So, here we are. THIS MOMENT.
Are you paying attention?
This is all there is. You are here as a communication channel for the Love of God, to extend that love here in the world. This is your true purpose. To inspire joy in people.
It’s gets really simple when you start thinking in this way. It’s not complicated. There is nothing to figure out. Suddenly all your former goals become meaningless.
Being in the present moment takes practice. Training your mind to be focused in the NOW is like training to be an Olympic athlete. Believe me. I know. I am the Queen of Distraction and if I can train myself to be more fully present, well then, so can you.
The past two days I’ve been staying away from the computer except for a couple of hours for work. It’s been marvelous. I’m not clicking all over the internet looking to be amused or entertained. It’s whole new thing for me.
I was thinking about how vastly different this world is from the one I grew up in, and how every child born today will grow up with televisions, iPods, cellphones and internet.
Yesterday, Greta loaned me the most amazing magazine: “Shift: At the Frontiers of Consciousness” (you can click the image to go their website) and there is an article in here that says the internet has become “the global brain” and that “the electronic media amplify, distort, and attenuate our senses, change our awareness, and mediate our experience.”
(sounds like a drug to me…)
This article says they have done studies that when you turn off all the distractions and get quiet, your mind releases chemicals that make you more alert and aware. Which obviously, you don’t need scientists to tell you that.
I already know that when I walk away from the computer after hours of internet, I’m drowsy and drugged. I feel tired. All I want to do is indulge in some other mind-altering distraction like watching a movie, or eating loads of carbohydrates when I’m not even hungry.
I don’t have a cell phone so I don’t have that distraction. Thankfully. I haven’t watched tv since 1986 (with the exception of Friends episodes for 10 years every Thursday night with my friend Rick) so I don’t have that distraction.
But I do have the internet, and I waste whole days just sitting in front of a computer screen. I want to begin using it only as a tool, and only for work, and only for a couple hours a day.
I think calling the internet the GLOBAL BRAIN is scarily accurate. But who wants to be connected to a global brain in that way?? Who needs to expose themselves to the sheer level of violence and meanness in movies, television and the internet.
I am starting to sound like someone’s grandmother, but it feels great.
I want to think for myself. I want a clear head. I don’t want it cluttered with junk.
Last night I turned off all the distractions, and I found a whole new energy.
It’s a great experiment, and I like it.
In my book, Christmas starts on December 1st, which is tomorrow.
I do NOT go by The 12 Days of Christmas. Who wants a partridge in a pear tree??? Who wants 12 days of gifts when you can have 25? I rather find a surprise a day, like in an Advent Calendar. So that’s what we’ll do here. We will open a door a day, and find a surprise a day here at Gorgeous for God – one for every day leading up to Christmas.
Even I don’t know what is behind each door. We’ll be surprised together.
I thought it would be a fun thing to do – to get excited like little kids again, in anticipation of Jesus arriving and Santa leaving toys … and to let every day leading up to Christmas be a gift in of itself.
They’ll be Christmas songs, Christmas stories, recipes, great links for great gifts, and who knows what else.
I found something really exciting yesterday: THE ADVENT CALENDAR OF MY CHILDHOOD.
I almost fell out of my chair. It’s the same calendar we had hanging on the kitchen wall in 1975. It’s $5.95 and imported from Germany.
This site has have tons of other advent calendars here – religious and non-religious – and if you want to feel a kid again, the advent calendar is for you.
How cute is this bag????
They also have nylon bags (with polka dots!) which would make awesome little lunch bags. Click here.
What if you had six months to live?
If I had answered this question yesterday, I would have written a whole list of things I wanted to do, places I wanted to travel, and people I wanted to see.
But last night around midnight I read a sentence in the book “The Starter Wife” (see below) that changed all my ideas about everything.
STRENGTHEN THE CORE, AND THE REST FOLLOWS.
“Gracie sipped her margarita and leaned back, sucking in her lower stomach and she always did when she heard her Pilates instructor’s voice egging her on in her mind – “strengthen the core, and the rest follows.”
I was like, Oh my God. That’s it.
Strengthen the core, and the rest follows.
Everything I want is mine as I strengthen my core, which is my relationship with God.
You build a solid rock foundation.
I was in Starbucks the other day with Max when a 3-year old girl walked in. Max said: Look at her.
I looked and saw a perfectly happy little girl, smiling and laughing.
Max said, “Look how perfect her posture is. She knows who she is. Uncertainty has not yet started to set in.”
Now look around. See how almost everyone is slumped over. Shoulders slouched. Tired. Worn. Beat Down. Overweight.
If I had six months to live, I’d stand up straight. I’d let myself shine bright. I’d remember how much I have to give. I’d extend love in every direction. I’d remember my gratitude. I’d let every day (every moment!) be a perfect adventure. I’d be consciously aware of the small details. I’d do what I love.
Do I like sitting behind a computer?
No, not really.
