Practice | Bonnie Barnard - Part 7

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Good-Bye Summer, Hello Fall

God, The Infinite, Potent, Almighty, is referred to as “The Presence” for a reason. The Present is ripe with aliveness and is where God lives. It is as though each moment you and I are living in a rich surprise custom made for each of us. I can relish in this or I can focus instead on the past (how it has been), opinion (how I think it ought to be), or the future (my wants). In doing this, I miss out on this rich, potent moment of what is. I can carry around unresolved energies waiting to be exalted and freed up from stories based upon my perception, based upon my stories. Eeeeek. I find that throughout the year, I stop and do some defragging of my own internal hard drive that I may be more available to experience the inlet and the outlet of God as me. How do I defrag? I look back at the most recent season, summer, and I do a mental review. Where did I see...

Ingredients for Mastery

This summer I returned to the Pacific Northwest to dodge the sun and attend a week of what I affectionately call “writer’s camp.” On both sides of this literary week, I stay with friends in their homes. One’s teenage daughter is an aspiring writer. Although I have yet to read her work, I imagine she is quite good as she loves stories. She spends her days watching television and reading immersed subconsciously in it construction. She saves her writing questions for when I come to town. My body now knows how to gauge questions telling the difference between questions of curiosity, questions of tactic and questions of weight. She began with curiosity: what do you do at writer’s camp? Moving then toward tactic — how do you pick a publisher and what does an agent do? And the question of weight was loaded with vulnerability: which genre has the least rejection? There it was hanging in the room. She wanted to write in part to hide. Our conversation wasn’t...

What Really Follows the Storm?

The beauty of being awake and aware to an inner life is to be present to what is alive within at THIS VERY MOMENT. This is good news. This is also not-so-good news. Not so good in that I am aware of when I am chartering unknown territories and I am in the activity of an inner storm. Good news in that the more I ride out and open to storms; the more confident I am in The Eternal Presence of Divine Love to accompany me through them. Such was the case for me these last two weeks of March. I experienced tremendous inner energy shifts resulting in a few sleepless nights; some allergy issues; and, a case or two of Infinite Doubt, to borrow the phrase used by the multiple authors of How Enlightenment Changes Your Brain. I am now a week on dry land and, as always, grateful to have experienced this inner disruption followed by re-calibration. As I sit in reflection, I pause to recognize all of the Support I received through this process:...

Loosening the Funk to Rise Up for the New Year

These things I have spoken unto you that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. John 16:33 My fast was inspired in part by entering into a significant funk toward the end of December. It began, or so it seemed with an allergic reaction to an antibiotic that brought me toward an unpleasant physical reaction of high fever, vomiting, and chills for over eight hours. A worn out body followed with an allopath doctor’s visit and all of the unhealed stuff around the health care system in my face. Forms, and lots of them. Caregivers who didn’t care or give. Expensive monthly insurance payments with appointments and services not covered. A doctor telling me I will have to be on allergy medicine until the day I die. Dense and heavy and I got snagged. I got pulled down into an energy spiral that I then exaggerated through taking sides, getting angry, wearing the energy, and...

Knocked Out of a State of Bliss

Three weeks of bliss. Uninterrupted, pure bliss gone in one judgment. One thought that I knew how someone ought to live their life better than they are doing it … Ouch. And, I was kicked out of paradise. Yep, twenty one long and glorious days of Love is All there Is. Conditions don’t define me. Spirit rocks this house. Life is a beach on a sunny day with dear friends and a kickin’ sunset. Then driving down the road, letting my mind take a detour into the thought ghetto and I was snagged. I never spoke the thought. I didn’t take action on the thought. I didn’t gossip about this opinion of mine. I merely entertained it and I went from Heaven to outside its doors knocking loudly. There I was, driving down the street, one moment Here and the next moment there. It was that quick. I returned home and entered my meditation practice. Open heart. Breathe deep. Remember who I Am. Restored. Back to...

Retreating and Opportunity to Retreat with Reverend Bonnie

The prefix “re” means to do over. I once gave a talk on the power of “re” as to me this linguistical delight carries within it the energy of a Divine Do-over. Re-member is to put back together. Re-joice is to enter into Joy once again. Re-generate is to enter once again into the field of generation. Re-treat then, is to treat yourself to YOU!! It is to take a break for your benefit. I will be leading a retreat; which is VERY RARE for me to do, just outside of Tucson Arizona Friday, May 22 through Monday, May 25th. And, the space is VERY LIMITED as our house sleeps fifteen of us. This combination added to the Sacred Native land upon which we will meet makes for the perfect collision of something magical. We have named the retreat O Great Spirit! The extended weekend will be spent in reverence honoring our selves, our ancestors, the land, and the Great Spirit within and through all of it. Let’s start by...