love

Building a Solid Spiritual Foundation

As I approached a tree that I have passed endless times before, a whisper called to me saying, "Sit and stay awhile." The dogs were happily chewing away on grass, so I sat upon the cement bed that encircled the base of the tree. This tree has caught my intrigue in the past, but I never stopped long enough to ponder the cause behind this intrigue until a few weeks ago; I noticed that the embankment that encircles the tree has been cracked by the power of the tree's roots. This wondrous force of nature to break through cement in order to expand its roots is actually a perfect metaphor for spiritual truth.

Until today, I never connected the roots as a metaphor, because I didn't allow my intrigue to grow from intellectual curiosity to wondrous insight. Just last night, my angels sent a message to spend ample time in nature, not just because it reboots my mind and spirit, but because it can also supply creative ideas (which blossom into powerful spiritual growth).

My Backwards Journey to Finding Self Love

My search for love last year inadvertently sent me on a mission to turn my search inward to discover my own self. It allowed me to return to love, because I have come to understand that we cannot truly love others in the way they deserve to be loved until we fully love ourselves.

My journey to find love truly became a journey to find myself, and the love I held in my heart all along. By choosing to give my heart to others and find that sense of love and worth through them, I was robbing myself of the Divine gift of self love (and simultaneously removing the chance for my beloved to be truly loved unconditionally).

Make Friends With Fear

As my journey continues to take me further off into the unknown, I have grappled with fear. We all deal with fear.

Without conscious practice and acknowledgement, fear can derail us from following our heart.

My spiritual awakening is paying off as I learn to work with fear rather than bury it (or worse—ignore it altogether).

It takes more energy to work against fear than it does to work with it.

Fear is not the enemy when we make friends with it.

It is a vital part of who we are, so invite fear along as if it were a wise friend; it is there for a reason.

Fear keeps us safe in times of danger and sustains us throughout perilous times of change.  

When we make friends with fear and allow it to be heard, we can gently let it know our plans.

Be grateful for the role fear plays, but affirm you are choosing a different route—courageous love.

The development of a healthy ego alongside a courageous spirit ensures we have all we need to navigate this world.

-Sarah Varcas

Fear lands us right at the same intersection we left it, at the corner of been there and done that. Unless we choose a path to love by opening our heart to everything below the surface of fear, we will experience the same unfulfilling and predictable outcomes while hiding from our own emotions.

When fear becomes your lighthouse it will perpetually lead you to darkness.

-Kris Carr

Fear's number one job is to keep us safe and secure in the comfort of our current reality. It certainly doesn't want us to dig deep into the crevices of our heart and soul, because when we listen to our deepest calling and inner knowing we inevitably come to meet the complacency and unfulfilling path that our fears keep us traversing along.

Choose a New Path

There's no security in following love or dreams or desires, because those things offer zero certainty. They DO offer rewards that far exceed the risk we take to follow our heart—happiness, fulfillment, joy, purpose and self care.

Choosing love via adventures, self worth, soul searching, soul mates, dreams, fulfilling careers, or any multitude of things calling to your heart is the only way to live freely with empowerment, purpose and inner peace.

The next time fear starts to speak, go ahead, have a dialogue with it.

"Thank you, Ego, for doing your job; I want you to know that I am choosing to listen to my heart. I already know where you take me, and I'm ready to chart a new course this time. I sure hope you'll come along. I'm still going to need you."

Listen to your intuition to determine whether fear is playing a healthy role, or sabotaging your dreams by halting any momentum.

When fear is kindly put in its place, we make space for the whispers of our soul to be heard. The calling of our heart or the curiosity of our Higher Self begins to flourish. 

It takes often might courage to honour the truth as we see it, especially when it sets us apart from others or challenges the status quo.

-Sarah Varcas

If life is providing you opportunities to grow or revealing experiences to test your heart's desires, say yes. Step outside of your comfort zone, and make one step at a time.

You may not know where the path to Love takes you, but I can guarantee you haven't been there yet. And don't forget to invite along courage, faith and trust. You're going to need them.

By staying present to both our fears and our hopes and dreams, we assertively take action that befits our current reality. Dreams are healthy so long as we take one curious step at a time.

The Awakening

At the tail end of one of the most tumultuous times I have experienced in my journey of spiritual awakening, on the cusp of change in every major area of my life: relationships, career, and home, I ventured on a walk with my dog (as I do every Saturday). This Saturday was like any other except it felt completely different. My life is rumbling with so much movement that I have felt like I stepped onto a rollercoaster ride that simply would not stop. Although I have surrendered to the change and granted it permission to work through me to create the life I dream of, I have yet to learn how to keep my cool when shit hits the fan. And trust me, it's blowing all around me, sending me in fifteen directions at once.

It is absolutely no coincidence (I don't believe in them) that the dawn of change in my life is happening right now. 2016 is a year of completion (9) according to numerology and is my personal year of completion according to my birth life cycle. And to foster all these changes that will catapult me into the life, love and career I am called to live is the magical energy of the leap year combined with two eclipses this month (March).

Six months ago during the last eclipse of September, my life took a swift turn toward unknown territories I now fully recognize as an awakened individual. At that time in my life, the exact people who were sent to play a significant role in my spiritual awakening appeared effortlessly into my life (or came back into my life) as soul catalysts. Normal people might say "what a coincidence," but I know better. No, this is synchronicity, my favorite word explained by the author Gary Zukav:

Synchronicity is this interesting, funny-sounding word that was created by Carl Jung. And what he meant by it was those times in your life when something appears to be a coincidence but you know that there is more to it than that. There is more than just a random coincidence involved. There is meaning, there is purpose, there is power behind it.

