In Her Authority

I have been revisiting a pattern of physical pain that was years ago key in my journey. Back then—ah, interesting—it was a "back" problem that caused me to quit my job and totally redirected the work I do in the world. It is how I became interested in holistic health, and it is something I am profoundly grateful for.

Over the winter I had some slight symptoms, but this past week I have been experiencing a lot of discomfort in my left hip, knee, and leg. It is odd that it comes and goes. Some times I have barely been able to hobble around, and other times I have had absolutely no sensation of discomfort.

This morning I looked up hip and leg problems in Louise Hay's Heal Your Body. Ah, fear of going forward in major decisions, nothing to move forward to…. The affirmation: I am in perfect balance. I move forward in life with ease and with joy at every age.

I drew an Angelic Messenger Card. The messages are by Meredith L. Young-Sowers, and the photography was done by Carol Duke. You can access them online, but I was blessed to be gifted a deck by a friend who had allowed us to rent her home on Pine Island the past three winters. In the three years of using this deck, I have never previously drawn this card!

#14 Inner Authority

Present Challenge

Gaining confidence in using your inner wisdom to sustain relationships.

By drawing this card of Partnership you are being urged to reconsider your opinion of yourself. In appreciating your own inner beauty and inestimable value you become better able to support and interact with the diverse opinions and attitudes expressed by others.

You may be feeling that others often disregard you, fail to meet your needs, or override or undervalue you and/or your efforts. You may feel sometimes overshadowed by others who have more inner authority. You long to be fully united with your own true nature, to eliminate the inner hollowness and find renewed deep health and purpose. This card comes to you in order to encourage you to nurture your inner authority so that you are better able to move into meaningful and fulfilling relationships.

Angelic Message - Inner Authority

Inner authority is spiritual energy born from union with the Divine. Inner authority is seen in what you say and what you don't say, in the quality, tone, and reverence with which you approach all living things. When you speak out of love, out of commitment, out of determination, you are ordering the forces of energy within you and the Universe toward the harmony of purpose, and explosion of power. This inner combustion takes place when you turn your attention inward and give time to your spirit.

You do not need to ask permission to love yourself, because loving yourself is the natural state of humanness. You are encouraged by the Universe to find and live the fullest expression of your own unique nature; nothing less is sufficient to you or God. Your inner authority develops as your need for outer authority diminishes and as you listen continually for the voice of your inner mind, your spirit.

Possessing inner authority is at the core of creating and sustaining lasting relationships and spiritual community. True community is based on each person's willingness and ability to maximize each opening to spiritual growth while also honoring this process in the others. People have an underdeveloped inner authority from a lack of commitment to the purpose of their own life, which is to give rise to their spirit's fullest bloom.

Inner authority comes not from an immediate material or spiritual "success" but from perseverance. You gain inner authority with the belief and inner expectation, that you do have an essential inner beauty that is priceless, worth struggling to uncover and to know. You've come into this life having already lived and blossomed before in many extraordinary ways. Your search now is to uncover this lifetime's essential core so that you may also indirectly absorb the learning from past lives. Your journey is the awakening of your inner authority, and this voice, this spiritual energy, can contribute to your fulfillment in relationships and act as the force to bring you and your Earth into peaceful times. 

Spiritual Opportunity

The guidance available to you through the flower image on this card is to take a long, hard look at the future you hope to create and to realize that it will never be simpler or more difficult than in this moment. The multiple colors, shapes, and designs within this flower show you, symbolically, that your life is never all good or all bad but is rather a continual blend of the emotional and spiritual experiences and energies. Your life is never totally clear of obstructions or factors that need resolution. The challenge is to begin to create, one moment at a time, knowing that today, like tomorrow, will have its conflicts.

Your guidance suggest that you can step up to today's opportunities because you have the seeds of spiritual love and awareness already in your life, now within this magnificent blend of sorrow, joy, loss, and gratitude. In placing more emphasis on exploring your own inner authority, you'll be less easily sidetracked or put off by the demands and expectations of others and more able to create the future you choose.

Application

Write down what your inner authority spiritual voice "sounds" like to you. Observe the people and circumstances in which you already use your inner authority. How does it feel when you use this more aligned inner energy? Why don't you use it with certain others? What do you need in order to use this inner authority voice more often?

