A friend of mine on facebook posted this earlier today. It is a video that captures so clearly both the miracle of the birth of Jesus, and the miracle of our being able to feel the TOUCH OF SPIRIT in our own hearts and minds.
While watching this, I settled into the "silence" that is sung about in this favorite Christian hymn, "Silent Night," about the night of his birth. And as I watched the familiar contemporary images of today, I knew that what I was feeling was right here inside me. Perhaps it was that same hushed stillness which was present those 2,000 years ago when that particular baby was born. It's possible, I think, since it is the same CONSCIOUSNESS of THE DIVINE that was present then as well as now.
The contemporary spiritual teacher, Eckert Tolle, has gifted the world with a number of books on STILLNESS and the capacity we have for living in the now. When practiced, he says we too can sense the DIVINE that It is always present inside us and in our world. Stillness, silence, conscious intention to listen...conscious intention to perceive...
I invite you to hear anew this familiar song and enter into the Silence that is as old as Creation itself. And when you do, however successful you are in going deeply into the STILLNESS, you will feel your consciousness touched.
www.asilentnightmovie.com
It helps me to remember the other phrase: "Love Came Down at Christmas" and truly REALIZE that this Gift of Love was given for us both then and now.
Have a Blessed Holiday and receive into your heart this gift of LOVE that is given to all of the Earth's children.
Light and Love to all,
Marcella
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Never Giving Up
After three days of wrestling with trying to post my second blog and finding myself beginning to think that I would have to start with a whole new blog, I just kept on trying. "Just one more time, I know it was here a moment ago..." "Where is it hiding?" "Why won't it take my edits?" OOPS IT DISAPPEARED!
When I finally stumbled on a solution, it not only recaptured the copy of both blogs, but I found IT had taken my posting seriously and Blog 2: "Re-Awakening the Heart" was there 3 times! The problem had been that it didn't show up when I kept trying the VIEW BLOG.
I suspect many of us over 70 (and a few younger Baby Boomers) also have trouble believing that the Internet is not just a new MAGIC LAND in which we have no GPS to guide us through its twists and turns. It seems to be forever not doing what I tell it to do - or not doing what I think I am telling it to do.
I remember when I tried to write a business plan on my first computer in 1985. After becoming baffled by the way the person I was paying to teach me seemed to be speaking a foreign language and his hands were flying across the keyboard so fast, I almost gave up right then and there. I was confused about how this new machine could ever help me. How could I learn the mechanics when I didn't even conceptually understood how it worked?
I asked a friend to lunch, my treat, and asked him to explain to me how it all worked. He was brilliant in his simple way of describing it by using a metaphor of a whole office that stored files and had lots of helps to get me more organized. Mostly, he encouraged me to not give up and keep trying.
So I would sit for hours with my muscles tense, my eyes straining, and labored over the important words that would sell my business plan to investor. I was terribly fearful, and kept thinking that I might lose all that I had written once I stepped away from the computer. (It was like imagining gremlins living inside who would eat the words up or hide them where I couldn't retrieve them. Do you remember those crazy gremlins during WWII who sabotaged the aircraft?.) Therefore, I diligently kept saving and saving what I was writing and that particular computer DID SAVE IT by copying the whole thing at the bottom of what I had written the day before.
Don't ask me how that happened. I'm still the learner after all these years and 1/3 of the time I still don't quite understand what I just did that made something "work" or "look good." Just because I have persevered doesn't mean I understand everything I am doing when I sit down to start a project.
To continue: one afternoon when I was getting near the end of writing the business plan and was planning to print it out the next day for editing, I became obsessed that if I closed it, I would not be able to find it later. My energy seemed to be attached to the machine and my body couldn't seem to decide to get up and move away. I felt "held" and the more I sat there, the more fearful I became. I knew EXACTLY how Jeff Bridges in the first Tron movie felt when he got sucked into that world and couldn't get out! I knew I was being ridiculous, yet was afraid of doing the wrong thing and my weeks of work would be lost. I kept sitting there, feeling helpless.
Finally, I called the friend who had been so helpful before and he could tell I was truly distressed. He didn't live far away and said he would come right over. When he walked into my basement office, I was relieved to see someone who could rescue me. Even though I felt embarrassed by my admission that I felt unable to close down the computer because of fear, I knew he would understand and help me.
