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Many people get seduced into thinking that by walking a spiritual path they will obtain some sort of divine protection from anything that is too difficult and too painful. The fact is, the spiritual path is difficult. No matter how you slice it, it comes up difficult.
It’s good to know this from the start, because there is a lot of rhetoric out there that professes otherwise. Don’t believe it. There is no way you can sugarcoat, fluff, affirm or treasure map yourself out of this one. Contrary to New Age thought, we do not have nifty magic wands that allow us to simply ask, believe, and then receive all of our wishes. Far from skipping down a rosy path collecting buckets of bliss along the way, you may more often than not find yourself screaming, “This sucks!” As spirit guide, Spotted Eagle, puts it, “The harder you work, the harder it gets”. He also suggests that bliss is overrated. Perhaps because in terms of evolutionary growth, we’ll get a higher ROI (Return on Investment) from encountering challenges than from encountering bliss.
The spiritual path is difficult because rather than protecting you, it will drive you right into the heart of your issues. During this process, be prepared to watch a part of yourself get torn to threads.
If you want, you can wait a few more lifetimes. But why wait? Here are some guide posts and tools to help you along the way.
For those of you who are at a difficult juncture, just a little farther up ahead (oh, all right—after you trudge over Mt. Everest) you will discover something interesting about “difficult”. It’s a perception. Something is difficult only if you perceive it as difficult. Any “obstacle” on the path is only an obstacle if you perceive it that way. It all depends on what thoughts your mind is feeding you. You cannot change the event, but you can change your perception of it. You can change how you are going to dance with it. Experimenting with your perception will alter your experience entirely. No event that the universe places in your path comes with a Do Not Remove tag that says “DIFFICULT–OBSTACLE”. It is only your mind that puts that label on it, and you can remove it anytime. The first tool then is to grant yourself the freedom to experiment and change your perception of what crosses your path.
By the time you’ve trudged over Mt. Everest, much of your story, your belief system, your ego, and the thoughts you identified with all your life have been torn to threads. It’s OK if they’re still hanging loosely all around you. Gather those torn threads and put them in your pocket, because even though the fabric of your old self can never be restored, it will probably be too painful to throw the threads away just yet. You will need to grieve each one, so take your time. Some pieces you can part with easily. Others, you’ll need to swim through what feels like an ocean of grief. There’s no way of short-cutting this process. Allow each thread its due. You must swim through your grief carefully, mindfully, lest you fall into self-pity or blame or guilt or shame or outrage during this process, and then have to begin all over again. Simply grieve what is lost, without going into a story. After you grieve cleanly, each thread will gently drift away. There is no hurry. The second tool then, is to grieve each belief, each agenda, each fantasy that your trudge over Mt. Everest has rendered useless and torn to threads.
When you are presented with your next mountain and look carefully at your perception of it, you will discover something else that will help you travel your path. Seeing it as “difficult” is not only a perception, it can also be clouded with judgment. Your judgment takes you out of the present moment and puts you inside a small box where you are blind. Trying to view the outer world through the narrow and distorted lens of your judgment will never allow you to clearly perceive what’s on your path and how you can best respond to it. Your judgment sits on top of a mountain of resistance. This mountain of resistance is of your own making, and it can loom larger than the ‘mountain’ the universe has put before you. When you resist what the universe has already created, you are taking on the universe, and that is a battle you will never win. It will tire your spirit and deplete your physical energy reserves.
What to do? Let go of your judgments born of your agenda, your time schedule, your beliefs, your fears, etc. Give up your resistance. The universe has put a mountain before you—there it stands. It has already happened, so there is no point in resisting it. It is what it is. Until you learn acceptance, the spiritual path will wear you out. It is not the path that must change; it is you that must change. The more you relinquish your resistance to it, the lighter the going gets. All mountains are opportunities to lighten your load. The third tool is to give up your resistance.
In the final analysis, is the spiritual path difficult? It depends on where you’re standing at any given moment, and from which mountain you are looking. Just make sure you’re not standing on a rock that pretends it is easy. Difficult is a good place to start. Then practice changing your perceptions, grieve what needs to be grieved, and lower your resistance. The path may not be easy, but you can learn to travel it with more ease.
