Human | Bonnie Barnard - Part 6

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Going Deeper

Last month I made a pilgrimage to Los Angeles to attend an Emerging Edge Conversation with Rev. Dr. Michael Beckwith at Agape International Spiritual Center. I have been a long time supporter, grateful participant, and distant congregant of this center visiting four or five times per year for the past twenty years. This visit was different. I entered into the sacred space and felt it. The field was palpable. The air was vibrant. I knew I was sitting in a consciously built field of Go(o)d and I knew the very place I sat in was pregnant with Infinite Possibility. I felt it. What existed in this space was so much more than a spiritual leader who lives from Truth; although this was essential to the field. The space, I knew, was created by hundreds of practitioners in prayer, by inspired music vibrating throughout the room, by a community who has a regular spiritual practice and yes, a powerful spiritual leader who embodies Go(o)d. In the midst of this field a...

More Love, Please

I am seated at a local restaurant known for their fresh funky pizza and gourmet salads. Across the table from me is a robust South American woman with a space between her teeth, afro cut close to her head and a wickedly joyous laugh which produces an inner smile when I hear it. Glenda is my new friend, although she calls me a sister. It took many years for us to meet. Seven years ago my L.A. friend, Nina, brought me to a meeting at her local chapter of Women for World Peace (WfWP). Founded by the Unification Church, this group of women attracts members across faiths and countries bonding women as sisters creating a network of peace. I actively tried joining the Phoenix chapter and emails went unanswered, phone calls not returned. I let it go. Until now. Glenda became the new president of the local chapter. She dug through past files to find my name, call me, and take me out for lunch. With a pizza between...

Politics, Conflict and Division

A beloved friend of mine has gone through a treacherous week of FaceBook bashing for his political views. On his FB page a mini-war has erupted with name calling directed at him. He called me really torn up inside. He is a deep, deep lover of humanity and serves his community through action. He is a good guy. And, his political views aren’t mine. Neither are the views of half of my friends. Half of my friends are Democrats and half are Republicans; and I don’t love either group of my friends more or less because of the road each party believes will create our brightest future. Somewhere in our history we have trained ourselves to hate the people, not the views. To attack people, not the views. To kill people, not views. Hate, attack, and killing views or people have never worked, anyway. People become damaged or dead and views still remain. In a dualistic world we will always have black and white, right and left,...

YOU Can’t Make Me!!

There is some High Spiritual Truth in the childish saying “YOU Can’t Make Me!” My friend Glenda would add “I am boss of myself.” Each one of us is at choice and held responsible by the choices we make. Newton’s third law of motion says for every action there is a reaction. The Buddhist would call it karma; what I do to others, I do to myself. The Jew and Christian would say we sow what we’ve planted. No one else is responsible for me. I am the choice maker, I am it. With that said, I have made a commitment to myself to disengage from the public political conversation based within the paradigm of right and wrong, we and they, and hold counsel within my own being aligning to a Presence and Power far greater than divisive politics. My commitment is to come from a place of Love in all discourse, or to not open my mouth. I have come to know words usher in an...

Something Fishy Is Going On

Taking my seat in a large auditorium church, it is day two of a much anticipated conference. After a few minutes of sitting I notice something smells fishy. I raise my hands to my face. No, it’s not my skin. My skin smells like the just applied “Falling in Love” lotion I lathered on after my shower. I pull softly on my blue and white guaze top and smell the corner of it while looking around the room as though I always do this and it smells freshly laundered. Nothing. Then I look to the right. There is a woman with short brown Liza Minelli cut hair, a ruddy face and overexuberant disposition. I lean into her to hug her and eeeek, it is her. She stinks. She smells of, not old seafood from a diner platter the night before, but from “I took raw salmon skin and rubbed it on my body this morning as my new lotion.” I couldn’t believe it. My gag reflexes set in and...

Easter and Taxes

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 doing my taxes. Taxes My old thought pattern dreaded preparing for taxes. My old, old thought pattern hated and resented it. This year I chose to use my tax preparation as a way of being grateful. This is how I did it. 1. I lit a candle nearby my computer to begin the process. This set a tone of reverence...