LOVE'S ADVENTURE

We long for love as much as we fear receiving it.

We yearn to be seen as much as we bolt at the possibility of being seen.

We hunger for the deep embrace of presence, tender eyes that gaze upon us with understanding and empathy, as much as we try to escape that very holding. It's too intimate. Too risky. Too exposing.

Nowhere to hide. To be seen is to be loved. To be seen is to die. Love is danger. Or so we have been taught.

A battle rages in us. The unloved one longing to hide, and the one who longs for the thrill and risk of living. Contraction and expansion. Breathing, in and out.

Unconsciously, we are attracted to or repelled by those who treat us, speak to us, hold us the way our parents did or did not. We are drawn to those who can heal us, and sometimes drawn to those who cannot, or worse. We think we are falling in love with a person, and sometimes we are just falling in love with our own image of them, which has nothing to do with the 'other' at all.

We love and we lose our images of love. We rise and we fall. Our hearts soar and our hearts break into a million pieces. We seek security and find insecurity and we find security in that. We seek freedom and find the prison of our own programming and lose hope and then regain it.

Sometimes it takes courage to leave a relationship. Sometimes it takes courage to stay. Sometimes it takes courage to do nothing, today. Sometimes it takes courage to admit how much pain you are in.

Sometimes it takes courage to admit how happy you are.

Sometimes you take a step without knowing why, and everything only becomes clear in hindsight.

You can't get it wrong anyway.

We lose ourselves and we find ourselves. We give more than we can take, exhausting ourselves in the name of "love". Or we run as fast as we can, exhausting ourselves in our flight from "love".

"Will somebody see me. Listen. Hold me. Let me break..."

And the drama of love plays out. And as the play goes on we learn more about ourselves. We begin to see our blind spots. Our unconscious patterns come into the light of awareness. We realise our assumptions. Our childhood fantasies start to crumble. Pain that we never wanted to feel, we suddenly feel. Grief. Anger. Feelings of rejection, abandonment. We want to run, go back into the old addictions, the old comfort, and for whatever reason, we don't. We get curious. We start looking and stop thinking so much.

We begin to relate to ourselves. Treat ourselves like the greatest lovers that we are. The most fascinating and beloved creatures.

With each day, we begin meeting ourselves more deeply. Discovering who we really are. What we feel, and what we don't. What we want and what we don't. Learning to say 'yes' when we mean yes and 'no' when we mean no and if that hurts someone, giving them back their responsibility to heal. Learning that love is not all butterflies and roses and positive feelings. It is work, too. It is mess. It is pain and the courage to breathe through that pain into joy and expansiveness. Love asks us to become more and more real, more and more human, more and more conscious, less and less perfect. More self-aware and willing to feel. And to feel more. And to feel more. And more. And to let our hearts break sometimes. To not know, sometimes. To be bored, sometimes. To be blissed-out, sometimes. To be full of life. To sometimes not know what the next step is. And to take it, or not.

Love is not a feeling, a state, or an experience. It's not a destination.

It's this extraordinary Light that shines from within.

It's this radiant Knowing that never leaves.

It's the Joy of being alive.

We can know it together. We can know it alone.

We can remind each other of it. We can forget, too.

We can trigger each other and help each other get curious about those triggers. We can do that work, or not.

We can meet in love's fire. Walk together, or not.

Share our hearts. Step back. Step towards. Or stay where we are.

Learn to love the dance of it, the spontaneity, the adventure, the mystery, the immediacy and the intimacy of it and the running too.

Learn to unlearn what we knew and embrace the unknowing as new knowing.

And get more and more content with the unresolveability of it all.

More and more happy with the unhappy one, certain about the uncertainty, so secure in the insecurity.

More and more blissed-out at our lack of bliss.

More and more curious about what's here Now.

Less and less solid, more and more playful.

Less a seeker of love, more a giver of it, and a finder, and a Presence that invites others into the same wild joy.

This is Love's Adventure.

What is True Love? I’m no seer, no enlightened soul. All I know is that, to me, these things define true love. Here’s to hoping we all allow ourselves the chance to experience it.~

True Love Is Magical, Not Magic
Sure, true love comes with moments you feel you can defy gravity. You and that special person can simply be near each other and everything is perfect. Holding hands in a storm. Smiling each time they cross your mind. Looking forward to the next time you are in each other’s arms. True love is magical, but it’s not magic. Life continually moves on. Just as bad times guarantee good will follow, good times can also be followed by bad. True love does not keep this from happening. It’s not a magic spell that ensures happiness ever after. If held onto though, it will weather all storms with you. When bad times come, true love hasn’t let you down or lost it’s magic. It’s still there, riding the rollercoaster with you.

