Hi everybody! This time of great change has been wild and uncertain – but filled with so many possibilities and invitations. One of the tools that I use for myself and teach in my classes is singing! For a long time, I’ve taken popular songs and changed the lyrics to them. Songs stick in our heads, and they are a great way to steep ourselves in loving messages. And in such a light hearted way. As St. Augustine said, “To sing is to pray twice.” So here is one of my many little ditties! I hope it amuses you! I’ll share more as we go!
Today is the spring equinox, the day exactly in between the winter and summer solstices. Winter solstice has the longest night, and summer solstice has the longest day. Today is the spring equinox, which is the day exactly between the solstices. It has equal amounts of darkness and light, and it’s the first day of the spring season. So today is full of the natural energies of freshness, renewal, and balance.
We ourselves are embodiments of nature. Humans have always celebrated and honored the rhythms of the earth. We feel the shift of seasons within our own psyches and bodies. We ARE life, and we feel the movement of life within us, as us. Life! Spring is the most exuberant, obvious season for the celebration of it. The green-ness grows! The buds come forth! The eggs hatch!
No matter what is going on in the world, life continues, always. Life, unstoppable LIFE, has existed long before even our planet did. It will continue in its eternal, expanding, joyful unfolding long after our beloved planet has passed. Not only does our planet have seasons, but so does the solar system, the cosmos. Nature – on scales smaller and larger than we can fathom. And we are PART OF IT! Alive with our loving, beating, precious hearts!
Life is now! Take a moment to notice the miraculousness of it! Life is now! Even in tax season. Even with the scare of an epidemic. There will always be something. And no matter what, YOUR exquisite moment of aliveness is in full bloom, right now.
I bloomin’ love you all! (literally, ever-bloomingly!)
Christina
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PS – You might find it of interest: Due to whatever mysteries of nature involved, today’s spring has come earlier than it has for 124 years! The last time spring came this early was in 1896. Read about it here, if you like!
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/03/16/first-day-spring-starts-thursday-vernal-equinox-weather/5057610002/
This message popped into my mind this morning: Open, relax, and let your body fall into natural alignment. Let your mind fall into alignment too. Relax, and let natural wellbeing establish itself. No intervention needed for Life to do its thing. It continues turning seeds into beautiful trees, making babies from a single fertilized egg, making galaxies from dust clouds…… Wellbeing is the natural order, and it does it without my help! You, me, we are nature. Trust in the eternal flow of life that is designed to thrive, always.
I first heard this turn of phrase from my dear friend Sarah. “Am I being moved by love, or am I doing this to try and GET love?” I suppose it’s another way of saying “Choose love, not fear.” Sarah’s phrasing works better for me though. To me, it immediately brings to light the motivation behind either choice. Love, or the fear that we lack it. Fear comes from feeling that we don’t have love. That we are not okay. And that we need to DO SOMETHING NOW to get okay, be safe, be loved. “Am I being moved by love?” reminds me that Love is the intelligent power behind everything. I am reminded that Love is the very starting place, the ground of Existence. It is eternal, infinite, and there is no way to be without Its presence and wellbeing. As I go through my days and the innumerable actions within it, it helps me stay oriented to love if I check my motivations with this phrase. I thought it might help you feel calmer, safer, and to dwell more easily in the truth of love too.
Love, always, for sure,
Christina
By being fully here, now, we make contact with the True, Vast Being that we are. I don’t yet know how this is so, but it is undeniable. – Brother David Steindl-Rast
Life is happening now. With all Its gifts. And YOU are here now, perfect and whole as you are. By taking a breath and choosing to, we can FEEL what it is like to be fully awake and available to the miraculous being that you are. We can stop, look around in gratitude and be in awe of the mind-blowing fullness of LIFE. We can step into our center and understand that WE ARE ENOUGH and THERE IS ALWAYS ENOUGH. And feeling this rush of truth, expansiveness, BEINGNESS, we can instantly know it is SAFE to be present as who we really are.
We have all been conditioned to think that we aren’t good enough and that we and life are lacking. That we must WILL ourselves and life to be something different than what we are. But there is no lack. Once we wake up to the moment, we see the infinite, abundant Truth. That new sense of identity changes our perspective, our motivations, our thinking and our behaviors. Without effort. We NATURALLY move from the reality of LOVE and CONNECTION instead of lack.
Life continues to evolve, and we change naturally. WE are Life, and life will always grow, shift, and flow ever more open. Because the nature of Life Itself is infinitely creative and abundant. We do not have to resolve to change or “get over there” to something else that is “better.” Life is in its perfect moment now, giving rise to all the gifts of the moment, even as it naturally unfolds into another shape and expression of Love. The acorn is not “improving” itself, yet it changes and grows into an oak. The cloud of dust and gas in space naturally becomes a galaxy.
Life is love, expressing. Evolving. Dancing. We are that. Let’s all be aware of the dance, in each of its moments of beauty, NOW.
Truly. I find that when I help people connect with their FULL selves, larger selves, “I AM” selves, they literally forget about their “problems.” Problem? What problem? Not from this True, Loving vantage point!
When we decide to see the goodness and wellbeing, we can receive it. And when we count it, we grow it in the world. It’s a beautiful service from the inside out. I heard this from Michael Neill at a 3 Principles retreat I went to in Malibu in February. It really landed for me. We all, at least sort of, know in our heads that Wellbeing is present no matter what. But we continue our confusion that it’s not. We ARE wellbeing. All is well, always. It really would be a shame to never realize that. I am sure everyone reading this really does know that wellbeing is the truth, no matter what circumstances may look like in any moment. If more of us stand in this reality, we make it more accessible, more real, more VISIBLE for ourselves and every other being on the planet. Imagine if we all moved, acted from here…..
There’s no need to change myself. Or overcome my conditioning. It’s all been perfect. The behaviors/identities I thought I was prior to this moment were not bad, wrong, false, or misguided. The “me” that The Universe has been up to this point is not inferior to the “me” that is emerging. An oak tree is not better than an acorn. A butterfly is not better than a caterpillar. The soil that a paper cup (or mountain) disintegrates into is not better than the paper cup or mountain. Neither is the paper cup or mountain better. It’s all the dance of Existence. Unfolding, moving, reveling in itself. And none of these things needs to TRY to transform. They are carried, moved in the natural wave of Life. The Divine. I do not have to try to be different, to be “more of my true self,”or to try change in any way. I am being lived, and the inner and outer forms are changing as Love revels in itself and dances for its own exaltation of Existence. It just helps if I notice what is happening and what is actually here, now, in this fresh moment. It helps if I notice that I am a tree, rather than an acorn feeling the natural pressures and movements to become one. It helps if I notice I have wings.
