“Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.” Ralph Waldo Emerson There was a time not that long ago that I valued travel and adventure over all else. Put me in a car with a tank full of gas and a GPS and I was a happy woman. After three years of intentional home building, there is nothing more that I yearn for than home. I have gone from two extremes; the wanderer to the homebody. The truth is, I am home whenever my heart is open. As I hang out in a state of impatience, my heart is closed and I go into an inward...
On the phone with a friend yesterday, we spoke about the impending birth of my grand daughter. “How will I know if she is close to her arrival?” I inquired. “When your daughter begins nesting and preparing for her arrival, you will know. Washing the baby’s clothes is a clue,” says my buddy. If someone were to ask me a clue for when their Soul was preparing to open, I would say, “You become quiet and still. You see your life from a space of animated energy. You become a poetry magnet. You will consuming it or write it like your life depends upon it. Maybe both....
I have always envied the small talker. The person who could create conversation for no other reason than to converse. Jean Huston once signed a book for me and it read “To a woman who dives in the deep,” she knew me from one glance. I am the deep diver. And, I would like to feel comfortable in the shallow end splashing, as well. Frivolity could serve me well. A friend of mine was interested in a new art technique. She is a “deep” artist. Wanting to hang with her, I signed up for a class having no idea what I was saying yes to. Then, I walked into...
Easter The Easter Message is one of resurrection. Life arises out of death. Love overcomes hate. Compassion is born. A new way of being takes form from that which no longer serves us. Easter is the recycling of energy within an individual, impacting current and future generations. The message isn’t limited to an historic event; but remains alive long as I live from the value of the teaching. My spiritual practice includes witnessing the resurrection process within myself. I see what no longer serves me or others and I call forth an Eternal Reality to replace the dead temporal thought pattern. This year I applied the resurrection principle to...
My dear friend called me last week. I was struggling with a decision around a quirky loan. I was sharing my “doubts” with my friend about signing this document, which terms seemed to change with every conversation I had with the lender. My friend said “you can pay this back easily, Bonnie,” which wasn’t really a part of the issue, but soon became a part of the conversation. “Bonnie, you got this one, it’s easy for you.” I could hear her certainty. “No it isn’t, let me tell you why….” I rebutted as I listed a whole host of reasons as to why I was going to fail. She...
There have been many times in my life when I have paused to give thanks for my meditation practice. Today, at the dentist was one of them. Let me back up. I learned to meditate out of my deep, deep hunger to connect with my inner spirit, to know God within me. I have been meditating daily for almost twenty years. And, yes, little-by-little meditation has supported me in clearing out the voices of the world so that I may hear my deep, small voice within speak to me. Meditation has also trained me in pausing to make conscious choices over reactive impulses. Learning to follow my...
Today when I entered the Starbucks on 16th and Bethany Home, something was different. I felt it. Looking around, I spotted walls filled with powerful art. Art in which the space felt different, a bit cozier, like a living room. Thanking the manager for the intimate feeling in the store due to this beautiful art, I was shocked to learn the 7th grade class at Madison 1 School were the Picassos. Each piece had the name of the artist beneath it as though it were being displayed at the Phoenix Art Museum. It is moments like this I feel a sense of pride in the human...
Happy Day of Celebrating Love! Persian Poet Hafiz (1320-1389) says in his poem The Happy Virus: I caught the happy virus last night When I was out singing beneath the stars. It is remarkably contagious – So kiss me. My Love to...
Yesterday I went to the heart of downtown, for my first time since moving to Phoenix. Invited to hear three women speak as part of Arizona’s Centennial Celebration, I donned my tennis shoes and walking clothes and headed toward town. Driving and parking became an emergent issue as I reached Jefferson and First Avenue. A bike race was underway with speeding cyclists swooshing through the streets forcing me to park seventeen blocks from my destination. Grateful for my choice in clothing and shoes, I began my walk toward the big event arriving fifteen minutes late. Martha Beck, known as “Oprah’s coach” had already begun her story telling. I arrived...
As my years on the planet increase and my spiritual practice deepens, I become more and more aware of the gift celebrities play for us in our lives. These are my insights: 1. They have the courage to be seen. As a magnet for our sight, we give them permission to set our fashion trends. How often have you seen a scarf or blouse on a celebrity and said to yourself “I want one like that?” Or, have gone to a hairdresser to say “I’d like a Dorothy Hamil, Farrah Fawcett or Jennifer Aniston cut? The light side of the celebrity’s willingness to be seen is the...
I love to walk. Every day I take a four to five mile walk and magic happens. The walk is never the same, although the path remains so. Different cars drive by me, trees are in different stages of development, birds are chirping or quiet, I am surrounded by a whole variety of life. I have begun to vary the time I walk. Morning is different than mid-day different than day’s end. This time of year in Phoenix, I’ll wear long pants and a sweatshirt for my morning walks, mid-day attire will be shorts and t-shirt, and evening is back to the long sleeves. During my walks I receive...