I love writing and blogging – and I have a few websites that I love to visit – but that only takes me an hour or two in the morning. Three hours tops. The whole rest of the time in front of the computer is spent just fooling around … searching searching searching … for something interesting.
What am I searching for? I don’t even know.
Occasionally I find a little snippet of information that amuses me or makes me sit up and think, but mostly I just click click click and find a whole lot of BLAH.
If I had six months to live, I’d spend less time in front of the computer. I would start strengthening my core by remembering God, my gratitude, and my joy.
I would only do work that I absolutely love to do.
Reading. Writing. Sending letters. Cooking. Inspiring people. Going to Starbucks. Traveling.
If I had six months to live I’d be Gorgeous for God.
So in effect, I’d be doing what I’m already doing with less time in front of the computer.
I am reading the Starter Wife by Gigi Levangie Grazer, which is hilarious. I almost never read “beach novels” which I’ve always thought to be frilly and fluffy and below my level of intelligence (let’s be honest here) but I saw the book in the library and the cover looked interesting so I checked it out on a whim … hoping/praying I wouldn’t run into any of my friends as I believe that beach novels are the equivalent of pornography.
But it’s soooo good! (I’d probably say the same thing about pornography, if I gave it a chance) What a surprise. I love it. It’s like looking through a window of a 5-million dollar mansion in L.A. and getting an insider glimpse of lunches at The Ivy. I was up till past midnight last night reading the book. And then up at 5am this morning, like a 6-year old on Christmas morning, all excited to get back to the story.
Gigi Levangie Grazer is so funny! Her sentences are so well crafted. I am thrilled. I want to read everything she’s written now.
Secretly, I want to be her best friend. I am completely mesmerized. I love a mind on fire.
I am totally in love with E.B. White. I’m reading “Elements of Style” by William Strunk and E.B. White. I’m also reading “On Writing Well” by William Zinsser. These were college books of mine, that I totally forgot about. They are classics, not only about writing … but life in general.
This is E.B. White.
William Zinsser is amazing.
He writes:
On Simplicity:
“Clutter is the disease of American writing. We are a society strangling in unnecessary words, circular constructions, pompous thrills and meaningless jargon. The answer to clear writing is a clear head. The answer is to clear our heads of clutter. Clear thinking becomes clear writing: one can’t exist without the other. It is impossible for a muddy thinker to write good English.”
On Style:
“First, then, learn to hammer in the nails, and if what you build is sturdy and serviceable, take satisfaction in its plain strength.”
“But you will be impatient to find a “style” – to embellish the plain words so that readers will recognize you as someone special. You will reach for gaudy similes and tinseled adjectives, as if “style” were something you could buy at a style store and drape onto your words in bright decorator colors. Resist this shopping expedition: there is no style store.
“Style is organic to the person doing the writing, as much a part of him as his hair, or, if he is bald, his lack of it. Trying to add style is like adding a toupee. At first glance the formerly bald man looks young and even handsome. But at second glance – and with a toupee there is always a second glance – he doesn’t look quite right. The problem is not that he doesn’t look well groomed; he does, and we can only admire the wigmaker’s almost perfect skill. The point is that he doesn’t look like himself.
“This is the problem of the writer who sets out deliberately to garnish his prose. You lose whatever it is that makes you unique. The reader will usually notice if you are putting on airs. He wants the person who is talking to him to sound genuine. Therefore a fundamental rule is: be yourself.”
“No rule, however, is harder to follow. It requires the writer to do two things which by his metabolism are impossible. He must relax and he must have confidence.
“Telling a writer to relax is like telling a man to relax while being prodded for possible hernia, and, as for confidence, he is a bundle of anxieties.
“What can be done to put the writer out of these miseries? Unfortunately, no cure has yet been found. I can only offer the consoling thought that you are not alone. Some days will go better than others; some will go so badly that you will despair of ever writing again. We have all had many of these days and will have many more.”
Isn’t this great? I love this book. So simple: just be yourself.
There is another nice section in this book that says you actually need to HEAR the sentences, because they are not words on a page but sounds. You hear a sentence, and that’s how you write. I do this constantly. I hear myself talking to myself, and my fingers simply transcribe the conversation. It’s not channeling, but it’s me listening to myself talking to myself and writing down what’s being said.
On The Audience:
“Soon after you confront this matter of preserving your identity (in recognizing your style), another question will occur to you: “Who am I writing for?”
“It’s a fundamental question and it has a fundamental answer: you are writing for yourself. Don’t try to visualize the great mass audience. There is no such audience – every reader is a different person. Don’t try to guess what sort of things editors want to publish or what you think the country is in a mood to read. Editors and readers don’t know what they want to read until they read it. Besides, they’re always looking for something new.”
“Don’t worry about whether the reader will “get it” if you indulge a sudden impulse for humor or nonsense. If it amuses you in the act of writing, put it in. You are writing primarily to entertain yourself, and if you go about it with confidence you will also entertain the readers who are worth writing for.”
That’s William Zinsser. On Writing Well.
It’s exactly why I find this blog to be such a joy – i write to amuse myself.
