Archive for Painting
Every person is an artist
Every person is an artist casting about for their muse.
Each one of us has a vision that we feel passionate about and are trying to bring into alignment and fulfillment. Whether that is a happy relationship with a blond/brunette who is sexually pleasing to our inner Director’s creative vision (which is largely a result of our imprinting from the past) or whether that is standing at the proverbial mountaintop, head high and chest greeting the sky, having accomplished the goal we set out to accomplish.
We are ALL writing a story and thus we are ALL artists. The problem is that we don’t own that we are artists and we don’t acknowledge that everyone else around us is as well. We see the creative yarn we are personally spinning as a task to accomplish or just life as it is … “reality”.
When you own that you are the Author and YOU are creating what you want then you can begin to see that is true for everyone else as well. Then there is no actual rejection of you (let me say that again, there is no actual rejection of you), not really … because it’s not about you.
Somebody else has a creative vision (just like you) and their inner artist is trying to bring it into reality. You simple were not what exactly fit their personal creative vision.
When I look at life and others this way I find it incredibly freeing. Why?
Well, I think of all the great creative ventures I have been passionate about: a show I have written, a lover uncovered, a performance sublime. In each of these occasions there were people who didn’t fit with my creative vision. Do I remember them? Do I hold onto thoughts of, “Ew, I hated that person!”?
No!
Why? Because there was nothing personal about it. They weren’t offending me, they simply didn’t match the scene my inner artist was painting.
There was once a dark haired, Persian boy who was bizarrely obsessed with me on the dance floor of a club in Germany. There was no rancor toward him on my part because he didn’t happen to match what stirs my inner artistic vision for myself. Yet I wonder if he took it as rejection of him … when it wasn’t rejection of him at all. Not personally, not from me. I remember him as charming and there is no negativity there at all.
How many times has that been true of me, when I have taken it as rejection?
I wondered to myself, after these realizations, do I actually want to be the fulfillment of every single person’s creative aspirations? God no, ugh, that sounds exhausting!
So why then do I take it as rejection if I don’t happen to fit another’s creative vision?
Simply let it go and acknowledge the truth … that they are searching for something from their inner artist’s well, and good for them! Tip your hat to a fellow artist on a quest and wish them well on their artistic journey … that apparently has nothing to do with you, and that is just fine.
“There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: …” – Paolo Coelho
I find it amazing how often the SAME things come back into our lives for us to work through!
My biggest obstacle has always been fear; and primarily fear of rejection (i.e. what others think of me) and fear of failure. These past couple of years, however, I have overcome all of what I know to be my greatest fears and have thusly felt liberated and vindicated! It kind of blew my mind a little to realize (while meditating yesterday) that sure enough I was allowing those SAME things to sabotage me yet again. How did they manage to creep back into my brain so stealthily?! I am grateful at least that I have gotten to a level where I can identify these harbingers of self-sabotage and work them out to a point of respite and resolution. In this light, here are my words for meditation today:
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“There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.”
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“Something did happen to me somewhere that robbed me of confidence and courage and left me with a fear of discovery and change and a positive dread of everything unknown that may occur.”
– Joseph Heller
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“There are two basic motivating forces: fear and love. When we are afraid, we pull back from life. When we are in love, we open to all that life has to offer with passion, excitement, and acceptance. We need to learn to love ourselves first, in all our glory and our imperfections. If we cannot love ourselves, we cannot fully open to our ability to love others or our potential to create. Evolution and all hopes for a better world rest in the fearlessness and open-hearted vision of people who embrace life.”
– John Lennon
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- art by Artyom Chebokha
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Religion4All is an idea: that every human being (no matter their race, religion, sexuality, social status, lifestyle, or any other possible factor) is LOVED by God; just … as … they are.
We all are loved by God, and NO religion or person has a monopoly on it. Every single person on this planet is loved equally by God … SO many are cut off from God because they are told they don’t belong. God loves everyone … we ALL are beautiful creations … we don’t need to cringe when we hear the words “God”, or “religion”, or their judgments … God LOVES us all!
There is no requirement to change in order to be LOVED by God, or to LOVE God. God is LOVE, and LOVE is God … period. There is no one who God loves more than anyone else … there are only those who choose to LOVE more … to love God more, and consequently then to love each other more. In doing so, we grow closer to God … and know God.
By opening our hearts, and minds to God (free of boundaries like religion, or social trends); by LOVING God … we are exactly where we are meant to be. If we maintain that openness, never allowing any person or event to make us close our hearts, we will be guided by God to be who we are meant to be.
In that space of openness we can then live a life of LOVE, and be guided to where we are meant to be … forever in LOVE.
Southern California, Northern California, Mission Viejo, Irvine, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Marin, San Jose, San Juan Capistrano, Santa Ana, Palm Springs, Long Beach
Source: Harbingers of Self-Sabotage
Your Mind Is Complicit
My words to meditate upon today on how we truly are the authors of our own reality, whatever that reality may be. If that reality is shame, or fear, or even hatred … we each personally have authored that. We become our own worst torturers … don’t allow the actions of others to turn you into an abuser yourself. Don’t give them that power … instead be the author of love, compassion and forgiveness.
Shift … and you will find happiness.
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“As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn’t leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I’d still be in prison.”
– Nelson Mandela
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“If someone succeeds in provoking you, realize that your mind is complicit in the provocation. Which is why it is essential that we not respond impulsively to impressions; take a moment before reacting, and you will find it easier to maintain control.”