 True Love Is Faith
To be open to true love is to truly be vulnerable. It is allowing yourself that quiet ease that comes with knowing your partner honors and cares for you. It is realizing everything you do has someone’s heart attached. We can worry about the next person that comes along. We can be on guard looking for the one that comes to steal that person away. For men, this is almost ingrained into our psyche. We must defend our love and always be on guard. For those who have been hurt, it comes even harder. Step back and see this; you never lost someone because you weren’t running off everyone else, although you could definitely lose someone by refusing to have faith in them. To grow from love to true love, let go and know that if it is true love, every day they choose you.

True Love Is Reciprocal
True love comes in pairs. The same love and affection shown to you should be what you give back. It is definitely possible to love someone more than they love you. Undoubtedly, someone has loved you more than you love them. True love is both given and received. It is a mutual admiration and bind that both of you have agreed to let flourish. It may not happen overnight. It may not develop in both parties at the same time, but when true love is present, it is gloriously mutual.
  
True Love Is Accepting
True love accepts flaws and weaknesses. You know everything about that person and welcome it all. They have seen all your pieces and want to be a part of your life. Friends, family, those that mean the most to each of you are all welcome in this equation. Everyone they hold close has been a part of making them the person you adore. Sure you can love someone without loving those important to them, but true love accepts. True love welcomes any healthy relationship that has made you who you are today. Your children could just as well be theirs. Their friends matter just as much as yours.

                                  AND...

True Love Is A Choice
Love and passion. Both can come out of nowhere. You can find yourself wrapped up in someone that seems like they where made specifically for you. What comes next, is a choice. Both people choose to devote themselves to the other. Both people choose to be there through good and bad. The fact is, there are many people you could fall in love with. The plain truth is, people can choose to go their separate ways and still lead a fulfilling and happy life. True love is not being incapable of going on without someone, it’s choosing to go on with them, regardless. We go through lives living, experiencing and building. True love is looking back, holding your lovers hand and appreciating you chose to do all that together.

Remind me ~Jeremy Goldberg (I love this!)

Remind me to always lie with you, but never to you, and that hurt only hurts while it lasts. Remind me to hold hands but never hold back.
Remind me of love, remind me of heart, and remind me that life will not tear me apart today, but if it tries and when it does, remind me that I’m good enough to be enough for you.
Remind me that the only way to make it last is to put us first, and remind me that the past is a prelude and pain is a choice, that I’ll get knocked down but I can get up quick, and yes, I’ll get destroyed but I can rebuild again.
When you see me flailing in rough seas, coughing up lungfuls of dark waves, and I’m thinking I’m sinking because my arms are numb and I can’t feel my legs, remind me with a hushed assurance and a knowing grin, “You’ll drown slower if your chin’s up, friend.”
Remind me to have faith.
Remind me why I love you.
Remind me that the stargaze stares we share and the galaxies we wish to explore are inside, not above, that the paths we long to travel are internal, not foreign, and remind me when my dreams seem lost like faraway lands in disrepair, that you’ll hold my hand and always care.
Remind me that it’s me you think about when you wish for happily ever after.
Remind me that not all aches are bad, that black nights still shine light and even in rainstorms or when hail comes and the sky is filled with emptiness we run from, the sun is always out somewhere.
Remind me that I am filled with light.
Remind me why your eyes do such funny things to mine and how, sometimes, time stops in the shadow of your smile.
Remind me that storm clouds are just water up high in the sky, that water is needed, that water gives life, and though it may arrive in drops of sweat or tears of strife, remind me that I can heal.

Remind me to keep you close but to never go too far, and remind me that even if we feel like a lifetime stopped and stuck in its tracks like a frozen statue of our distant past, even if it feels like pointless paralysis or a beginner’s magic trick, even when we resemble an empty well all out of wishes, remind me it will be okay and already is.