It’s all for me.
I find that most people do not do well with “This is the first and last day” kind of teaching. It gives them the liberty to be careless. It makes them eat whatever they want, do whatever they want, say whatever they want … but without commitment or dedication. It doesn’t really give them time to think about what they really want.
It produces a kind of “fuck it” mentality.
The fact is TODAY IS ALL YOU HAVE.
The fact is THIS MOMENT IS ALL THERE IS.
But, no matter.
Let’s get practical and have some fun.
Let’s go deep into the core of your thought system.
What if you had six months to live?
Try to have fun with this exercise. Don’t think about lack of money or your job, and don’t make excuses like you’ve used up all your vacation time. Just go for it. Have fun.
If you had six months to live, what would you do?
Come back tomorrow and I’ll tell you what I’d do.
The last two blog posts I wrote I said that when I have the choice between A and B, I choose B. But along comes lesson 138 of A Course in Miracles that says there is only ONE CHOICE TO MAKE … a choice for Heaven.
Then, you turn the page, you get to Lesson 139 which says “I will accept the Atonement for myself” and the first sentence in the lesson says “Here is the end of choice.”
!!
I love it. Once you choose Heaven, there are no more choices.
If someone is calling you an idiot, or ignoring you, or cutting in front of you in the supermarket, or sleeping with your best friend … there is only one decision to make: Heaven or hell.
It’s so amazing. Accepting the Atonement means to accept yourself (along with everyone else) as God created you, perfect. Once you remember your own perfection, you remember all the smaller lessons instantly. You remember that your brother is yourself. You remember that we all come from a Single Source which is God. You remember there is only this moment. You remember that you are what Love is. You remember that you are the Second Coming.
It’s not something else or someone else. It’s you!
When you accept one lesson totally and without compromise, you remember all the other lessons perfectly and automatically.
When I remember “I’m the light of the world” … I literally have no problems and I remember that everything else is light along with me.
When I remember “Gorgeous for God” as my true function, I remember every lesson immediately. I remember there is no need for conflict. I remember I want the peace of God. I remember that everything has been accomplished. I remember that I can relax. I remember that “I need do nothing.” I remember that there is no result, no process, no journey. There is only now.
I remember ALL OF THIS as I choose Heaven, which ends all choice. When I choose Heaven, I remember I am whole and perfect as God created me.
I remember that you are whole and perfect as God created you.
I remember there is no distance between us.
I remember that I’m here only for today.
I remember my function is to be happy.
It’s so amazing.
The final goal is to recognize your own perfection. This may seem like a long way off. But what is your definition of perfect? It has something to do with a body, doesn’t it? You’ll be perfect when you fit into size 6 jeans, or when you have no problems, or when you get married, or when you have harmonious relationships or when all your debts are paid.
All these things have to do with a body identification. Perfect in terms of how the world judges perfect. What is perfect?
Perfect is what you are, as God created you. It has never altered. It has never changed. Your innocence, grace and beauty is flawless. You are perfect. Now. Here. Today. This minute.
But you instantly think: no, you’re wrong. I’m not perfect. I’m overweight and old. I’ll never be perfect. Or maybe you think “my husband will be home from Iraq soon, and then life will be perfect, or maybe not perfect, but at least better.”
and we are keep chasing after dreams that will come sometime later in the future. What about today?
You are perfect today.
This is the only thing you need ever accept. You cannot learn truth. It can only be recognized and accepted. Only acceptance is necessary. Your perfection has always been there, all the time. You’ve always been perfect, but you’ve slapped on a hundred and one false ideas about yourself. But the light shines just as brightly in you, despite your doubts.
You are the light of the world.
Does your life start today … or some other time?
What are you waiting for?
Today is all there is.
Are you waiting for inspiration to strike? Are you waiting for someone to give you permission to shine? Are you waiting because you are afraid of making a mistake? Are you waiting for someone to call you on the phone? Are you waiting for opportunity to come knocking?
Today is all there is.
Today, I accept Atonement for myself.
Today, I accept my Identity in God and all living things.
Today, I accept my perfection.
I am immensely pleased with myself to finally have a new website.blog.
Why?
Well, because it means I am doing something new.
What a miracle.
It might not seem like a big deal to most people but I cherished my other website and blog – I HELD ON FOR DEAR LIFE – even though it looked crappy, you had to go to 2 URL’s, and there wasn’t a lot of features.
This is the human condition. We hang on, even when it’s outdated and not working. We do this with relationships and work and everything in between. We accept mediocrity. I stayed with that that blog not because I liked it so much but because I didn’t have to ask for help. I knew in getting a new blog, I would need to ask for help. I hate asking for help. But I knew I couldn’t do it on my own.
So I dragged my feet.
When the choices are:
1. Ask for help
2. Let things stay the same
I usually choose Door #2. My choice is to keep things the same, even when it’s not working. I’m stubborn in that way. I like comfort. I do not like my home environment to be disrupted. Taurus the Bull.
