Timeless Discoveries

On occasion, we post quotes on the Timeless Waters’ Facebook page. Sometimes they are of the inspirational sort, with a lovely picture in the background. As can be expected, people often comment or discuss the origin of an idea. Recently, a comment was made that a quote shouldn't have been attributed to the writer because it was actually an ancient idea, spoken by many before him, with its roots in Buddhism.

This comment, of course, was correct. Eckhart Tolle was not the originator of the idea; he is just one of many voices over the course of time carrying the message to the masses. Yet, this notion that certain spiritual revelations can be attributed to a specific origin is an interesting one, and one that reminded me of a recent experience.

I was packing up for a trip to the beach, an annual event I now share with my two sons. My perspective was one of heaviness from the previous few months; months in which I felt the culmination of years of working hard and pushing forward to meet all the demands and responsibilities in front of me. But now I felt the stirring of possibilities, or perhaps the recreating of a life that was no longer serving me.

As I walked onto the plane, for some reason the title of a book I had seen countless times as a child, tucked away on my mother’s bookshelf, came to mind: Gift From the Sea. I pondered the words and then wondered to myself, what gifts would the sea reveal to me? Filled with the expectation of these gifts, I was not let down. My gift was a subtle shift in consciousness; a shift that, with intention, could create a new trajectory for my life.

Upon returning from our stay at the beach, I decided I should, perhaps, read that little book with the title that had served as my meditative inspiration. The first smile crossed my lips while reading Ann Morrow Lindbergh’s introduction:

“Besides, not all women are searching for a new pattern of living, or want a contemplative corner of their own…(Yet) in varying settings and under different forms, I discovered that many women, and men, too, were grappling with essentially the same questions as I…Even those whose lives had appeared to be ticking imperturbably under their smiling clock faces were often trying, like me, to evolve another rhythm with more creative pauses in it, more adjustment to their individual needs and new and more alive relationships to themselves as well as others.”

What I read on the pages, while couched by Lindbergh in the culture and expectations of 1955, described the same conundrum I too had come to face. And just as Lindbergh collected shells and wrote what they represented to her as she sought the path to a more inward life, I too collected shells after my days of meditation and journaling by the sea. Only shell fragments did I gather, and they sit next to me as I write this in a small, square, glass vase, serving as a reminder that only I can pick up the pieces of my life when I begin to crumble.

 When an individual experiences new and life altering awareness, it doesn't matter what books have been written about it; it is new, and no less profound than it was to an individual living 2000 years ago. It is the cracking of a shell that holds within it understanding that can only be obtained through conscious living and introspection. The more people that share their new found wisdom with us, the more we are shown what we share, what the universe has on offer to us, and what we can become. They are timeless discoveries.

Many Blessings,

Sheryl

Tending Garden

The past few years have included a good deal of change for me.  While ultimately, I know much of it has been good, I have felt overwhelmed with the lyrics "I'm in over my head, over my head" playing over and over again in my mind.  I started evaluating work load and asked what could be hired out?  What could I afford to get help with?  The answer was not near enough!

So, as I do every spring, I begin the process of cleaning out the garden.  I raked out the winter accumulation of leaves.  I pulled weeds and raked out the brown and dry perennials from the previous season.  Beneath the mess, new plant growth was already pushing through the earth.  The fresh smelling soil was  dark and moist and I realized something I have known in years past but have forgotten; the garden is just like me.  Working in the garden is a moving meditation.

As I clear out the old growth and pull weeds, I metaphorically clear the clutter of my mind; I sort out what needs to be saved and what is no longer alive.  As I tend to the new plants emerging through the soil, I energetically recognize that in myself which is the process of becoming.  And this year as I planted bright petunias for the sheer joy they will provide me this summer, and added a few perennials, I gave myself a gift.  In tending the garden, I find the peace and silence to tend to Self. 

I don't think that I will be hiring out the garden any time soon.

Blessings, 
Sheryl

The Dark Night of the Soul

Most of us have heard the phrase; it has been written about and referred to for hundreds of years. Depending on the belief system of who is describing it, the meaning and stages of the experience have been described in great detail. Regardless of the context through which it has been explained, it appears there are commonalities in this experience of moving through darkness to light; it’s hard, we question our lives and how we live it, and when come to the light, we are stronger, wiser and all the better for having gone through it.