– Epictetus
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“Without self-respect genuine happiness is scarcely possible. And the man who is ashamed of his work can hardly achieve self-respect.”
– Bertrand Russell
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Religion4All is an idea: that every human being (no matter their race, religion, sexuality, social status, lifestyle, or any other possible factor) is LOVED by God; just … as … they are.
We all are loved by God, and NO religion or person has a monopoly on it. Every single person on this planet is loved equally by God … SO many are cut off from God because they are told they don’t belong. God loves everyone … we ALL are beautiful creations … we don’t need to cringe when we hear the words “God”, or “religion”, or their judgments … God LOVES us all!
There is no requirement to change in order to be LOVED by God, or to LOVE God. God is LOVE, and LOVE is God … period. There is no one who God loves more than anyone else … there are only those who choose to LOVE more … to love God more, and consequently then to love each other more. In doing so, we grow closer to God … and know God.
By opening our hearts, and minds to God (free of boundaries like religion, or social trends); by LOVING God … we are exactly where we are meant to be. If we maintain that openness, never allowing any person or event to make us close our hearts, we will be guided by God to be who we are meant to be.
In that space of openness we can then live a life of LOVE, and be guided to where we are meant to be … forever in LOVE.
Southern California, Northern California, Mission Viejo, Irvine, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Marin, San Jose, San Juan Capistrano, Santa Ana, Palm Springs, Long Beach
- art by Pat Erickson
Source: Your Mind Is Complicit
The Most Progressive
My words to meditate upon today:
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“We all want progress, but if you’re on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.”
– C. S. Lewis
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Even as the stone of the fruit must break, that its heart may stand in the sun, so must you know pain … accept the seasons of your heart, even as you have always accepted the seasons that pass over your fields.
– Kahlil Gibran
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Life is thickly sown with thorns, and I know no other remedy than to pass quickly through them. The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us.
– Voltaire
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Religion4All is an idea: that every human being (no matter their race, religion, sexuality, social status, lifestyle, or any other possible factor) is LOVED by God; just … as … they are.
We all are loved by God, and NO religion or person has a monopoly on it. Every single person on this planet is loved equally by God … SO many are cut off from God because they are told they don’t belong. God loves everyone … we ALL are beautiful creations … we don’t need to cringe when we hear the words “God”, or “religion”, or their judgments … God LOVES us all!
There is no requirement to change in order to be LOVED by God, or to LOVE God. God is LOVE, and LOVE is God … period. There is no one who God loves more than anyone else … there are only those who choose to LOVE more … to love God more, and consequently then to love each other more. In doing so, we grow closer to God … and know God.
By opening our hearts, and minds to God (free of boundaries like religion, or social trends); by LOVING God … we are exactly where we are meant to be. If we maintain that openness, never allowing any person or event to make us close our hearts, we will be guided by God to be who we are meant to be.
In that space of openness we can then live a life of LOVE, and be guided to where we are meant to be … forever in LOVE.
Southern California, Northern California, Mission Viejo, Irvine, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Marin, San Jose, San Juan Capistrano, Santa Ana, Palm Springs, Long Beach
- art by Luis Velasquez
Changing Your Destiny
Below are my words to meditate upon today … on being the author of your own reality. We each are creators, made in the image of the Creator, and we create our own reality every second of each day … we create our reality based on how we view, perceive, translate and understand the world around us. If you take on another person’s perspective … suddenly your reality is different.
I strive to make my lens for viewing life simple: always having an open heart that is connected to God and follows wherever that leads. Still, many times every day I fail … I sense my heart being closed and must open it up again. The mere fact that I am doing this however means that I am actively CHANGING my own reality and altering my perception of the world around me. I am authoring a new reality … and we all, each and every one of us, have this ability.
If you are unhappy, you can change that … if you are fearful, you can change it. It might take some work, but there is hope … never give up, go forth and create!
Peace and Love
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“What we call our destiny is truly our character and that character can be altered. The knowledge that we are responsible for our actions and attitudes does not need to be discouraging, because it also means that we are free to change this destiny. One is not in bondage to the past, which has shaped our feelings, to race, inheritance, background. All this can be altered if we have the courage to examine how it formed us. We can alter the chemistry provided we have the courage to dissect the elements.”
– Anaïs Nin
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“I can’t wake you up. You can wake you up. I can’t cure you. You can cure you.”
– John Lennon
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“God provides the wind, Man must raise the sail. ”
– Saint Augustine
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- painting by Ella Richardson
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Religion4All is an idea: that every human being (no matter their race, religion, sexuality, social status, lifestyle, or any other possible factor) is LOVED by God; just … as … they are.
We all are loved by God, and NO religion or person has a monopoly on it. Every single person on this planet is loved equally by God … SO many are cut off from God because they are told they don’t belong. God loves everyone … we ALL are beautiful creations … we don’t need to cringe when we hear the words “God”, or “religion”, or their judgments … God LOVES us all!
There is no requirement to change in order to be LOVED by God, or to LOVE God. God is LOVE, and LOVE is God … period. There is no one who God loves more than anyone else … there are only those who choose to LOVE more … to love God more, and consequently then to love each other more. In doing so, we grow closer to God … and know God.
By opening our hearts, and minds to God (free of boundaries like religion, or social trends); by LOVING God … we are exactly where we are meant to be. If we maintain that openness, never allowing any person or event to make us close our hearts, we will be guided by God to be who we are meant to be.
In that space of openness we can then live a life of LOVE, and be guided to where we are meant to be … forever in LOVE.
