the moment of truth

That’s the name of a game show on FOX in yesterday's headlines. First, in case you’re like me and don’t watch much tv, the premise is a person is asked a bunch of personal questions while attached to a polygraph machine prior to the show. Then, in front of an audience, they are asked a question, the suspense mounts as they ‘ponder’ the answer…they finally give it, then another long drawn out suspense-filled pause, and then a voice from above announces whether they are telling the truth and then they get a cash reward. The point is for them to answer these questions in front of their loved ones with the questions getting harder and harder as the stakes go up. And this week, one family found out how far those stakes went.

I didn’t see that show, but there are plenty of places to read about it on the net. I did watch a couple of minutes of it the first week it came out though. At that time I remember asking myself the question, do I tell the truth in my life? What would others not know about me? Are there any skeletons in the closet? How honest am I with myself? What about you, are you completely honest with everyone about everything in your life? Are you honest with yourself? Chances are probably not.

For most of us, honesty is a strong value we strive to live by…and it’s one of the most challenging. Have you ever been asked “how are you?” and it was just easier to say ‘ok’, ‘pretty good’, ‘not bad’, when in fact last night you and your partner got into a huge fight and you hardly slept and are feeling anxious. That’s one way we don’t tell the truth. Or maybe it is just easier to hide those CDs you bought or not tell your partner you're hanging out with friends after work.

Give yourself the challenge of being completely honest for a day. That means being completely honest with yourself too. How do you feel? What is your body telling you? Are you feeling sad, happy, disappointed, fed up, frustrated and not telling the truth? Are you stuffing any of those emotions and not being honest with yourself in any way. Are you being dishonest by remaining in a relationship that is not working….and worse yet, for the sake of the kids?

There are many areas of our life where we don’t tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help us. It’s important to be honest with the one’s we choose to be in relationship with and by that I also mean with ourselves. We say no when it is in our best interest. We ask for our 100%. We listen to ourselves and if we don’t feel like doing something we convey that. We listen and we act from a compassionate and loving space for ourselves first. Then acting from a place of compassion automatically happens with others. We can’t receive what we are not willing to give ourselves and accept about ourselves first.

It’s unfortunate what happened with that family from the show, but it is a good lesson for all of us in our lives. So, let’s not be quick to judge someone else’s lie. I believe we would all be a lot happier if we simply made choices that were in alignment with what was going on inside ourselves. If we simply were able to accept and embrace our own Truth and live from that place called integrity without compromising it for anyone or anything.

And wouldn’t it be wonderful to inspire others, through our actions, to also live in their Truth!

for love's sake

How many times do we do things for love? for a cry for love?

I read once that love was a choice. I didn't quite understand that at first, but as the years have gone on and I have meditated and contemplated love, I have come to understand what that means to me. One meaning is, I can either choose to feel love and open my heart or I can choose to guard my heart and feel fear. Both are valid emotions on the journey, both filled with gifts if we are willing to see them.

This day being the "official" day of love, brings these questions and contemplation to my mind. I know in my life when I have been motivated by my heart and when I have been motivated by my fear. The actions can be quite different, yet the desire the same...to have more love in my life. I believe at the core we all just want to belong, somewhere, somehow with a person or a group of people. We want to know that we are not alone and that we are cared about.

The problem, as I see it, with love is until we fully love and accept ourselves, it is difficult to receive love from another. We will continue to walk around feeling unloved and alone, even if we have many people in our lives. If we do not love and accept ourselves—all of ourselves, especially what we judge as negative or bad emotions—how do we expect to feel love from another? I believe all of who/what we are needs love.

One of the most profound experiences I have had on my path was at a time when I was filled with self-loathing and self-hate. I would even wake from dreams of self-deprecation. I judged myself mercilessly, including the feeling that it was so un-spiritual to hate myself. Then one night it occurred to me that maybe, just maybe, my hate wanted to be loved too. So I sat down with it across from me, it in it's dark, heavy thickness and me unsure of where this was going.

I saw it and I opened my heart and I sent it love. I enveloped it in loving, divine light with no attachment. I didn't judge it. I didn't expect anything from it. I loved it. I listened and I learned. I learned more in that time about acceptance than at any other time in my life. I have to honestly say, from that day forward I do not feel self-hate the same way. I made peace with myself and built a bridge within.

On this day and every day, I wish the same for you...
May you build bridges of love within, so you may experience bridges of love with others!

astrology & market timing

I saw, Ray Merriman, a market analyst/astrologer give his Forecast for 2008 this weekend hosted by the Learning Center for Astrological Studies. He was discussing the economic, financial and political forecasts for this coming year. He pointed out cycles in the market, along with astrological cycles to anticipate possible fluctuations and shed light on the coming political arena. Fascinating stuff actually.