While there are these basic commonalities, I am of the opinion that that how the crisis manifests for me might be different than it is for you, simply because we are all unique.

So what are some tangible ways this “dark night of the soul” experience might manifest itself?  Believe it or not, it may not be as obvious as the daunting title makes it sound like it would be. We can start with descriptive words like burnout, depression, malaise, or malcontent. It is something you may feel coming, but if you’re like me, you may not clue in until the wheels are falling off the wagon…

I thought I was doing everything “right.” I meditate daily, have a rich spiritual life, exercise, eat right, take my supplements, get 7-8 hours of sleep each night, have a career filled with meaningful purpose, and an amazing network of friends and family that make up my support system. Yet I, quite suddenly, found myself dog-paddling in the depths of depression. So what went wrong?

I have had to accept that sometimes, even when we do everything “right,” it seems like life gets the best of us. When it is happening- when you can’t get out of bed, or find yourself lashing out at those around you, or sit at your desk and can’t get anything done- whatever it may look like for you- it can feel like the walls are crashing in.

When one goes through a “crash,” it is important to remember that body and spirit cannot be separated; they are intrinsically intertwined as we walk on this earth plane and both aspects need to be considered. While we may need to make a visit to the doctor or put our friends on alert, finding the broader vision to observe what is being manifested in our lives opens up an opportunity- to question, to grow, to change, to further expand our consciousness and to live richer lives.

Darkness to light: the dark night of the soul. As hard as those times are, they can be a gift. 

Blessings,

Sheryl

Manifesting Our Lives

                 “A core belief is invisible only when you accept it as a fact of life.”
    “Seth,” Nature of Personal Reality

The notion that that we create our own realities and the laws of attraction are ideas that many of us embrace, at least conceptually. Our thoughts create our realities. It seems pretty simple, doesn’t it? But time and time again, we find there are certain elements in each of our own lives that stay the same, or replay themselves over and over again like a worn out recording.

Could it be that there is a little more to it than the simple notion that our thoughts create our realities? 

The answer, I would say, is yes.

Last month we began to discuss that, until we better understand the “lenses” through which we view our reality, we won’t be able to fully understand the realities we are personally creating. In order to do that, step one is to acknowledge that perhaps we are wearing “glasses” that color our perceptions. If at this moment you are thinking that your perception is true reality and that you don’t wear glasses, think again; we all have them.

So where do these “lenses” that impact not only our perceptions, but also the realities we are creating,  originate?

Conscious thoughts: This topic is well covered so no need to expound. Rather, let’s give thanks for the many teachers that carry this message into the world!

Beliefs: There are some beliefs you know you hold, and others you don’t know you hold. In a sense, they are invisible. As stated in the quote at the top of the page, there are some beliefs we don’t realize are just ideas about reality because we think they are reality.

The mystical: By definition, this means “beyond human understanding.” If you believe in other lifetimes that impact one another, it goes without saying that the very lives we are living in the present are touched by lifetimes we are completely unaware of.

It is by becoming aware of these three levels of manifesting our lives that we can begin to not only change factors which may not be to our liking, but also begin to gain  broader understanding of  the totality of Self. “Believe” it or not it is possible, if we are willing to do the work.

Blessings,
Sheryl

Look for Sheryl's workbook "You Hold the Key to You: Understanding Self and Your Incarnational Past" in 2013.

Lenses of Our Own Creation

"Hot and cold, pain and pleasure. Come and go, come and go. Oh my dear one, manage to endure them." 

So says the Bhagavad Gita, and such is the reality of life on this earth; the ups and downs, the highs and lows, the good days and bad days. In this world of duality, we gain understanding of one end of the spectrum by experiencing the other.

For those that have already read Timeless Waters, you know it is a story about the realization and discovery of three different lifetimes; an experience I believe to be on offer to us all. As relevant and life expanding as that experience was, years later I realize that one of the greatest things I gained was a deeper understanding of the degree to which my perception shapes my experience.

That sounds like old information for most of us, yet so often we contribute to our own emotional dramas because of our perception of events and the meaning we place on them. Figuratively speaking, we see the world through specific lenses of our own creation.

