A Shot in the Dark: On the Business of Vaccines

Tetanus bacilli (clostrium tetani) (Photo credit: Sanofi Pasteur)

There is much controversy around vaccines. A weighty social contingent claims that they are beneficial and necessary. While that may be true to a degree, a recent experience with tetanus cocktail that included diphtheria and polio is making me question the mainstream attitudes. About two weeks ago a doctor gave me a shot of the vaccine as standard procedure. I didn’t question, but accepted it. She injected it into my back just beneath the shoulder blade. The area remained tender for days, but I assumed it was just part of the process. Then I felt progressively worse, but again didn’t put the pieces together. As the week wore on my hands, forearms, and shoulders became increasingly tense. I massaged, stretched, rubbed, did yoga – all of the usual things that keep my writer’s hands and body in good shape every day. But nothing helped.

After ten days I was in such pain that I cried. Holding a pen to write became a painful challenge. My hands were curled up in tension; my forearms burned. Then I did some research on tetanus, the disease. Tetanus contracts the muscles and affects the nerves. Wikipedia describes it as “a medical condition characterized by a prolonged contraction of skeletal muscle fibers. The primary symptoms are caused by tetanospasmin, a neurotoxin…” It affects the nerves and cause tightening and pain.

I was being poisoned and my body had the disease. It is one of the more painful physical experiences I’ve known. To clear it I did a detox with renowned energy healer, Deena Spear, a Barbara Brennan Healing School graduate and author of “Ears of the Angels.” In about an hour most of the pain was gone and it hasn’t returned.

As I read up on vaccines and on the controversy surrounding them I read that tetanus requires pretty dirty and infected conditions to grow in a body. Much of the fear of tetanus grew particularly during the civil war when disinfecting and treating wounds properly posed big challenges. The rusty nail legend that I grew up with, where a scratch from a nail can send you into convulsive, lock-jawed fits, seems pretty far from the reality.

The U.S. Center for Disease Control reveals their data on tetanus. From 2001 to 2008  233 cases of tetanus were reported. “Average annual incidence during that period was 0.10 per 1 million population overall and 0.23 among persons aged ≥65 years,” according to the CDC. I wonder if one has a bigger chance of winning the New York State lottery?  The CDC continues, “Incidence among Hispanics was nearly twice that among non-Hispanics, a difference accounted for by 16 cases among Hispanic injection drug users (IDUs). Among the 92 patients for whom tetanus toxoid-containing (TT) vaccination status was available, 37 (40.2%) had received no doses of TT vaccine. Thirty (15.4%) of 195 patients had diabetes, and 27 (15.3%) of 176 were IDUs (injection drug users). For 51 patients with an acute wound and a surveillance report complete enough to evaluate tetanus prophylaxis, 49 (96.1%) had not received appropriate prophylaxis [wound care]. Tetanus remains a rare but life-threatening disease in the United States.”

I don’t know about the other diseases that my vaccine included, but I do know that what was injected into my body felt incredibly debilitating and painful. And yet similar injections are given to children everyday. I am certainly no medical expert and each individual must make their own choices about what to do with vaccinations. My personal experience and research reveal that it’s time to reflect on the societal norms and look deeper at their necessity. Many of the unsanitary conditions that society faced previously are virtually non-existent now. Perhaps it’s time to question the wisdom of indiscriminately accepting vaccines as the norm and begin to explore their use in a more discerning way — and examine their contents with more rigor. I’m happy to report that through the energy healing detox, I am back to the keyboard and the pain and muscle contractions have ceased. It’s up to you to explore your own experiences and recognize what is right for you. But be sure to do the research and think/feel for yourself.

Bio: Debra Moffitt is the award winning author of Awake in the World: 108 Practices to Live a Divinely Inspired Life and “Garden of Bliss: Cultivating the Inner Landscape for Self-Discovery” (Llewellyn Worldwide, May 2013). A visionary, dreamer and teacher, she’s devoted to nurturing the spiritual in everyday life. She leads workshops on spiritual practices, writing and creativity in the U.S. and Europe. More at http://www.awakeintheworld.com and on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/DebraMoffittAwakeintheWorld

Making Your Heart Sing with Garden of Bliss

Bliss Dance on Treasure Island (Photo credit: Michael Holden)

This interview with award-winning author, Debra Moffitt by Llewellyn editor, Anna Levine explores Debra’s new book, Garden of Bliss.

