Soul Nugget – Year In Review 2014

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 2,200 times in 2014. If it were a cable car, it would take about 37 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

The Song Of Your Soul (12/31)

May you have the gift of understanding that
there is no separate dwelling place for God.

New Year’s Eve

We each find our own way to observe, to celebrate this happening. I guess I lean away from the loud and noise filled celebrations, the ball dropping, the fire works, and the boisterous crowds. That’s all fine and good for folks who like that.

Years ago, the drunkest I ever got was one noisy New Year’s Eve when our host was mixing all these drinks with fruit juice in a huge blender. Hmmmm. I can laugh now – it was embarrassing at the time. I was young and just going along with the culture – it really wasn’t me.

Do you ever catch yourself not really being you?

I guess now, I lean in a different direction. These words are from a good friend – they touch something deep inside of me. Think of slowing the pace – opening to grace. Being awake and present. Note the use of the word ‘notice’.

What will you notice this day?

“Autumn streams by and December dawns. I am tired and Christmas seems distant. Driving to work, I notice veined branches curled against the morning sky and watch a lone crow caw with an energy that rocks his sleek body. Nature offers beauty and zest, if I slow down to notice. As the year subsides, I find the sweetness of Christmas in the deep quiet of a starry night, the minor key of an Advent melody and the spark of hope I hold in my heart.”

Some music for your meditation and reflection on this Eve of a New Year. Let the music flow through you – opening inner spaces in your soul – your spark of hope.

Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth.

Love to you and a gentle hug – we all need four hugs a day to survive – 12 hugs to thrive.

We are all sparks of the Divine flame
Blessed Be
Compassionate Be
Boldly Be

Your Three Words for 2015 (12/30)

These are hard times for many. The Rev. Barbara Brown Taylor has been voted one of the 10 best preachers in our country. She is clear, well grounded, and brief.

Moving into a new year – this is exciting. Be open to awe and wonder.

I want to share a list of words with you and invite you to look them over carefully. See if there are three words that perhaps call out to you. Three words that resonate within you. Consider how these three words might assist you in really bringing forth something new within you in the coming year. Little prompts.

Put the three words in proper sequence for you and write them on a piece of paper. Place them somewhere so that you will see them every day. The choice is always yours. My wife and I have picked our three words and would be happy to talk with you about your yours. Please feel free to reach out. Trust the process.

Look

Remember

Show Up

Respond

Expand

Focus

Ask

Relate

Imagine

Thrive

Abide

Encourage

Wake Up

Breathe

Experience

Become

Beautify

Delight

Love

Receive

Notice

Watch

Act

Risk

Heal

Thank

Initiate

Consecrate

Pray

With love and respect for you going boldly forward into the new year.

We are all sparks of the Divine flame
Blessed Be
Compassionate Be
Boldly Be

Thanksgiving and Christmas (12/14)

I am reflecting on the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas – two huge holidays with lots of family connections. For me, Thanksgiving was always at my Grandmother’s house, and I experienced it as a time of gratitude for all that had come before. What are your Thanksgiving memories?

My father died on Nov. 9, 2001 and my Mother died a month and a few weeks later on Christmas eve, Dec. 24, 2001. I wonder if I ever adequately expressed my thanksgiving for the gift of life which they gave me. My younger brother, Richard, died on Feb. 14, 2012 – death by suicide. I am grateful too for his life.

And then there is Hannukah – Christmas – New Year – which in my mind is to not look backward like Thanksgiving, but to move forward into the new and the unknown. Behold, something new is coming to us, calling us to look forward, to be conscious of our life and the new ways that it is unfolding even when we are in our 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s – even 100s!!! This is fresh, new, exciting. Creation continues. Even in our death something new is coming.

Creation continues as God, the absolute, the course, the ground of our being, is always with and within us – The Eternal Now. Yes, this time between Thanksgiving and Christmas is quite mysterious and sacred. Makes me think of this great prayer by Dag Hammarskjold:

For everything that has been – Thank you!
For everything that will be – Yes!

I invite you to ponder your experiences with Thanksgiving and Christmas and your family connections. Consider all that you are grateful for – beginning with your birth and going forward into the New Year 2015. Ponder all the new life that may be breaking forth within you in these holy days coming up and in the new year.

Like Mary, can we be open, receptive, ready to welcome the new life that is coming to each one of us? Where will we shout our “YES” to life? You might ponder your mission in life now … how can you love and serve others? Where will you hurl the moral ounces of your being?

“When we come to know our inner God, which is our true Self, we will know that the divine is in everybody.”
-Howard Murphet

With you in awakening to who God is in us and to who we are in God.

We are all sparks of the Divine flame
Blessed Be
Compassionate Be
Boldly Be