—Gary Zukav

Synchronicity plays out in my life like a finely orchestrated symphony, with God as the conductor. As I have learned to recognize these occurrences, I have grown in faith with a wild and beautiful capacity that defines my every day life as far from ordinary. I began to chart my journey of synchronicity to notice patterns and the way God was really at the helm of my calling and purpose here on Earth. Some day I will share with you just how that happened.

And now, after those events allowed me to come home to myself and recognize the God within me, I am now truly whole. I love with a passion that can only be described as a gift God placed in my heart when He created me. It only took thirty years to recognize and own the heart I am at the core. I started to believe that the seemingly insignificant events playing out in my life were far from accidents. I realized I was actually in the abundant flow of the Universe, something I had cut myself off from while living in fear and resistance.

A beautiful Earth Angel taught me that all I had to do to reach out and take hold of the higher vibrational energy circulating around me, waiting to grab me and take me to the place I am meant to be in life, who I am meant to be in life, was start saying yes. I had to put down my armor of resistance I was using to fight off whatever was working through me. I was missing the blessings of what was already in my life. Because all the places God had placed me during this period of my life were for a reason. They were there to push me into the next phase of my life, to connect me to the right souls and learn the lessons I was meant to learn before I move on.

All of the harmonious events and people I encountered since September have led to understand my God-given purpose and calling as a healer. I have come to understand just how my life was meant to challenge me so I could rise to meet who God created me to be. I had to grow in strength, resiliency, love and faith in order to be whole. And from that whole place, I love and serve others on a new level of understanding. I now love in a way I always felt compelled to, but never could quite muster until I loved myself first.

I didn't quite know just how I would go about embarking on this new path, switching careers and owning an entirely new identity, but that is where the gigantic faith I possess jumped in. I just followed my intuition (the voice inside me) and the passions that ignite my soul and God worked out the details in a synchronistic fashion. In faith, we are called to take action without knowing the outcome. I continued to rise in faith, and God rewarded my actions over and over again. I simply gave my worries to God and my Angels. I could not bare the weight alone; I was never meant to. I may still not know all the ways God is planning to use my life and love, but I do know the next steps to take.

I still stutter with doubt and I hesitate in taking the necessary steps (even though I know it is what I am called to do), but after the last week, God roared down and extinguished any last fears of moving forward. And so as the last seven days sped up with a hasty pace and burning in my soul, I am finally saying yes to my future wholeheartedly. I am saying yes to a career that will fulfill me in a way that a paycheck never could. I am saying yes to a new kind of love, by saying goodbye to one I have hung on to for far too long. And I am saying yes to a bucket list item that is calling my name right now.

Even though all this change is necessary and welcomed, I easily get swept up into the fury that my soul screams out in excitement. I forget that unless I am grounded and still, I cannot fully step into the future. And so I listened to my intuition to slow down, to take in each moment with a calm serenity and steady breath. I got back on my mat and I got back into my heart. I slept and slept some more knowing life would still be there when I awoke, and today, on this Saturday that meets me week after week, I know life has changed. I know I have changed.

As I rested and poured through the feelings in my heart that have unleashed themselves in the last seven days, the sunlight poured into the room beckoning me to join it. I walked through the paths of my neighborhood greenbelt and parks with my dog, grounded in the peace of a perfect Spring day. Not long after we ventured out did a hummingbird appear; another one of those ordinary occurrences that I know carry so much more meaning. My late grandfather visits me as a hummingbird. He has watched me embark on this difficult journey from Heaven, and so today as I carried the overwhelming weight of change, he appeared to put a gigantic smile on my face, to remind me all is well and to keep the faith. I watched him perch on a tree, wings still, cleaning his feathers. This is only the second time I have watched a hummingbird in stillness, a divine gift that I am in awe of. It is this rare stillness that reminded me of the importance of stillness in my own life. That no matter how much is rumbling or roaring, I can go inside in stillness and quite the chaos of my mind and outside world.

promises kept by michael rohner art

As I thanked my Grandpa for saying hi and told him I miss him and love him, I walked away feeling exactly what I needed: peace. I walked through the park with the childlike wonder that wraps me in love and light. I swung on the park swing with my dog in my lap—his new, favorite activity—and I took in the beauty around me. Not long after we got up to walk around back home, I saw a Monarch butterfly in the exact place I had seen him several weeks back. He lingered for several minutes. Butterflies are my symbol of completion, and so I see them as a reminder that I have truly grown into the woman I am meant to be. I have finished the first phase of my life—one that tested me with almost more than I could take, but not more than God knew I was capable of powering through—and I am ready to take my wings and embark on my next phase.

My dog and I walked home greeted by the hummingbird yet again just as a woeful thought entered my mind. I laughed and thanked my Grandpa again. I would give anything to have my Grandpa back in his favorite chair, gifting me with his infinite wisdom, but He is still very much with me. The beautiful thing about spirits in Heaven is they can be with you wherever you are. Having an Angel like him is just one more blessing I have in this wonderful life I lead. It is just one more reminder that

This might be my favorite part of being a spiritually awakened individual, or as Wayne Dyer referred to as "a Being of Light." You notice the beauty all around you: in every flower bloom and every warm summer day, in the feeling of a wave crashing into your feet, in the visit of a hummingbird, in the painting of a vibrant sunset on the canvas sky and all these things fill you up with exuberant joy.

I have come to a place that allows me to return to a state of peace when I'm struck by the awe and beauty that surrounds me. I know no matter how much God is stirring around me for my benefit, I can be still. The outdoors will always be my safe haven and for that I am eternally grateful.