The Skinny on Money

You are one
with the wealth
of the Universe. If
you experience lack
somehow
you separate yourself
from the All That Is the
All that you are. Look
to see how...then proceed
to claim your inheritance.

Did someone say "financial woes"?
No, I didn't think so!
It's the same for Love too in case
you forgot that part.

Hot Off the Press

The Language of Love 2010 calendars are in and they look gorgeous. Oh, you must come to the show and see for yourself. But rest assured: if you cannot make it, there is always the option of mail order--while supplies last. This edition offers 13 full-color images for the price of twelve! That's twelve months of Love and then some for just $25 (plus tax, s+h)--can't beat that!

Perennial Wisdom

I am indebted to the wise ones who have come before us and not only left behind them a trail of ageless wisdom, but put it down on paper! J. Krishnamurti, Lao-Tzu, Alan Watts, Kahlil Gibran, to name a few: what gifts they have given to their generations and the generations that have followed and will follow them. Right now, I am especially grateful to Gibran for these lines of his, excerpted from The Prophet, that showed up today just when I needed to hear them:

You have been told also that life is darkness, and in your weariness you echo what was said by the weary.

And I say that life is indeed darkness save when there is urge,

And all urge is blind save when there is knowledge,

And all knowledge is vain save when there is work,

And all work is empty save when there is love;

And when you work with love you bind yourself to yourself, and to one another, and to God.

And what is it to work with love?

It is to weave the cloth with threads drawn from your heart, even as if your beloved were to wear that cloth.

It is to build a house with affection, even as if your beloved were to dwell in that house.

It is to sow seeds with tenderness and reap the harvest with joy, even as if your beloved were to eat the fruit.

It is to charge all things you fashion with a breath of your own spirit,

And to know that all the blessed dead are standing about you and watching.

Quelle sagesse! Love and thanks to Gibran for his generous heart.

Free and Clear

Sometimes I think I should revise the tag lines on Love's Freeway--in particular, the part about "not a care in the world. No traffic, no tolls, no wrong turns." Let's face it: "wrong" turns are part of the ride.

Here I am fresh out of another (yes, another) difficult passage. You know: one of those periods when you feel as though you are blindfolded and pawing around a stifling room looking for any sign of a door or a window and finding none. It wasn't pretty and it wasn't fun.

Fear, doubt: they're handy, you know? They rescue us, on the one hand--but they nail us to the cross on the other. For better or worse, I gave myself to them. I surrendered to them, experienced them completely and without judgment, not trying to make them go away. I observed them with curiosity. And eventually, they led me out: they were the doors and windows.

So the so-called wrong turns are part of Love's Way, right? I know I've written about this before, and concluded that yes, of course they are. Indeed they are...but they don't have to be. There will come a time when I won't need them any longer. Until then, the "wrong" turns, the traffic jams are necessary, precious gifts of Love. Like the blue, furry spots on the cheese that are there to say "cut me out! I'm no good for you!"

I encountered a very bright light this week, a man who is no stranger to Love. When I mentioned my recent passage, he took it in stride.

"Just like with bamboo," he said. "It needs to form a new layer of hard tissue to support its next layer of growth."

I pictured the segments of a bamboo stalk--like a finger with many knuckles. His analogy made perfect sense.

I hear the voice of a dear one, from some years ago: "There's a place for it," she would say when I offered consolation--This shouldn't be! or I'm sorry for you or the like: something that amounted to judgment or resistance. Indeed there is a place for struggle--for anything that brings me back to Love when I'm--say, "slumming" in the mire of fear or doubt or the like. Mold on the cheese, pain in the body, the break in the heart: it all serves a purpose. It all has something to say.

"Joyful simplicity" was what I had intended for this year, at its outset. Lately, things hadn't been joyful or simple. But then I had stopped trusting, hadn't I? I had, in effect, stepped out of the light of Love. No wonder it was so dark!

A Claritywork client wrote to me recently to say she was having a difficult time. She was facing evidence that contradicted her vision for her future, and she was doubting her vision as a result.

"I completely understand," I replied. "All I can say is there is doubt and no doubt, and there is no middle ground between the two. One creates one thing, and the other creates another. Every moment is a moment of creation; every moment is a moment of intention. Fear creates that which we fear. And I think you know: attachment to an outcome constrains the result as well."

I know this. I just forget it sometimes. Like she forgets sometimes. Then we remember. Then we find our way back. Then we are free.

My passage was painful, yes. But it was also beautiful. I have emerged triumphant. Like some sort of spiritual chiropractic, I have massaged and cracked myself back into alignment. I am humming again, in tune. I know through and through that Love knows what Its doing. It has been good to me all along the way, and that's not changing any time soon--not ever, in fact.

Not because I deserve it. Because I am It: abundant, infinite, free.

A Happy Birthday

How to Have a Happy Birthday, in four easy steps.

Well, for Love's Freeway, it looks something like this:

1. Open your mailbox to find over one hundred new prints of vivid images from across the world ready to be transformed into beautiful note cards.

2. Send the final design of 18 new styles of bookmark to the printer with a green light: Go!

3. Choose the last image for the Language of Love 2010 calendar and send it to the presses.

4. Feel the excitement of sharing all this Love with...all who come looking for it.

Oh yes, it was a happy birthday indeed.
_____________________________

Psssst! What do:

Antony, France
Killiney, Ireland
Menerbes, Provence
Norfolk, Virgina

have in common? If you guessed "They're all places represented in the Language of Love 2010 calendar," you are right!