1.  Garden of Bliss is your second book (the first being Awake in the World). What inspired you to write your new book?

Garden of Bliss was inspired by secret gardens and by the desire to share a very active and conscious process for cultivating one’s inner landscape through connecting with intuition, learning to pay attention to and trust dreams, and allowing one’s self to be guided by inner wisdom.  For people interested in a spiritual journey, I aimed to reveal how the process works through drawing attention to the different seasons of soul growth. These include, breaking new ground, planting seeds and cultivating the inner landscape of the spirit through different seasons. The final section is about harvesting joy and making your heart sing.

2.      You use the metaphor of an inner garden for personal bliss. How did you decide on such a representation? I spent a lot of time in Europe and secret gardens kept popping up in casual conversations across languages and cultures. In France during a deep conversation with a man, he suggested I take my reflections into my “jardin secret” to explore more deeply. Later in Italian-speaking Switzerland a similar situation occurred and someone said, to explore my spiritual questions in my “giardino segreto.” I started to research the origin of secret gardens and discovered that secret gardens sprang up in Europe during the Middle Ages, a chaotic period plagued by wars, drought, and power struggles where little could grow outside of the protected walls. Secret gardens became sacred, walled enclosures where healing herbs, fruit trees, and delicate flowers could be tended and harvested. I find that the symbol of the secret garden is a very appropriate symbol for our times. It’s a place within us where we can safely explore our spirits, allow ourselves to grow, reconnect with emotions, nurture ourselves with loving kindness, and find joy.

 3.      Your previous book, Awake in the World, provided 108 exercises to help readers live a divine life.  Does Garden of Bliss provide similar exercises? Yes, Garden of Bliss also offers suggestions at the end of chapters on how to tend to one’s inner life. There’s a guided visualization to help readers discover what their secret garden of the soul looks like and what messages it holds for them. I love to work with dreams, symbols, and synchronicity and there are sections that encourage readers to pay attention to the signs in their lives and discover the language of their soul. There are exercises on staying grounded – an essential element in soul growth – and one of my favorites is to create the fragrance of one’s life using head, heart, and base notes like perfumers do.

 4.      Garden of Bliss was described by Janna McMahan, best-selling author of Anonymity and The Ocean Inside, as being “[l]ike Eat, Pray, Love without the whine.” What do you make of that comparison? I worked on Garden of Bliss before reading Eat, Pray, Love and when I finally read it I couldn’t help but notice that author, Elizabeth Gilbert, had also found her spiritual self through travel. Garden of Bliss is set in Europe where I lived for many years. It also touches on travels to Egypt, India, and my return to Charleston, South Carolina. It reveals personal stories (some of them quite painful) with the aim of exploring the exciting, mystical and sometimes challenging experiences of spiritual growth, and it ultimately aims to encourage others to set out on the journey or continue along the way if they’ve started.

 5.      What do you hope your readers will take away from Garden of Bliss?  I have found that reading about other’s spiritual experiences has helped me to understand my own. I hope that readers will feel inspired to explore their inner secret gardens and cultivate them. In one secret garden workshop I presented we did an exercise on planting seeds, values and qualities that we wished to grow in our secret gardens. Later I talked about the effort it requires to calm and train the mind and find peace. A woman said to me afterward, “I never realized you had to work at it!” The discovery changed her life and she actively began to cultivate peace in her inner secret garden. The result was that she found her world held less and less drama and became more peaceful too. Cultivating inner sacred space means facing some of the darkness within us. But as we clear out the junk, we become more peaceful and find joy. So the take away from Garden of Bliss is that all of those things we think we’ll find outside in the world – happiness, satisfaction, peace – are actually inside of us and we find them by actively going inside and excavating.

