From the inimitable Ariel Spilsbury:

Happy Beltane, Beloveds...

Our culture has it so backwards. Get your work done, then if there is any time left in your day, find a moment of pleasure or joy. Over time, I have found that the more I stay in my joy and ecstasy and out of struggling with the 3D world, the more the Universe, in its delight, is magnetized to joyfully support my life! 

A friend's letter that arrived a couple of days ago (that follows) is a prime example of this divine truth. She had been struggling financially to keep up with her daughter's college education expenses, and her ex partner continued to be unresponsive. Though her fear and anxiety were escalating, one day she made a conscious choice to give up her worrying, and instead put her intention on her creative expression. When she allowed herself to do that, she spontaneously entered an ecstatic state with her writing. 

When she had finished writing and opened her email, there was an email from her ex partner saying he had changed his mind and would help her! So what turned things around? We need to start asking ourselves that question and get on with doing whatever that is with whatever appears to make us contract or thwart our living in joy. 

In my interpretation the hallmark of that turnaround is clearly ecstasy... the choosing to enter the ecstasy of hearing the rejoicing dawn birds singing, the ecstasy of bringing form to the mystery in writing, "dancing a jig", building an altar... anointing oneself... etc.

Here is the friend's email so you can decide the answer for yourselves:

Though I was feeling downhearted, I decided to drink " joy juice” yesterday, focusing my intentions on the largesse and abundance that surrounds me at all times.

"I woke up this morning at 4:45 am to the sound of a woman in ecstasy somewhere in the neighborhood. It made me smile. The pre-dawn breeze was so delicious that I could not, would not go back to sleep. The Muse appeared at my bedside, with pen and pad in hand. She had a bemused, and slightly piqued expression that said, “Let’s get back to it, shall we?!?” I took the paper and wrote page after page until sunlight drenched my room and the song of birds rejoicing was too overpowering to dismiss. 

I got out of bed and danced a jig, anointed myself, and proceeded to create an altar on top of my dresser of bird nests and flowers and beeswax candles. It was decidedly a most excellent start to the day. After taking a walk in the impossibly verdant hills near my home, I came home and booted up the computer. Two emails stood out: One was from my ex partner, saying that he was willing to pitch in with our daughter's extra college expenses (!) and the other was from a friend offering a part-time job I could do from home (!!!) All I can say as I laugh out loud is “Goddess is Good!!!”

So if you are heads down getting your work done, blatantly ignoring the fact that it is Spring... Beltane... the season of Ecstasy Exalted... you might want to reconsider your choice generally in your life or at the very least to take a day off to celebrate Her High Holy Day of Beltane on May 1st for Goddess' sake! Consider celebrating this Turn of the 8-spoked wheel, the precious Holy Day of Beltane, simply by choosing to do whatever gives YOU ecstasy, pleasure and delight... enacting and bringing to life the Celtic tenet: "All acts of love and pleasure are Her rituals!"

                             In Delight, Ariel

A Universe Ringing with 'Yes'

Spiritual humor is delicious, and the transparency of now makes it all the more helpful, if we just keep surrendering, surrendering, surrendering:

Two days ago I took my ancient Toyota in for service. Yesterday, satisfied my trusty little car was again in tip-top shape, I drove around town in near-triple-digit weather (the air conditioner died years ago) doing Friday afternoon errands. At my second-to-last stop, I parked, turned off the engine, and the car was dead. Not even a click.

After I phoned AAA, I watched myself spiral into negative mind chatter, amused that this is still my default setting after all the self work I've done. Like many of us, I've been balancing a lot lately, from a family health crisis to a broken crown that created a spike in my mouth, to a plumbing emergency and someone reneging on a verbal business agreement after I'd completed my half of the exchange. So a minor glitch like a dead car battery (I surmised) shouldn't have made much of a dent in my composure. But I had perishable food in the car in the blazing sun, and suddenly it was the proverbial straw.

