Self-Love Through Gratitude

Photo booth picture
of my soon-to-be-husband & I

I am walking the path of learning to love myself in a new and deeper way.

I have moments of deep love and compassion and I am amazed that I am capable of it. And as I learn to love myself more, I see a change in the way I love others. I have so much more compassion than I even thought possible. Of course, that feeling also leaves me, but it doesn't disappear without a trace like it used to. Even when I am stuck in traffic, ready to scream, a deeper peacefulness seems to come over me. I have access to a love and compassion now that I didn't think was possible.

I remember when my husband and I got married - we had a blessing ceremony where everyone gave us a small token that symbolized what "love" meant to them and what we, as a couple, meant to them. I said thank you to each and every one of those people and when I talked with family and friends after the ceremony, that's what stood out most to people - how deeply grateful I was to every single person that was present. And as I thanked each person for their love and support, my own self-love grew a little deeper. Authentic gratitude really does lead to deep, non-egotistical, self-love!

Here are some inspiring quotes about the link between compassion and love that I have been collecting:

"You yourself, as much as anyone in the entire universe, deserve your love and affections." ~ Buddhist teaching

"If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion." ~ The Dalai Lama

"Until he extends his circle of compassion to include all living things, man will not himself find peace." ~ Albert Schweitzer

Jo Carson's Spider Speculations

I just had the wonderful opportunity to read Jo Carson's book Spider Speculations: A Physics & Biophysics of Storytelling to review for the Arts & Healing Network.


This is a book about many things including synchronicity and interestingly, before I received this book (or knew anything about it) I had a dream in which someone (some part of myself) had just published a book called Loving You: The Physics of Loving Yourself & Others. This dream has lead me on a whole new journey of learning how to truly love myself, and Jo Carson's book weaves beautifully into that path. What we feel has a big impact on our energy and this can heal even the deepest and most brutal of hurts.

When I worked with all the "bad" things in my life and asked, What is the root of this problem? I always came back to a lack of love and respect for myself. So my prayer became simple - How do I love myself?, which has already transformed my life in astonishing ways. It is impossible to describe in words, but in a nutshell, I have a new attitude about myself and my life. When I make choices with love for myself, I make the best, most healing choice, for me and for others.

Contrary to what our American culture teaches, making choices out of authentic love and respect for ourselves in not selfish, because there is no way to authentically love ourselves without loving others as well. It's impossible not to, because when it comes to love there are no boundaries. I am you and you are me.

Love also inspires imagination and creativity and those are two of the greatest healing forces in the world.

I also include humor in that list. From the book: Comedy is about survival. Find some way to laugh, or die.

Humor has always been essential in my life and has gotten me through some of the darkest periods of my life. It's all about re-framing - which is also what this book is about.

It's written by a storyteller so at times it is a bit choppy and hard to read - stream of consciousness-style. But the subject matter is thrilling and once I read a few chapters, I really sunk into it and could get lost in the story.

Pay attention to the synchronicities in your life and follow up on them - you will be amazed what will shift in your life.

12 Principles of Creation Spirituality

12 Principles of Creation Spirituality

Many people ask me what my faith tradition is and I always answer that I am an ordained Interfaith Minister and that my spiritual practice is creativity. This can be a bit confusing, as I don't attend church regularly and I don't subscribe completely to any established faith tradition. I am deeply in awe of all the faith traditions in the world and they all speak to me on some level, and yet they all do NOT speak to me on another level.

But, when pushed, the closest thing to an established faith tradition that I can subscribe to is Matthew Fox's Creation Spirituality.  I won't go into the history of the how and the why of the creation of Creation Spirituality in this little blog post. What I will share with you are the 12 Principles of this movement. Explore these ideas in your own life and see if they resonate!

1. The Universe and all within it is fundamentally a blessing.
   Our relationship with the Universe fills us with awe.
   
   
2. In Creation, God is both immanent and transcendent. This is "panentheism" which is not theism (God is "out there") and not atheism (no God anywhere).
   We experience that the Divine is in all things and all things are in the Divine.
   