 Bio: Debra Moffitt is the award winning author of Awake in the World: 108 Practices to Live a Divinely Inspired Life and “Garden of Bliss”. A visionary, dreamer and teacher, she’s devoted to nurturing the spiritual in everyday life. She leads workshops on spiritual practices, writing and creativity in the U.S. and Europe. More at http://www.awakeintheworld.com and on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/DebraMoffittAwakeintheWorld

Karma 101: Cause and Effect for Beginners

Karma simply means the effects of our actions. It’s like planting a seed and watching it grow. The more conscious we are of the seeds we plant through our thoughts, words, and action, the more we can consciously shape our destiny. When we eat a little too much today, tomorrow, and again the next day, the result is a need to buy new pants to accommodate that expanding waist line. That’s karma. Like overeating, the consequences or results of karma are not immediate. It takes months or even years (and some would say lifetimes) for some actions to bear fruits. Though it’s often associated with negativity, karma can be good and bring good results too. Anyone raising a child knows that each day of loving care results in a healthy adult. Writers putting pen to paper know that long-term, the many words together can result in a book.

Our lives are created through each moment. The decisions we make, either conscious or not, create our future. If we follow human values and focus on uplifting thoughts, words and actions, we can create a beautiful and meaningful life. This is guided by a deep spiritual connection to the Divine.

If we choose the path of ego instead, then we will harvest the results of ego. We see it clearly in the lives of criminals. A small decision to lie may dull the conscience which warns when actions bear bad karma. The conscience wears away and the inner mechanism that keeps him or her from doing acts that harm himself and others no longer functions. He may move onto cheating, theft and even murder.

By listening to that inner voice of wisdom that elevates us to take the harder path and do the right thing at the right time, we naturally know what direction to take. Take a moment to contemplate where you are and the thoughts, decisions and actions that have brought you here. Consider, too, where you’d like to be in a year or ten years. If you’re searching for peace, love and compassion, begin by extending the same to others today. Every action counts.

 Bio: Debra Moffitt is the award winning author of Awake in the World: 108 Practices to Live a Divinely Inspired Life and “Garden of Bliss”. A visionary, dreamer and teacher, she’s devoted to nurturing the spiritual in everyday life. She leads workshops on spiritual practices, writing and creativity in the U.S. and Europe. More at http://www.awakeintheworld.com and on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/DebraMoffittAwakeintheWorld

Tress Symbolize Spiritual Growth. This one if Val Verzasca appears perfect.

Cool Riders Inspire Spiritual Balance

Recently while out on a walk I saw some guys doing some really cool things with bikes. It was like graceful choreography as they balanced on pedals on the wheel axels, swung the bodies of the bikes around and all while moving forward and sometimes backward too. It was pretty amazing and I couldn’t help but think of Zen meditation as I watched. These guys were totally focused. Their sport is called “flatland” and BMX bikes are the tools they use to create some imaginative moves that blew me away. I couldn’t help but see the parallel between the sport and spiritual life so I talked to Kevin Fessenmeyer, a thirty-something flatland biker with a passion for sports about his experience. Kevin gives off a calm that’s not unlike that of a yoga practitioner. In fact he says that many of his flatland friends do yoga for agility and concentration.  

Like in meditation, the sport requires intense practice and focus. It sometimes takes weeks to master a figure. And sometimes you fail. If you keep at it too long at one go it can get pretty frustrating, Kevins says. At a certain point it’s best to take a break and come back again later once you’re calm and focused again. (I’ve had that with meditation too!) Like with flatland biking, balance is a key to spiritual life. In daily life staying balanced requires effort, practice, and focus too. It’s easy to get pulled off balance by things around us. If a boss gives us a hard time, if our health falters, if someone we trust bails on us, it’s easy to lose balance. But when we fall or lose balance, the ideal is to go inside through meditation or contemplation and relocate that feeling of balance and being centered. Like doing flatland biking, keeping balance means making effort and concentrating on the direction you’re taking.

