The thousands of little swimmers from your Dad had to swim like crazy in the cosmos of the biological/mystical/feminine realms of the sphere of beginnings in the human body. The sought after egg must have looked like the planet Jupiter to the madly pressing forward swimmers. The best swimmer won (and the rest expired with satisfaction, knowing they gave their all), and voila, you had a beginning as one destined to have a human experience and navigate inside a body and psyche unique to you.

Every so often I am stunned at how like my mother I am becoming in some very fundamental ways. Following not far behind that awareness is the utter knowing of the ways I am a replica of aspects of my father, so like him I might as well be him. But . . . my parents are very different from one another. I am a living, breathing amalgamation, and that is where all the hope for life exists, in the knowledge that the unique combination of two different 'codes', if you will, has never been here before, not like this, not like you.

Each one of us is potentially 'the hope of the world.' (No pressure there!) By carrying elements that are so different and getting them to work in combination, that is how evolution has its way with us. Add a big dose of free will to do what we will with our potential and you have what can only be described as the keys to a very grand adventure. We are all Indiana Jones.

When I was trekking in Nepal, I purchased a beautifully carved wooden cane to help ascend those rocky rocky paths that relentlessly drove us upwards. When we would come to small Nepalese villages, my cane would always attract massive admiration by the villagers who had not seen its like, so clearly, it was an item of value to them.

Upon returning to Kathmandu, post-trek, I rode in a rickshaw driven by a young Nepalese man who took me to where I was staying. It was only after he left that I realized I had left the cane in the rickshaw, and he was long gone. I was sad at the loss but prepared to just let it go.

Several hours later, I was told someone was looking for me. It was the rickshaw driver. He had only discovered the cane after he was far away. He drove all the way back (Kathmandu is big and ranging and crowded) which took him over an hour to return it to me. I was thrilled and wanted to recompense him and he would accept nothing. To him, it was just a matter of doing the right thing. Knowing how this item appealed to those in his culture, he made an a large impact on me. I will never forget my being introduced so eloquently to the fact that there are good and honest people on this planet that serve as points of light. He will ever be that to me.

When we are born, the reality of what it means to be loved and cared for by the one that brought us into this world is undeniable. But what we don't realize is that that profound love and care is a stand- in for an even grander love and care. When we are born, we leave part of our essence behind, in the spiritual realms. Our essence can never be touched nor harmed and awaits our 'return to union'. The assumption is that the union can only occur on 'the other side' when we are done with earthly life. That is not altogether true.

The union of our essence, in the spiritual realms, with our soul, here in a body, is always available to be experienced. And we, have, over and over in life when we felt our own lovable-ness and value, even for just a split second.

A mother is helping a child hold on to the memory of the union of essence and soul, by her very love and care, but apart from what we get from her (and not all souls got assigned a loving parent), we are ALWAYS being loved and cherished in that manner from the part of ourselves we left behind. It is our job to figure out how to feel that more of the time. That much self-regard feels too good to be true, and too tender to tolerate but it is our best option for having deep peace while in a body.

If you do not feel you were adored by your mother, then watch some other mother adore her child and understand you are looking at a mirror of what is true for you as well even though it is hard for you to access it. You are just that adored, but going to have to dig to discover it.

Peace on earth? We will have that when we all open to how much our essence longs for union with us, not after death, but now, here, in a body, as part of the earth we are wishing peace for.

There is something about 'taking care of', whether it is of a person, an animal,a plant or even your own body. When we tend something, it brings out a quality in our nature that shines in its simplicity and dedication.

So many environmentalists and animal activists are working hard to get people to appreciate all the kingdoms we share the planet with so that we will want to do that very natural thing that happens when we do care. We will want to tend, and care for and preserve.

It starts small. Children are told they can have an animal but they must take care of it. Some children seem born with that nurturing tendency. Others do well with learning through practice.

I love watching my grand daughter Laurel doing things for my dogs. She does it with such focus and interest. She doesn't just put a bowl of food in front of them and run off. She turns feeding them into a Zen act of mindfulness.

Needless to say, my dogs love her. All  whom we tend feel, on a deep and non-verbal level, a link of love with our spirits. They may or may not show it, or say so, but they unavoidably feel so..