Southern California, Northern California, Mission Viejo, Irvine, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Marin, San Jose, San Juan Capistrano, Santa Ana, Palm Springs, Long Beach
A Lantern In The Dark
In meditating on despair today, from my earlier post “Do Not Enter The Neighborhood Of Despair“, what I uncovered is that for me despair has a whole lot to do with uncertainty … uncertainty that piles on top of uncertainty until a state of overwhelm is achieved.
We all live with uncertainty, but I think that most of us don’t realize just how DEEPLY uncertainty permeates our daily lives. There are the obvious areas of uncertainty; a job interview or audition, a first date, going home for Thanksgiving perhaps?
If you look a little deeper though I believe you will find that uncertainty is an almost constant companion. We learn to live with uncertainty as if it is the dust that is supposed to be swept under the rug.
“What if I get into an accident while I’m driving today?”
Is that really a question that you ask yourself each and every time you drive? Probably not, but assuredly that question is lingering in your subconscious whether you are consciously aware of it or not. All throughout each and every day we ALL have these insecurities and uncertainties that arise in our minds … sometimes consciously but mostly subconsciously.
These lingering uncertainties that seem insignificant can grow though into an overwhelming state of fear or paranoia.
“What if they are having an affair?”
“What if they don’t like me?”
“What will happen to me if this project falls apart?”
… or even the dreaded,
“What if they die?”
So I meditated on these things today … these little “What ifs and maybes”. I allowed myself to call them up into my conscious mind and then I simply focused on keeping my heart chakra wide open. Every time my mind started to meander (as it inevitably does) I just made sure that I didn’t allow my heart chakra to close throughout.
I then visualized my fears around those uncertainties coalescing into an orb in front of me … and I sent that orb off into the horizon of my mind and asked God to transform this energy and use it in some positive way in the world around me.
I didn’t fight the uncertainties … I allowed them to be … I lived with them and accepted them as a part of my life.
What was the point of this? Well, it taught me a lot about living WITH uncertainties … fighting against something gives it power, and can also drain your energy to the point of exhaustion!
Feel free to try this meditative exercise for yourself … and let me know how it worked for you🙂.
Love and Peace.
- pic from EmilyBalivet
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Religion4All is an idea: that every human being (no matter their race, religion, sexuality, social status, lifestyle, or any other possible factor) is LOVED by God; just … as … they are.
We all are loved by God, and NO religion or person has a monopoly on it. Every single person on this planet is loved equally by God … SO many are cut off from God because they are told they don’t belong. God loves everyone … we ALL are beautiful creations … we don’t need to cringe when we hear the words “God”, or “religion”, or their judgments … God LOVES us all!
There is no requirement to change in order to be LOVED by God, or to LOVE God. God is LOVE, and LOVE is God … period. There is no one who God loves more than anyone else … there are only those who choose to LOVE more … to love God more, and consequently then to love each other more. In doing so, we grow closer to God … and know God.
By opening our hearts, and minds to God (free of boundaries like religion, or social trends); by LOVING God … we are exactly where we are meant to be. If we maintain that openness, never allowing any person or event to make us close our hearts, we will be guided by God to be who we are meant to be.
In that space of openness we can then live a life of LOVE, and be guided to where we are meant to be … forever in LOVE.
Southern California, Northern California, Mission Viejo, Irvine, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Marin, San Jose, San Juan Capistrano, Santa Ana, Palm Springs, Long Beach
Keep Free Of This Howling Mania
I came across this quote today in my search for words to meditate upon. It landed for me as if the “adults” are the people (be they politicians, terrorists, religious figures, etc.) we the “children” have given power to. Gives new meaning to being childlike! 😉
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“Adults, in their dealing with children, are insane and children know it too. Adults lay down rules they would not think of following, speak truths they do not believe. And yet they expect children to obey the rules, believe the truths, and admire and respect their parents for this nonsense. Children must be very wise and secret to tolerate adults at all. And the greatest nonsense of all that adults expect children to believe is that people learn by experience. No greater lie was ever revered. And its falseness is immediately discerned by children since their parents obviously have not learned anything by experience. Far from learning, adults simply become set in a maze of prejudices and dreams and sets of rules whose origins they do not know and would not dare inspect for fear the whole structure might topple over on them. I think children instinctively know this,” Ed said. “Intelligent children learn to conceal their knowledge and keep free of this howling mania.”
– John Steinbeck
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- art by Frank Waaldijk
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Religion4All is an idea: that every human being (no matter their race, religion, sexuality, social status, lifestyle, or any other possible factor) is LOVED by God; just … as … they are.
We all are loved by God, and NO religion or person has a monopoly on it. Every single person on this planet is loved equally by God … SO many are cut off from God because they are told they don’t belong. God loves everyone … we ALL are beautiful creations … we don’t need to cringe when we hear the words “God”, or “religion”, or their judgments … God LOVES us all!
There is no requirement to change in order to be LOVED by God, or to LOVE God. God is LOVE, and LOVE is God … period. There is no one who God loves more than anyone else … there are only those who choose to LOVE more … to love God more, and consequently then to love each other more. In doing so, we grow closer to God … and know God.
By opening our hearts, and minds to God (free of boundaries like religion, or social trends); by LOVING God … we are exactly where we are meant to be. If we maintain that openness, never allowing any person or event to make us close our hearts, we will be guided by God to be who we are meant to be.
In that space of openness we can then live a life of LOVE, and be guided to where we are meant to be … forever in LOVE.