Do you remember what it feels like to ride a bike? For a moment conjure up that feeling in your body, mind, and spirit. When you start out there’s a moment of doubt – especially if you’re just learning to ride. At first it feels shaky and challenging. But all of a sudden you get it. You learn from practice that there’s point where you move forward and magically balance on top of the tires. Everything flows in a smooth motion and you’re filled with a sensation of freedom and joy. Balance feels good. It’s when all things come together in perfect harmony and you can roll with the terrain relatively unaffected by the big ups and downs. Sure you might have to pedal harder if you reach a hill, but there are also times where it’s possible to coast and take it easy simply because you’re in the flow of life and all moves forward naturally like a river.

This week, remember that ease and flow of riding a bike and tap into it. Set the intention to bring more balance into your life and watch what happens.

Bio: Debra Moffitt is the award winning author of Awake in the World: 108 Practices to Live a Divinely Inspired Life and “Garden of Bliss”. A visionary, dreamer and teacher, she’s devoted to nurturing the spiritual in everyday life. She leads workshops on spiritual practices, writing and creativity in the U.S. and Europe. More at http://www.awakeintheworld.com and on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/DebraMoffittAwakeintheWorld

Photos courtesy of Gary Eisinger.

How To Trust Intuition: An Interview with Intuitive, Scotti Putnam Holloway

English: Albert Einstein Français : portrait d’Albert Einstein (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“I believe in intuitions and inspirations…I sometimes FEEL that I am right. I do not KNOW that I am.” ― Albert Einstein

“Intuition is the voice of our soul,” says intuitive Scotti Putnam Holloway. Scotti is the founder of SP Divine Explorations. She has studied with incredible teachers including bestselling authors, Sonia Choquette and Doreen Virtue, and she travels worldwide to do readings and teach about intuition. I’ve watched her trust her intuition to grow her business and to use it as a way to be of service to others. In the following interview she helps us understand what intuition is and ways to allow it to guide us especially during challenging times.

Q: More and more people are realizing that there’s something more than just the rational mind that guides and prompts us. Some of us call it soul-Self, Higher Power, Spirit and it nudges us into action through intuition. How would you define intuition?

Scotti: I define Intuition as that ancient old wisdom or “knowing” that we are all born with and as we learn to listen,develop and act upon the messages from this beautiful higher power, we rediscover that which we have always known. Simply put, Intuition is the voice of our soul.

Q: What are some of the best ways to develop intuition and to learn to trust it?

Scotti: There are four separate steps that I talk about in my classes that help one tap into and develop their intuition. The first is to simply be open to being intuitive. Many of us block this gift from our everyday life fearing judgement from others. The second is to expect to hear this knowledge as we ask Divine Spirit for information.The next is to trust the information that you receiving when it comes to you in it’s many forms of arrival. And the last would be to Act on the information that you have been given. The more that we respond to this information from our higher self, the more information that we will receive.

Q: What have been some of the ways that your intuition has guided you?

Scotti: My intuition truly guides every moment of my daily life very much like having my own personal GPS system. By listening to and being in tune to the subtle messages  from Divine Spirit, I have made healthy decisions in different areas of my life  including finding the new building for my business, creating and surrounding myself with a community of happy,healthy like minded soul family, and have most recently found a beautiful house in a wonderful neighborhood that I have long admired. Yes, this sacred guidance system has never led me astray.

Q: A lot of people seem to be experiencing tough times especially with finances, jobs and the economic challenges. How can intuition help guide the way through this?

Scotti: It does seem that the fear base of the collective whole is at an all-time high which leads to a tough time in staying grounded and centered and truly listening to our intuition. It is important during these times to check in daily with yourself and tune into how you are feeling. What areas in your body are perhaps a little “off”? When trying to get through the tougher times in life and especially when faced with a difficult decision, simply stand still for a moment, take a deep breath in and and ask yourself out loud whatever you are looking for an answer about. If the feeling that you receive after asking the question feels exciting or expansive, then you should proceed forward. Likewise, if the feeling that you feel after asking the question feels constricted or fearful, then it may not be the right move for you to make in that moment. For me personally, I think that the best way a person can stay in- tune with their higher self, is through the ritual of daily spiritual practice. This should be a part of your morning routine just as combing your hair or brushing your teeth are. Keeping in mind that everyone’s definition of daily spiritual practice vary’s greatly. For me it is a simple, “Thank you,Thank you, Thank you” before my feet hit the ground, followed by a beautiful prayer from A Course in Miracles that states ”Where would you have me go? What would you have me do? What would you have me say? and to whom?” Giving myself to the service of others and truly expecting great things to happen during the course of my day.

