Connected and Committed

bracelet 2

illumination university

I've been listening the past few days to the broadcasts from Illumination University. Unfortunately they don't begin until 9:00 EDT, which is pretty much my bedtime, but I've stayed up a little later than usual to take in what's begin said. Fascinating concept, millions of people around the world hearing the same message at the same time in real time, and the ripple effects of what these people do with what they've heard. I haven't gone out to peruse blogs to find out what people are thinking, since what I've heard so far isn't that new to me. Some of it will be to many others.

But what is new are the dreams I've been having. The first night, I dreamt about coming upon my car, after going to a spontaneous meeting that involved people from my past but they were aged appropriately for the present. My auto was in shambles when I got to it - car thieves had done their thing, and there wasn't much left to the carcass. And I was completely OK with that. It was like permission to move on. Very cool.

Last night was no different, although I don't have a clear recollection at this point in the day of what I dreamed about. Tonight is the last of the broadcasts, and I'm looking forward to the effects in my sleep.

nudges 03.28.07

I am so happy and very grateful for:

1) Warm weather days to remind me of what's to come - it's like sitting down to a bowl of tomato soup and a plate of grilled cheese sandwich;

2) Finding a physician/healer who is somewhere in the same wavelength as I am in terms of body/mind/spirit connections;

3) Knowing - it gets stronger every day;

4) Discipline to exercise and repair body function;

5) The ability to pull back and not get swept up in power struggles or perceived slights - it's so much more fun;

6) Technology that makes a folding bike possible.

cozy afternoon

get on with it

There is nothing for you to go back and live over, or fix, or feel regret about now. Every part of your life has unfolded just right. And so --now -- knowing all that you know from where you now stand, now what do you want? The answers are now coming forth to you. Go forth in joy, and get on with it. --- Abraham

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Woo ha. 'Nuff said.

The other day I overheard a conversation in which Speaker A was gently but firmly and oh so elegantly maintaining boundaries around an issue within their family that involved two others besides herself and Speaker B.  Speaker A pointed out that the original issue was between the ancestral parties and didn't need to dictate how she chose to behave or who she chose to invite to certain gatherings.  Speaker B took awhile to warm to this information, but the delivery and the wording of it was so finely crafted that she didn't have much choice.  Thank you, universe, for this example of artful living.

it's that easy, it's that simple

Your work is to go forth into this physical environment looking for things that are a vibrational match to joy, connecting to Source Energy, and then following with the inspired action. --- Abraham

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Duh.

pinewood derby

Another Pinewood Derby has come and gone. I witnessed several of the youngest boys break into tears because they didn't place and get a trophy.  Not sure what the female equivalent of that would be. Not selling enough Girl Scout cookies?

permission

You don't have to justify the good that flows to you; it is a given. You are of more value in the joy of your cross-stitching than in the struggle of your ironing. --- Abraham

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Permission, if I ever saw one.

and the winner is....

The lucky winner of the bracelet is Suzanne. Congratulations!!!

And kudos to everyone who participated in the process, on my blog, and in the blogs around the world. Giving is a groovy thing.

And so is receiving.

About Schmidt

This might be one of the last films anyone would classify as spiritual, but I like that about it. I also liked that my local library decided to purchase a VHS copy of it just this past January. How bizarre.

Jack Nicholson plays a man who is quickly consumed by major life events like retirement, loss of a loved one, and the pending marriage of his adult daughter.  Life being as it is, it was still giving him many chances to wake up and smell the roses, or coffee, or whatever metaphysical, olfactory stimulant you prefer. And he did. He chose to look at some things differently than he might have, he did some forgiving, and he tried to let go his exertion of influence in a sphere where it didn't belong.

My favorite scene is when he is perched atop a Winnebago, watching the night sky, and a shooting star goes past,  perhaps an indication of communication with the beyond. The expression of wonder and awe on his face was well worth the price of admission and the two hour time length.

play doctor

I was stunned to see this displayed in the examination room of the physician I chose to see at random recently. Oh. my. gosh. More evidence that there are no coincidences.

planning

Whatever you're thinking about is literally like planning a future event. When you're worrying, you are planning. When you're appreciating you are planning...What are you planning? --- Abraham

When I was a teacher, I would dread the responsibility placed on my shoulders of keeping students from learning. They got an education, but were they learning? Usually not. Anxiety welled up in me like a tsunami.  Now that I am employed to write, that anxiety does not hinder me. This thing I do with words, it is who I am, so there is nothing to fear. It is remarkable.

