A good case against the theory of reincarnation can be made based on the fact that few people are able to recall their former lifetimes with any certainty. Suspicion about a past life may flicker ever so slightly in someone’s memory banks but then be easily dismissed and forgotten. To catch fleeting memories and make sense of them, one has to be vigilant, look to connect the dots (clues) and be willing to set aside scepticism until truth can be determined.

In actuality, we hardly remember most of the events of this lifetime, let alone past lifetimes. I suppose the simple answer as to why we don’t is that all those simultaneous memories would be a bit disconcerting to say the least. Disconcerting or not, there are times when we want to remember; when we want to unravel the treads that have woven the tapestry of our current life and brought certain people into our arena.

If one dismisses reincarnation, the nature of relationships becomes a rather curious thing. Why are some people drawn to one another like opposing poles of a magnet? Likewise, why is any attempt to bridge the space between the repelling sides of two magnets futile?

My stepfather and I were in the later group, dancing around each other without ever touching. I often asked the stars in the night sky how a man could feed, clothe, school, entertain, and yet, not love me, something I desperately thought I needed.
I was well into my adult years when the answer came to me in a dream. As my body slept, I had a bird’s eye view of Ireland, the Emerald Isle. I flew over the northwest coast where the rock cliffs rose to hundreds of feet above a cold and treacherous sea. I saw a small thatched-roof cottage, my once-upon-a-time home, situated close to the edge of those cliffs. I observed sheep in the distance, far too many to count, corralled in by stone walls.

With dream intuition, I knew that the too-thin, ten year old girl sitting on one of those walls was me three hundred years in the past. There was a man in the picture as well, an uncle, in the typical Irish cap of the period. He carried a twisted cane.

As I watched from above, he grabbed me off the wall in a drunken rage and whacked me at the side of my knee. My offense was having lost sight of a incorrigible, younger brother who had been left in my care. Many such beatings had eventually left me with a crippled right leg. His ofttimes cruelty, and general failure to provide for his family, scarred my tender heart and left me without any hope for the future.

My stepfather, who was of Irish descent this lifetime, was my uncle in that past life. Like many Souls with unsettled debts, we were back together again, this time in America. Had we spent other lifetimes together that had led to the life in Ireland? No doubt. But I didn’t need to see them all. Replaying our history together in Ireland was the key to unlocking the current karmic dance.

In the 1940s, a military jeep overturned and badly mangled my stepfather’s right knee. The injury caused much suffering for most of his adult life. It was part of what fueled his drinking problem, his anger and jealousy. Watchful of his dark moods, our family lived in a state of uncertainty knowing we were always on the verge of some terrible upset.
No doubt his mutilated knee was karmic payback for the repeated blows he inflicted on the side of my knee. (The dream offered an explanation for the wariness I had for the cane he carried from time to time in this lifetime.) Beyond the crippled leg, a result of what goes around comes around, he also did something this lifetime that he had failed to do in Ireland; he provided for his composite family as best as he knew how. He often said that he was who he was and could not do any better than he did.

In later years, I understood that his lack of love did not have so much to do with me as with his nature; one he felt he couldn’t change. The reasons for that are a part of his private story. But needless to say, by providing for me in this lifetime, he paid a debt he owed. (I have my suspicions, however, that the cruelty he inflicted upon an older brother in this lifetime will cause the karmic dance to go on between the two of them. But that is none of my affairs.)

Of course, what is, or rather was, a part of my affairs, was to garner the knowledge that there are always two sides to every relationship. Before he died, gratitude and forgiveness took me to a place where I could finally love him without condition. I had learned that being loved was not so as important as being love.

The curtain of mercy that separates you from the past can be drawn back. How? By activating curiosity and putting a past life query out there to the great forming power of the universe, that’s how. Then wait and watch for the revelations via dreams, visions or intuition. But, the bottom line in all of this, as far as I’m concerned, is to live consciously, resolve our debts and not create more, and grow spiritually in the here and now. It’s all about the here and now, my friend, all about the here and now.

Author’s Bio
Jo Leonard is a spiritual adventurer. Her passion in life is to share the knowledge she has gathered after a lifetime of searching for God. She has traveled the world presenting consciousness-provoking talks and workshops to other like-minded seekers. A published author, her writings, both non-fiction and fiction alike, are spiritually insightful and inspiring.

She currently lives in Occoquan, Virginia with her husband and two Siamese cats and serves as a VP for a commercial printing company near Washington DC. You can visit her website at www.jeleonard.com Her new book, The Would Be Saint, is available at www.amazon.com

by LaSara Firefox, MPNLP

When it comes to the delicate matter of belief, there are creative ways to answer our children’s questions without taking the magic out of it all.

When my oldest daughter was about five, she asked whether Santa Claus was real. Her dad and I her told that Santa is real to those who believe.

Is love real? Is hope real? Is magic real? Is faith real? We can’t touch or see any of these things, but most of us do believe in at least a few of them. In some cases, we can feel them. In others, we see proof of them appearing in the physical world.

I, for one, still believe in Santa Claus, and always will.

I believe that Tibetan Lamas reincarnate with full recall of their previous lives. I believe in Knights in shining armor, and Princesses in towers. (As much as it irks my post-riot-grrl self to admit it!)

But I do believe. I believe in faeries, and faerie tales, pookas, ghosts, saints, and goblins. And I believe in Christmas miracles. Just like I believe in God,with It’s ineffability, and the many faces It wears.

Jitterbug Perfume by Tim Robbins has one of the best descriptions I’ve seen of the human relationship with deity. Basically, the premise is this: the gods depend upon our belief in them to survive. Our belief makes them real.

