Divine Time (reblog)

Here’s an AWESOME reblog to get us thinking about TIME.

All is Divinely Timed

February 25, 2014

Greetings Dear Ones!

Today we wish to speak to you of Divine timing. There is a cycle and a pattern to all things in the universe. Just like a symphony when each instrument has its moment of joining the chorus, so too are events and happenings orchestrated to create a perfectly timed, beautiful, event.

We understand that in your world you have become very accustomed to the construct of linear time. However, time and timing are two very different things. If you were to suddenly throw away all of your clocks and man made devices that you use to measure the concept of time, how would you know what time it was? We want you to further ponder this question by asking that if the concept of time didn’t exist, would it matter what time it was?

Have you ever experienced a moment when you are sitting at your desk or driving in your car and you suddenly feel your body’s need for food that manifests as hunger? Many of you would say “I feel hungry, my body needs food so it must be time to eat”. Then many of you would continue by looking at the clock and saying “How can I be hungry? it’s only 10AM?” Would you then deny yourself the food that your body is asking for based upon the man made concept of time?

Or would you trust your body’s intelligence and feed it as it is asking to be fed? The same thing can occur when your body is asking to rest or to sleep. You may say “Wow, I am so tired, but it is only 9PM. I can’t go to bed now”! We find it curious that you have been taught not to trust and honor the wisdom of your bodies. We wonder, who decides when it is time to eat and sleep? You, or the clock?

Consider for a moment that you have decided to plant a garden. You have a vision of the beauty of the plants and flowers and food that you are going to grow. You sow your seeds in late Winter or early Spring and you know that it will be some time before the seeds start to sprout and yet you understand that there is a natural cycle that must be honored. The flower cannot bloom before the seed has sprouted. You know this and you trust this. Would you then, ever conceive of running out to your garden three weeks after the seeds have been planted and saying “These seeds don’t know what they are doing, it’s time for flowers and they have barely even sprouted!” We know that you would not.

Your eagerness to see the beauty of your garden manifest may cause you to feel impatient, but you would never curse the seeds for not showing you the flowers before they have had a chance to germinate. We ask you then, why do you not honor the wisdom of your hearts and of your bodies the same way that you honor the wisdom of the seeds? Your heart knows all. Your heart knows when it is time to take the leap, to start a new venture, to end or begin a relationship. Your body knows when it is time to eat and when it is time to rest. It is only when the rational mind tries to take over and override the natural rhythms and cycles that things go a little haywire.

As you begin to follow your hearts and let your hearts be your guide we anticipate that you will begin to see the irrelevance of time. It is yet another concept of illusion that in many ways has been created to keep you feeling separate and to keep the illusion in place that another has control over your life and your choices. As you begin to become the masters of your lives via living through your hearts, you will see that the Divine timing and intelligence that coordinates all things is always perfect in its planning and execution.

A master painter never curses that her creation is taking too long to finish. She knows that when it is finished and ready to hang in the gallery, that she will just know. Just as a master chef doesn’t necessarily need the clock to tell him what time his creation will be finished cooking. He trusts that by using his sense of sight and his sense of smell and taste that he will know when it is time to remove it from the oven. A master builder knows that the house cannot be built until the foundation is complete.

The same is true for you Dear Ones. You know when it is time to make your move because your heart tells you it is time. You know when it is time to eat a meal because your body tells you it is time. The concept of linear time is yet another way for you to rely on something outside of your own inherent wisdom to tell you when to go and when to stay. As action is taken according to Divine timing, you will eventually see the next step unfold.

We wish to remind you that all is connected and there is no separation. For since all came from Source, all is Divinely orchestrated by Source. When you have begun to manifest something from your desire, the wheels are immediately put into motion to bring it to you. The timing is always perfect. It is only your insistence on not trusting the knowing of your hearts that prevents it from arriving.

Like the master gardener knows, the flowers and the crops are going to come to fruition when they are ready. It is only the gardener’s resistance to Divine timing that ensures that they will be harvested too early or too late. From our perspective a clock is useless when one listens to the rhythm of their heart and their body. To begin to trust that you are Divinely guided and to trust that your desires will arrive when the time is “right” ensures that they will.

