When there are a teenager, an 8-yr old and 22-month old, all boys, in the house, visiting, it doesn’t appear that there would be much silence. But, if you listen between the cartoons, the light sabers swirling around, the guitar, drum and football floating through the air, the love that flows constitutes silence. It’s the feeling that all is right with the world and it comes with children in different shapes and sounds.

It seems like I’ve been writing about family and children more in my last few posts (see Making Memories and Jokes, Family and Fun). It’s the invisible force I feel that is ever present when I focus on family and loved ones. Yes, we go through the everyday routine of chores, jobs, errands but what flows in the background, just as the music between the notes, is the essence of life. You learn as you get older having passed some of the trials and witnessed the highs and lows that life gets sweeter and more precious with each passing day. You try not to take for granted the moments of every fleeting day.

So, where is this silence? It never leaves even when all the noise commands attention. It’s the same with spirituality and God’s presence. Going through each day is demanding with the thousands of thoughts to sort through and the physical interactions no wonder silence and spiritual essence is so hard to detect. You’re focus is being pulled in every direction saying, “Pay attention to me – No, pay attention to me.” What do you listen to? You have to choose. You can feel it if you’re aware of it while there are distractions all around. You have to consciously look for it and it will present itself to you.

Have you been up late at night and listened to the silence between the hours of midnight and 3:00 am. It’s different somehow. There’s a hush where it seems that all the world is in slumber. If you’re up in the mountains or out in the woods it’s a time where you hear the wildlife moving around. You might hear an occasional dog bark or the snorting of a horse. Or, if it’s snowing, you can hear the snow as it drifts down and lands on the ground. You feel a deeper connection to the world somehow.

Children, while they may be a distraction with play and noise, have a pure innocence that ushers in, believe it or not, the essence of silence and love. As it says, in Psalm 46:10, “Be still and know that I am God…” When we can quiet ourselves and be still, we can know there is a God and when we can’t be quiet and the silence seems distant feel the peace, feel the essence of silence as it hums in the background. Soon you will be able to bring it forward.

From the kitchen table – Pat
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There was a funny story passed along to me via e-mail that I wanted to share with you. It sets the stage to lighten up, play and not take ourselves too seriously. I laughed out loud when I read this. I hope you laugh too. It’s called “Dad at the Mall”:

I took my dad to the mall the other day to buy some new shoes. We decided to grab a bite at the food court. I noticed he was watching a teenager sitting next to him. The teenager had spiked hair in all different colors: green, red, orange, and blue. My dad kept staring at him. The teenager would look and find him staring every time.

When the teenager had enough, he sarcastically asked, “What’s the matter old man, never done anything wild in your life?” Knowing my Dad, I quickly swallowed my food so that I would not choke on his response; knowing he would have a good one. And in classic style he did not bat an eye in his response, “Got drunk once and had sex with a peacock. I was just wondering if you were my son”

I’m in a play mode for the next few days and the energies have shifted. It’s time to let go of the ‘have do’s’ for a little while and enjoy the present moment. That’s what happens when kids are around. School is out for a couple of days for teachers’ meetings and the grandsons are spending some time with us and the 22-month old will join us tomorrow. We’ll have a house full of kids, we grandparents, a dog and a horse. When they come up with us to the mountains, everything changes: our routines, what we eat (hot dogs – mac and cheese), and what we watch on television – Looney Tunes. Having kids around changes everything. You hear more giggling, there’s tickling, and rough housing. It changes the energy and I love it.

Just in January, since the beginning of the New Year, my husband and I have already gone through our 88 yr-old mother/mother-in-law having to be admitted to the hospital while visiting for the holidays in Denver, our 23-yr old horse suddenly dying, and I was let go from my temp job. We needed a grandson(s) fix. There has been too much serious stuff going on with us having to deal with. It’s time to get down and play and enjoy life and grandchildren automatically put you in that mode. It’s not what you do so much as it’s how you do it and your attitude.

I know each time they come to visit there’s the familiarity of the house, the sounds and smells each creating a memory that something will trigger sometime in the future. I know I have those triggers that flash me back as a child at my grandmother’s: the fizzle and smell of a freshly poured coke, the sound of seagulls and the smell of salt air. Living in the west, I don’t get much of a chance to hear seagulls or smell salt air but the memories are there waiting to be announced.

When we were small, I remember one night sitting on the front porch in a small town in Virginia with my cousins. We were laughing and talking and could hear my grandparents inside – Grandma was in the kitchen finishing up the dishes and Grandpop was settling down to watch some TV. We continued talking and watched the people walk by on the sidewalk and the cars go by and didn’t realize it was getting late. As we sat there, we heard a noise and looked over to the railing at the end of the porch and saw some movement. All of a sudden, we saw what we thought was a ghost coming out of the shadows and up and over the railing at us. We all screamed and took off running in different directions only to find out it was Grandma with a sheet over her head looking to scare us. She succeeded and when we finally came back to the house and our hearts settled down we had a good laugh.

What are some of the things you do to let go of stress and demands? Do you play video games on the computer or go dancing? Maybe you get some friends together and go out and sing karaoke. Maybe you just chase the grandkids around the house like we do only to hear the squeals of glee and laughter when you catch them and tickle them. Such joy – there’s nothing like it. Whatever it is, life is meant to be shared and enjoyed and we all need to just get down and play once in a while.