We must slim down in consciousness, which means transforming ourselves by giving up the lumpishness of fear, the obesity of guilt, the heaviness of judgment, and the plumpness of pride.

John Randolph Price

fabric of the universe

dream house

collage

walk softly on this earth

 

fear and desire

"Look, school is very,very important. You go to school to learn a skill or profession so as to be a contributing member of society. Every culture needs teachers, doctors, mechanics, artists, cooks, business people, police officers, firefighters, soldiers. Schools train them so our culture can thrive and flourish," said rich dad. "Unfortunately, for many people, school is the end, not the beginning."

There was a long silence. Rich dad was smiling. I did not comprehend everything he said that day. But as with most great teachers, whose words continue to teach for years, often long after they're gone, his words are still with me today.

"I've been a little cruel today," said rich dad. "Cruel for a reason. I want you to always remember this talk. I want you to always think of Mrs. Martin. I want you to always think of the donkey. Never forget, because your two emotions, fear and desire, can lead you into life's biggest trap, if you're not aware of them controlling your thinking. To spend your life living in fear, never exploring your dreams, is cruel. To work hard for money, thinking that money will buy you things that will make you happy is also cruel. To wake up in the middle of the night terrified about paying bills is a horrible way to live. To live a life dictated by the size of your paycheck is not really a life. Thinking that a job will make you feel secure is lying to yourself. That's cruel, and that's the trap I want you to avoid, if possible. I've seen how money runs people's lives. Don't let that happen to you. Please don't let money run your life."

-Rich Dad, Poor Dad - Robert Kiyosaki and Sharon Lechter

magnificence

 

Throughout 2007, the Waves of Love will wash away our hiding places,
both within our selves and without. These are the tiny, cramped places
where we have crammed ourselves to stunt our growth and avoid
embodying our true vastness and magnificence. The places where we
stuff our most precious dreams and most intimate desires so we won't
have to face the potential heartbreak of their possible failure. The
places where we hide under a blanket of empty excuses to avoid
stepping into the responsibility of fulfilling our true purpose and
doing what we really came here to do. In 2007 we will discover that we
can no longer hide from ourselves or others. We are suddenly out in
the open, naked and exposed, in plain sight of all those who can see.
And we might as well get comfortable with this, for this is how it
will be from now on.

Solara

pulling through you

You want the desire because it is the idea or the goal or the Creation that is responsible for a good amount of Life Force to flow through you. The main event is the Life Force that is flowing through you, not the manifestation. And if you don't believe us now, wait until that manifestation has popped, and realize that its power to draw life through you will be greatly diminished. That's why you keep wanting another goal and another goal and another goal... --- Abraham

locking yourself out

I just helped someone in their time of need. While in the laundry room at my apartment complex, another woman came in, and while she was transferring her clothes form the washer to the dryer, she asked if she could use my phone to call the emergency number because she had just locked herself out of her place. Having been there done that a few times myself, I, of course, said no problem.

Then proceeded to ask me if I worked at the place where I work. How the heck did she know that?! Turns out she used to as well, just looked different with longer hair and no glasses. How bizarre. She walked with me to my place and I called to have someone meet her at her door.

Nice to know a neighbor. Nice to be able to help someone out. Nice to connect with a fellow human being.

feel better

When you reach for the thought that feels better, the Universe is now responding differently to you because of that effort. And so, the things that follow you get better and better, too. So it gets easier to reach for the thought that feels better, because you are on ever-increasing, improving platforms that feel better. --- Abraham

happy happy joy joy

the architecture of happiness

"The more beautiful something is, the sadder we risk feeling, so that standing in front of a painting by Pieter de Hooch of a grave-faced little boy diligently bringing his mother some loaves of bread, or of John Wood the Younger's Royal Crescent in Bath, we may find ourselves not so far from tears.

Our sadness [will be]...a blend of joy and MELANCHOLY: joy at the perfection we see before us, melancholy at an awareness of how seldom  we are sufficiently blessed to encounter anything of its kind...Christian philosophers have been singularly alive to the sadness which beauty may provoke. The religious explanation put forward, as rationally implausible as it is psychologically intriguing, is that we recognize beautiful things as symbols of the unblemished life we once enjoyed in the Garden of Eden...Beauty, then, is a fragment of the divine, and the sight of it saddens us by evoking our sense of loss and our YEARNING for the life denied us. The qualities written into beautiful objects are those of a God from whom we live far removed, in a world mired in sin."

