Human | Bonnie Barnard - Part 4

Home » Human

How Did You Wake Up This Morning?

Think back to how you woke up this morning. What was the first thought that went through your mind? How did you greet today? What was the first, second, and third action you took? And, did these actions bring you closer to your Soul or push you away from your Self? I have had the rare opportunity this past year to observe the lives of many people close up and personal. These past eight months I’ve been a gypsy rover. I lived mostly in California, some in Arizona, and another chunk in Nevada. I rented out my home and took to the road. I slept on floors, blow up mattresses, guest beds and couches of friends and relatives. I watched first hand how people, other than myself, wake up in the morning. I didn’t think much about it until I worked with a client this week who told me she has the uncanny ability to know how her day will be the minute she wakes up. She believed it to be a...

Recommended Book List by Zappos CEO, Tony Hsieh

I have a long love affair with entrepreneurs. As visionaries, they carry within them the commitment to bring their unique idea from concept into form. Conscious entrepreneurs are visionaries with ideas, however, they see themselves as shapers of a culture, not solely profiteers. They use their skills and talents for the benefit of humanity. I have a been a lifetime connoisseur of learning from these bold men and women and implementing much of what I’ve learned into my own life. Zappos founder and CEO, Tony Hsieh, is a master of creating community. He sees works as not something you go to as a separate part of life; but as a form of self expression to be done in the midst of and with others who share the same values. To Tony, liking who you work with is vitally important to a company’s success. So much so, that it takes an average of 68 days to hire a new employee as the elaborate process includes multiple interviews to...

Insight from a Poker Player’s Story

Yesterday I attended a friend’s birthday party and a financial teacher who loves poker said that most poker players like to focus on what they are really good at and ignore their weak spot. When asked, one player said she wasn’t willing to invest the time and what it took in being really bad before becoming good. For some of us, it isn’t about the time, but instead about the discomfort in experiencing incompetence, vulnerability, and the feelings that come with an intense learning curve. One’s poker didn’t improve much, she said, from focusing on one’s strength; yet, took quantum leaps from growing just a small increment in the area of weakness. This morning while journaling, I experienced this story from the perspective of spiritual awakening. The path back to one’s Wholeness includes re-living old perceived wounds and feeling the pain associated within them until realizing the original wound contributed toward a Soul Ripening and a trusting of the Universe/God. Eventually the realization comes to us that...

My Birthday Present to Me

Today is my birthday!! Yes, I am a fun-loving, adventurous, travel-addicted Sag. So, what did I buy myself this year for my birthday present? A book of 286 letter, notes, and doodles by John Lennon. I love handwritten letters. I always have and appreciate them more now that most correspondence is done by text or email. There is a power in the written word and the words that come through the arm and written out of the hand to me gives forth an intimate, thoughtful energy. Thumbing through my birthday present today, I chose a postcard from John, Sean, and Yoko they sent to their friends for Thanksgiving in 1980: This past Friday evening I attended a Prayers in the Wind service at Agape Church in Culver City. Rev. Dr. Michael had each of us write a letter as though it were from God to someone in the sanctuary; letting the person know how deeply they are loved, how precious they are, how needed they are, etc....

The Energy of Obligation

Step into of your most recent memory of doing something out of obligation. What did it feel like? This summer I traveled up to Washington State, from Arizona, and along the way I stopped at spiritual centers to speak, teach, and sign books. I have two new books released in the past several months, one in May and one in June. I stopped at one church which invited me to speak as a favor to one of my colleagues. Favors can be dangerous, at minimum energetically unclean, as implied within them is the energy of owing and obligation. Let’s call this church, The Church of We Are Having You as a Favor (CWHYF). As a spiritual detective, I allow myself to explore various energies as a bonus to the work I do of bringing forth Divine Love, my real job. Exploring obligation, then, was definitely on the menu at CWHYF. Why waste this grand opportunity? I stepped smack into the middle of obligation and immediately my body...

A Twenty Year Friendship Crescendo

I fell in love with my friend, almost twenty years ago, at a task force meeting for our spiritual community. We each had a styrofoam cup of coffee with powdered creamer in one hand and a day old donut swaddled in a napkin, in the other. We were in a small Las Vegas church in an even smaller room filled with voted-in leaders from across the country. Our eyes met as if to agree this continental breakfast was lame for a volunteer group who took vacation time from work traveling far distances to make a contribution to this organization. Our eye language became an instant and lasting part of our relationship. On our first break, we briskly left the building walking to the nearest grocery to buy some fresh food. We bit into a fresh apple, drank from our sweating water bottles and giggled our bond into existence. I learned my new friend was thirty five years my senior, although she didn’t look it and her energy didn’t convey it. She...