He put his hands on my shoulders and helped me relax. He told me that he would sit down and make sure the file was saved and that it would be there tomorrow. I couldn't have to be the one to turn off the computer by myself. Then he stood up and took my hand and raised me out of the chair: "I'm going to fix this. It will take you time to learn and you mustn't feel bad that you don't understand it all yet. I will make sure the document is saved securely - and, then I'm taking you to a movie"
Over the years, he has remained a trusted friend and has come to my rescue a few more times when I needed "saving from myself..." He helped me believe that I was smart and could figure out what I needed to do in numerous situations. He trusted in both my capacity to learn and my ability to persevere in the face of the unknown.
So, here I am writing my third blog and realize that I often give myself lots of credit because I've mastered something, slogging through computer twists and turns, and find that little by little - especially in this new world of mass communication and the Internet that "never giving up" serves me very well.
(WHEW!)
Marcella Womack
When I finally stumbled on a solution, it not only recaptured the copy of both blogs, but I found IT had taken my posting seriously and Blog 2: "Re-Awakening the Heart" was there 3 times! The problem had been that it didn't show up when I kept trying the VIEW BLOG.
I suspect many of us over 70 (and a few younger Baby Boomers) also have trouble believing that the Internet is not just a new MAGIC LAND in which we have no GPS to guide us through its twists and turns. It seems to be forever not doing what I tell it to do - or not doing what I think I am telling it to do.
I remember when I tried to write a business plan on my first computer in 1985. After becoming baffled by the way the person I was paying to teach me seemed to be speaking a foreign language and his hands were flying across the keyboard so fast, I almost gave up right then and there. I was confused about how this new machine could ever help me. How could I learn the mechanics when I didn't even conceptually understood how it worked?
I asked a friend to lunch, my treat, and asked him to explain to me how it all worked. He was brilliant in his simple way of describing it by using a metaphor of a whole office that stored files and had lots of helps to get me more organized. Mostly, he encouraged me to not give up and keep trying.
So I would sit for hours with my muscles tense, my eyes straining, and labored over the important words that would sell my business plan to investor. I was terribly fearful, and kept thinking that I might lose all that I had written once I stepped away from the computer. (It was like imagining gremlins living inside who would eat the words up or hide them where I couldn't retrieve them. Do you remember those crazy gremlins during WWII who sabotaged the aircraft?.) Therefore, I diligently kept saving and saving what I was writing and that particular computer DID SAVE IT by copying the whole thing at the bottom of what I had written the day before.
Don't ask me how that happened. I'm still the learner after all these years and 1/3 of the time I still don't quite understand what I just did that made something "work" or "look good." Just because I have persevered doesn't mean I understand everything I am doing when I sit down to start a project.
To continue: one afternoon when I was getting near the end of writing the business plan and was planning to print it out the next day for editing, I became obsessed that if I closed it, I would not be able to find it later. My energy seemed to be attached to the machine and my body couldn't seem to decide to get up and move away. I felt "held" and the more I sat there, the more fearful I became. I knew EXACTLY how Jeff Bridges in the first Tron movie felt when he got sucked into that world and couldn't get out! I knew I was being ridiculous, yet was afraid of doing the wrong thing and my weeks of work would be lost. I kept sitting there, feeling helpless.
Finally, I called the friend who had been so helpful before and he could tell I was truly distressed. He didn't live far away and said he would come right over. When he walked into my basement office, I was relieved to see someone who could rescue me. Even though I felt embarrassed by my admission that I felt unable to close down the computer because of fear, I knew he would understand and help me.
He put his hands on my shoulders and helped me relax. He told me that he would sit down and make sure the file was saved and that it would be there tomorrow. I couldn't have to be the one to turn off the computer by myself. Then he stood up and took my hand and raised me out of the chair: "I'm going to fix this. It will take you time to learn and you mustn't feel bad that you don't understand it all yet. I will make sure the document is saved securely - and, then I'm taking you to a movie"
Over the years, he has remained a trusted friend and has come to my rescue a few more times when I needed "saving from myself..." He helped me believe that I was smart and could figure out what I needed to do in numerous situations. He trusted in both my capacity to learn and my ability to persevere in the face of the unknown.
So, here I am writing my third blog and realize that I often give myself lots of credit because I've mastered something, slogging through computer twists and turns, and find that little by little - especially in this new world of mass communication and the Internet that "never giving up" serves me very well.
(WHEW!)