I turned to a woman loading her car two spaces away and began spouting frustration, and once she realized I wasn't on a cell phone she came over and held the space for me in an extraordinary way, not only validating what I was sharing but matching it, point by point (e.g., her vehicle, the same age as mine, had failed the day before; her husband is facing surgery, etc, etc). Her equanimity brought me back to center as I explained the car issue wasn't a big deal at all; I just needed a break — and some support!

The tow truck team was fantastic. Eric popped the hood, moved the battery cable a millimeter and the car started up fine. Perhaps the connection came loose during the repairs, or going on and off the lift. I was good to go in about a minute and profoundly grateful. I completed my errands and drove home with the radio on. And this is where the spiritual humor enters in.

KZST in Santa Rosa has a daily game called "Drive o'clock trivia" where, at 5 pm, the DJ asks a question and callers who think they know the answer call in. It's almost always about numbers. Yesterday's question was, "One in 10 people use this business daily. What is it?" And of course I knew. I called and said, "Is it a towing service?" He exclaimed, "It IS a towing service!" I added, "And I know this because I just called them, 90 minutes ago." He said, "Well, I'm sorry that's why you know the answer!" But it was perfect.

This is happening in every realm now, the immediacy and synchronicity of instant return, often in a humorous fashion. It's a good way to stay grounded. Another example: I was discussing with my family member why fall/winter is not an ideal time for surgery, because it's the season of contraction, a time for rest and reflection as Nature releases the old and prepares to go into a dormant state. An hour after the call, I received an email with the subject line, "Honoring the Natural Rhythm of Autumn", which speaks to the mysteries of life and death and how this month is a great time to remember our ancestors as we approach All Souls Day/Day of the Dead.

We are always being answered. The Universe is ringing with love and compassion the moment we have ears to hear. I'm grateful for these Spirited reminders of the wisdom and support that's always available, usually liberally laced with humor. As our journeys continue to heat up, as the whole world awakens in an explosion of confusion and joy, remember the help that is here for us. And be as kind to yourself as you can.

How to Receive What You No Longer Want

As we emerge from our extended global gestation, I'm watching people joyfully birth long-term projects from deep inner wellsprings, ready at last to bring their unique gifts to Light. At the same time, I'm also observing how amused surrender allows our heartfelt desires to manifest more easily than ardent invocation — although I've been an advocate of the latter for a very long while.

Radical manifestation means completely feeling the fulfillment of what we want — then dropping all attachment to having it. This sounds paradoxical. However, we must get out of our own way in order to receive what we no longer want. Yearning indicates a lack of faith, which keeps our desire, like the proverbial carrot on a stick, tantalizingly just out of reach. But be all right without it, and Spirit swiftly delivers the goods.

The shift for me is appreciating this awareness from an amused perspective. Before, I'd try to remain detached, but my frustration with delays gave my true feelings away. Now, more and more, I'm living in the wellspring, watching the waters of wonder continuously renew me as I surrender to Source and allow myself to receive.

This is the feminine, attractive principle, here in the yin Year of the Snake, what so many have labeled, "The Law of Attraction": the power of pull rather than push, becoming magnetic to our good and allowing it in, rather than chasing it down, wrestling it to the ground and proclaiming victory.

At this moment of moving into ever-greater wholeness, consider (literally, "with the stars") the Native American Giveaway. In the Giveaway tradition, you offer what you value most to another, with no strings attached (to your offering or to your heart). The gift might take the form of time, talent, food, clothing, etc. If it's precious to you, you allow it to spill over, like a waterfall.

I invite you to consider a Giveaway to bring about greater balance and integration in your life — without, of course, holding that as the goal.

Putting It Into Practice

What do you love so much you'd feel blessed to give it to someone else?