~Alain de Botton - The Architecture of Happiness, 2006

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I stumbled upon this snippet in an interior design magazine. Still shaking my head at it. Amazed at the copyright date - expected 1910,or something. How opposite this person and I are in our approaches to life. How limited their view, how unexamined their beliefs. And how grateful I am that I see perfection all around me every day, that I feel the divine coursing through my psyche whenever I choose to, and that I think the garden is really here on earth, now. Alain and I would have an interesting time being shipwrecked on a desert island together, would we not? 

nudges 03.08.07

This day I was honored to witness the fruition of so many of my dreams. This day I was humbled by the process I've been riding so hard. This day I received material evidence of what is possible.

I am so happy and very grateful for:

1) The powers that be who orchestrated my being offered the job of my dreams, and all the mechanizations that led up to it;

2) The people who said such nice things about me and who have the faith in me to bring me on board their endeavor;

3) This bloody wonderful feeling in my gut that everything is just as it should be;

4) Confidence in my abilities to learn and to act and to grow and to shine;

5) Awesome people to share this news with;

6) More incentive than I can say to keep living and speaking and walking my truth.

Dweller

"And any obstructions, blocks, impediments and interferences are caused by the Dweller and the insanity that this thoughtform represents. How do you clear the channels? Through an activity that impairs the dweller more than any other. It is called surrender, not to the mad hatter on the threshold, but to Spirit. it is a giving up ...Every single day, and hour-by-hour if necessary, until you are safely and permanently in the Secret Place, you must release everything that has caused you fear,anger, guilt, hurt and depression, These can almost always be traced to your wrong thoughts, wrong words, and wrong actions...It is a law of the universe that whatever you surrender to Spirit is always purified, thus unblocking Spirit's avenues of expression through consciousness.. Rather than affirm your way out of a situation, why not simply give it up?...Ego gives you anger, despair, fear, guilt.Spirit gives you love, joy, peace, and freedom. The choice is yours." - John Randolph Price

Love with a capital L

"You begin where you are by putting love into your immediate environment. With purpose of mind you remove unloving thoughts from your consciousness and practice harmlessness in thoughts and words. You keep loving in your small circle until you can expand your love nature and truthfully say that you love everyone without exception. And that includes everyone who has ever hurt you, anyone who has ever caused you mental suffering or emotional distress, anyone who has ever pushed your button and caused a flare of resentment...If you would only love more, all limitations in your life would vanish." John Randolph Price

You must remember

"You must remember that you are whole and complete right now. Your Universal Fullness is not something to come; it already is, and that is the absolute Truth  that you must live. To deny that Truth by playing the misery-loves-company game, or by compromising your spiritual integrity just to please others and be nice and be loved, or y not living with enthusiasm the qualities of the Master Self, is to give the Law a fake I.D. - and for this violation you will be arrested." - John Randolph Price

more evidence

More evidence of energy weirdness:

"There will be some substantial energy shifts between this eclipse and the spring equinox.  If you can stay present with this energy, rather than fighting or resisting or trying to force yourself through it, this energy can support you in making some huge shifts in your consciousness.  A change in thinking.  A change in your belief structure about yourself and how you show up in the world.  This energy will be palpable to most everyone from March 19th to the 22nd."

I was musing with a friend yesterday how weird things feel lately, and I seem to be running across evidence like this as to why that might be so. How cool would that be if the human race as a whole is shifting its consciousness and just kicking and screaming all the way. WHen we get tired, then we'll shift.

they're at it again

Cybremarketing genius:

1. My wail or respirator!!

2. Which rejoice a vacuum !!

for this

There is a gift in everything, when we are able to see it. Soon I will have the opportunity to say, for the first time in my life while it's happening, "This doesn't work for me," without blame, without animosity, without expectation. That is huge for me on many levels.

For one, the "while it's happening" part, instead of waiting until an issue expands and multiplies and breeds into a pack of ice weasels. For another, not pointing a finger while speaking my truth, except maybe back at myself because I own what I am saying. For another, the no expectations part, because I have no idea where this will take me, and that is okay. More than okay. It is freeing.