Marcella Womack
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Re-Awakening the Heart
December 9, 2010
I’ve been struggling for the last several weeks to respond to what we see going on in this country since the recent election. Everywhere you turn, you see people at odds with each other expressing anger. Rep. Bart Stupak was reported to have said: “Every boundary of decency has been crossed!” People are divided and fearful. Community panels discuss the lack of civility in our democratic process. People are striking out in anger, marking turf and declaring “this group” or “that group” the ENEMY. A friend of mine has written that he is consumed with anger when he reads about the growing divisiveness in the country because he feels “set up” by the media. Others are fighting among themselves about whether or not President Obama is “political enough” when coming to reaching compromises that don’t meet the “political savvy” of some of his own party. They seem to forget that when he was a candidate, Obama stressed the need to work together, to change the way business is done in Washington
We in America
We are supposed to be a union; we are supposed to welcome “the hungry, the tired, the poor, the individuals yearning to be free” and welcome them into our communities.
We have turned our country into an US
Some forty years ago, a young psychologist examined the two operative styles typically expected of men and women. She knew that both sexes needed to be able to live in more healthy ways, other than one being the aggressor and the other being a passive recipient of that domination. A new word was coined – assertiveness - that called for a new stronger style where both parties could be equal. It involved both parties believing in their right to be (to speak, to behave) and a responsibility to be clear when communicating. Equally important was the fact that both parties had to respect the other’s right to speak and to be. This, when practiced, would result in both persons WINNING.
The aggressor plays the win-lose game, the passive person plays the lose-win game, and the respectful/responsible – assertive - person works to create win-win situations.
If we think only of ourselves and have no respect for the rights and plight of others, we may win, yet we rarely have the true trust of others. We may “play along” but neither trust nor be loyal to the other because we know they only work for themselves. Playing the win-lose game separates us from others in every way possible. The person who is aggressive and thinks only of himself often ends up dissatisfied with his/her possessions and titles of power. For those who have hardened their hearts against others, there can be a bleakness of spirit in their lives and often simply a greater hunger for more, more, more. Material things can never be ultimately satisfying without love.
What will it take for us to pull together again? Abraham Lincoln, in his first Inaugural Address in 1861 talked of the agonizingly difficult situation the nation was in with so many divided among themselves. Pulling the union apart through secession was not an option, he said. In closing, he said he knew how hard it was to have so many at odds with each other and hoped that in the long run, the “angels of our better natures” would help the country pull together.
We seem to be creating an untenable situation in America
We need to bring more “heart” into our conversations – more empathy, more compassion, more patience, less judgment. “Being our brothers’ keeper” is one of the simple maxims given to the world by Jesus, who became the Christ. He assured us that God was indeed the Father of us all. As we find LOVE swelling up in us during this sacred holiday season, let’s expand our awareness of blessing and sharing and think of all of our fellow citizens. Not judging, embracing them in our minds eye, and recognizing that “We are all in this together…”
Marcella Womack
Saturday, December 4, 2010
oh my goodness, I've done it!
Thank you to the several friends - especially Corrine and Wade - who encouraged me to blog and inspired me by their venturing into this "vague realm" where I am constantly learning (and getting stuck with not knowing what to do next!).
In the summer of 1983, I went on a rather unorthodox Vision Quest down to the Ozarks to spend a week with a friend in a cabin with no running water. Located on the land that had once beckoned a bunch of people who wanted to form a new kind of community we called in those days a "commune," it was deep in the woods of southern Missouri. By the early 80s, it had become a small center for women who wanted to get away, experience the land, and get away from the rigidity of patriarchy. My friend had taken a summer to determine her own future as a single woman once more and had invited me down.
Little did I know that August of that year would be one of the muggiest and blistering hot months of that summer. I came home with 283 chigger-mite bites AND a vision quest NAME. The bites happened because I slept in a sleeping bag on the floor of the cabin and walked in the dusty, scraggly woods for a week going back and forth to get water from the main house. I did this all while seeking (what seemed like endlessly) for The Great Spirit to give me "my spiritual name."
By Saturday noon, I was driving up a rutted hill to get back on the paved road and was thoroughly disgusted! I had not been given a name!!! All I wanted was a simple vision and a voice booming in my ear with an exotic - or profound - or amazing new name. Why hadn't I been heard? Who was "up there"? Were They listening? Was I unworthy? Grumbling and itching, I turned onto the asphault road and abruptly HEARD my name. I braked and sat there in shock. Not only had I actually been given a name but I didn't like it! I sat there for a few moments with my brow knitted and feeling grumpy.