Contributed by Carol Aubrey
         
 By Diana Caughell
Just this! Human evolution can not be seen as separate from cosmic evolution. Our Universe is a living organic entity and we, the human race and our ability for survival are an integral part of this infinitely on-going metamorphosis of great power and energy. Knowing how to dance to the cosmic rules of evolution and what blocks us from accessing the flow of spiritual resources that lead us to a flow of the material ones, helps is to navigate through these challenging times with more purpose and ease.
Today’s challenges ask us to take a fresh look at how our beliefs and perceptions affect our choices we make around money. Today’s financial and social economic crisis triggers some of human’s most fundamental fears, especially the fear of survival. At the same time, it is an opportunity for us to look at what blocks us from accessing the flow of spiritual resources that lead us to a flow of the material ones.
Watching the German news and the European Union’s actions to bail-out Greece to prevent it from going bankrupt, I was again reminded of the continuous disclosures of unethical and fraudulent behavior on Wallstreet and the big American and European banks’. Not a day goes by without reports about new catastrophes showing us how unsustainable our way of life has become. Fear-based, outmoded thinking of lack and scarcity is driving big corporations’ and governments’ re-actions to the various crises. They are desperately trying to fix the symptoms by pumping non-existent money into economically and environmentally unsustainable systems and structures. I cannot help but draw a comparison between a cancer that eats away at the body and this dysfunctional, unsustainable and irresponsible behavior displayed globally in all areas of life.
Because we are all exposed to this great transformative energy, good questions to ask around money and finances are:
- What is my financial situation telling me about who I am?
- How I deal with money tells me how I deal with all other aspects in my life.
- Because money itself has no intrinsic value and is only a symbol for the exchange of energy:
- how do I invest my energy?
- Do I invest my energy in keeping up with the Johnsons, trying to avoid loss or never have enough of it?
Despite these futile endeavors of trying to fix problems at the level of the symptoms, a new human being, a new world, a new economy and new monetary system is emerging like a Phoenix rising from the ashes. While all this chaos is going on, a new world based on love rather than fear and lack is emerging. And, we are its co-creators. We are, each and every one of us, part of this greatest of human transformations ever played out on earth.
Contributed by Diana Caughell
 By Colleen McCarthy-Evans An Rx for all you Mermaids
and Would-be Mermaids
When that old fear grabs hold
Of your heart and your joints
Here’s the prescription you need
And it won’t hurt a bit
You’ll slip out of your fears
And slide back into ease
And that’s why we call it
The Slip’n’Slide.
All you really gotta do
To do the Slip’n’Slide
Is follow my instructions
And you’ll be just fine:
Slip out of your clothes
Slide into your swimsuit
Slip into a sundress
Slide into your sandals
Slip into the front seat
Slide out of the driveway
Slip right on through traffic
Slide into the car park
Slip through the front doorway
Slide on by the pool guy
Slip on cap and goggles
Slide out of your sundress
Slip into the water
Slide over the surface
Slip out of your worries
Slide into a calm
Slip out of your worries
Slide into a calm
Slip out of the water
Slide into the shower
Slip into your sandals
Slide onto a chaise lounge
Slip into the sunshine
Slide into a dream…
And that’s how we do
The Slip’n’Slide.
Contributed by Colleen McCarthy-Evans
 By Rebecca Traver During periods of prolonged dissatisfaction in our lives we can put a lot of pressure on ourselves to make poorly strategized or ill-timed changes in an effort to simply get it over with. Or we settle. If we do come to realize beyond any reasonable doubt that something needs to shift, we often hasten the transition process because we’re so burnt-out or fed up with the way things have been that the idea of waiting for wiser timing and process feels intolerable. We tell ourselves that anything is preferable to what we have now. And so we bolt, or we leap, or we run toward the next situation or circumstance we are convinced is a better way. In my experience, this is an unsustainable course of action and the sweet relief we may feel initially is short-lived and soon gives way to the same old stagnation and we are back at square one, more dispirited than ever.
In the spiritual work I do there is a premium placed on what is called Essence – or the feeling experience we want in our heart of hearts. When we are experiencing the essences that matter to us, like joy, freedom, or beauty to name but a few, we automatically find ourselves in a state of flow and we are also aware of it. This is the reason it is so important to place our attention on essence in small ways as a means of creating it in larger ways. In other words, we might ask ourselves, ‘What is one small step I could take today that would move me in the direction of essence?’
