Category Archives: Spirituality

Posts related to spiritual topics, including the works of Seth, Abraham-Hicks, Elias, Kris, Ramtha, Bashar, Ernest Holmes, and others

This May Be Wrong

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Hi Folks:

This post is based on two events from yesterday, but before I get to them I should provide a little history…

The last time I was in school was a little over twenty years ago, and one Sunday afternoon when I was studying I had a woman who was a representative of a local religious organization stop by my door.  She wanted to discuss her faith, and perhaps because I wanted to take a break from studying or perhaps because it was a sunny Sunday afternoon, I said, “Okay.”  So we stood and talked for about an hour and a half.  However, for everything that she offered from her system of beliefs, I countered with a different viewpoint from another Way.  She’d suggest something from the book she had with her, and I’d offer something to the effect of, “Yes, but the Buddhists believe…”  or “the Bible says…” or “in Taoist philosophy it is said…” or “in Native Spirituality they believe…” or, well, you get the idea.  We went back and forth like this as I said for about an hour and a half until finally I said, “I’ll be the first one to admit that I don’t have all the answers; I’m still a student.”  Her response to this was, “Well, I’ve found mine.” but I countered that with, “No, you think you have; you’ve stopped looking.”  At that point she left. Continue Reading →

Little Wisdoms

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Hi Folks:

Been a little quiet of late here in our little corner of the ‘net…  Anyway, some aspect of my Self has taken to waking me up at 1:40 or 3:30 a.m. or somesuch time and planting these little thoughts in my head, and since they’re mostly very short I’ve been posting them on Twitter.  I also started collecting them into a Word file, and I’ve got together enough now that I thought maybe I’d post them here as well.  If any of them resonates with you, feel free to share them… I usually just sign them as: ‘ ~ MNP’ Continue Reading →

Choices…

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Hi folks:

I was reading through my book of notes to my self this morning and stumbled over the following entry from January 25.  Thought I’d share it with all y’all:

Let’s say you’ve been wandering around lost, over hill and dale, through forests and swamps, and all of a sudden you come across a community in the middle of nowhere.  The place is beautiful; the people are warm, friendly and inviting… in short, a veritable Garden of Eden.  You’re taken in, given food, clean clothing and rest, and after you’ve had a chance to refresh yourself the village elder comes to see you and tells you that you need to make a decision.  There are two options:  For option 1, you remain there and become an integral part of their community.  You adopt their manner of dress, food, customs and beliefs.  For option 2, you choose to retain control of your own destiny.

Given these two options, which one would you choose?

I related this to Marcia, and her initial response was very similar to mine.  She said there were too many factors to consider and not enough information.  It would depend on the people’s beliefs, ideas, attitudes, etc.

But here’s the kicker.  Nowhere in option 2 is it expressed or implied that you would have to leave.

There’s no ‘correct’ answer to this question…

Love,
Mike.

P.S.  Eleven years ago I wrote a story called, “The Way“.  You can find more of our stories under the ‘Our Stories’ link at the top of this page.

Being Free…

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Hi Folks:

Just a quick thought…

In his book “Illusions: The Adventures of a Relucant Messiah“, Richard Bach wrote:

“In order to live free and happily, you must sacrifice boredom. It is not always an easy sacrifice.”

It’s a very good book, BTW.  Anyway, it’s his quote and I’m not going to change it, but it seems to me that ‘boredom’ doesn’t always look like boredom.  Sometimes it comes dressed in different clothes, like adversity, pain, loss, poverty, illness, depression or loneliness…

So, rather than providing my answers to this question (although I probably have, somewhere in the ‘Mike’s Writings‘ section of our blog), I thought I’d ask you instead.  Do you want to live free and happily?  In order to do so, what must you sacrifice?  As Bashar would ask, “Are you willing to believe it’s that easy?” (not “Do you believe it’s that easy?” but “Are you willing to believe it’s that easy?“)

Those who guide me once said, “The only thing we’ve ever asked you to change is your perspective.“

Love,
Mike.

He Says, She Says… How to Be Santa Claus

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Hello, Dear Reader:

Being Christmas eve and all, it seemed like an appropriate topic for today.  This ‘He Says, She Says…‘ post is going to be primarily a ‘He Says’, and it’s likely to be our last blog post of 2010, so I’ll add in a greeting from Marcia as well:  However you celebrate it, we wish a joyous Holiday season to you and to those near and dear to your heart.

