I love trees.
Not as a naturalist
Not as a Arborist
I love trees because they keep me grounded in the present moment.

My daily hour long drive to work is on back country roads. I get to enjoy endless forests and meadows filled with all kinds of wildlife. An occassional house or housing development will cause a break in the beauty but it is brief.

During my drive it is easy to let my mind ramble on about pointless stuff. Occassionally my mind finds something useful to do but mostly it is just noise.

so lately I have been practicing present moment consciousness, letting go and just abserving the thinking mind. I have found that when I look at people or cars or signs my mind goes crazy with thoughts, but when I look at trees or other aspects of nature my mind quiets down.

I think the difference is in the history we connect with when seeing people or other objects. With people our mind goes to the people in our lives, or the people we want in our lives. With objects our mind connects with other related objects and their usage or other meanings. With signs or any words our mind slips into streams of senseless chatter. At least this is what happens with my mind.

With nature my mind goes quiet. I find that I have no attachment to nature, only the appreciation of its beauty and its natural ability to remain present at all times. Perhaps I am connecting with their presence. Or perhaps it is that things in nature just are the way they are. They do not need to chose to be this or that. They do not need to become something. They are already what they are and will always be, unchanging, without need of attachments or achievements.

I have learned a lot from my friends the trees. I am comforted by their presence. I am, and they are, all part of the same universal being.  I wonder if they know that, if they are looking back at us with the quiet patience of a mother watching her child learning to tie his shoe, waiting for us to catch up to them, in consciousness.

Imagine if everyone in the US suddenly...DECLARED PEACE!

I declare peace on terror

I declare peace on drugs

I declare peace on poverty

I declare peace on .... the world!


Let's turn our thoughts toward what we DO WANT for a real change!

"Whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive."

~Matthew 21:22


"What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them."

~Mark 11:24


So I guess I truly do have the divine power of the universe in my favor.

Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all of the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.

-A Course in Miracles


In my latest learning and awakening I have discovered the power of using divine love to remove the barriers I have built up against my authentic self. But first I had to come to terms with the idea that "I am" divinely perfect, that I do not need to fix or add anything. Everything I need to be happy is within me now. All I need do is remove the barriers.

~Peace

David

The grapevine of life has guided me back to a lesson long forgotten. The power of our thoughts is something I have been aware of for years. I have read and listened to the material on Law of Attraction. I have been a regular practicianer of the Power of Now. Yet still I have not taken full advantage of the power of thought to shape my life.

A few days ago I ran across Marcella's pod on the power of success through divine love. I was immediately drawn in. Just reading the description tugged at my heart and I was compelled to join and read all that was going on. The more I read the more my heart expanded and I knew I was on to something I needed at a very deep level.

As I was reading one of the pod threads Marcella mentioned a using a "vision board" as taught in the Secret. Now I had watched the movie version of "The Secret" a few years ago and didn't really get much out of it. I think at the time I was reading similar material in The Law of Attraction so I saw it as a copy cat commercialized for the masses and not for me. But now, while in this place and with my heart more open, I felt compelled to check out the Secret so I went out and bought the book.

It is funny how the intention behind an action can have more of an impact than the action itself. The process of opening my heart and increasing my consciousness that started with Marcella's pod has now reached a new level, gaining momentum from the cumulative awareness of the power of divine love and the power of intentional thinking.

After all this I decided to start an experiment; my secret experiment. I have decided to record an initial set of intentions, things and experiences I want to create through the combined efforts of practicing focused divine love and intentional thought. I want to track my actions and results from the time I establish the intention to the time of it's realization. Over the next 90 days I will record daily what I am doing and what I observe as a related result. Since I am always creating my reality I will definately have results one way or another.

So here goes...

To accept where I am today. Grow where I am planted. Doing nothing is sometimes more important than doing something. Let go of things I cannot control. Allow the world to move around me without reacting to it. Others success is not my failure or shortcoming. Breathe.

Leaving it... I want to leave this human experience knowing that I have made a positive impact, that I didn't just take up space and consume resources. I want to know that I left my children a legacy, their own life worth living. And if we are in fact here to advance our spritual awakening I want to leave fully awake, ready to accend into my souls next stage of universal existance, whatever that may be.

Discipline. Sticking to the plan. There is nothing more frustrating than having a great deal of knowledge and resources to make massive changes in your life but falling short because you can't, or won't fully engage your potential. There are days when I just wish I had someone to boss me around all day so that I do all that I need to and ultimately want to do for my life. But then that wouldn't be self discipline. Ugg!

On the road through life I am standing in the middle of a small remote road stretching out as far as the eye can see. The sun is just coming up over the tree covered rolling hills ahead. I am the only one here. No cars pass by as I stand looking ahead and wondering...when will inspiration hit me?

I have spent the better part of the last year or so emptying my life of clutter, resisting the temptation to take on more just to to have something new, something more. I am almost completely out of debt. I will finish my MBA in just over a year. My children and I are enjoying a comfortable coast through life...but still I wait.

Isn't life suppose to be about doing something, making a difference, impacting the world in some positive way? Doesn't the world need more people willing to roll up their sleeves and make a difference? And still I wait.

I contribute on the fringe. I donate to charities, sign petitions, vote, blog, etc. I conserve where I can, recycle, drive a high mileage car, live within my financial means, anything I can to support ecology and sustainable living. I even finance micro loans around the world. I sleep well at night....but still I wait.

Here is to all who have heard the call. My prayers and blessings are with you.

~Peace