I have heard it said, and it rings true, that there are no longer safe places on this planet, but there are safe people. Those who tend to Gaia and all her inhabitants are loving her. She in turn, loves back those very ones and keeps them as safe as they need to be to fulfill their destiny. That is all the assurance we need to have as we go about the simplicity of the daily parts of life in which we are tending what is in our care. We are safe people.

Nods to Joni Mitchell for the subject title 'Both Sides Now.' This picture to me is so symbolic of the journey we are all taking at this point in time. We are looking ahead and seeing the 'portal' to Unity, and we are still going through what it takes to get there.

'Both Sides Now' refers to the Dark and the Light. Yes, this image is referencing duality, but not in the way you might think.

There is a rush on to leave duality  behind as we come into the very esoteric experience of becoming One. Duality has become the bad guy and Unity has become the Holy Grail (which, if you think about it, is another polarity, paradoxically enough).. I encourage us not to be in such a rush that we miss some of the finer points of what transformation is really about.

In our eagerness to transform and become "One" , which absolutely is what is afoot in my view, it becomes easy to tuck away from view (from ourselves and from others) the parts of ourselves that have not caught up with all the brightness and beauty. Just by virtue of tucking things about ourselves away, they become things we do not feel great about.

In my experience, our strengths are our weakness, all rolled into one. The thing you love about someone has a flip side that you do not love so much. We can say we carry light, and we also have the human elements that I call 'a works in progress.' that is more shadowy. The reason it is shadowy is because we hide it away and are afraid the sheer imperfection of it will be an embarassment.

I remember reading years ago about how communes that started out filled with idealism had a shelf life of about three years because it took that long for the shadow of all the idealism to emerge. By no means am I saying that now, intentional communities could not work and thrive. In fact, I think they are the wave of the future. What I am suggesting is that what will allow for them to thrive is for everyone to be real. To let the imperfections of personality be seen and loved into a higher vibration. This process can be messy, but if it is real, and humor is kept close at hand, the bonds formed gain a strength that cannot be broken.

Guess what. Your friends all know your flaws, the ones you think you have successfully hidden, and they love you anyway. No, I correct that. They love you BECAUSE of your flaws, because they signed up to be part of your transformational team.

So as we are riding the freedom train to Unitive Consciousness, I say, let's enjoy the contrast of the Light and the Dark, find ourselves so dear as the mass of contradictions that we are and come to understand, in this very acceptance of just who we are now, that is when LOVE, as the power, can come in the strongest and have its way with us. And that is what we all most want, in our heart of hearts.

My tendency, of late, is to think very macro both in terms of time and space. I think in terms of global life on earth, and gallactic life and the Universe, and universes within universes via understanding about traversing through dimensions (nods to Barbara Hand Clow and her opus The Alchemy of Nine Dimensions). That is the spatial piece.

The time piece is to think of the evolution of life and consciousness since the 'big bang' (via the Mayan Calendar research of Carl Calleman).

Time considerations also include other lifetimes we have had, do have and will have as souls that are on an advancing trajectory. It includes being in the spirit realms both in our sleep at night and between lives and all that that portends.

Journeying with plant intelligence which opens windows of perception coming from an activated pineal gland is yet another means of expanding our world view to include new kinds of time and spatial concepts entirely as do all the avenues of meditation that have emerged throughout human history. So all of these things I put under the rubric of 'macro.'

Little personality me having a human experience, that is what I am calling 'micro.' I as a personality aspire for things like comfort and safety and company with others. My adventuring soul is a huge driver behind my personality and is constantly throwing me outside of my comfort zone as a result, but that does not change how very meaningful are the simple things, like sitting in the morning sun coming through a window on a cold day enjoying the steam on my face from a hot cup of jasmine tea that I use to also warm my hands while appreciating the aesthetic of the curve of the ceramic against my palms. It is amazing to me how much comfort that gives me.

I took a trip with my mother to Egypt in the distant past. Her luggage was lost, which is disconcerting if you have had that happen. I remember how she lit a candle that night in our hotel room. Doing that made her feel better. Such a small thing, but in a world of meteors falling on our heads, economies sending tsunamis of uncertainty around the world and back, evidence of ethical imbalances that are off the scale, etc. it is the small that will go far to sustain us. The sun always returns but in the meantime, 'micro' is our good friend. That, and hearing the song of our soul no matter what the external clatter.