Astrology was respected as a science used for thousands of years to do just that in Egypt, Greece, India, the Mayan culture and many others. In this country we don’t see it as a science as much as wanting someone to tell us what to do, when our new love will come in, or how about that job. Astrology is not about giving over our power, it is about embracing it and understanding the supportive energy and possible challenges in our life based on intricate mathematical cycles.

Mr. Merriman’s talk combined two areas I am passionate about, investing and astrology. I have much more to learn, as I observed this weekend, but I have expanded my concept of astrology and how it can be applied in my life. It is a very useful tool not only for predicting cycles but inspiring compassion for humanity. I look forward to this coming year and receiving my financial abundance as it magnifies in this new light.

harmony interuptus

Work. Ugh. Not going the way I envisioned today and I found myself stressing (insert disharmony here) over something that happened at the office. Someone put their hand up to stop me from talking and explaining my process in the situation. I was triggered. Inside I was screaming...How dare he! I deserve to have my side heard too! I took a deep breath as I walked away. I then asked myself. What is my lesson here? Besides, of course, not screaming out loud and making a scene.

Feeling like the scapegoat goes way back to the role I played in my family. I realized I could either buy into that and react or let it go. Does this serve me any longer? Heck no! In the past maybe, but not any more. I checked in with that part of me that was up in arms, listened, comforted and I explained that was an alarm from the past and doesn't play into the Now. I no longer buy into that pattern. So, I let it go. Harmony restored.

Later I found out he was having a really bad day and just couldn't hear anymore. It wasn't about me....imagine that.

Choosing Harmony

It’s funny as I write this blog my fourteen-year-old son is back. Needless to say he is attempting to interrupt my flow of harmony. I am in the moment of writing and he is sitting here distracting my thoughts and words by playing and rough-housing with the dog, play-bickering with his brother (pretty funny actually), throwing himself on the couch next to me, and being silly asking me "what’s wrong, Mom?" "Mom, what’s wrong" over and over again, all in the name of boredom. Bottomline, I choose how I want to feel about it. I have been having fun with him on and off all day so I keep it light. Sure at times it can be annoying, that’s when I give him a chore to do like, "go, take out the trash.” Ah, he’s off. I love being the creator of my own harmony. And the trash got taken out, too!

mission & purpose

The mission
This blog is dedicated to all things harmony and creating our true desires through harmonic resonance. Within the definition in the footer, harmony has an even deeper meaning to me and reaches to all of life’s experiences. Harmony in relationship, in health, in wealth, in emotion, in spirit—harmony in and on all levels of our experience here on this planet. I have observed many things that bring harmony in my life, including when the opposite, disharmony shows up to clarify harmony even further. I have a mission to create and inspire others to create more harmony on this Earth. My desire is by creating more harmony I will send out a harmonic signature to bring me more harmony. Thus as I give, I receive—a universal law.

The purpose
One of the areas of focus has been physical harmony. I went through quite a few years of disharmony before I learned what brought harmony to my body. For instance, I know I cannot consume flour in quantities and when I eat it I gamble as to how long my stomach will be bloated and uncomfortable, even painful. It might last a night, a few days, a month. So to keep harmony I eat very little, if any, of it. I have found that there are many healthful substitutions out there. I know there are others who have similar nutritional sensitivities so I wish to share what has helped me. My purpose is to inspire.

Another focus is emotional harmony. The human experience brings with it emotions. I believe one of the core reasons we are here is to create harmony with our emotions. Once again I know I have, and I bet there are others out there too that have, experienced emotional disharmony and gained more understanding on what we feel is harmony. To expand, that isn’t to say we are not to feel certain emotions that we don’t like, by all means it’s quite the opposite. I believe the ONLY, and I stress ONLY, way we find harmony with our emotions is making peace with the ones we don’t like and judge as ‘bad’, ‘negative’, ‘not good’, you get where I’m going with that. It’s a journey of acceptance, understanding and forgiveness.

Other areas of harmonic reflection that spur me on are alternative health and healing, political, environmental, spiritual, educational, relationships, financial, basically all things life and living. I’m not going to pretend even for a minute that what brings me harmony is going to bring you harmony. Only you can choose what does that for you in your life. Only you know what your experiences have been. I speak only of my experiences and will share from that space. But I am definitely interested in hearing what your experiences are and hope you will choose to share them here.

So now the floor is open, what is your experience of harmony? Where do we begin?