Come in all shapes and sizes.  Wild, yellow, haloed, Tinkerbell tiny, Glenda the Good Witch gowns…

Songs have been written, guardians have been created and no consensus can be found as to their nature or form.  One thing is for sure, those who have experienced their “angel(s)” see them as real and unique.  I myself have a parking angel who provides rock star parking when she’s in the mood.  Her mood of course depends upon my own.  I don’t communicate well with her when I’m being a sour puss.

Somewhere over the rainbow her sister showed up in the Aloha state to share with me a drawing by Angels of Mary.  I hope I captured the painting with my simple camera which has made such a difference in my life since that time.

She whispered “Most people don’t know there are angels whose only job is to make sure you don’t get too comfortable and fall asleep and miss your life.”

All too often we look to angels to rescue, save or make things better for us.  The truth is Dorothy would never have found herself without the trip on the Yellow Brick Road.  Her angels came in the form of dark clouds, a tornado, munchkins, Elphaba, Glenda and three really cool strange characters.

How did your angels show up today?   Mine showed up as exhaustion, frustration and mediocrity.  Each of these emotions reminded me that my life ebbs and flows and is not always a roller coaster high.

Over this rainbow a simple blue bird whispered “don’t be too comfortable and miss your life”.   I wasn’t comfortable today and it was only a reminder.   Thank you to my angels.

My friend Patti says “with ease and grace” like a lot of people say “ya know”.   Patti embodies the essence of ease and grace.  It is synonymous with her beingness.  Doing or saying anything often enough becomes part of who you are.  How easy it is to spot other people’s problem of doing and saying the things they don’t want, taking a holier than Thou attitude, while we fall victim to the coined saying of AA, “what you resist persists”.

Without question most people want a life of ease and grace, and yet they continue to weave a tangled web of knots.  Watching the tide of the Caribbean ocean, there is such a simple ease and grace.  The ocean does not struggle with itself.  It does not fight itself.  Despite turbulent weather, the ocean is in control and works in harmony, albeit to the human eye it is chaotic, the ocean is unstoppable.  It can easily wipe out an ocean front home and gracefully pull it back out to sea.  No fuss, no muss.

Human experience is fraught with trying to fight against the oceans, the weather, our relationships, the fears that haunt us.  I am reminded of an exercise I once did where I was pinned by a sumo wrestler self-defense dude.  There was no way I would win against him in a struggle.  What I learned was you must relax and wait for the opening to make your move.  You will lose struggling against the predator.  Predators show up in all kinds of outfits; stress, work, relationships, finances, food, kids, spouses.  Being able to relax into the moments of stress, allows you to have the upper hand.  Incredible words to live by since stress seems to be the number one cause of disease these days.

Melt like butter into your life.  Feel the sensation of what it is you fear, or polarizes you, or causes anxiety.  Breathe.  It’s free.   How else will you see the incredible life that you are journeying down?  How would the leaf see the beauty of the ride if it were to resist against the flow of the river.  So much to see on the ride.

Imagine the frustration of untangling mangled Christmas lights, knotted jewelry, and a knotted shoe.  They might as well be the shackles of your life.  “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff, It’s all Small Stuff” written many years ago sums up the idea that the opposite of ease and grace is resisting.

Today be the observer.  What are you pushing back against?  Do you hear yourself whining, complaining, wishing it were not so.  How can you embrace the moment blessing it with gratitude, loving kindness and forgiveness of yourself?

Public Storage unit 20, a lovely 10 X 20 tin space where I shamelessly weep curled up on my favorite meditation chair.

I spoke this sentence as the lump in my throat chokes off my words, dictating on my new Dragon speech recognition software.   As the words spill onto the page some of the sentences are illegible since the software does not have a button “interpret while crying”.   The reality of selling all my worldly possessions to move to Mexico has suddenly washed over me like the Playa waves after a thunder-storm.  Even though these “things” have been in storage for almost two years, I still have that sweet attachment to them.  Another memory rushes when I grieved over a 10-year-old steadfast Subaru.  A companion relationship of 10 year, a record for me of any type of relationship.   I wept then as I do today, as they handed me $500 and my friend Bobby pried me away from the car.  Feeling like my 7-year-old niece when we extricated her “Green Bunny” her most cherished constant companion.

