Month: July 2021

It’s That Simple!

What if we throw out all the old religious rules and go back to the basics? What if we listen to our own inner authority, the God/dess voice within? Is it that simple?

Goddess Inspired

July 30, 2021

Tagged Dogma, goddess, love, Religion, spirituality

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It’s That Simple!

I was talking to a friend the other day about her struggles with some very complicated spiritual teachings. These teachings are very hard to understand and usually require someone to interpret their meaning. These interpreters/teachers purport to be able to channel Spirit and seem to receive all their answers very clearly from Spirit. My friend is frustrated because she can’t seem to “get it.” She comes away feeling let down and “less than” because, as hard as she tries, she can’t seem to hear the clear messages that others seem to be hearing.

During that conversation, it suddenly struck me that if a spiritual teaching is that hard to grasp, maybe it is a human construct rather than something from Source. In my simple mind, God/dess (or whatever you name as your higher power) wants us to be connected with our Source. Why then would God/dess make it hard to connect?

All of the rules, regulations, commandments, dogma, and theology of organized religions seem to be designed to keep the masses in line and the ruling class in power. They are made to legitimize the status quo by making it appear that it was ordained by God. They are deliberately made to separate us from our own connection with Source. These religious teachings are made to be obtuse, so that people must go through a priest or intermediary to have a relationship with God. They are made to make us feel separate, unworthy, and unacceptable to our creator. They are designed to take away our individual agency in following our own spiritual path.

What if we throw out all the old religious rules and go back to the basics? What if we listen to our own inner authority, the God/dess voice within? Is it that simple?

For me, there are a few basics.

There is a Source greater than myself, which I have named for myself, God/dess. You may have another name that is meaningful for you.
This Source is not found in an external place, but rather lives inside each cell of its creation, including humans.
Everything is created in the image of God/dess, from the smallest atom of the smallest cell, to the whole of the earth, and as such we are all connected. We are all brothers and sisters to each other and to the creatures of the earth. We are all the beloved creations of God/dess.
Because our creator is pure love, our purpose then is to love –to love God/dess, to love ourselves, to love each other, and to love the earth.

If we truly lived by these basic tenets, the world would be a different place. We would see everyone as worthy of love. We would care deeply for others. We would revere our earth. We would see that we are not the rulers of our world, but rather the caretakers.

The more I think about it, the more I believe that we don’t need rules or dogma or theology to live our lives. We only need to live out our true purpose of living in love. It really is that simple.

Barbara Garland
July, 2021

When Does the Spiritual Become Political?

Relaxing Into Being

Today I choose to sit –

Goddess Inspired

July 22, 2021

Tagged being, Childhood, Clouds, Mother Earth

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Relaxing Into Being

I am having a hard time feeling inspired about what to write this week. My mind is a blank. Nothing is coming into my heart and brain, in spite of spending more time than usual in meditation and quiet contemplation.

I decided to sit out on my back porch for awhile and see if anything would come to me. Today’s sky is a brilliant blue, dotted with fluffy white clouds. The grass and trees are deep green, unusual for this time of year in Texas. The temperature is pleasant, not stifling, as it usually is in July. It is the kind of afternoon that brings back submerged childhood memories.

I imagine myself as a child of between eight and ten years old. I was almost painfully shy, but I loved to read and would immerse myself in the fabulous world of the written word. At that time, we lived on the campus of an orphanage, where my parents were employed. We lived in a big two-story house on the edge of the campus. A stacked stone wall marked the boundary of the backyard. Behind that wall was an open field, and at the back of the field, there was a deep (deep to me) depression in the ground. To my ten-year-old mind, a meteor had carved out that space, and it was my secret spot. There were bushes surrounding the hole that not only shaded me, but also hid me from any prying eyes. I would bring my book and settle down into that secluded space to read or watch the clouds go by for hours at a time. It was my safe spot, and it fueled my child’s imagination. Even in the heat of the Texas summers, that space was a sanctuary and an incubator for all my childhood hopes and dreams. When I return to it in my imagination, sixty years later, I find that it still carries deep contentment and is a balm to my soul.

I realize that over the years I seem to have forgotten how to sit in nature and watch the clouds – to find the shapes in the sky and to make up a story about those shapes. I have lost the ability to sit for an afternoon and read a book or to while away a day in the company of my daydreams. When I engage in these things, I feel guilty for not doing anything constructive. I feel guilty for wasting time.

