Insight | Bonnie Barnard - Part 3

Home » Insight

What Question Are You Living Into?

The Buddhists have a meditative practice where they sit and ask the question, “who am I?” Once an individual has gone through their list of labels — mom, daughter, teacher, friend, woman, etc. what remains is that which is beyond definition; The ISNESS that IS. It is a great question to live into. Once beyond the form of life, we can access a Life Force and realize it is THAT which is alive. The Buddhists also have an inquiry process when it comes to emotions. It is called Taking the Seat. It is a practice I did for ten years anytime an emotional arose from within me. I would become an interviewer and question the emotion until I knew it so well that I had befriended it. The questions I asked included: “what is your color?” “what is your texture?” “where are you located in my body?” “what is my first memory of you?” “what is your temperature?” and after a series of questions I always ended with, “and...

My Friend Died This Week

My friend died on Wednesday. We had been the closest of friends for twenty plus years. We witnessed each other, grew ourselves in the presence of each other, shared secrets and passions between us, and celebrated each other. We were in love with each other. And, she died. She was on the planet on Tuesday, and is in the invisible realm today. And I am feeling many things. Sadness; I will miss her. Pure joy; that we loved each other so completely. Expectancy; for the possibility of her spiritual visitations. An energy doctor told me that each time a friend or relative dies, they are passing the baton of energy to us to live. I tell my daughter that when I die I want her life to be MORE fully alive and vital, not less. My spiritual brother John would equate death to a Soul Retrieval and ask what part of me died along with my friend, and what part of me I retrieved from her passing. I...

Are You Seeking An Answer? Try This.

I pulled into Agape’s International Spiritual Center, I affectionately call The Mother Ship, to purchase a sweatshirt I have been wanting for some time. I opened the Prius door and walked myself through shutting down the car properly as it is different than my stick shift car. I walked toward the sanctuary door while my friend Annie O’Neil, who I hadn’t seen in over a year, walks out with two young film makers. The two of us fall into each others arms laughing. What are the odds of me walking into a spiritual center on a Thursday lunchtime at the same time she’d be walking out of the door? Really. Had there been one more stop light, I would have missed her. Had she recorded one more or less set of frames in her current documentary she was producing inside of the center, we would have missed each other. Get this. I know maybe 20 people in Los Angeles. That’s right. Out of just shy of ten million...

Playing With Sidewalk Oracles

Have you had those synchronistic moments when you know Spirit is whispering to you in your ear? It can be a literal whisper, or maybe it is more symbolic. Possibly you overhear a conversation in the cafe’ and the answer to the question you’ve been pondering all weeks seems to spill out of a stranger’s mouth? Maybe you walk by the television and hear a piece of information that shifts your business direction. Or, possibly you are guided to see something like a street sign that somehow resonates with you and you have a knowing? After my father passed away, I began to receive messages from him that started with him entering into my dreams. I could tell from the content of the conversation that he was visiting me, and it was not my subconscious mind at work. Then I started seeing him out of the corner of my eye and once when walking my dog I saw him as a full-bodied apparition standing in front of me. “Dad,” I...

Half Way Through My Fast

On February 1st I announced on my blog that I would go on a February Fast cutting out political news from my daily diet and taking my own energy back. I would meditate from 5 to 6 pm instead of watching Chris Matthews and re-direct my energy toward that which I value. I want to share with you what I’ve observed. When a plane makes a very small, microscopic shift in direction it will end up in a different country. In fact, most of the time pilots are flying they are adjusting course. Flying is a series of mini-course corrections until the desired destination is reached. I should not have been surprised by the impact that this one small change could make in my life, but I was. By giving up political news, reading, and radio, I regained time. Probably 10 to 15 hours per week. The past three months I have had extensive leg, groin, and back pain. Metaphysically this means an inability to move, feeling unsupported, and...

Your One Thing for 2018

What is the ONE THING that if you accomplished it, gained it or became it in 2018 would satisfy you? What did you do today to ensure that you moved closer toward that thing? I watched a YouTube video where Tyler Perry attributes having one focus, getting Madea into the theatre, onto the stage as paramount to his meteoric success. Just one focus. Not Madea and losing weight. Or Madea on stage, in books, in movies and on coffee cups. It was Madea on stage. Period. His life organized itself around this intention. His hourly jobs existed to support the production of Madea. He worked until they conflicted with his goal, then quit and got another job. He lived in his car, in weekly hotels, and apartments. His sole focus was getting Madea seen. Nothing would stop him from making Madea happen. For eight years he held one show a year, that he subsidized before Madea took off, skyrocketing into a national play, a movie, and eventually...