So, it feels great to actually ask some people for help. To express my vision and not be ashamed. To let things be new. Bastiaan built the banner. Francisco moved everything over to a new server. These guys amaze me.
In the transition, the whole website came down, along with every post. I freaked for a minute … but look! It’s almost entirely restored.
Those guys didn’t freak. They knew what they were doing. I freaked. But this is where TRUST IN YOUR BROTHER is an amazing practice.
There will be more changes.
This is good reminder for me to let things be new. I always think that change will result in things getting worse, not better.
A Course in Miracles says the reason you are afraid of change is because the first change introduced into the mind is separation from God, and ever since then you are terrified of change. You think all change will result in descent, making things worse not better. It’s not something you may be aware of consciously, but it’s there in your mind. The memory that your first change led to you being separate from everything, lonely and fearful. A total screw up, that seemingly could not be undone.
But change is good. The mistake has been corrected. We are not separate from God. We are not separate from each other. We are safe to take chances. To be courageous. To try a new route.
I’m taking baby steps, but I’m learning. I’m trying. I’m stepping into the unknown, even though I’m afraid and resisting change. Susan Jeffers says “Feel the fear and do it anyway!”
What changes are you allowing into your life today?
What is Gorgeous for God?
It is a constant reminder of everything you keep forgetting about yourself.
You keep forgetting that today is all there is. You keep forgetting that you are pure light. You keep forgetting that your function is forgiveness. You keep forgetting that God loves you.
You keep thinking other people are doing things to you. You keep thinking that sometime “later” your life will be better. You keep thinking there are things you can do IN THE FUTURE, instead of remembering there is only now.
What I think is interesting is that we have been conditioned as humans to think in terms of ordinary moments and extraordinary moments.
What are the extraordinary moments?
When you get a raise? Or a new job? When you travel to Europe? Or you meet someone new? Have a baby? Or something exciting happens?
We think in terms of “special” events that only come once in a blue moon.
For me, it’s when my mind is active and I feel totally free. Which is every single day of my life. Free from worry, free from pain, free from thinking about the past or future. The extraordinary moment is when I force myself to be entirely focused in the present, in the NOW.
You have to force yourself to be in the present. That’s why it’s called MIND TRAINING. You have to train your mind to do this. It takes practice. It takes willingness. It takes dedication.
Stop waiting for a “miracle.” Stop praying for things to change. That implies a future. There is no future. There is only now.
What are you waiting for?
You are missing a million sensations in this very moment.
A million things are happening right now and you are missing them.
A Course in Miracles is the simple reminder to wake up. Open your eyes. Stop sleeping.
It includes a workbook that has 365 lessons all designed to train your mind, in a systematic way, to use your eyes in a different way. To begin training your mind to think differently. To become aware of your Identity in God.
You are pure light.
There are no ordinary moments.
Think of people who live extraordinary lives. Who do you think of? Oprah? People with money? People who travel? People who make things happen? People who are doing what they love?
Think about it.
Are you living an extraordinary life? Does your name come to mind?
It should be first on the list – before Oprah. Your name should be #1 on the list of people living extraordinary lives.
This does mean you have to run out and start doing things. Your life becomes extraordinary the minute (this minute!) you choose to open your eyes, and became aware of everything that is going on around you.
Think about it.
You are what everything is.
In you is every mind, every person, every event, every circumstance. Past. Present. And future. You have the power to change all things by changing your mind.
You are literally holding the whole world in your hands.
In you is every war, the U.S. Government, every country, every leaf and flower, every person … born and unborn, past, present and future.
You have the power to change the world because you are what the world is.
Think like this and the ordinary moments translates into the extraordinary immediately. Like right now, while you are reading this blog post on your computer.
You become brand new in this moment, right here, right now.
This is what is being offered here.
To stop thinking that your life begins on Friday at 5pm when the weekend comes. To stop thinking your life begins when you lose 30 pounds. To stop thinking your life begins after the holiday after all the craziness ends and things are “back to normal”.
There is only today.
There is no other time to start living.
Today is the day you have been waiting for.
What will you do?
“Do not be a magician;
be magic.”
- Leonard Cohen
All my websites (and the hundreds of links I had created) disappeared when I redirected traffic over here.
HA!
I find that often it’s best to force yourself to go to the new place, rather than taking baby steps and making slight adjustments in the transition.
Just go where you want to go, now.
Be the person you want to be, now.
Do what you love, now.
I always used to have an idea that my life would be different if circumstances were different. Like, I’d be able to inspire people if I was famous or had tons of money or something. But then the day comes when you realize that the GOAL you have been waiting for LATER can actually be accomplished today.
Since my goal is to inspire people and to be happy, I realize I’d could start doing those things … today.
I don’t need to wait for a later place in time because there is no later place in time. There is only now.
It’s a fun game to play. Think about your goal. It could be anything. It doesn’t have to be spiritual. Just think of your goal and the feelings you have surrounding it, and what your life looks like once the goal is accomplished.