"Well..." I thought. I liked part of it. I liked the TRUTH-SEEKER part of it - but "relentless" sounded too harsh. Why would there have to be an adjective in front of the noble sounding TRUTH-SEEKER? The more I thought about it, the more I liked the second and third words... I even thought about just leaving off the RELENTLESS part although that did seem a bit like cheating. I had heard all three words loud and clear, so I took a deep breath and started for the several hour drive home.
It is only now, over a quarter of a century later that I fully appreciate the whole spiritual name given to me: RELENTLESS TRUTH-SEEKER. I have discovered that I have a strong tenacity to keep looking until I find what resonates in my heart as "truth." Now that I've lived fully so many years of exploration and discovery, I know that this relentlessness has truly served me well.
A psychic once told me: "You only come to people like me after you've discerned your own answer, don't you?" I shrugged because she was the first psychic I had ever asked for a reading, so how did I know I would do it next time or there would even be a next time? I've discovered that she actually was right "on target" and I do follow my instincts and my intuition and seek out answers for myself. And always, my "test for truth" is always to let my HEART "tell" me.
So here I am, doing my first post on my new blog and will promise any who reads my words that I promise to have tested them for myself before I share them with readers. I will never ask you to "believe me when I tell you...," but rather only ask that you pay attention to that which RESONATES WITH YOUR HEART. It is always up to you to decide what is "truth" for you.
Dedicated to Love and Light and Service to humanity and the Earth,
I am Marcella, "relentless Truth-Seeker."
In the summer of 1983, I went on a rather unorthodox Vision Quest down to the Ozarks to spend a week with a friend in a cabin with no running water. Located on the land that had once beckoned a bunch of people who wanted to form a new kind of community we called in those days a "commune," it was deep in the woods of southern Missouri. By the early 80s, it had become a small center for women who wanted to get away, experience the land, and get away from the rigidity of patriarchy. My friend had taken a summer to determine her own future as a single woman once more and had invited me down.
Little did I know that August of that year would be one of the muggiest and blistering hot months of that summer. I came home with 283 chigger-mite bites AND a vision quest NAME. The bites happened because I slept in a sleeping bag on the floor of the cabin and walked in the dusty, scraggly woods for a week going back and forth to get water from the main house. I did this all while seeking (what seemed like endlessly) for The Great Spirit to give me "my spiritual name."
By Saturday noon, I was driving up a rutted hill to get back on the paved road and was thoroughly disgusted! I had not been given a name!!! All I wanted was a simple vision and a voice booming in my ear with an exotic - or profound - or amazing new name. Why hadn't I been heard? Who was "up there"? Were They listening? Was I unworthy? Grumbling and itching, I turned onto the asphault road and abruptly HEARD my name. I braked and sat there in shock. Not only had I actually been given a name but I didn't like it! I sat there for a few moments with my brow knitted and feeling grumpy.
"Well..." I thought. I liked part of it. I liked the TRUTH-SEEKER part of it - but "relentless" sounded too harsh. Why would there have to be an adjective in front of the noble sounding TRUTH-SEEKER? The more I thought about it, the more I liked the second and third words... I even thought about just leaving off the RELENTLESS part although that did seem a bit like cheating. I had heard all three words loud and clear, so I took a deep breath and started for the several hour drive home.
It is only now, over a quarter of a century later that I fully appreciate the whole spiritual name given to me: RELENTLESS TRUTH-SEEKER. I have discovered that I have a strong tenacity to keep looking until I find what resonates in my heart as "truth." Now that I've lived fully so many years of exploration and discovery, I know that this relentlessness has truly served me well.
A psychic once told me: "You only come to people like me after you've discerned your own answer, don't you?" I shrugged because she was the first psychic I had ever asked for a reading, so how did I know I would do it next time or there would even be a next time? I've discovered that she actually was right "on target" and I do follow my instincts and my intuition and seek out answers for myself. And always, my "test for truth" is always to let my HEART "tell" me.
So here I am, doing my first post on my new blog and will promise any who reads my words that I promise to have tested them for myself before I share them with readers. I will never ask you to "believe me when I tell you...," but rather only ask that you pay attention to that which RESONATES WITH YOUR HEART. It is always up to you to decide what is "truth" for you.
Dedicated to Love and Light and Service to humanity and the Earth,
I am Marcella, "relentless Truth-Seeker."
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