S.M.I.L.E.

       At its core, the concept of Softening to Love is an invitation to flow with an energy that permeates all that is - an energy that creates, nourishes, heals, and ultimately defines us.  Love is one name for that universal energy.

       Master Chunyi Lin - an extraordinary teacher, gifted healer, and founder of Spring Forest QiGong - spoke recently to a gathering in St. Cloud about the healing power of unconditional love.  At the beginning of a guided meditation to help us soften to love and become "love radiators," he invited us to smile.

       Have you every noticed how the physical act of smiling affects your spirit?

       Using acronym, Chunyi redefined smile as a way of setting intention, prior to meditation or any other engagement with life.

              Start
              My
              Internal
              Love
              Engine

       Smile.  Fire up that love engine.  Let it purr.  Let it roar.

Mystic Bumper Sticker

       In The Way Things Are, Huston Smith, a preeminent scholar of world religions, concludes that humans approach the God-question in four ways.  Atheists proclaim there is no God.  Polytheists say there are many Gods.  Monotheists contend there is one God.  And mystics believe there is only God.

       What if there is a loving, creative energy inherent in this universe, inseparable from all that is?

       What if everything and everyone is an expression of that energy - God in disguise?

       Mystic bumper sticker:  Start Seeing God!

Ideally Imperfect

       Ideals are beautiful.  They deserve to be cherished and nourished; for they are a vision of what's possible - what's possible in ourselves and what's possible in the world - a vision that propels us.

       There is a challenge inherent in the gift of ideals:  the challenge to forgive ourselves, to forgive others, to forgive the world, and to forgive life itself - as we, they, and it routinely fall short of what we envision.

       Can we honor our ideals and soften to inevitable imperfection?  Can we hang on to what we hold dear and, at the same time, nurture a forgiving heart and a compassionate spirit?

       Can we make room for goofiness - within and about?

       I've been working lately with a discipline I call "internal boundaries."  The idea is that, just as I wouldn't invite a thug or a robber into my home, I deny entry and refuse to entertain "thug thoughts" that rob me of joy and life energy.

       Helping me in this endeavor is a quote I recently read: 

"What other people think of you
is none of your business."