So, let’s say you want more money. Or you want to lose weight. Or you want a new house. What does your life look like when these things have been accomplished? What kinds of things are you doing differently that you are not doing today?
Everything is thought. So you can go to the place that seems to be in the future, today. Just go there. How are things different? What are you like? What are you doing?
Look at it.
You’ll realize, quite quickly, that whatever you are holding out for in the future is actually right here for you today.
I know this might seem impossible if you have no money and you can’t feed the kids, and there’s no food in the house … but looking to where you want to go will provide the means to get there. It’s not wishful thinking.
Everyone who is reading this has done this in some form or other. I used to do this in NYC in my job in publishing with great success. I would go to the goal in my mind, and then backtrack how I got there. Once you are standing at the goal you will realize that you don’t need to go through many different routes to get there. You will see that often you can just do one or two things, rather than nine or ten things for the goal to be accomplished.
You stop waiting for things to happen.
So let’s say you want to be rich and you can’t see how that will ever happen for you, so you spend your day buying lottery tickets and visualizing … but if you go to the goal you will see it was NOT the lottery and that got you to the place you want to be. It was PRACTICAL ACTION that took you from your old condition to the new condition. Be reasonable. As you stand at the goal and look back at your past you will easily see the steps you took.
Does this make sense?
You will almost immediately see that you needed to do something different from the way you are doing it now. You must on some level let your current life be disrupted if you want something new to happen.
You can easily remember past events as you stand at the point you are right now. Right? You can see the steps you took to get to the place you are today.
So, this exercise catapults you into the future (today) and from that point you look back over your memories of how you got there.
Try it.
If you want the peace of God, and to feel happy and filled with joy, go to that place today. It’s the easiest thing in the world. Look at how life is different from that place. Look at how you are as a person. You most likely are not defending yourself in your new peaceful life. You probably let everything be exactly as it is. You no longer judge. You are helpful. You give all to all.
Then you realize you can be all these things today.
This is why there is no order of difficulty in miracles. Every miracle is accomplished today. Whatever you want is yours already. Just ask.
Like, let’s say you want to leave your job and do something new and you are waiting for DIVINE INTERVENTION because you don’t want to make the wrong move. You don’t want to make a mistake. So you wait. And you wait and you wait and you wait. Sometimes years go by while you wait for your life to be different. You are waiting for someone else to take the first step. But if you go to your goal, and look back, you will see that you had to take the first step. You will see that you had to put in your notice, that you had to talk to people, that you needed to rearrange your finances, etc.
You will see that you needed to make a few phone calls, send a few e-mails, and ask for help.
I think the biggest stumbling block most people have is telling people about their goal or dream, and asking for help. They hope their new life will just magically appear out of the mist, without them telling anyone about their wishes.
They think they will be laughed at or ridiculed if they tell someone their deepest desires.
Standing at the point where your goal has been accomplished, you will see you needed to confide in a friend and get some help. You stop waiting. You see what needs to be done, and then you do it. From there everything was effortless and easy. But you had to dive in, open your heart and express and communicate your vision.
That’s the miracle.
You openly say out loud: THIS IS WHAT I WANT. THIS IS WHAT I HOPE TO ACCOMPLISH.
You take practical steps. You ask for help. You start communicating. You step into your fear and go for it.
A miracle is not some other-worldly thing. It’s always practical.
So have fun.
It’s Tuesday. It’s morning. It’s a beautiful day.
Every day, I wake up and say the exact same thing every morning: TODAY IS A NEW DAY.
TODAY IS A NEW BEGINNING.
I say this every day even if yesterday was the best day of my life. If yesterday was the best day of my life, I want today to be EVEN BETTER.
I say “today is a new beginning” every single day because I need the reminder to break out of my old habits and routines. I LOVE a disruption into my thought system, to let go of the past and allow everything to be totally brand new.
Yesterday when I was called a loser and annoying, I instantly wanted to make these people like me. That’s my old habit. My past tendency is to shine less bright. My past tendency is to “become human” and “to become average” and that way we all have problems, and we are all the same, and we can all relate to each other in our limitation, and there is comfort in misery and numbers.
But do I want to be comfortable?
Do I want to be liked?
Do I care?
Or do I want to fulfill my promise to God to be the light of the world?
Jesus in A Course in Miracles says he needs “happy learners.”
Most people do not like someone who is happy all the time. I have been called “a show off” and “Little Miss Know It All” and have been told to “get off my high horse”.
As a child I was an A student. I loved to learn. I loved to read. I would sit up front and listen and take notes while the rest of the kids were fooling off in the back. I was mocked for always knowing the answer, for always having my hand in the air, for being too smart, for shining bright.
Even the teachers would get frustrated and start to say: Okay, Lisa, that’s enough. Let someone else answer this question.
I was teased when I got a perfect test score back, and everyone else sitting around me with C papers.
They would all be talking, complaining, moaning, whining … and me with the perfect test paper would just sit there quietly. There is not even anyone to celebrate with. It’s a lonely place.
So I made a decision to become average.
I wanted to be liked.