Remind me that you are strong, and remind me so am I.
Remind me that you aren’t scared when, can’t run from, won’t hide, and don’t mind my pain when it’s all I know and feel and fear.
Remind me that we’ll never know how it ends until it does, and even then, it doesn’t because what we have and who we are isn’t something we can just pack up and leave behind, like some kind of shooting star in some cold and fleeting night.
Remind me how I love getting lost in you.
Remind me that you are an adventure worth taking and never forgetting.
Remind me it starts now, today, for always in all ways, and remind me to remind you of this, all of it, always in all ways.

A FORMLESS LOVE, FORMING

Love is greater than us. We do not generate it with words and deeds, or even intentions, but we are continually embraced by it, held in its vastness, no matter what we do, or do not.
We are married, we divorce; we are friends, we are lovers; we break up, we break together; we are born, we die; the field endures.
Nobody has ever given us love; that is the great illusion. We have simply remembered the field in each other's presence, sometimes, recognised eternity in the midst of the everyday, then credited another. Love never came from outside of us; we simply touched our own presence, fell into the love that we are, and cannot not be.
And nobody ever took love away from us; we simply forgot the field, and 'blamed' the other, and looked for love again, feeling its absence, lost in a narrative of 'lost love'. Yet love was there, even in its apparent absence; it was present, even in the loss. It cannot be broken; a wave cannot crush the Ocean.
Do not seek love, do not look for the light, but be it, offer it; the joy of loving another is infinitely greater than the joy of fearfully clinging to another's love, for deep down you know it is only an illusion that what you have always longed for could ever have come from outside of you. You are the One; you have always been the One.
The search ends exactly where it began - in presence.

My love is not of this world, she thought.

She was complicated in her simplicity, she knew this.

She was the type of girl that smelled of sandalwood and open fields after a long Summer rain; intoxicating, fresh and simple to take in with a depth that seeped into the very soul. She didn’t need to be saved only to be stood by and loved deeply while she saved herself.

Her heart bled poetry whose tomes were unread none having the eyes to see the words written there. Yet there was a humor in her that danced freely and oh how she loved to laugh.

She was at once a mystical journey into the heart of the Earth and the calm found in the fading light of sunset. She had to be swam so deeply to be understood at all and so few had bothered to even dip in a toe.

Her mystery could never remain silent, this she knew. It came out.
The truth always had a way of doing that. She could never silence the magic that flowed through her or the wild passions that coursed in her veins.

Better to be left for what she was than to be loved for a mask, she thought with a heavy heart.

She wondered sometimes as she stared into the dancing trees if there was anyone on this planet that felt this depth, this longing. Perhaps they were on another planet.
Maybe that’s why she spent so much time searching the stars, looking for a sign of the light shining somewhere for her. Maybe she was looking for a home that she had not yet found.

To be this weird, this wild, with this much heart and this depth; the joker, the goddess, the mystic and the lover.

It pained her sometimes.

Who could dance with this passionate fire, ride the waves of this endless sea, laugh to the depths of their being and choose to embrace all of it openly knowing it was only the beginning.

He would smell of home, she decided, and his skin would feel as familiar as her own.
She didn’t need a mask of perfection only his authenticity with truth etched upon his brow and the glow of real love shining in his eyes.

 She didn’t want some unrealistic ideal only the beating of his heart against hers and a smile etched on their lips, as they traced the ancient love stories on each others' skin.

He would drink her in like it was the most natural thing he had ever done, needing to satisfy an ancient thirst. Feeling the depth of the pull towards her he would open his arms to her mystery, not turn and run.

Without taking a step he would fall deep into the place that he was always meant to be by the side of the type of girl that smelled of sandalwood and open fields after a long Summer rain; intoxicating, fresh air that would fill his lungs all in one easy breathe with a depth that eased him and soothed him to the depths of his soul.

Their love story would be of eternity and yet pulsating in each moment. He would provide her relief and she would give him rest. Together, they would love, laugh and live and then no desire, no dream would remain... together they would BE home.

Yes, I am single!

