Sometimes loss is as important as the things we gain in life. Loss is similar to growing a tree, in order for a new branch to grow we must prune off the branches that are stressing the plant. The same is true for the human condition. As we go through life, there are always areas that need focus and attention. There are things we want to change for ourselves and others. Learning what to lose and what we may gain by doing it is an important as siezing opportunities, or harvesting. Loss is also a time for reflection, we must not gloss over loss, sometimes we need to embrace it in order to move forward. Grieving is just as important as happiness and when we lose something close to us, it usually comes back later in a different form. It is necessary to be careful not to over prune our branches though. it is easy to stress our plants and end up killing the project. So, in parting, embrace your loss and see it for what it is, a chance to grow and mulitply the harvest of our lives.

Here I am with you now.
Our Days Pass, and I look with fervored anticipation to the harbringer of the next moment..
Heart panginand twittering away.

Your vivrant beauty
Eclispses this mortal shame
The kind nature
Has resotred and nourished me, your gentle temperment
Our destination?
As the dream leads
Present, Immediate, I hold unionized to you as I have always been and prepare for the interludes between.
Present, Immediate I hold unionized to you whatever you may do and wherever we shall transcend

Make Sure You Stop to Notice the Blessings All Around You! Original Photo @2006 by Amethyst Wyldfyre

Blessings like butterflies come to us and often catch us unawares. How many times have we heard the words “Count your blessings!”? When we take the time to become consciously aware, to slow down, to breathe, we are able to make the space in our lives to truly acknowledge all the many ways that we have been blessed. As we count our blessings we automatically create an energetic link to Spirit which activates an infinite feedback loop that garners us greater and greater blessings to count.

The Universe is filled with raw un-manifest energy, where our attention flows that is where the energy goes. This concept called Ma Te Ah in Hawaiian is a wonderful idea to hold in our consciousness. When we think about our blessings we create an incredibly powerful force field or strange attractor as it’s known in physics that begins to both spin and magnetize more of the same to us.

Along with counting our blessings we also have the opportunity to take a moment to express our gratitude to the Universe for each and every one of them. Gratitude is the currency of the Universe and of course currency is gratitude in action. When we draw upon these powerful forces of good, naturally more good will manifest in our lives, in many forms, including financially.

As we garner greater and greater good it becomes vitally important to maintain the flow of acknowledgment for our blessings and gratitude for what we have received. It is wise to have awareness that what we have to work with is to be used and stewarded wisely for the greatest good of all concerned and not squandered haphazardly to satisfy the whims of the ego. Humility and an understanding that we have the capacity to harness these forces through the grace of Spirit is important to cultivate as is a state of balance in how we manage our resources.

Take some quiet time in your own sacred space today and let us begin to count the many blessings that we possess. Perhaps you will start your list with the physical: Are you healthy? Do you have a warm snug home? Are you well fed and clothed?  When you have exhausted all that you are blessed with in a physical way then move on to your emotional world: Are you loved? Are you surrounded by a supportive group of friends? Are you involved and connected with your family? Is your neighborhood or community a breeding ground for goodness? Moving on from there take a mental inventory: Are you well educated? Do you have access to books, literature, theatre, art, culture, and music? Are your colleagues mentally stimulating? Does your work enrich and excite your mind? Finally let’s look at the Spiritual: Do you have freedom to worship as you choose? Are you intimately connected with your inner world? Does Spirit speak to or through you? Are you free to share what you believe with others?

During the holiday season our many blessings become more obvious as we create outward displays of our celebration of the season and exchange gifts and spend time with our family and friends. It’s vitally important to remember that this time is a time for celebrating and sharing with others and that material goods are meant to be a small symbol of the deeper underlying energy of our feelings for each other.  Now that the season has passed and the focus has shifted we sometimes need to be reminded that these blessings are still here with us!