My teacher Grandfather White Elk uses the essence of Freedom to illustrate this point. He says, “Freedom is an essence most people treasure. Ironically, it is also the first essence they will sacrifice when they become afraid. So how do small freedoms lead to big ones? Let us begin with the freedom of choice, a freedom we always have, whether or not we think so at the time. We can notice those times when we invested our time and energy in things that brought us little or no essence. You very likely told yourself, in these cases, ‘I have no choice!’ And this not only collapsed the field of all possibility, it guaranteed that the energy and time you have would continue to flow out into this non-essence thing, and that little or no energy would be returned.
Freedom of choice is the starting place for all transformation. If you think you have none, you are not being truthful. You may say things like ‘But I have to pay the mortgage.’ Or, ‘I don’t want to hurt my partner.’ Or, ‘I cannot make it without this person’s help.’ Or, ‘I can’t quit my job because there is nothing else out there.’ You have exercised your freedom of choice when you think these things. What you think you are choosing is for things to continue the way they are. But there is a big catch here: the Universe doesn’t work this way. The Universe creates itself in a cycle of creation, transformation, and annihilation. So, while you are sitting there thinking you are maintaining the status quo, the Universe is quite happily undermining the foundations that are shoring up you illusions of security.”
Sound familiar? Grandfather White Elk is not suggesting that we abruptly quit our jobs or end our relationships. He is also not advocating using positive thinking, affirmations, or creative visualization as the way to bring about a better quality of life for ourselves. What he is suggesting is that we take a deeper and more honest look at our structures and patterns of thinking, behaving, and choosing. And that, depending on what we find through this inquiry, we be willing to change in a responsible manner whatever we have created in our lives that no longer serves us – both practically and spiritually. So, again, I would encourage you to ask yourself, “What is one small step I could take today that would move me in the direction of essence?” You might well be surprised at how powerful this one small step can be.
Contributed by Rebecca Traver
 By Mary Marshall One question that comes up frequently in the workshops I teach is the diverse roles that animals play in our lives. It seems there is always one person who has the privilege of living with an unusual pet, one that seems to know more than the average dog, cat or horse. The comments made by these owners run along the lines of “my dog seems to understand everything I say,” or “my cat goes over to the phone when my husband calls—before it even rings.” These are the cats that sit quietly with dying nursing home residents in the final hours, and dogs that sense a child’s seizure is imminent. Perhaps even more remarkable are the truly rare animals who are able to give guidance to humans on health, personal or spiritual matters. These creatures do indeed exist; I have had the tremendous fortune to share the last 13 years with a Medicine Horse by the name of Natalie.
Most of us understand the concept of an immortal soul, that which is the essence of the being and which transcends death. Animals also have souls and, like humans, these souls evolve and grow with the experience gained over many lifetimes. To further their growth toward divine perfection these lovely souls choose to take on bodies that will allow them to fulfill their soul contract of guiding, nurturing or assisting on a variety of levels.
We use the phrase “man’s best friend” to describe our canine companions; an apt phrase indeed when these canines become the trusted partner of a search and rescue worker or Seeing Eye dog. Through their service to their human compatriots, these four-legged friends teach compassion, trust, and respect. For some, the lessons go beyond the traditional. I have had the opportunity over the years to work with a highly trained search and rescue dog who has a knack for giving detailed descriptions of where to find victims in locations she has not visited. It took me several different cases to realize that the dog worked in tandem with her spirit guides who fed her the information she needed to successfully complete her missions. Cats seem to have a special affinity for teaching Reiki practitioners and massage therapists how to heal more than the physical body. They often become co-healers with their human counterparts, shifting energy round the room or assisting as needed.
I have found that, without exception, there is an unusual depth to the eyes of these special animals. Looking into their faces one sees and senses wisdom and an old soul. This is true even when the pet is quite young. I have often recounted my experience when I first met Natalie; gazing into her eyes I felt I was looking into the soul of the universe. Nothing else mattered; I just knew that we were meant to be together. I had no idea at the time I purchased Natalie that she would turn my life upside-down and show me a world in which animals “spoke.” There are many special animals out there. When you have the great blessing of meeting one, thank them for being a part of our world. And, if you are one of the really lucky ones who share a home with a special teacher, thank the universe.
Contributed by Mary Marshall
 By Joanna Kaser Dream 6/2
I was walking on the grass with a man, a friend, and I noticed a cute fuzzy little caterpillar. I bent to touch it and it turned into a large white fuzzy centipede-like creature and jumped up and attached itself to me. It had many tiny feet with suction cups on them and wouldn’t let go.