Southern California, Northern California, Mission Viejo, Irvine, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Marin, San Jose, San Juan Capistrano, Santa Ana, Palm Springs, Long Beach
I Must Be Emerald
My words for meditation today:
“All love is expansion, all selfishness is contraction. Love is therefore the only law of life. He who loves lives, he who is selfish is dying. Therefore love for love’s sake, because it is the only law of life, just as you breathe to live.”
– Swami Vivekananda
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“Let passion be your muse. Let her guide and teach you to trust your instincts.”
Sarah Ban Breathnach
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“Whatever anyone does or says, I must be emerald and keep my colour.”
– Marcus Aurelius
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– painting by Sharon Cummings
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Religion4All is an idea: that every human being (no matter their race, religion, sexuality, social status, lifestyle, or any other possible factor) is LOVED by God; just … as … they are.
We all are loved by God, and NO religion or person has a monopoly on it. Every single person on this planet is loved equally by God … SO many are cut off from God because they are told they don’t belong. God loves everyone … we ALL are beautiful creations … we don’t need to cringe when we hear the words “God”, or “religion”, or their judgments … God LOVES us all!
There is no requirement to change in order to be LOVED by God, or to LOVE God. God is LOVE, and LOVE is God … period. There is no one who God loves more than anyone else … there are only those who choose to LOVE more … to love God more, and consequently then to love each other more. In doing so, we grow closer to God … and know God.
By opening our hearts, and minds to God (free of boundaries like religion, or social trends); by LOVING God … we are exactly where we are meant to be. If we maintain that openness, never allowing any person or event to make us close our hearts, we will be guided by God to be who we are meant to be.
In that space of openness we can then live a life of LOVE, and be guided to where we are meant to be … forever in LOVE.
Southern California, Northern California, Mission Viejo, Irvine, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Marin, San Jose, San Juan Capistrano, Santa Ana, Palm Springs, Long Beach
Fill My Heart With Fire – Sappho
My words for meditation today:
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“Love shook my heart
Like the wind on the mountain
rushing over the oak trees.”
~
“Come to me now and loosen me
from blunt agony. Labor
and fill my heart with fire. Stand by me
and be my ally.”
– Sappho
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“Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding … and could you keep your heart in wonder at the daily miracles of your life, your pain would not seem less wondrous than your joy.”
– Kahlil Gibran
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– “Fire in the Heart” painting by Birgit Wudenka McMullen.
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Religion4All is an idea: that every human being (no matter their race, religion, sexuality, social status, lifestyle, or any other possible factor) is LOVED by God; just … as … they are.
We all are loved by God, and NO religion or person has a monopoly on it. Every single person on this planet is loved equally by God … SO many are cut off from God because they are told they don’t belong. God loves everyone … we ALL are beautiful creations … we don’t need to cringe when we hear the words “God”, or “religion”, or their judgments … God LOVES us all!
There is no requirement to change in order to be LOVED by God, or to LOVE God. God is LOVE, and LOVE is God … period. There is no one who God loves more than anyone else … there are only those who choose to LOVE more … to love God more, and consequently then to love each other more. In doing so, we grow closer to God … and know God.
By opening our hearts, and minds to God (free of boundaries like religion, or social trends); by LOVING God … we are exactly where we are meant to be. If we maintain that openness, never allowing any person or event to make us close our hearts, we will be guided by God to be who we are meant to be.
In that space of openness we can then live a life of LOVE, and be guided to where we are meant to be … forever in LOVE.
Southern California, Northern California, Mission Viejo, Irvine, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Marin, San Jose, San Juan Capistrano, Santa Ana, Palm Springs, Long Beach
The Wound is where the Light enters
The fodder of my meditations today:
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“The wound is the place where the Light enters you.”
– Rumi
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“We are healed of a suffering only by experiencing it to the full.”
– Marcel Proust
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“God wants the whole person and He will not rest till He gets us in entirety. No part of the man will do”
– A. W. Tozer
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– painting by Frida Kahlo.
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Religion4All is an idea: that every human being (no matter their race, religion, sexuality, social status, lifestyle, or any other possible factor) is LOVED by God; just … as … they are.
We all are loved by God, and NO religion or person has a monopoly on it. Every single person on this planet is loved equally by God … SO many are cut off from God because they are told they don’t belong. God loves everyone … we ALL are beautiful creations … we don’t need to cringe when we hear the words “God”, or “religion”, or their judgments … God LOVES us all!
There is no requirement to change in order to be LOVED by God, or to LOVE God. God is LOVE, and LOVE is God … period. There is no one who God loves more than anyone else … there are only those who choose to LOVE more … to love God more, and consequently then to love each other more. In doing so, we grow closer to God … and know God.
By opening our hearts, and minds to God (free of boundaries like religion, or social trends); by LOVING God … we are exactly where we are meant to be. If we maintain that openness, never allowing any person or event to make us close our hearts, we will be guided by God to be who we are meant to be.
In that space of openness we can then live a life of LOVE, and be guided to where we are meant to be … forever in LOVE.
Southern California, Northern California, Mission Viejo, Irvine, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Marin, San Jose, San Juan Capistrano, Santa Ana, Palm Springs, Long Beach
You are emperors who have fallen asleep
My words for meditation today:
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“In reply Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”
– Jesus: the Bible – John 3:3
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“It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.”