Finally, I do a morning and an evening meditation. Please remember that It’s not so much about  what you do to connect with your higher self, it’s just important that you take the time to make the connection.

*****

Debra Moffitt is the award winning author of Awake in the World: 108 Practices to Live a Divinely Inspired Life and “Garden of Bliss”. A visionary, dreamer and teacher, she’s devoted to nurturing the spiritual in everyday life. She leads workshops on spiritual practices, writing and creativity in the U.S. and Europe. More at http://www.awakeintheworld.com and on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/DebraMoffittAwakeintheWorld

Fifty Shades of Love

Love is a promise… (Photo credit: leezie5)

 

 

As Valentine’s Day approaches hearts turn to notions of romantic love. But, as shown in Fifty Shades of Gray, love doesn’t mean the same thing to everyone, and there are at least as many shades of love as there are people in the world. In the Middle Ages the art of courtly love became popular. Knights became infatuated with maidens and went off to battle with their beloved in mind. That love often remained Platonic and never breached the doors of any bedroom. Today, as society seems obsessed with relationships and falling in love, it seems our identity is defined by whether we’re in love or not, with whom, for how long and if we plan to marry, separate, divorce or have an affair.  But more and more people who are on a spiritual path are seeking also that their relationships hold a spiritual essence. Relationships can become a way of consciously growing and expanding.

In partnership we often find that the person in front of us mirrors some aspect of ourselves back to us. If it’s an aspect we love then we’re happy. On the other hand if it’s an aspect that we dislike, we turn on our partner and berate him or her, grow angry, frustrated and try to kill the demon by attaching our loved one. If we’re lucky our partner works with us to help us face our weaknesses and gently support us to grow into a better person.

In relationships, more than most any other realm, we are tested to discover who we really our. The ways we choose to love and accept others tells a lot about how we love and accept ourselves. Love, at its best, encompasses many more tones and hues beyond the romantic shade that’s so touted at the beginning of a relationship. It extends to include compassion, acceptance, tolerance. If we’re lucky and very conscious it can even grow into unconditional love. The many shades of love we discover are as vast and as varied as the human race. By waking up and relating with awareness our love can become like a rainbow and include a broad palette of tones to enrich our lives.

Bio: Debra Moffitt is the award winning author of Awake in the World: 108 Practices to Live a Divinely Inspired Life and “Garden of Bliss: Cultivating the Inner Landscape for Self-Discovery” (Llewellyn Worldwide, May 2013). A visionary, dreamer and teacher, she’s devoted to nurturing the spiritual in everyday life. She leads workshops on spiritual practices, writing and creativity in the U.S. and Europe. More at http://www.awakeintheworld.com and on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/DebraMoffittAwakeintheWorld

 

 

 

 

Trading in Values for Resolutions for the New Year

I don’t know about you but each December 31st I seem to make resolutions and by the end of the following week I can barely recall them. So this year I’ve decided to trade them in for values. By focusing on a few values that really call to me to explore them in depth I find that I not only end up with good guidance about life choices during the year, but I also learn a great deal in the process.

 

 

For 2013 my values are simple, but simple doesn’t necessarily mean easy. The first big one (and not in order of priority because they all feel pretty important) is self-respect. For years I’ve focused a great deal on consideration of others. This is good and essential, but often it was at my own expense. That is I didn’t listen to my own inner voice about what felt right for me. The origin of the word “respect” comes from Latin and in Italian it literally means to reflect back, as if you’re looking in a mirror. So this is a good start for me – to begin to look at what the experiences in the world around me mirror about my attitudes towards respecting my Self. By Self I mean that Divine Self that’s deeply and intimately connected with Spirit.