Our culture has taught me that I must be constantly doing – doing work, doing good, doing something. I have lost the ability to sit quietly and listen to the sounds of the birds or the wind in the trees, to be awake to the rhythms of the earth. Even in meditation, my mind keeps circling back to thoughts of what I need to be doing. It is hard to quiet that inner critic and to allow myself to relax and to just be.

So today, I choose to sit – to really hear the birds, the chattering of squirrels, and the sound of the wind. I choose to really feel the breeze as it wafts over the chair where I sit. I choose to watch the clouds as they form and reform into delightful shapes – first an elephant, then a dog, now a monkey. I choose to give myself the gift of time, time to delight in the joy of just being. I choose to allow myself to feel the juiciness of life and the deep connection with our Mother Earth. It is in this Being state, if I allow it, that I can find true joy, the joy that I experienced as a child under the Texas sky. Today, I hope that you will also allow yourself to choose to BE.

Barbara Garland
July 22, 2021also

The Transforming Darkness

How has the darkness of the past year changed you? How have you grown through adversity?

Goddess Inspired

July 16, 2021

Tagged darkness, Growth, transformation, Womb

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The Womb of the Goddess

I am Goddess.
Ruler of life,
Ruler of death,
Ruler of rebirth.

Rest awhile in the darkness of my womb.
A place not to be feared,
But rather a place of rest and regeneration.

The darkness of my womb
Holds you,
Supports you,
Changes you.

In the dark you became another – Transformed, changed
Growing into the joy of your own true essence.
Each sojourn in the dark opens you to more of who you were meant to be.

In my womb you are
Refined,
Re-formed
Reclaimed as mine.

Welcome the darkness of the womb.
It is in that darkness that you become transformed
into a being of Light.

I am Goddess.
Ruler of life.
Ruler of death.
Ruler of rebirth.

Barbara Garland
July, 2021

The Transforming Darkness

I believe that all of us would agree that the last year and a half has been difficult. We have been surrounded by death and tragedy. We have seen things happen in our country that most of us would have never imagined. We have been denied close contact with others – contact that might have alleviated some of the fear and uncertainty. We have personally and collectively been experiencing a great darkness, but that darkness is a crucial element for our growth.

Jesus said, “You must be born again.” I understand that to mean that we must go into the dark repeatedly in order to evolve and grow. It is the process of life, and I see the darkness as the womb of the Goddess. How has the darkness of the past year changed you? How have you grown through adversity?

More on Signs and Wonders

Over the years, I have learned to trust those signs that come to me, and the more that I trust them, the clearer they become. The more I pay attention and trust those messages, the more I can trust my own inner compass to lead me to what is right for me.

Goddess Inspired

July 9, 2021
2 Comments on More on Signs and Wonders

Tagged Divine Feminine, Faith, Inner Knowing, Messages, Signs

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More on Signs and Wonders

I published a blog in early June about how the Divine Feminine speaks to me and how I have been led by Her to Her over the course of many years. This week I received a series of very clear messages from Her. All I had to do was to listen.

I have taken on a new and somewhat daunting volunteer job with a children’s advocacy center. While I am thrilled and excited about doing this work, I find that it is taking a lot of time away from the spiritual practices that I developed during the Covid lockdowns. Because of the time crunch, I have been contemplating ending my blog. Yesterday, when I got the bill for the upcoming year of hosting the website, the domain name, and all the things that it takes to publish my site, I was thinking that, in addition to taking up a lot of time, it was becoming too expensive. It was one more reason to let it go.

However, over the weekend I received a request from my spiritual director to use one of my poems in a workshop led by chaplains. On Wednesday there was an email in my inbox from one of my readers, a thoughtful commentary on the blog that I wrote about closure. I seldom receive feedback on my blogs. I am called to write them and let them go, to find their way to the folks that need to read them. That commentary was a delightful and encouraging surprise.

In my meditation yesterday I drew the Goddess card of the High Priestess. The message of that card is to be the bridge from the Goddess to the world. It was a reminder to listen to the innate wisdom of the Divine within and to share that wisdom with the world. Then I drew the raccoon from my animal spirit deck. That card said, “Decide what you really want. You have the ingenuity to claim it.” This morning I drew Eve, “who is the embodiment of primal, female, creative energy.” My animal card was penguin, whose message is to be my authentic self.

All these things, both separately and collectively, point me to continue to write this blog. These are clear signs that speak directly to the decision I am trying to make. My task is to listen to the messages and to trust that I am on the right path for me.