So Dear Ones, we ask you to go within and trust the intelligence of all that you are connected to. Trust that when it is time to act, your heart will tell you to act and when it is time to rest your body will tell you to rest. As you allow things to unfold according to Divine timing, you will see the perfection in the unfolding.

In Love and Light we leave you.

Rejoice!

TLO

Copyright © Andrew Martin. All Rights Reserved. You may copy and redistribute this material so long as you do not alter or edit it in any way, the content remains complete and you include this copyright notice link: http://www.andrewmartinartist.com/andrewmartinblog

Recognizing Soul Connections

We are all used to looking at relationships with our minds.  When we meet another person or even become familiar with another person without meeting him or her, our brains automatically notice lots of things about them.  How do they appear?  Do they seem nice and friendly?  Are they happy or sad?  Are they physically attractive?  What is different or noticeable about this person?  What do they do for a living or how do they spend their time?  What do we have in common?  We do this so fast and so thoroughly, that despite the fact that we do it with our minds, we don’t really think about it.  But we can tell pretty quickly if this person is someone who is compatible or not.

But there is another layer that we also do automatically, and it’s also something we don’t think about.  Because we also touch base through our heart, with our soul, to feel and know if this someone resonates with us.

Everybody does this.   We “click” with certain people.  We say someone has a certain vibe.  Another person just makes you uncomfortable, and you can’t say why.

As one becomes more aware of our “soul-based operating mode” it becomes really interesting to notice this other layer of interaction that is occurring all the time.  For many people, it’s still under the radar.  But the more you pay attention, a whole new world opens up with a whole different understanding of what we do for each other as souls.

I now see every person as a blend of 1) who they are in this life as a physical human being born into certain circumstances, and 2) an eternal soul with their own special essence.

I went to see a speaker a couple of years ago.  As I went to stand in line to check in, a woman did the same at that very same moment.  There was a feeling of instant recognition – how fun it was that we were both there at that moment! We immediately laughed about that and felt comfortable and shared like old friends.  On the surface, we didn’t have that much in common, yet we enjoyed learning about each other.  We had a great day.

What’s interesting is that we only kept in touch for a short time.  To my brain, it’s kind of strange that we didn’t keep in touch and become traditional friends.  However, what I know is that during our one long phone conversation, she told me a story about her life that gave me a huge revelation/insight into something relevant to my life.  My heart knows that we made this connection partly for this reason.

If my mind were the only part of me that were evaluating this situation, I might decide that I was wrong about her, that she really was just acting friendly, and she really wasn’t meant to be my friend.  My mind might want to put her in a box of how a friend is supposed to be, and if she didn’t fit, then it might decide there was something wrong with her.  Or maybe my mind would start to wonder what I did “wrong” that led to the disappearance of a relationship.  Instead, I am extremely grateful for the connection that happened, and who knows?  We may run into each other again, and I would be so happy to share that moment with her!!  I don’t need to have expectations of a relationship at the soul level.

I also have some soul connections that have been facilitated through music.  Few things speak to my soul better than the music and lyrics of Van Morrison, Jack Johnson, and ALO.   The idea of a “soul family” feels like the best way to describe the connection I have, and I am not alone.

One experience really got my attention and got me thinking about this.  Our family traveled to Maui in 2006 to attend the Kokua Festival.  The entire trip seemed “charmed” – we were able to use points and miles for hotel and airfare, which always seems difficult otherwise, what with blackout dates and limited slots.  When I went online to get tickets at the moment they went on sale, I was able to get 5 seats in the fourth row (how lucky was that?).  And to top it off, after the show, we hung around, wondering if there was any way that we could meet Jack.

My husband noticed a door where people were going in and out, and said, let’s go over there.  We went to the door, mentioned a guy we knew, and the person asked us who we were.  We said our last name.  (OK, yeah, right.)

And then he let us in.  I still have no idea why.