So I started to let my grades slide, and lo and behold I started to be one of the people sitting in the group of moaners and complainers, upset about our C papers. Suddenly I was popular, with tons of friends.
It’s easy to be average once you make a decision to do so.
I wasn’t deliberately marking wrong answers on tests, I literally became a C student. When you stop studying, tests become really hard. You really don’t know the answer. You really do start to panic and sweat. You really don’t understand the material. You really do sit there at your desk and feel a pit of darkness come over you.
As an A student, life was a breeze. I would study. I would learn. Things were effortless and easy. I loved test time. Tests actually made me happy. They challenged me. There was no sinking feeling. There was no dread. I would just pick up my pencil and answer all the questions. Simplest thing in the world.
Then I would get an A+ paper back, and I would be on Cloud 9, totally pleased, totally thrilled … except again … I was usually up there by myself. Cloud 9 can be a really lonely place. I’d want to celebrate, but everyone else was wallowing in their failures and averageness.
Once I started to become average, life become really REALLY difficult. Being average is way more work than being smart. It is! Being average is like sludging through mud.
But there’s a plus side: everyone likes you because you are just like them, and they are sludging through the mud with you.
You are all in the same sinking boat.
It’s really funny when you think of it that way. Do you want to be in a sinking boat with other people who like you OR do you want to get out of the boat, be the light of the world, and be part of a solution to help those in the sinking boat?
Do you want to sludge in the mud alongside your miserable friends OR do you want to get out of the mud and be part of a solution to help others get out of the mud along with you?
People say: I don’t need your help. Who do you think you are? Little Miss High Mighty.
Well, then fine. Sludge on. Have fun down there. You don’t seem to be making much progress in that muddy sludge pit, but oh well. Do what you want.
But there are others who will see you standing on the grass, happy, in the open sunlight with no conflict … and they will look up from the mud and up from their problems and wonder: How did she get up there? And how can I get up there??
This blog is for you who is asking that question.
For the rest, there are a million other blogs you can go to where you will find comfort in people’s problems and complaining.
Call me a loser, but I’m not in the mud anymore.
And THE WAY is open for you.
If you like this blog, you will love the book:
Click to buy.
This is interesting. I’ve only been on this new blog/website for less than 24 hours and already I’ve been called “annoying” and “a loser” and I’ve been told: “you do not know your own best interest and so you should not be telling other people what to do” and the worst of them all “you should be a life coach!”
haha.
Okay. This is good.
I am laughing.
I was advised to get a new website/blog so that I could be “more visible” and “to get more traffic.”
I am happy to report … It’s working! Less than 24 hours I’ve got more traffic than ever, and 3 verbal attacks which is more attacks than I’ve had in the last 3 years.
I was the one who said this journey is about exposing all those places you don’t want to confront, and facing your fears. It’s not about making every one feel all happy and sun-shiney, or sitting around discussing your emotions, feeling all warm-fuzzy. It’s not about providing a happy place where everyone feels good.
It’s about going where you’ve never gone before.
It’s about stepping out of your comfort zone.
It’s about expanding your boundaries, and inviting everyone in.
It’s about looking at the place you swore you would never look at.
The darkness. The fear. The place where there is no seeming safety. The place where you think you will be abandoned. The place where you think you’ve made a huge mistake.
It’s so incredible.
This new website, in less than 24 hours, has already become more than just a new updated look. It’s already attracting new interesting people.
Oh, my God. I am totally in love with you guys. Gorgeous for God is on the best seller list on Amazon! Oh my God. It’s probably too early to be cracking champagne since it’s ranking 76,000 of all books total (and plus I don’t drink, so don’t worry mom!) but it’s ranked #57 under Religion Spirituality>Occult>Supernatural.
#57!!
I shouldn’t care, but I do!
Really, thank you. Truly. Thank you for buying my book. Thank you for supporting me since Day One. Thank you for showing up to this blog for the past 3 years. Thank you for caring. Thank you for lifting me up during the bad times and cheering me on during the good times.
What a gift to have a family that extends across the entire world. Where did you all come from? Thank you for being my strong supporters. Wow.
I would love to hear from you. I didn’t know if anyone was reading the book (or buying it) since everything has been so quiet.
I was like, oh well, published a book with zero fanfare.
I got two great e-mails these past week, and one especially terrific message last night from Margaret in CA, and it was like the most unbelievable message. I practically started to cry. She said the book got her out of a black hole.
All I ever wanted to was to make a difference in someone’s life, and so to get a message and to realize the prophecy is being fulfilled … well, it fills me with tremendous joy.
Thank you. You mean a lot to me.
I love you.
lisa
I just read in a book that the 40 year journey it took Moses to get the Hebrews out of Egypt and into the promised land is only an 11-day trek!!!??!
I did not know this. According to this article (and if I’m wrong, someone correct me), it says they kept traveling around the same mountain for 40 years, wandering around in the wildnerness, time after time, circling around, obstacle after obstacle, not making any progress.