I have an inner knowing, an innate sense of the direction that I need to take. But I don’t always listen to that inner voice. I need something clearer to point me in the right direction because I don’t always trust myself. Over the years, I have learned to trust those signs that come to me, and the more that I trust them, the clearer they become. The more I pay attention and trust those messages, the more I can trust my own inner compass to lead me to what is right for me.

The Divine Feminine continues to call me to write. After writing a blog, I don’t usually recognize the words as my own. I am given the subject and the words to write. I send those words out into the ether, but I have no idea if they resonate with anyone or not. It is an act of faith that whoever needs to hear will hear. I answer the call by writing. The universe does everything else.

The Joy of Small Steps

I can choose joy in each small step that goes into making the whole or I can resent that I must do a mundane, boring task.

Goddess Inspired

July 2, 2021

Tagged Actions, Daily tasks, Joy, love, Steps

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The Joy of Small Steps

Making cards has been a creative outlet for me for many years. When my grandchildren were small, I made and sent cards to them weekly. Of course I was absolutely thrilled when my eldest granddaughter asked me to make the invitations to her wedding.

It was so much fun designing the invitation. Three generations sat around the table playing with different designs. We laughed and played and created until we came up with something pleasing to us all. It was a loving time of bonding and connection between myself, my daughter, and my granddaughter. It was one of those incredible opportunities to create memories and enjoy each other at our best. It was love personified.

When we first designed the cards, it didn’t occur to me how many separate steps would be involved in making one hundred fifty separate invitations. It is one thing to make one or a dozen cards that require many discrete steps. It is another thing altogether to make one hundred fifty.

All the paper had to be cut and the edges deckled – first the card stock and then the paper which went inside. Then all that paper had to be measured and scored in two different places. Each end of the card stock was dry embossed – three hundred separate actions. Following the dry embossing, each side got a swipe of silver inking. After the body of the invitation was printed, I heat embossed both sides, folded the invitation and attached it to the card stock. When I added up all the steps, there were at least twenty-eight separate steps that went into creating each invitation or forty-two hundred separate and tedious actions.

Yet each of those separate actions, while small and boring, made up the whole. Without performing each step, the final product could not have been created. No step was glamorous or lovely – a cut here, a score or fold there, a swipe of silver ink over the whole. And yet the finished product was beautiful and fit a winter wedding theme and my granddaughter’s vision perfectly.

So it is with life. Day to day activities in themselves seem small and insignificant. Washing dishes, cooking a meal, or changing sheets seems mundane and tedious. Writing a report, doing research, or planning a project don’t fall into the super-hero category. The myriad actions that I take each day, in themselves seem unimportant and definitely not glamorous. However, each of these actions contribute to the whole. Each of these steps create the mosaic that make up my life and contribute to creation as a whole.

I can perform these acts in love or in resentment. I can choose to see each action as a part of a glorious whole, or I can resent each action as boring and tedious. I can see my place in the world as an amazing piece of a beautiful mosaic or I can see it as worthless and insignificant. I can be grateful for the privilege and opportunity to serve or I can interpret my actions as meaningless. I can choose joy in each small step that goes into making the whole or I can resent that I must do a mundane, boring task.

As I worked on those wedding invitations, it was with a profound sense of love and gratitude – love for the lovely young woman that is my granddaughter and gratitude that she allowed me to share in this milestone event. Each cut, each fold, each little step – though tedious and repetitious – was done in love and prayers for a future filled with joy for this young couple.

I felt so honored and loved to be trusted to create such an important piece of the wedding experience. It was an amazing opportunity to show my love to my incredible granddaughter. As the tedium of creating step after step felt overwhelming, I remembered why I was doing this work. I wasn’t doing it for myself. It wasn’t just an ordinary card. It was for my Alex, who holds a piece of my heart. Each step was infused with love and joy. Each small step was a way to say, “I love you. I am proud of you. You are amazing.” Each step was a loving blessing. Each step was a joy.

About

New blogs will be added to this post every Friday.

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About Me

I am a seeker of truth, a truth teller, a lover of the Divine Feminine, an aspiring writer, a mystery, an open book, a work in progress. I have lived a long and varied life, and now in my seventies, I am being called to share some of what I have learned over the years. I hope to share the wisdom of the deep Feminine that is being channeled through me.

If the Goddess has ever whispered to you, I invite you to join me on an incredible journey of love and discovery. May you hear Her wisdom through these words.

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