So here we are, backstage, and we meet Jack.  He is super nice to the kids, asking them their favorite song, and they are totally starstruck and speechless.  And I find myself talking to him, one on one, and it was the most interesting feeling, a feeling that I have had a couple of times since.  First of all, the experience definitely felt “guided.”  There’s no way I was there without some divine intervention or alignment of the stars or something.  Somehow, it was just clear that this meeting was about something deeper than words.  Words seemed awkward.  And to be clear, the feeling of closeness was like seeing a brother that you hadn’t seen in 40 years, and you had no idea how you could ever catch up in a few minutes, and you knew that’s all you would have.  You were just glad to see each other and have that moment.

To experience this was, at the same time, the most comfortable thing I have ever experienced, yet the most disconcerting.  There was access to a realm where so much energy and love is available, and you never knew it existed.

At this point, your mind may want to turn this into something familiar, something you can put in a box and dismiss.  You’re just a groupie and you’re attracted to this guy, he’s famous and you think you’re so great and special that you think you are connected to him.  That’s how the mind processes this kind of thing, because it makes no sense to the mind. My mind wants to label it, my Soul feels no need to do that.

On to another concert, this time ALO in New Jersey.  I had become familiar with them because of Jack Johnson, so I took a couple of kids on a summer day and it was great fun.  And I met a wonderful, open, friendly woman who remains a friend.  She gave me some inside scoop on the guys, and introduced me to a couple other people there.  This was my introduction to the family of ALOvers.

Nicole is someone I have come to admire greatly.  She is doing great things in the world, and I love reading about her travels.  I consider her to be soul family.

We run into each other from time to time.  On the “who we are as physical individuals in this life” we don’t really have that much in common.  So that can seem kind of weird to the mind, which likes to put us in places and with people who are “like us.”  Yet, I have great love for her in a different, deeper way.  She is a soul sister that I greatly appreciate.  We don’t need to hang out (except occasionally at a concert) to have that bond.

My ALO family, including the guys, feels just like that, a family of brothers and sisters.  Our specialty is caring deeply about brotherly love, while having fun and silliness.

As a matter of fact, I recently read an article that described the different words the Greeks used for love.  One of the words was Ludus, and here’s what it said:

Ludus, or playful love

This was the Greeks’ idea of playful love, which referred to the affection between children or young lovers. We’ve all had a taste of it in the flirting and teasing in the early stages of a relationship. But we also live out our ludus when we sit around in a bar bantering and laughing with friends, or when we go out dancing.

Dancing with strangers may be the ultimate ludic activity, almost a playful substitute for sex itself. Social norms may frown on this kind of adult frivolity, but a little more ludus might be just what we need to spice up our … lives.

http://www.yesmagazine.org/happiness/the-ancient-greeks-6-words-for-love-and-why-knowing-them-can-change-your-life

As I tried to research and read more, it became clear to me that I wasn’t going to get a good handle on those Greek words.  But no matter.

The point is that there is a place for playfulness and fun in life.  And as I thought about it, it’s true that many think this is folly and something to leave behind as we get older and serious about life.  And I think that leaves a hole.  The soul is all about the heart, and the heart is all about joy.  What better way to experience joy, than play and banter and silliness and dancing??

So my conclusion about why my soul family loves ALO so much, is that we are all enjoying Ludus together.  Fun, dancing, silliness, joy, smiles, caring, happiness – it’s a kind of love that just makes you feel good.  It has nothing to do with romantic love or desire.  It’s all about liberating that inner animal!!

I suspect that every person who is becoming more attuned to the desires of their Soul is finding their own way to experience joy, beauty, playfulness, and fun.  To the mind, these experiences might seem out of control or weird.  I should really act my age and stop embarrassing my kids, right?

And so, on the serious side, I also have soul connections in the form of friends that are very close.  These are people that I can talk to about anything.  We have a lot in common, similar lives and circumstances, and there is no doubt that we have been brought together to support each other.  These connections are easy to recognize, but what is really amazing is how these connections deepen when you open yourself to them.  We have exposed ourselves and our insecurities, our fears and our doubts, our discoveries and challenges, in a way that used to seem impossible.

As I step into a more heart-based way of living, it is these Soul Connections that reassure me that it IS possible.

And along the way, why not have some fun????

(I want to say a huge thank you to C for commenting and pointing me to this blog post: 

http://enlightenmysenses.wordpress.com/2013/12/08/holistic-cornermusic-from-the-heavens-blue-christmas-why-i-am-crying-over-paul-walker/ 

I highly encourage reading it, and the links to the rest of the story.  Awesome!)