Unfortunately, not only are many of us not aware of the specific lenses through we perceive the world, we may not even believe we have lenses at all! Until we can acknowledge that we do, we may find ourselves in a perpetual loop of "mis" perceptions. We will talk more about where the "glasses" we each wear originate, from our thoughts to the mystical, next month. But until then, begin to observe your experience and the emotions that come up for you most often for they are the key.

The hot and cold, the pleasure and pain will come and go as certain as the sun will rise and the wind will blow. But with the desire and commitment to examine the glasses through which we are viewing the world, the difficult times will likely be fewer and perhaps even a little easier to endure.

Blessings,
Sheryl

Look for Sheryl's workbook "You Hold the Key to You: Understanding Self and Your Incarnational Past" in 2013.

Do Something

I’m personally a believer that the important thing in life is to just be doing something; anything, really. I like shaking it up; my exercise routine, health and nutrition, form of meditation. You name it. A dear friend of mine once said in response to my most recent report of something I was trying was “you’re always into some crazy thing!” My answer back was “all that matters is that I’m doing something.”

The same philosophy applies for personal growth and spirituality. There are many paths to self awareness and living a more balanced life. Do I believe there is a holy grail of how to do that? No, I don’t. Life happens. Our life lessons are just that—life lessons. We will be faced with them throughout our lives. Self awareness is like an onion peeled back one layer at a time, and you often find the same issues in the first layer are going to reveal themselves to you in a different form in the next layer, all the way to the core.

Over the course of our lives, we may be exposed to multiple spiritual modalities and disciplines. Should we find one and hold that particular viewpoint for the rest of our lives? Well, that depends on if your personal viewpoint stays the same for the rest of our lives. Expanding experience has a way of expanding the way we look at the world, which includes the way we interpret our spirituality.

For some, this ever changing world view may present a problem; we as humans do have a tendency to want the “right” and “true” answers. But I find it exciting, and I imagine many of you do as well. It may look to others like we are frogs jumping from one lily pad to another, desperately in search of the “right” path. But we know better, don’t we? We change, our lives change. Our understanding of universal truths reaches new depths, and we gain new awareness of our place in the universe. What matters is that we are doing something.

Blessings,

Sheryl

Transcendence

     “a state of being or existence above and beyond the limits of material experience”

Just as we are all dichotomies, so we all have characteristics that can be viewed as both our blessing and our curse. One of those characteristics for me is my ability to feel deeply. My ex-husband would watch on with both frustration and awe as I covered the spectrum of human emotion in a matter of minutes, and then with ease, could carry on with the rest of my day. He once said the sky I saw was much bluer than the one he saw, but that the pain I felt was deeper too.

            Living life that way is a rich experience, and one that can enable a person to not fear what lay within him or herself. But sometimes when a person is handed too much over a span of time, he or she shuts down emotionally; a coping mechanism.

At the time I didn’t realize it, but it happened to me. I handled the experiences being handed to me with an “evenness” previously unknown to me. And so it was for several years, and it occurred to me that maybe I had learned transcendence; the ability to rise above and beyond the limits of material experience.

Then one night as I sat gazing at the stars, I realized my sense of awe was diminished. As I thought about many of the events I had faced over the previous few years, I also recalled that I had never shed any tears. The words to the Eagle’s Desperado played in my head-- “You’re losing all your highs and lows, aint’ it funny how the feeling goes away--” and I got it; I was numb. While the absence of the lows was nice, life without the highs is a flat life indeed. With that recognition, the tough exterior that shielded me for several years began to soften, and I got hurt. I sat on a friend’s couch sobbing, recalling how awful it was to feel something so deeply. Later that night, a favorite phrase from Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet, came into my mind:

        “The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.”

            Gibran’s poetic wisdom both gave me pause to reconsider the concept of transcendence and reminded me of the richness that exists in this physical experience we have chosen. Human emotion is a critical part of that experience. With that awareness, maybe healthy transcendence is not so much about responding to what life throws our way by immediately rising above it. Perhaps it is ultimately about how we respond when we find ourselves in that deep well of human emotion.

Blessings,

Sheryl