When you look like me, a lot of kids call you Santa Claus.  I’m also very fortunate to have my own Mrs. Claus.  Being called Santa may be partly because of the white hair and beard, but I still remember one day over 15 years ago when I was standing at an ATM outside (in July) wearing a headband, sunglasses, denim jacket and jeans, and a girl passing by called out, “Look mom, it’s Santa Claus!” “No, I don’t think so.” was the reply.  “Yeah, it is!”  Mom was thinking ‘Hells Angels’ was more likely, but the little girl could see through the disguise.  I also remember the first time a little one, too young to talk, walked by with his dad in hand.  As they walked away the little one began saying, “Ho Ho Ho.  Ho Ho Ho…”  His dad didn’t know what he was going on about, but we did.

However, this isn’t a post about how to look like Santa Claus, it’s about how to be Santa Claus, no matter what you look like.  And that’s something anyone can do, no matter your faith or beliefs.  The ‘father’ of the modern day Santa Claus was St. Nicholas, a Grecian man who lived in Lycia in the 4th century.  Born to wealthy parents, they died when he was young and he was raised by his uncle.  As he grew up St. Nick was a pious man, and very generous with what he had.  He also encouraged his associates to be generous as well.  There are a number of stories about his life; this is one of my favourites… Continue Reading →

He Says, She Says… Abundance: A Fresh Perspective

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Hello Dear Reader:

We wrote a ‘He Says, She Says…‘ blog post a while back on ‘The Elephant in the Room‘. The ‘elephant’ in that case was money.  However, we recently rediscovered Bashar‘s talk on ‘Abundance‘, and that brought the idea back for us but in a different way.  Bashar defines abundance as:

“Abundance: The ability to do what you need to do when you need to do it. Period. Did you hear anything in that definition that said anything about money?”

Mike and I have both been considering the implications of such a simple concept – simple and yet radical at the same time. Though normally each of us would write about our own individual interpretations of our He Says, She Says topic, since I’ve been working full-time and away from home, Mike has been flying solo on a few of our dicussions with me reviewing and editing before posting.

Well, today the roles are reversed and it’s me doing the writing, with Mike doing a review and edit. Turn about is, after all, fair play!

So … back to our quote:

“Abundance: The ability to do what you need to do when you need to do it. Period. Did you hear anything in that definition that said anything about money?”

Two scenarios – both related to movies we’ve recently seen again: Groundhog Day with Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell and Star Trek: Insurrection. Though you may find it odd to compare these two, I do hope you’ll stay with me here.

In Groundhog Day, Bill Murray finds himself reliving the same day over and over and over again. Every morning he awakes on February 2nd, and every night all failures (including bank robbery and death!) are wiped clean. Initially his life is mundane and boorish and his purpose for existence is to bed the character portrayed by Andie MacDowel. But after what you realize must be months of repeating the same day, (all unsuccessful in his attempts to win and woo MacDowell) he becomes an intelligent, talented and caring man, beloved by the people of the small town. Once he gets to this point in his life, he no longer seeks satisfaction from the MacDowell character – his life is rich without her. Only then does ‘fate’ intervene to bring the two of them together.

In the Star Trek movie, the people from this magical planet live rich lives well up to over 700 years – that second zero was intentional! There is no money in this society, yet everyone does anything and everything that they have ever dreamed of doing. If it is a thought or passion, they know they can do it, and they follow through on these dreams! These people are rich in talent, creativity, and self-satisfaction. Nothing stops them from completing their goals and each person in their society supports the success and achievements of all others. This year they might choose to study to become a doctor, next year might delve into pottery to the point of mastery, then tackle and perfect a new style of fabric, move on to become a chef … the options are limitless and the success to the point of mastery is a given!

In case you do not see where I’m taking this thought in relation to our topic … there is no ‘working for money’ in either movie. Bill Murray’s character finds ways to take piano lessons till he is a master pianist. He becomes a doctor and helps the people of this town in innumerable ways by caring about them as individuals – right down to the local street person who repeatedly dies every day till Murray finds a way to save his life! In Star Trek, the wellbeing of each individual in this utopian society is paramount … and the peace and beauty – both externally and internally – is tangible. Each person gives of themselves to enhance and support the community.

To consider a life of abundance without consideration of money as we know it in our society today is a radical concept! Yet as I’ve been playing with the idea of this as an option in my life, I have been finding magical scenarios popping up and providing me with physical expressions of abundance yet without the need of my having finances to ‘buy’ them.