An 11-day journey took 40 years!
Sound familiar?
Instead of moving forward we keep going around the same familiar route, not even realizing “I’ve done this before.” And worse yet, you realize “I HAVE DONE THIS BEFORE” and yet, you keep doing what you’ve always done, circling around … same old route that has never led you anywhere.
Lately, it keeps coming into my mind that it’s easier to convey a message of hope, joy and salvation in my own mind than it is to express a message to the whole world, verbally to each and every separate body.
Every mind is in my mind. So whatever I need to express I can do it in my own mind, and every person will hear it.
Then when the time is right, there will be an opportunity to express it physically and verbally … and because everyone already heard it in their own mind (without realizing it), acceptance will be easier once they hear it verbally.
Does this make any sense?
I could get 10,000 people in a stadium and express a message of truth OR I can hear it in my own mind and every single person in the whole world hears the message instantly.
I keep thinking – okay, people have expressed this message throughout history way better than I can do (AND ARE EXPRESSING THIS MESSAGE TODAY, VERY SUCCESSFUL PASTORS AND INDIVIDUALS INSPIRING MILLIONS) and yet, the world is still depressed.
What is going on here?
If a message of God is being expressed, and a total solution is being offered, then why aren’t people applying the message to their daily lives?
Why aren’t things changing?
Wouldn’t one awesome weekend workshop be enough to change everyone who attended? Wouldn’t a #1 selling book be enough to change the way we think and behave?
Books have been written. Words have been spoken.
Why then, are we still doing the same things over and over? Why aren’t people happy?
Because I’m the only One who needs to accept the message and apply it in my daily life. Me. Not someone else. Me.
“Other” people don’t need to hear about God – I NEED TO HEAR AND BE THE DEMONSTRATION.
In my acceptance, the world accepts it.
I love the fact that Jesus never traveled more than 30 miles from his birthplace. He didn’t go teach the masses. He let himself be in counsel with God first, and then the people came to him.
All Jesus did was make a commitment to do God’s Work … and God took care of the details. Jesus didn’t have to work out a program of getting the world to hear. He knew something MUCH GREATER and MUCH BIGGER was happening, through him. Through his own acceptance of truth and resurrection of his limited idea of himself as a body, and 2000 years later, we are still talking about him. Still being inspired by him.
For every 5 minutes I spend in listening to the truth, 1000 minds awaken. For every 5 minutes spent in communication with God, 1000 years are collapsed. This is how God works.
And it is the way I want to follow Him.
I don’t want to waste time doing things the worldly way. It’s too slow. I want to keep being still, spending time alone, listening, hearing, praying, communicating with God … and let God tell me what to do next.
When I read this story about Moses last night I realized I’ve been traveling around the same mountain for a long time. The Promised Land is so close I can touch it, but in order to reach my destination I have to get off the beaten worn path.
The old beaten path is thinking that I can somehow reach someone through this blog … that somehow I will find a new expression that makes a difference in someone’s life.
But it will never work that way. The only person who needs to hear the message is me. I only ever needed one dedication reader, and that’s what makes this blog a complete success.
I’d rather have one totally dedicated reader who really loves this blog, and is being changed by it … than 100,000 curious bystanders who only read me because I am on their RSS feed on Google.
The Promised Land is the realization that I heal the world in my own mind, through the healing of my own mind.
There are no other people. There is only me, healing the split of separation, in my own mind, which has already been healed.
This is why I need do nothing.
Because in the “stopping” (which usually occurs when I am in the bathtub) do I realize the tremendous power within me, that comes from God, with the ability to heal all things while I sit in the bathtub!
It’s always a good moment when I realize that everyone I think I see is only supporting me and helping me. So, thank you.
Everyone else is just waiting for me, totally holding up me up, giving me everything, say Go Lisa Go, and it’s really spectacular.
I sometimes think “how do I get this amazing message of Jesus and A Course in Miracles to be heard by the world??” and then, in a moment of clarity, I remember it gets “heard” through my remembering and hearing.
I hear it, then the world hears it.
This is God we are talking about. All power. All grace. Every miracle given and received in the moment it was asked for.
I’ve been like Moses wandering around for 40 years, stumbling over obstacles, focusing on problems, when my DESTINY is right there over the next hill. I can actually see it.
The solution is to circling around my familiar habits and routines, and face my eyes and feet in the new direction: TOWARD GOD.
It says here “God finally jolted them out of their complacency. He said to them, “You have dwelt long enough on this mountain.”
HA!
I love it. Bible stories are so contemporary. They apply to everything in our lives, now.
You have dwelt long enough on this mountain.
Time for a jolt out of complacency.
Time to start heading in a new direction.
The old way, obviously, just kept you circling around for 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, however long you have been in a dead-end job, a dead-end relationship. Time to move away from the mountain, into the land flowing with milk and honey.
It’s been a long time since I’ve talked about dieting or anything body-related. Thankfully, right?I’ve given up on dieting … though I am eating really healthy.
I feel great.
