Faith and Miracles

Hello fellow spiritual travelers,

It’s been quite a while since I wrote you, and I’m sorry about that. I’ve been very busy dealing with some very time-consuming personal matters: I’ve been looking for a new place to live and have found that there’s been nothing more unsettling to me than moving.

This will be my sixth move in 11 years. There have been very good and necessary reasons for each move that occurred (for example, a short sale for one unfortunate landlord, and unexpected toxic mold in another apartment) but that didn’t lessen the stress that moving causes. Thankfully, I’ve decided to purchase a place now, instead of rent, and I’m looking forward to having a more permanent home for the future.

I’ve been searching hard for a condo since March, and the anxiety-producing process took me into some spiritual growth that required deeper levels of trust; Trust in honoring my gut feelings, trust in the future, and foremost, trust in my God. So months later, my faith is stronger and the surrender is deeper. Every minute of anxiety, confronting my own resistance, and lots of prayer has been worth it. Our growth comes in unexpected ways sometimes.

How is your faith doing?

Life has been rocky, indeed, for so many people, particularly in the past couple of years.  Difficult news is constantly bombarding us – so many sad and scary issues and atrocities bubbling up around immigration, the environment/global warming, and the reality of never-ending global strife, to name just a few.  Yesterday, when I was watching the PBS News Hour, I just cried.

I’m reminded continually of why we must do our part to grow, transform, and share our voices for justice, equality, and love of our Mother Earth.

Sometimes I question how my own consciousness shifts can make a dent in the huge mess that humanity has created.  Yet, I lean on the wisdom of the great sages and my own teachers, who strongly assert that because we are all connected, each shift made by each individual – each insight, each act of courage, honesty, and love – truly does make a difference.  I do know that when my earthly body expires, and my soul is ready to go to The Light, I want to go out of this human realm having tried to make a difference for future generations.

This image you see in this posting is a picture of what the Golden Age Movement (the Oneness Phenomenon that I so often write about) calls The Great Compassionate Light.

I experienced and saw this beautiful, intelligent, compassionate, loving Light within me when I attended the recent one day retreat, entitled “Journey Into Awakening” on July 9 – an event that I’ve previously written you about.  The retreat gave me and others a tremendous sense of calm and peace, and completely renewed and deepened my faith that individual transformation is crucial to planetary change.

For as we transform together, we will make a difference.

The sacred beings working behind the scenes are cheering us on and supporting every baby-step we take to increase self-awareness and thus transform.  As is said about awakening, awareness is the first step and the last step. “To see is to be free.” (Sri Bhagavan) Transformation comes as our self-awareness and self-acceptance increases. We stop identifying with the crazy, judgmental thoughts in our head. We experience ourselves as the Light that we truly are. Authenticity, self-love, connection to all living things, and the flowering of the heart are the fruits of awakening. With those fruits emerging on a global scale, there will surely no longer be war, violence, bigotry and hatred someday.

It was a deep, experiential retreat, live-streamed from India, and was based on the teachings of the founders of the Oneness Phenomenon, Sri Amma and Sri Bhagavan. We dove powerfully into experiences that opened up connection to The Light and deep awareness of our own inner patterns, blockages, and programming – those perceptions and conditionings that can prevent us from feeling happy, fulfilled, successful, healthy, and close to the significant people in our lives.

If you missed this retreat, the good news is that it will occur again on Friday, August 23, from 9:30am to 9:30pm. It’s a long day, but an extraordinary one. Again it will be live-streamed from India, and will be held, like the July event, in about 50 cities across North America.  I’ll be posting a link soon that will give you more info about registration.

I want to share with you a small, but very sweet, miracle that just occurred in my life yesterday, and was perhaps a sign that growth and transformation has accelerated.

There definitely seems to be an increased ease and grace in my life since the one-day awakening retreat. Something has shifted for sure. Perhaps it will inspire you to accelerate your own spiritual journey and to expect miracles in your life if you have faith. This miracle just gives one a lovely taste of what life is like when we’re in the flow of life’s essential nature, so I’d like to share it:

As a little back story, several years ago I was living in an apartment that required me buying a new window air conditioner. I bought a beauty of an a/c, a very high quality brand, but only used it one season because the following summer, I moved into my current residence, which has central air conditioning.  I put the window air conditioner I’d bought in my storage area and hung on to it because I didn’t know if I’d need it in a future rental.  It’s sat there for two summers now and today I decided to sell it because the new condo I’m going to live in already has wall a/c units built in.

I put an ad on Craig’s List, and decided to ask a pretty low price for the unit.  I hoped it would sell quickly, as I’m trying hard to lighten my load of “stuff” without attachment.  I had some trepidation about using Craig’s List (and inviting strangers into my home), but took the plunge. Within an hour of posting my ad, I got an email message from a man who is the Pastor of a church in Chicago that needed two air conditioners. Turns out he needed a/c, in particular, for a certain room in his church that houses a program for disadvantaged youth. But by the time I called him back, however, he had just decided to buy two a/c units from someone else’s ad and was on his way over to that other person’s location. 

I was so disappointed, and would have trusted this stranger into my home to see the a/c unit. I felt this would be the perfect new home for the air conditioner. I prayed that the Pastor would somehow change his mind and call me back and buy my a/c.  Well, within another hour, the Pastor did call me back.  He bought one a/c unit from the other person, but still needed a second one, since the second one of the other guy was going to be too small. He was so happy that mine was still available and came right over to get it.

Thank you, Divine, for the sweet miracle. The Pastor came, bought the a/c, and we just had a mini-love fest. I told him I was thrilled the a/c would go to a great new home.  He was thrilled with the wonderful a/c and the low price I was charging. 

Ah, we’ve got to treasure the sweet things in life – those precious miracles that remind us that Spirit has our back and that we are all loved and taken care of in the most perfect ways.

With love to you all,

Paula