Today’s grieving began as an incredibly sweet man answered a Craig’s list ad for my couch (which matches the chair I was sitting in).  I knew the couch was perfect for him as it was for me when I acquired it.   It was a straightforward transaction, I wanted to sell and he wanted to buy.    He came with a truck and a friend to pick up the couch.  Triggering the chain of events, he simply said, “I think I have room for the chair.”  Flustered I replied, “I’ll let you know after I rearrange things”.  What I really meant was I had to rearrange my thought process.   Unaware of my sudden life cross-roads, he left.  Suddenly all the memories of the original purchase of the couch and the chair came flooding back.   The memories of the journey of its discovery with a special friend. Then the memories of the times with this friend who impacted my life in such an incredible way.  Next the memory this furniture played as the first purchase for the first home I ever owned.  Resurrection of even sweeter memories of that behemoth 3,000 square foot mansion bought during the real estate boom.  The crystal clear vision of sitting in the morning sunlight as it streamed over this overstuffed, big enough to hold two people chair, second floor of the two-story mansion.  This chair I’d sat in so many times and meditated.  This chair full of my energy, my enthusiasm, my dreams.  This chair where the dream to move to Mexico had been born.    The dream that is about to be real if I would love the chair enough to let it go.  The same way I let the house go and the majority of the furniture that had filled up the void which is now a distant memory.   So I sat in my chair in the Public Storage unit, no wind chimes ringing outside or cat curled up in my lap, just the memories of a moment in time.

This was the defining moment.  In order to move on, I have to “act as if”. Letting go of this material anchor of the past.  I won’t miss the chair, just the memories associated with the chair.   There is a bit of fear about moving on.  Unclear of the future, letting go of possessions.  Life is so fluid and organic.  We cannot hold onto memories like a possession.  We can revisit like a great vacation. They are here to shape our lives and create who we are.  Some part of me thought I would keep the chair, perhaps an insurance policy if I were to change my mind and stay in California.  Have it for the next domicile.  The truth is I cannot act as if by keeping one foot in my past.  I don’t fully awake to the prospect of my dream of moving to Mexico, I am not fully embracing it.

As silly as it sounds, the grieving has begun for the chair.  The memories are not the chair; the memories are stored within me.  As I open up to the possibilities of the new experiences that will be just as sweet as any past magical memory, as brave as all those ones before, as creative as all the ones after and all that are happening now.  They will all come again in different forms and I get to act as if for them as well.

Realization crystallizes, I only need a palaypa in Playa, a couple of plates for the delicious meals of life, a garlic press for spice, a sturdy pot and pan to cook new dreams, a bowl to hold those life soup important ingredients, and a glass to fill with optimism every single day.

Part of creating your own miracle is to act as if it was already happening.  It is only difficult when we hold onto the past.

The spin room went dark 5 minutes before class ended.  Since this was the second day in row for this mysterious event, the room was abuzz with the question “Why”.   Someone softly remarked, “the quickest way to make a miracle disappear is to question it.”   So it is with miracles, we question them.  The better “why” question is “why would you question a miracle?”

In the Yucatan miracles abound everywhere you look.  You see them in everything from the exquisite infinite turquoise ocean, to the constant smiles on the tourists.  Tourists who have taken a break from their mundane lives to experience the miracle of paradise.  One of the most wondrous Mayan miracles is the incredible cenote.   In Spanish “cenote” translates to “deep thing”, in Mayan “abysmal and deep”.  Cenotes are magical, enigmatic and unique.  At one time they were the only source of fresh, sweet water in the Yucatan jungle. They were sacred places to the Mayans.  Because the peninsula is a porous limestone shelf with no visible rivers, all the fresh water rivers were underground.  The caves formed where the fresh water collected and created sinkholes.  The water there is crystal clear and a turquoise color usually around 78 degrees F.  Stalactites and stalagmites form inside and create miracle works of art.  In other caves, the sunlight filters into the cenote creating a magical feeling.  The Mayans never questioned their cenote miracles; they just blessed them and held them sacred.

Are you blessing and holding your miracles sacred?  Do you know that miracles are the inheritance of your thoughts and feelings?  Instead are you calling miracles luck?  Do you wonder why a lucky event happened while you think back on all the good things that you’ve done to earn it?  Or are you someone who is waiting for the other shoe to drop when something good occurs?

