't posted this writing since 2009. It feels like it is time to share it again, today, on Good Friday. 

At this point in my life I don't practice any one religion. I do my best to practice the tradition of love and peace that is found in all the worlds religions. I come from a Catholic upbringing. One of the things that never made sense to me in the Christian tradition was the idea of original sin. If we are made in the likeness of God, if we are children of God, how then is it possible that we are somehow born unclean? That didn't make sense to me and still doesn't. I certainly can see that as we grow we learn all sorts of behaviors and ways of treating each other that stray from the Divine. However, for me, those are things we learn not things we are born with. These are things I ponder.

Then one day when I was sitting by the river, the following writing flowed through me. Original self is an idea that made much more sense to me than original sin. I share it here with love and respect and gratitude for the powerful teachings and example of love that Jesus provided. 


Jesus did not die for original sin, Jesus died for original self. He did not die to cleanse us of some imagined sin that we are born into, but died for the original self that we are born into and quickly forget. He died for a remembering. He died to show us what the original self looks like. It is risen, and glorious and eternal. It is faith and light and truth. We are not born into darkness but into light. Not into sin but into self. Our divine God self. That was Jesus’ greatest lesson. He taught of our original God self, our inherent connection to the divine. We are made of the same thing that God is made of, we are divine, we are divinity, just as Jesus was. He hung there on the cross in demonstration of self not in cleansing of sin. Hate and fear could have no power over him in his original form; they could not touch his divine heart. He revealed to us the divine heart. One that is of light and love, one that guides to truth and is eternal. There is no other lesson. The divine lies within each heart. That divinity is who you are, your true original self. That is who you were born to be. That is who can emerge from the human self if you allow it. Then the Divine Heart brings the human heart with it on the journey. They work in unison for joy. Joy is the celebration of the Divine and the Divine within. Let the Divine Heart lead you as it led Jesus, with joy always in his eye and the eternal Divine always in his heart. Live your original self.

A Stone

A stone. It is offered to he or she who is without sin. I believe Jesus is one of only a few who could truly offer that stone to another. While I strive to live a good life I have not the purity of heart that Jesus had. Yet he is not now among us to offer the stone. The best I can do then is to offer it to us rather than you. Who of us is without sin and so can cast the first stone?

I will admit that initially my thought was to offer it to the people of Arizona and Kansas who supported and wrote laws that attempt to legalize discrimination. My heart was heavy for those who were being discriminated against. But as I thought more about it I realized that the stone is for us all. A reminder of love and of the quiet, but powerful grace with which it was offered.

If the most basic lesson of all the world’s holy books is love, why not start and grow from there?  Why not write laws that erase the lines between us rather than demark them? Why not write laws that encourage us to love our neighbor and to do unto others as we would have done unto us? These are basic themes found in religions throughout the world. Why not begin from there, from love?

I am not asking anyone to condone a behavior they believe to be wrong. Instead, I am reminding us to love those we disagree with rather than condemning them.  I have struggled with that myself in relation to these new laws. How do I love someone I disagree so strongly with? How do I “love the sinner, but not the sin?” For me, I am striving to begin from love. So while I disagree with the laws passed and presented in Arizona and Kansas that allow discrimination based on someone’s sexual orientation, laws created from the religious beliefs of only a portion of the population, I am striving to have a conversation about it from love, not wanting to add to the separation and the idea of the “other.” Though, I freely admit that it took the insight of my friend, Anne, to remind me of that path as I was in the midst of my distress.

That is the greatest gift we can offer to each other, a reminder of love.

A grace filled man from our community passed away on Sunday and from the response to his passing it is clear that he lived his life as a reminder of love. His life was the reminder, the way he lived it with such joy and light and generosity of spirit, was the reminder of love. Not love offered only to those we agree with or only those we worship with or vote with or pray with, but love offered to all whom cross our path. Love does not discriminate.

Let us all pick up the stone and feel its weight. Shall we carry it around with us, ready to throw or shall we lay it down and pick up love instead? Which would we rather walk with? 

Love does not discriminate.

Birthday Gratitude

For my birthday this year I am focusing on gratitude for the multitude of gifts in my life.

On this day in the afternoon, a number of years ago, I travelled from the comfort and darkness of my Mother’s womb into the light of this world. I am grateful for each day I have lived since then.

I am grateful for each experience, as each one gave me the opportunity to choose (consciously or unconsciously) to live more fully in the light.

I am grateful for each person whether they be family, friend, lover, teacher or perceived antagonist, as each person had a lesson or wisdom to share, whether it was a challenging lesson or an easy one. Each person has provided the opportunity to choose to live more fully in the light in relationship.

I am grateful for each animal friend who I have crossed paths with. They have offered unconditional love, joy and great wisdom.

I am grateful for the beauty of nature that fills me with wonder on a daily basis. I’m grateful for each illuminating lesson I have learned by simply being still and listening in the temple of Mother Earth.

I am grateful for music that touches and inspires my heart and for the souls so willing to hear and create it.

I am grateful for the gift of words. I am grateful for the day I learned to allow the words to move through me and for each one that has found its way to the chalice of my heart and filled me with joy, sorrow and healing.

I am grateful for my heart, grateful for its capacity for love, joy and empathy. Grateful for the chalice it provides for Spirit to fill and overflow into the world. I am profoundly grateful for each tender moment spent connected to Spirit through this heart.

I am grateful for this strong, healthy, beautiful, miraculous human body that has shared every step of this journey so gracefully and easily, that has allowed me to be in the world and has provided the home for my Divine unbreakable heart and soul, and a place for Spirit to dwell within me.

I am grateful for each day that I wake and am born once again into the light, with heart guided by Spirit.

I am gratitude.

January 3, 2014