Here are some simple examples:

* while awaiting our local library’s purchase of a book that I want to borrow in order to read, a co-worker brings her copy in for me to enjoy without having been asked – nor did we ever even talk together about my interest in it … she said she just ‘thought’ I’d enjoy it! YES!

* wanting the latest Abraham-Hicks book and CD: Getting into the Vortex yet not having the funds to provide it for myself, it arrived in the guise of an unexpected gift from a friend who claims she ordered two (bless her beautiful heart!).

* at a time when I find myself looking within to determine a healthy and contrasting perspective between my comfort in a small living space versus the more expansive and potentially labour intensive demands of residing in a larger home, a friend calls to see if we can house-sit her comparatively much larger house for 3 weeks!

Though simple examples, I think you get the idea that my life is filling up with magical expressions of abundance in marvelous ways that do NOT require the having of money as the prime prerequisite for their appearance in my life.

So let us review that quote one more time:

“Abundance: The ability to do what you need to do when you need to do it. Period. Did you hear anything in that definition that said anything about money?”

How does this quote sit with you? Where does the thought take you? Does it resonate well? Does it challenge your current concepts? Does it inspire you? I’d be delighted to hear from you … I encourage you to leave a comment below!

In Light and Laughter,

Marcia

He Says, She Says… Moving Day

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Hello, Dear Reader:

Things have been a little quiet lately here in our little corner of the ‘net, but since we have three or four blog posts to do, let’s see if we can’t change that!  This ‘He Says, She Says…‘ post is going to be primarily a ‘He Says’, but as always Marcia gets the final edit.  I have an idea for this blog post but  I’m  having a little difficulty forming words around it; be patient and we’ll get there.

As the old saying goes, “You won’t recognize the house when you come to visit; we’ve moved.”  Actually Sunday and Monday were primarily occupied in getting our ‘stuff’ over to the new house.  Moving is nothing new for Marcia and me; so far, in the years we’ve been a couple we’ve occupied 17 different homes – together or separately.  Last summer the folks at Victoria’s Boulevard magazine asked people to submit entries of 300 words or less on the subject of ‘home’; I wrote in and told them that Marcia would say I couldn’t write anything in 300 words to save my life, but the concept of ‘home’ has been an interesting one for us.  We’ve each been planning to come here to Victoria for quite a number of years, even before we met, and we’re rather liking the idea that we don’t plan to move again.  The editors at Boulevard were kind enough to include my letter (edited for length!) in their recent 2010 Home Design Annual. Continue Reading →

He Says, She Says… Sweet Innocence of Children

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Hello, Dear Reader:

Our ‘He Says, She Says…‘ post is a day late this week because we were off visiting our grandchildren yesterday.  Such a wonderful time for us to reconnect with family and to live in the ‘now’ that these little ones experience.   It sparked our topic for this week, the “Sweet Innocence of Children“.

Hugs,
M&M

Follow these links to read what He Says/She Says: Marcia’s View / Mike’s View

He Says, She Says… The Masks We Wear

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Hello, Dear Reader:

Well, today is Hallowe’en, in this part of the world at least.  For children and adults alike it’s an opportunity to dress up in costume, to put on a mask and to go out ‘trick or treating’.  It can be fun or frightening, or maybe a little of both.  We decorate our houses and our schools and our businesses in ways that either venerate or mock those departed, ghosts, witches and the like, and it gives us an opportunity to participate – individually and en masse – in our own ‘inversion’ rituals‘.  That covers one day of the year, but what about the other 364?  What about the masks we show ourselves and each other throughout the rest of the year?

For this week’s ‘He Says, She Says…‘ post we discuss “The Masks We Wear“.

Hugs,
M&M

Follow these links to read what He Says/She Says: Marcia’s View / Mike’s View

He Says, She Says… “Only”

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Hi Folks:

It’s Monday, not Sunday (again), and this week’s ‘He Says, She Says…‘ post is going to be mostly a ‘He Says’, but as always Marcia gets the last word.  It’s a day late mostly because I’ve been avoiding writing it, but one can only put off such things for so long!

Before I get started I should mention that I rarely know what I’m going to write before I begin, so I’m not entirely sure where this post is going to end up.  Added to that, my mind tends to ping-pong from one thought to the next, often building bridges out of the most ephemeral connections.  Because of that, and because of the topic and the possibilities that someone might misunderstand what I’m trying to say, I thought I’d begin with one of my favourite quotes (author unknown):

“I know you think you understand what I said, but I’m not sure you realize that what you heard was not what I meant.”

Continue Reading →