Is your ship capsizing or riding the waves?

I have a greeting card from Trader Joes with the saying "A ship in port, is safe, but that is not what ships are built for." This quote by author and poet John A. Shedd is from a book called Salt from My Attic, a collection of quotes and sayings that he loved. I think he must have understood a great deal about human nature and the need for metaphor to explain the obvious! The card is situated to the right of my computer sitting upright on the chair rail so whenever I am at my computer which is quite often it speaks to me; not unlike a certain cricket beloved by a wooden boy named Pinocchio.  Reading or rather glancing at this card and recalling from memory the words (as I have read it millions of times) instantly reassures me that when I am going outside my comfort zone in my work and my own personal process that I am out to sea with my boat and that is exactly where I need to be.  It gives me courage when I feel I can not get through another day and I am hopeless or even when I am on fire with a new idea.  It reminds me that whenever I am sailing the high seas of my own imagination I am in the hands of the Sea Gods and Goddesses as all boats are when they set sail.  It is when I am apathetic and out of sync with my own inner waters that I am reminded I am in the port of my own making and that all I need to do is set the sails make a heading and bear with the winds of fate and throw open the lines and see where the Divine wants to carry me.

Lately this seems to be a heading in a direction of dark stormy waters clearing out old patterns of thinking on abundance.  Prosperity is something that is an interesting idea and can feel quite vague and slippery like a frog just out of water.  But what I am learning is that my relationship with money is very much like a drug addict who is just always looking for the next fix!  Upon this realization, I started a self prescribed 12 step program called The Abundance Book.  It is just the type of reprogramming I needed to set myself on the right path with integrity and yes it is truly a day to day, moment by moment lesson on retraining the patterns set up in childhood.  It is all so interesting to look in hindsight at how I got to be this addict instead of allowing a healthy helping of abundance to stick around all the time.  I was raised by parents who grew up as kids during WWll. And their motto was that it took long, hard work, often doing jobs you didn't really like or working those jobs and carrying 24  college units and walking 4 miles up hill in the snow to school and then home, as the only way to create the new and ultra secure life you wanted. And yet my brother and I were given everything and we never had to lift a finger. Because for some reason hard work also meant you didn't require any effort from your offspring nor do you tell them about things like bills, mortgages and fiscal responsibility. This was tabu!  It was the 80's and I was the ultimate "material girl" in every sense of the word!  I mean when you were heading into the new school year of 1982 there were the endless hours in the various malls or small stores in town trying on millions of clothes and buying many things that I am sure I may not have even worn not to mention the hours and chunks of change to get those perms that lasted 6 months. But as the 80's faded, my hair straightened and my friends got married and racked up credit card debt in the 90's and lost houses and boats and jobs and with the introduction to meditation in my early 20's and learning that not everything was about me and my issues I grew up into the ascetic lifestyle of a single mom.  Yes I worked my ass off, I mean 40+ hours of work, then come home, only to start the "home" job of grocery shopping, cooking, laundry and the list goes on and on. I became the mother, father, provider, house cleaner, personal chef along with school tutor and science project creator, psychologist and part time veterinarian. Life was truly a 180' turn from the crazy halcyon days of high school.  And yet with my boat getting capsized at every turn I was beginning to think that I was reaping what I had sowed in my care free days of hedonistic buying frenzies and not having a care in the world of the environment or people not having water or food or roofs over their heads.  I was suffering because of my ignorance no matter how blissful it may have felt at the time!  And I suffered long and hard because that is what I thought I deserved.  I was trained, indoctrinated into the guilt of a religious upbringing that said when you are experiencing something unpleasant it is most likely your fault because you did something wrong that you were being punished for. So now my consciousness of others and the bigger picture of how the world suffered became my reason for my own suffering. I mean I really didn't know why children suffered or why people were hungry but I knew why I was suffering, it was because when I was 16 I was a clueless materialistic money focused child.  Or, maybe I was a product of over indulgent parents who lived through a time of devastation and fear and they wanted their children to be care free?  Maybe......but the point is that even more important is all this mental shenanigans in my head about guilt and the care free days of spending all my parents money was in hind sight a mixing of some very complicated metaphors that at the moment are looking like an amazing miasma of some odd bouillabaisse. So, sigh, here we are in my head trying to make some sense of the mess and the good news is that shining the proverbial light on the situation is actually helping.  I am seeing that not everything is related like I thought it was and some things are just outdated code that I need to dump and create new code like "The Divine Consciousness that is in me and in all things and all beings is forever expressing it's true nature as abundance." "My mind is aware of this truth therefore I am totally confident in letting go and allowing this Divine Consciousness to be my abundant all-sufficiency in my life and affairs." I know it is a mouth full and chewing on the meaning can take some time. But consider the alternative......"I am a money addict and I need my next fix to pay a bill that is long over due and perhaps my electricity is getting shut off as we speak."  Really there is no contest! So lets talk money vs. abundant supple.  Money isn't evil, it is not evasive or really anything but the effect of how you think about it.  In other words according to John Randolph Price we need to shift our thinking from the effect to the actual supply which is the Divine Consciousness in all things which is always full of abundant supply. So here I am full circle and out at sea bobbing along in my boat which at the moment is calm and pleasant. I am watching the waves and feeling the light rocking of the boat as the sun shines and makes the ocean wink at me telling me that I have been making life much to complicated and serious. So now I think it just might be beer o' clock and time to relax and allow, to let the Universe provide me with all that I need and desire.  So here's to letting go of too much seriousness and guilt and whatever else is in the way of my receiving abundance in a prosperous way.  And the great thing is you can do it too!  I mean cast off the lines of your little boat or your cruise liner and sail away into the sunset as you enjoy the amazing life that is waiting for you in your dream of dreams.  Happy dreaming everyone!! And if you need a little push, some help getting your boat out of harbor let me know and I can help you figure it out!  With a little Body, Mind & Soul Mentoring we can get you cruising along in the sunshine of a beautiful day at sea.

AnnKathleen
Divine Inspiration through the Art of Personal Alchemy