Yes, I’m single. No, I’m not lying.
It doesn’t matter if the question is coming from family, my friend’s husbands or random strangers—it’s an inquiry that suggests that because of the woman I am, I should have been taken off the market long ago.
But, the thing is, I’m not looking to be taken off the market, just so I have someone’s arm to hold onto as I cross the street.
I’ve joked around and told people that not everyone can handle my flavor of awesome. I’ve said that I am too busy with work and my children to date. There have been times I’ve whimsically replied that whenever it’s meant to happen it will and cynical moments where I said well maybe I am meant to be single forever.
In truth, I’m single because I have lost the ability to settle.
I don’t just want company—I want to be wowed, and in all honesty I’m not wowed that easily.
The funny thing is, it’s not about what kind of car a man drives, nor is it found in his possessions, that he brags about, as supposed evidence of his character and worth.
No, what I am looking for can’t be found in any material things.
It’s found in the eyes of a man and in his heart.
The way he approaches the world and how his life is evidence of what he stands for. I’ve realized that I’m not after just any man—I’m only in pursuit of someone who burns as passionately as I do.
The fact is, I don’t really want a boyfriend.
I don’t need someone to play house with and pass the time until we eventually realize we want different things. I don’t need to learn any more lessons from dating different versions of the same man, nor do I need someone to reflect all of my daddy issues or self-worth back to me.
These lessons I’ve learned have not been overnight. This in depth and sometimes scary self-work has been done sitting by myself, learning that I am enough just the way I am.
I’ve got this. I’m not looking for a bargain basement kind of love.
I won’t be sifting through discount love in an attempt to have something, because I would much rather wait it out, do me, and be ready when someone of my caliber and energy level comes around.
I’m honestly single because I am a lot to handle—with colours that defy the logical and a taste that lingers upon the heart. It’s okay that I’m not everyone’s cup of tea—but what I am will be the right fit for someone who understands the complexities of my contradictions.
The question, “How can you be single?” implies that those asked are supposed to be taken, but maybe it’s the people who actually have their act together who remain single the longest.
Relationships aren’t just for pleasure but also for self-growth. Sometimes we need other’s help to teach us the lessons we are too blind to see. But other times the only person to explore our issues with is ourselves.
Because regardless of who it is, or how enlightened they may seem—we’ve all got issues. How they manifest themselves in our lives depends on what stage of awareness and healing we are in.
For a long time, when someone asked me why I was still single, it made me question my relationship status because I couldn’t just team up and date random people like so many seem satisfied with. It was as if something was wrong with me because I didn’t feel a strong desire to fill my social calendar with those wanting to take me to dinner or concerts.
But then I realized, it was because I had fallen in love with myself and my life—as is.
I enjoy my own company, and that of friends and family so much that the only reason I would accept an invitation by a prospective man is if I felt he could add something to my already full life.
I’m not living my life day to day, hoping for the best. No, I am here building my own empire in the sky, and the fact is once a woman has decided to build her own castle she isn’t looking for someone else to do it for her.
Does that mean I think I am superwoman, and that I can do everything on my own? No, not at all. But it does mean that I know the qualities I am looking for, not in a lover or a boyfriend—but in a partner. I want someone whose dreams are just as full as mine, who aspires to a life they can attain with hard work and dedication.
I’m waiting for someone who can match my strength. He will be strong enough so that I don’t always have to be strong. I’m not looking for someone to be like me, but to complement me.
Perhaps the biggest reason that I am still single is that I know exactly what I want.
I am looking for presence in a man. He’ll know how I should be spoken to and how to ignite a fire inside my belly. The fact that I don’t yet have this is okay with me because I do have faith that I will one day.
So, why am I still single?
Because I have decided not to accept less than what I deserve. I have learned that my worth doesn’t lay in the hands of a man. I wake up each day absolutely in love with my life.
Until the day comes when a man comes into my life and enhances what is already here, I will remain single because I’ve found myself. And that is more than half the battle of finding another.

I am not the first person you loved.
You are not the first person I looked at
with a mouthful of forevers. We
have both known loss like the sharp edges
of a knife. We have both lived with lips
more scar tissue than skin. Our love came
unannounced in the middle of the night.
Our love came when we’d given up
on asking love to come. I think
that has to be part
of its miracle.
This is how we heal.
I will kiss you like forgiveness. You
will hold me like I’m hope. Our arms
will bandage and we will press promises
between us like flowers in a book.
I will write sonnets to the salt of sweat
on your skin. I will write novels to the scar
of your nose. I will write a dictionary
of all the words I have used trying
to describe the way it feels to have finally,
finally found you.
And I will not be afraid
of your scars.
I know sometimes
it’s still hard to let me see you
in all your cracked perfection,
but please know:
whether it’s the days you burn
more brilliant than the sun
or the nights you collapse into my lap
your body broken into a thousand questions,
you are the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.
I will love you when you are a still day.
I will love you when you are a hurricane.~

THE JOY OF WAITING Jeff Foster (www.lifewithoutacentre.com)