Doesn't mean it won't affect me, won't tear me up on some level, won't rock my world. But I know that I will be OK with it all.

cloak and dagger

Cloak and dagger is not usually my thing, but I am indulging myself a little intrigue because of something I witnessed yesterday. While I was walking into the small local post office near where I work, I saw someone I know unlocking the door to a rental box in the lobby. This person lives across town, so there is at least one layer of intrigue as to why they have this box. It's quite an adventure, really, considering the options as to what is going on through that mailbox. And it's absolutely none of my business, but how intriguing.

This person is one of the last I would guess who would have some sort of clandestine activity going on in their lives. And it could turn out to be something totally innocuous. But just the possibilities make it cool.

Turning an everyday life into something magical on any level is cause for celebration in my book.

is that what it is?

"the lunar eclipse during a full moon messed with a lot of women's energies, sleeping patterns, emotional and psychic well-beings..."

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An acquaintance of mine said this recently, and it would explain a lot of things. Sort of feeling like scrambled eggs on most subjects - sort of gooey, sort of in a primordial state. Weirdness is usually followed by clarity and flow, so I'm riding this quagmire out. Film at eleven.

angel of Patience

It is too soon for you to decide how you will use the new information that you're absorbing. You may have some ideas, though, so it might be wise to write them down for future use. Soon enough, you will be called into action to apply your knowledge in useful ways. When that happens, you will be very busy and work very hard. So, enjoy the present moments of ambiguity and rest. Allow yourself to be an empty vessel into which Heaven pours the contents of its library of wisdom. Your unique talents will blend with this wisdom, and synthesize it into a new and important way to bring peace to this planet.

Doreen Virtue

azure card

Azure

"Your desired outcome will occur in the very near future. Have patience and faith, and don't try to force it to happen."

Additional Message: "Yes, you will receive your wish. However, Divine timing means that patience and positive visualization are needed right now. Ask me to help buoy your faith so that you don't slip into negativity. You can speed up the process of answered prayers by having more faith in their inevitability. Conversely, doubts or worries about 'how' your prayers will be answered will slow them down."

"Remember that the 'how' of answered prayers is up to the Divine wisdom of the Creator. Although you may feel urgency or even panic about your prayers, please trust that we angels are working nonstop behind the scenes to help you. Keep surrendering and releasing these worries and fears to God and the angels. The more that you can stay centered in faith, the more easily we can assist you."

a drawing

Piggy-backing on the idea from here, I am offering this Emotional Scale bracelet in a drawing, the winner of which I will be announcing come March 21:

All you have to do to win is post a comment here. I will choose the winner from among the posts. Let the games and the universal giving begin!

recognize

dude

If you've got somebody's aspects in your experience that you don't like, there's only one reason they're there. You keep evoking them with your attention to them. Without knowing about Law of Attraction, you have -- through your old habit of observation -- achieved vibrational harmony with the parts of them that you do not like, and you keep summoning those parts from them by your constant vibrational offering of them. --- Abraham

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*sigh*

facing fears and other people

I have learned that we must never underestimate the power that facing our fears has on other people. We help the world to be stronger when we ourselves become stronger. ~ Keri Smith

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It occurred to me yesterday to reconsider the girl I was when I was 18, to reinvent who she spent time with and what she talked about and the thoughts that she thought, just to see if it produced any shifts in the present me. Not that there is anything "wrong" with the people and the thoughts back then. Just wondering who I might be "if".

But the resistance to changing anything about her is strong - I don't want to lay blame and I don't want to take away from the hard work I've done to own parts of me that are "different". There is something to this exercises, however, so I will pursue it when the resistance has subsided.

It surprises me. It surprises me and delights me again and again when I spend time with certain people and I register the feelings in my gut that are still a bit strange and alien to me - caring and connection and family -  they sit inside me and feel like the planet rolling around, doing its thing, 24/7. with the sun coming up all normal, like, "Oh - THAT'S what that feels like. Huh. Who knew."

old white guys lll

-You have the power of will and choice, so will and choose to think, feel, and see only that which is ideal in life. This moves you into Master Vibration. Don't dwell on the past, and don't even think about the possibility of scarcity, failure or misfortune in the future. All the power of the universe is with you, in you, and is forever seeking, by law and will, its own level - its Divine Standard of abundance, success, and fulfillment in your life

-The alchemists said that poverty and abundance, failure and success, illness and health, and any other pair of opposites are all poles of the same thing, with many degrees between them. Accordingly, by raising your mental vibrations, you will polarize along the lines of the fulfillment you seek. How do you raise your vibrations? By thinking and seeing your individual world from the vantage point of your Divine Consciousness...See as Spirit sees you, and feel the dynamics as you are lifted to a higher polarity

