"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...

  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...

  For most of our lives, we rarely wonder how language was formed. It's not until someone comes along and starts playing with word choices, phrases, or phonemic sounds that we begin to understand the strategic game that is language. For example, the word "syntax." As I was writing my page on Transmutation Mythology , I incorporated a phrase I'd never heard of before: Sin Tax. I'm sure you can easily see what led me to "syntax." But, do the two correlate? When I wrote of the "sin tax" I referred to the  sin offering  of the Old Testament. As a redemptive confession, the sacrifice here was meant to purify us of any transgressions. A payment for our sin. A tax, by definition, lays a burden upon and accuses all at once. It asks, "How much do you want to be worth?" For the one who asks the question (even if it may be the egoic 'I') has already determined your devaluation as if it was there from the beginning. A sin means to be with...

  In the beginning stages of learning the art of channeling Spirit, one may have an extended period of time in which they feel like they're going crazy and have no control over their own mind. This happened to me and I felt as if I was becoming schizophrenic. In my case, channeling does not come with imagery or voices, at least not overtly distinguishable from the internal dialogue of thought. For me, the "voice" is more of an automatic download; if an image accompanies it, it'll be a product of my mind's eye or imagination. In the period of time that felt schizophrenic, I couldn't gain control and so my fear kept growing. It wasn't until I realized that when I chose to place authority within, or with God, that the "voices" receded. I have learned to place my fear with God and trust in Him. This allows me the freedom of my mind and heart.  Since having experienced this perceived mental break, I've become somewhat fixated on the individual...

"It's called wayfinding, princess. It's not just sails and knots. It's seeing where you're going in your mind, and knowing where you are by knowing where you've been." - Māui, Moana   "...knowing where you are by knowing where you've been." A beautiful line that caught my attention while watching Moana (Yes! Finally I have seen it!) For years, I have kept detailed journals that analyzed every incident or person that frustrated me. I wanted to know the answer to the ultimate question, "who am I?"   "Who in the world am I? Ah, that's the great puzzle." - Lewis Carroll   It wasn't until I reread them last year, however, that the understanding of where I've been versus where I was currently and was headed came with any enlightenment. Sometimes, we need to have the visual set before us to understand the enormity of our life choices or indecisiveness to see the change, stagnation, or cyclical repetitiveness....

   Airports, stairwells, escalators, elevators, doorways - the places that are meant for coming or going, not being. Liminal space is also a frame of mind in which we are in a period of transition. It is that time when our entire life has been turned upside down by some integral loss that ends up upsetting our perspective on how the world operates. The loss of a loved one, a job, or a marriage can all be causes of placing ourselves into liminal space. At times too, we create it all on our own by questioning our place within the context of our lives - am I meant for something greater/different? It is the period in which we all will reside within many times throughout our lives. That liminal space can last for extremely long periods when we question our own place within the world and seem to be transitioning into someone we are not familiar with. It is customary to be afraid to change, as it is unfamiliar. It is during this time when our sense of self comes into question when ...

 [caption id="attachment_1018" align="alignnone" width="640"   I bet there have been times in your life you just wanted to yell out to the universe "re-do!" And technically, we do get our "re-do" moments throughout life. We all have those scenarios and characters that appear to be on repeat in our life: that guy that we give our love to but treats us like shit, the job where you have that one coworker who merely talks and talks and you end up getting more and more work because s/he doesn't do anything, or perhaps your constant running from good relationships when they get too close for comfort. Sometimes, it's the good scenarios that play out too. It depends on what you've come to expect. What expectations have you been programmed to accept in your life? Perhaps, like me, you've had those moments of epiphany when you realize this and try to change the oft-repeated negator in your life. And, what inevitably happens aga...

 "   ...a form of cooperative argumentative dialogue between individuals, based on asking and answering questions to stimulate critical thinking and to draw out ideas and underlying presumptions." ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socratic_method ) Though I've heard of Socrates, it wasn't until about 15 years ago that I began hearing about the Socratic Method. Socrates was an Athenian philosopher from around 400 BC. It is through his most famous student, Plato, that we know anything of Socrates or his philosophical methods. Socrates had a way of annoying people, and that's putting it lightly. He was ultimately put to death because he pissed off the wrong people. In some ways, Socrates could be considered one of the wisest men due to his method of garnering wisdom. On the other hand, it did bring about his death. The basis for his method was simply this: trust that you know nothing. Most of us, believe we know much more than nothing. We know our experiences. We k...