When you were young, you loved to dream and let go of dreams. Either way, you dwelled in the Now. When you got older, you started to take your dreams and goals way too seriously, and your happiness became bound up with the future, and the destination became more important than the journey.
Dream about what you want, of course. Have a vision for the future. But learn to let your dreams go, too, let them float off into the river of life, and bring your attention back to the present moment. Don't use a dream as an excuse to disconnect from where you are. Where you are is way too precious...
Learn to love the in-between moments. Learn to love this delicious sense of waiting, yearning, anticipating. Learn to dance and breathe in the space between the wanting and the getting, the dreaming and the resolution of dreams. Learn to love not having what you want right now. The tremendous sense of potential there, the fullness if it, the peace. Realise that 'lack' is only space, resisted. And even an 'incomplete' feeling is so complete, a welcome visitor in the heart. Breathe into the belly, the chest, the head. Infuse the body with light, saturate it with awareness, drench it with love. Feel the fullness of the body. Lacking nothing. Wanting nothing.
Even when you don't have what you want, you are invited to want to be exactly where you are; to fall in love with the place where you stand, to contact the fertile ground as you wait, or forget the waiting and simply savour the moments.
And open your arms in gratitude, ready to receive whatever comes.
Sometimes, even the 'not getting' can be so very beautiful.
Behold, your abundant life.

To my sweet wild woman~ Kate Rose

I know why it hasn’t worked out with anyone else.....
you don’t need a man, but a goddamn warrior.
You are the strength of Turkish coffee at sunrise darlin’ and don’t try to pretend that you’re not.
You are one of the wild ones, and no matter how you tried to hide that fact, you can’t be anything other than what you are,......and that’s okay.
You are just as you are supposed to be, magnificently wild in all of your chaotic beauty.
I know you’ve had your heart broken and I know that you don’t understand why it always seems to never work out, but I’ve finally figured it out:
You don’t need a man, you need a goddamn warrior.
It doesn’t matter if this warrior drives a Jeep or a shiny sports car, and it won’t matter if he wears silk or cotton it will not even matter if he works in a high-rise, or on the night shift.
What is going to matter is that when it comes to taking bets on your heart, he is going to be high stakes all the way.
This warrior of yours will crave your strength, and your intensity.
He’s going to look at you and not see something to tame, but something to just fuckin’ admire.
This warrior of yours won’t be someone that you can manipulate or play with as you have in the past, so honey, don’t even try, and trust me, you’re going to love him even more because of it.
Because you aren’t just a woman, you’re a goddamn goddess.
Your fierceness is going to bring him to his knees every single time he looks into your gorgeous eyes, but the difference is, unlike the others, he isn’t going to be scared off.
No, this time, you will have finally met your match because a simple man for you just won’t do.
You need someone to match the fire in your eyes with his own.
Not only that, my little wild thing, but this warrior of yours is going to want to encourage the flames instead of trying to douse them with his own insecurities.
Because for you, a warrior is the only man who will ever live in the wild with you.
He may not have to slay any dragons to earn your love, but he would still walk through fire if it meant seeing that amazing smile that you hold in reserve for only him.
This is the thing, free spirit, this warrior you seek….he’s seeking you too.
For he’s had failed relationships that have left him wondering if maybe he was meant to be alone for the rest of his journey and you’re going to change all of that for him.
You both have been traveling along on your separate journeys and have been doing an okay job at it, but that about to change too.
Because baby, when you and this warrior of yours meet and collide, it’s going to be a love set on fire.
Don’t try to run this time
I know your heart has been broken before, and that you’re not used to things working out, but this time it’s different.
Give yourself time to see that.
This warrior of yours needs to see that it’s possible for someone to see all of his wild, and still be there when he craves his freedom and ventures off into this world for a bit.
You won’t always need to follow him, just as he won’t always follow you.
Let yourself stay wild, even when all you want to do is curl up in that spot along his side and forget the rest of the world exists.
Let yourself still wander naked under the full moon, and drink moonshine with the stars.
Let yourself feel the pull of the wind on your heart, and the sun toward a new journey.
Because this warrior is going to love you because of your wild and he’ll want you to keep it.
You’ll be in this together now,
this amazing, crazy, chaotic, wonderfully heartbreaking life, because it takes a warrior to love a goddess.
And it takes a goddess to show a warrior what real love is.
So pack up your insecurities and your ideas about picket fences, because that was never you anyway. You were born knowing that you were destined for more, and now is the time for you to see what all those dreams look like.
There is no stopping a love like this, so promise me you’ll hold out just a little bit longer.
Have a little bit of hope, and always give love just one more try, because I promise you my sweet wild woman......
the love that you seek is seeking you as well.