 

Other values include Self-confidence and balance. The word “confidence” derives also from Latin and means “with faith.” How can I develop more faith in my Self, that part of me that guides me to where I’m meant to be at the right time? What does it mean to have faith? After a couple of years where my personal life seemed to unravel, my faith in that Self was shaken, but not lost. Challenging experiences demand that I dive deeper and find the bedrock of spirit within.

 

When I think of balance, the teeter-totter comes to mind. If you’ve ever tried to sit on one and maintain an equilibrium with a partner you know that it requires serious effort. I know that I tend to spend a lot of time writing and working, but I need to balance it with more time for friends and family. Working with the value of balance in eating, exercise and pretty much every aspect of my life will keep me attentive to what promotes the middle path with no excesses.

 

As 2013 rolls in I wish you a wonderful year filled with spirit, love, prosperity, peace, and joy.

 

Bio: Debra Moffitt is the award winning author of Awake in the World: 108 Practices to Live a Divinely Inspired Life and “Garden of Bliss: Cultivating the Inner Landscape for Self-Discovery” (Llewellyn Worldwide, February 2013). A visionary, dreamer and teacher, she’s devoted to nurturing the spiritual in everyday life. She leads workshops on spiritual practices, writing and creativity in the U.S. and Europe. More at http://www.awakeintheworld.com and on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/DebraMoffittAwakeintheWorld

 

The Discomfort of Being In Between

The other day I took a tram in Geneva to get to a meeting. The tram was stopped and I happened to sit down at the joint of the tram – the place that’s bound together with accordion-like sides and acts like a hinge. I noticed no one else sat in this area and I soon discovered why. As the tram curves around corners the accordion area that connects the two sides of the long tram car moves and the space beneath my feet moved too! As long as the tram ran straight all felt fine and solid, but as soon as it turned the sides scrunched up on one side and lengthened on the other. The hinged floor beneath my feet moved too. Needless to say being in that transition space between the two sides of the car was not comfortable! Nothing felt stable and the constant movement kept me on edge.

It became a perfect metaphor for transition areas in life. The area just behind me seemed calm and steady. In the area ahead of me people sat chatting contentedly as if they were in a park on a sunny day. But being in the middle – in transition is simply uncomfortable — at least for me. I quickly wanted to move out of that feeling of being in transition, in a place of great change and into the place I saw just up ahead with the others who sat in calm, steady places.    When last year I was in the throes of the transition a friend sent me a quote that made me laugh. “When one door opens another closes, but being in the hall way is hell.”  I wouldn’t say it’s hell, but it sure ain’t much fun. To those of you who are also daring to embrace change and are in the transition places, hang in there. This will not last and the peace and joy are just around the corner.

Bio: Debra Moffitt is the award winning author of Awake in the World: 108 Practices to Live a Divinely Inspired Life and “Garden of Bliss: Cultivating the Inner Landscape for Self-Discovery” (Llewellyn Worldwide, February 2013). A visionary, dreamer and teacher, she’s devoted to nurturing the spiritual in everyday life. She leads workshops on spiritual practices, writing and creativity in the U.S. and Europe. More at http://www.awakeintheworld.com and on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/DebraMoffittAwakeintheWorld

Read more: http://blog.beliefnet.com/awakeintheworld/2012/11/transitions-spaces-the-discomfort-of-being-in-the-hallway.html#ixzz2F1mzcqX2

When Life Brings Trials Embrace Joy!

When I visited India, Sai Baba said, “Your true nature is Bliss.” This is really hard to keep sight of and understand when the heart is broken and filled with emotional pain and suffering. It seems like sometimes in periods of grief or loss that no joy is anywhere in sight. The pain can seem so all encompassing. I’ve reflected on this a lot in an attempt to understand the deeper spiritual truths. I suspect that Bliss or Joy, with a capital “J” is always with us, around us and supporting us. But when we get tossed into the turbulence and trials, we lose sight of the joy that is the backdrop of all existence.