Ask those you live with or your closest family members or friends to discuss the idea of an inner authority voice. Ask each person to share with you information about the times and the ways they are able to use their own inner authority voice. Ask each person how each can help the others call forth their own inner voices more often. Place a small sticker on your daily calendar identifying the days in which you feel you are actively using your inner authority and thereby reinforcing this new alignment.

Letting this amazing message seep into my consciousness, I felt myself affirming God's will in my life, and for just a moment I slipped into an old belief system that God might be asking me to do something I do not really want to do (or feel capable of doing). Almost instantly I gratefully recalled these words of truth I had just read yesterday in the Deep Spring Center Thought for Today!

As I was sharing all of this with a dear friend, I noticed that throughout the document the voice to text function had replaced "inner authority" with "in her authority." Our world is recovering from the Patriarchal view of God as a strong-armed father who knows best. What an injustice to this quiet, sacred, vibration of the Divine within our hearts. 

I have begun affirming the truth: I am in perfect balance. I move forward in life with ease and with joy at every age IN HER AUTHORITY. You are welcome to join me. I think we might just be rewriting HIStory.

Two Worlds

Years ago, I opened a sermon with this illustration: Three guys have been stranded on a desert island for a very long time when one of them finds a magic lantern containing a genie. The genie grants them each one wish. The first guy wishes he was off the island and back home─and poof!, he is back home. The second guy wishes the same thing─and poof!, he is gone too. The third guy says, "I'm lonely. I wish my friends were back here with me."

It is really important to keep our wits about us when we are making our wishes, isn’t it….

One of the things about wishing is that it can come as a result of not being present with or appreciative of what currently is. I have been very aware of that the past few weeks as we were preparing to leave Pine Island and come home to Michigan, especially given that the home we had been wintering in for the past three years would no longer be available to us next season.

As a child, feeling homesick was a very common emotion, and I can bump into that feeling even as an adult, so I made a conscious choice to do my best to stay present. I wanted to neither feel grief about letting go of a space that had been very nurturing to me, nor to long for another place that is filled with people that I love.

Wrapping my days with this intention, I organized my departure well enough to enjoy nature visits with Nancy, a friend I share both Michigan and Florida with. Nature seemed to respond to my intention in spades! 

Visiting one of the nearby eagle nests, Nancy and I were treated to soaring eagle chick, not once, but twice! And the day before my departure, she and I had the most amazing dolphin sighting. 

Our encounter was so prolonged, and unusual even in a setting where dolphins are common, I looked up the symbolic meaning of dolphin. Please honor the author by checking out the link for yourself, and enjoy this wonderful summary: 

Christian symbolism conveys the dolphin as an aspect of Christ. Dolphins seen in Christian art are symbolic of resurrection. Some artists utilize the protective, stabilizing, compassionate demeanor of the dolphin as a message of wellbeing to the pure of heart. 

Some artistic renditions speak of dolphins transporting the spirits of the faithful to Christ's side upon leaving their physical bodies. 

This dolphin meaning is mimicked in ancient Greece where legend tells us the dolphin was responsible for carrying the souls of the dead to the Islands of the Blessed.

• Playfulness
• Transcendence
• Gentleness
• Harmony
• Intelligence
• Contentment
• Friendship
• Community
• Resurrection
• Generosity
• Power

The following evening, as we had left Florida and were heading north, we walked to a small restaurant near the hotel we were staying for the night. As I walked the short block, I was having cellular memory of other times and places I had walked to dinner. It was so clear that dolphin meaning was working:

This is a key understanding because the dolphin meaning is connected with themes of duality. It has to do with the dolphin being both fish and mammal. It is both of the water, and an air breather. Ergo, dolphin symbolism talks to us about "being in two worlds at once."

As I bid farewell to Florida and hello to Michigan via some delicious days with Stacey and Doug and Brad and Christina and Adam and Courtney in Tennessee, I say thank you to two worlds. There is great love for all!

Remember to Enjoy Yourself!

Maybe the most important teaching is to lighten up and relax.

It’s such a huge help in working with our crazy mixed-up minds to remember that what we’re doing is unlocking a softness that is in us and letting it spread.