Don’t Shoot the Messenger!!

Back in the old days, any information that contradicted the status quo was considered a threat.  And what to do about a threat??  KILL IT!!  Eliminate it.  Stick your fingers in your ears and wiggle your tongue and make noise and refuse to engage with it!

Sure, mankind has come a long way.  Still, we retain more of this behavior than we’d like to admit.  We don’t like hearing feedback that questions us.  We don’t like information that doesn’t fit.  We want to feel good about how we see the world and how we fit in and what we are doing, so information that contradicts any of that feels threatening.  And if we are confronted with a messenger that is different from us, we are suspicious.

Most of us, in a comfortable moment, if we allow ourselves to think about it, would agree that feedback from a source that we trust can be very helpful.  It might still be hard to hear, but if we can set aside the discomfort and think about the feedback in a detached manner, it can be invaluable for our personal growth.

Still, it can be hard for even a close friend or family member to bring up honest feedback.  We all hesitate to share observations if we anticipate that the person receiving it won’t take it well or if their feelings might be hurt.  This dynamic is a barrier to honest communication, and it limits the possibilities of personal growth.

So it’s not terribly difficult to learn to be open to information that comes from a trusted source.  If the source seems safe, if you know the person or source has your best interests at heart, it’s much easier to consider it.

If the goal is maximizing personal growth, one would want to get better at remaining open to all kinds of information, not only from sources we know but also from those outside our comfort zone.  One would work on their personal abilities in discerning what resonates or feels true as well as feeling comfortable knowing when information doesn’t fit.  One would want to be as open as possible, without feeling threatened by any information, regardless of how it was delivered or how out-of -the-box or crazy it seems.

So let’s talk about the messenger.  The messenger is just someone who is communicating information.  A Messenger is someone who is just passing on information or repeating what they have been told.  The messenger doesn’t have an agenda.  The messenger himself really doesn’t pose a threat.

There’s a lot of information “out there.”  Are you only open to messages that come from others who are “like you”???  For example, if you are a Christian, do you only trust Christian messengers?  How do you know if the person really is a Christian?  This way of thinking applies a filter to determine whether the messenger is credible.  Rather than focusing on whether the message resonates or is helpful, sometimes we get stuck and distracted by who is delivering the message.

How many people have been deceived by someone they trust?  How many times have you ignored the feeling that something wasn’t right, because of who the messenger was?

Personally, I have come to the conclusion that there are messages all over the place, and I have decided to be open to them, no matter who the messenger is.  I’m focusing on my own sense of whether a message is useful to me or not.

Another way to say this is, God is everywhere, especially in the places we least expect.  There are messages, opportunities for us to learn and grow, in what’s familiar, but even more so in the places that are unfamiliar.  There’s no limit to God’s reach, so why should I limit the places I look?

We still retain the fear of the unknown, the fear of the unfamiliar messenger, the fear of anything different.  This fear holds us back from our potential.  Is it time to let it go?

How?  Well, try practicing.  Find an unfamiliar source, a book about an unfamiliar but interesting topic, a video that seems far-out.  Read or watch with an open mind, all the while trying to see through to the concept that is behind it.  Don’t feel like you have to agree or disagree, or decide if it’s “right” or “wrong.”

At the end, you can just conclude that it was interesting to hear a different perspective.  As my friend says, “That’s information.”

Notice how it feels to do this.  Did you feel threatened?  Look, it’s just a book or a video, you will never meet the messenger, no one else in the world even ever needs to know you put yourself through this exercise.  No one is making you agree.  Why do you care what this person says?  Why do you care if they have a different opinion?

If you were triggered, ask yourself why.  What are you afraid of?  Why does this feel personal?

The point of all this?  You will learn about yourself.  You might find that you are closing yourself off from information or feedback due to fears.  As a result of becoming aware of this, you might be more open to growth.

In addition, you might find yourself becoming more open to others.  You may expand your ability to communicate more fully and honestly.

The downside?  All hell could break loose.  You could be forever changed.  That might sound dramatic, but I’m not kidding.  Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

But I’m just a messenger.  You will know if the message is for you or not.