Joy, I’ve decided is with me even in the pain, and when I dive deep enough during those moments of darkness it’s possible to perceive it. Joy is the ocean and the suffering is a temporary storm that will pass as quickly as clouds evaporate and transform into rain. That which was once pain will soon be transformed into peace, contentment and yes, joy. Unlike happiness, Joy is not transitory. It’s constant, permanent. It can’t be taken away from you.

In several interviews recently I’ve spoken about the difficulties of losing a mate and the challenges of the past year. My comment is accompanied with laughter on my part which confuses people. I laugh because the alternative is tears. I’ve cried a lot too, but it’s time to laugh now and clear the air. Laughter breaks up the heaviness and allows me to breathe.

The question is will you embrace the joy that’s all around or hang on to your pain? We have a choice. It depends on where you place your focus and what you aim to hold sacred in your life. Will you join me in the Joy? It’s the exuberant option and allows us to laugh at the pain. Whatever pain you experience can become an opportunity to break you open to a greater, more loving and vibrant experience of life. Which path will you choose?

Bio: Debra Moffitt is the award winning author of Awake in the World: 108 Practices to Live a Divinely Inspired Life. A visionary, dreamer and teacher, she’s devoted to nurturing the spiritual in everyday life. She leads workshops on spiritual practices at the Sophia Institute and other venues in the U.S. and Europe. Her mind/body/spirit articles, essays and stories appear in publications around the globe and were broadcast by BBC World Services Radio. She has spent over fifteen years practicing meditation, working with dreams and doing spiritual practices. More at http://www.awakeintheworld.com and on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/DebraMoffittAwakeintheWorld

Love on the Wing

“Lovers don’t just find each other. They’re in each other all along.”       – Rumi 

 How is it that as human beings we long to find that perfect mate and dream that when we do we’ll be made whole? It’s like some magical and mystical yearning was implanted in our hearts from the beginning of time that brings us to meet and mate and part and meet again. It’s beyond human understanding, how the heart yearns and how we can be drawn to the perfect person who both gives joy and pushes our buttons.

Some scientists will say that this is genetic, instinctual. But there’s another aspect to this yearning as well, a spiritual and emotional aspect, one that brings us to want to be whole. That wholeness comes through reaching out and opening up the heart. It heals old wounds when two people touch and dare to stand transparent in the light of Love.

The hard part is that when we dare to open on that most intimate of levels, we can also be hurt. The alternative is to remain closed and not fully experience love at all. To love with wisdom is the answer, understanding that in this very short life, joy does not come without pain, nor pain without joy. That relationship that we love will eventually transform into something different. But the birds that mate each spring season — some of them for life — do not hesitate. They come together, build a life and then move with the winds and currents, North and then South again. I’m sure they feel pain of separation and the joy of coming together in ways not so unlike ours.

As life brings so many changes, I believe the ways we experience love relationships will also change. Rock music focuses on the pain of loss, but what if, instead, we accept the precious moments and embrace whatever comes. We all like security and certainty, but in reality the only way to fully love life is to live in the moment in full awareness of the possibilities that it offers right now. It’s also a certainty, that when we live awake, each experience will contribute to our growth and expansion.

 

So if you’ve been hesitating about reaching out to someone who your heart is nudging you towards, be courageous. Even if the yearning is not requited, it may lead to something else, another opening, another connection. Life is too short to live with the regrets of what might have been. Let love replace the fear and allow your heart to soar on wings of love. Happy Valentines Day!

Bio: Debra Moffitt is author of Awake in the World: 108 Practices to Live a Divinely Inspired Life. A visionary, dreamer and teacher, she’s devoted to nurturing the spiritual in everyday life. She leads workshops on spiritual practices at the Sophia Institute and other venues in the U.S. and Europe. Her mind/body/spirit articles, essays and stories appear in publications around the globe and were broadcast by BBC World Services Radio. She has spent over fifteen years practicing meditation, working with dreams and doing spiritual practices. Visit her online at http://www.awakeintheworld.com.