– Jiddu Krishnamurti
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“You are emperors who have fallen asleep and are dreaming that they have become beggars. Now beggars are trying to become emperors — in dreams they are making great efforts to become emperors, and all that is needed is to wake up!”
– Osho
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Painting by Horace Vernet
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Religion4All is an idea: that every human being (no matter their race, religion, sexuality, social status, lifestyle, or any other possible factor) is LOVED by God; just … as … they are.
We all are loved by God, and NO religion or person has a monopoly on it. Every single person on this planet is loved equally by God … SO many are cut off from God because they are told they don’t belong. God loves everyone … we ALL are beautiful creations … we don’t need to cringe when we hear the words “God”, or “religion”, or their judgments … God LOVES us all!
There is no requirement to change in order to be LOVED by God, or to LOVE God. God is LOVE, and LOVE is God … period. There is no one who God loves more than anyone else … there are only those who choose to LOVE more … to love God more, and consequently then to love each other more. In doing so, we grow closer to God … and know God.
By opening our hearts, and minds to God (free of boundaries like religion, or social trends); by LOVING God … we are exactly where we are meant to be. If we maintain that openness, never allowing any person or event to make us close our hearts, we will be guided by God to be who we are meant to be.
In that space of openness we can then live a life of LOVE, and be guided to where we are meant to be … forever in LOVE.
Southern California, Northern California, Mission Viejo, Irvine, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Marin, San Jose, San Juan Capistrano, Santa Ana, Palm Springs, Long Beach
Discover Your World
The words and topic that has been meditatively at the forefront of my mind:
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“Your work is to discover your world and then with all your heart give yourself to it.”
– Siddhartha Gautama
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“We have the choice of two identities: the external mask which seems to be real … and the hidden, inner person who seems to us to be nothing, but who can give himself eternally to the truth in whom he subsists.”
– Thomas Merton
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“A person often meets his destiny on the road he took to avoid it.”
– Jean de La Fontaine
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– painting by Vladimir Kush.
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Religion4All is an idea: that every human being (no matter their race, religion, sexuality, social status, lifestyle, or any other possible factor) is LOVED by God; just … as … they are.
We all are loved by God, and NO religion or person has a monopoly on it. Every single person on this planet is loved equally by God … SO many are cut off from God because they are told they don’t belong. God loves everyone … we ALL are beautiful creations … we don’t need to cringe when we hear the words “God”, or “religion”, or their judgments … God LOVES us all!
There is no requirement to change in order to be LOVED by God, or to LOVE God. God is LOVE, and LOVE is God … period. There is no one who God loves more than anyone else … there are only those who choose to LOVE more … to love God more, and consequently then to love each other more. In doing so, we grow closer to God … and know God.
By opening our hearts, and minds to God (free of boundaries like religion, or social trends); by LOVING God … we are exactly where we are meant to be. If we maintain that openness, never allowing any person or event to make us close our hearts, we will be guided by God to be who we are meant to be.
In that space of openness we can then live a life of LOVE, and be guided to where we are meant to be … forever in LOVE.
Southern California, Northern California, Mission Viejo, Irvine, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Marin, San Jose, San Juan Capistrano, Santa Ana, Palm Springs, Long Beach
Judge, Jury, and Executioner … of Yourself
The meat of my meditation today:
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“If someone isn’t what others want them to be, the others become angry. Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives, but none about his or her own.”
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“Judging others makes us blind, whereas love is illuminating.”
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“The most terrifying thing is to accept oneself completely.”
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“The Death of Socrates” was painted by Jacques-Louis David
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Religion4All is an idea: that every human being (no matter their race, religion, sexuality, social status, lifestyle, or any other possible factor) is LOVED by God; just … as … they are.
We all are loved by God, and NO religion or person has a monopoly on it. Every single person on this planet is loved equally by God … SO many are cut off from God because they are told they don’t belong. God loves everyone … we ALL are beautiful creations … we don’t need to cringe when we hear the words “God”, or “religion”, or their judgments … God LOVES us all!
There is no requirement to change in order to be LOVED by God, or to LOVE God. God is LOVE, and LOVE is God … period. There is no one who God loves more than anyone else … there are only those who choose to LOVE more … to love God more, and consequently then to love each other more. In doing so, we grow closer to God … and know God.
By opening our hearts, and minds to God (free of boundaries like religion, or social trends); by LOVING God … we are exactly where we are meant to be. If we maintain that openness, never allowing any person or event to make us close our hearts, we will be guided by God to be who we are meant to be.
In that space of openness we can then live a life of LOVE, and be guided to where we are meant to be … forever in LOVE.
Southern California, Northern California, Mission Viejo, Irvine, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Marin, San Jose, San Juan Capistrano, Santa Ana, Palm Springs, Long Beach
The most important thing is – to bloom
My words for meditation today:
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“The lilac branches are bowed under the weight of the flowers: blooming is hard, and the most important thing is – to bloom.”
– Yevgeny Zamyatin
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“One way or another, we all have to find what best fosters the flowering of our humanity in this contemporary life, and dedicate ourselves to that.”
– Joseph Campbell
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“The first thing: existence CARES what happens to you. Existence is continuously praying that the ultimate should happen to you. In fact you are nothing but a hand extended by the whole to reach the ultimate. You are nothing but a wave coming from the whole to touch the moon. You are nothing but a flower opening, so that the whole is filled with fragrance through you.”
– Osho
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“Algerian Beauty in a Lilac Field” is a painting by Leon Louis Tanzi.