The sanctuary of love

There’s a deep meaning in the romantic consciousness. ~
A deep love says: I’m able to see the beauty in you even when you have made a mistake today. I’m able to see what you’re capable of and focus on what I know your dreams to be and to share those dreams with you and to support you, even on the days when you fall flat on your face and they don’t want you for the job and they’re not going to give you the promotion. I want to be the person today who still believes in your strength even though you spent the entire day around people who concentrated on your inadequacies. THAT to me is love.

That is a spiritual, mental, emotional, personal strength that I’ve developed in myself to REFUSE to see you as other people might have chosen to see you today. That’s commitment to me. That’s what the commitment is. Otherwise, what am I doing? I’m waiting to see whether you strike me as good enough today. And what? I’m going to take my cues from how other people have perceived you today? Heck no.

To me, that’s the sanctuary of love. That’s the sanctuary of intimacy. That in THIS place, you’re seen in your glory. In this place, you’re seen in your potential at all times even when you haven’t actualized it on any given day.

Someone...

Someone to wake up to. To share the weather with, then the coffee.

Someone to dream with—to plan and scheme and then celebrate with.
Someone to win with, and someone to lose with.
Someone to care for and protect—and to let go of and watch fly.
Someone to stare at in wonder, and to think, “That heart loves mine.”
Someone to talk long with under stars on frosty nights. To giggle through scarves and gloves and hats with, and to kiss under mistletoe.
Someone to hold. Someone to be held by. To be treasured by a treasure.
Someone to notice birds with. To catch flashes of blue and green and purple and brown—and to feel the excitement of soaring little wonders. To see life as it is, not as it seems.
Someone to sit with and watch children, perhaps our own, and to laugh in their innocence and swell at our luck.
Someone to forget with.
Someone to cook with. To sweep mud off the floor. Someone to make magic out of mundane with and smile because it’s with each other.
Someone to cry with. To share rivers of grief indistinguishable from the other. To hold and to hug, and to help and to heal.
Someone to hold hands with. To glance at, fingers intertwined beneath coffee tables, and hearts blurring between eyes.
Someone to lay with with, nothing in between. To be everything holy and exist in a dream. To be naked to our souls and give everything unseen.
Someone to trust. To tell darkest secrets to and reveal hungry fears. Someone to know all of themselves and to want to see more. Someone whose eyes reflect what’s in ours.
Someone to walk with. To travel with. To find pockets of magic in grey city dullness. To drive miles and miles just for that “mile” that’s ours.
Someone to smile with. A deep knowing grin that says, “I see you” and “I’m staying.”
Someone to miss, even for a minute—until they return, and it feels like home again.
Someone to stare at for moments unending.
Someone to love.

we just love.

Sometimes there are no words. Words simply do not come. Sometimes we cannot find words to convey the depths of which we feel. That's okay. It's okay to just be in a raw feeling place, and not know when or if words will come to express.
We can just feel the depth of life, the depth of our humanity, the depth of this journey in human form. We can navigate the silent wondering, the unfathomable unknown -- by slowing and deepening the breath, and sending love from our hearts to all points seen and unseen, and known and unknown in the Universe.
May that love penetrate the most open, soft, permeable, and pliable, to the most closed, dense, and seemingly fierce immovable forces in all of existence. May that love be a light of courage and conviction for us to keep walking the path...especially through those times where we cannot see where it will lead. Each breath, each step -- a reminder to wake up from our slumber of suffering. In our stillness and silence, all is included, and without words -- we just love.

By being all that we are, we help others :)

Sometimes people like to imagine themselves like a lighthouse, lighting the way for the ships and saving the world....but, that lighthouse is useless, unless it takes care of ITSELF, unless if fans IT'S OWN flames and shines it's IT'S OWN with all it's full essence. It is useless unless if it plays small and humble saying "I don't want to get to bright and scare the ships " The lighthouse was created to be *BRILLIANT* ....The lighthouse does not go out, into the storm, and try to calm it... it does not go out and take the ships by hand, and lead them...it simply stand there *Being Brilliant* - feeding it's own flames, nurturing it's own fire and it's own expression.  The ships can make use of it's light or not - THAT'S UP TO THEM.... but the lighthouse is useless if it plays small and humble.

