Home: The Lifelong Search

By Rev. Amari Magdalena

Home, a word that conjures up a wide range of emotions, plays such an important part in our lives. Steven Spielberg immortalized, "ET Phone home.”  Perhaps a lot of sensitive people, feeling like aliens in their family of origin, felt they needed to find where home existed for them.  Thomas Wolfe, on the other hand, declared that “You Can’t Go Home Again.”  Robert Frost opined that “Home is the place where, when you have to go, they have to take you in.” Dorothy, clicked her magical heels together and chanted, “There’s no place like home.” Other proclamations of alienation or longing from different perspectives suggest that this place called home, can be pretty elusive.

Some people who grew up in the 50’s may get an image of Father Knows Best, with the authoritative, yet benevolent, male head of the family.  Others may have a different image from a sitcom relating to family and the struggles that so many experience growing up.

As I entered the New Age in the 90’s, I very often heard people saying that they just wanted to go home. It was true for me.  I did not feel I belonged in the family I’d found myself in.  Going home, meant death to a few; to others the rescue spaceship coming to take them away to some alternative reality or Universe.  However couched, it was a search for some sense of belonging.  Some of us found alternative mothers and fathers and families of choice, not chance.  They, in part, served to give us a nuclear family sense and the missed lovingness.

Decades after my immersion, and then withdrawal from some of the more fantastic aspects of the New Age, I came to the realization that the cry for home was an exclamation about ending separation. As it turned out, that disconnection was not from others, rather me.  All the judgments about the characters in my play of life, and my disappointment in not feeling connected with them, really had nothing to do with them.  They were operating in their bubble of Universe, and I in mine.

Gayle Sheehy captured this realization poignantly in Passages as she lay on the floor avoiding flying bullets in Ireland:  "No one is with me. No One can keep me safe. There is no one who won't ever leave me along." Gayle realized that only she would be with her always.  As my own passages and times a flight have taught me, better find home within.  That didn't mean, I'd never be lonely; it meant, I'd learn to find comfort in being alone.

I've said it to students over the years, and I still offer it as wisdom, the greatest love affair of your life begins with you!  Best to find those things lovable and tolerable about yourself, or your entire life will be filled with *compensatory relationships.  Those are the supposed makeup for our perceived shortcomings that invite transitory or unhappy pairings.  Trust me, I know this to be true. We will never find that person who can make us feel completely at home until we create a beautiful inward dwelling.

As Spring rapidly approaches, perhaps it is a good time to do that new season cleaning and start removing the detritus of self-judgment, self-loathing, self-recrimination and start working on creating the most beautiful temple of home, that we are capable of.  This is a kind of "do unto yourself, as you do for others you valued above yourself." Only then, will you come home to you and roll out the welcome mat to your inner light and true magnificence.

Love thyself and you will have ample love to share in generosity with others without having to set Terms of Endearment.  The wave of love will then come routinely in to your inner shores, like the tide, and wash over you always..

“If you treated your neighbors like you treat yourself, they’d move!”  Jonathan at the Lighthouse in Black Mountain, NC advised me years ago.

"The lost home that we’re seeking is ourselves; it is the story we carry within our soul.” 

Michael Meade

*Awaken Your Inner Personas: Transform Your Life

Amari Breakthrough Institute

Bringing You Home, to You!

Lectio Divina

By Rev. Amari Magdalena

Lectio Divina, Latin for Divine Reading, can be an important adjunct to staying centered and in touch with one’s spirit in a disruptive world. Benedictines used spiritual readings to promote knowledge of God.  While we may not prefer biblical readings to stay in touch with our spirit, any inspirational reading can be a source of nourishment.

One of the wonders of the internet, is the ability to access such inspiration at the touch of a keyboard. We can type in “Quotations about …...” and a world of wise words are available. Perhaps we have a favorite wisdom keeper of recent or ancient times.  For some it may be Hafez or Rumi; for others, Thoreau, Emerson, or Florence Scovel Shinn.  Many metaphysical centers have magazines with daily inspiration.

What would your day begin or end like, if you chose to each day access an inspirational thought to awaken or sleep with?  Instead of the morning or evening news, you might choose to fill your consciousness with positive, life-affirming, and hopeful content over fear and evidence of man’s inhumanity to humankind.  I believe that what first enters our awareness each morning, set’s a tone for that day.  Similarly, the last thought you have before sleeping can aid or disrupt your time of rest.

