Raiders of the Lost Spark

It’s not just a romantic love… I am filled with such a love for life these days. My heart and soul are full and everything is magical.

Is it a miracle or a mystery? Perhaps a bit of both. I am blessed.

I am currently reading The Mystery of Love by Marc Gafni.

“It is not good for all our wishes to be filled; through sickness we recognize the value of health; through evil, the value of good; through hunger, the value of food; through exertion, the value of rest.” – Greek Proverb

I don’t believe in New Years resolutions; I believe in goals and dreams. This is what I wrote at the beginning of 2009. My life has certainly changed since then. While 2008 was fantastic, 2009 was challenging. It was brilliant, painful, inspiring, and heartbreaking – a cornucopia of deep feeling. Love lost, self found. I shed enough tears to fill an ocean, but discovered the hope and strength to find my way through the darkness.

I was laid off from my project management job and spent several months finding myself and redefining my goals. Similar to 2008, I traveled and studied. I spent a good deal of time touring Ontario wine country, and visited my favourite haunts in Ottawa, Quebec, and Michigan. I drank tequila in Ensenada, explored the mysterious beauty of Iceland, and stood at the top of Mount Baker, Washington. I learned some additional modalities in energy work, applied to the American Institute of Holistic Theology, achieved my ACB (Advanced Communicator Bronze) in Toastmasters, and joined the Guelph Guild of Storytellers. I took several advanced CSS 2.1 courses and became a whiz at designing table-free web sites. My client base has grown exponentially and I am enjoying the prosperity that comes with repeat business from work well done.

2010 has seen me make some serious decisions about my future – in terms of career, finances, health and human connection and I am excited and passionate about everything that this year will bring.

Goals for 2010

• A full detoxification of my body, mind, spirit
• Be continually conscious of my health and diet / fully embrace a raw food lifestyle
• Get back into yoga and martial arts
• Finish and submit all coursework for yoga teacher training
• Attain my Zend Certified Engineer designation
• Achieve my ACS (Advanced Communicator Silver) designation in Toastmasters
• Become the Guelph Area Governor for Toastmasters

2009/earlier goals that didn’t make it

• Learn Flex – not sure I am going to bother anymore
• Return to Halifax (Easter?), visit San Francisco (in the Spring perhaps)
• Apply to grad school – not sure I am going to anymore
• Get my Registered Practitioner status with the Canadian Reiki Association – still a goal
• Write my exam with the Certified Personal Trainers Network – not sure this is a goal anymore
• Master of Herbology with Dominion Herbal College – still a goal

Happy 2010… and may the new year bless you with health, wealth, and wisdom… and hope.

“Hope is a state of mind, not of the world. Hope, in this deep and powerful sense, is not the same as joy that things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously heading for success, but rather an ability to work for something because it is good.” – Vaclav Havel

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light not our darkness that frightens us. Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.” – Nelson Mandela, inaugural address, written by Marianne Williamson

December 17th marked the death of the poet Rumi.

“If you bake bread with the wheat that grows on my grave
you’ll become drunk with joy and
even the oven will recite ecstatic poems.
If you come to pay your respects
even my gravestone will invite you to dance
so don’t come without your drum.
Don’t be sad. You have come to Gods feast.
Even death cannot stop my yearning
for the sweet kiss of my love.
Tear my shroud and wear it as a shirt,
the door will open and you’ll hear
the music of your soul fill the air.
I am created from the ecstasy of love and
when I die, my essence will be released
like the scent of crushed rose petals.
My soul wants to leap and join
the towering soul of Shams.”

– Ghazal (Ode) 683
Translated by Azima Melita Kolin
and Maryam Mafi

Painting by Lisa Deitrich

Last week, I attended “Bear Night” at the Kitchener Memorial Auditorium. When the Rangers scored their first goal, everyone was to throw a bear onto the ice. Sure, a number of folks were bear-bonked on the head; I know for certain that I hit someone with mine! However, the entire event was infused with such a wonderful energy! There was a thorough spirit of good-will, generosity, and the shared purpose of providing toys to children who could really use something to hug. It was a truly heart-warming event.

Twentieth Century Psychic and Medical Clairvoyant

My current course work deals with the life and work of Edgar Cayce, likely made obvious by the fact that I’ve been writing about him for the past several weeks. Cayce (1877-1945) has been called both the “sleeping prophet” and the “father of holistic medicine.” He is the most documented psychic of the 20th century. For more than 40 years of his adult life, Cayce gave “readings” to thousands of people while in an unconscious state, diagnosing illnesses, past lives, and prophecies yet to come.

Cayce was born in 1877, on a farm in Hopkinsville, Kentucky. His psychic abilities began to appear during his childhood. He was able to see and talk to the spirit of his deceased grandfather, and often played with “imaginary friends” whom he said were from the other side. He also displayed an unusual ability to memorize the pages of a book by sleeping on it – a gift which certainly helped his schooling. These attributes labeled young Cayce as strange, but all he really wanted was to help others, especially children. Later in life, Cayce had the ability to put himself into a sleep-like state by lying down on a couch, closing his eyes, and folding his hands over his stomach. In this state, he was able to place his mind in contact with the universal consciousness. From there, he could respond to questions, broad or specific: What are the secrets of the universe? What is my purpose in life? What can I do to help my arthritis? How were the pyramids of Egypt built? His responses to these questions came to be called “readings,” and their insights offer practical help and advice to individuals, even in the modern day. Although he died more than 60 years ago, the material in the readings — both practical and esoteric — is evidenced by the hundreds of books that have been written on the various aspects of this work as well as the numerous books focusing on Cayce’s life itself. They contain invaluable information which have had a tremendous impact on the world. “In 1945, the year of his passing, who could have known that terms such as ‘meditation,’ ‘Akashic records,’ ’spiritual growth,’ ‘auras,’ ’soul mates,’ and ‘holistic health’ would become household words to millions?” The majority of Cayce’s readings deal with the treatment of illness, mostly from a holistic perspective. Individuals today receive physical relief from illnesses or ailments through information given in the readings. Although best known for this material, the Cayce did not seem to be limited to concerns about the physical body. In their entirety, the readings discuss an astonishing 10,000 different topics falling roughly into five main categories: Health-Related Information Philosophy and Reincarnation Dreams and Dream Interpretation ESP and Psychic Phenomena Spiritual Growth, Meditation, and Prayer

http://www.edgarcayce.org/