You

God appears in infinite forms,

A mountain,

An ocean, 

A tree,

A star.

Realize,

You can only fall in love,

With what,

You,

Already,

Are.

Bring Flowers

Bring flowers,

Light a candle,

Say a prayer,

To all the faces of God,

You most love,

Knowing,

All the faces of God,

You most love,

And even those you don't,

Are,

You.

Merging With The Ocean

As a child I lived in the U.K. in a town far from the sea. Yet, I could hear the sound of waves arising and subsiding inside. It was a sound both familiar and achingly beautiful.

All those years ago, I could never have imagined that I would one day be living in the Bahamas. It would have seemed like a fantasy. Yet here I am. 

At 5.15 a.m. each morning my husband Tony I sit up in bed and enjoy a cup of coffee. We listen to the waves. It is a beautiful way to start the day.

Sometimes we hear the waves crashing angrily against the shore.  At other times they lap gently, like a big cat licking a sweet bowl of cream.

After coffee, I go to the meditation room. I light a candle and incense and then sit. The sound of the waves is louder there.  The silence echoes more deeply. 

In the thick of that sound, birds circle and cry, signalling the start of the new day. My neighbor revs up his car to head to work and twice a week, the garbage men announce their arrival with the cranking and crashing of the bins.

All these sounds swim in and through one another. They arise from the same Source. They are born from silence and they dissolve back into silence.

When we start to pay attention, when we really listen, we realize this. We also notice how our thoughts and words arise from silence.

The beauty of this practice gifts us with what Merrill-Wolf calls ‘high indifference.’ This is not disinterest. Rather it is the capacity to see, hear and perceive from the highest perspective.

When we leave the confines of the mind we are free. We realize we are not separate. We see how intimately connected we are to all of life.

In the thick, vibrant energy of this profound realization we are home. We are what we have been searching for all along...

Excerpt from the Living in Alignment online course.

Like Swans

Those who awaken
Never rest in one place.

Like swans, they rise
And leave the lake.

On the air they rise
And fly an invisible course,
Gathering nothing, storing nothing.

Their food is knowledge.
They live upon emptiness.
They have seen how to break free.

~Dhammapada:

Teachings of the Buddha,
by Thomas Byrom

A Life-Changing Moment

On a warm, sultry afternoon in July 2001, I was at an ashram. Surrounded by a broad swathe of other spiritual seekers, I was tingling with anticipation as I slowly inched my way forward to a podium at the front of the hall.

Seated on the podium was a stunning looking woman. Robed in the silken-orange tradition of the Saraswati order, it was obvious that this beautiful Indian Guru lived in a state of transcendence I had been looking for my whole life.

Questions, which had been bouncing around in my head hours earlier, such as, "Can she be real?" "Is she authentic?" dissolved the moment I laid eyes on her. My soul simply 'knew'.

Her energy field was thick, alive and vibrating intensely with the most intoxicating and limitless love I had ever felt. In the body of this love, there was no need for words.

Breaking the silence, a hostess whispered in my ear, "It is customary to bring something when meeting a Guru for the first time. In India, coconuts are offered, symbolizing the hard shell of the ego."

With this prompt I scanned the people around me. Sure enough, they were tenderly holding flowers, coconuts and exquisitely wrapped gifts.

A tumult of emotions began to arise. I suddenly felt terrible. Having left my bag by my chair at the back of the hall, I had nothing to give.

Looking down at my hands I decided, "I'll offer my engagement ring." Then I thought, "No it does not hold enough significance. I need to give something more meaningful."

With that determination, I took off my wedding band, placed it in the palm of my hand and held it to my heart... Read More