I was terrified and yelled for my friend to take it off me. When he came close and tried to grab it, it turned its weasel face toward him and snapped its teeth as if to bite him. He jumped back in fear. The animal moved up my body and I kept grabbing it, trying to detach it from my body, but I couldn’t pull it off as its suction cup feet held fast. (As I write this I can feel it’s hard strong body resisting me.)
This went on for several minutes and I became more and more terrified as it wound its way around my neck. My friend could not help me at all. Finally, with a burst of adrenalin and determination, I took both hands, and with every bit of strength I had, tore it from its hold around my neck. I threw it to the ground and my friend and I moved away. It looked back at me once and growled, then moved away through the grass.
I awoke feeling shaken and exhausted but also elated and joyful that I had overcome my fear because I know that this creature who masqueraded as “soft and fuzzy” was a symbol of my fear.
Recognizing our fear for what it is and facing it is the first step in overcoming it. If we do not allow ourselves to acknowledge and own our fears, we may move into inauthentic reactions of blame, shame, guilt, pity, self pity or (MY big one) righteous indignation. Any one of these reactions will take us away from our true feelings of fear, sadness, confusion, and anger.
At the time of my dream I was experiencing a sense of overwhelm having to do with several projects that would require an expression of my skills, expertise, and a self confidence that was being blocked by my reaction to my fear. I was spinning in circles, becoming more and more confused, and physically exhausted. It was almost impossible for me to focus on any one thing. Last night I tuned into my feelings and could recognize the authentic pain underlying my fear. I then fell asleep and saw clearly how, in my dream, fear can grab on, go for the jugular and paralyze me.
Our fears are always connected to an old story we are attached to about survival that is no longer true in present time. Present time, this moment, is all we have and we can terrify ourselves with all the “what ifs” and inner “voice of doom” that prevent us from living in the Essence of who we truly are. When we react to our fears instead of respond to them we are living in the past.
The “gift” of this dream for me is to know that I can access my power. That it comes from within me and not from outside myself. That my fear is not in charge of my life and my life is not about surviving. My life is about THRIVING!
Contributed by Joanna Kaser
By Colleen McCarthy-Evans You can start right in practicing forgiveness, the next time you’re searching for a parking space at Trader Joe’s around 5:30 p.m., and instead of cursing that hugely pregnant mother of at least two already, who just cut you off and took the perfect spot that was rightfully yours, you choose instead to offer her the Namaste bow, and send her blessings for a joyful and fruitful shopping and birthing experience.
Another great exercise to try, is when you inadvertently (or advertently) come across your kids’ drug paraphernalia while vacuuming their rooms which you said you would stop doing years ago, you remind yourself that we are all on a sacred path, and just as you would not judge the lack of maturity of a preemie baby, you will not condemn or take personally this behavior in those you gave birth to (while experiencing the most excruciating bone-crunching pain that you can mercifully no longer recall in any detail) no matter what their current level of maturity might be.
To expand on this exercise, you might imagine these young adult children of yours far in the future, as strong and confident contributing members of society (like a few 40 or 50-year-olds you know) making their way reasonably happily in the world ~ hopefully, that is, not based out of your home. And you may notice, that while they have outgrown their drug habits, just like you did, they have picked up a few other bad habits along the way, just like you did. But, they love and care for their children and spouses, pay most of their bills on time, and still call you just to say hi once in a while. And you may note, that they still call you to say hi once in a while, in no small part part, because they know on a subconscious level, that at some point in the distant past you forgave them all the recklessness of their youth.
It might be helpful, as you are practicing forgiveness, to recall one of those guys, one of the several, that broke your tender young girl’s heart. That is, ripped it out of your chest and stomped on it like so many Tuscan grapes. Picture him as he might be now, old, gray …maybe scabby, and perhaps you go so far as to write him an ‘I forgive you’ letter, that he will be genuinely moved to tears by, while reading at the maximum security prison where he is currently incarcerated.
Now take a minute or two to picture your parents, who by the age of 30 had way too many offspring (courtesy of the Pope’s preposterous position on birth control), children who they were sincerely attempting to raise together in a god-fearing household without much money under one roof, and imagine all those pairs of saddle shoes to be polished, socks to be darned, bangs to be trimmed, splinters to be tweezed, and cavities to be filled, and then you might finally understand that the various concepts and substances they used to medicate themselves, may have actually saved their marriage and the lives of a few of your siblings, not to mention your own life.
