Insight | Bonnie Barnard - Part 15

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Outwitting The Devil

I have been known to gobble, not savor books. This one was no exception. You see, Napoleon Hill’s work was influential with me in my 20s and 30s as I was learning my way around the work world and becoming awake to the power of my consciousness. His book Think and Grow Rich served me well for two decades. In it I learned the power of a Master Mind group, creating and implementing a plan and keeping good counsel with myself. I became who I am now partly due to the influence of this one small book. Hill’s book was written in 1938 just following Think and Grow Rich but was kept in a vault until this year and Hill’s family and advisors had passed away. Sharon Letcher was asked to bring this work into the world and is listed as co-author. So, my interest was peaked when I saw my friend Mary had “liked” this book on Facebook. I ordered it and when it arrived I sat and...

Affirming Spiritual Reality as a True Reality

I promised on my last posting to bring you an interview regarding affirmative prayer. This interview is with Angela C. Montano, a Licensed Prayer Practitioner, whose work it is to pray with individuals using this technology. She describes clearly the experience of entering into the spiritual field behind and within circumstances in order to call forth the spiritual reality not recognized until the moment of affirmative prayer. Enjoy!...

My God is Love

I sit today with more questions than answers; rich in potential revelations open receptive slightly curious recalling. An Indian guru this week said with reverence “God is really feminine in energy as She creates, giving birth all of the time.” I wonder, why then, are women diminished hated, brutalized, used throughout the world I occupy. Is it a statement really toward God and potency, not women? I pick up a book by Alice Walker Anything We Love Can Be Saved, its title. I decide I will love all that is feminine, masculine, and alive. My world will change. My God will be Love. I change the tense to the present. My God is Love. I have a new prayer. Bonnie Barnard,...

Raw Art Journaling: Interview with Quinn McDonald

BB How does your book support individual inquiry into one’s deepest Self? QMc Raw art journaling is the deep-rooted, authentic heart work you bring to your journal. Raw art is what heals and restores, and requires only an open mind and heart, not a pile of equipment or years of talent. Raw art is the GPS system for your journey, and like the GPS you use in your car, it is intensely personal to your journey. How you create art is up to you–from drawing to painting, singing, dancing, writing or performing music or parenting, comforting people or leading a team–and putting your talent to practice is always deeply, richly, personal. BB Tell me more about making through making art. QMc My life changed entirely when I realized that we don’t find meaning in life, we make meaning from life. We don’t pursue meaning, we develop it over time, each of us in our own journey. Creativity is what makes meaning in our complex lives. The act of discovery...

To Live or To Expiate

Expiate — To extinguish guilt or to atone In his essay, Self Reliance, Ralph Waldo Emerson says “I don not wish to expiate, but to live. My life is not an apology, but a life.” Let’s live today. Let’s pause and recognize this moment is different from the previous one and different still from the one yet-to-come. From our bones and from our Soul, let us express this moment as who we are without apology. Let’s decide to be ourselves fully. Let’s speak what is ours to give voice to and be quiet where it doesn’t matter to us. Let us do what is ours to do and let others make their contribution with equal conviction. I often speak to the “how” one lives their life and the “what” one does through their life’s actions when officiating a memorial service. These are two different ways to examine a life. For example, I can Google my father’s name and pull up a portfolio of his work left behind. This is the “what” is done in life. And then there...

Thirty Days of Thank Yous — The Reveal

Make Peace Brothers Singing Thank You Make Peace Brothers (www.makepeacebrothers.com) singing Thank You June 1st I posted my intention to write thirty thank you cards in thirty days. I was inspired by Patti Digh saying she writes one thank you note a day. I gave myself the challenge, and this is what I learned about myself: 1. Writing thank you cards created internal space — with each card written I had more energy. I discovered a thank you note felt like completing a transaction. It was like adding punctuation to a sentence. 2. I felt as though I were ordering more Grace from the Universe with each card. There is a power in the written word, as it is an idea that has taken form….from head to word. As I paused to honor those I resonated with; it was as though I were saying “this is it. I love this. I am open to more.” 3. I was unable to write one a day. My body would not let me. ...