Following is a week’s worth of inspirations for dawn and dusk.  Try them out and see how they affect your outlook and, perhaps, renewed faith in the basic goodness of our human race.

Sunday Morning: “Love is the soul’s light, the taste of morning, no me, no we, no claim of being.” Rumi

Sunday Evening: “Let yourself be silently drawn by the strange pull of what you really love.  It will not lead you astray.” Rumi

Monday Morning: “Today you are you that is truer than true.”  Dr. Suess

Monday Evening: “From here on Earth, from my small place, I ask of you way out in Space, please tell all men in every land, what you and I both understand.  Please tell all men, peace is good, that’s all that need be understood, in every world in your great sky. (We understood, you and I.)”  Dr. Suess

Tuesday Morning: "In the sweetness of friendship let here be laughter and sharing of pleasures. For in the dew of little things the heart finds it's morning and is refreshed. Khalil Gibran 

Tuesday Evening: “Love is trembling happiness.”  Khalil Gibran

Wednesday Morning: "For each new morning with its light, for rest and shelter of the night, for health and food, for love and friends, for everything They goodness sends." Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Wednesday Evening: "What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us." Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Thursday Morning: "You must form the habit of living in the fourth dimension, The World of the Wondrous. It is the world where you do no judge by appearances." Florence Scovel Shinn 

Thursday Evening: “There is not there, there is only here.” Florence Scovel Shinn

Friday Morning: "If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be.  Now put the foundations under them."  Henry David Thoreau 

Friday Evening: “The world is but a canvas to our imagination.” Henry David Thoreau

Saturday Morning: “Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared. Buddha

Saturday Evening: “You, yourself, as much as anyone in the entire Universe, deserve your love and affection.”  Buddha

May your lives be blessed in myriad ways and may your days have abundant sun and rain, dark and light, and other contrasts sufficient for you appreciate all that this amazing human experience offers.

"Every day, think as you wake up, today I am fortunate to be alive.  I have a precious human life, I am not going to waste it.  I am going to use all my energies to develop myself, to expand my heart out to others; to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all beings.  I am going to have kind thoughts towards others.  I am not going to get angry or think badly about others.  I am going to benefit others as much as I can."  Dalai Lama

Lost and Found

by Rev. Amari Magdalena

How tight is your box of routines and habits?  How habituated are you?  Do you take the same route to your familiar places all the time or perhaps mix it up with one or two other, yet familiar, routes?  How much diversity do you have in your average day?

Why am I asking you this?  I’m exploring how willing you are to get lost; to lose your familiar bearings. How much do your trust yourself to find your way back to the familiar when you get a bit twisted around in your life?

In my own life, I’ve found that when I feel a certain stagnation or lack of newness, I usually recognize the need to move outside of my assumptions, routines, idea of stability.  In the past, I might physically move.  Now I recognize that it is not necessarily what is needed to break up stale energy.

Our Western culture tends to promote a belief in attaining some thing or goal, followed by great satiation. We are then to languish in our achievement and be completely happy.  Isn’t that what many of our advertisements suggest to us?  And, many people, reach their pinnacles and after basking, a deep dissatisfaction and perhaps a tad of depression sets in.

Why?  It is my deep belief that life is intended to be dynamic from our first splash in the birth waters to our last assignment to fire or earth.  It [sic.] life is to be lived with adventure and discovery.  Never was the design to be static.  I observe nothing in nature that is simple static.  If it were, early death would ensue.

Purposefully changing up our routines and willingness to try the untried, immeasurably contributes to a life well lived.  I’m not saying we must throw out the proverbial baby with the bath water, simply that we make some changes in how we immerse ourselves in this rather short span of life.

How many times have you passed a street that you’ve never been down? Have you seen an exit on the highway to a town you’ve never been to?  Watched a genre of movies that you normally would not choose? Read controversial opinions on subjects near and dear to you.  Do you vary what you eat? Could you put your pants on the other leg first?  Have you tried writing with your non-dominant hand until it was reasonably legible?

Have you made a bucket list, no matter your age?  Would you be willing to make such a list for each decade of your life and do what’s on the list?  Are you signing up for new courses, workshops, or seminars on topics unrelated to your primary interests?