And while you’re at it, how ‘bout you give a general shout out “You’re Forgiven!” to the various teachers, friends, coaches, family members, acquaintances, agents, publishers, and partners, who over the years failed to see the brilliance in the thing you drew, wrote, painted, sang, danced, spoke, thought, pitched, cooked, served, or volleyed in their general direction. There’s just the slimmest chance it wasn’t quite as brilliant as you may have thought.
And then take another minute to think about God and all He or She might have had on His or Her plate last Tuesday when you used His or Her name in vain. And perhaps the next time you consider making some ridiculous request of God, like you did last Tuesday to wreak some serious havoc on that unsuspecting pregnant woman in the parking lot, just remember that in a dozen years or so, she is going to have several teenagers living with her, and that is punishment enough.
And then please take a minute to ponder this: This is life. This is how it rolls. There are gonna be a whole lot of people to forgive along the way. So you might do yourself a big favor and start practicing today.
Hey, you could even start today with someone easy, like maybe…your own darn-sweet self.
POST SCRIPT: No longer merely a religious or spiritual virtue, research in the last 15 years is suggesting that forgiveness has some tremendous health benefits, too, including but not limited to: improved immune response, lower blood pressure and lower risk of heart attack, reduction in chronic pain, stress and depression. All this, and you get to keep your Fettuccini Alfredo!
Contributed by Colleen McCarthy-Evans
By Rebecca Traver “It’s not because things are difficult that we dare not venture. It’s because we dare not venture that they are difficult.” — Seneca
A couple of afternoons ago as I was getting into my car I noticed that a jeep in the space ahead of me had a license plate which read “HDN FEAR”. Hmmmmm….interesting. Just then a woman walked up and began loading its back seat area with sports equipment. I had to ask. “Excuse me – I was wondering what your license plate refers to?” She turned & smiled as she told me that she is a designer of adventure retreats [how cool is that?] and it is her experience that when people show up for their first day they are very gung-ho, but within an hour or two, their previously submerged fears begin to surface & they freak-out. Their enthusiasm begins to turn into the urge to forget the whole silly adventure idea, refunds are requested, and general expressions of ‘Get me outta here – NOW.’ are voiced.
As I drove away I thought that this is a perfect metaphor for our experience as human beings. The way my imagination puts this together, we choose to incarnate in any given lifetime with some very specific intentions for spiritual growth. What a splendid notion! Then we get here, realize that we have a sometimes messy biology to deal with that comes with some very definite, very real, very intense survival issues and instinctual drives. And there are other people here, too – with those same issues and drives – competing to one degree or another for the very same resources and sense of security we are. Suddenly this ‘human adventure retreat’ takes on a whole new feeling. Namely, fear…fear of uncertainty, to be precise. My teacher Spotted Eagle calls this set of existential issues our ‘biological contract.’
For some of us, the contract is framed around issues of safety and environment. For others, the it revolves around issues of personal value and relationships, and for some, it’s all about power and vulnerability. Furthermore, spiritually speaking, it turns out that breaking this contract and overcoming our fear of uncertainty is the whole point of being here. How do we deal with this rather sobering situation? As a rule, rather poorly it seems. As children, most of us learn the ropes from caregivers who have their own issues around these things, and who, in turn, learned from their caregivers with similar issues…and so on.
It takes great courage and willingness to take an unflinching look into our deepest core fears and then be willing to own them, perchance to shift them. Our desires for authenticity and emotional freedom conflict mightily with the agenda of our biological survival drives. Nowhere else is our sense of risk more acute and our efforts to turn away from that risk more fully developed than in the core of our resistance to being here, being present. What if we could learn to choose to turn into the fear, to stand in the present moment – eyes wide open, willing to see what is truly here, willing to feel it all, willing to let go?
I do not think that one has to go on an adventure retreat in order to get a sense of the quality and depth of one’s fears. Ordinary life seems to do a pretty good job of that. And let’s not forget that there can be a powerfully addicting attachment to the adrenaline rush of deliberately putting ourselves in risky situations which, as I see it, is more the imitation of willingness. The good news here is that we also come equipped with gifts and talents and an abiding, though often unconscious, desire to live from our authenticity. It may take us our whole lives to connect with, much less realize, that desire, if ever, but, boy what an adventure – what a brilliant design!
Contributed by Rebecca Traver
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