Sometimes lessons and messages come to you from more than one source, all within the same time period.  I’ve learned to pay attention, especially when they all flow together under the same theme.  I had a dream last night about being with someone I used to work with.  We didn’t part under the greatest of circumstances, and then over the years we had minimal contact.  I hated him for a long time and it took me a long time to forgive him for what I thought he had put me through, when in actuality, it really was never about me.  (Please note that this was the “old” me, the one rooted firmly in the world that I could only see.  The new, awakened me sees things quite differently!)

So, in my dream last night I was with this person, and I was not treating him well.  I was disrespectful, disdainful, and making snide comments.  He told me I wasn’t treating him well.  One of my spiritual teachers was also in my dream, and she took me aside and told me gently that I was being disrespectful, and that I didn’t really know him.  When I woke up I knew this was an important dream, and asked to remember it.

Later this morning I was hearing a song in my head.  The only line I could make out was, “I know everything about you.”  ”Hmm”, I thought, “Wonder what that’s all about?”  A little bit later, I heard the ‘pina colada’ song.  You know the one, really titled “Escape”? “I never knew you liked pina coladas, getting caught in the rain, and the feel of the ocean, and the taste of champagne…”

My lesson for today?  Even though you may think you know everything about someone, you are wrong.  Every moment of their lives—every experience— have made them who they are today. Don’t judge them until you know their story.  Then don’t judge them at all.  Understand them instead.  You don’t know anything about them.  Heck, you probably don’t even know yourself.  Work on knowing yourself.  That’s how you impact the world.

I just read an article on CNN.com this morning about the eulogy Steve Job’s sister gave at his funeral.  She said his last words were, “Oh wow, oh wow, oh wow.”  

What did you see, Steve?  The Light?  God?  Angels?  Jesus?  The Summerland?  Deceased family members?  In that instant did you know the secrets of the Universe?  Did it all finally make sense?  Could you feel the Love?  I have lots of questions.

Death is the last great adventure.  We all have ideas of what lies beyond this life, but I’m sure it won’t compare to what’s really there.  I expect it to be grander than anything we can conceive.

Can you share this adventure with your dying loved one?  It’s really hard because we’re pushing to keep them here in their body.  Our emotions are involved and we’re afraid, and sad, and….well, we’re just human.  If we could step aside and watch, and listen, really listen, we might get a glimpse of what they see.  

When my parents died, I wish I would have known what I know now.  Not that it would have made it any easier for me, but maybe I could have made it easier for them.  I could have shared their experience on another level.  

I believe that we are energy both in this body, and out.  I believe that we only change form.  I believe in an eternal consciousness.  I believe a great adventure lies beyond.

I believe we are spiritual beings having a human experience.  What if this life isn’t reality?  What if being in spirit is reality?  What if you came into a body in order to learn?  Can you wrap your brain around that?  Does that change things for you?  

So what do I know for sure?  I know that Love exists.  I know I want peace for myself and others.  And I don’t know what it is that I don’t know.  But someday!  I’ll keep you posted.

Crosby, Stills & Nash’s song “Southern Cross” has been playing in my awareness for the past week or so.  Different times I hear different parts of the song.  The chorus first whispered to me, “Think about how many times I have fallen.  Spirits are using me, larger voices calllin’.  What heaven brought you and me cannot be forgotten.  I have been around the world looking for that woman, girl, who knows that love can endure.  And you know it will.  And you know it will.”

For the past few months I have realized that I’m being called into deeper service of Spirit.  It’s hard to ignore those larger voices calling.  Spirit is using me, every day. Spirit is using me in the service of Love.  I absolutely know that Love can endure.  Love with a capital “L” isn’t the romantic kind of love (although I heartily approve of that kind!).  It’s the humanity type of Love, the knowing-that-we’re-all-one kind of Love.  

“See yourself in others. Then whom can you hurt? What harm can you do?”   ~Buddha

‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.   ~Jesus

These guys (and please excuse the familiarity but aren’t we all children of God?) understood Love and put it into practice.  So my brother, Buddha, and my brother, Jesus, really had it going on.  Let’s keep it going!  Tag, you’re it.