See yourself as a lighthouse, the brighter the flame, the grander the expression, the more impact you can have on all that is, you serve humanity by serving yourself...he light house doesn't give it's fuel to light the candles around it, or to light the lamps of the peasants below, it uses ALL of it's fuel for itself - and in that way lives it's full potential....in service.
YOU come first...
Even the lighthouse's keeper may let his own fire go out, but he will keep the lighthouse burning
YOU COME FIRST

WAKE UP, DOROTHY...

This is the spiritual search in a nutshell...

It begins:

"Is this moment all there is?
It's just so ... ordinary!
There must be something beyond this!"
It concludes:
"This seemingly ordinary moment is quite extraordinary.
It is everything, it is all there is, for the curious heart.
Full. Rich. Bursting with life.
A complete expression of the beyond.
Sacred. Precious. Home."
In every moment,
the search ends
exactly where it began.
Everything changed,
nothing changes.
Did anything happen at all?
Was she already Home?
- Jeff Foster

A Dream Within A Dream - Poem by Edgar Allan Poe

Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow-
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.

I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand-
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep- while I weep!
O God! can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?

I choose to love you in silence,
for in silence I find no rejection.

I choose to love you in loneliness,
for in loneliness no one owns you but me.

I choose to adore you from a distance,
for distance will shield me from pain.
I choose to kiss you in the wind,
for the wind is gentler than my lips.

I choose to hold you in my dreams,
for in my dreams, you have no end.
~Rumi

Thoughts about Soul Connections and Manifesting Dreams...

When your heart is calm, your mind is steady, and you have sought first the Partner Within, which is your Soul, then you will have reached a point where the need to be with another is a bitter-sweet ache. Don't try and suppress this yearning. It is perfectly natural and spontaneous. Express it to yourself, admit it to God/ Source/ The Universe...

This yearning is an integral part of your journey. You feel alive, you feel complete, you feel life force surge within you and you want to share it.

Just don't let it consume you. Put yourself in a place where you can "see" your longing... not BE it. This is to say be FINE with wherever you are

It has taken a great deal out of you to reach a point of awareness & clarity. You have suffered the pains of a huge awakening, to be one with your soul. Like a seed you were buried alive and you have broken free and sprung forth from the Earth to claim your place in the Sun.

What you seek is not someone to "complete" you but one to share your completeness with. There are no missing pieces of you that the other will bring and make you a better version of You.

No, there, now, will be three beautiful entities : You, Him/ Her and the WE that you create together.

No games will be played, societal conditioning can go take a walk, it will just BE : beautiful energy... love... simple everyday magic & miracles... holding hands, warm hugs, languid kisses, meaningful silences... Just LOVE..

Sounds blissful and magical!!!

BUT...just do not have an IDEAL because people live with an ideal Soul mate in their minds, and never get to really experience a relationship with anyone, because when they meet a person that might be a potential partner, they compare this person to the ideal in their head. The ideal in the head is not a real person, it is an ideal that will not be manifested. When you want to have a soul connection with a partner, you have to be willing to work with what the Universe offers you. 

In so many ways, manifesting your dreams will involve letting go of your dreams. Confusing, I know... read on...

When we have too many expectations, we block the flow in our lives as we are too busy rejecting things as they are not meeting our expectations... this becomes a vicious cycle of negativity and resistance. Life truly only flows when you are in the vibe of positivity and acceptance. Letting go of your dreams means letting go of YOUR IDEA of how it should be and be open to what the Universe wants to give you. To learn to play with potentials that come your way. Well, how do we get what we want then? Simple, just KNOW what you want... strip down to your very essence, shed your ego, shed the drama, break yourself open again and again till only YOU remain, standing naked in blinding light of knowing who you are, what are your boundaries, what you will and will not allow, what makes your heart sing, what your nature is...

Consider this simple example: For an apple tree dreaming of making apples, you can imagine that the Universe will grant its wish. Now the apple tree is completely aware of it's nature... so, it does not say I want to grow mangoes. That would be silly. It wants to, longs to grow apples, red, ripe, crisp apples because that is what the tree IS. So, apples will grow... some seasons not as many as the tree would have liked and other times, a bumper harvest. Be like the tree, long and ask for what you are, not what you are not.