-When this polarization happens, the circuit formed between the Masculine and Feminine Principles of you being, the I and the ME. The currents of thought them flow easily from the arena of will and choice to the receptive vessel of creative power - and your life immediately begins to reflect this inner glory

-Also, remember that if you do not expand your thinking (infinite possibilities) and increase your positive feelings (love, joy, gratitude) you will become stagnant,stale, and enter into a state of inertia. There is always a step beyond just doing fine, feeling better, or being satisfied. The Feminine Principle has no limits on creativity, manifestation, and attraction

-By cancelling out false impressions through will, decision, and choice, her expressions - as the Life Principle - will once again positively affect every atom, cell, tissue, and organ of your body and restore you to perfect health

-Remind yourself often that this healing power, this manifesting agent, is not something separate and apart from you. It it the feminine aspect of your very being, the Goddess of Creativity and Attraction, the ME of you. And she seeks you trust, faith, ad confidence in her and asks only that your thoughts and feelings be constructive rather than descriptive. As Law, she will move in either direction; but as Love, her natural inclination is toward that which is good, true, and beautiful in life

-Feelings of good health, regardless of appearances, produce a state of wholeness. To her, radiant well-being is your natural state, unless you think otherwise. Feelings of wealth trigger an outpouring of visible money supply. She doesn't believe in just enough to go around, unless that is your decision. Feelings of success bring forth experiences or achievement and accomplishment, of true place in life. She thrives on victory and triumph, but will honor your claim of futility and failure

-And what are you seeing? Active imagination or controlled visualization galvanizes the Mother-Spirit into action to bring this blueprint in mind into reality. She takes the raw material that you give her in feelings and mental images and builds the perfect pattern, then literally pours her energy through the pattern into the ideal manifestation on th physical-material plane

-Another crucial point: When you think of another person in any particular way, the Feminine Principle in you picks up the vibration as though you are thinking about yourself, for to her, the self-hood is united as one. If you see someone as ill, poor, a victim of circumstance, or in other downward visioning, you are calling for that experience personally. The Wise Ones in 500 B.C. knew this and gave us the Golden Rule, which was later incorporated into the Bible. What you do to others in thought, feeling, and word, you are doing to yourself. To express goodwill toward others and honor their Truth of Being - whole, rich, and triumphant - you are invoking the Creative Mother to multiply the good in your life. This is the key for loving and harmonizing relationships with everyone, to see in them what you want for yourself - joy, love, peace, and fulfillment

-The same holds true when you are overly critical of yourself. A silent, invisible vibration goes out to others that actually repels, for to judge yourself as less than divine is to pass judgment on everyone else - and they will pick it up in their feeling nature. Admit to any mistakes you may have made, forgive the ego thoughts that created them, and let all self-grievances be replaced with love. Find the Point of Innocence within you, and ME will show it to the world

old white guys ll

-Different courses of action to rapidly accelerate the realization of peace and plenty

-dynamic alchemy - mental vibrations creating a perfect world

-The only true cause in this world is the mind...and all aspects of the material world are the mind's effect. There can be no exceptions to this principle, for the mind is the only creative agent - representative - a creative intermediary between the invisible and the visible

-The activity of God is the manifesting energy that produces the effect according to what the mind chooses, decrees, and believes and when our minds are identified with the Divine thought system of our Essential Self, that which is manifest it is love fulfilled on earth as it is in heaven

-When we recognize our true identity and focus our minds on and as Spirit, we realize that abundance and scarcity, success and failure, health and sickness, and harmony and conflict cannot coexist. We change our minds, choose the highest in life, and let the other fade into the nothingness from which it came

-dynamic alchemy - reverses the polarity of one's physical life on the material plane from a lower vibration to the desired quality

-We are here to live fully - as complete beings - for the joy of it

-Let's agree that the only "illusion" of this world is the belief that we are less than divine; and the false images of scarcity, futility, and debilitation that arise from this belief and are projected on the screen of life

-The life of the seeker of truth can be bliss without harvest, yet when one understands the principles of dynamic alchemy, there is fruitful ecstasy

-To seek first the Kingdom means to focus your attention on that which is already yours

-May everyone in the world be well. May everyone in the world be rich. May everyone in the world be successful. May everyone in the world be loved and loving.