Blessings come in many shapes and sizes, sometimes those that appear to be the smallest in the end turn out to be the most valuable. The blessing of an open heart, a compassionate ear, the hug of a small child, a sunshiny day, a beautiful flower, a delicious ripe tomato, the mundane, everyday tasks that make up a life like fresh sheets on the bed, hot tea on a cold afternoon – everywhere you look there’s another blessing. By truly choosing to pay attention, to attend to that with which you are blessed you will discover a whole host of blessings surrounding you each and every moment. So the next time you feel down, sad, angry, lost, hurt, or fearful take a moment, take a breath, count five things right in front of you that are blessings and watch yourself become lighter and clearer before you know it! Thank you for blessing me with your attention today. The light within me recognizes the light within you and we are one – and blessed!

Amethyst Wyldfyre is a multidimensional shaman, healer, artist, author, blogger, performer, speaker and psychic who lives and works in the Merrimack Valley of NH.  She can be reached through her website or blog for more information.  She can also be followed on Twitter at @AWyldfyre.  (This article was originally published online by Aspire Magazine Dec./Jan. 2008)

Gratitude - Count your Blessings!

The most revolutionary thing we can do to increase peace is to LIVE IT. As AJ Muste, a committed nonviolent peace activist said, “There is no way to peace. Peace is the way.” The more we practice peace, the more peace becomes our lives. We can live peace in every moment.

I’m not talking about some abstraction, or idea, of peace. I’m not speaking of the absence of conflict. Even in the midst of intense conflict, we can be peace.

One of the best ways to create peace in your experience of the world – in your world, your home, your life, your heart – is to practice, invest in, and engage with gratitude. In addition to a host of physical health benefits from stress relief to heart health, recent studies posit that gratitude decreases both depression and loneliness.

Gratitude can also become a path of service that leads to acts that benefit humanity. Grow gratitude, and offer future generations a more beautiful world.

Grow Your Gratitude, in Three Steps:

1: Invoke and Embody The Presence of Love

Make love real. The big, big love that lives at the center of all things. Agapic love. The flame that burns “in every heart of man, and in the core of every star.”

“How is one to realize, or remember, this love?”, you might ask. The practices are many, the goal one. Gratitude practice, asking powerful questions, inducing positive states, prayer and meditation are all ways to invoke love. So is looking at your child, or your beloved. So is smelling a flower, or looking at your favorite piece of art. For some of us, listening to music, dancing, or running is an easy way to find the way to the love nested inside of us.

With a little bit of practice, or for some even without, wherever we are, whatever we’re doing, we can invoke and embody the presence of love.

For now, an easy way to manifest the presence of love is to think of something that makes you feel a love beyond limits, unconditional, eternal. The perfect love. I find this love at the heart of deep prayer, in the arms of my beloved, sharing a smile with my child.

Feel it. Ahhhh. There it is. Now feel it even more. Let your heart, your whole being, glow with this love. Let each breath expand it, each heartbeat ground it in your being.

2: Grow Your Gratitude!

Gratitude heals the heart. This is true on multiple levels. Of course it makes sense on the metaphorical level – how could becoming grateful NOT heal a broken heart? When we experience loss, healing comes from realizing that the sum total of the impact of any experience was for the best. When we get this, it becomes easy to be grateful for the experiences we encounter.

In addition to the metaphorical, gratitude also heals the actual physiology of your heart. This is metaphorically wonderful, and scientifically true! Gratitude practice is recommended as part of many heart surgery and heart disease recovery programs.

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How does it work? Gratitude is the antidote for stress, anger, anxiety and many other ills. Stress, of course, is a huge contributor to both heart disease and heart attack.

Gratitude offers a rest to our physiological systems. For instance, say you’re standing in line at the grocery store, and the people in front of you are taking forever. You may be late getting to wherever you’re going, but is stressing out about it going to change the fact that you’re stuck in line? Not a chance!

The one thing you CAN change is how you are experiencing the moment. So, instead of obsessing about your situation, thinking of the negative outcomes, giving in to the stress, take the time as an opportunity to cultivate gratitude.