Perhaps we do go around more than once.  Maybe reincarnation is real.  But wouldn’t you want to make the best of this life, just in case it is the only one or the completion one?  Are you willing to risk getting a bit lost to challenge yourself and discover more and more about you and this precious life?

Trust yourself.  Get lost. Go down that new street.  Explore that unknown city.  Try jumping out of a plane or go up in a hot air balloon. Do something that is completely out of the ordinary for you.  Get lost and discover the wonderful person that lives within you.  Fall in love with yourself over and over again as you find out just how magnificent you truly are.

Creating a Conscious New Year 2017

By Rev. Amari Magdalena

For many of us, each New Year starts with gusto and intention to make significant changes. At first, we are enthusiastic and leap into the new.  For a while, we may follow our plans and bask in the new energies.  Then life happens and slowly, imperceptibly old patterns reemerge and our intentions are slipping through our fingers.  The year begins to feel old not new.

Perhaps if we had a focal point for each month and posted our intention predominantly in several places in our reality-bathroom, office, car, refrigerator with a picture that clearly depicted our intention, we could stay on task despite outer interference.

Following are some suggestions for each month of 2017!  Here's to a New Year of coalitions and community building!

January-Capricorn A foundation month.  Initiate with others in creating communities that benefit the common good—gather in groups as “heart tanks” not “think tanks.”  Make group decisions that feel right and are devoid of ego.  Document your groups process to serve as a turn-key for others.  "We are co-creating communities of love, compassion and inclusiveness."

February-Aquarius A thinking month.  Move away from simply intellectual thinking and transform thoughts towards the greater good of your community, country, and planet.  Become aware which thoughts move you and others away from your Heart.  "We replace negative thoughts with heart-centered messages of good."

                                                                                     

March-Pisces A creative month.  Imagine that you and others are building a hands-around-the-globe community that embraces the unique gifts of each person while benefiting all.  Let your imagination focus on what we can create that contributes to the Universal Good.  "Feelings from our Higher Hearts hold the power of creation."

April-Aires A high energy month.  See ways that you and others can energize and motivate people in our lives and groups to feel more recognized, appreciated and valued.  Imagine everyone feeling like their talents and abilities are important.  [“You is kind, you is smart, you is important” The Help] "We see and behold the genius in everyone we encounter."

May-Taurus A hearth and home month.  Find ways to make your home so warm and inclusive that everyone who enters feel embraced.  Clean out the old; embrace Feng Shui or other principals of energy flow.  Open your space to more gatherings.  Offer food and drink for nourishment.  Imagine your home as a living Heart.  "Our homes are welcome oases of peace and beauty."

  

June-Gemini A dual nature’s month.  Get to know the oppositional sides of yourself and your group. Bring them to peace with each another. Sit down with people whose beliefs are 180 degrees from yours to find common ground for building bridges across your differences. Time to surrender analyzing everything. Trust your feelings.  " We accept all parts of ourselves to create harmony within our communities."

July- Cancer A security month.  Discover ways to make your community feel more secure-emotionally, physically, mentally, spiritually.  Co-Vision lives that feel free from worry and fear. Help others release fear and worry. End subscriptions to media agencies that promote fear and worry. “Wherever we are Spirit is and all is well."

August-Leo A feeling of royalty month.  See how you can form community relationships in which member reigns as integral, valued and important.  Create more equity in your community through interdependence.  Share the power of two or more. Foster benevolence in any leadership. "All here are valued, honored and esteemed."

September-Virgo An orderly month.  Partner with others to master managing chaos as it is presented locally or globally.  Soften criticism and create pathways for ways to compliment everyone. Gather a bundle of compliments and generously gift them. Acknowledge, by name, people in service industries. "We speak only good towards others."

October-Libra A balance month.  Seek greater balance in working with others in your family, groups, and community.  Focus on the ‘we’ and the greater ‘us.’ Practice reciprocity as an infinity of give and take.  See the scales of balance in your lives become perfectly even.  "We choose balance over chaos everywhere."

November-Scorpio An intense month.  Lighten up in all your relationships; find the humor in inflamed situations.  How can you care more without emoting negative feelings?  Be willing to change entrenched patterns that are draining everyone. Change your perspectives on the holidays. See them as time of sharing Light.  "We joyfully celebrate all traditions of Light."