-The Angel of the Presence, which Saturn energy has been called, must "devour" the miscreating thoughts (children) of our fearful self-created "human" nature known as the Dweller on the Threshhold

-Saturn is a major link in the alchemical process because this energy represents the Law of Cause and Effect, the energy that "destroys what the lower nature has created and restores what the higher nature has envisioned so that the individual may have a more fulfilling life"

-In our conscious oneness with this power (Saturn), fearfully negative thoughts flee; and we feel poised, whole, and complete. This is the attitude of mind we must have if we are to be successful in the alchemical process

-Our individual mind is quickened to the extent that we make it receptive to the in-flooding of the light of Spirit

-Practice being the Saturn in consciousness, as the Light of God, as the loving Lord of your world

-I rest in the healing fire, and I become the spiritual fire

-All conditions in the world, with every step of progress from he beginning of time to the present, have resulted because someone said "no" to limiting appearances along the way and then worked to improve conditions - Catherine Ponder

-Remember that Saturn is the great destroyer of limitations in your conscious mind, so in your oneness with that energy - feeling the power of total success which this energy represents - say "No!" to everything in your life that is below the divine standard of good,true, and beautiful. Pull the misqualified energy out from under the negative appearance, and watch it fade away. Keep in mind that the masterpiece of the perfect life cannot be created if you're looking in two directions at once

-She is not doing anything to you; it is your emotional reaction to what you think she believes about you that is causing the problem. Cut the psychic cord and release the negative energy so that love, peace, and understanding become the bonds between you

-See her as she is in truth - an instrument for the activity of Spirit, with full and joyous achievement

-All disease is the result of inhibited soul life

Ten Strcuturing Lessons

1. Know your perosnality

2. What do you value in life?

3. Listen to your thoughts

4. How would you evaluate your personal relationships?

5. Look atyour creative activity

6. Health of mind and body

7. How is your social life?

8. Putting finances in divine order

9. What is your philosophy of life?

10. How do you wish to be known by the world?

nudges 03.01.07

I am so happy and very grateful for:

1) Sparkly things that express my feminine energy, like the bracelets that are flowing out of me lately;

2) Being open and ready for information that comes to me at the perfect time;

3) How jazzed I get when I problem-solve an issue into resolution or equilibrium;

4) Remembering to ground myself in who I am, remembering who I am;

5)  Symbols that represent me: Aries and Fire and swirling energy and light;

6)  Rededication to balance;

7) Being appreciated, and remembering to appreciate;

8) Discovering new layers to the concept of Love with a Capital L;

9) Forgiving and letting go of the contrasting experiences that catapulted me into existence;

10) Laughing at all this jargon that represents something to me and nothing to others;

11) Divine energy that never shakes loose, that never gives up, that never disappoints, that never ends;

12) Bravery and courage and resolve and tenacity, over and over and over again.

AWAITING THE MYSTERY ~ BOUNDARIES DISAPPEAR ~ FEARLESS

emotional scale on your wrist

ig

Here is the fruit of my labors of love so far. I really like the fifth one from the bottom as a reminder to use the emotional scale.

irritating

Law of Attraction is Universal, and every person is affected by it. And it is always true that what I think and what I feel and what I get are always a match, and there is not a person on the planet that did not know that when they were born, and there is not a person on the planet that would not benefit by knowing it. But many, many, many are not yet asking and therefore are not yet ready for the answer. And so, we would say that -- although everyone wants this information -- everyone is not necessarily ready for it. We would not spend any time trying to convince anybody of anything because if they're not asking, your answers are just irritating. --- Abraham

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It's equally as irritating in a funny kind of way that it's always true that what you put out is a match for what you get - like, there is no slack anywhere for any of this stuff. But that is reassuring too, in a way, as I trudge forward on this path of mine.

Last night I chilled out all evening and made more bracelets - very soothing, very soothing indeed. Tonight I will be moving on to the next text that will provide more inspiring words in this space and laying new neural pathways in my head. While I was driving to my day job this morning, the analogy of pop-ups occurred to me - the anxiety I learned in response to my environment materializes like a pop-up, and it's within my power to disable them, just as it was within my power to marshall the anxiety as a coping mechanism long ago in the first place. Not saying it's an effective coping mechanism, just saying it was the best my seven-year-old self could come up with at the time. And bless her for hanging in there and getting me to where I am today, rather than opting for some other choices she could have made.