Even starting small will work. You can be grateful that you have the money to buy food. You can be grateful that you have a chance to read those scintillating headlines on the trashy mags in the rack. I often get really simple with it, and remember to be grateful that I have a moment to be in stillness and silence. (Waiting in line is a perfect opportunity for a moment of standing meditation.)

This choice is affecting you, and as a true believer in systems theory, I posit that perhaps, in some subtle way, it affects everything. Your stress is not just your stress.

Your gratitude is the same way. As you choose relaxation and gratitude instead of stress, the effect ripples outward. Your interaction with the cashier is going to be different. His or her interaction with the next person in line may well be different, too.

Even on the purely personal level, the benefits are too many to mention. Gratitude is SO much nicer to hold in our cells than the alternative.

Another wonderful bonus is that because our minds sort for, and we notice, that which we expect, when we start practicing gratitude, we start noticing more and more to be grateful for.

Gratitude practice, just like any other practice, becomes easier the more you do it!

3: Make Love a Verb; Gratitude in Action!

Love and gratitude become more powerful by far when put into engaged action. Engagement is the final step of this process. Take your love and DO something with it.

That something might be sitting in prayer, but think of how much more prayer you’d bring if you were to host group prayer nights at your home.

When you find gratitude for the food on your table, let it remind you that you can cause suffering to be reduced by offering food to those in need. Make a meal, box it up, and offer it to a local homeless person you’ve seen around.

While you’re at it, have a conversation with this person.

At a Season for Nonviolence gathering I attended in 2007, Dr. Arun Gandhi, the fifth grandson of the Mahatma, pointed out that compassion is very different from pity. I paraphrase the esteemed man here; pity offers the food and hopes the person will walk away with it. Compassion offers the food, asks the person how they ended up on the streets, witnesses the story, and does it’s part to cause an end to the reasons that this person and others end up without.

Namaste.

About the author:

LaSara FireFox, MPNLP, is a master practitioner/trainer of Neuro-Linguistic Programming/Patterning, life coach, educator, and professional speaker. LaSara helps her clients to find balance in their lives, and alignment with their personal and family-held values.

In addition, she’s a mother of two, a successful author (Sexy Witch – nonfiction, self help, Llewellyn, 2005), coach, and educator. She teaches and coaches internationally.

For more information, please visit www.lasarafirefox.com.

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Share Peace. We are One.

by Deepak Chopra

Continuing the daily themes for peacemakers, today’s peace practice is:

Saturday: Sharing for Peace

Today, share your practice of peacemaking with two people. Give them this information and invite them to begin the daily practice. As more of us participate in this sharing, our practice will expand into a critical mass.

Today joyfully celebrate your own peace consciousness with at least one other peace-conscious person.

• Connect either trough e-mail or phone.
• Share your experience of growing peace.
• Share your gratitude that someone else is as serious about peace as you are.
• Share your ideas for helping the world move closer to critical mass.
• Do whatever you can, in small or large ways, to assist anyone who wants to become a peacemaker.

Please support my intention for peace by going to Intent.com. Then create your own intention to add the power of your intention toward peace in the world. Share this message with all your friends to create a tidal wave of peace for the planet right now.

Thursday - Act for Peace

Continuing the daily themes for peacemakers, today’s peace practice is:

Thursday: Acting for Peace

Today is the day to help someone in need: A child, a sick person, an older or frail person. Help can take many forms.

Tell yourself, ” Today I will bring a smile to a stranger’s face. If someone acts in a hurtful way to me or someone else, I will respond with a gesture of loving kindness. I will send an anonymous gift to someone, however small. I will offer help without asking for gratitude or recognition.”

Please support my intention for peace by going to Intent.com. Then create your own intention to add the power of your intention toward peace in the world. Share this message with all your friends to create a tidal wave of peace for the planet right now.

~| Deepak Chopra