Community | Bonnie Barnard - Part 3

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Loving Yourself Meditation

My friend Rhonda emailed the following message: Drop everything. Buy this book: Love Yourself as Though Your Life Depends Upon It, by Kamal Ravikant I went to Amazon, purchased this skinny book, and waited for it to arrive. You see, Rhonda and I have a relationship where we want the best for each other. When we find something good, we share it. So, I knew to click on my Amazon link and make the purchase. And, I did. Last week I placed this book into my book bag and walked down for my morning Starbuck’s experience and sat in my padded chair. With an iced, venti, green tea, no sweetener, in my left hand I opened this book with my right and read it cover-to-cover in less than ten minutes. And I knew the action I was to take. Meditation Mondays in May would be on self love and I would purchase this book for everyone who was to participate. After much brokenness, struggle, and pain,...

My Favorite Scene in the Movie Lincoln

In Spielberg’s new movie; Lincoln in standing in a communication center consisting of two desks and small brass contraptions which transport Morse Code. There are two men, one at each desk, and it is a heightened moment within the Civil War. Lincoln is waiting for an update to be transmitted and is partially talking his thought process aloud while engaging with the communicators. Lincoln asks if either young man studied engineering. One responds, “yes.” Lincoln then asks him what he thinks about one of Euclid’s Axioms. The young man says he doesn’t remember his book studies as he basically forgot his book learning once he left school. Lincoln shares that he, himself, didn’t have much formal education, but he allowed his studies to inform and change him. Since he read Euclid’s axiom “Things that are equal to one another are equal to each other” he contemplated this idea in the context of race. Like equalling like, Euclid said, is self-evident. This insight, provides clarity regarding an action Lincoln was to...

How Does Peace Feel?

How does Peace feel in your body? What is the sensation of Peace? How do you know when it is present? You may be able to say, duh, it is this …. and go into description, or it may cause some thoughtful contemplation. And, it is worth doing. To know the vibration of a concept, to intimately know an internal quality allows us to call it forward at any given moment because, in essence, we know where it is located and how to access it, and we can trust its presence as us. Several weeks ago I had this crazy idea of compiling a global Peace prayer through video clips posted onto YouTube. The intention is three fold: 1. to invoke Peace and creativity with those making the submissions, and 2. to magnify the field of Peace through this project so that it is easier for others in the world to access, 3. to directly impact individuals through the message. You are encouraged to play. You can sing...

2013 is a Good Year for Learning and Deepening

This new year promises to be a Go(o)d one because I choose it to be. I am old enough, imbued with enough wisdom, to realize my circumstances don’t dictate my sense of well-being, and I can influence many of my circumstances through thought and all of them through Love. So, I choose to enter into and live 2013 with the magical, miracle of simply being alive in this multi-dimensional universe. Aaaah… Join me in a powerful year. Two of my friends asked me on separate occasions to teach them how to pray as I do. The prayer technology I use is entitled Affirmative Prayer. This technology is several hundred years old and empowering. It acknowledges the mystical reality of the Kingdom of God as an inner reality and creates prayer with this in mind. I’ll be offering a three session class on this in January. I have been asked by a colleague to offer a class on embodiment and health. The focus of this series is learning to energetically...

A Community Prayer for World Peace

Inspiration: I have a vision. It is one which has tickled my insides for a while now, and I couldn’t quite articulate it until this TED Talk was sent to me, by my friend Rhonda. The TED talk is about fourteen minutes in length and well worth watching. Eric Whitacer, composer, facilitates a global choir singing some of his compositions. Inspiring, powerful, and filled with stories of the human spirit and the gift of music; to me it is a manifestation of the Oneness which we are. This is where my idea comes in. And, you don’t need to watch the video to play in this idea. The Idea: Here is the idea…individuals from around the world (that’s you) create a video of fifteen seconds or less with their one word or sentence of prayer for world peace. That’s it. Grab your cell phone and video yourself or a group of you, and speak your Peace. Some suggestions? State what it feels like to be at peace within yourself. Or,...

Righting a Wrong

I sat on my mini-couch with my daughter to my right and my grand daughter in a bouncing contraption placed upon the worn coffee table in front of me. We chose to watch Oprah’s Where Are They Now show. I wasn’t prepared for the story to come. Oprah aired a few segments about a woman in 1993 who applied to go to the military college, the Citadel. She got in and then was promptly denied admission once it was learned she was a woman. After a court battle, Shannon Faulkner won the right to attend the academy of her dreams. She stayed two days and promptly left after the intense hatred, hazing, bullying, and pressure she endured. The You Tube clip begins with a little taste of the energy directed toward her by the community. Then, Ms. Faulkner continues her update with what transpired after leaving The Citadel. Two hundred plus women have now attended the academy and she went on to graduate from another institution. Citadel alum and...