I am super excited to announce that my latest book, Choosing Love – Lessons and Practices for Personal and Global Transformation is now available on Amazon in both paperback and Kindle editions.
Choosing Love is a collection of fifty-two spiritual lessons and practices for personal and global transformation. These lessons and practices invite you to shake off the cloak of cultural conditioning and discover the freedom of the LOVE hidden within. Here there is no God to appease, no outside perceived authority whose approval needs to be earned, and nothing that can keep you from being and living as your most authentic self. LOVE is who you are. Choose that LOVE.
I have recently become aware of an interesting phenomenon. Those with whom I am close and who I consider my spiritual family are finding themselves sequestering. Either by choice, circumstance, or because it is being forced upon them by the universe, they are finding themselves with a nearly or completely clear calendar from now through the end of the year. I too am finding myself in this place.
For a long while, I’ve been hearing the universal call to let go, clear our plates, eliminate the unnecessary, discard that which is no longer life giving to clear the way for something new to take its place. Recently I read another reminder to deepen/accelerate that clearing. In my own life, I have literally nothing more to clear. But then the Universe decided to explain to me the full extent of this clearing. With nothing material remaining to clear, all that remained was TIME.
Since I refused to hear this message on my own, the Universe did what the Universe does – it forced it upon me. Struck down by the events of our world (read more about being an empath below), I found myself FLATTENED. First I writhed in frustration. Then I convulsed in pain. Finally I surrendered. I cancelled my appointments. I took time to rest (I’m still resting). And then when I looked at my calendar…..I GOT IT. It is time to:
GET OUT OF THE WAY!
Sometimes after we have done everything we can do to be a source of Love and Support in our world through our own unique gifts, and the world continues to writhe in pain, we need to simply get out of the way and let the Universe take over. Remember – WE ARE NOT IN CHARGE. As we allow ourselves to step aside, the Universe steps in and does what it needs to do – in this case, to (hopefully) hasten the dying while creating a place for our gifts to once again be of use. In the meantime, we wait, we care for ourselves and our loved ones, we rest, we breathe, we pray. And maybe, just maybe, we find that we finally have time and space to dance!
My entire life I have been a contemplative. I just never had a word for it until Sr. Marie Schwann, one of the instructors in my ministry training, introduced us to the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius and other forms of Christian Contemplative Prayer. The purest gift of Sr. Marie’s guidance was her universal approach. Contemplation was not just for Catholics. In fact, contemplation and meditation are formal practices present within every spiritual tradition and religious belief or practice have absolutely nothing to do with one’s ability to be contemplative. For many, contemplation is simply the language of their Soul.
I speak of contemplation as a language as it is through stillness and deep observation that I communicate with the world around me. It is through stillness and observation that I hear the deepest whisperings of my Soul. It is through contemplation that I have received guidance and answers to the questions of my heart. Contemplation is the first step of discernment. The deep observation (hearing and seeing) of contemplation allows me to test the actions and behaviors of myself and others to determine if we/they are on the path of our highest good – or not. Contemplation has provided shelter in the midst of the storms of life along with the healing and comfort needed when life seems to have gone awry. In contemplation, I have found a direct line to Truth (what some might call God) and it is the compass which faithfully guides me home to my truest and most authentic self.
I remember as a little girl attending mass with my family. It was here that I have my first memories of contemplation. I cared nothing for the mass – its rituals, the words being said, the sermon being spoke. Instead, all I cared about was tuning all that out so I could “be with God.” Mass was the time I was given full permission to turn inward in prayer and commune in peace with that which I was taught to call “God.” It was here I was the most happy and it was here I discovered the true language of my Soul – a language that has absolutely nothing to do with theology, religion or belief. Contemplative is simply who I am and who I am called to be.
Lauri Ann Lumby 