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Religion4All is an idea: that every human being (no matter their race, religion, sexuality, social status, lifestyle, or any other possible factor) is LOVED by God; just … as … they are.
We all are loved by God, and NO religion or person has a monopoly on it. Every single person on this planet is loved equally by God … SO many are cut off from God because they are told they don’t belong. God loves everyone … we ALL are beautiful creations … we don’t need to cringe when we hear the words “God”, or “religion”, or their judgments … God LOVES us all!
There is no requirement to change in order to be LOVED by God, or to LOVE God. God is LOVE, and LOVE is God … period. There is no one who God loves more than anyone else … there are only those who choose to LOVE more … to love God more, and consequently then to love each other more. In doing so, we grow closer to God … and know God.
By opening our hearts, and minds to God (free of boundaries like religion, or social trends); by LOVING God … we are exactly where we are meant to be. If we maintain that openness, never allowing any person or event to make us close our hearts, we will be guided by God to be who we are meant to be.
In that space of openness we can then live a life of LOVE, and be guided to where we are meant to be … forever in LOVE.
Southern California, Northern California,Mission Viejo, Irvine, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Marin, San Jose, San Juan Capistrano, Santa Ana, Palm Springs, Long Beach
Pleasure without regret
My words for meditation today:
“If you have done something meritorious, you experience pleasure and happiness; if wrong things, suffering. A happy or unhappy life is your own creation. Nobody else is responsible. If you remember this, you won’t find fault with anybody. You are your own best friend as well as your worst enemy.”
– Swami Satchidananda
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“Happiness is pleasure without regret”
– Leo Tolstoy
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“Arch of Pleasure” painting by Doug Freeman.
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Religion4All is an idea: that every human being (no matter their race, religion, sexuality, social status, lifestyle, or any other possible factor) is LOVED by God; just … as … they are.
We all are loved by God, and NO religion or person has a monopoly on it. Every single person on this planet is loved equally by God … SO many are cut off from God because they are told they don’t belong. God loves everyone … we ALL are beautiful creations … we don’t need to cringe when we hear the words “God”, or “religion”, or their judgments … God LOVES us all!
There is no requirement to change in order to be LOVED by God, or to LOVE God. God is LOVE, and LOVE is God … period. There is no one who God loves more than anyone else … there are only those who choose to LOVE more … to love God more, and consequently then to love each other more. In doing so, we grow closer to God … and know God.
By opening our hearts, and minds to God (free of boundaries like religion, or social trends); by LOVING God … we are exactly where we are meant to be. If we maintain that openness, never allowing any person or event to make us close our hearts, we will be guided by God to be who we are meant to be.
In that space of openness we can then live a life of LOVE, and be guided to where we are meant to be … forever in LOVE.
Southern California, Northern California, Mission Viejo, Irvine, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Marin, San Jose, San Juan Capistrano, Santa Ana, Palm Springs, Long Beach
For what we could become
“The important thing is this: to be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could become.”
– Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
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“When the stories of our life no longer bind us, we discover within them something greater. We discover that within the very limitations of form, of our maleness and femaleness, of our parenthood and our childhood, of gravity on the earth and the changing of the seasons, is the freedom and harmony we have sought for so long.”
– Jack Kornfield
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“Faith does not, in the realist, spring from the miracle but the miracle from the faith.”
– Fyodor Dostoyevsky
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“Wanderer above the Sea of Fog” painting by Caspar David Friedrich
~~~~~~~
Religion4All is an idea: that every human being (no matter their race, religion, sexuality, social status, lifestyle, or any other possible factor) is LOVED by God; just … as … they are.
We all are loved by God, and NO religion or person has a monopoly on it. Every single person on this planet is loved equally by God … SO many are cut off from God because they are told they don’t belong. God loves everyone … we ALL are beautiful creations … we don’t need to cringe when we hear the words “God”, or “religion”, or their judgments … God LOVES us all!
There is no requirement to change in order to be LOVED by God, or to LOVE God. God is LOVE, and LOVE is God … period. There is no one who God loves more than anyone else … there are only those who choose to LOVE more … to love God more, and consequently then to love each other more. In doing so, we grow closer to God … and know God.
By opening our hearts, and minds to God (free of boundaries like religion, or social trends); by LOVING God … we are exactly where we are meant to be. If we maintain that openness, never allowing any person or event to make us close our hearts, we will be guided by God to be who we are meant to be.
In that space of openness we can then live a life of LOVE, and be guided to where we are meant to be … forever in LOVE.
Southern California, Northern California, Mission Viejo, Irvine, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Marin, San Jose, San Juan Capistrano, Santa Ana, Palm Springs, Long Beach
Inner and Outer Alignment
My words to meditate on today … just one quote but, WOW, what a quote:
“Your life has an inner purpose and an outer purpose. Inner purpose concerns Being and is primary. Outer purpose concerns doing and it is secondary. Your inner purpose is to awaken. It is as simple as that. You share that purpose with every other person on the planet – because it is the purpose of humanity. Your inner purpose is an essential part of the purpose of the whole, the universe and its emerging intelligence.
Your outer purpose can change over time. It varies greatly from person to person. Finding and living in alignment with the inner purpose is the foundation for fulfilling your outer purpose. It is the basis for true success.
Without that alignment, you can still achieve certain things through effort, struggle, determination, and sheer hard work or cunning. But there is no joy in such endevor, and it invariably ends in some form of suffering.”
– Eckhart Tolle
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painting by Pablo Picasso, “Tête de Femme”
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Religion4All is an idea: that every human being (no matter their race, religion, sexuality, social status, lifestyle, or any other possible factor) is LOVED by God; just … as … they are.