Touch. How we need it. When I say "we", I mean all sentient beings. You can tell someone you love them, and look them in the eye and show it, but there is just something about touch that allows so much bypassing of the mind and goes straight to the heart of what is needed as well as desired.

There is rampant evidence in all the animal kingdoms of the love of touch as an expression of bonding, but dolphins carry it to a whole other level. I have spent hours watching them under water as well as on top of the water, and over and over I am struck by how much they love physical contact.

Strangely enough, many humans are walking around starving for touch. How can this be, you may ask. How hard can it be to 'reach out and touch someone.' Well, in our culture, touch is charged with so many different meanings that it has long since become a very complicated form of communication, and even suspect in many instances. More's the pity, for without it, we are operating at a much lesser level of health and well being. One reason so many people love their pets so much as this is one area where we don't have to monitor our motives in wanting contact. There are some animals that will not allow contact having to do with trauma they have suffered, bu mostly, animals seem to have the philsophy, the more touch, the better.

It is amazing how many problems  automatically lose their grip on us when we are held. Our head can clear and an approach to dealing with things problematical suddenly does not seem remote at all.

So yes, love each other from the heart, but also, can we just make touch safe again. We so need it, and always will.

When you love them into being.

 When you quit arguing for why they cannot happen.

When you vividly imagine a world in which they exist.

 When you get out of the way and just think about something else while manifesting is happening.

When you let yourself off your personal hook of feeling you don't deserve it.
 
When you let yourself off your cultural and societal hook of feeling you don't deserve it.

 When you quit falling for false propoganda that says there are all these conditions that must be met before you can have the great good fortune of manifesting what you truly desire (conditions that in truth have nothing to do with such manifesting and usually get in the way).

When you accept that your Higher Self knows better than your mind what is good timing, and what you need to do or be to prepare to receive.

When you develop the habit of being happy with the great good that is already yours.

When you  laugh with a light heart if others scoff  leaving them wondering what is deeply wrong with you, and that is fine with you for them to think that.

 I know you already know all this, but just in case you forgot something crucial . . . .

Whatever sets you apart, we need you to honor it. It is no accident, whatever our 'differentness' is. Within it lies tremendous opportunity. When I think of all the years I spent not knowing that what set me apart was what was best about me (especially as a teenager who is so driven by need to be accepted), it makes me really want to underscore this message.

It is the age old story of the hawk brought up by chickens that does not know how to honor its hawkness, and can't, really, until he or she figures out that they are a  hawk. Whatever you need to do to explore more deeply into the truth of your own nature, do so.

I also want to add that for all of us, even at our most un-self-knowing of times in our life, there have ALWAYS been those in our circle who DID see us and recognize us for who we essentially are. Oftentimes, we do not notice them, but in retrospect, they are always there, adding their blessing. They may be a teacher, a neighbor or even an animal, but they help keep us alive long enough to figure ourselves out.

So now that you are "all growed up" and you know who you are, thank you so much for what you bring forward that is much needed that was not recognized by you and others in your sphere when you were young.

You leap. That's what. When you feel the spirit and become ignited with sudden and intense awareness of who you are and what you are here for, I defy you to hold still.
 
There is a time and a place to be in the still center of your being but in that electrical moment of feeling such a knowing that you MUST, you simply must follow a particular path with all the passion of a wildly beating heart, then by all means, do so.
 
This is not a case of just any old inspiration we are talking about  A powerful quickening is about something you were born for . .  this very thing, whatever it is. However wild and wooly and alien from what your friends and family know and think and believe, this is your life force being guided by something larger than your own thoughts of what you might think is appropriate for one such as yourself.

If you drop the ball, and let the fire of your creative impetus burn out and pass without doing much with it, it will return. What is yours will simply refuse to leave you alone so, when you are taken over by what I call a great inner quickening, congratulations. You are at least acknowledging truth and standing in the center of a very pivotal spot.  Life will support you if you take this great surge of enthusiasm and do what you can with it given where you are in your development. Yes, you will have to ground this energy, and give it structure and commitment and a vision to follow, but the source of the quickening will never abandon you.
 
Of this I am sure - not only is your quickening about something you need to do and express to feel happy and fulfilled, it is about something the world very much needs. So, be like this dolphin and use the energy to hurtle yourself into what is above you, waiting to be actualized. 

For everything, there is a season, and when you are quickened, it is time to leap.