I spent my whole life dieting & trying to manipulate my body to look a certain way, and WHAT FOR???
That’s the question you need to ask yourself: WHAT IS IT FOR????
Finally, I realized: I JUST WANT TO FEEL GOOD. I want to be healthy. I want to wake up in the morning with tons of energy. I want to have tons of energy throughout the day.
For me – the dieting issue creates sequential time, in which there is a future involved. That “sometime in the future I will feel good and look good (when I lose 20 pounds, etc.). Now I’m trapped in time. I don’t want to wait two months, I want to feel good TODAY!
And so I looked at what I needed to do to accomplish THAT GOAL. Obviously, a goal to be healthy and to feel good is different than a goal to lose weight. There’s no calorie counting involved. There’s no fat grams. You stop eating crap. You start eating more fruits and vegetables.
Simple.
It’s not a diet. It’s a shift in perception.
You simply start treating your body like the temple that it is. An altar to God. No more restrictions, just pure love. Pure joy. You start focusing entirely on giving, and extending the Light that you are. You stop being a body. The body fades in importance as you remember your function to be the total demonstation of the Love of God on earth.
So I eat healthy, and that’s the end of the story. Lots of smoothies and lots of fruit.
I am loving Bolthouse Farms juices even though they are expensive.
The best thing is to start with one of their juices in the blender, and add baby spinach, grapes, strawberries and ice and more water.
Oh my God.
Yummo.
And what is the WAY appointed to me???? I AM THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD.
This is the way that is appointed ME.
So many people think “the way” is a path. But it’s not a path because there is no journey. The “way” is a state of mind, it is a new way of looking, a new way of thinking of yourself and everyone in the world.
“THE WAY” is the way you carry yourself.
It is appointed to you to see yourself as God created you, perfect.
This is the way that is appointed to YOU:
YOU ARE THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD.
In A Course in Miracles, the lessons are written in a way that YOU speak them and apply them to yourself.
Jesus means what he says, and he does not mince words. If he says you are the light of the world, do you think he’s lying? Or does he mean what he says?
He says I’m the light of the world, and that’s written in present tense which means NOW. Not sometime later in the future, but now.
I am the light of the world.
So many people think “I’ll be bright later when circumstances changes” completely disregarding the statement that they are ALL LIGHT, NOW.
This morning I searched all over Google and Yahoo! for images of LIGHT or LIGHT BODY and I looked at hundreds of photos and none of them really captured the idea of WHAT LIGHT LOOKS LIKE and then a lightbulb when off in my head and I realized I have the perfect photo to show you what LIGHT LOOKS LIKE:
ME!
Here I am!
I am the light of the world.
This is what light looks like.
This is the path appointed to me.
This is the journey – the begining and the ending, all captured in this one photo.
Find a photo of yourself in a happy state.
That’s pure light. That’s true light. That’s what you are. That’s the path appointed to you. That’s your natural state.
I love you.
Do you realize that everything that is past and future is in you?? Today.All your memories are contained in you. You already know the future because it’s contained in your mind.
You already know how the story ends because it’s already happened.
I wonder if you realize this?
All your ideas of a future are contained in you now. Events and experiences are already accomplished.
And yet, you think you have a future unknown to you.
Everything you want is contained in you now, and that’s why the miracle is simple. That’s why there is no order of difficulty in miracles. That’s why you can ask and receive, because it’s already accomplished … and yet … you may still believe in sequential time, in which you think random things happen to you that have nothing to do with you or the way you are thinking.
You think you are limited, or weak, or small. You think you are old or fat. You think you are bound to remain in poverty, or in a job you don’t like. You may think you’ll never be healthy because your whole life has been one of sickness.
These are ideas.
And as long as you stay in the limiting thought … you might as well hear it … nothing new can occur.
You can change these ideas and begin to think of yourself as God created you: ALL LIGHT. You can begin to think of yourself as eternal and free, not bound by the body with all its restrictions.
That’s why you must always train yourself to come into today as a brand new beginning. Today is a new day. Every day is a new opportunity to begin again.
YOU ARE PERFECT.
The life you wish to have is a life you can start living today.
What do you want?
You can be happy and free, starting now.
I repeat this over and over and over, because I always forget and slide back into old habits and routines.
I say TODAY IS A NEW BEGINNING to remind myself of the truth. That’s the beauty of “training your mind in a systematic way.”
You keep bringing yourself back to the basics. You keep being a beginner. You keep wiping the slate clean. You keep expanding your mind to new possibilities. You let your vision go beyond a wider range than you’d previously allowed yourself.
Why?
Because in God all things are possible.
But not while you keep yourself in a small box, limiting the power of God to what you already know.
Let go of the chains. Let go of your ideas of how you think a thing will work out. Let go of your beliefs that you need to help God along.
God does not need your help to give you a miracle. All He needs is your willingness to allow it to occur in your life.
He needs you to get out of the way, and stop trying to organize how something new will occur in your life.
He wants to give you everything, but you have to let Him.
Stop, listen, and receive.