Have you had the experience of several streams of thought coming together into one? I did tonight. I attended a story telling class geared toward healers. Our instructor recounted a story which shared the same bones as The Ugly Duckling. Only the family was a group of chickens and the duckling/swan was an eagle. It is said the eagle fell from his nest as a young one to live amongst the chickens. He learned how to “be chicken.” He pecked his food from the ground, and spent most of his days there, with the exception of occasionally sitting on a low farm fence. One day a naturalist drove by...
My friend’s mother died when we were in junior high school. Unexpectedly, she had a brain aneurism at work. I attended the memorial service, so very uncomfortable with the idea of death and unschooled in what to do, I turned into an entertainer. At the reception I told jokes and stories, trying to keep it light for me. Viscerally I was so uncomfortable, my nerves had gotten me. I didn’t once say a word about her mother. Fast forward decades and I’ve lived a bit longer and stumbled my way through awkward situations, including the death of my own loved ones. This is what I’ve learned. When we discover...
Today am I keenly aware of death. Rev. Jackie Allen, my former practitioner teacher made her transition this week. Three years ago today, my father passed away. Last month I attended an out of state memorial service for my high school friend’s husband. Yesterday I dropped a sympathy card in the mail for a friend whose father passed. As a minister, I have conducted many memorial services and a few funerals. It is one of the reasons I became a minister. There are moments in our lives when people gather together out of love and cheer each other on. Births, birthdays, weddings, graduations, new homes, and deaths. Death is...
Over the years I have loved Martin Luther King, Jr for his commitment to living heaven on earth and I’ve disliked him for his alleged philandering. When I learned it was a mother who said to him in the grocery story “I hope someday our children can play together and not be judged by the color of their skin but instead by their character,” I was angry he didn’t credit her for these heart felt words. Since becoming a minister I realize talks are inspired in large part by our experience with others, so I softened a bit. After I had the experience of being cheated on, I couldn’t...
While on my morning walk listening to Beth and Friends, KEZ 99.9 fm, on my iHeart Radio app, disc jockey Beth played a portion of the YouTube video, below. It is a talk given by a 14 year old Girl Scout advocating a boycott of Girl Scout Cookies because they allow transgendered individuals in the troops. Beth’s response was something along the lines of “I will buy MORE cookies this year because I want to support a compassionate organization.” I agree with her. It would great for hate toward others unlike us to end in our generation. Listening with an open heart to the full YouTube video I remember...
Happy 2012!! Join me for taking Rhonda Britten’s Create a Year That Matters. Each one of us creates a life that matters by creating moments, days, years, and decades which have meaning to us. Chunking down our dreams, goals, and aspirations into sizes we can implement, then acting upon those chunks, allow us to create a life of our choice. I take Rhonda’s tele-class every year. I look forward to it. This past week I began asking myself questions about who I want to become, what I want to do, and the experience I want to know in order to prepare for this class. Rising to the top of...
What is your theme for 2012? Every year I choose a theme for the new year. Why? It becomes my year’s anchor and guide. Instead of waddling through a year, I have purpose. At the completion of the next year, God-willing, I can look back through a lens and see my life with a given perspective. My themes usually are about calling forth an inner quality of being. In 2009, my theme was Self Care. 2010 I was “birthing my Soul.” 2011 was different as my focus was on a skill or profession. I was cultivating The Writer. To do this, I became a member, then secretary, of the...
Beginnings, middles and ends tend to be important to me. If my year has been more bad than good, I am grateful it is over. “Phew, thank God, I can start again.” If more joy than pain, I celebrate this. “Yippee, winner.” (is that word Trademarked now?) Always a triumph in the flipping of the calendar from one year to the next. For closure, I create a comprehensive list of anything remaining to forgive or leave behind, then I do it. Followed by a list of gratitudes, which I hang out in a bit. Then, the intention or theme I’ve set for the year, I imagine in my journal....
Bible stories to a metaphysician is like analyzing a good dream to a Jungian psychologist. It’s all about symbology. Meta-physical means “beyond the physical.” Or, in this case, not the literal. When the Christmas story is looked at from this perspective, it isn’t a story about a baby born over two thousand years ago in a manager by a virgin mother; it is the story of The Light or the Christ (meaning the anointed One) being born within each of us right now. Each character has its own meaning. The Virgin Mother is the pure feminine or untouched Intuition. Joseph is the masculine contribution or the logical intellect. King...
My daughter visited over the Thanksgiving Holiday, and like any good mother I brought her to Old Town Scottsdale for an afternoon. As she was in a store, I stepped outside following my ears. I was hearing something which sounded like Christmas singing, guitar playing and a horse neighing. An odd combination, or so I thought. Until I saw it, yep, you guessed it, I’m sure … Cowboy Claus. This got me thinking, as it often does about non-traditional jobs. Work one creates out of a passion and a calling. His style is similar to Sister Wendy’s style who gave my entrepreneurial drive juice for many years. I would...
In church one Sunday, sitting on a pew in the corner cubby, I meditated. I don’t recall much of anything said or music sung, I recall instead an inner question which bubbled up from inside me about half way through the service. The inquiry said “have you felt into the field of plenitude?” The answer was “no.” The question has followed me since. I have avoided states of being or fields of collective energy out of fear. Trusting has been difficult for me. Trusting is difficult for any child with a history of abuse. Letting go into Life feels like certain death. Yet, when the question of plenty arose,...