Creating miracles is like planting seeds.  If you plant a seed and then watch the plant grow, there is a process which the seed follows. The seed is not aware of itself when it is a seed.  It does not realize that it will become a cucumber, an oak tree or a tomato.  Even though the seed is not conscious of this fact, it still has concealed within it a superior intelligence and comprehensive knowledge that it will become whatever the seed is; an apple tree, an orange or a radish.  The seed is simply made up of the same atoms and molecules as you are.  How do you know you will create your miracle?  By trusting in the fact that you are the seed of the miracle.  You will reap the crop you sow.

And so it is with miracles.  Miracles are simply a demonstration of whatever it is that you have created through your thoughts and feelings.  What thoughts are you thinking right now?  What seeds are you planting?

Are you questioning your miracles before they even happen?  I planted a garden last year from seed.  Everyday I would check to see if they had broken ground.  I wanted so badly to dig them up and see if they were “almost there”.  Even though I knew the miracle of growth was in process, I wanted to hurry it up.  Each seed would take a measured amount of time to grow.  A radish grows faster than a tomato plant.  Some miracles take longer than others.  Does that make them any less a miracle or no miracle at all?  What miracles are you planting and then dig their seeds up by questioning them before they ever have a chance to grow?

Today think about the seeds that you planting for the miracles that you will demonstrate tomorrow.  Begin today by acknowledging the miracles in your life, bless everything good.

Today think about the seeds that you are planting. Are you planting seeds of love to reap a harvest of love? Are you planting seeds of compassion to receive a crop of compassion? Are you planting seeds of giving in order to receive a crop of abundance? Are you planting seeds of tolerance to reap a crop of acceptance?

Plant your life today!

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“I look like a monkey doing a math problem” said the spin instructor this morning as she blankly stared at her sets.  How many times have you felt like that way?  Staring at your computer wondering how long you’ve been doing that.  Standing in front of the fridge cooling down the entire house.  Getting hit with bad news and unconsciously walking through the rest of the day; every thought bringing you back to the news rather than being present where you are.  It seemed like several people had that day yesterday, including me.   Although the phrase “like a monkey doing a math problem” is cute, it conjures the image of our stuckness.  When you find yourself on a small-scale or in a big way, out of your realm of potential.  I didn’t write a blog yesterday because I was stuck on my math problem.  Actually my math problem was with the IRS.

I was swinging from a tree looking for a banana and whop I found myself in a game of “Are Your Smarter Than a Fifth Grader”, third grade math question.   The IRS disagreed with my answer on the 1040 exam.  Since I’d been in Mexico for eight months, I never opened the mail.  I failed to appear at the audit and now the math problem is high school algebra.  Debbie plus IRS equals lots of zeros.   Some of you are afraid of spiders, others exercise, disease, being laid off, ending your relationship, I’m afraid of the IRS.  Here’s the thing about fear, it will drop you in your tracks, or in my case knock you out of the tree.

As much research as has been done on monkeys, they can do a little math, I am not a monkey and neither are you.  You can stay stuck in your monkey mind or you can choose to solve the problem.  Moving forward is probably the most difficult challenge when you’re feeling helpless and hopeless and generally as if you are a monkey.

Solving the problem is all about action.  The old adage you must get back on the horse, applies to monkeys falling out of trees as well.  Climb back up the tree by putting one foot in front of the other.  Forward motion will move you away from the problem as long as you are not carrying it with you.  You will never “beat” it by lugging it around.  To begin the process of moving forward you must change your state.   What do I mean by change your state?  Move in another direction.  It’s as simple as moving away from the state you are in.  Simple things:

Walk around the block;

Jump in the shower for 5 minutes;

Play your favorite song for 5 minutes

Call a friend who will support you in changing your state;

You can change your state in hundreds of different ways.  Today do something for yourself.   Compose your own list of ways that you can change your state.  Do this while you are in an unstuck state.  Be creative.  Don’t wait to do this for the stuck time. List 10 ways you can change your state in an instant.  Once you have your list put it on a 3 x 5 card and keep it with your always. You never know when the math problem will show up.  It’s your own personal flash card.