Neil Diamond was playing “Heartlight” in my head this morning.  What a great message for the day!  ”Turn on your heartlight, let it shine wherever you go.  Let it make a happy glow for all the world to see…”  The only place I went was to the grocery store, but I did turn my heartlight on.  If my light can touch only one person, then my day has been worthwhile.  

What you give out comes back to you.  Give out love and you get love back.  Give out judgment, hate, intolerance, and guess what you get back?  I’m not going there.  

Make the world a better place by turning on your heartlight!  Love begets love.

I’ve got so much to do, and don’t know where to start.  I’m behind on a webinar on Transition Teams, and on my grief coaching class.  I am in the middle of a CD set on Remote Influencing, started an audio program on Quantum Jumping, and recently started a spiritual counseling class.  Sometimes I feel almost paralyzed because I don’t know which one to work on, so I do nothing.  Then I feel bad about doing nothing.  Yes, they’re all self paced, but for a Type A like me it’s really hard to be behind.  Yet, I know that Spirit directs me to what I need to do at the proper moment.

Today I sat down and decided I’d work on the grief coaching since I’m the farthest behind on that one.  As soon as I started to access it on my computer, I heard Bachman Tuner Overdrive playing “Ride, ride, ride, let it ride” in my head.  Thanks for the direction!  That one can ride a little longer.  

It’s so much easier to listen to where I’m directed, or where I’m directed away from.  I appreciate the support.  I did get a chance to work on 2 other courses, and even spent some time working on me.  Me, physically.  I spent time exercising, and I know that helps me listen even better.

“If you want to get to where you let the feeling roll, Get down to your rockin’ soul.”         (Rockin’ Soul by Hues Corporation)              

It’s at the soul level that the knowledge of who we are—who we really are—is located.  It’s hidden from view, even from our own view, and we need to look for it.  You may feel discontent, even stuck, and are looking for a way out.  You know you were meant for something bigger, more meaningful, but you don’t know where to go or how to start.  You start with your soul.  Spend some time with yourself.  No distractions.  You have to go deep.  What is it that you really want?  Com’ on.  Pull it out.  You know it’s in there.

Maybe you’ll just get a flash, an inkling.  Follow the thread, see where it takes you.  It’s like one of those games with yarn strung everywhere.  Untangle it.  Sometimes you’ll find that you’re taken somewhere you thought was impossible, or totally unlike you. The old you anyway.  You have become a new person.  Each and every moment you are changing.  

Listen to your rockin’ soul.  It has lots to tell you.

Woke up today with “Ride Captain Ride” playing in my head.  ”We’re callin’ everyone to ride along to another shore, we can laugh our lives away and be free once more.  But no one heard them calling, no one came at all, ‘cause they were too busy watching those old raindrops fall….Ride captain ride upon your mystery ship, on your way to a world that others might have missed.”

Are you watching those raindrops fall, or are you wanting to ride to another shore on the mystery ship—to a world that others might have missed?  Not just wanting, but paying attention to the call?  Most people are too busy with  life to pay attention to those things that can bring us freedom.  And by “freedom” I mean more meaning and well-being in our lives.  Isn’t that what it’s all about?  

Your mystery ship is the way you live your life.  Are you looking down at your feet, just plodding along?  Or are you looking around, picking up all the signs, looking at the landscape, finding those joys that bring meaning to your life.

I love laughter in my life.  I love puns, absurdities, word play.  I love silly family jokes that only we think are funny.  I want to grab all the joy I can.

Buy a ticket for the mystery ship!  I’ll save you a deck chair.

It was just pointed out to me that the quote below, attributed to Martin Luther King, Jr, is not completely his.  The first line was added by someone else.  I love the quote, or “misquote”, anyway, and wonder if MLK Jr may have felt that way too.  

It’s been an interesting couple of days listening to passions on both sides of the Osama bin Laden fence.  Everyone is entitled to her/his opinion, but I’m not debating them.   I’m just glad that I don’t have to make those big decisions.  

I wish us all peace.  All of us.