3. God is as much Mother as Father, as much Child as Parent, as much God in Mystery as the God in History, as much beyond all words and images as in all forms and beings.We are liberated from the need to cling to God in one form or one literal name.
4. In our lives, it is through the work of spiritual practice that we find our deep and true selves.
   Through the arts of meditation and silence, we cultivate a clarity of mind and move beyond fear into compassion and community.
   
5. Our inner work can be understood as a four-fold journey involving:
   
   • awe, delight, amazement (Via Positiva)
   • uncertainty, darkness, suffering, letting go (Via Negativa)
   • birthing, creativity, passion (Via Creativa)
   • justice, healing celebration (Via Transformativa)
   We weave through these paths like a spiral danced, not a ladder climbed.
   
6. Every one of us is a mystic.
   We can enter the mystical as much through beauty (Via Positiva) as through contemplation and suffering (Via Negativa). We are born full of wonder and can recover it at any age.
   
7. Every one of us is an artist.
   Whatever the expression of our creativity, it is our prayer and praise (Via Creativa).
   
8. Every one of us is a prophet.
   Our prophetic work is to interfere with all forms of injustice and that which interrupts authentic life (Via Transformativa).
   
9. Diversity is the nature of the Universe.
   We rejoice in and courageously honor the rich diversity within the Cosmos and what is expressed among individuals and across multiple cultures, religions, and ancestral traditions.
   
10. The basic work of God is compassion and we, who are all Original Blessings and sons and daughters of the Divine, are called to compassion.
    We acknowledge our shared interdependence. We rejoice at one another's joys and grieve at one another's sorrows and labor to heal the causes of those sorrows.
    
11. There are many wells of faith and knowledge drawing from one underground river of Divine wisdom. The practice of honoring, learning and celebrating the wisdom collected from these wells in Deep Ecumenism.
    We respect and embrace wisdom and oneness that arises from the diverse wells of all the sacred traditions of the world.
    
12. Ecological justice is essential for the sustainability of  life on Earth.Ecology is the local expression of cosmology and so we commit to live in the light of this value - to pass on the beauty and health of creation to future generations.
    

Hunter S. Hard Drive, R.I.P.

I've just recently returned from the odyssey of having my hard drive die. It passed away right around the time I saw the excellent documentary Gonzo: The Life & Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson (see the trailer here), so I can't help but think that my hard drive just decided that it's life was over and shot itself in the head, as Dr. Thompson did. Perhaps I should shoot it off in a cannon, out into the backyard.

Many people are surprised to hear that I am a Hunter S. Thompson fan. After all, he was psychotic, violent and a complete drug addict. And yet... he was an excellent writer and liver of life. I am not a big sports fan, but I would read anything that Hunter wrote, knowing that, while I will read about the game, or the match, or the race, or whatever he was writing about, I would also read an incredible piece about the world and how he saw himself, and all of us, in it. His political writing is also incredibly insightful. There is a section of the documentary where Thompson goes to listen to a pre-president Carter make a speech to a bunch of lawyers (Thompson was the only reporter who bothered to attend) about how messed up lawyers are. Thompson was so moved he wrote a cover story about it in Rolling Stone magazine and many believe that is why Carter got elected.

Johnny Depp as Hunter S. Thompson

One of my favorite movies of all time is the excellent Terry Gilliam film Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas, based on the Thompson book of the same name. The movie stars Johnny Depp (who is genius in it) and Benicio del Toro (also incredible and so very odd). When I introduce the movie to my friends, it often ends with me cackling and screaming with laughter and my poor friend looking frightened and sad.  It is a sad movie, I suppose - but the richness of it's weirdness speaks deeply to my heart. As Terry Gilliam said himself "this film is not pre-digested baby food" - using the formula that the majority of Hollywood films made today use.

In the end, if Hunter S. Thompson was anything, he was a Freak, and there is nothing better to see than a Freak waving his Freak Flag. Being a Freak is about being real. Not necessarily truthful, although he was often that - but as many times as not, he was also a complete fabricator and story teller, as all good tricksters are.  His wild, creative abandon inspires me, always. 

Creating with Spirit, or collaborating with the inner divine is about recognizing the ways in which we are weird and different, which is really hard to do in this culture of "alternative as trendy" that we live in now.

So rest in peace Hunter S. Thompson and rest in pieces, Hunter S. Hard Drive.