This morning, at 12:12 AM, still awake, my lesson about balance continued...  

See, we are supposed to have weaknesses.  By having both personal weaknesses and strengths, we obtain Balance. The trick is to not get lost in either. We tend to ignore, deny or condemn our weaknesses while we may put all of our expectations and esteem into our strengths.  Balance comes from tending both gardens.  By loving compassionately all that you are, you are recognizing that you are human as well as spirit.  Grace allows us to live with both.  

I honestly thought that peace was an absence of strife.  Even with all of the experience and nonviolent peace education that I have received, I continued to live with the personal notion that I needed to be strife free.  Perfect.  When actually, Peace comes from Gracefully loving my weaknesses AND strengths.  Not having misery over what pains me, nor having false expectations of what raises me up.   

Love your weaknesses.  Not so they can absolve themselves into neutrality nor naivety.  So that they can exist without judgment and receive your light and love. This positive attention allows you to keep an eye on them while you gracefully wait for them to transform when they are Ready.  The love and light provides for them a chance to speak clearly towards what you may need.  In time, these weaknesses will be loved enough to join their cousins: Strengths.  Gracefully waiting for other weaknesses to peak out and ask for light.  

It's OK.  When we look closely at our weaknesses, we actually see some of our strengths... and of course, lots of Love.

I feel free to be human and to release expectations of perfection and judgment!

Love & Light to you, 

Well, the next day, what I "got" seemed to get lost under a bunch of stuff.  See, I cannot even remember what the stuff was!  I am glad that I wrote it down and can know in my heart that my heart still seeks to find connections that enlighten and inspire me.  We are all on this Journey together.  I am learning that I HAVE TO find the love in everything.  Even when the stuff is heavy or indistinguishable.  See, I always try to figure things out.  When I just have to figure out where the Love is in the situation.  In August, I channeled this message: "balance happens when we least expect it.  In seeking balance, we do not always obtain it.  Much like trying to capture a butterfly - once in possession of it, it's freedom means nothing.  Balance is or it isn't.  Know yourself as You and as a consequence of that knowing do you find balance.  You always remain, know You."

I work to find the Love in everything and have faith and hope that I will obtain peace and balance and in that way can better serve myself, my family, and the world.

Peace 

..... The work is not in obtaining Joy & Love but in holding it.  I am committed to understanding all that is found in my depths and seeing what can Become from the Light.  ONLY in knowing how the two exist within me am I honoring my Self as Human and Spirit.  Love lives in my depth and allows me to be Home.  I welcome the miracle of Love into my life and know how infinitely blessed I am to be Loved.  

Pain can be transformative. 

My relationship to pain has evolved over time.  I have clenched at it’s approach, resented it and ignored it, fought back at it, felt helpless towards it, I have put my shoulders back and chin up in it’s spite, and I have created a place separate from where it lives.  I have learned to release it and to find forgiveness and healing, allowing a space for myself to heal and grow, yet still separate from it.  Today, I learn to sit with it, to learn from it and know it before it leaves me.  I thank it for holding beneath it, the Love.  When there is more pain, it is because there is so much love running through it.  I will acknowledge the heavy until it reveals the Light.  When it is ready, not me.  In that way, I evolve.

The Dalai Lamma says that we should thank our enemies for they teach us ways about ourselves that we may never have the opportunity to learn. Consider not just those across the continent that we are told to disapprove of, but your own difficult relationships. What brings discomfort brings our attention towards an aspect of ourself that needs healing. In this place, we are asked to be non-judgmental, honest, and loving. These discoveries are endless.

Who are you at this moment? What defines you? What is your Truth?

My mother's father Stephen, was born on Dec. 26. Grandpa was born into a Catholic family and his parents chose to name him after the Saint that he shared a feast day with: St. Stephen. I recently considered and learned about why Stephen was "made into" a Saint. As many Saints were, he was martyred. Putting that aside, he was noted for speaking his Truth during a time when all that he knew did not support his views. He was moved and inspired to spread a message that he so believed would help others to live with happiness, fulfillment, and love. He took chances. He spoke his Truth.

We have just passed through the first level of the "Holiday Season". Thanksgiving which has its own personality and is an amazing opportunity to realize how crazily blessed we are, does open the door to December 25. We are reminded by the store front decorations and the added genre button on our Sirius or XM radios, but what beckons this holiday season more is memories.