I once lost an earring at the beach from a pair that was special to me for many reasons. I kept its mate in the box. Then I became friendly with a woman who had a single pierced ear. On her birthday, I was inspired to give her my earring because I couldn't imagine buying a gift that meant more to me. She understood immediately when I shared the earring's history, responding, "Oh, it's a Giveaway!"

Your Giveaway might be to the mineral, plant or animal realms: planting seedlings from the beloved tree in your backyard in a barren lot, for example.

Your gift can also be anonymous. In Pronoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You With Blessings, Rob Brezsny shares the story of a woman who donated a kidney to someone she didn't know, then returned to her regular life and clerical job. Three years later she won half a million dollars in the lottery. This does not mean that a Giveaway will net you a reward in kind (or in cash) — simply that doing something you feel called to do, without expectation, puts the Universe on notice that you're living in the flow. That's when synchronicity starts.

For many of us, giving this blessing to ourselves may be the beginning place: you cannot give to others if your own wells are running dry. If you've been giving yourself away for years, perhaps the greatest Giveaway is time spent soaking at a spa, to help gift you back into wholeness.

Feel free to share your Giveaway stories ~ and may you experience waves of amusement along the way.

Oh, Baby!

Out for a walk on Easter, I met a young woman holding a very cute baby. The mother seemed tired, and the baby wasn't that cheerful, either, although I surmised she (the baby) had perhaps recently awakened from a nap. The mom told me she also had an 8- and 5-year-old, though this child was more difficult for her, because she was raising her alone. The little girl was only four months old, so I thought, either her partner didn't plan on a kid, or, as seems to happen often in these extraordinary times, the couple came together just long enough to combine their DNA, because this little Light was needed on Earth.

As her mother and I were conversing, and after I mentioned the baby's subdued demeanor, she looked at me in the way babies do: staring, never breaking eye contact.

And then she began to laugh.

Huge, rollicking, endless laughter emanated from this tiny bundle. I stood transfixed, feeling my mouth curving irresistibly into a smile and then into my own laughter ~ it is contagious, after all!

Her mother said, "She likes your soul," and I appraised the mom as clearly a conscious being, equipped to raise a Light such as the one she held, and I said as much.

I felt blessed, renewed, in some way redeemed, by this infant's unquenchable laughter. I was in the rapt presence of a baby Buddha, and received her sustenance as manna. What an amazing gift on a day of rising: Yeaster, a rite of passage. It is a benediction I share with you through our cyber connection. May you receive the pure holy joy of laughter in your life when you least (or yeast) expect it, and may it renew you in every cell.

As I walked away, I offered the baby's mother, "May you have an easy raising." I didn't even realize the full significance until this morning.

Wealth Is An Inside Job

I spent this past weekend in a San Francisco hotel room with close to 150 other holistic practitioners of every stripe: life coaches to sound healers, acupuncturists to nutritionists, business organizers to psychotherapists. The event was called, "Rejuvenate Your Practice," and the essence of the weekend was something Jesse and Sharla, the creators of the workshop, call Heartselling.

Based on the Chinese 5 Element model (Fire, Earth, Metal, Water, Wood), they discovered and now teach what we're all awakening to in one form or another now: the Heart is our greatest natural (and renewable) resource.

When you come from the heart, from a place of truly wanting to serve, and place the focus on the other person (in this case, your potential client), asking questions that elicit their needs and desires rather than talking about yourself, and acknowledging their greatness, you'll become irresistible ~ they'll be ready to work with you in a ~ yes, heartbeat.

For me, one of the coolest experiences of the weekend (and we engaged in a lot of experiential exercises) was having 10 participants first say "no" when we asked if they were ready to start working with us ~ followed by 10 who said "Yes!" with wild enthusiasm. The demonstration imbued a visceral sense of expecting "yes's" from the Universe ~ which then, of course, is what happens, since we receive that which we hold in our thoughts.

Ready to get unstuck and move to a new level of creativity, health, wealth and joy in your life? Let's talk: amara@liveyourlight.com.

∞ Blessings and abundance to you! ∞