From the ol’ kitchen table – Pat

I woke up this morning with thoughts of peace and gratitude. As I lay there listening to the sounds of early morning and opening my eyes to the light of day, I felt that in this place all was right with the world. The feeling was sweet and familiar of a place I had known long ago and I wanted to stay there. There were no struggles to get this done or chase to meet that person. No deadlines to meet or bills to pay. It was all taken care of and I could just rest in it and be thankful. In this place, everything was given effortlessly for your taking with an abundance of love. You didn’t have to meet criteria to purchase anything or to possess anything. All was freely given with no strings attached and I thought how different it is in this world. I like this place – it feels good. I realized that this is our heritage, our birthright, and this is what has been given to us only we have forgotten it. The feeling stayed with me for awhile as I got up and dressed to prepare for the day. It was still with me earlier as I started this post working on doing it justice to find the words to express it. But as the day moved on with all of its distractions the feeling diminished and its presence was felt more in the background as if programs running on a computer.

What is it that takes me out of this realm and into the world as we know it? Why can’t I be in both places at the same time and allow the attributes of one dimension be expressed and translated in the other dimension? Are there two dimensions or are we dreaming? We see signs of this sweet and familiar place in this world when we feel the sunshine on our face and the rain and snow that fall to water and replenish the earth. This is all freely given. The animals and birds have a knowing that their needs are provided and move in that ebb and flow of given energy that appears to be eluding us. If you listen, you can hear the whispers in the wind of the presence of a parallel world. It appears to be there and real and there’s the ability within all of us to access it anytime.

“The breezes at dawn have secrets to tell you.
Don’t go back to sleep.
You must ask for what you really want.
Don’t go back to sleep.
People are going back and forth
across the doors where the two worlds touch.
The door is round and open.
Don’t go back to sleep.”
– RUMI –

As our awareness becomes more acute and intentions more adept to attracting the presence of this dimension, I believe we can live and function in both worlds as we see it. We can bring that dimension forward where it’s ever present from the background and explore and discover it and learn how to live in it while living in the physical world. I felt glimpses of it today as I was going about everyday chores. Because I was focusing on this topic and how to express what I felt, I found myself doing things but not aware of myself doing them. I was going through the motions but my focus was on this place and how to express what I felt. If we consider what Deepak Chopra says as you read on in his book, The Book of Secrets – Unlocking the Hidden Dimensions of Your Life the possibility of living in this place of peace is available to us while functioning in a physical state we only have to know where to look:

“When you are living the truth of one reality, every secret reveals itself without effort or struggle.”

“The one reality is spirit, and the surface of life is only a disguise with a thousand masks that keeps us from discovering what is real.”

“A mystery that doesn’t want to be known will just keep retreating the closer you come to it. The mystery of life doesn’t behave that way: Its secrets are revealed immediately if you know where to look. But where is that?”

“The body’s wisdom is a good entry point into the hidden dimensions of life, because although completely invisible, the body’s wisdom is undeniably real – a fact that medical researchers began to accept in the mid-1980’s.”

We have built within us the secret of life ready to be discovered only we’re hung up on the masks we believe to be a reality. And maybe if there is really only one dimension not two, one reality, as Deepak describes earlier, it is just disguised by elusions and distractions.

That place I felt this morning seems so far away from me now. I wasn’t able to hold onto the feel of it. As I learn to be present in every moment I will remember again that blissful place I came from, a place where all is right with the world, and will discover more of the secret of life to bring forth into this reality. Have you had a similar experience? I’d like to hear your thoughts.

From the kitchen table – Pat
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As we look around at the situations in the world we’re tempted to ask, “Where are the miracles?” “Is there no God?” In my own life, I look around and question, “Why is there no change?” “Where are the miracles?” I think just the fact that we question and doubt reveals the state we’re in. We have been conditioned to believe that the mystery of miracles is a fantasy and what you see in this world is reality. As children, we watched Disney and the fantasy of Peter Pan and it’s no different today than dreaming of being in the world of Harry Potter. There is a part of us where there is magic and dreams do come true and what is real is in the world of miracles.

There is no shortage of miracles in the world today. Maybe we haven’t seen as many because we’ve been looking in the wrong places or expect them to show up in the ways they have in the past. In her book, Everyday Grace, Marianne Williamson says, “A miracle occurred not because you caused it but because you allowed it.”

Humanity is at a crossroads where we can no longer afford to cling to what we thought worked for us in the past. It will no longer work. The jobs we once held are no longer available. The faith we had to manifest guidance and hope works now but in a different way. The anti has been upped and those of us who have dabbled in spirituality and have consciously followed the path to changing our lives have to choose. We can no longer afford to stay on the sidelines anymore or sit on the fence – sometimes we believe and other times we’ll go along with popular thought. We need to get serious and commit to what we’ve known to be and not what appears, as the stakes are higher than they’ve ever been before. How can we do that? Williamson goes on to say:

“Therefore, as we address the shadow within us, we are addressing the shadow of the world. The mystic does not deny the darkness, in ourselves or in the world, but affirms a light that lies beyond it. And we have faith the light will prevail because we have faith that light is our true identity.”

Realizing we are light and looking beyond the circumstances and darkness to the light of God will allow miracles to manifest that are so needed in our own lives and in this world. What’s working for you today in your life? Just the fact that you’re curious and open to the possibilities and reading this post demonstrates the power of hope. Have you experienced a shift in energies and the urgency to commit and participate in the mystery of miracles and dance in the fantasy world of your dreams? It may sound crazy to the world but then that’s no less than a miracle.

From the kitchen table – Pat
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