We’re letting it blur the sharp corners of self-criticism and complaint.

When Things Fall Apart by Pema Chödrön

Perhaps other cultures have an easier time of it, but as Westerners, it may not come as a huge surprise to you that humans are not usually very compassionate with ourselves (or with one another). Previously, I have written and spoken about how ingrained blame and shame are to those of us who grew up hearing the story of Adam and Eve. In that story, the female archetype caused the male archetype to do something bad. In the book of Genesis, Chapter 3, Verse 12:

The Man said, “The Woman you gave me as a companion, she gave me fruit from the tree, and, yes, I ate it.”

God said to the Woman, “What is this that you’ve done?”

The freedom comes from our being able to sit with the pain of what is. I love how Gary Zukav and Linda Francis have provided a better way of relating through their Spiritual Partnership Guidelines. 

Essentially we are able to become aware of our reactions, especially strong emotions, and take responsibility for our feelings, experiences, and actions. Imagine if the story we were told as a foundation for our faith journey went more like this: 

The Man said, “I am sorry. We did not intend any wrong. The fruit was there and we both had some.”

God said to the Woman, “That is a good man you have there.”

Of course, we do not have to pretend we are in relationship with a good man or a good woman. We are all capable of bringing a greater consciousness to each of our relationships. We can learn to act from the healthiest part of our being, and to easily say, “Oops,” if we notice that we were not in integrity about something. 

This winter I have been focused on learning more and more how individuals can overcome the biology of addiction. Tommy Rosen of Recovery 2.0 fame is someone I have come to appreciate in that area. I read about an experience he had at a facility for recovery of 13-20 year-olds. When he asked this group why they had come there, he expected to have them say they were there because of drugs and alcohol. What he heard, instead, in every case, was they were there because of anxiety and trauma.

You can download a free pdf version of the Spiritual Partnership Guidelines. You have to love what it says at the top (and bottom) of the page:

PRINT • SHARE • PLACE EVERYWHERE • EXPERIMENT WITH YOUR LIFE 

And remember to enjoy yourself!

Max and The Web of LIFE

Hank’s friend was in Michigan this winter rather than in Florida golfing with Hank. John lost his spot on Jerry's golf league. About 1:00 pm today, John’s phone rang. Hank was calling to get the name and address of the golf course they were going to play on Tuesday. “I will call my brother and call you right back with that information.”

Jerry answered the phone, but John could barely make out what he was saying about his dog, Max. “I cannot think about golf right now. We left Max at Kathy’s so we could all go out to dinner last night. When we got back, Max had broken through a screen. We have been out looking, but he is still missing. We may not even be golfing on Tuesday.” John hung up the phone near tears himself.

“He will try to find his way home,” I said. We both knew how difficult that would be. Max had gone missing from somewhere other than his own home, and would be trying to find his way to a “seasonal” home, along the crazy-busy roads in that area at this time of year….

Never realizing how significant it would turn out to be, John and I had had the opportunity to be part of a happy ending when a lost dog named Sophie got home safely thanks to social media (See: The Tool is Neutral).

Sophie’s information had been posted on the Pine Island Prospect Facebook page, so I quickly posted Max’s photo there. Within minutes, a wonderful woman shared it on the Cape Coral Pet Lost and Found Facebook page. This was the area where Max had gone missing!

Going to that page, I was greeted by a photo of Max with this message: “Picked up this cutie last night at the corner of Skyline Drive in front of El Rio golf course. Please share so we can get him home. Thanks.”

Calling Jerry, I almost yelled into the phone, “Max is safe! I am looking at a photo of him right now! He was found last night, and the woman who found him has your number now!” 

“A woman just called me!” Jerry quickly responded.

“Take the call. She has Max!” Hanging up, John and I shared tears of gratitude and awe. One hour after we learned Max was missing, Jerry and Max were reunited.

Professor of World Religions, Huston Smith, said, "Daily the world grows smaller, leaving understanding the only place where peace can find a home.” Grace is the only word to describe what happens when we follow the threads woven together to reveal how Max and Sophie and Hank and Jerry—and everyone and everything in life is connected in one grand web.