Month: April 2022

Listening with the Heart

I must constantly practice heart-listening and flexibility as I work to become a peace builder in the world.

April 29, 2022

Tagged Expereinces, Flexibility, Heart-Listening, Peace-building

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Listening with the Heart

There are two things that keep popping up in my mind today – peace-building and flexibility. On some level, the two are connected

I am involved in a peacebuilding initiative through my Rotary club. We have been meeting for almost two years, seeking to provide a model for peacebuilding as we listen to and learn from each other through deep and difficult conversations. The committee was formed in response to the events following the murder of George Floyd. One of the most helpful things to come out of it for me is the fact that, while my experience and your experience may be different, they are equally valid and worthy of being heard. AND, it is only when I listen with an open heart that I can truly understand your experience.

I keep drawing the “Flexibility” card from the oracle deck. I will admit that in many circumstances, I am not a flexible person. No matter in what circumstances I find myself, I am prone to quick judgement and wanting to make things right. At home, I want things my way – organized and done correctly – that is, my way. I even alphabetize my spices and color code my closet. On the other hand, in my dealings outside my home, I am more open and more inclined to be flexible. It is easier to see another’s point of view when I don’t live with them.

I don’t always listen with an open heart. But heart listening invites flexibility. When I truly hear what another person is saying, I am more able to see both sides of an issue. I am able to understand that other person on a deeper level. I am able to hear the validity of their experience and see it as just as valuable as my own. I am more able to suspend judgement and see all sides of a situation. In short, being flexible and open invites peace into my own heart. And it is only when I am at peace that I can bring peace to the table.

In this polarized world, it is not always easy to truly listen to the experiences of others. It is hard to see that my experience is not the only one. It is hard not to make assumptions based on how I see things or what seems self-evident to me. I must constantly practice heart-listening and flexibility as I work to become a peace builder in the world.

Barbara Garland
April, 2022

When Does the Spiritual Become Political?

Community

What I can do is to open my heart, to listen, to learn, and to try to find common ground with an ever-wider circle of people who aren’t exactly like me. I can channel as much love as possible to anyone I label as other and allow my heart to be softened in understanding, empathy, and compassion.

Goddess Inspired

April 22, 2022

Tagged Common Goals, Community, Flexibility, Openness

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Community

Usually, I don’t have any problem finding a subject about which to blog. However, for the past couple of weeks nothing has come to mind. I decided to trust God/dess and draw an Oracle card. The first card I drew, I didn’t like. I reshuffled and drew again. God/dess must be laughing because I drew the same card on the second draw – Community.

It seems that now, more than ever, we all need to feel that we are part of a community. I like the definition of community as “a feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals.’ However, there seems to be very few common interests or goals in this fractured world.

I see so much hate and division spewing out into the world. I will admit that I find myself pointing fingers at the folks who are on the opposite side of my own values. I label them as other and find fault in everything they say. I see them as the enemy and the problem. If only they would change their ways, then the world would be a better place.

I struggle with the concept of including those who aren’t like me, those whose values are radically different from my values. Although I am supposed to love everyone, how am I supposed to love the murderer, the child abuser, the rapist, the one who clearly doesn’t act out of love? Am I projecting my own shadow self onto that person, or are they truly evil?

No doubt, many of us are struggling with that question, and I certainly don’t have the answer. However, part of the issue is that I make my community too small. I only want to include those in my community who think exactly like I think, who share exactly the same values and the same outlook. I exclude those that I label other. I keep a tight little circle around me where I feel safe and comfortable, where I won’t have to look at my own shortcomings.

What if I could see those who don’t think like I do through the eyes of love? What if I could listen with an open heart to what they think and believe? What if I could love them as an extension of myself. What if I could dialogue with them to find common ground, to discover our shared humanity? What if I could understand the underlying fears that make them act as they do?

We as humans have more commonalities than differences. Instead of being pitted against each other in unassailable silos, is it possible to find common goals and interests. Can we come together to solve problems together as the world community?

I do believe that there is evil and there are evil people in the world. Those are not necessarily the people I am concerned with. I can’t change their hearts or minds. What I can do is to open my heart, to listen, to learn, and to try to find common ground with an ever-wider circle of people who aren’t exactly like me. I can channel as much love as possible to anyone I label as other and allow my heart to be softened in understanding, empathy, and compassion.

A Meditation for Love

Today I want to offer a guided meditation that helps to not only fill me with peace but is also one way to make difference in a fractured world.

Goddess Inspired

April 8, 2022

Tagged connection, love, Meditation

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A Meditation for Love

As war rages in Ukraine, as party politics continue to divide and polarize the country, and as new COVID 19 variants spread around the world, I, and many people that I know, are feeling a deep sense of unease, even fear. I want to do something concrete to help, but I feel that anything that I do is so small as to be negligible. Today I want to offer a guided meditation that helps to not only fill me with peace but is also one way to make difference in a fractured world.

I use this meditation to ground myself in love and to send out love to the world. It can be used in your daily spiritual practice or when you are feeling particularly fragmented and fearful. You can use it with or without quiet meditation music.

Find a quiet space where you won’t be disturbed. Align yourself in your most comfortable meditation pose. Take some deep cleansing breaths, slowly inhaling and exhaling from your belly. As you breathe, allow any stresses, worries, fears, or discomfort to flow out of your body as you exhale. As you inhale, breathe in the love of the universe. As you concentrate on breathing in and out, let everything fade into the background. There is only this moment and this incoming breath of love and outgoing breath of letting go.

When you are totally relaxed and ready, imagine that your spirit is a white light rising from the top of your head. Allow this light to travel up, up as far as you can imagine, out into the cosmos. In your imagination, float among the stars. Here you are safe and here you are surrounded by and filled with unconditional love. You are wrapped and held in this beautiful, all-encompassing love. Stay in this place as long as you like, soaking up this amazing love. When you are ready, bring your love-filled spirit back down into your body and let it rest in your heart space.

Now imagine that you are sending your roots down deep into the earth, grounding yourself into mother earth herself. Go down, down into the earth’s core where the great mother is waiting to embrace you. As you rush into her arms, feel the unconditional love of the Divine Feminine. Allow her to hold you and rock you in her embrace. Here you are safe and held, loved beyond measure. Again, stay in this space as long as you need to. Then when you are ready, bring your roots back into your body. Allow that love to come back up with you and rest in your heart space.

As the love from the cosmic Source and the love from the Great Mother join together in your heart, feel that love overflow into your body. Feel it travel through your veins and arteries. Feel it in every cell, every organ, every muscle, every nerve, every joint. You are filled to overflowing with so much love that it cannot be contained.

Now allow that love to flow out of you into the world. Allow it to flow to whomever it will – to your loved ones, to those who are bereft, to those who are prisoners, to those who are fighting for their lives. Feel the electric energy of that love as it flows in great ripples out into the world. Allow yourself to be a channel of that love, even when you are not consciously meditating in that love.

When you are ready, you can slowly come back into the space you occupy, refreshed, filled to overflowing with love and ready to radiate that love out into the world.

Carry that love with you throughout your day. Try to be aware of it in every encounter. Allow it to permeate everything you do and connect with everyone you meet.

I truly believe that the only way to change the world is through love. If we can each channel love to everyone we meet, the ripple effects can be enormous. For those in the spiritual path, I believe that we came into this world at this time to be those channels of love. Today, I am sending love to you.

Barbara Garland
April 202

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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