December-Sagittarius A fun and travel month.  See how you can contribute to making your communities feel good.  Discover where in your community there is need for nourishment and upliftment.  What Universal fun can you initiate under this influence?  "Our hearts are happy when we contribute."

2017 is a Universal 1 year.  Beginnings abound. Time, as Tennyson said, to dreams those dreams that never were and say “Why Not!” Surrender the “I,” develop the collective “We,” and affirm for the Universal “Us.”

This is the Year of Greater Community.  Build alliances for positive and inclusive change in building increasingly interdependent relationships personally, nationally, and globally. One World, One Planet, One People. “Imagine all the people, living life in peace.”

[Note:  Updated from Shaman Talk: A Nagual Woman's Wisdom]

This is the Day!

By Rev. Amari Magdalena

“This is the Day,” Graham Dashwood declares, in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, as he realizes that he’s through leading a life whose end game is not one he wishes to play.  Do you ever feel like you have a starring role in someone else’s life?  Are you aware that you are living roles of expectations that family, friends, lovers, employers and societal edicts have dictated? Have you wondered where you, your authentic self, has disappeared to?

We are living in fast moving and often precarious times.  Change is upon us with increasing demands on our mental, physical and emotional natures.  Many of us have had to wear a lot of hats to meet the demands of our different roles.  Perhaps we’ve felt like quick change artists in a play with many cumbersome costumes.  More likely a bit of us may have been lost along the way. We have mastered doing at the expense of being.

Yet some internal message we are receiving in the deep recesses of our minds, speaks to us. Its message may be soft or very loud. Basically it may be asking “where is my spirit.”  Where is that essential me?  Am I anywhere near fulfilling my dreams and living in concert with the real me? Will I just go on in over-drive until this little vinette I call my life is over?

When we get caught up in the doings of life, we often loose the magic that it truly represents. We are born because we chose to incarnate, to acquire this flesh and blood body.  Our life script is influenced by our early caregivers and takers and a plan for spiritual growth that is perhaps beyond our human imagining.  Each of us has a specific purpose in being here. Our soul wishes that we will realize our purpose and accomplish our mission. In between our birth and death, we are gifted time and experiences towards that end.

Though it may not always be apparent I believe we are actually here to enjoy this ride. Oh, maybe not every day, though we might choose that attitude.  Certainly we are not incarnate to be punished or ‘do time’ for our supposed past life regressions.  I feel we are here to have the full body experience in every possible way.  Along the way, hopefully we are also staying in tune with our eternal spirit and fostering its growth.

What I do know to be true, this nearly three quarters of a century down life’s highway, is that each day is a gift.  When we choose to be more present in the moment, we can experience gratitude for this wondrous gift; we can choose to life actively, magnificently, and dynamically. No matter the external circumstances, tugs and pulls, we can each declare, “today is the day!” We can embrace the day and surrender living the lives others dictate for us.  In our declaration, we can find our authentic self who knows how we can fulfill our dreams with whatever time is afforded us.

Perhaps you are saying to yourself, sure it’s that easy, not!  She doesn’t know the stresses I’m under or understand my circumstances.  Who is she to say this?

What I will share with you is that I’ve been through the hell of life.  I’ve been at the edge of giving up.  At 47 I was so close to early exit that each day was precarious.  One day in rainy, cloudy, dark Seattle the sun shown.  I was out laying in the sun.  The warmth on my body caused me to totally relax.  I heard birds joyfully singing.  In that very moment, I came to a realization that I could capture more moments like that and turn my life around. I could choose heaven on earth.  That realization moved my life towards embracing each day and following my dreams.

What I wish for each of you reading this, is a moment in which you make an active choice to embrace life and declare, “This is the Day”!  That you quit living your life for and through others and recognize that at the end of your life hopefully you lived your life for you.  Trust me, others will appreciate that much more than you losing your special Divine Spark to please them. And, you will lead a life that you enjoy and are grateful for.

“You think this is just another day in your life. It's not just another day. It’s the one day that's given to you today. It's given to you. It's a gift. It's the only gift that you have right now and the only appropriate response is gratefulness.”  Louie Schwartzberger

[53 Past Blogs are in my book "Shaman Talk" available in softcover and ebook on Amazon.com]