Once your state changes, amazing things happen.  You awaken to the newness, the opportunities return, you see life from a different perspective.  Possibilities abound to solve the problem, the puzzle, the math problem.  Nothing, absolutely nothing, is impossible.  There is an answer to every question.  The difficulty becomes when you cannot hear the answer.  You cannot hear the answer because you’re stuck on the problem.

For me my Tarzan answer showed up when I was willing to see the IRS, taxes, money are not who I am.  I forgot for a moment the truth of who I am is the essence of those qualities that are creative, beautiful, loving and unique.   So too you are not your job, your car, your relationships, or your financial status.  You are that being that shows up in the world and expresses through those things.  Do not confuse the masks with the true essence of who you are.  You are not a monkey solving a math problem.

YOU ARE INFINITE KNOWLEDGE AND POTENTIAL.

Day 3 and the New Year is in full swing.  Have you given up on any of those New Year’s resolutions yet?  Have you considered your thinking habits are keeping you stuck in last year’s habits?

Are you thinking one way and feeling another?  That would be like building a sand castle as the tide is coming in.  No matter how hard you work at building your new structure, your feelings are the tide and will wash your efforts away each and very time.

Whatever the resolution is to change – busyness, overeating, over-thinking, procrastination, passivity, argumentativeness, shyness – consider these life-changing ideas to get unstuck and delve into your 2012.

First decide how would your life be better if you were to change this aspect?  Typically the first response given is “I’ll feel better”.  After doing hundreds of training seminars, believe me this statement does not motivate anyone.  If that’s your first response consider this question:  If you felt better, what would that look like?

Would you be able to spend more time with your family and friends?  Would you take a trip?  If so to where?  Would you take a class on basket weaving, cooking, love-making?  If so what would you do with your new-found gift?

Today try this exercise.  Write a page in present tense of how your day would look if the change you wish to experience had already occurred.  Nothing will change your emotional state faster than letting your “mind” experience the reality of your imagination.  By the way, your brain does not know the difference between your thoughts and “reality”.  If you are skeptical, do a quick experiment with yourself.  Close your eyes and imagine a lemon on a table in front of you.  Really get a sense of that lemon, the color, the smell, how does it feel in your fingers as you pick it up and the juice begins to roll down your fingers.  In your mind’s eye, take a big bite out of the lemon and feel the juice drip down your fingers.

Open your eyes and notice that your mouth has begun to salivate.  There was no lemon in your “reality”, but there was a lemon in your mind.  Your thoughts and feelings work together to create your reality.

Here is an example of a writing I made a year ago; hopefully it will give you an idea of where to start with your first page:

“It’s a beautiful morning as I watch the sum come up.  Summer is winding down to a close.  It’s well past the half way mark in August.  I am so excited to have been sharing my summer with the participants in all of my seminars and webinars and know that everyone’s life has been changed as a result.  There is nothing more exhilarating than when I get a letter from someone who shares how their life has been changed by something I said.  They are only words and yet so powerful are these words.  I am so struck by those days I used to sit on the floor of my mortgage office and weep because I was not sure what I was suppose to be doing.  I am doing what I love now and those days are far, far behind me. “

These things are happening NOW!!!

Just Imagine . . .

The theme for this year’s Rose Parade.  It can also be the theme for your life if you choose or “imagine” it.

“Einstein once said, “Imagination is more powerful than knowledge.”  It is well-known that he believed one should “think like a child”.  Einstein engaged in something called “thought experiments”.  They allowed him to understand the world in profound ways.  Some of these “thought experiments” included imaging himself on top of a beam of light and asking the question “what would it be like”?   For instance, if he had a flashlight and turned it on, would he see a frozen beam of light coming from the flashlight riding beside him?  If he held a mirror in front of his face, would he see a reflection?   Would he even see the mirror at all?

All the knowledge in the world cannot create.  Creation comes from imagination.  All advancement you see and use today came from someone’s imagination.  If you were to allow your imagination to run wild today, what would it create?  A life of purpose?  A new invention?  A perfect relationship?  An impact on the world? 

Imagine who you truly are.  What does that feel like in the core of your being?

Today conduct your own “thought experiment”:  If you had any life you wanted, what would it look like?  If you held a mirror in front of your current life would it resemble this imagined life?  What if you could see the reflection of your imagined life taking place in your “actual life”?

Just imagine . . .  YOU CAN!!!!