We all are loved by God, and NO religion or person has a monopoly on it. Every single person on this planet is loved equally by God … SO many are cut off from God because they are told they don’t belong. God loves everyone … we ALL are beautiful creations … we don’t need to cringe when we hear the words “God”, or “religion”, or their judgments … God LOVES us all!
There is no requirement to change in order to be LOVED by God, or to LOVE God. God is LOVE, and LOVE is God … period. There is no one who God loves more than anyone else … there are only those who choose to LOVE more … to love God more, and consequently then to love each other more. In doing so, we grow closer to God … and know God.
By opening our hearts, and minds to God (free of boundaries like religion, or social trends); by LOVING God … we are exactly where we are meant to be. If we maintain that openness, never allowing any person or event to make us close our hearts, we will be guided by God to be who we are meant to be.
In that space of openness we can then live a life of LOVE, and be guided to where we are meant to be … forever in LOVE.
Southern California, Northern California,Mission Viejo, Irvine, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Marin, San Jose, San Juan Capistrano, Santa Ana, Palm Springs, Long Beach
A Lamp Unto Yourself
My words to meditate upon today; on the topic of trusting your intuition and inner, spiritual guidance:
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“Belief consists in accepting the affirmations of the soul; unbelief, in denying them.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson
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“We will discover the nature of our particular genius when we stop trying to conform to our own or to other peoples’ models, learn to be ourselves, and allow our natural channel to open.”
”Trusting you intuition means tuning in as deeply as you can to the energy you feel, following that energy moment to moment, trusting that it will lead you where you want to go and bring you everything you desire.”
– Shakti Gawain
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“Therefore, be ye lamps unto yourselves, be ye a refuge to yourselves. Hold fast to the truth as a lamp; hold fast as a refuge to the truth. Look not for refuge to anyone besides yourselves.”
– Siddhartha Gautama Buddha
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“The Light of the World” painting by William Holman Hunt; at St. Paul’s cathedral in London.
~~~~~~~
Religion4All is an idea: that every human being (no matter their race, religion, sexuality, social status, lifestyle, or any other possible factor) is LOVED by God; just … as … they are.
We all are loved by God, and NO religion or person has a monopoly on it. Every single person on this planet is loved equally by God … SO many are cut off from God because they are told they don’t belong. God loves everyone … we ALL are beautiful creations … we don’t need to cringe when we hear the words “God”, or “religion”, or their judgments … God LOVES us all!
There is no requirement to change in order to be LOVED by God, or to LOVE God. God is LOVE, and LOVE is God … period. There is no one who God loves more than anyone else … there are only those who choose to LOVE more … to love God more, and consequently then to love each other more. In doing so, we grow closer to God … and know God.
By opening our hearts, and minds to God (free of boundaries like religion, or social trends); by LOVING God … we are exactly where we are meant to be. If we maintain that openness, never allowing any person or event to make us close our hearts, we will be guided by God to be who we are meant to be.
In that space of openness we can then live a life of LOVE, and be guided to where we are meant to be … forever in LOVE.
Southern California, Northern California,Mission Viejo, Irvine, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Marin, San Jose, San Juan Capistrano, Santa Ana, Palm Springs, Long Beach
The Narcissus Dilemma
This morning I had a blast from the past via Facebook … social media is incredible that way! When I was in High School (years and years ago) I had my first great love … “the One”. I was obsessively in love with this person. So imagine my surprise, after all these years to hear from the person you loved so deeply. It wasn’t anything exceptional … just, “Hey, it sure has been a long time!” What was interesting was what this stirred up in my meditations today.
Back then, I literally had nothing good in my life … within the scope of a few years everything good had systematically been taken out of my life … my mother, my father, my family, my innocence. It basically was a period of my life … that just flat out sucked. So when this person came along … well, they were my only light, the only thing that made me feel worth anything. I wrote their name hundreds of times on book covers … you know, all the pathetic stereotypes of a teenager in love. I literally made that person my life … and I would have gone to ANY length (literally) to make things work between us.
In meditating on my prior post (“What I do unto the least“), Jung talks about the lengths we go to to show love to others … yet we deny that same love to ourselves. So I thought of how deeply, and obsessively I loved that person way back when. I looked into my life currently and saw some of the very same themes … some of the same ways I love people today. In doing so, I realized that long ago I learned to place my own self worth in whether somebody else loved me. From that I learned how to please people. I morphed into an outgoing people-pleaser in college and in my twenties (and beyond) … I became somebody that everyone liked (seemingly) and enjoyed being around. All of this was based in what I taught myself in High School … that the only way I was worth anything was if I was loved by others. The more I was loved by people around me, the more wonderful I felt … and the more I was rejected the worse off I would be for it.
Well, when you are a performer … there’s QUITE a lot of rejection that goes with that career path! The more rejection I would feel, the more I would throw myself into being loved … that would counterbalance things enough so that my own self-worth was manageable. The problem is, you can’t really make people love you … what you end up learning are all the tricks of this twisted game to generate self-worth. In truth, what you are giving is not Love in and of itself … it is selfish love. It is a commodity to be traded.