The power of belief is an important gift we must safeguard and instruct in our children. Without belief, we are cast adrift on an endless, meaningless sea. Belief offers a rudder when nothing else makes sense. Belief is what we build our lives upon.

I will never tell my kids that Santa Claus is not real, because I myself believe in Santa.

My oldest daughter is now 11. She started our Christmas festivities by saying she no longer believes in Santa. And then complained when she didn’t feel the Christmas Spirit flooding her as we trimmed the tree.

I talked to her about faith.

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Sometimes it has been hard to have faith that Santa will come. I admit it; I test The Spirit from time to time. A couple of years ago I made one such test. It was my first Christmas post-divorce. I had no one to give my Christmas list to. No one to tell what I hoped to find under the tree.

That year it was hard to find my belief in the Spirit of Christmas. I prayed to the universe to enforce my faith.

I wanted proof that Santa was still real. I wanted Indoor/outdoor, Ugg-like slippers. It was what I wanted.

It was a deal between me and God, and God knew exactly what was required to prove my faith.

I know, it’s kind of petty.

But come Christmas, I did get gifted a pair of slippers. My sister didn’t buy them for me, but for another family member. When they didn’t fit the growing girl, my sister asked me to take them instead – she didn’t want to go to the trouble of carrying them home on the plane and exchanging them.

I whispered a thank you to Santa, and reminded myself that sometimes God works in mysterious ways.

So does Santa. He still makes miracles occur, or at least the belief in him does. I didn’t know my sister was bringing slippers for the nieces. She didn’t know I wanted them, either. But he did. And he delivered.

Throughout my life I have seen miracles of Christmas faith occur, large and small.

Movies are built on the theme of the Christmas Miracle. But even off the screen, I have seen food banks fill, at least for one day, with more than enough to feed the local poor. I’ve seen people open their doors to strangers so they would have somewhere to be on Christmas morning. I’ve seen communities pull together and provide gifts for children who would have otherwise gone without.

To quote the words of song writer Red West, popularized by Elvis, “if every day could be just like christmas, what a wonderful world this would be.”

As a Mystic mama, I don’t feel like a liar, hypocrite, or as though I’m misleading my children by allowing them to believe in a power that makes thier child-lives a little more happy, a little more bountiful, a little more hopeful, a little more magical.

The Holiday spirit does exist. It’s palpable. It acts in the world. Call it the power of faith, or Jesus, or Santa Claus, or generosity. It’s an invocation of some sense of love for our fellow man.

Regardless of the name we give it, it sustains. It acts through each of us, bringing miracles to bear.

Kind of like God.

About the author:
LaSara Firefox, MPNLP, is a coach, trainer, and author. LaSara helps clients find balance in their lives, and alignment with their personal and family-held values. She teaches and coaches internationally. She’s wife to an outstanding man, and mom to two brilliant girls.

You can find out more about LaSara at http://www.lasarafirefox.com. While you’re there, be sure to check out her December coaching special – the VERY affordable Body, Mind, and Spirit Renewal program.

(Feel free to share this article, in its entirety. Please leave the document intact, and links active. THANKS!!!!)

Awakened Heart Meditation

by LaSara Firefox, MPNLP

This meditation is modeled on the loving kindness meditation from Ezra Bayda’s book, Being Zen, and further modeled on many practice for what in Buddhism is called generating bodhicitta.

This Awakened Heart meditation is designed to encourage awakening, develop presence, and to cultivate compassion. Bring your whole self to this experience, and come fully present in what is.

Before beginning the recitation of each line of the prayer / mantra / meditation, take a full breath in. Release the breath gently as you recite the line. Allow a pause between recitation of lines as you become conscious in drawing a deep, full, gentle breath. Be conscious of the words you are speaking as they form in your mouth and leave your lips, powered and empowered by your breath.

The second set of the meditation can be repeated as many times as you want, and may be used to bring your practice of compassion into fullness. I recommend that you devote each repetition of the second set to only one person, and repeat it as many times as you desire, or have the “bandwidth” for.

Hold the person you are dedicating the set to in your mind. You may want to imagine your compassion and love pouring out with your breath, and enveloping the recipient with gentle, glowing light. You can envision them circled in love, compassion, light, whatever image works for you.

A practice that I find healing and consciousness-raising is to devote the first round of the second set to someone I love with no resistance – one of my daughters, for example. Then with each additional round, i stretch my compassionate heart a little wider, including those who I may have recently felt some conflict with. Then to those beings – living or dead – who really stretch my compassion.

On the third round, if it helps you to increase the awakening of your heart, you may visualize the earth, the galaxy, the universe, all time and space.

Enjoy your practice. May this act benefit all beings.

May I be present in the awakened heart.
May I address that which clouds the awakened heart.
May I experience this moment as it is.
May this act benefit all beings.

May you be present in the awakened heart.
May you address that which clouds the awakened heart.
May you experience this moment as it is.
May this act benefit all beings.

May all beings be present in the awakened heart.
May all beings address all that which clouds the awakened heart.
May all beings experience this moment as it is.
May this act benefit all beings.

I am present in the awakened heart.
I address all that which clouds the awakened heart.
I experience this moment as it is.
This act benefits all beings.

About the author:
LaSara Firefox, MPNLP, is a coach, trainer, and author. LaSara helps clients find balance in their lives, and alignment with their personal and family-held values. She teaches and coaches internationally. She’s wife to an outstanding man, and mom to two brilliant girls.

You can find out more about LaSara at http://www.lasarafirefox.com. While you’re there, be sure to check out her December coaching special – the VERY affordable Body, Mind, and Spirit Renewal program.

(Feel free share this article, in its entirety. Repost, send to your list, share with friends. Please include all links, and LaSara’s bio.)