"Man has no property in man; neither has any generation a property in the generations which are to follow" - Thomas Paine, Rights of Man, Part First Every person on this planet has a set of values that they live by, even if they have not been defined. We are ruled by one or two, maybe a combination of a few, but they will determine how our lives are expressed.  When asked what their values are, most people will list "love" as number one and then rattle off the standard, trite responses without real examination of whether those values are apparent in the woven fabric of their life's spectrum. For me, I knew freedom was high on the list yet I hadn't realized how much until the last few years when put through the wringer by God. My spiritual wayfaring has centered specifically around the finding of that freedom. For most of my life, I felt confined, without air, smothered, watched, and owned. Yes, owned. It didn't become apparent until I gave myself to God...

In the New Testament (Mark 5:21-43 & Luke 8:40-56), there's a seemingly simple story concerning a girl who has died and a woman who touched Jesus' robe for healing. On the surface, it's about receiving miraculous healing by having faith in Jesus. But, as I was reading this passage today, I realized some details in it that offer a more profound deliverance, for me at least.  The woman has been afflicted with an unending menstruation for twelve years at this point. Twelve years of being a woman of child-bearing age yet without the ability to conceive due to this abhorrence. On the other hand, we have a girl dying in the intro and dead upon arrival that happens to be twelve years of age. Dead when the woman's menses stopped.  What I realized about this story is that it's not just about two females but one. The fact that the story has been told as one, linked through Christ's actions, reveals the integrity of the two females' indivisibility. As Mark 4:12 sta...

  Did you ever think about who the storyteller of your life is? Like most, if not all, of you, I have only ever thought about one narrator for my life, which is me (my egoic "I"), but what if we're not the actual storytellers? In one of the first season episodes of Candace Cameron Bure's podcast , the guest host, Tara-Leigh Cobble, stated that the Bible was God trying to tell us who He is. So, when we read the Bible, we shouldn't look for the "me" in it or the stories or inspiration for solving our dilemmas in life, but instead, look to see how God is the story. We are his story to tell. Imagine changing our script from "How do I...?" to "Let God do..."  This morning, I had a dream. As the observer, I watched a man shift from one life to another. In the first life, he wasn't a good man. He had no consciousness of morality or discernment of reaction versus thoughtful response. In the second life, he was struggling to do everything ...

" It was the Constitution that welded them together politically, legally, and economically,  but it was nature that provided a transcendent feeling of nationhood ." When I read the profound introduction to Andrea Wulf's Founding Gardeners , I couldn't help but find comparisons between the time in which Benjamin Franklin was constantly sending seeds back to America for the cultivation of a future independent nation and Washington uprooting all native British trees and shrubbery from his land to the homesteading and off-grid living explosion that's happened in the last 20 years. Yes, there's been talk originally of another civil war but, lately, more of a united movement of a quiet revolution that's happening on both sides of the aisle.  Pre-American Revolution was an ever-increasing, tension-building intensity between the British Empire and the colonists. Most of us were taught that the revolution was fueled by the amplified raising of taxes but, in reality...

  I learned something today. Well... maybe I should say, a truth was spoken to me today. Did you know God is a perfectionist? Huh. When we look out into the world, we find chaos, mess, ridiculousness, inconstancy, lies, and darkness many, if not most, days. In short, a facade. A deception. But, what lies beneath? God does. He and I have been working on an art piece using watercolor pencils. And, yes, I'm only the vessel in all this. My hand moves on his desire, chooses the color of his desire, and becomes more firm or soft according to his desire. My consciousness moves over to allow Spirit to flow through me. Thoughts may still flow through my mind but I have no idea, for the most part, what happens from moment to moment in regard to the flow of movement. Some of the colors have extended to the edges of the paper and though the pencil keeps slipping off the paper, my hand continues to fill in color until dark and rich, according to his will. In my mind, I speak words like "Yo...

  Have you ever made that decision to change your life? I'm not speaking of changing a job or moving. I mean EVERYTHING. Literally, everything. I'm talking about delving deep into all your deepest, darkest secretive places that you hide from even yourself, rediscovering your joys, shunning people who have manipulated you so thoroughly that you became imprisoned in your own mind (even if they are "family" and you're supposed to love them no matter what), and relearning how to truly love yourself and know your worth. I'm talking about the 180° turn-around that seems to scare the shit out of those around you. Yah, that. Those of us who have been under the imprisonment of enmeshment trauma or other psychological manipulative tactics can understand this. We've spent our entire lives under such enforcement of "never good enough" - unless you are like me, or the determination of our worth is congruent with what we provide to others, never what we may ...

  I've had different understandings of what the subconscious is over the years. Originally I thought of it as those thoughts and ideas that lay buried within us that motivates us, causing emotional responses or actions from us. When I became knowledgeable of Dolores Cannon's work in Quantum Healing Hypnosis Therapy, the idea of the subconscious became more equated with the Divine Self of the I AM. The first known use of the word was by the English essayist Thomas de Quincey. In his use of the word, it is argued by Markus Iseli that current usage has it confused with the definition we have today of the unconscious. Iseli claims de Quincey uses the word in such a format that indicates “implicit thought, automaticity, implicit perception, and implicit motivation" ( Source ). What this entails then is thought, action, or reaction is based upon a developed, habitual, and, therefore, known response to how things are supposed to operate. It doesn't matter if it's true or...