As I continued to meditate, the image of Narcissus came into my mind … the ancient figure so vilified for his Self-Love … how selfish he is always portrayed as having been. Even the word today, narcissistic, comes from this story. Well, truthfully, it seems to me that we all could do with a little … no, a LOT … more Self-Love. Maybe not the specific kind of “love” that Narcissus heaped upon himself … but God’s Love … definitely! There certainly are different kinds of Self-Love … hence the dilemma: do we obsess about ourselves at the expense of others? No! Do we accept the beauty that is God’s Love for us as our own self image?? YES!!
I came to the conclusion, toward the end of my meditation, that I am going to spend the rest of this month dedicated to the task of Loving myself. What I mean by this is as follows: every time I begin to engage in that game that we call “love” … that activity that really is more about making ourselves feel good or worthy … I am going to stop, go inward and spend that energy and time Loving my Inner Self. Every time I am about to send an e-mail with the intent of getting self-affirmation in return. Every time I give a gift, or guesture, and the motivation is to get other people to love ME … instead of being a genuine act of Love … I am going to stop, and meditatively pour God’s Love inside myself.
I am going to plug that obsessive love that I had for my first love … into myself … and allow that to change into God’s Love for me … to bring healing into that place. Like my post yesterday on the Phoenix leaving its ashes behind … I am going to rise above the false-love I have learned and focus on God’s LOVE … receive God’s Love for me … and allow that to continue the transformation I have been going through.
I can’t ever truly Love others, until I can give God’s LOVE to myself … until God’s LOVE truly liberates me and turns those old chains … to the ashes I will rise from.
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“Narcissus” painting by Caravaggio
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Religion4All is an idea: that every human being (no matter their race, religion, sexuality, social status, lifestyle, or any other possible factor) is LOVED by God; just … as … they are.
We all are loved by God, and NO religion or person has a monopoly on it. Every single person on this planet is loved equally by God … SO many are cut off from God because they are told they don’t belong. God loves everyone … we ALL are beautiful creations … we don’t need to cringe when we hear the words “God”, or “religion”, or their judgments … God LOVES us all!
There is no requirement to change in order to be LOVED by God, or to LOVE God. God is LOVE, and LOVE is God … period. There is no one who God loves more than anyone else … there are only those who choose to LOVE more … to love God more, and consequently then to love each other more. In doing so, we grow closer to God … and know God.
By opening our hearts, and minds to God (free of boundaries like religion, or social trends); by LOVING God … we are exactly where we are meant to be. If we maintain that openness, never allowing any person or event to make us close our hearts, we will be guided by God to be who we are meant to be.
In that space of openness we can then live a life of LOVE, and be guided to where we are meant to be … forever in LOVE.
Southern California, Northern California, Mission Viejo, Irvine, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Marin, San Jose, San Juan Capistrano, Santa Ana, Palm Springs, Long Beach
Garden of Gethsemane
My meditations today took me further than just my last post (“What Defines You“). In that post I made the statement that God is my center of being. While I certainly felt that statement was true at the time that I wrote it … I also felt that those words rang a little hollow as I thought on the subject more.
To be truly guided by God, for God to completely be your center … you must be dependent SOLELY on God. I cannot make such a claim. To be dependent solely on God means that you go wherever God sends you; whenever and wherever that may be. That means that you must leave everything else behind to go wherever it is that God sends you. At the moment I don’t feel that I am in a place in life where I can do such a thing … we each make decisions that tie us to responsibilities … therefore the claim is not complete. Not yet.
I am confident that I am where God wants me to be, and that I am headed in the direction that God wants me to go … but being completely centered in God is NOT something that I have yet attained. I trust though that such a place is where this path I am on is headed.
The thought also came into my mind that you may not WANT to go where God wants you to go. The prime example of this is Jesus. Jesus did NOT want to die on a cross. In the Bible, it is detailed how Jesus went to the Garden of Gethsemane to meditate and spend time with God … to beseech God for some other way; ANY other way. God had made it clear though what needed to be done … and so that is where Jesus went … no matter the cost.
Do I have such strength or conviction? Do you? I really don’t know … I haven’t been asked such a thing, so I could not say. However, to make a claim of being centered in God ultimately means being willing to go wherever God wants you to go.
So I guess I ASPIRE to being completely centered in God (lol) … and I feel infinitely more centered in God than I have at any other point in my life. There is still quite a ways to go though, I am sure of that!
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Painting by: Domenikos Theotokopoulos, known as El Greco, being shown at The National Gallery in London.
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Religion4All is an idea: that every human being (no matter their race, religion, sexuality, social status, lifestyle, or any other possible factor) is LOVED by God; just … as … they are.
We all are loved by God, and NO religion or person has a monopoly on it. Every single person on this planet is loved equally by God … SO many are cut off from God because they are told they don’t belong. God loves everyone … we ALL are beautiful creations … we don’t need to cringe when we hear the words “God”, or “religion”, or their judgments … God LOVES us all!
There is no requirement to change in order to be LOVED by God, or to LOVE God. God is LOVE, and LOVE is God … period. There is no one who God loves more than anyone else … there are only those who choose to LOVE more … to love God more, and consequently then to love each other more. In doing so, we grow closer to God … and know God.
By opening our hearts, and minds to God (free of boundaries like religion, or social trends); by LOVING God … we are exactly where we are meant to be. If we maintain that openness, never allowing any person or event to make us close our hearts, we will be guided by God to be who we are meant to be.
In that space of openness we can then live a life of LOVE, and be guided to where we are meant to be … forever in LOVE.
Southern California, Northern California, Mission Viejo, Irvine, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Marin, San Jose, San Juan Capistrano, Santa Ana, Palm Springs, Long Beach
Religion4All 
